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Did you know there is a job you can do between classes, at night, and on weekends? If you are a teen just hitting college, you could get paid taking surveys to cover those extra expenses. Companies will pay YOU for your opinion on everything from cars to clothes to music!

College students are in high demand as they will be the next wave of money making adults to be hitting the market. Big companies want to know what you like, so they can tailor their products and ad campaigns to provide it to you! Unfortunately for them, they are short on volunteers, and have many surveys to take. Fortunately for you, they will pay for your opinion!

You don’t have to buy anything or sign up for a subscription at a legit survey site. You don’t have to do anything other than sit back and take a pop quiz – with no points off for wrong answers. There aren’t any! You get to work at your own pace, and if you have a laptop you can work anywhere.

It’s pretty simple – all you have to do is sign up on some good survey sites, and they will contact you by email whenever there is a survey you might qualify for. Whenever you qualify for surveys to take, you simply log in and answer the questions. A typical survey will require only ten to twenty minutes of your time!

You will also have the opportunity to fill out profiles in different areas such as automotive or entertainment. This will give you access to even more surveys to take and opportunity to make even more money! The profiles help the company identify good candidates for each survey, sort of like a pre-qualification.

If you are diligent about filling out your profiles and update on a regular basis, you should receive plenty of surveys to take. You never have to do any more than you want on a given day. This lets you set your own hours and work when it is convenient for you.

Setting up a separate email address to use for your survey contacts is a good idea; this way when you are sent surveys to take you know immediately and they don’t get buried in a general mailbox. You can use the same email address for different survey sites. Make a point of checking the mailbox daily!

Stay on top of your survey invitations by checking your email daily. It would be a shame to miss out on a high paying survey to take because you missed a deadline. Schedule some time each day to spend online, either completing surveys or signing up for them. Getting paid to take surveys depends on you and no-one else!

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Filed under: Business

Part of the appeal of customer-centricity is that it takes very little business acumen to grasp its core concept. Focus intensely on customers, align your products or services with their interests, and voila: a customer-centric culture is born. Simple, right? Not quite. Becoming a truly customer-centric organization is perhaps one of the most difficult transitions an organization can make, fraught with hidden obstacles and unanticipated challenges. Here are three potential roadblocks on the path to a customer-centric strategy, and how to get around them.

Failing to understand your most valuable customer A customer-centric strategy is only as good as its customers. You cant let the average customer dictate what you do, says Robert Duboff, CEO of Hawk Partners LLC and coauthor of the book Market Research Matters. Generally speaking, Duboff says, 20 percent of a company’s customer base generates 80 percent of its profits. Given that split, its imperative to put your most valuable customers at the heart of your approach.

Identifying those customers need not take exhaustive research and complicated measures. It can be a fairly straightforward process, as it is with the Net Promoter Score, or NPS, a metric developed by Bain & Co.s Fred Reichheld. As set forth in The Ultimate Question written by Reichheld and published by Harvard Business Press the NPS approach consists of one simple question: On a scale of one to 10, would you recommend us to your friends?

Based on the answer to that question, customers are segmented into three categories: promoters, who actively champion a particular product to their friends and colleagues; passives, who are lukewarm about the product; and detractors, the opposite of promoters. A given company’s score is simply the difference between its number of promoters and its number of detractors.

NPS has proven to be a powerful tool for such companies as General Electric Capital Solutions, which has used it not only to identify customers that are already valuable promoters but to gain insights into how it can convert detractors. For a business like GE Capital Solutions, which serves more than 1 million very diverse customers in many different industries, NPS helps us better understand what our customers are feeling and how we can improve their experience with us, says Stephen White, a spokesperson for GE Capital.

Failing to support your external customer-centric strategy with an internal customer-centric strategy Speaking of valuable customers, what about that most priceless customer of all your employee?

While most companies aren’t in the habit of regarding their employees as customers, those seeking to instill a customer-centric culture should rethink their stance, argues Elaine Berke, president of Westport, MAbased EBI Consulting, which specializes in helping organizations develop customer-centric strategies. Customer-centricity needs to come from the inside out, says Berke. Leadership must avoid a double standard that makes it OK for managers to argue with or demean staff while still being courteous and considerate to external customers.

Consider the case of the world-renowned Johns Hopkins University Hospital. In developing a comprehensive Service Excellence initiative aimed at boosting its level of patient care, the hospital included employee satisfaction as a core component of the program. The hospital conducted an extensive survey to gauge employee concerns that turned up such simple, actionable insights as making it a point to compliment co-workers and instituting criticism-free no negativity days.

Customer-centric organizations value and respect internal customers as much as external customers, says Berke. Like the old saying goes, If you’re not serving a customer, you’re serving someone who is.

Failure to identify the moment of truth Companies spend considerable time and resources developing metrics for processes, execution and other day-to-day functions but often overlook defining their moments of truth those points at which a customer interacts with a company’s product or service and forms an impression. Companies are usually very good at creating metrics around [such procedures as] production deliverables but have a much harder time knowing how to create and measure standards relating to the quality of customer service being delivered, Keith Bailey of Sterling Consulting Group says.

In defining a company’s moments of truth, Bailey suggests looking at three different angles quality of product, quality of procedures and quality of relationships. Taking a hotel as an example, the quality of the product would be the cleanliness and comfort of the rooms. The quality of procedures would be such factors as how it long it takes to check in or how long customers wait for room service. The quality of relationship would be the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff.

Considering each angle separately allows a company to isolate the negative moments of truth within each and develop a game plan for turning them into positive experiences. Procter & Gamble, for example, identified its moment of truth as that instant when a shopper picks up one of its products and decides whether or not to purchase its decision the customer makes in an average of six seconds. The company has overhauled its marketing with that insight in mind, creating a global First Moment of Truth business team designed to win over the customer in that moment.

There are as many different customer-centric approaches as there are customers, and each has its own unique challenges, but the road to a truly customer-centric strategy always begins with the same steps.

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Filed under: Customer Service

Many businesses use managed hosting because they don?t have the time or the manpower to manage it on their own. In other words, they do not have to worry about a lot of the grief that comes along with managing their own hosting. The truth is that they are able to let someone else worry about keeping everything up and running. However, the idea is that the managed hosting service provider will keep everything up and running the way it is supposed to. That means going on the search to find a company that will do just that.

What to look for

When evaluating a managed hosting service provider, you have to know what to look for. Here is a list of some of the tasks that should be provided by a managed hosting service provider:

– Backup of remote data – Security monitoring – IT services – Technical assistance – Technical assistance

However, you have to make sure that the number one priority of the managed hosting service provider is the managed hosting. They have a staff that takes care of the tasks that would be taken care of in your business if you had your own managed hosting. Instead, they are an off-site service that makes the managed hosting or your business their number one priority.

How to evaluate

Once you have determined what it is they offer, you need to look up some credentials. You can do this by checking with the Better Business Bureau, certifications such as the PCI Compliance, reading online reviews, and talking to other businesses that have used them for their services.

You may also want to see if the service offers you an evaluation period. This means that you can park your website with them for a specific amount of time and try them out. During this period, you can ensure that you have 100% uptime, that all of your technical demands are addressed, and that the service is up to par. If it isn?t, there should be no obligation for you to stay with that company after the evaluation period. You should be able to freely move your website to any other managed hosting service. Just make sure you undergo the same process and that is allowing you a period to evaluate.

You also want to make sure that you don?t get too comfortable during the evaluation period. Anything that occurs that puts a sour taste in your mouth should not be acceptable. Sure, things do happen and you can evaluate the circumstances, but make sure that too many misfortunes do not happen often. That may mean that they don?t have all of their ducks in a row.

Making your decision

After you evaluate, making your decision as to whether or not a managed hosting service provider is right for you should be rather easy. Only you know what your business needs. What one business needs may not be needed by another business, so make sure you’re getting everything you need and not too many things that you don’t need, which is a problem with some providers. They provide their customers with all these great services and the customers pay for them. However, it may turn out that too much is being paid for a lot of unnecessary things. Make sure you can customize your plan. There should be options for you to choose from so that you don’t overpay.

So now you have an idea of how you can evaluate a managed hosting service provider. This is so you can make sure they are the right provider for you. If they?re not, you can just move on.

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Filed under: Computers & Technology

In this article I am going to be talking to you about the S-scale or the S-gauge model train. This is a model train thats scale is 1:64 in size. It’s popular because it fits between the HO and O model train scales. It can meet the requirements on a scale which is larger then the HO scale, which is considered too small for many hardcore model train fanatics.

It is how ever smaller then the O scale for model trains, which is good because it allows your track layouts to be laid out in a smaller area of space. As we all know, space can be at a premium when it comes to model trains and having space around the home. There is nothing more annoying then having a vision for your model train layout but not having enough room to implement it.

The S-gauge series of model trains has been around for nearly 100 years, but it did not really become popular until the creation of the re designed American Flyer model of trains. These were first produced by a company called A C Gilbert. They were based in Connecticut in the USA in the mid 1930’s. Funnily enough it was one of the companies that was not hit hard by the recession, which just goes to prove how crazy we model railroaders really are!

The American Flyer model train, the train that has become so popular started its life out as a clockwork model train. It then became later an electric train. At this point it was dramatically redesigned to fit its new power mode. Gilbert’s design for the new American Flyer was a huge hit. The American Flyer and the model trains build by A C Gilbert were built on the S-scale, how ever they ran on the O-gauge tracks which were standard at that time.

A decade or so later, A C Gilbert changed it up again. They designed and re designed it. They re designed the tracks for the S-scale model trains. Taking it away from the more traditional 3 track rails which were the ones used in the electric model trains of the day.

In general the three track rail back then would have two outer tracks for the wheels of the model train, and then the 3rd track in the middle would be the one carrying the current from the electricity to power the model trains motor.

The three track model was not very similar to the real thing how ever the two track rails were very similar and become very popular. The two track rails had a more realistic look to them and they made the layouts seem more real. This is because they were starting to look like real train tracks.

These tracks were developed for the smaller S-scale model trains and it allowed the model train tracks to have more realistic layouts with more curves and curves of different radius’s. This was much better to run the popular and newly re designed American Flyer on.

Most of the baby boomer S-scale fanatics would have had their first taste of that scale with the hugely popular American Flyer model train back in the 50’s. This was a very popular Christmas present. At this time, the American Flyer was also competing with another popular model train series, the Lionel model train. These two were the big dogs in the market at the time.

The S-scale model trains are still very popular including the American Flyer. They are rising in popularity with the younger generation. The Lionel company purchased the model train type from the people who purchased the American Flyer from A C Gilbert. The Lionel company was in very deep financial strife in the 60’s and 70’s and it went through many different sets of hands. The Lionel company still operates today, but its a totally different company from what it was.

There are still many different organizations out there today who cater to those who are interested int he S-scale model of trains. There is actually a national association called “The National Association Of S-Gaugers.”

They do have a very active membership with people ranging from all ages. If you Google them you will find their website. They have activities, a newsletter, events they hold and of course suppliers for S-model enthusiasts. They have associations in the US, UK and Australia and probably more but I could not find any. There are even some Yahoo Groups on the subject.

S-scale is still one of the fastest growing scales that is within the model train industry and it’s not going away any time soon. It’s actually growing quicker then any other scale. It works on such less space compared to that of the HO scale. S-scale products are reliable and they are still very accurate.

It might have been a checkered past for the S-scale model train, but it’s not going anywhere soon and its a good way to start with your model train hobby.

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Filed under: Software

When choosing a spot to hang out in cyberspace, no doubt most users will tell you Facebook is the social network of choice. Now boasting over 110 million users, people are flocking to Facebook in droves. Facebook is the only place where you can connect with old friends, colleagues, family members, and business associates. What better place to establish your yourself and your marketing brand than on this potent word of mouth network.

Before we discuss just how to market to the Facebook community, let’s look a little deeper at exactly what Facebook means to the internet and the people who use it. Do you know why a behemoth company like Google or Microsoft would fight tooth and nail for a place within Facebook’s lucrative online world?

Facebook has become a dominant social network in America and abroad. It’s brand extends as far as Europe, China, Australia, South America and other neighboring countries. Why else would Microsoft pay an amazing two hundred and forty million dollars for a small piece of this pie? Why else did Google and Yahoo! fight for their own chance at Facebook glory? These computer giants know Facebook is the next big thing.

The users who use Facebook do so and use it almost daily. It’s addictive to most and the numbers of new users are growing fast and furious. So as a marketer, you’re probably wondering how to cash in on in this new social web 2.0 phenomenon. You don’t have Bill Gates money to spend or the technical know how to develop a killer application . Believe it or not, you don’t have to do anything except run your business as you normally do, while a special automated system does all the work for you.

That system is called Facebook Friend Adder Elite. This software is an automated friend management tool that will hook you up with over a hundred million new potential customers. You’ll be marketing yourself to the biggest, hottest gathering in the virtual world as Facebook Friend Adder Elite automatically generates mass Facebook friend pokes, requests, wall messages and messages. No other place can you advertise and market to highly targeted leads on the fastest growing social network. With FaceBook Friend Adder Elite you can run your social network marketing efforts completely on autopilot. This automation tool is used widely my internet marketers and can help you grow your business and achieve success.

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Filed under: Marketing