You can do unexpected damage by employing many offerings in the wrong way. We were reminded of that sad fact when one of our young colleagues offered to lead a tour of his old college so one of our offspring could learn more about the school.

On the way into town, the colleague pointed to a large scar in the bark of a tree about 15 feet off the ground. That scar, he informed us, was where his BMW’s bumper hit the tree as the car tried to become an airplane during a high speed trip through the mountains. We slowed down in honor of this shrine to youthful folly and tried to think of reasons for my offspring not to apply to this school.

In various parts of the world, it’s permissible to drive long before teenagers have the skill or the good sense to do it well. I am humbled to remember my driving accidents at 16 that did not recur at 17, 18, or 19. Experience must be a good teacher.

But experience has quite a price. Vehicle accidents take hundreds of thousands of lives and leave millions maimed and saddened every year. Inexperienced drivers are involved in more than their fair share of such accidents.

Having taken courses in how to drive and having arranged for my offspring to do the same, I noticed that young people are helped by such education while they are unskilled. Seat belts are fastened. The right foot reaches the brake pedal faster and is more tentative in pressing down the accelerator. The head swivels left and right before entering an intersection. There’s more distance between the car and the one in front.

Vehicle manufacturers lose potential business because young drivers aren’t very skillful. Families are more likely to keep old Betsy running as a teenager-driven vehicle until their children reach the safe and sane driving stage.

If teenagers drove more safely, new vehicle sales would be a lot higher because teenagers love new wheels more than all but sports car buffs. Having teenagers in the house also inhibits Mom and Dad from indulging in something racy that they would enjoy. Taking a hot car out for a spin would be too tempting to the younger generation.

The same thing happens in other markets. Fearing that accidents will happen, purchases are deferred or reduced to reflect concern about those potential accidents. If teenagers can create mayhem with a vehicle, think what they could do with a racing boat!

By comparison, the commercial aviation field rarely experiences accidents. Airlines feel confident about buying new planes that cost tens of millions and trusting the planes to their crews. What’s different?

Before becoming commercial pilots, all but a few aviators have logged many hours in the air in military aircraft. Since many people want to become commercial pilots, only the most talented and reliable are selected from among the experienced.

But that’s not enough. Pilots have to qualify to fly an aircraft.

Qualifying usually involves lots of time in a simulator where ingenious controls allow the person conducting the simulation to create instant hurricanes, wind shear at landing, equipment failures of all kinds, and other disasters. Airlines have found that if you practice dealing with situations that could lead to accidents, you are more likely to avoid accidents and to know what to do to minimize the problem should an accident become unavoidable.

Unlike the education a new driver receives, a pilot is expected to keep practicing these important lessons under strict supervision. Flight hours must be maintained. Practice time in simulators needs to be logged on schedule. Regular physicals are required to catch medical problems before they impair flight performance. Show up for work with alcohol on your breath once, and someone will probably turn you in. That slip will get you permanently grounded by your employer.

But education can only go so far. Offerings have to be designed to avoid accidents.

Imagine my surprise when I first backed out of the driveway in our new car . . . and nothing happened when I hit the brakes at the end of the driveway. Fortunately, there were no cars coming as I slewed into the street just before the brakes miraculously began to work.

The next time I backed out it was more tentatively and the brakes also didn’t work. After a few telephone calls to the manufacturer, I eventually learned that this car briefly disengaged its brakes a few seconds after you first drive forward or backward before allowing the brakes to function normally again.

To me, that’s a design flaw that will cause accidents. To the manufacturer, it was a good engineering design for some reason that’s incomprehensible to me.

With time and understanding of the design, I learned to go very slowly until I have permanently effective brakes. Perhaps this quirk is disclosed somewhere, but I have never seen a written warning about it. Even with a dangerous design, educating people about what’s going on and what to do can cut down on accidents.

What’s it worth to avoid an accident? The savings can be enormous. If a new pharmaceutical turns active people who mix drugs inadvertently into shut-ins who need constant care, the cost can be millions for each affected person. If a vehicle has a flaw that causes it to roll over when drivers take turns too fast, thousands of unsuspecting families may be destroyed by death, paralysis, and recriminations aimed at the surviving purchaser or driver. The economic costs alone will be measured in billions of dollars.

Accidents from using offerings are often one of the biggest emotional and financial costs for beneficiaries, customers, and users. Help these stakeholders avoid accidents that come from a lack of skill in using the offerings, and you’ll expand the use of the offerings and slash costs for everyone.

How can you eliminate harmful costs by helping the unskilled avoid accidents?

Same as it Ever Was

At its core, online marketing follows the same principles as any other means of marketing – a provider has a product or service they wish to sell, so they advertise in order to draw potential customers’ attention to the information they’ve put together. Just like television commercials, online marketing has to be creative and informative to truly catch the attention of the discerning customer. We’ve all heard of popup and banner ads that do nothing but hog resources and annoy potential customers rather than attract them to the product, and that result is hardly healthy for any business.

And Now for Something Completely Different

One method that sidesteps the click-away tendency is the use of a blog to market the product. Blog is a shorthand term for web log, and refers to a serial, online journal or record intended for regular viewing. Examples of blogs include noncommercial ventures such as personal diaries posted to Livejournal, the daily record of campaign events for the more tech-savvy politicians, and ‘hobby’ blogs that cover an activity such as cooking or model airplanes. However, they can also include outright commercial ventures, such as a blog intended to promote a new product, consisting solely of video posts explaining the various advantages to the new product.

It’s Easier Than Herding Cats

Some blogs strike a balance between these two extremes. Consider the highly successful LoLCats website. This site began solely as a hobby, posting humorous images of cats. However, due to effective word of mouth promotion among people with similar interests, the site grew quickly, spinning off additional sites and generating an extraordinary amount of advertising revenue. The site has grown so much that Time magazine reported the company was purchased for two million dollars in 2007.

Now, this result is obviously not the norm. For every cheezburger success story, there are thousands of blogs that toil on in obscurity, accomplishing nothing at all. The differences can be many, but they can be boiled down to concerns relating to effective marketing.

Give it the Old College Try

Let’s say that a user named Ron has a passion for low budget college cooking, and wishes to make money writing about it. Ron starts a small blog, using the popular Wordpress blogging system, and begins posting two or three times a day. He posts recipes, money saving ideas, and ‘bet you didn’t know’ material, building a decent sized archive. To get an audience, Ron begins visiting and participating in cooking and college related forums, mentioning his blog and its goals to his audience, gathering new users with patient, active efforts.

Eventually, Ron takes two steps toward commercial success when he monetizes the blog through an advertising revenue program (such as Google’s AdSense), and by using the blog to promote his new eBook, “Collegiate Cuisine”. To hook readers, he promises not only recipes he’s already included on the site, but special tips on inexpensive ways to get cooking tools and a few new recipes he hasn’t shared yet.

Will this model work? Perhaps. If Ron is too pushy, he might turn people off to his product before they ever come to his site. If he’s too timid, his message will get lost in the tide of the Internet. If he chooses poorly in the ads he allows on his site, users won’t click and the ads will generate no money. So the second key is research and careful attention. Ron and other blogging marketers have to study the market, pay attention to peoples’ needs and input, and adjust their presentation accordingly.

But is There Any Money in it?

To return to the point that there is money to be made in blogging, one would be remiss not to pay attention to the successful Problogger. In the classic ‘make money teaching others to make money,’ tradition, this is a blog that makes its revenue by teaching users how to make money through professional blogging. Many other sites, such as FreelanceWritingGigs, swear to Problogger’s integrity and efficacy and the site does provide a great deal of information. So there clearly IS money to be made in the blogging-as-marketing world.

Back to the Basics

The key to blog marketing is the same key to any business venture, appropriateness. The savvy businessman will evaluate their entire business, and do the research to determine if blogging is a vital addition to what they’re trying to accomplish. Blogging allows for a wider audience than local advertising, which could lead to expanding into nearby cities, or shipping to distant locales. It is an option that should seriously be examined, and approached with the same degree of research and caution as any business venture or proposal.

*Below is an excerpt from “My Friend Yu – The Prosperity Mentor: Book II. Release Date: October/November 2007. Pantejo – Y.N. Vurce Publishing.

Writers write. They can’t help it. But EVERYONE ELSE needs to write too!

This article will discuss why everyone needs to write, why I (and so many others) just have to write, and why writing is an effective method of making money.

- YOU MUST WRITE TO BE A SUCCESS AT ANYTHING -

If you want to be successful at anything, you can’t escape the necessity of writing. Whether you own a business, work in a company, or serve in a government organization, you must be able to write effectively.

When you’re employed in an organization, the higher you advance up the corporate ladder, the more administration you are responsible for.

This was plainly self-evident when I was in the military. The administration aspects of my job increased commensurate to the advancements in my rank. Every new position required more and more managerial documentation, supervisory reports, and military training record archiving. The bureaucratic red tape was strangling me!

I was constantly reprimanded for submitting poorly written reports and sloppy subordinate evaluations. Up to that point in my career, I hadn’t thought much about anything but having fun and doing my job. But as the promotions came, so did their accompanying administrative burdens.

It’s the same in the private and public sectors. In fact, because there is no automatic protocol of respect for rank in those arenas, a person’s writing is often scrutinized more severely. Add to this mix the keen competition from rivals and the ever-increasing profit motive, and you have a scenario that requires all upper management/executive level employees to write well.Sure, some executives delegate a lot of their administration to their subordinates, but the ultimate responsibility for any outgoing administration rests squarely upon the head of the issuing authority.

Clearly, then, the ability to write well (meaning: clear, accurate, and concise written communication) is vital for professional success.

- “MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL” –

Writing is an underused method of obtaining self-knowledge. Many people don’t realize that writing reveals the author to him/herself. It’s an honest mirror of one’s expertise, experiences, mood, thoughts, perceptions, and personality.

When practiced regularly, writing becomes a vehicle for introspection and a powerful planning tool for success. All writing (e.g., diaries, business letters, love letters, instruction manuals, articles, stories, books, etc.) can be used in this manner.

Great people know this. They fully appreciate the power of writing. In fact, all successful people use writing as their main tool for examining themselves, their activities, their past experiences, their present endeavors, current results, and future plans.

Either by instinct or by training, these people know that most thoughts are fleeting. They are obsessive about capturing their inspirational thoughts and can be seen jotting down their muses at anytime, in anyplace.

Anything that is (or may be) significant, but can’t be addressed immediately, is recorded on something – anything (computer files, notepads, scrap paper, and even restaurant napkins). In fact, the beginnings of several great inventions, blueprints, and business ideas were first recorded on makeshift writing surfaces; hurriedly scribbled on toilet tissue, palms, airplane magazines, and newspaper margins.

Since these notes are usually private, they can be “free-form.” There’s no fear of editorial criticism. There’s no pressure to be grammatically correct. Misspellings are forgiven as long as you know what you mean.

- WARNING: WOO-WOO, PHILOSOPHICAL MOMENT TO FOLLOW -

Manifest: To reach through the veil separating thought from reality and making your desires readily available for your present experience; ideas made into what we perceive as physical objects or “real life” experiences.

But to manifest anything into your physical reality, you must know, in detail, exactly what you want.

All Success Coaches, Prosperity Mentors, and Manifestation Experts will tell you that writing is vital in creating your ideal life. Unless your desires are written down, they are merely flights of fancy, weak wishes that fade with the outgoing tide of mood and motivation.

Many people don’t come anywhere close to properly thinking about what they want; because, mainly, they don’t really know exactly what they really want! They can’t describe it with detail. They don’t write it down. They don’t make it concrete.

Even though it’s a simple process and only takes a few seconds, most people fail to simply write down their desires. If you don’t record your desires, you are running the risk of letting them fade away.

Unwritten desires are too easy to forget and are like all precious, little babies – they will die if neglected. If you don’t nurture them, they die a totally preventable death. Yes, they may linger for awhile, but eventually these “newborns” die a sad, miserable death; reaching out for your love, care, and attention until the bitter end.

Write your desires down somewhere, anywhere! Scribble them down on anything available at the time – a notepad, scrap paper, napkin, and if you have to: even your hand – anything!That’s why I recommend carrying a convenient little notepad and pen everywhere. You never know when inspiration might strike. Later, when you have time, type them into a private file on your computer or write them down in a personal journal.

- SATISFYING THE CRAVINGS -

Aside from the self-knowledge and success benefits of writing for everyone, why do writers, especially professional writers in the “dog-eat-dog” world of selling prose, continue to put their thoughts on paper? Why is writing so fulfilling to millions of magazine/newspaper writers and book authors? Simply put: Self-Expression and Creation. Compared to the general public, writers intensely crave self-expression and the process of creation.

- Look At Me, Listen to Me! -

On the human emotional/psychological needs pyramid, the need for self-expression is very close to the summit (up there with love, recognition, and trust).

Writing is a universal way of satisfying this need.

For many writers, expressing themselves on paper is preferred over verbal communications.

Some writers are naturally shy, introverted in public; but brave and extroverted on the written page. They use their writing as an outlet for their alter egos.

Others occupy sensitive positions (i.e., managerial or executive positions) in the corporate world or within a public organization and cannot voice their true opinions without serious repercussions.

Both the shy writer and the executive usually write under pen names until circumstances clearly show that cloaking their identity is no longer needed.

And still others (myself included) neither suffer from shyness in public, nor have a sensitive or executive level job; but choose to write mainly because of the sheer number of people I can reach through writing versus teaching a class, or speaking at a function.

- The Joy of Creation -

A wise man (my father) pointed out that MAN can easily kill and destroy; but only God, and those in tune with God, can truly CREATE.

When a writer creates his handiwork, he can feel that spark of divinity; that joyful state of playing with the Universe. It’s like building those sand castles when you were young – so fun, so absorbing, so purposeful.

Writing with passion makes the hours pass like minutes. In fact, on many occasions, I’ll be in the rapture of writing a personally cathartic story, article, or book chapter and my girlfriend has to remind me to eat!

When I’m “in the flow” of inspiration, writing becomes a delicious, highly personal, exhilarating experience. It seems like I can’t type fast enough to express my thoughts on the page! And with every word, I feel more and more power and joy. I feel almost God-like in this creation process.

When I create a particularly imaginative or poignant article, story, or book; I feel weightless, my soul takes to flight, and I view myself from a heavenly perspective. Filled with indescribable awe, the only thing I can do is smile and tell myself “Wow, imagine that…”

True writers write mainly for themselves. These brave souls write with a “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” attitude. So what if nobody likes or agrees with them? They still write. They can’t help it! It’s an obsession that provides enormous personal gratification, public recognition, and monetary rewards (ranging from supplemental income to abundant wealth).

I fall into this category. I have only two choices when it comes to writing: Empty my thoughts on paper or never go to sleep!

- AN EFFECTIVE METHOD OF MAKING MONEY -

Speaking from a strictly business standpoint, writing is a great business model. It’s an effective way of obtaining perpetual residual income. Any successful businessman will tell you that trading time for pay is the least effective method of making money. Think of it, there’s only twenty-four hours in a day. And if you don’t put in the hours at work, you don’t get paid.

Writing a book for sale is a “work-once-pay-indefinitely” endeavor. When popular, one good book can produce royalties for decades!

Are you taking full advantage of the power, joy, and benefits of writing everyday?

Carl PantejoPantejo@ynvurcepublishing.comAuthor “My Friend Yu – The Prosperity Mentor,” Copyright August 2007. Pantejo – Y.N. Vurce Publishing.

No matter what is getting in your way, there are many ways that you can get past it. A good start for any radio control project is to find plans or blueprints that you can follow for the entire length of the project. You can buy kits that include all of the pieces, or you can find plans on the internet and cut your own wood. It just depends on how much effort you want to put into the project. After you have the plan (which should include diagrams and exact measurements), you can begin to gather supplies. If you stick with everything that the plan says, you will be much less likely to hit a snag. As you work, you will learn skills required to make personal touches to the plan.

The best way to have constant support no matter what goes wrong is to make friends with some sort of expert in the field. Is your uncle’s wife’s cousin a fanatic for remote controlled hobbies? Get his phone number, call him up, and see if you can get some help. Most of the time people will be more than happy to share their knowledge with someone who is interested in similar things. You can also meet radio control gurus at conventions, races, or even supply shops. It is good to know someone locally, since you can meet wit them and show them whatever your problem is, and they can even glue a few pieces together, or do whatever else needs to be done.

For small inquiries that don’t require hands-on assistance, you can use the internet. There are numerous online communities for radio controlled hobbies, which come in the form of message boards, mailing lists, or blogs. These can be found with a quick search engine keyword, and are usually home to numerous extremely intelligent people whose combined knowledge covers pretty much everything about radio controlled hobbies. If you ask a question of these communities, you will almost immediately receive multiple helpful responses. Using advanced technology like digital cameras and microphones, you can get an even more personal response.

Finally, you can get your information from a good, old-fashioned book. Libraries are full of so much knowledge, it is surprising that they go so unappreciated in today’s culture. If you go to the library in search of books about radio controlled hobbies, you will find numerous resources that will help you out greatly. Your query could range from the electronic aspect to the construction. In a similar vein, you can subscribe to magazines that regularly cover this sort of hobby, giving new plans, details, and advice for all subscribers.

If you use all of these different resources, you should have no problem building and enjoying the radio controlled hobby that you’ve always wanted. Embarking on the journey alone is definitely not advisable, since you will have to do many things that no normal human is faced with. From cutting the wood into precise chunks that will make up the different components to installing the electrical parts, each step requires close attention to detail. It is good to have backup in case you don’t quite understand something.