The significant challenges that we face today cannot be resolved by the same level of thinking that created them.

Hi and welcome to KIT and the Home 4 Success channel.

Believe it or not, not everyone uses their computers for making a living online. There are many computer owners who are happy to just email family and friends or surf the net to see what's out there. Many of these users are not sophisticated enough or educated enough to know about the importance of anti-virus software, firewalls, spyware protection, etc.

You've heard it said that 'ignorance is bliss' but that so-called ignorance is risky not only for them but the people they send messages to. Gone are the days when you could send a message to someone indicating they had a virus on their computer. Too many email addresses are phoney or have been hijacked so the message won't go to the right party anyway.

Your best protection is to make sure you are protected with the latest anti-virus definitions and use a firewall as well as check your system for spyware on a regular basis.

Today's Feature, 5 Common Advertising Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid, comes to us from Bob LeDuc and offers some sage advice about why your advertising may not be working.

Our Special Feature is To End Procrastination, Do One Thing by Kathy Gates. We all procrastinate at one time or another and for different reasons. Procrastination can actually be paralyzing if we don't see it for what it is.

Have a great day and keep smiling.

Publisher, KIT and the Home4Success Channel
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These 5 common advertising mistakes cause you to lose sales. But you can easily avoid these mistakes once you become aware of them.

Many businesses reduce their advertising when they are getting plenty of sales. Then they increase their advertising when sales decline. This pattern of stop and go advertising creates a repeating cycle of high sales volume and low sales volume. It also prevents the business from growing.

Develop and follow a plan of regularly scheduled advertising regardless of your sales volume. Continuous advertising produces steady growth. It also reduces the time you have to spend on making advertising decisions.

Businesses often devote all of their advertising efforts to attracting new customers. But they devote little or no effort to cultivating these prospects for future sales.

Most prospective customers will not buy the first time they hear or see your sales message. But many will buy later if you follow up with them. Your follow up can be as simple as contacting them periodically with a new offer.

Tip: Customers are prospects too. Stay in contact with them. Find or develop other products or services you can offer them. It's easier to make a sale to a previous customer than to someone who never bought from you.

Businesses often copy their competitors advertising ideas. This can be effective for a short time. But results quickly decline as more and more competitors copy the same idea.

Instead of copying your competitors advertising ideas, improve on them. Create something better - something your competitors cannot copy.

For example, give your customers a reason to buy from you instead of from a competitor. This can be as simple as including a unique bonus only you can offer - or providing the personal attention your competitors are not willing or able to provide.

Many businesses get poor results from their advertising because they reach too many prospects with little or no interest in what they are selling. This usually happens because they quickly decided on the cheapest advertising instead of looking for highly targeted advertising ...which is often available for a similar low-cost.

Take some time to research and plan your advertising efforts. Look for ways you can reach concentrations of prospects likely to be interested in your product or service. Then target your message to appeal specifically to their interests and needs.

Tip: Look for alternative media your competition probably overlooked. For example, direct mail postcards are highly effective for generating traffic to a web site. But most online marketers aren't using them - yet. It's a low-cost way to bypass the heavy competition online.

Advertisers often promote facts about themselves or their products in their advertising. But facts don't sell. Benefits sell. For example, which of the following has more impact?

1. "We provide complete marketing services for starting a business of your own."
2. "No more time clock. Work when you want. Take long vacations."

The first focuses on the company and describes the service it provides. It's boring and unattractive. The second focuses on the benefit provided by that service. It attracts attention and creates excitement - and generates more sales.

These 5 common advertising mistakes cause you to lose sales How many are you making? Apply the information revealed in this article to avoid these mistakes - and maximize the results you get from your advertising efforts.

Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

Do what you want, as long as you're not interfering with anyone else's right to do the same - this is the definition of morality.

So many people are expecting a miracle instead of being a miracle.

Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash.
- Harriet Rubin

Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.
- Gail Sheehy

The three great essentials to achieving anything worthwhile are; first, hard work, second, stick-to-it-iveness, and third, common sense.
- Thomas Edison

To end procrastination, do one thing: Tell The Truth.

You (and me too!) procrastinate for a lot of different reasons.

1. A particular task might just not enter your interest zone, and therefore you haven’t put any effort in learning how to do it well.

2. A job or chore may seem overwhelming, and your imagination convinces you that it will take light-years to get a handle on it.

3. Maybe you really want to do a job well, but you just don’t have the tools and the know-how to do it.

4. Maybe you think it’s somebody else’s job and it’s unfair for you to have to do it.

5. It could even be as simple as that you let the Child in you take over and run your Adult life.

There are as many reasons for procrastination as there are people.

But the point of this particular discourse is this: It doesn’t matter what the reason is. There’s no “right vs. wrong” here.

Just tell the truth about what is stopping you. You are truly the only one who knows what the resistance is.

And maybe it’s not an answer that you’re very proud of (like you’re a bit of a slob and it really doesn’t bother you even though you think it should). Or maybe you rely on your “procrastination label” to give you what you think is a viable excuse for not choosing to do your best at life.

Or maybe it goes against everything you’ve ever been taught(like you don’t think you’re supposed to want to start your own business).

I repeat -- it doesn’t matter what the reason is. It just matters that you clearly, wholeheartedly, honestly identify it.

Only then can you start on taking responsibility -- not blame! -- for how it’s holding you back and -- equally important! -- how it affects others you care about.

And it does affect not only you, but those in your world, those you care about.

Are you ready to end procrastination in your life once and for all? Then simply Tell The Truth. Be comfortable with your decisions, your attitude, your actions. Then you won’t have to defend them.

You don’t have to share your answer. You don’t have to announce it to your spouse, or your mother-in-law, or your boss.

Just be honest with yourself about why you resist certain things, why you hold yourself back, why you fight against yourself, why you don’t do what you say you want to do.

Just Tell The Truth. Brutally Honest. Only then will you be ready to tackle it, quit hiding behind it, and use it to help you become what you want to be.

Kathy Gates is a Professional Life Coach in Scottsdale AZ. I help people deal with the stress of every day living in a more organized and efficient manner. Get more information at my website Real Life Coach, http://www.reallifecoach.com/ and sign up for the newsletter.

Have you ever had one of those windows that you cannot get it to Maximize or Minimize? Sometimes Web programmers splash an advertising screen onto your PC with no controls, and will use this technique so that you can't get their junk off your screen. For some bizarre reason they think this is a good thing.

To get rid of the work of this miscreant, click anywhere in the misbehaving window and hit Alt + Spacebar. On the resulting menu, you can choose Close and kill the window.

With thanks to Bob Osgoodby - Tip of the Day

Our intelligent and empowering approach to e-mail security means you get maximum choice, convenience, minimum disruption and intelligent e-mail management, with the confidence of full technical support.

MailWasher Pro is the ultimate solution to getting rid of spam and unwanted e-mail. It's easy to use and very effective.

Legal Stuff ...

We accept no responsibility whatsoever for the content, profitability or legality of any published articles or advertisements contained within KIT.

And, although all of the articles have been selected for their content, the publishing of such articles within this newsletter does NOT constitute a recommendation of the products or services mentioned or advertised within those articles.

Be responsible! Always do your own Due Diligence before responding to any offer.