The Refresh Orlando Heirs

I’m going to assume you’re serious about your business. If
you’re not, I can’t help you anyway. You’ve gone as far as
getting a real merchant account to accept credit card payments
online.

You know that this was neither easy or cheap. So does everyone
else! So, a merchant account shows that you’ve made a serious
commitment to your business. That’s good for customer
confidence, which is good for business. So far so good…

Now there’s the issue of selling stuff to people online. Your
order form leads them to feed their credit card info to a secure
gateway, using software you bought or leased from (or through)
your merchant account provider. Finally, the transaction is
approved or denied.

If approved, the software generates a receipt and emails you and
the customer each a copy. At this point, the customer is
returned to a page you specified. In the case of downloadable
products, this is often the page where they download your
product. So, you’ve got the entire process fully automated.

For a product or service with a fairly low price point and a
potential for many thousands of sales, this seems ideal. You can
quite literally make sales and earn income 24 hours a day. So,
what’s the problem?

The form code on your order page is the problem. If someone uses
the ViewSource function of their browser, they can see all your
code. If they have even a tiny bit of initiative and skill, they
can locate the URL of your download page. After all, it’s right
there in your form code!

CGI provides two ways of fixing this problem. One involves using
a script that makes it impossible to view the source code. You
can find a source for such a script by searching the web. Expect
to pay a lot for this technology.

Another way is to make the return path a script instead of the
actual download location. The script would be used to create and
display the download page. It would not be visible to the
surfer, since it’s not an HTML document. The script can also
record details of the transaction for book-keeping purposes.

I admit that I discovered this by trial and error - and a lucky
guess or two. Your merchant account gateway software may have
radically different behavior than mine, but here’s what I’ve
learned:

The gateway uses the POST method to send the customer to your
specified return URL (which can be a script as well as a web
page). It also POSTs most of its input data items at the same
time. They are usually ignored, but your script can read them if
you want to!

Use the names given to the form inputs. Have your script extract
the values of these “named parameters” at the time it creates
the download page. Record what you want to save about the
transaction in your orders file or database.

Now here’s the real secret to foiling the thieves. Inside the
script, check to see that the variables you extract contain
non-empty values. Did you get that? Here’s an example:

if ($email eq “”) {exit;}

In this example, the script expects to get an email address. If
it contains no characters, the script quits instantly. By
testing for the presence of some data in such fields as customer
name, email address, item #, price, etc., you can tell whether
the script was called after a successful transaction - or by a
thief…

Put all your security checks prior to the code that creates the
download page. If any test fails, the script exits and the thief
is left empty- handed. If your form-handling script can convert
a product name to a product ID that’s never visible to a
browser, this provides even more security. This will be POSTed
back to the script and you can check for it before allowing the
download.

Close these security holes and you’ll make more money. You may
even sleep a little better knowing that people can’t steal that
product you worked so hard to create. I know I do!

It has become common knowledge that the smartest and most effective free method of advertising your business and services is to write and submit articles to the over 400,000 e-zines currently on the ‘net. There are even several e-books written on the topic, including mine, that will help you take advantage of this effective technique. What do you do next after you’ve invested the hours necessary to research, write, proofread, edit and submit your article to thousands of e-zine publishers?

I recommend several methods of recycling articles to clients who utilize my article submission services that I’m going to share with you today:

1. Publish each of your articles on a separate page on your web site. Then take the keywords from that article that you used in the title and text and create a set of meta tags for that page. Use a free meta tag generator like http://www.anybrowser.com/MetaTagGenerator.html to make sure your meta tags are properly formatted and all inclusive. Next, submit the article page to all of the free search engines. Once that page is indexed those keywords will attract searchers to visit your site where you can convert them to loyal customers.

2. Take the article you’ve written and customize it for an industry you want to target. For example, I have a client who writes internet promotion articles. After submission she customizes her articles for real estate agents, accountants, ophthalmologists, home health care companies, etc. I then offer the customized articles to the industry associations representing those groups. This tactic has resulted in hundreds of thousands of fresh, new visitors to her web site when an association prints her customized article in their newsletter or magazine.

3. Choose an article you’ve written that outlines several key points on a particular topic. Write an in depth, expanded article on each key point. Contact all the publishers on your list and offer them the expanded key point articles and ask them to run them as a series. A series of articles is much more effective than a single article because each potential customer needs to be exposed to you and your business several times before becoming a customer.

4. Take the original article and the expanded key point articles and offer them as an e-course to people who visit your site and sign up for your e-zine. Use a free autoresponder like http://www.sendfree.com to deliver the articles in sequence. This gives you the opportunity to capture e-mail addresses for your e-zine and allows you to use a different by-line highlighting your services and products with each article delivery.

Use these four tips every time you’ve finished submitting an article and you will get thousands of additional targeted visitors to your web site with just a little extra effort!

(c) 2003. Davis Virtual Assistance. All rights reserved.

Permission to publish on-line or in print is granted so long as the article and by-line are printed intact.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bonnie Jo Davis is a Virtual Assistant who specializes in inexpensive marketing promotions for herself and her clients. For more information about Bonnie’s article submission package visit http://www.DavisVirtualAssistance.com and lick on the “packages” button.

1. Have you ever found an incredible buy somewhere and couldn’t wait to rush home and call all your friends to tell them about it? It is such great news and you know it will save them a ton of money.

2. Or have you ever been warned about a sinister person lurking under someone’s car at night waiting for their next victim to arrive? You are so concerned that you feel impelled to warn all your friends as soon as possible so they won’t become a casualty because of lack of knowledge.

Well, if your answer is “yes” to either one of these questions, perhaps you can relate to what I am about to tell you…

You see, I’ve found the most awesome bargain since Alexander Graham Bell first invented the telephone! And I can hardly contain myself from sharing it with you because I know once you try it out, you are going to absolutely love it, and especially since it will save you a ton of money.

Well, here it is! Some ingenious person combined the features and convenience of the telephone with the power of the Internet, and came up with a computer phone. It intrigued me so much that I had to try it. And guess what? Now I am making all my phone calls from my computer! Plus, I have been pocketing almost 80% in savings after comparing the costs with what I was paying when using a traditional phone. It is a really simple concept too. How cool is that!

When I first tried the computer phone out, I found I didn’t have a built in microphone on my computer. That was a bummer until I discovered a microphone for a computer only costs $5.00 at a local store. And, all I had to do was plug it into the back of my computer so that I could talk. That alone was thrilling just from the simple fact that I am basically computer challenged.

Well, let me tell you, after I plugged that baby in and talked to a few people, I was off and running telling every friend I had about this incredible find! And now I am telling you too! You’ve just gotta try it! You are going to absolutely love it! I promise you!!

Even some of my friends on dial-up connections to the Internet were able to use it too!

I don’t want you to become a casualty of computer phones either. So here’s my warning…

I found out there are a lot of computer phone (VoIP) companies out there offering their wares. But along with that, I heard a lot of clients using their services were given a virus or worm, and some poor folks even had their personal and confidential information accessed by some unscrupulous hackers who sold it to other villainous individuals — information like their social security numbers, their birth dates — all the makings for your personal identity to be stolen.

Being the naturally curious person that I am, I wanted to find out how that happened. Here is what I unearthed.

Over 90% of the VoIP computer phone providers were operating on unsafe lines – the kind hackers can easily access. How so? Because these computer phone providers were operating from publicly open and interpretable industry standard codec (codes) and industry standard protocols (IP addresses) to lower their costs. And being publicly accessible meant that hackers were lurking nearby just waiting for another innocent victim to prey upon.

I know it is hard to believe there are these types of criminal entities out there, but unfortunately, the harsh reality is that there are.

So, now I am thinking – how can I protect myself from these pathetic misfits while I am using my computer phone. Guess what? I found out how! It was just a matter of finding a computer phone provider that did NOT operate on these publicly open and interpretable industry standards.

In fact, here is some more good news I want to share with you too.

I found a computer phone provider that operated on its own proprietary high-end encryption codec (code) hosted on its own proprietary patented technology. You want to talk about being optimally safe and secure…well, you’ve got it! Not only that, this one you can try out 7 days for free.

My thoughts are, if someone is so confident about their product that they would let me try it for free first – before even deciding if I wanted to purchase it, then they must have the real deal.

Personally, since I have been using the computer phone, I have kept in closer contact with my family scattered throughout the country, and I have made quite a lot of new friends in many other countries – all of which I talk to as long as I want absolutely free. Way too cool !!

Well, these are my great finds and warning for you. As an update: I have since become a computer phone solutions provider and can promise you that these computer phones are absolutely amazing in quality and safety, and are light years above the “competition” if you can call it that.

Why not try one out for yourself? It is free and you will have nothing to lose. Actually, you will have everything to gain, including putting some of that hard earned money back into your own pocket.

Here ya go – try it out 7 days for free at http://www.whypay4calls.com/gtp/to.pl?l=ART-FREE

Oh, and I almost forgot. I have put together a little Report entitled “Why Hackers Love Computer Phones – Shocking Inside Information” which is absolutely free also. Here’s the website for that: http://www.whypay4calls.com/gtp/to.pl?l=ART-04

© Dee Scrip – All rights reserved.

About The Author

Dee Scrip is a well known published author of numerous articles on VoIP, VoIP security, and related VoIP issues.

http://www.whypay4calls.com/gtp/to.pl?l=ART-FREE

There is a certain bliss in ignorance.

As a child, I had a certain innocence, a naivete, lots of unknowns that I did not have
to worry about. I liked feeling dependent, carefree, taken care of. I liked leaving
stuff to the grown-ups to figure out.

I remember when I got my first job as an alcohol and drug counselor in 1985, my
supervisor said to me, that this was the kind of job that would open my eyes in a
way that had never been opened before and I would not be able to close them back
again.

I did not have a clue what she meant, but I was soon to find out.

A few months later, I went home to Jamaica for Christmas. The eye-opening
started. I was hit with my father’s drinking problem and my family’s dysfunctional
glory. It was so obvious now, but had been so hidden to me in the past.

I remember some of his friends and family coming by their regular weekend visits.
Hours later, our chance for a nice family day together trashed, everybody’s eyes
were red, all slurring their speech…. Yuck! Put the blinders back on please!

There is a luxury in childhood that changes when you become an adult. Some
things I would prefer not to know or have to deal with. It would be easier
sometimes to turn my back, to walk away, to have someone else deal with life….

Over three years since first doing The Avatar course, the blinders keep falling off
and reality keeps hitting me square in the face.

I find myself sometimes in a curious place. At times, I want to slip back into old
behavior and ignorance, but my awakened responsibility will not let me go there.

If I do not see it, I can get away with doing it. But once a pattern, a behavior is
revealed to me… I feel called to take action…. to be responsible.

In college, I used to invent such elaborate stories… lies… to cover my not showing
up for class, not doing my work. They professors would always buy the story and I,
on some twisted level, loved my creative skill to get me out of a bind.

Now, I cannot sugar coat things knowingly. I see it plainly for what it is, and I
recognize that lying will lead me down a slippery, dangerous slope.

I have discovered that my ego has gotten pretty clever at hiding things from myself.
It knows that this is the only way it is going to get anything by me now. Cleverly
disguised, wrapped-up neatly in packages that do a side-step dance and the games
continue.

The Avatar Integrity and Wizard courses really shook me up to the games that I was
playing. They are unraveling before my eyes. There is much clean-up to do after
45 years, but amazingly, I feel so much lighter and freer.

Who I have been pretending to be is becoming crystal clear. I am tired of living a
reactive life, blaming others, taking a back seat to my life, spinning in circles…

I like making conscious decisions. I like living deliberately. I like clarity and
honesty. I am feeling a huge reward from living responsibly. It’s the kind of reward
that money cannot buy. Virtues are their own reward. I heard that before as a child,
now I am experiencing it. Try it on for yourself and see!

I feel like I am on a spiritual path and the fast forward button has been pushed!
Enlightenment with an accelerator! It feels like I am moving quickly through issues
that intuitively, I believe would take much longer without the tools that I have at my
disposal.

I feel so supported, loved and guided every step of the way. It is wonderful to feel
alignment and connection with like-minded people. Incredibly powerful and
energizing. I am enjoying living with my eyes wide open!

Nicola Karesh is an Avatar Master, licensed and
trained to deliver the Avatar Course worldwide.

She has a Master’s in Counselor Education and
her certification as a substance abuse professional
counselor since 1985.

Originally from Jamaica, Nicola lives in the mountains
of North Carolina, where she home-schools her 2
children - a task which provides her with great
opportunities to grow and to practise what she preaches!

For more information, visit Nicola online at:

http://www.inducing-consciousness.com

http://www.inducingconsciousness.blogspot.com

or e-mail her at nicola@citcom.net

I had never sewed anything in my life but buttons on a shirt. That was even an experience that I did not relish. Doing research on my family tree I became aware of the fact that my great grand parents were listed on the American Indian rolls. The rolls were instituted during the infamous time of the trail of tears. I had always felt that I had indian lineage because my mother looked the part. All of her brothers and sisters had Indian features. The Indian aspect of our heritage was rarely discussed by family members. My mother never discussed her heritage even though she was dark skinned with black hair and high cheek bones. My sister looked Indian. I was dark complected. My dad was Irish. He was fair skinned with light hair. I have always felt a kinship to the Indian race.

I became very interested in anything Indian. I went to Indian art shows and inspected indian ware on e-bay. I had purchased a head dress which ended up being too small for my head. I read books and articles on Indian history. I purchased many articles which somehow seemed to quench my thirst for a feeling for the past. I am a large man with a large torso and feet. I had been buying my clothes from a big mans store for years. I had ogled the war and buckskin shirts on e-bay and other sites for months. I had trouble finding indian war shirts in my size. When I came close to finding the right shirt the price tag was out of my price range.

The next step? With my poor sewing knowledge I decided to try to make a war shirt by myself. I bought the buckskin and then a sewing machine from Wal- Mart. The sewing machine was not big enough and did not have the power to sew through leather.. I went to e-bay and purchased a sewing machine which was advertised to sew leather. In fact this new sewing machine was cheaper than the used machines that I had been outbid on by more aggressive bidders. I purchased a war shirt pattern from a company that I buy Indian articles from. The pattern was not in my size. I could not find any patterns in my size. I took one of my shirts and traced around it, adding a few inches extra for the hem. I had bought a thread that was too large for the machine and continually experienced bobbin problems. The thread was even too large to go through the needle of the machine easily. I went down to a smaller thread and began to make progress. Buckskin is not an easy material to work with. It is very pliable and has almost a spongy texture to it. Use heavy needles that are meant for sewing leather to do the hand work. Some type of lubricant is needed on the needles to make them go through the leather easier. I used a heavy piece of leather to protect my hands while hand stitching. I also used a pair of pliers to push and pull the needle through the leather. To my amazement I got all of the parts to match. I had even got huge compliments for my sewing ability. It looked as good as any thing that I could have purchased. I next looked at ways to decorate my shirt besides the usual fringe. I decided on horsehair, beadwork and medallions. I now had an expensive war shirt at a price that I could afford and in a size that would fit me.

I needed pants to go with the shirt. I sent off and ordered a pattern for leggings and a breechclout. The pattern worked. The leggings and breechclout were relatively easy to put together. I now have buckskins that will compare to almost any other. I saved money. I learned a new skill and got a feel for what it must have been like for the indians of old to produce their clothing. I am still searching for ways of recreating the Indian of the past. Yesterday I walked in the living room with a full drape red fox hat on my head. My wife does understand.

“People with small minds talk about other people. People with
average minds talk about events. People with great minds talk
about ideas” (Anonymous) And people with great hearts talk about
feelings.

Dr. Phil has done it again — come up with just the right
descriptive phrase. On his show the other day, he confronted a
young man saying: “Are you just an arrogant jerk who likes to
get in someone else’s face and bark?” I was in need of this
descriptive phrase because I was in an office the other day
where one of the principals did just that — he would get in
someone else’s face and bark. Every time. All day long. That was
his only modus operandi.

It worked. But in what way?

I was reminded of this because my sister just e- mailed me that
she’d had an awful day. She’d been trying to fix a defective
keyboard, she said, “while listening to my neighbor’s dog bark
every 3 1/2 minutes.”

My own poor dog, as she became aged (and she lived 17 years)
would become confused easily, and if frightened or upset, would
bark every few seconds at regular intervals, until she became
hoarse. She would do it at my house if left outside to what was
to her “too long” (so of course we didn’t), but when I had to
leave her at the kennel when I took a trip, the kennel owner
said she had done this for 24 hours (heart-breaking). However –
when she would do this, I responded. While compassionate for her
condition (blind, nearly deaf, very old, and much beloved), it
was one of the most irritating things I’ve had to endure, and I
would do ANYTHING to stop it. The kennel lady felt the same way.
She ended up taking my dog home with her.

Unfortunately, there are people who do the same thing only with
words. It has the immediate effect of getting them what they
want, but with EQ, we’re always looking at the long-term
situation, yes? Everyone threw this man what he wanted because
they would do anything to get rid of him.

Their main goal was to avoid him at all costs. They skirted
around him in the hall, turned and went the other way when they
heard him coming, passed papers around rather than going into
his office, left if he was headed their way, and even warned
others, i.e., “boss alert.”

Small wonder I found out he had been divorced 15 years. People
had to put up with him at work, but no one was willing to at
home.

He truly “barked” orders, and barked everything else. Is this
effective leadership? Is this effective relating? Is this any
way to “be”? No, it is not. He had some good ideas, but like my
poor aging dog, everyone’s main reaction was to get rid of the
noise as fast as they could. He missed getting the information
he needed because no one wanted to risk being around that noise.

One of the tips I read recently in a leadership article was
“Never raise your voice.” Certain tones of voice, and rhythms of
speaking turn other people off, and if we’re focusing on things
that annoy us, what chance do the ideas of the other person have
of finding a happy home with us? At best, the other person will
give ‘lip service’ to what you say, again, just to get you out
of their face and to stop the barking. We do the mental
equivalent of putting our hands over our ears.

Only when we relate to the feelings of another person do we
connect, and only when we connect can we truly influence. Our
excitement about an idea, or about its usefulness to the
well-being of another (compassion) is much more likely to effect
another person and to influence their behavior than a strictly
intellectual analysis of an idea, or the strident forcing of
one’s own opinions on others, or even of “giving orders”.

Sadder still if we’re in some position of power over the other
and they ‘must’ listen to us, at least for a time. This applies
to parents, lovers, colleagues, bosses, managers, and any of us
at any given time. Think of the last time you were “a captive
audience” to the person next to you in the airplane.

Good EQ means having a clue about the feelings of the other
person, and knowing the effect that you have them; and, I would
add, etiquette and common decency demand that the more the
person MUST listen to you, the more considerate you should be in
the delivery and content of what you’re saying.

Never come on any stronger than you have to. In other words,
don’t send a cannon when a fly swatter would do. And don’t annoy
and bore others. There are two types of people who do this –
those who don’t care, and those who don’t know they’re doing it.
EQ means knowing the effect you have on others.

This involves watching the nonverbals that go on in an
encounter. Noticing if the person you’re talking to becomes
uneasy (shifting position, losing eye contact, yawning), becomes
bored (eyes rolling back in the head, fidgeting, yawning), angry
(tense body posture, arms folded), or digusted (lip curled, eyes
squinting and/or averted).

Notice that almost any nonverbal communicator can mean several
different things, and sometimes can mean opposite things. For
instance, a person who becomes agitated when being “questioned,”
can do so either because they’re lying OR because they’re a
hyper-honest person who’s afraid. Any given ‘signal’ depends
upon the grouping and the context. If you need to know more
about nonverbal communication, read by new ebook, “Nonverbal
Communication - What You Say Isn’t What Says It All” or sign up
for some coaching.

And please, don’t get in someone else’s face and BARK!

If there is a little animal inside us (and there is), it
responds the way all animals do - to tone of voice. Check out
this site ( http://www.dogtrainingbasics.com/commands.html ) and
listen to the recordings of what ‘works’ for praise and for
command. Women, they say, have trouble giving the “bad dog”
tone, and men have trouble giving the “good dog” tone.

However, getting in someone’s face and barking is not
gender-specific. Both the intimidating growl and the
finger-shaking school m’arm approach are to be avoided if you
want others to listen to you, or, more importantly, want them to
WANT to listen to you. We all have amazing powers for “tuning
out.”

If you want people to listen to what you’re going to say, make
sure they’re tuning IN, not OUT.