The Jeffrey And Tracey Info Emporium

All stainless steel burners are not created equal. When comparing burner systems, there are a few key points to look for. Most manufacturers use stainless steel sheet metal to make their burner systems. The downside of sheet metal burners is that they are prone to a process called burn-through. The manufacturer’s warranty covers sheet metal burners against rust-through, but does not cover against burn-through. To combat burn-through, select manufacturers use CAST stainless steel burners. The warranty on these burners does cover burn-through as well as rust-through, twisting, warping and any other problems.

Compared side by side it is plain to see by our photos at Gas Grills Now, that where a sheet metal burner is not as thick as a U.S. quarter, a cast stainless steel burner is a full ¼ INCH thick. Along with being thicker, note the placement of the burner ports on the side of the burner. On the sheet metal burners, the ports are exposed to grease drippings, and food particles, which can clog the ports and speed up the burn-through process. The cast burner is designed with a protective ridge, so that drippings cannot contact the ports.

There are several choices offered to the consumer: Cast stainless steel, Tube stainless steel, Sheet stainless steel, porcelain, cast iron and chrome burners.

* Stainless Steel: Sheet Metal burners are the least expensive. They are mainly used on grills under $800. A tube burner is better than sheet metal, but is still very thin compared to cast. The tube burner is a great place for high end grill manufactures to cut costs. They are not even as thick as a quarter. As far as I know, all tube burners do not cover burn through.

Cast Stainless Steel is the best. Look at the burner pictures and you will see that the cast is 1/4 inch thick.

Warranty covers burn through!

* Cast Iron: Cast-iron conducts heat better which makes it the preferred cooking surface for many cooks. To protect against the natural rusting process, cast-iron cooking grids have a porcelain finish which requires special maintenance.

* Porcelain: Porcelain enamel is essentially a highly durable glass which, with coloring oxides and other inorganic materials, is fused to metal at extremely high temperatures. Most grids are made of steel rods; some are coated with porcelain to make them rust resistant and easier to clean.

* Chrome: Chromium is a silver-gray, lustrous, brittle, hard metal that can be highly polished. It does Not tarnish in air, but burns when heated, forming the green chromic oxide. It is used in plating other metals because of its hardness and non-tarnishing properties. In alloys with other metals it contributes hardness, strength, and heat resistance. This is quicker to burn through. It takes about 1 to 2 years.

Harold Wagner has over 15 years experience in the barbecue grill industry and regularly attends the annual HPBA shows to keep current with the latest developments. Gas Grills Now is a member of the Hearth Patio Barbeque Association and has been in business since 1981 with an internet presence since 1997. For more information call toll free 1-877-669-4669.

According to a study by the Winterberry Group, email marketing brings in $15.50 per dollar spent. This is about 17% more than direct-mail campaigns and 73% more than telemarketing campaigns. In short, email marketing matters and if you’re not sending out at least monthly email newsletters to your subscriber base, you should be. The true cost comes from acquiring the prospects and clients, not the three or four hours needed to create a monthly newsletter.

Many organizations, once they have spent the thousands of dollars acquiring their clients, fail to market to their existing base. I’ve met quite a few marketing managers who would rather continue spending $200 a pop for new qualified prospects rather than $0.01 per person to build the relationship with their existing clients and recommend new products or encourage re-orders. I’ve found that sending relevant email communications to persons who have requested to receive them is the single most effective way of cultivating the type of relationship needed to turn your prospects into customers and your customers into lifetime product evangelizers.

As a reader of this article, chance has it that your organization is one that already sends out a newsletter, or at least is considering doing so soon. Once you began sending your own newsletter, however, it is important to follow two important rules that will increase your likelihood of achieving your marketing goals, whether they are to increase repeat orders, convert a higher ratio of prospects, or obtain top-of-mind brand awareness.

The first and most important rule is to only send relevant content to persons who have requested it. What does this mean? Well, let’s say you are a travel and adventure planning company. If someone has subscribed to your Kayaking Monthly Newsletter, don’t move them over to your European Vacations list and send them an article on Dining in Tuscany. In most cases, you will very quickly lose any prospect or reduce the lifetime value of your relationship with an existing client. If the person also subscribed to it, it would be okay to send him or her a monthly company newsletter that from time to time had information on other topics, but don’t mix newsletter bases just to increase mailing volumes.

It is important to note that just setting up an interest segment and adding it to your sign up form doesn’t require you to create a monthly newsletter on that topic, but once you get a few dozen to a couple hundred people interested in that area (depending the value of the product or service you are providing), it will likely pay to have quality content developed on that topic for distribution in interest specific newsletters. This can be easily done within the IntelliContact Pro email marketing software by either creating a list specifically for persons interested in a topic or creating a segment of persons with a specific interest.

The second rule is to be consistent with your sending frequency. Depending on your type of business and your subscriber interest level, the right volume for you could be weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Once you find the frequency that is right for your organization (and this could vary newsletter to newsletter), stick with it. We see a lot of companies whose email strategy can only be defined as “ad hoc.” Rather than blasting out a promotion whenever sales are lagging, we recommend having an emailing schedule for each newsletter and sticking to it, whether it be every Saturday, every other Wednesday, or on the 15th of each month. As an example our company newsletter, the Permission-Based Email Marketing Monthly goes out on the 28th of each month.

What type of results can you expect from regularly sending out regular email newsletters? Here are two examples from users of IntelliContact Pro the email marketing software my company Broadwick provides. Biotage is a company based on Massachusetts that provides DNA sequencing instrumentation. They send out event notifications and company updates to 20,000 or so subscribers each month. David Shultis, Marketing Communications Manager of Biotage, notes, “We’ve seen open rates at around the 38-42% mark for our large mailings. There has also been a ‘pass-along’ quality of our emails, as we’ve noticed new names that were not originally on our mailing lists responding to offers.” Another IntelliContact Pro user, Julie Ibrahim, Vice President of the Tiger Sports Shop says “The monthly newsletter keeps us and our inn at the forefront in the minds of our past and potential guests. Thus with the continuous news from us and our region, we are kept in mind, with no sales effort or pressure.” If your organization wants to see marketing results like these, it may be time to start or expand your usage of permission-based email marketing.

If you stick with sending relevant, high quality content-rich emails on a consistent basis to persons who have requested to receive your emails, you will increase your prospect to customer conversion rates and customer lifetime value at a fraction of the of the cost of traditional methods and take advantage of the best type of marketing possible—free marketing through authentic customer word-of-month.

Ryan Allis is an internationally recognized expert on email marketing. Ryan is the CEO of Broadwick Corp, providers of the email marketing software IntelliContact Pro. For additional information on email marketing software, visit http://www.email-marketing-software-resource.com.

If you really want to generate highly targeted traffic to your web site, you’ll have to give proper concentration to the website promotion approaches shown in this article.

The solution to victorious web site promotion is steadiness. Day by day, week by week, month by month you should be doing some stuff to let your clients be familiar with your website that your website offering a perfect resolution to their troubles.

What is website promotion? : - Website promotion is the big concept. Promoting website means you are boosting your website to come up in the search engine results for the specific keywords of your business.

For Example: -
• Suppose you are dealing in computer hardware parts like CD ROM, Mouse, etc.
• And if any user is searching for a product called CD ROM and he wants the cheapest price in that.
• Then he will go to any popular Search Engine suppose he went to “GOOGLE.COM” and typed “Cheapest CD ROM”
• When result comes you want your website should be listed in TOP 20 Search results.
• And to get TOP listed in Search engine is called website promotion or website marketing.

So that was a short introduction regarding website marketing OR website promotion whatever you say.

The followings are the Stages in the process of website marketing OR website promotion.
 Choosing Keyword(s), don’t rush to get your website up in Search Engine for very popular keyword, as it will take very long time. Start with low competitive keywords.
 Unique Content Writing. As nowadays content is king for any website that is to be promoted. In other word your content must not be copied from other website. It should be well written and should be written by keeping your client in your mind.

 On page Search Engine Optimization Factor (i.e. Concentrate on title tag of every page, use proper Meta Description tag, and use h1 and h2 tags wherever possible, website map is must must must…)
 Making your each web pages Search Engine Friendly (it is strongly recommended that you use .html static URL for your website, not any dynamic link page.php?=1&sid=9347c91c64e06fa275a8b1a61987c1a3 )
 Optimizing your website for Search Engine i.e. Search Engine Optimization
 Link Building / Link Popularity
 PPC i.e. Pay per Click search engines are very popular nowadays and they can fetch embattled traffic to your website and they are giving instant traffic to your website. Google Ad Words is very popular pay per click search engine in today’s market.

Well if you do not have that much time to promote your website or you want your website to be promoted by any professional then we have awesome website promotion packages for you. You can choose any program(s) from below.

Check out below…

Chintan Soni is a Search Engine Professional / Consultant Check out some more Web Promotion stuff at Search Engine Optimization Guide http://www.1moneymania.com/promote-website.asp

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Love Sells By Dan Reinhold

It’s true, you know.

Love DOES sell.

And I DON’T mean it as a synonym for that three-letter word you
usually hear…

I mean love in the greatest possible sense.

Or as psychologists like to call it, “unconditional positive
regard”. No kidding.

Funny thing about all this relationship building stuff going
on…if you’re not genuinely sincere about it, it comes through.

EVEN online.

Think about that person you’ve just met (or just introduced
themselves to you) as a sale, you may very quickly lose a
potential friend/mentor/confidant/collaborator.

And a whoooollllleeee bunch of sales.

It’s a pretty simple formula: I help you, you help me -or I help
you WHILE you help me.

WCIDFY (What can I do for you?) rules, WIIFM (you know that one)
drools.

What goes around, comes around, stuff like that…people
actually do remember the good you do for them, more often than
not.

On the other hand, they never forget the UNgood you do, for
sure…

You give of yourself up front, the rest’ll take care of itself
somehow.

When you HELP others, they’ll THINK well of you…and when it
counts too.

It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the right way to
develop your business.

There’s good reasons why www.WAHumor.com ’s motto is displayed
on our forum for all to see:

Live, Laugh, Love And Lend A Helping Hand.

Good reasons for everybody.

With two boys, a dog, a cat, a wife and a household to keep
together to boot, Dan Reinhold is the editor of WAHumor to hang
on to his sanity by showing how insane the work-at-home
community can be. Work at home? You deserve a laugh!

Subscribe at WAHumor-subscribe@topica.com Who knows…you may
Win Big! The Book…is coming!!

As intelligent human beings, we know and understand that we can not live forever, we are not strangers to suffering and death, however as long as we are healthy, we do not think of the inevitability of our own death, and even if we do, we prefer to believe that it will not happen until our dotage. After all, there are so many things we want to do in our lives and we have many plans for the future.

There is nothing that can prepare us for the shock and devastation of a terminal diagnosis and the knowledge that we can no longer take our lives, or the life we share with our loved ones for granted. Terminal diagnosis usually comes with a prognosis (Estimated time of survival) and this intensifies our turmoil. It is one thing to accept that your life is limited it is another to be given a time in which it is expected to end.

Once given a prognosis, it is impossible not to begin counting down the days remaining. Furthermore, the beginning of each new month is seen as bringing you ever closer to the expected time of demise, causing feelings of fear and dread. This has a huge impact on the quality of day-to-day life.

The irony is, that prognosis is only an estimate of other people’s experiences and as such is often incorrect. No one can accurately predict how long a person may survive-because every one of us is unique. Each terminal patient though on the same journey, may not travel at the same speed, take the same turns in the road, or reach the end of the road at the same time as those who have traveled before them. We may lose our fight for life at some time prior to prognosis or we may live far longer than predicted. Why point the bone? I sincerely believe that many patients die at or around the time of prediction simply because they were told to.

My husband, upon his terminal cancer diagnosis was given a prognosis of three to nine months, we wondered if he would be granted 90 days, 270 days, or somewhere in between. With no idea of how or when he would die, we feared that he might die at any time.

When after nine months my husband was still very much alive, he said to me, “Well, I have proven them wrong, I am still alive and feel much better now that I have surpassed their prognosis.” The change in him was remarkable; without an expected time of demise hanging over his head, there was no dread and he was able to accept and enjoy each day as it came. He survived for two years, during which he remained active and alert, drove his car for eighteen months and continued to go fishing which was the passion of his life.

Many people may wish to be given a prognosis so that they can put their affairs in order but I suspect there are many who do not. I believe that unless a prognosis is requested, it should not be given. Life, no matter what its duration, is precious, each day should be enjoyed for the gift that it is and every tomorrow should be anticipated.

Article written by: Lorraine Kember – Author of “Lean on Me” Cancer through a Carer’s Eyes. Lorraine’s book is written from her experience of caring for her dying husband in the hope of helping others. It includes insight and discussion on: Anticipatory Grief, Understanding and identifying pain, Pain Management and Symptom Control, Chemotherapy, Palliative Care, Quality of Life and Dying at home. It also features excerpts and poems from her personal diary. Highly recommended by the Cancer Council. “Lean on Me” is not available in bookstores - For detailed information, Doctor’s recommendations, Reviews, Book Excerpts and Ordering Facility - visit her website http://www.cancerthroughacarerseyes.jkwh.com

GOALS SHOULD BE QUANTIFIABLE: It should be possible to analyze every goal in terms of specific quantifiable objectives. Naturally, for certain tasks, measurement of objectives will be more difficult to attain; the key is to make every effort to reduce each goal to its most quantifiable form. For example, a customer service department might have the following general goals: 1. To increase output on customer acknowledgments. 2. To boost the number of customer telephone inquiries that are handled. 3. To distribute mail in a timely manner. As described, the above goals are completely immeasurable. It is almost certain that the manager’s expectations will not be met. The solution: Quantify these goals in a realistic, feasible fashion that will also insure departmental productivity: 1. To type 10 customer acknowledgment letters per hour. 2. Handle a minimum of 15 telephone customer inquiries per each two hour shift. 3. Open, sort, and distribute all mail for the third floor before 10 a.m. each working day.

GOALS MUST BE SET IN A PROPER CLIMATE: A conducive climate (where the employees do not feel threatened and are encouraged to ask for clarification) provides the possibility of two-way feedback. Such a setting insures that a transmitted goal or objective will leave no room for doubt as to what is required. Consider this example: the department head of inventory-control specialists who approaches all the specialists at once. She presents a department goal and in front of all the specialists, identifies how each will participate in the goal. Unless this is followed up with individual meetings with each specialist to discuss his or her role, it is likely that none of the specialists will approach the department head for any sort of discussion and, consequently, the goal will never reach fruition.

AVOID THE VAGUE AND AMBIGUOUS: Objective: “To increase the output of sales training programs for international personnel.” To almost any listener, some or all of the following questions may come to mind in response to this goal. “What does output mean?” If there is no room for measurement, how will we know when the goal is met? What is the time period involved? In addition, there is the vagueness of the term “international personnel.” Does it mean all personnel now based overseas, or could it include home office people based in the United States who are responsible for overseas operations? Ambiguous wording leads to such confusion, jeopardizing the success of what might be an otherwise reasonable, attainable goal.

Copyright AE Schwartz & Associates All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: ReadySetPresent and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: TrainingConsortium

CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.

1. Give people a free subscription to your e-zine.
Almost everyone is publishing a e-zine nowadays
so it’s important to give something extra with the
free subscription. You could offer a free gift or
advertising when people subscribe.

2. Provide your visitors with free content. Your
content will be more attractive to your visitors if
it’s up-to-date or original. You could also offer
people the option to reprint the content in their
e-zine or web site.

3. Offer a free online directory. The directory
could be full of interesting ebooks, e-zines, web
sites etc. If people find your directory to be a
valuable resource they will visit it over and over.

4. Give your visitors a free ebook. You could
also include your own ad in the ebook and allow
other people to give it away. If you don’t want to
take the time to write one, you could ask other
writers permission to use their articles.

5. Hold free online classes or seminars. They
could be held in your web site’s chat room. The
idea of “live” information will definitely entice
people to visit your web site. You will become
known as an expert on the topic.

6. Give visitors a free entry into your contest or
sweepstakes. The prizes should be something of
interest or value to your visitors. Most people
who enter will continually revisit your web site to
get the results.

7. Let visitors download free software. It could
be freeware, shareware, demos etc. You could
even turn part of your site into a free software
directory. If you created the software, include
your ad inside and let other people give it away.

8. Offer free online services or utilities from your
web site. They could be search engine submitting,
copy writing proofreading etc. The service or
utility should be helpful to your target audience.

9. Give free consulting to people who visit your
web site. You could offer your knowledge via
e-mail or by telephone. People will consider this
a huge value because consulting fees can be very
expensive.

10. Give your visitors a free membership to your
online club. People want to belong to something,
why not your online club. You could also give
away a free e-zine for club members only.
—-

Debbie Gragg is co-owner of www.homebizprofits.com as well as other unique niche websites.

Put on On-line Parties, Auctions, Sales Meetings, Classes, with your very own conference rooms. This is the hottest thing happening on-line. Check Out Hot Conference and get a 30 day trial for only 1.00
www.homebizprofits.com/hc.html

When you factor in all the costs related to promoting via an Opt-In Email or Ezine campaign you are still getting the best return on your advertising dollar investment than using RSS, Blogs or PPC. The measurable results are significantly faster than RSS and Blogs and less expensive than using Pay Per Click marketing. Without a doubt, Email and Newsletter advertising campaigns are still two of the best tools available to promote your product or service.

Email Marketing Campaigns
There are a great many people that are still reluctant to use what is one of the best marketing tools available today. Many marketers associate email marketing with spam and have concerns about being shut down by their ISP or hosting company. The fact is, done right and by following specific guidelines you have little to fear. Follow the guidelines outlined below and you will probably kick yourself for not using this tool a lot sooner.

1) CAN-SPAM COMPLIANT: Just about everyone receives hundreds of spam-related emails per week and that is the main reason a lot of legitimate businesses balk at using email marketing. But if you are a legitimate business you only need to do a few things to make your email marketing efforts legal.
(a) Subject Line: It should not be misleading in any way. It should relate to the body of the message and it is a very good practice that the first paragraph relate to the subject line.
(b) Specific Opt-Out Instructions: You must include a way for the reader to opt-out by supplying a link that works.
(c) Physical Address: If you work out of an office this is the address that should appear after your signature. If you work out of the home your home address should appear after the signature.
(d) From Address: Messages should be from the same “from address”

2) USE OPT-IN EMAIL ADDRESSES ONLY: This is very important. Use only Opt-In email addresses for your marketing efforts. There are many legitimate email suppliers so you have a lot of options. And even using 100% Opt-In Email Addresses does not guarantee that you won’t have a few people complaining. But if you purchase addresses that include the full name, IP and date stamp you have proof of the opt-in just in case it is needed.

Additional Tips For a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

1) USE EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE: We like Broadc@st HTML Bulk Email Software (http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/mailwork/b.asp?id=1979) and GroupMail 5 (http://www.infacta.com/asp/common/groupmail.asp). Some of the suppliers listed below provide free email marketing software.

2) USE SPAM FILTER SOFTWARE: Don’t let this software intimidate you. The software is easy to setup and use. It is a good idea to use spam filter software to filter out words or phrases that tend to get flagged by ISP spam filters. Some of the suppliers listed below provide free spam filtering software.

3) USE AUTORESPONDERS: Using an autoresponder will save you a lot of time and work. You can preload messages and assign specific criteria to when they should be sent. Some of the suppliers listed below provide free autoresponder software.

4) TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY ONLY: For best results send your email campaign from Tuesday to Thursday. These are the days that will obtain the most attention to your message. Monday is usually bad because people are planning their work-week and getting tasks out of the way quickly. Fridays are bad because most people are already planning their weekends.

5) COME TO THE POINT IMMEDIATELY: Don’t write a book. Try to be as brief as possible and outline your key points in the first paragraph. If you word it right the reader will read on.

Here is a short list of companies that supply 100% Opt-In Email Addresses.

Email Leads For Less
http://www.email-leads-for-less.com/Hot_100_Opt-In_Email_Leads.htm

EmailResults.com
http://www.emailresults.com/default.asp

Exact Sales Leads
http://www.exactsalesleads.com/

Expedite Media Group’s Email Marketing Services
http://www.expedite-email-marketing.com/index.htm

GetResponse Power Leads
http://www.getresponse.com/leads_offer.html

Lifeline Leads
http://www.lifelineleads.com/default.php

OptInDataSite.Com
http://www.optindatasite.com/

PermissionDIRECT
http://www.permissiondirect.com/index.asp

Prospects Influential
http://www.prospectsinfluential.com/

Red Clay Media
http://www.redclaymedia.com/

Salesleads.tv
http://www.salesleads.tv/index.html

SimplerLeads.com
http://www.simplerleads.com/

TheListGuy.com
http://www.thelistguy.com/index.html

Tip Top Leads
http://www.tiptopleads.com

VentureDirect List Services Group
http://www.venturedirect.com/html/lsg-about.htm

Please take note that the information contained in this article was up to date at the time of writing and is subject to change at any time. Additionally, it is not the authors intent to recommend or guarantee products or services of the companies listed. We believe that they are all legitimate and provide good products and services but readers are always encouraged to do ‘due diligence’ prior to making a purchase.

Drew Michael is a webmaster and marketer. He is the owner of The Business Junction at www.thebusinessjunction.com, a major software and entrepreneur directory. For a free subscription to The Business Junction Newsletter and free software downloads subscribe at: thebusinessjunction.com/Newsletter_Subscribers_SignUp_Page.htm

You may reprint this article so long as this resource box is left intact and ALL LINKS REMAIN ACTIVE! Please send an email to: newsletter[at]thebusinessjunction.com and a copy of your newsletter containing this article would be appreciated.

Quite often, we use labels on ourselves and others without even realizing that we are doing it. And most often, they are negative. What we don’t realize is how much theses labels can hurt us and others.

The challenge is, what ever you state to yourself repetitively, even if you know on a conscious level that it is not true, your subconscious mind believes it.

For example, after misplacing something, have you ever said to your self, “I am so stupid.” You know that you are just annoyed but your subconscious takes you seriously.

Once your subconscious mind believes something, it sets out to confirm it’s belief and it can self sabotage your efforts to change and grow.

In fact, you may be holding several labels on yourself that you are not even aware of because you have been saying and believing them for so long. They may be about how well you believe you can learn, cook, drive or even show up on time.

These labels literately control your life and stop you from moving forward.

In addition, when we use labels on other people, just as in judging, we start to see only the label. Labels are stagnating and do not allow the other person to grow.

People will look for information that confirms the label that has been placed on a person. They will speak to the person according to their label, and don’t hear anything beyond it.

People will literately ignore anything that isn’t inline with their belief about the other person and the label they put on them.

For example, if you believed that a person was clumsy and always stated that they were clumsy, you would ignore all the times that they walked or did anything with grace and ease.

Then if anything happened that even remotely looked clumsy you then would say, “see, what did I tell you, you’re always so clumsy.”

This can make the person very nervous in front of you and the more the person worries the more likely it is for something to happen. It then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I have seen some men do this to women, when they believe that all women are too emotional. The woman could go for months and not be upset with anything then something happens, he will go, “see, what did I tell you, women always get upset.” All along ‘forgetting’ when they, themselves were upset.

Sometimes these men will even provoke the other person, by saying to them repeatedly, now don’t get upset. This is treating the other person is a way that you believe they will react which in turn creates the very behaviour that you were hoping to avoid in the first place.

People see and hear what they want to believe. And compounding that is, what you see and hear is filtered through your bias. So in the end you receive only a partial message that leaves out anything that contradicts your beliefs.

Sometimes people hold back information from the other person in the hopes confusing them to keep their belief alive about the other person’s abilities. This creates the behaviour that the other person wants to prove.

Labeling can also leads to criticism, bigotry and hatred. Especially when small children are listening to us. They are learning how to act in society and repeat what they hear, which in turn affects how their future will turn out.

Some labels are:
• Black
• White
• Slow
• Stupid
• ADHD
• Trouble maker
• Bureaucrats
• Hothead
• Short
• Tall
• Smart
• Good / bad
• Right / wrong

Even positive labels can hurt and annoy. There are people who have said that they are tired of always hearing that they are the cute, good, smart one etc. It stifles who they are and their potential to grow if they believe they must stay with in the label.

Ask yourself, what labels you use on yourself and others. Start noting how often you say them and ask yourself, do you believe they are true. Then start replacing them with sayings that are more productive in growing to your own potential.

While you are doing that, contemplate on this quote.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. –Carl Jung

Maria Boomhower is known as The Master Communicator. She has won awards for excellence in her field. Her background includes supervision, training, video productions, photo journalism and running sub-press centres. Maria also spent several years studying metaphysics and quantum theories, which enabled her to bring in the human aspects of communication and perceptions to assist people in overcoming their barriers. You can find out more at:Communication Mastery And check out her ebooks and workshops.

Get More Marks (Without Knowing Any More!)

Intermediate GCSE Mathematics examines grades E, D, C and B.
Each grade is worth 25% of the marks on the exam paper. Each
Intermediate Maths GCSE exam paper starts off with the easier
grade E questions and finishes with the harder grade B
questions. Approximately 55% is needed for grade C, and
approximately 75% for grade B, (these percentages vary from year
to year according to the difficulty of the exam). Many students
who revise thoroughly, forget to spend time on the easiest way
to gain and lose marks in the exam. Candidates need to be aware
of these 9 very simple steps as both a source of very easy
marks, and as a way to prevent losing marks needlessly.

1. Show All Stages in Any Calculations

This is the advice given to candidates on the front of the
Intermediate GCSE Maths exam paper. This is also the number one
cause of losing marks. For some reason, many candidates (and it
is more often boys), believe that everything they do will be
perfect and mistake free, so why bother using up precious energy
writing needlessly, when they can work out the answer faster
their own way? Unfortunately, this is also the fastest way of
losing marks.

Let us consider a two mark question where you have to work out
the length of a model car. The student works out in their head,
or on their calculator, that the length is 0.45 m and writes
this answer down. Unfortunately the student will get no marks at
all for this if the question stated that the answer should be
given in centimetres. The two mark question is made up of
1 method mark for the method used, and 1 accuracy mark for the
correct answer. The student will therefore not get the accuracy
mark for the correct answer, nor the method mark as no working
out has been shown. So although they can undoubtedly do the
question and would have got one mark if they had shown their
working out, they ended up with no marks at all. Instead of
staying on target for a grade C by getting one mark out of two,
they have fallen behind on an easy question. The exam is as much
about how to prevent losing marks, as it is about gaining them.

2. Give the Final Answer as Asked For in the Question

The exam question will often state the level of accuracy needed
for the final answer. For example to give your answer correct to
1 decimal place, or to 1 significant figure. If you do not give
your answer in the form asked for in the question, you will
not get the final accuracy mark (1 mark). In algebra or
ratio questions, it often states to give your answer in its
simplest form. Altogether on the average Intermediate
GCSE Maths exam paper, around 10% (ten percent!) of all
the marks are for giving your answer in the form asked for in
the question. Once you start spotting this and making sure that
all your answers are in the correct form that has been asked
for, you will stop throwing away lots of marks.

3. Use the Marks Given to Help You

There is a significant difference between a 1 mark question, and
a 4 mark question. If for example you are doing a 3 mark
question in 1 line, then beware, as you have either not shown
all your working out (and will lose marks), or you have not
spotted correctly what to do, so look at the question again. As
a rough guide aim to do one more line of working than the number
of marks in the question:

2 mark question: 3 lines of working out

3 mark question: 4 lines of working out

This will ensure that you show all the steps needed to get full
method marks.

4. Don’t Cramp your Working Out

As candidates write on the Intermediate GCSE Maths exam paper
itself, sufficient space is not always provided. Don’t be
tempted to squash your work into a small space - ask for extra
paper. If you are squashing your work in, then it is very common
for candidates to leave some steps out - these steps are
frequently the method steps that the examiner needs to see to
get the method marks!

5. Watch out for Mixed Units

Quite often different units are used to measure quantities in
the same question, for example:

cm and mm

m and cm

km and m

The golden rule is to always work with just one unit throughout,
either all centimetres or all metres or all kilometres. Change
any different measures at the start of doing the question
to the same unit.

6. Beware the Calculator Paper!

The GCSE Mathematics exam consists of a Calculator exam paper
and a Non-Calculator exam paper. GCSE Mathematics is the hardest
GCSE exam to get the grade you need, and far from making the
exam easier, using a calculator often results in more mistakes
and a lower mark than in the non-calculator paper. It is even
more important to show all your working out on the Calculator
paper as it is very easy to do two or three lines on your
calculator without showing any working out. You would lose all
your method marks, and if you have made a mistake you won’t get
any marks at all. As the exam paper consists of more method
marks than accuracy marks it is essential that you show all your
working out.

7. Not being in DEG Mode

Make sure that your calculator is always in DEG (degrees) mode,
otherwise you will never get Trigonometry questions correct!

8. Don’t Measure Diagrams

If it states “diagram not accurately drawn” then do not bother
measuring the diagram, it will not help you, and it will waste
time. “Diagram not accurately drawn” means you have to find a
calculating method (not measuring method) to get the answer.

9. Write Down Measuring Units

Remember to write down the units you are using e.g. cm, m, km if
they are not given at the end of the question. If you forget,
you will lose 1 very easy mark. (It is very easily forgotten
though!).

Conclusion

If you practise and remember these 9 simple steps, it is
possible to prevent losing up to 10% of your exam marks
needlessly. Good examination technique should be practised as
part of Intermediate GCSE Maths exam preparation, and when
revising the most essential GCSE exam questions and GCSE Maths
exam topics.