Ok I have a story to tell. Ok I want to describe a story that actually happened. I can't remember the exact events nor can I tell you the main characters. But the Story has a great message. I Promise!

An army crossed the English Channel to wage war (I believe From France to England), Despite having less men than their opponent, the leader ordered his officers to burn all of their ships (without their men knowing about it). The ordinary soldiers were not too thrilles seeing their only methor of escaping should they need to. The leader then addressed his men and stated that there is only one way to live and that's through victory.

They won.

Sometimes, you have to eliminate all options but one. Fight hard because there is no turning back. You might be surprised with the results.

Rich T.

I had a voice message from a neighbor today and the message sounded urgent. Not knowing what to expect, I called them. I found out that they were in the process of vacating their rental and was looking to attempt to do a yard sale. they informed me that the owners would not let them hold a yard sale, so they were asking if it would be ok for them to use my yard.

It was a good thing that just yesterday I mowed the grass. I had no problem with having them use my front yard. they thanked me, we exchanged stories... next thing you know I mentionede that we have a rental listing, they want to see it, and I have an appointment next monday to show the rental ( which we just picked up this monday). It looks like it will be a great fit and we would have helped 2 families.

Like i said, it never hurt to help people out from time to time :)

Rich T.

Talking to a fellow Realtor, I mentioned a little trick that I often use when I copy information from a particular web site.

If you want to strip the extra stuff ( like tables, font sizes or color ), when you first copy the content, open up notepad and paste the clipboard content to it.

Now you have just the characters. you will then select all of the information and copy it back to the clipboard.

Final is to paste the information to the final application ( like a form on a web site).

If you were to copy the original information into say a Word file, Word knows enough to keep all of the formating information. that's why notepad is still a good application to use.

Rich T.

Web Banner Tip #1 - Nothing beats a good eye-catching punch line
 

When thinking of the copy for a banner; you need to spend a lot of time in creating a catchy phrase, something that will arouse the interest of the viewers and entice them to click on the banner. The punch line should be a small phrase, just a few words and should be visually appealing (correct usage of colors and fonts).

Web Banner Tip #2 - Good copy
 

A successful banner has excellent copy. Be sure to spend ample time thinking about what would interest the surfer. Another rule of thumb for good copy is to keep it short and simple. The text should support the banner punch line and should be informative and practical, making the viewer curious or bringing out a smile. Preferably, the copy should end with the same catchy phrase as on your web site unless the banner punch line is the same.

Web Banner Tip #3 - Relevant content in banners - not XXX
 

Make sure that the pictures displayed in the banner are relevant to the products/services you are offering on your site. A woman in a skimpy bikini would surely attract the attention of male surfers and get a click but, if your site sells electronic goods, the visitor is sure to leave your site before making a purchase. You, thus, end up with high-click thrus and negligible sales.

Web Banner Tip #4 - Including logo and web site URL in banners
 

If your ad campaign is a brand building exercise, it is advisable to include BOTH the logo and the web site address in the banner. For other types of banners, you might like to include the two, but make sure that they don't dilute the banner punch line or the copy. In such cases, it's best to keep the logo and the URL together either on the right or the left side of the banner. The logo should be made small and the URL can be displayed in a very small font size.

Web Banner Tip #5 - Clichés work!
 

Statistics show that the best call to action on a web banner is the trite phrase "Click here". Its very presence increases the click-thru rate. The phrase should be displayed long enough (2-3 seconds), preferably in the last frame of an animated banner and can itself be animated - made to blink or change color.

I am currently studying to take a computer certification that is geared for security. With all the internet based accounts we have, we often feel that we should use something that we can remember. Nothing wrong with that.

However, May I suggest that you use different characters to make it harder to crack. For example lets say that you want to use your pats name: dog

Well for starters, it's a little too short.

Common rule 1: The password must be at least 8 characters long

We need to come up with 5 extra characters. we decide to modify it to: myolddog = 8 characters long

Common rule 2: use some upper case characters

We need to use capital letters for some of our letters. believe it or not the comuter has different value (ok we will use number values) the letter "a" is represented with a numerical value that is different than the letter "A"

or  "a" does not equal "A"

Our Next modification results in: MyOldDog

Common rule 3: Use numbers.

This one is simple enough to follow. Our password is now modified to look like: My01dD0g

As you can tell we subsitiuted the number 0 for the letter o and the number 1 for the letter l

So far we have made our password much harder to crack we have met all of the rules above.

Common Rule 4: Use special characters

What are special characters? the following are examples of special characters: !@#$%^&*()

Well I really like our password so far, I think I will just include a special character to it.

Final version: My0ldD0g!

As you can see, the password is still relatively simple to remember. but what you just did is make your password almost impossible to crack.

Common rule 5: Change your password frequently

Programs out there exists which can automatically generate random characters to crack your password (called brute force attack) by changing your password from time to time, you are ensuring that your passwords are safe (for now).

With identity theft rising, it helps to take these standard practice to heart.

Thanks for Reading this post :)

Rich T.

I recently helped a fellow Realtor with a problem she had with her notebook. In a nutshell, it was very very slow.

She had a brand new notebook with the latest Microsoft OS (Windows Vista). The only thing I saw that was a problem was the size of RAM, it only has 512MB!!

With the vista OS, you need at least twice that amount 515Mb X 2 = 1,000 Mb = 1 GB).  I recommended that since her notebook has only 2 slots for the memory chip,she should get two 1Gb memory modules for a grand total of 2 Gb.

Several weeks later, she finally bought the memory and it only took me a few minutes to install it. The results was like night and day! The notebook started faster, and applications came up almost instantly. For what little she spent on the RAM, she more than made it back with the increased productivity.

Do yourself a favor and look at the mcahine that you are glued to, day in and day out. If you are running vista, see if you need to have and upgrade to 2 gb!

With vista, just left click on start, right click on Computer, then left click on properties, you should get a window that has a lot of incormation about your machine, including the amount of RAM it has.

Rich T.

I recently tested an application called Banner Designer Pro.

Its a program that allows you to easily create banner ads for the internet, without needing to know anything about flash or html.

I thought that the application has plenty of power for a beginner, or but if you already know photoshop and FLASH, this tool is not for you.

Web Link: http://www.bannerdesignerpro.com

download it and give it a try. I plan on buying and using it asap!

You Deserve More!

(Picture of Rich, Karen, and Lisa)

To compete effectively in today's ever changing real estate market; you will greatly benefit by having more than one real estate agent to service your needs. Rich Thewissen, Karen Van Seters, and Lisa Lamb are the team that you are looking for to achieve that goal.

The benefits of having Three Realtors on your side:

• A team of Realtors to service your account will result in a more efficient and smooth transaction process.

• We provide a balanced support in an ever changing market, through our diverse yet complementing skill sets.

• We offer a mature and time tested marketing program that is second to none.

Effective communication is a critical and essential to any successful business activity. We guarantee that you will receive regular reports to aid you in making an informed financially sound decision.

Karen, Lisa, Rich 

The VLT Team, We make results happen

Visit us at: http://www.sectlisting.com