Russel Ray's Blog

How can you get emails if your email box is full?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:09:13 -0600

After regularly admonishing Clients, family, friends, business associates, and anyone else who would listen about regularly checking their email boxes so that I don't get bounced emails saying something like "email box full," well, I'm embarrassed to say that it has happened to me.

I have many web sites and many email addresses, but they all forward to my main email at russelraypc@aol.com. I know, I know. I've still got AOL. Yep. I've been with them since 1994 and won't be leaving anytime soon.

But my email box at AOL is never full. The worst I've had was when ActiveRain quit sending email notifications for a few days and then sent them all at one time. I had something like 172 email notifications in the space of a couple of hours.

No, it's not my AOL email box that was full, it was my primary web site email box that was full. Little did I know that even if you forward emails somewhere else, the originator of the email forwarding also keeps them. So even though I have a quota of 500 MB for my email box, which I never in my wildest dreams thought I would use, well, I opened my CPanel and found 132,839 emails that have been forwarded to me, and kept, since I created that web site back in February 2008.

Not only do I have an overload of emails, but I can't figure out how to delete them all, and neither could technical support. So my situation has been kicked up to technicals support's technical support.

Moral of this story. If you have other email addresses that are forwarding to somewhere else, check those email boxes that are being forwarded to make sure they are not full and that you are not losing business.

I shall now go hide in the closet.

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Fifteen recent blog posts

The ActiveRain History Station: Were you born around August 9, 1966?
Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?
Are you doing your part to help ActiveRain?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

The ActiveRain History Station: Were you born around August 9, 1966?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:34:17 -0600

If you were, I think I might know what your parents were doing on November 9, 1966! LOL

This is a series of ActiveRain History Station programs using United States postage stamps as our history book.

For other programs in this series on the ActiveRain History Station, simply click here.

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The full blame for your parents doing the naughty, naughty can't be laid on their bed (or anywhere else) since on this day in 1965, the Northeast Blackout affected 30 million people in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Ontario, Canada.

In some areas, people went without electricity for up to 13½ hours. And what do YOU do when the lights go out?

According to Wikipedia,

"The cause of the failure was human error that happened days before the blackout when maintenance personnel incorrectly set a protective relay on one of the transmission lines between the Niagara generating station Sir Adam Beck and Station No. 2 in Queenston, Ontario. The safety relay, which is set to trip if the current exceeds the capacity of the transmission line, was set too low."

The misset relay caused a domino effect when it shut down, forcing electricity on to other power transmission lines and overloading them, causing them to shut down. As transmission lines shut down, power plants, with no place to send their electricity, also shut down to prevent damage. On and on and on....

Other interesting facts about the Northeast Blackout of 1965:

Many people were trapped in elevators for several hours.
Fort Erie in Ontario did not lose power because it was using older 25Hz generators rather than newer 60Hz generators.
WABC radio host Dan Ingram in New York City reported that he thought the music seemed slow. Analysis afterwards revealed that electric frequency up to six minutes before the blackout had fallen to as low as 51Hz, causing things tuned to the 60Hz frequency to run slower.
UFO reports increased over the blacked out areas.
Holyoke, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; and parts of New York City and Bergen County, New Jersey, did not lose power because they were using gas turbine power generators.
A full moon lit up the dark sky.
Only five reports of looting occurred in New York City, the lowest crime total for any night in the city's history.
Popular culture about the blackout:
♪ "Where Were You When the Lights Went out," 1968 movie
♪ "Massachusetts," a song by the Bee Gees
♪ "The Short Happy Circuit of Aunt Clara," an episode of Bewitched.
♪ "Double Identity," an episode of Quantum Leap.
♪ "Double Drick," an episode of Green Acres
♪ "Sports and Leisure," an episode of Wings
Even though episode #4 of the first season of Monk mentions one of the character's conception during the blackout, J. Richard Udry, a demographer at the University of North Carolina, did a careful statistical study of birth rates in the affected areas and found no increase. Drat. So much for the title of my post here. ☺☺☺

So where were you on November 9, 1965?

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Fifteen recent blog posts

Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?
Are you doing your part to help ActiveRain?
Did you know there are still unpaid internships in today's world?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

Speechless Sunday: Zoey the Cool Cat's new home

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:39:12 -0600

I was cleaning up the place while I was cooking supper and found an old Kellogg's box from Costco that Zoey the Cool Cat hasn't used in quite some time.

Remembering that I had moved a box a few weeks ago, and the simple act of relocating it piqued Zoey the Cool Cat's interest again, I decided to see if that was just a fluke, or if location really does make a difference.

So I moved the box from the garage to the bed in the home office. Following are the results of my experiment.

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Fifteen recent blog posts

The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else
The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?
Are you doing your part to help ActiveRain?
Did you know there are still unpaid internships in today's world?
Have you considered taking down your web site and just relying on ActiveRain?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: If everyone is doing something, do something else

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:32:03 -0600

My, my, my, oh my.

I posted to my blog (Developing your contact list), went to visit a past Client who is now a nursing mother, and came back to find sixty ActiveRain emails.

On a Sunday!

Must be a Featured Post.

Nope. (Drat! ☺)

Judging from the number of emails I got after my most recent post, seems I struck two nerves, a positive one with those who left comments, and a negative one with those who didn't leave comments but chose to email me instead.

Here are some of the comments I received by email:

"You're an idiot."—Short and sweet. Concise and to the point.
I can't believe a marketing/business consultant is telling realtors [sic] to drive or walk around neighborhoods and then send postcards. dumb [sic].—The word Realtors is registered by the National Association of Realtors, and while they say that you don't have to use the ® symbol, you do have to capitalize the word.
I hope your list isn't in order cause #1 should be #100.—They are not in order, but it's amazing how many homes one can sell in one's neighborhood or farm when one takes the time to get out there and actually meet one's neighbors.
That's got to be the funniest post I've read in a long time.—Laughter is the best medicine, but a good marketing plan that one adheres to persistently and consistently is the best road to success.
Why are you at Active Rain if you're still propounding snail mail?—ActiveRain should be a part of your marketing plan, but not the only part. (I had to look up the definition of "propounding" even though I understood the context, just didn't know the word -- love learning new stuff.)

I always enjoy it when I get feedback to anything that I do, and I would remind you Realtors that you are in a personal relationship industry. Buyers and Sellers are asking you to trust them when it comes to making or spending tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars, either immediately or over the course of the next thirty years with a home mortgage.

Whatever you do, and I don't know of anything that's negative as long as what you do is legal, ethical, and moral -- and two of those three are up to you to decide -- make it personal, and do it persistently and consistently. If you do, you'll see long-term success.

I'll remind you of what Warren Buffet said in the Summer of 2008 about his greatest secret for becoming the world's richest person: "If everyone is doing something, do something else." For those who don't know about his biggest acquisition this past week, he bought himself an entire railroad, the BNSF Railway. We're in the Internet age and he's buying 19th Century technology?

Think about that, and then get busy. In my next post, I'll show you how to really make another piece of 19th Century technology, snail mail, work for YOU!

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Fifteen recent blog posts

The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list
Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?
The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck
Does your little kitty have the swine flue?
ActiveRain Group name changes
Does it work?
Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?
Are you doing your part to help ActiveRain?
Did you know there are still unpaid internships in today's world?
Have you considered taking down your web site and just relying on ActiveRain?
What if you visit someone and they don't have a blog yet?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

The ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station: Developing your contact list

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:29:50 -0600

This is part of a series of posts that I'm doing about Guerrilla Marketing based on the book Guerrilla Marketing Weapons, by Jay Conrad Levinson.

Previous Guerrilla Marketing posts can be accessed by clicking here.

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The very first sentence in this chapter is very telling and should be taken literally: "Do everything short of illegal activities to compile a gigantic list of people...."

I often get asked how to create a database, so following are a few of my favorite ideas that many of my Clients have had continued success with.

The first place is your own neighborhood or farming area. Walk or drive around, record the address, make notes about each house -- flowers, paint color, trees, car in the driveway, children, whatever, something that catches your attention because of your own interests or your own family. Then when you get back to the office, send them a little postcard: "Howdy, Neighbor. When I was driving down your street today, I noticed your beautiful flowers. I just wanted to let you know that I'm a Realtor right here at 1234 Penny Lane, so if you or your family, friends, and business associates have any questions about real estate or need help selling or buying a home, please let me know."
Remember to have a sign-up area on all pages of your web site, not just the home page. I would recommend against the window that pops up every time someone goes to a different page on your web site. You'll lose them after three times. Just put a link at the top and bottom of each page: "Click here to register" or "Click here to sign up for my monthly email newsletter."
Don't neglect the sphere of influence (SOI) that you already have. This SOI includes your own family, friends, and business associates, even if they were former family, former friends, or former business associates. Hopefully you didn't burn any bridges with that divorce....
Contact your favorite title company representative (TCR). Many TCRs here are only too happy to provide a list of property owners in specific zip codes, or even as detailed as specific streets. Occasionally, you'll see in these lists a note saying "DO NOT MAIL." Although there is a DO NOT CALL registry, there is no such thing as a DO NOT MAIL registry, so feel free to mail if you'd like. What I do when I find a DO NOT MAIL request, though, is revert to #1 above for that address.
This is my favorite: Carry postcards with you so that if when you strike up a conversation with someone at the grocery store, gas station, or beach, you can give them a postcard along with your business card. The postcard is simply an invitation to visit your web site, your ActiveRain blog, and mail the postcard back with their email address to sign up for your monthly email newsletter. Make sure you include the URL to your web site and your ActiveRain blog. I can't tell you how many marketing pieces I see that say, "Visit my web site/blog" and don't provide the URL.

Feel free to contribute by leaving your own idea in a comment.

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Fifteen recent blog posts

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

Life 101: Is it time to do your homework?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:39:36 -0600

This post is one of a series based on the book, Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned About Life In School — But Didn't.

This book is a very powerful inspirational and self-help book without being pretentious about being powerful, inspirational, or a self-help book.

If you're interested in doing something about your life and don't have the money right now for a life coach, try this book.

There are used copies at amazon.com for pennies on the dollar.

Maybe something here, or in this series, will be the inspiration that can help you through a particularly tough day or time in your life.

Previous Life series posts can be accessed by clicking here.

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The chapter in this book about death is quite interesting, and even enlightening if one can tolerate reading about death. Therein lies the quandary.

One section is about a child's view of death since many children, if not most children, are exposed to death when grandma or granddad dies, or a favorite pet dies. Life goes from having a loving pet or family member is now a cold, silent corpse.

The more people a child asks, the more conflicting the answers might become. Perhaps only sex is cloaked in more mystery than death.

Adults cry, or withdraw from the family. Visits to the hospital. Unpleasant sights and smells. Religion provides a list of sins by which, after death, there is fire and brimstone, burning sulphur, and hell. Death must hurt. Death is terrible. I'm going to hell.

Is it any wonder that children put death on hold after their first experience? If they don't have to think about it, they won't. Just another unpleasant task that can be put off, like homework.

What kind of homework are you putting off? Analysis of your business, income, expenses, marketing, time with family? Is it time to sit down and think about things that you don't want to think about. Time to do your homework?

Fifteen recent blog posts

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

The ActiveRain History Station: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:52:27 -0600

This is a series of ActiveRain History Station programs using United States postage stamps as our history book.

For other programs in this series on the ActiveRain History Station, simply click here.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Since the first week in November has been election season for many decades, the next stamp and person we'll look at here is a 5¢ denomination issued in 1882 featuring James A. Garfield (1831-1881), the twentieth President of the United States:

Garfield was born in what is now Moreland Hills, Oregon. After studying at Hiram College in Ohio and Williams College in Massachusetts, he worked as a preacher, classical languages teacher, and high school principal before being admitted to the Ohio bar in 1860.

He had seven children with his wife, Lucretia Rudolph, whom he married in 1858. Unfortunately, as far as I can determine, he was also the first politician, and a Republican at that, to admit to an affair while married. His wife forgave him.

His military career saw him join the Army at the onset of the Civil War and rising quickly to the rank of Major General. He served in the House of Representatives and the Senate before being elected President.

He was the second President to be assassinated, after Abraham Lincoln. He had been in office only four months when Charles Guiteau, disgruntled over his failure to be appointed as United States Consul in Paris, France, shot Garfield in the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C.

President Garfield was passing through the station on his way to deliver a speech at his alma mater, Williams College. With him was Secretary of State James Blaine and Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's son). The old railroad station is now the site of the West Building of the National Gallery of Art.

Although most historians consider his death an assassination, some also consider his death to be the result of medical malpractice. He died two months and seventeen days after being shot due to increasing illness from infection, blood poisoning, and bronchial pneumonia. His final cause of death was either a massive heart attack or a splenic artery anuerysm. Many historians and scientists believe that Garfield would have survived had his doctors been more capable.

Other interesting facts about James A. Garfield:

You'll always find his middle initial used because his son, James R. Garfield, was also a noted politician, serving as Secretary of the Interior under President Theodore Roosevelt.
Was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity at Williams College.
His 199 days in office is the shortest presidential tenure, after William Henry Harrison, who died of pneumonia 31 days after taking office.
The only person to be a Representative, a Senator-elect, and a President-elect at the same time.
The only sitting member of the House of Representatives to be elected President.
Although he never served in the Senate, technically his election to the Senate at the same time as his election to the presidency also makes him the first Senator to be elected President.
John Philip Sousa led the Marine Corps Band at Garfield's Inaugural Ball.
President Garfield's only official social function made outside the White House was a visit to the Columbia Institution for the Deaf (now Gallaudet University) in May 1881.
One bullet grazed Garfield's arm while another one lodged in his body and was never found. Historians currently believe that it was lodged near his lung.
Alexander Graham Bell developed a metal detector to find the bullet but was unsuccessful because Garfield was lying on a metal bed, which were relatively rare, so its influence on the metal detector itself went undetected.
Part of Charles Guiteau's preserved brain is on display at the Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (Hmmmmm. I suppose so.) Guiteau's bones and more of his brain, along with Garfield's backbone and a couple of ribs, are kept at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. on the grounds of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Garfield is buried in a huge mausoleum (at right) at Lake View Cemetary in Cleveland, Ohio.
The James A. Garfield monument in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 1887
One of only three presidents to be survived by his mother, the other two being James K. Polk and John F. Kennedy.
The United States twice has had three Presidents in a single year:
► 1841—Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, and John Tyler)
► 1881—Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur
Johnny Cash recorded a song in 1965 titled Mister Garfield (Has Been Shot Down)
Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins includes the story of Charles Guiteau and features the song, "The Ballad of Guiteau."
The Twilight zone episode, "No Time Like The Past," revisits Garfield's assassination.
Garfield the cat is named for creator Jim Davis's grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis, who was named for the President.
Jon Stewart (yes, that Jon Stewart) portrayed Garfield in the audiobook version of Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell.
Garfield, Kansas, with a population of under two hundred people (2000 Census), is named after the President.
Garfield was an active minister and elder for the Church of Christ, making him the only member of the clergy to serve as President.
Garfield is also claimed by the Disciples of Christ since the two churches didn't split until the 20th Century.
Garfield discovered a novel proof of the Pythagorean Theorem using a trapezoid in 1876.
Garfield was ambidextrous with left-handed dominance.
Garfield was a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Billington, who was convicted of murder in 1630.
Some quotes which might still be relevant in today's world:
► "The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787."
► "There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen."
► "The spirit should not grow old."
► "Nobody but radicals have ever accomplished anything in a great crisis."
► "If hard work is not another name for talent, it is the best possible substitute for it."
► "Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself; that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it."
► "[N]ine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim for himself."
► "The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people."
► "The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves."
► "Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up."
► "All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people."
► "Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained."
► "The colonists were struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions of mankind; for the world did not then believe that the supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the people themselves."
► "It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance which awaits them. In this beneficent work sections and races should be forgotten and partisanship should be unknown."
► "We may hasten or we may retard, but we can not prevent, the final reconciliation."
► "The President is the last person in the world to know what the people really want and think." (Attributed to Garfield but unsourced.)
► "A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck."

__________
Sources:

"Garfield: A Biography," by Allan Peskin
"Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of James A. Garfield," by Kenneth Ackerman.
"Gangrene and Glory: Medical Care During the American Civil War," by Frank Freemon
"Assassination Vacation," by Sarah Vowell
Encyclopedia Britannica's Guide to American Presidents
Wikipedia
Arago: People, Postage, and the Post
1847USA: Knowledge is Power

Fifteen recent blog posts

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

Does your little kitty have the swine flu?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:58:53 -0600

Zoey the Cool Cat has been under the weather this past week, beginning last Monday.

She was not eating, nor pooping, nor cleaning herself (which she loves to do!), nor in any mood to roughhouse with me or even let me pet her.

A lot of coughing and sneezing, and no interest at all in chasing her little red ring.

All she was doing was sleeping.

I think she lost a few pounds, too.

Today, she is back to normal. She's been eating in the office, jumping up to the window sill, relaxing on the printer cleaning herself, playing with her little red ring, and letting me hold her upside down and give her a tummy rub.

I've had a busy week and only just now got to an email from my mother-in-law about the cat in Iowa that was documented as having a case of the swine flu. Symptoms are coughing, sneezing, and lethargy. Dehydration results. Hmmmm.

Some diseases are capable of being spread from humans to dogs and cats, and from dogs and cats to humans, but it's uncommon for a flu virus to jump from humans to cats.

Veterinarians are concerned about the ability of the H1N1 flu to cross species, as well as a possibility of our pets becoming vector species.

If your pets show signs of sickness, get them to a veterinarian. I didn't. I might have gotten lucky.

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

All the animal lovers out there, asking a very small favor of you................

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:29:29 -0600

I just can't resist doing everything I can to help our fine, furry, four-legged friends, especially when it's free!

If you'd like to thank Ralph for his blog and my reblog, and possibly reblog his blog yourself, click here to go directly to his blog post.

Comments here in my post have been disabled on this reblog, so go visit Ralph!

Via Ralph Gorgoglione (EcoBroker Certified - John Aaroe Group, Inc.):

There is a Seattle based animal rescue site that is in need of our help. It doesn't involve a donation, just the one thing that I know you Active Rainers are very good at - snooping the internet.

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals.

It takes about 30 seconds to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This doesn't cost you a thing.

Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

I did this myself, and thoroughly examined the site and background information of the organization prior to posting this blog.

Here's the web site!

www.theanimalrescuesite.com

Please pass it along to people you know.

With our numbers, if we make an effort, the Active Rain community as well as visitors to my dedicated blog site can make a real difference.

Thank you for your time with this,

The Ralphster

ActiveRain Group name changes

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:12:18 -0600

In perusing ActiveRain's 6,037 groups during the past few weeks and creating my Top 101 list, I found out that we could not only edit the group information, look at the group members, send a mass email to the group emails, and change the group logo, but we can also change the name of the group, and that's exactly what I did with the Groups that I have started.

I have already done a blog post about ActiveRain being the greatest real estate library on the Internet, and I think I have come to the conclusion now that the 6,037 Groups are ActiveRain's version of television channels, so here are the old names and the new names, just in case you can't find the old name on your list of groups now:

The Inspired by Nature group is now the ActiveRain Nature Station—Anything nature. Fauna. Flora. Stars. Clouds. Sunsets. Poop.
The Classical Music — ♫♪♪♫♫♪ — group is now the ActiveRain Symphony Station—Let's keep the arts alive by posting your local arts events here.
The ActiveRain Book Club is now the ActiveRain Library Station—Want to read a good book? Want to write a review of a book to share with others? Check out the Library.
The Guerrilla Marketing Tactics group is now the ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station—Tips, tricks, ideas, and suggestions for doing marketing without spending an arm and a leg.
The Out and About group is now the ActiveRain Travel Station—If you have pictures and stories to share about your travels, share them here.
The 2009 NAR San Diego Convention group is now the ActiveRain Convention Station—This makes the group still relevant after the NAR 2009 Convention is over since you can post tips and tricks for making attendance and participation in conventions, and home and garden shows, here. A great place to post information about smaller regional seminars as well.
I started a new group called the ActiveRain History Station—I found a Local History group, but I wanted something that could also encompass county history, state history, national history, world history, religious history, natural history, biographies, and any other type of history. This is it.

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television stations on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Station

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station

ActiveRain History Station

ActiveRain Library Station

ActiveRain Nature Station

ActiveRain Symphony Station

ActiveRain Travel Station

Does it work?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:39:44 -0600

One of my first Clients last year when I revived my Marketing & Business Consulting company had been living by the mantra to "shamelessly do whatever works, as long as it is legal, ethical, and moral."

I personally believe that her mantra is an excellent one to run a business by. However, there are two more parts to that mantra if one's intent is to make it work:

First, we need a definition of "work." Personally, if what I do brings in more money than I spend on doing it, then it works. Of course, some things work better than others, and that brings up the second missing part:

How do we determine what works, and whether something is working better than something else? This is the part that many people don't know how to do, the part the causes many businesses to fail, and the part that my Lady Client had no clue what to do.

I set her up with an Excel spreadsheet last year, told her to be persistent and consistent in tracking where she spent her money, asking her Clients how they found out about her, and entering those facts, as well as her income from each Client, into the Excel spreadsheet I created for her. I told her that at the end of a year, possibly earlier, she would know exactly what worked and what didn't.

Today was the end of the year, and she was proud to show me her Excel spreadsheet and what she had discovered worked and didn't work. All it takes is persistently and consistently tracking one's work, and the results of one's work, the epitome of Guerrilla Marketing.

She also brought me a little present:

She could afford it -- ☺☺☺♫♪♫♫♪☺☺☺

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blog and comments
The ActiveRain History Channel: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?
Are you doing your part to help ActiveRain?
Did you know there are still unpaid internships in today's world?
Have you considered taking down your web site and just relying on ActiveRain?
What if you visit someone and they don't have a blog yet?
ATTENTION: All who entered the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest
The ActiveRain History Channel: Happy Birthday, LL!
Standing out from the crowd.... good or bad?
Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters, part 2
Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters
The ActiveRain History Channel: Edwin M. Stanton

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television channels on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Channel

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Channel

ActiveRain History Channel

ActiveRain Library Channel

ActiveRain Nature Channel

ActiveRain Symphony Channel

ActiveRain Travel Channel

Billions and billions and billions of symbols for your ActiveRain blogs and comments

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:29:18 -0600

If you missed my first two posts on how to spice up your blogs and comments with special symbols like ☺, ♥, ♦, ♣, ♠, ♂, ♀, ♪, ♫, ☼, ¶, §, ™, ¢, ©, ®, ¼, ½, ¾, and more, click here for part one and click here for part two.

Now let us explore how to add billions and billions and billions of all types of symbols to your blogs and comments.

First, let us presume that you have a version of Microsoft Word on your computer. If you don't you must be the only one in the world who doesn't -- ☺☺☺. Doesn't really matter what version, although the layout will be different.

I will be using screen shots of Word 2007, but if there's enough demand for a separate post using Word 2003, let me know via a comment.

Open your copy of Word 2007.

At the top left of the screen, you should see the Insert command:

Click on Insert and you should see this over at the far top right:

Click on that itty bitty little down arrow directly under the word Symbol and you should see this:

Symbols that you have used recently show up in those first four rows. We want to explore more symbols, though, billions and billions and billions of symbols, so click on "More Symbols":

Once you click on "More Symbols," you should see this:

Ah-ha! Look at where we are!

The "Font" should show (normal text) as it does here. If it doesn't on your computer, click on the font down arrow, scroll all the way to the top, and click on "(normal text)" to make it easier for you to follow along.

Use the scroll bar (red arrow in the screen shot below) in the Symbol window to scroll down until you see the © symbol (yellow arrow):

From here, there are two choices, depending on just exactly how your computer is set up. Once the © symbol is highlighted, some of you will be able to simply click on the Insert button (blue arrow) to insert the © symbol in Word 2007. Then you can simply copy it from Word 2007 to your ActiveRain blog or comment.

Others will need to use the Character code (green arrow). Note that it's a three-digit code. If the three-digit code doesn't work on your computer, add a leading zero (0169). The Character codes work by holding the ALT key down and typing the three- or four-digit code.

Now let's go back and click on the down arrow for the Font box (red arrow in screen shot below) and you should see the beginning of an alphabetical list of all the fonts installed on your computer:

Click on any font and it will display all the characters you can get from that font. Use the scroll bar to scroll up and down in the font character list, click on any character or symbol you want, and then note the character code for that character or symbol.

Once again, there are two choices, depending on just exactly how your computer is set up. Some of you will be able to simply click on the Insert button to insert symbols in Word 2007 and then simply copy them from Word 2007 to your ActiveRain blog or comment.

Others will need to use the ALT key and the Character code, remembering to add a leading zero if the three-digit code doesn't work.

You can also make a list of all the characters and Character codes that you use most often and simply resort to the ALT key and character code whenever you are typing in your ActiveRain blog or comment.

Here's the caveat, though. The ALT key and Character codes in your blog or comments (usually) only work using the "(normal text)." Here's how to work around that and get billions and billions and billions of symbols:

Let's say that I want to use the telephone symbol from Wingdings. Choose the font Wingdings from the Font box and click on the telephone symbol. You'll see that the Character code is 40, but you might need to make that into a three-digit or four-digit code using leading zeroes depending on your computer.

If I hold the ALT key down and type 40, 040, or 0040, all I get is an opening parenthesis: ( ( (

This is where it gets a little tricky for your blog. Leave those parentheses there, save your blog post, edit it, and switch to the HTML tab:

When you do that, here is what you'll see for those parentheses (red arrow):

What you want to do is surround those three parentheses with the HTML code that tells ActiveRain to use the WingDings font. Notice that I'm using the Georgia font for my post (yellow arrow). Somewhere in your HTML coding, probably at the very beginning, you'll see "span style" coding within two brackets (green arrows). Copy that span style coding -- make sure you get the opening and closing brackets -- and paste it directly in front of your first parenthesis. Then put a closing span command directly behind your third parenthesis:

Where it says "font-family: 'georgia': in my example, change georgia to wingdings.

When you do that and save your draft, you should see your three telephones, albeit old-fashioned ones from my generation: ( ( (

You can make your telephone monster size if you want, simply by changing the font-size command (currently 12 pt) to a monster number, like 72 pt (green arrow below). If you change it to a monster number, make sure you change the line-height number to match (red arrow below) or you'll just get part of a telephone because the line's not tall enough to show all of the monster symbol:

Once you do that, and save your post again, you'll get a giant telephone:

(

You can make the telephone as big as you want. Just change the font-size and the line-height. Here is a 400 pt telephone:

(

Because there are billions of fonts, and each font has an extended character symbol set, you now have access to billions and billions and billions of symbols simply by choosing a different font and using the Character codes and HTML span codes.

To use the different fonts in your comments, you'll have to use something like Nvu or Kompozer for PCs and something like Scribefire (I think it is) for Apples.

Leave a comment if you find this post helpful or if you have any questions.

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

The ActiveRain History Channel: Zachary Taylor
Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?
Do you make friends by commenting, subscribing, or associating? Or all?
Have you ever deleted a post at another Member's request?
Are you doing your part to help ActiveRain?
Did you know there are still unpaid internships in today's world?
Have you considered taking down your web site and just relying on ActiveRain?
What if you visit someone and they don't have a blog yet?
ATTENTION: All who entered the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest
The ActiveRain History Channel: Happy Birthday, LL!
Standing out from the crowd.... good or bad?
Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters, part 2
Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters
The ActiveRain History Channel: Edwin M. Stanton
Start planning for tomorrow, today!

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

My favorite television channels on the ActiveRain TV:

ActiveRain Convention Channel

ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Channel

ActiveRain History Channel

ActiveRain Library Channel

ActiveRain Nature Channel

ActiveRain Symphony Channel

ActiveRain Travel Channel

The ActiveRain History Station: Zachary Taylor

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:40:17 -0600

This is a series of ActiveRain History Station programs using United States postage stamps as our history book.

For other programs in this series on the ActiveRain History Station, simply click here.

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

The next stamp and person we'll look at here is a 5¢ denomination issued in 1875 featuring Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), the twelfth President of the United States:

Zachary Taylor was born in Orange County, Virginia, the youngest of three sons in a family with nine children. He joined the Army at the age of 24 and enjoyed a distinguished forty-year career, becoming known as "Old Rough and Ready."

Although he was a slave holder, he opposed the spread of slavery to the Territories and new States. In 1848, he became the first President of the United States to never hold elective office prior to becoming President.

Taylor died of gastroenteritis just sixteen months into his presidency, although there is disagreement about the "true cause" of death. He had a milk and cherries snack on July 4 at an Independence Day celebration, and then sampled many dishes cooked by citizens wishing him well. Uh-huh. Where are the conspiracy theorists? Not to worry....

.... They are here. Taylor's remains were exhumed on June 17, 1991. Neutron activation analysis on hair and fingernail samples showed arsenic levels too low for arsenic poisoning (popular in its day) to be the cause of death. Of course, when it comes to conspiracies, nothing will ever put a good one to rest.

Michael Parenti, in his 1999 book, History as Mystery, speculated that Taylor was assassinated and that his autopsy was botched. He made his case for arsenic poisoning from one of the citizen dishes he sampled.

Other interesting facts about Zachary Taylor:

His handwriting, spelling, and grammar have been described as "crude and unrefined throughout his life."
His long-time horse companion was named "Old Whitey."
The Department of the Interior was organized under Taylor's presidency, and he appointed the First Secretary of the Interior, Thomas Ewing.
Refused to take the Oath of Office as President on March 4 because it fell on a Sunday.
Taylor is one of only four Presidents who did not appoint a Justice to the Supreme Court.
One of Taylor's daughters, Sarah, married Jefferson Davis in 1835. Of course, Jefferson Davis went on to become the President of the Confederate States of America. Sarah died of liver failure (or malaria, depending on which history book you read) just three months after being married.
Other interesting Civil War facts about Taylor's family:
► Son Richard became a Confederate Lieutenant General
► Brother Joseph was a Union Brigadier General
► Niece Emily was the wife of a Confederate General
► Grandson John Wood, a U.S. Navy officer, defected to the South but fled to
Canada during the Civil War
Second president to die in office. Of the eight presidents dying in office, four died of natural causes and four were assassinated.
Buried in the Zachary Taylor National Cemetary in Louisville, Kentucky.

I have always done my duty.
I am ready to die.
My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me.

__________
Sources:

"The American Presidents," by David and Robin Whitney
"History as Mystery," by Michael Parenti
"The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War," by Michael Holt
"Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest," by Jack Bauer
Wikipedia
Arago: People, Postage, and the Post
1847USA: Knowledge is Power

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Where are the ActiveRain point dogs?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:08:23 -0600

Here, doggie, doggie, doggie.

Want more points?

Want more ActiveRain points? Here is a simple method that I've been using since I joined ActiveRain:

First, if someone comments on your blog post, you get four points for that comment, but only after the third comment shows up. If you get zero, one, or two comments, you won't get any comment points. But once that third comment shows up, you'll get twelve comment points, four points for each of three comments.

Second, you can make more than ten comments a day. My personal best is 133 comments in just one day, but I always do at least eleven. Only the first ten comments each day get you 25 points per comment, but like everything in life, why do just the minimum? Surely you're not a minimalist, are you?

Third, most everyone here will comment on your blog if you comment on theirs. So if you have a day off from showing properties, doing home inspections, or whatever, try visiting and commenting on the blogs of 20, 30, 40, or more different people. Even go further and make some new friends by making half of your comments in the blog of people you don't know yet, perhaps newbies.

If you do the third thing, I can guarantee you the annual salaries of Bob Stewart, Jeremy Blanton, Brad Andersohn, and Rich Jacobson that your points will start accumulating much more rapidly. Just don't let Bob, Jeremy, Brad, and Rich know that I'm betting their salaries -- LOL.

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Pumpkins or dogs? How about both!

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:36:55 -0600

This has to be the best Halloween post I have seen. I wouldn't mind having any of these little dogs in my home. Or their pumpkins!

I've disabled comments here so that you can go directly to the doggies' mouth and tell Anna how much you enjoyed her post. Simply click here.

Via Anna 'Banana' Kruchten, Phoenix Property Shoppe:

Friday Funnies: One very talented pumpkin carver!

They say dogs often resemble their owners. How 'bout these dog-o-lanterns, where the pumpkin carver has perfectly captured the dogs' likenesses?!!

***************************

Thinking of buying or selling a home in the Phoenix area - or know someone who is? This is the PERFECT climate for move-up buyers.

Find out how we can help make the buying or selling process simple, stress-free, and enjoyable. Feel free to contact me by phone 602-595-8900 or email me.

Search here for homes in the Phoenix area.

You can also visit our website for more information on Phoenix and the surrounding areas.

Phoenix Property Shoppe

ATTENTION: All who entered the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:03:12 -0500

Remember that each person who entered the recent ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest can contact Mike Cole of CPG Tours for one free video tour

Mike has a list of everyone who entered but has told me that some people have bad contact emails on their ActiveRain profiles (!!!!!) and others have not responded to him.

Don't miss out on Mike's incredible generosity to our ActiveRain community! If you are a buyer's agent, or a home inspector, or stager, or anyone else and can't figure out what to do with your free CPG Tour, maybe Mike can help you, or maybe he'll let you donate your free CPG Tour to someone else. Nonetheless, contact Mike if you entered the contest and haven't heard from him or have not responded to him. At least let him know what you would like to do with your FREE CPG Tour, even if it's just to tell him that you don't need it.

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Learning something new.... - Happy Birthday, LL!
Standing out from the crowd.... good or bad?
Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters, part 2
Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters
Learning something new.... - Edwin M. Stanton
Start planning for tomorrow, today!
Learning something new.... - Thousands of women in one place? At the same time?
Your choices: Excellent, Good, Bad, or None
Learning something new.... - Old Ironsides
Learning something new.... - Why is Louisiana so small?
Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry
Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....
Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child
Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Learning something new.... - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LL!

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:21:54 -0500

This is part of my "Learning something new...." history series using United States postage stamps as our history book.

To read previous posts in this series, simply click here.

On this date in 1886, President Grover Cleveland welcomed a new little girl to the United States of America. This little girl, however, actually wasn't so little. In fact, she is 151 feet and one inch tall and stands on a pedestal that is 154 feet tall.

On this date in 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped her celebrate her 50th birthday, and in 1984, she entered the hospital for major surgery and rehabilitation. She was released from the hospital on July 3, 1986.

Who is this little lady who stands so tall? Who is LL? Why she's Lady Liberty, of course!

Officially titled "Liberty Enlightening the World," the Statue of Liberty was presented to the United States by the citizens of France to commemorate the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and the friendship between the two countries that was established during the American Revolution.

Other interesting facts about Lady Liberty:

The tablet in her left arm is inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI -- July 4, 1776.
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the statue, obtained a U.S. patent for its structure.
Gustave Eiffel and Maurice Koechlin, builder and engineer of the Eiffel Tower, designed the Statue of Liberty.
French composer Charles Gounod composed La liberté éclairant le monde ("Liberty Enlightening the World"), whose public performances benefitted the fund to create the statue.
The statue cost 2.25 million francs, $250,000, to build.
Originally meant to be completed for the July 4, 1876 centennial, building and funding problems caused delays.
The statue was built in France and shipped to the United States, arriving on June 17, 1885, in 350 pieces in 214 crates on the French ship Isère.
When the last stone of the pedestal was swung into place the masons reached into their pockets and showered into the mortar a collection of silver coins.
Although President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue, when he was Governor of New York, he vetoed a bill by the New York legislature to contribute $50,000 to building the pedestal.
The Statue of Liberty was a working lighthouse from 1886 to 1902. The light could be seen 24 miles out to sea. It was the first lighthouse to use electricity.
The Statue is located on Liberty Island, which was named Bedloe Island until 1956.
You can climb to the crown on an interior staircase of 146 steps. Including the pedestal, there are 354 steps.
Liberty Island was closed from 9/11 to December 2001, the monument was closed from 9/11 go August 3, 2004, and the interior and stairs to the crown were closed from 9/11 to July 4, 2009.
The interior of the Statue is 15° to 20° warmer than outside.
It cost $62 million for Lady Liberty's hospitalization and rehabilitation from 1984 to 1986.
The first death occurred on May 13, 1929. It is not known whether the death was accidental or a suicide.
The French have their own Statue of Liberty on the river Seine in Paris, an exact replica completed in 1889.
There are hundreds of Statue of Liberty replicas throughout the world. Some of the more notable ones:
Middle of the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Entrance to Capaha Park in Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Overlooking the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo Bay
New York, New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas
West side of the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center in Duluth, Minnesota
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Vestavia Hills, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama
Two 30-foot copper replicas on the Liberty National Bank Building in Buffalo, New York
Legoland California, right here in San Diego, made out of Legos, of course
Lebanon, Tennessee, at the intersection of East Main Street and South College Street
Fargo, North Dakota, at the entrance to the Main Avenue Bridge
Kansas State Capitol in Topeka, Kansas
Alki Beach in Seattle, Washington
In front of the old Sioux City, Iowa, auditorium
On Orange Avenue in Orlando, Florida
Jessica Skinner was born inside the Statue in 1982 when her mother went into labor about halfway up the staircase.
Movies featuring the Statue of Liberty: Desperately Seeking Susan, Brewster's Millions, Sabateur (Alfred Hitchcock), Planet of the Apes, Ghostbusters II, X-Men, Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, National Treasure: Book of Secrets

"The New Colossus," a sonnet by Emma Lazarus, is inscribed on a bronze plaque in the Statue of Liberty exhibit on the second floor of the pedestal:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

__________
Sources:

"The Statue of Liberty," by Marvin Trachtenberg
"The Statue of Liberty Encyclopedia," by Barry Moreno
"Engineering Miss Liberty's Rescue," by V. Elaine Smith (Popular Science)
Statue of Liberty National Monument, The official Historical Site handbook.
Wikipedia
Arago: People, Postage, and the Post
1847USA: Knowledge is Power

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Standing out from the crowd.... good or bad?
Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters, part 2
Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters
Learning something new.... - Edwin M. Stanton
Start planning for tomorrow, today!
Learning something new.... - Thousands of women in one place? At the same time?
Your choices: Excellent, Good, Bad, or None
Learning something new.... - Old Ironsides
Learning something new.... - Why is Louisiana so small?
Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry
Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....
Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child
Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na
Guerrilla Marketing: What kind of selection do you have?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Standing out from the crowd.... good or bad?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:31:18 -0500

After falling down the stairs late yesterday at a home with which I was not familiar, I decided to go to an accessible golf course lake that I knew well and just watch the duckies enjoying the beautiful, sunny late afternoon.

It is during these types of activities that I often get pictures that just cry out for a marketing use with a good tagline, and yesterday did not disappoint.

I once worked as a consultant for a person who's theory for life was "Any publicity is better than no publicity," and he did all he could to work in those gray areas that might get him publicity. I might also say that he was successful, both in garnering publicity and selling his services, and he did it by standing out from his competition, regardless of whether or not standing out in his case could be considered good or bad.

One of yesterday's pictures from the Chula Vista Golf Course lake is the epitome of standing out from the crowd:

Personally, I like to stand out from the crowd for good reasons, but following are two examples of people who stood out from the crowd. You decide whether their standing out was good or bad.

Bernie Madoff
Mother Theresa

Let's delve into how you stand out from the crowd. Remember that Warren Buffet said last year, "If everyone is doing something, do something else." These are things that "everyone" is doing, so how do YOU stand out if you are just one of everyone doing it?

ActiveRain
Facebook
Twitter
Your web site
Car graphics
Business card
Business attire

Time to sit down and do some serious thinking?

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters, part 2
Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters
Learning something new.... - Edwin M. Stanton
Start planning for tomorrow, today!
Learning something new.... - Thousands of women in one place? At the same time?
Your choices: Excellent, Good, Bad, or None
Learning something new.... - Old Ironsides
Learning something new.... - Why is Louisiana so small?
Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry
Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....
Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child
Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na
Guerrilla Marketing: What kind of selection do you have?
You don't have to be a victim....

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters, part 2

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:59:18 -0500

I'm so used to doing ALT character codes without thinking about them that I didn't realize that some of the codes that I used in my original post were actually four-digit ALT codes rather than three-digit ALT codes.

So being the nice guy that I am, following is the list of four-digit ALT codes, which is where the © and ® symbols appear.

For those of you who left comments in my original post claiming that your laptop computer doesn't have a number keypad, well, look again. I've never seen a laptop computer without a numeric keypad, but it doesn't look like your typical numeric keypad, and you have to know how to access it.

Here's the numeric keypad on one of my laptop computers:

See the blue numbers on the 7, 8, 9, U, I, O, J, K, L, and M keys? That's your numeric keypad. Here is how to make your numeric keypad work. Look for the blue function in the following picture, lower left. It's abbreviated Fn:

Press the function key and all those keys with the blue letters and symbols on them should work. Some computers force you to hold the function key down while hitting the other keys, some use the function key as a toggle key.

My next post will show you how to get billions of special symbols, limited only by the fonts on your computer.

0128 - €
0131 - ƒ
0132 - „
0133 - …
0134 - †
0135 - ‡
0136 - ˆ
0137 - ‰
0138 - Š
0139 - ‹
0140 - Œ
0142 - Ž
0149 - •
0153 - ™
0154 - š
0155 - ›
0156 - œ
0158 - ž
0159 - Ÿ
0161 - ¡
0162 - ¢
0163 - £
0164 - ¤
0165 - ¥
0166 - ¦
0167 - §
0168 - ¨
0169 - ©
0170 - ª
0171 - «
0172 - ¬
0174 - ®
0176 - °
0177 - ±
0181 - µ
0182 - ¶
0188 - ¼
0189 - ½
0190 - ¾
0191 - ¿
0192 - À
0193 - Á
0194 - Â
0195 - Ã
0196 - Ä
0197 - Å
0198 - Æ
0199 - Ç
0200 - È
0201 - É
0202 - Ê
0203 - Ë
0204 - Ì
0205 - Í
0206 - Î
0207 - Ï
0208 - Ð
0209 - Ñ
0210 - Ò
0211 - Ó
0212 - Ô
0213 - Õ
0214 - Ö
0215 - ×
0216 - Ø
0217 - Ù
0218 - Ú
0219 - Û
0220 - Ü
0221 - Ý
0222 - Þ
0223 - ß
0224 - à
0225 - á
0226 - â
0227 - ã
0228 - ä
0229 - å
0230 - æ
0231 - ç
0232 - è
0233 - é
0234 - ê
0235 - ë
0236 - ì
0237 - í
0238 - î
0239 - ï
0240 - ð
0241 - ñ
0242 - ò
0243 - ó
0244 - ô
0245 - õ
0246 - ö
0247 - ÷
0248 - ø
0249 - ù
0250 - ú
0251 - û
0252 - ü
0253 - ý
0254 - þ
0255 - ÿ

Following are some other ALT codes:

1 - ☺
2 - ☻
3 - ♥
4 - ♦
5 - ♣
6 - ♠
7 - •
8 - ◘
9 - ○
10 - ◙
11 - ♂
12 - ♀
13 - ♪
14 - ♫
15 - ☼
16 - ►
17 - ◄
18 - ↕
19 - ‼
20 - ¶
21 - §
22 - ▬
23 - ↨
24 - ↑
25 - ↓
26 - →
27 - ←
28 - ∟
29 - ↔
30 - ▲
31 - ▼

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters
Learning something new.... - Edwin M. Stanton
Start planning for tomorrow, today!
Learning something new.... - Thousands of women in one place? At the same time?
Your choices: Excellent, Good, Bad, or None
Learning something new.... - Old Ironsides
Learning something new.... - Why is Louisiana so small?
Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry
Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....
Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child
Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na
Guerrilla Marketing: What kind of selection do you have?
You don't have to be a victim....
Learning something new.... - Albert Einstein

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Spicing up your blog and comments with special characters

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:43:45 -0500

This past week I visited several blogs that were talking about some of the cool symbols that you can insert into your blog posts or comments if you know their secret codes.

Back in the pre-Windows days of DOS, these were called ASCII characters (probably still are), and since I owned a word processing business, I needed to use these special characters to make my work look professional. I needed to know how to create an n with a tilde (ñ), or an e with an acute (é), or one-quarter (¼), half (½), and three-quarter (¾) symbols for equations.

When I started my word processing business, I applied for work with Leon Jaworski's Houston law firm. Jaworski was the 1974 Watergate Special Prosecutor. I got the job because my sample legal work used legal symbols (§, ¶, ™, ©, ®) rather than writing them in as my competition did. Sometimes the little things can win you the big things.

Herewith, then, are the ASCII codes for lots of symbols. Just hold your ALT key down and type the code on your numeric keypad at the right side of your keyboard. Using the number keys at the top of your keyboard DOES NOT work. I've used the standard three-digit code here, but if it doesn't work on your computer, try adding a zero in front of the three-digit code to make it a four-digit code. That often works.

On Apple computers, I believe you use the Option key instead of the ALT key, but I haven't used an Apple computer in 16 years and haven't owned one in 30 years, so I'll let the Apple crowd weigh in if they would care to. As far as I'm concerned, only The Beatles have the right to use Apple for their company logo -- LOL.

A future post today or tomorrow will introduce you to an easy method to get the secret code for just about any special character you can dream up.

127 - ⌂
128 - Ç
129 - ü
130 - é
131 - â
132 - ä
133 - à
134 - å
135 - ç
136 - ê
137 - ë
138 - è
139 - ï
140 - î
141 - ì
142 - Ä
143 - Å
144 - É
145 - æ
146 - Æ
147 - ô
148 - ö
149 - ò
150 - û
151 - ù
152 - ÿ
153 - Ö
154 - Ü
155 - ¢
156 - £
157 - ¥
158 - ₧
159 - ƒ
160 - á
161 - í
162 - ó
163 - ú
164 - ñ
165 - Ñ
166 - ª
167 - º
168 - ¿
171 - ½
172 - ¼
173 - ¡
174 - «
175 - »
176 - ░
177 - ▒
178 - ▓
179 through 218 were used for making different types of boxes.
219 - █
220 - ▄
221 - ▌
222 - ▐
223 - ▀
224 - α
225 - ß
226 - Γ
227 - π
228 - Σ
229 - σ
230 - µ
231 - τ
232 - Φ
233 - Θ
234 - Ω
235 - δ
236 - ∞
237 - φ
238 - ε
239 - ∩
240 - ≡
241 - ±
242 - ≥
243 - ≤
244 - ⌠
245 - ⌡
246 - ÷
247 - ≈
248 - °
249 and 250 - ∙
251 - √
252 - ⁿ
253 - ²
254 - ■
255 - blank space
256 - not used
257 - ☺
258 - ☻
259 - ♥
260 - ♦
261 - ♣
262 - ♠
263 - •
264 - ◘
265 - ○
266 - ◙
267 - ♂
268 - ♀
269 - ♪
270 - ♫
271 - ☼
272 - ►
273 - ◄
274 and 279 - ↕
275 - ‼
276 - ¶
277 - §
278 - ▬
280 - ↑
281 - ↓
282 - →
283 - ←
284 - ∟
285 - ↔
286 - ▲
287 - ▼

You can keep on going but most of the remaining numbers give you duplicates of what I've given you above. However, you might find a couple of interesting symbols here and there, and adding a leading zero to make it a four-digit code could give you some interesting symbols on your computer or in your software. The codes I've given you above are pretty much universal regardless of what software you are using or what type of computer you have.

So have a ♥ and ☺!

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Learning something new.... - Edwin M. Stanton
Start planning for tomorrow, today!
Learning something new.... - Thousands of women in one place? At the same time?
Your choices: Excellent, Good, Bad, or None
Learning something new.... - Old Ironsides
Learning something new.... - Why is Louisiana so small?
Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry
Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....
Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child
Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na
Guerrilla Marketing: What kind of selection do you have?
You don't have to be a victim....
Learning something new.... - Albert Einstein
What color is your milk?

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Learning something new... - Edwin M. Stanton

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:18:05 -0500

This is part of my "Learning something new...." history series using United States postage stamps as our history book.

To read previous posts in this series, simply click here.

Since we're in the midst of two unnecessary wars, I thought I would go back and pick up where we left off in the 1870s with Edwin M. Stanton (1814-1869), featured on the 7¢ postage stamp issued in 1871:

Edwin Stanton was born in Steubenville, Ohio, and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1836, set up a law practice in Cadiz, Ohio, but moved to Pittsburg in 1847. In 1856 he moved to Washington, D.C., to set up a law practice for Supreme Court cases.

In 1859, he was the defense attorney in the trial of Daniel Sickles, accused of murdering his wife's lover, one Philip Barton Key II, the son of Francis Scott Key who wrote the "Star Spangled Banner." Philip was acquitted when Stanton invoked the first use of the insanity defense. Interestingly, Sickles went on to become a politician and a general in the Union Army. Hmmmm. An insane politician and general?

In 1860, President James Buchanan appointed Stanton as United States Attorney General, and President Lincoln appointed him Secretary of War in 1862. Stanton was an anti-secessionist and is credited with changing President Buchanan's view of tolerance to one of Constitutional illegality. However, he was also opposed to President Lincoln but accepted the appointment "to help save the country." Stanton continued as Secretary of War under President Johnson after Lincoln's assassination. Stanton and Johnson clashed over Civil War Reconstruction and President Johnson replaced Stanton in 1868 with General Ulysses S. Grant, although Grant's appointedment was not approved by the Senate. Johnson's removal of Stanton resulted in his impeachment, which he survived by merely one vote (and people say one vote doesn't matter!).

Upon Lincoln's assassination, Stanton changed his opinion, saying, ""There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen." Stanton's determination to find the assassins has resulted in history accusing him of witness tampering and other activities, including some forms of torture, that skewed the outcome of the trials of the eight people accused of conspiring in the assassination.

President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Stanton to the United States Supreme Court in 1869, but Stanton died four days after the Senate confirmed him. Unfortunately, he had not taken the oath of office of a Supreme Court Justice, so he is not carried on the official roll of Supreme Court Justices.

Other interesting facts about Edwin M. Stanton:

The 1977 movie, "The Lincoln Conspiracy," was inspired by a book written in 1930 by Otto Eisenschiml that accused Stanton of arranging the assassination of Lincoln.
Places named after Stanton: Stanton Park in Washington, D.C.; Stanton College Preparatory School in Jacksonville, Florida; and Stanton County, Nebraska

__________
Sources:

"Blood, Tears, and Glory," by James Bissland
"Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," by Doris Goodwin
"Johnson, Stanton, and Grant: A Reconsideration of the Army's Role in the Events Leading to Impeachment," by Harold Hyman
"Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln's Secretary of War," by Benjamin Thomas and Harold Hyman
"The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies," by William Hanchett
Wikipedia
Arago: People, Postage, and the Post
1847USA: Knowledge is Power

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Learning something new.... - Thousands of women in one place? At the same time?
Learning something new.... - How come Louisiana is so small?
Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry
Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....
Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child
Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na
Guerrilla Marketing: What kind of selection do you have?
You don't have to be a victim....
Learning something new.... - Albert Einstein
What color is your milk?
Learning something new.... - Dwight D. Eisenhower
It's time in the market, not timing the market
Learning something new.... - Happy Columbus Day!
After 54 years, I now know my personality type, courtesy of Margaret Rome

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Start planning for tomorrow, today!

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:22:13 -0500

I get two or three emails each week that start or end with "How do you do so much each day?"

I have a very simple method, one that I've been using for about 43 years, and it was taught to me by my wise old grandmother when I was just 11.

Today, I'm going to share it with you, although I think I've shared it before but I can't find that post. Since I'm sure it's an old post, it's probably ugly looking and doesn't have a picture of Zoey the Cool Cat ignoring ActiveRain in favor of simply looking out the window.

UPDATE: I have decided not to share my secret. Sorry.

DOUBLE UPDATE: I've had a change of mind and have decided to share my secret after all, so here it is.

Before the day ends, I sit down and plan my activities for tomorrow. I know some people do this first thing in the morning, but I think that is just a procrastination excuse to delay actually starting the day. By doing it at the end of each day, what I accomplished that day is still fresh in my mind, and many times I promised something to someone within 24 hours, so getting that near the top of my planned activities for tomorrow can be vitally important.

Although I'm a catnapper, I still get about eight hours of sleep each day, just like everyone else. So I attribute the amount of work (and play!) that I get done each day to my daily plan, not the ability to catnap.

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Learning something new.... - Thousands of women in one place? At the same time?
Learning something new.... - How come Louisiana is so small?
Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry
Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....
Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child
Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na
Guerrilla Marketing: What kind of selection do you have?
You don't have to be a victim....
Learning something new.... - Albert Einstein
What color is your milk?
Learning something new.... - Dwight D. Eisenhower
It's time in the market, not timing the market
Learning something new.... - Happy Columbus Day!
After 54 years, I now know my personality type, courtesy of Margaret Rome

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Learning something new... - Thousands of women in one place? At the same time?

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:30:42 -0500

This is part of my "Learning something new...." history series using United States postage stamps as our history book.

To read previous posts in this series, simply click here.

On this date back in 1915, tens of thousands of women showed up in New York City. At the same time! Can you imagine all the male and lesbian gawkers?

In this case, though, not too many men were happy with the women. Why? Because those tens of thousands of women were marching to demand the right to vote.

Ah, yes, women voting. Sounds so simple to us today, doesn't it?

By 1915, the Women's Suffrage movement was in full swing. In fact, it had been in full swing for a couple of decades, and in 1902, the United States Postal Service wanted to recognize the role of women in America. Unfortunately, the topic was so controversial that the Postal Service couldn't decide how to recognize that role. Finally, someone came up with the brilliant idea of putting the nation's first First Lady on the stamp, thereby honoring Martha Washington as the first woman on a United States postage stamp:

This solved the problem because 1902 was also the 100th anniversary of Martha Washington's death, and who could deny the nation's first First Lady the privilege of being on a postage stamp?

On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee General Assembly became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, making the amendment a part of the United States Constitution, and giving women the right to vote in the United States. Alas, there was still controversy, though, and it took a ruling by the United States Supreme Court in 1922 (Leser v. Garnett) to make the Nineteenth Amendment official.

On August 18, 1970, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment:

Other interesting facts about Women's Suffrage throughout the world:

The modern women's suffrage movement began in medieval France when heads of households, regardless of sex, voted for city and town assemblies and at meetings.
Sweden allowed tax-paying guild members of both sexes to vote beginning in 1718.
In 1755, the Corsican Republic allowed all people over the age of 25 to vote. Suffrage ended in 1769 when France annexed the island.
Lydia Taft is recognized as the first official woman voter in America, having voted in open New England town meetings at Uxbridge, Massachusetts, between 1756 and 1768.
Women had limited suffrage in New Jersey from 1776 to 1809.
New Zealand granted women's suffrage in 1893, although women were not allowed to run for office.
Australia granted women's suffrage in 1902, except for Aboriginal women.
In 1905, Finland became the first European country to allow women to vote.
The most recent countires to grant women the right to vote? Bhutan in 2008, and Kuwait in 2005.
Vatican City still does not allow women to vote. For those who don't know, Vatican City is where the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church resides. (Interestingly, only Cardinals under the age of 80 are allowed to vote in Vatican City.)
Other countries not allowing women to vote: Saudi Arabia.

__________
Sources:

"Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States," by Eleanor Flexner
"Suffragettes International: The Worldwide Campaign for Women's Rights," by Trevor Lloyd
Wikipedia
Arago: People, Postage, and the Post
1847USA: Knowledge is Power

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Learning something new.... - How come Louisiana is so small?
Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry
Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....
Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child
Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na
Guerrilla Marketing: What kind of selection do you have?
You don't have to be a victim....
Learning something new.... - Albert Einstein
What color is your milk?
Learning something new.... - Dwight D. Eisenhower
It's time in the market, not timing the market
Learning something new.... - Happy Columbus Day!
After 54 years, I now know my personality type, courtesy of Margaret Rome
My Top 10 marketing tips

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Your choices: Excellent, Good, Bad, or None

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:19:29 -0500

I always like to watch the roll-out of new products because the quality of the marketing can tell me a lot about what they expect from their products.

In some cases, a product is introduced with Excellent marketing but it is competing against another product that is already very well established. I think the original marketing for Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word fell into this category. I thought the marketing was excellent but they were trying to compete against the very well-established WordPerfect, WordStar, and Lotus 1-2-3. One might wonder where those three competing products are now and what happened, and that brings us to....

Good marketing -- This quality of marketing is usually done for products that are well-established in the marketplace. Unfortunately, if a competing product comes along with Excellent marketing, and the company with merely Good marketing doesn't respond, Excellent marketing will win, all other things being equal or nearly equal. This, I believe, is what happened to WordPerfect, WordStar, and Lotus 1-2-3 when Microsoft Word and Excel arrived on the scene.

Sometimes you'll come across Bad marketing and wonder just what the heck the company -- or its advertising agency -- was thinking. Bad marketing, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. For example, many people, including me, are not fans of sexual innuendo commercials, like many of those run by Quiznos. The second commercial here particularly creeps me out.

None marketing is even worse than bad marketing. None marketing is usually done during periods of company stagnation and disinterest, or when the whole economy is in decline. Companies that are resting on their laurels and think that people will be loyal to them and companies that forgot to put some marketing money aside for when the whole economy was bad are highly susceptible to None marketing. During the good times, those companies usually gave all their money to their executive employees are nice bonuses, leaving nothing for the company when the product or market soured.

Although we seem to be coming out of a nice, long recession due to the aggressive ecnoomic policies of President Obama, that doesn't mean that everyone will be reverting to their formerly Excellent and Good marketing because many of those companies are no longer around, having fallen into the Bad marketing or None marketing categories during the recession.

If you're just barely surviving and hoping that the recession ends soon, it might be time to ratchet your marketing up to a higher level.

Excellent, Good, Bad, or None. Which have you been? Which do you want to be?

Get busy.

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Learning something new.... - Old Ironsides
Learning something new.... - How come Louisiana is so small?
Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry
Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....
Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child
Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na
Guerrilla Marketing: What kind of selection do you have?
You don't have to be a victim....
Learning something new.... - Albert Einstein
What color is your milk?
Learning something new.... - Dwight D. Eisenhower
It's time in the market, not timing the market
Learning something new.... - Happy Columbus Day!
After 54 years, I now know my personality type, courtesy of Margaret Rome

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club

Learning something new... - Old Ironsides

Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:09:56 -0500

This is part of my "Learning something new...." history series using United States postage stamps as our history book.

To read previous posts in this series, simply click here.

Old Ironsides was christened on this date in 1797. Interestingly, he is still alive.

Huh?

Yep. Old Ironsides is the United States Ship (USS) Constitution:

The U.S.S. Constitution was named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States, and is the oldest commissioned naval vessel in the world that is still afloat. The HMS Victory is the oldest commissioned vessel but it is permanently drydocked. The oldest ship that still sails under its own power is the Star of India based in downtown San Diego, California.

During the War of 1812, the USS Constitution earned her nickname "Old Ironsides" in a battle with HMS Guerriere when cannon balls from the Guerriere bounced off the sides of the Constitution.

Old Ironsides last sailed under her own power in 1997 for her 200th birthday. She is now permanently docked in the Boston harbor, but since she still is a fully commissioned naval vessel, she has a crew of 60 active-duty officers and sailors who keep the ship open year round for the public. Being assigned to Old Ironsides is considered "special duty" in the Navy. Duh!

Other interesting facts about the USS Constitution:

Her keel was laid on November 1, 1794, at Edmund Hartt's shipyard in Boston.
She is a wood-hulled ship constructed of white pine, longleaf pine, white oak, and southern live oak.
60 acres of trees were needed for her construction.
The privately run USS Constitution Museum opened on April 8, 1976.
"Constitution Grove" at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indiana provides most of the white oak required for regular maintenance.
On July 10, 1976, Old Ironsides led a parade of tall ships into Boston Harbor, firing her guns at 1-minute intervals, the first time in over 1oo years that her guns had been fired.
During her three-year, $12 million renovation from 1992-1995, Charleston, South Carolina, donated live oak trees that had been felled by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
She is berthed at Pier 1 of the former Charlestown Navy Yard, at one end of Boston's Freedom Trail. (If you have never walked Boston's Freedom Trail, put it on your bucket list!)
In order to ensure that the Constitution weathers evenly, she does a "turnaround cruise" each year. Although she is towed rather than sailing under her own power, the turnaround cruise is open to the public based on a lottery drawing of interested persons.
The fictional French frigate Acheron from the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is based on hundreds of digital computer scans of the Constitution.
Commander Thomas C. Graves was relieved of command of the Constitution in 2007 and reassigned after being accused of abusing his subordinates.
Old Ironsides is currently undergoing repairs expected to be completed in September 2010. During repairs, she is still open to the public.
Copper fittings for the Constitution were originally purchased from Paul Revere's Revere Copper Company. The U.S. Navy still buys copper for maintenance and restoration purposes from the Revere Copper Company.

__________
Sources:

"Tattered Ensign: The Story of America's Most Famous Fighting Frigate, U.S.S Constitution," by John Jennings.
A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of Old Ironsides," by Tyrone Martin.
"The Naval War of 1812 or The History of the United States Navy during the Last War with Great Britain," by Theodore Roosevelt.
Wikipedia
Arago: People, Postage, and the Post
1847USA: Knowledge is Power

We are ActiveRain!

**********

Fifteen recent blog posts

Learning something new.... - How come Louisiana is so small?
Do you know the difference between marketing and advertising?
Learning something new.... - Oliver Hazard Perry
Remember to take your business cards, lots of them....
Life 101: If you want the truth, ask a child
Speechless Sunday: Na na na na na na
Guerrilla Marketing: What kind of selection do you have?
You don't have to be a victim....
Learning something new.... - Albert Einstein
What color is your milk?
Learning something new.... - Dwight D. Eisenhower
It's time in the market, not timing the market
Learning something new.... - Happy Columbus Day!
After 54 years, I now know my personality type, courtesy of Margaret Rome
My Top 10 marketing tips

Helpful blog posts for ActiveRain newbies

Need help with marketing? Join the Guerrilla Marketing Tactics Group.

Inspired by nature? Join the Inspired By Nature Group.

Classical music lover? Join the Classical Music Group.

Want to share a good book? Join the Active Rain Book Club