Schreiner's Blog

Does your direct mail piece scream “bulk”? Many letters do, and because of it, a lot of first class mail gets thrown in the trash without the prospect even opening up your letter. adult open chat This is something that is frustrating, especially when you consider the cost and effort that you put into creating your marketing piece. adult singles chat

There are even instances where the mailman will choose not to deliver mail that they perceive as bulk. So some of your glossy looking, high class letters won’t even get to see the light of day to your prospects – because the mail man is throwing them away. So you need a way to get your letters delivered, and opened when it reaches into the hands of your prospect.

In this article, we will take a look at some of the things that you can do to get your letter delivered, opened, and responded to. These techniques will far surpass anything you have done before and they are sure to work for you – no matter what industry you’re in. Here’s the first direct mail tip for getting your letters delivered on opened.

1) Mail a plain envelope

With this strategy, all you’re doing is mailing out your package in a #10 plain white envelope to your prospects. In the “from” field at the top left of the envelope, only include your mailing address, with no name. This will stir curiosity in the minds of your prospects, causing them to open them.

On your letter, you have 2 options: You can either handwrite the prospect’s address and your return address with a pen (preferably blue ink), or you can type up the prospect’s address and your return address in a program such as Microsoft Word. Print it out, include the contents of the envelope, and then mail it off. Here’s another thing that you can do:

2) Use a real-life stamp

A stamp is the mark of a friend. Whenever a prospect sees a stamp on an envelope, they think it’s important and they think it’s something that is worthy of being opened. They also think it’s from someone that they know – which will further enhance the probabilities of getting your letter opened and read.

All of this is the power of a stamp. The cost of the stamp is steadily rising, but when compared to how much money you could make in comparison to the entire direct mail campaign… it’s something that is totally insignificant. Your profits will be large, and you will be able to roll out with another direct mail campaign right after the first one is complete.

Both of these ideas will help you to gain the advantage over your competition. They’re probably running direct mail campaigns with labels instead of stamps, clear windows, and other ineffective direct mail marketing strategies. So they won’t be something that you should worry about in your business.

Use these tips to earn the money with direct mail marketing that you desire now.

Good luck with using these sales and profits to your advantage today.

A good video says a lot. It connects effectively with its audience and ideally projects the characters in it, little wonder why it is expensive to make one. Video making is becoming more affordable these days, thanks to technology. There are great devices out there now that produce quality pictures for very affordable costs, so you can have quality pictures and still save money.

It does not matter if you are new to handling video making equipment, you can still get great pictures at far less expensive rates. High definition cameras are usually equipped with a variety of great features. The auto switch will help new comers achieve wonderful video shoots if used. This improves the shoot by automatically adjusting light settings to ease the shoot process for the newbie which also produces a relatively high video footage at the end of the day.

These are the happy days for starters to video production. You do not have to empty your pocket to make good quality home videos. Wall papers, color frames and other video making materials are now easily acquired in stores at very affordable rates.

A great home video has two main stages during its production. We have the pre-production and the post-production stages. The pre-production stage involves location sets, camera handling and accessories while the post-production stage fine tunes the recorded material and is mostly done in a video editing studio.

For the best finalized video piece, it is important that you score 100% in stage one which is the pre production stage. Having a very close-to-final projection of the final video at the “pre” stage will make enhancements done at the “post” stage come out wonderfully well. Little wonder why it is so necessary and advised by experts to get your pre-production right. The world will only think of you as to what you offer, so make sure your pre-production and post-production stages are done to the best points.

You can use the services of professionals if you become unsure of the steps to take during both stages. It is important that you know that professionals charge a fee and depending on your relationship with that professional, you may get a discount. What is most important is having a great video at the end of your project. High quality music videos or home videos may seem expensive and difficult to achieve but the good news is you can get your desired high quality video by creatively applying the tips in this writeup.

In order to play the guitar well, you must first learn about the instrument and its structure. All beginners ask, “What is a guitar action?” Read on to learn the precise definition of the term. Find out why action is incredibly important for playing the instrument beautifully and enjoying yourself.

Guitar action is the distance between the fretboard and the strings. Basically, it determines the height of the strings. They can be high or low. Setting the action correctly will determine how you play the instrument. The height determines how easy it will be to produce notes by applying pressure on the strings with your fingertips.

Low guitar action is said to give you more playability. Put simply, it will be easier for you to apply pressure on the strings with your fingertips since lower pressure is needed to produce sound. As a result, you will be playing the instrument for longer and hopefully with greater accuracy.

So far, it seems easy to set the guitar action. It just has to be low. But how low should it be actually? This is for the guitarist to decide. You just need to be careful not to set it too low as this will affect the performance of the instrument adversely irrespective of your skill to play it.

If the action is set too low, the vibrating strings may touch the fretboard and the frets. This will create a specific buzzing noise which can be particularly annoying and will certainly affect the performance negatively. The so called fret buzz is easy to recognize especially by an experienced guitarists. Thankfully, the problem can be easily fixed just by resetting the action.

What happens if you set the guitar action too high? In this case, the strings will be overly tight. This will naturally make them harder and more difficult to press. This may affect the performance of the guitarist adversely as well. As it will be more difficult for you to press the strings, you will be at higher risk of making mistakes. What is even worse is that you can easily hurt your fingertips. They may even bleed. This will certainly keep you away from the instrument at least for a couple of days.

Setting the guitar action correctly is crucial. You definitely need professional guidance and advice in order to do it correctly. You will certainly benefit from precise instructions for your particular instrument.

How to have happy friends? This is a very important question. Who likes friends who don’t smile and laugh? Who enjoys meeting friends who look serious? Not any of us.

What about ourselves? Do we make happy friendships? Do we make our friends happy? before thinking about others, wouldn’t it be better if we first analyze our own self? Do we smile often when we are with our friends? Do we laugh at the smallest joke? Or we have a serious expression on our face all the time with our friends? Let us first think about our own behavior and correct whatever we can.

Making happy friendships -

Make yourself look happy with your friends and your friends will reflect. That is the secret of happy friendship. Our emotions are reflected in our body language. The reverse is equally true. Does this help us? it does. it can change our state of mind by changing our physical state. For example, if you are feeling bored, try to look cheerful and you will start becoming cheerful. It is strange, but it works. If you are feeling sad, try to look happy. You will find the sadness going away. Isn’t it great?

How do we talk with friends -

Happiness also depends on what do we talk with our friends. Are we always talking of our own life or do we also listen to them. Listening is the best way to make friends happy. Listen and do it carefully. No pretensions. Your friends will be happy that someone heard them out without interruption. You will also be making your friendship stronger. Listening is very good. by listening, we make the other person feel important. we also make him/her feel happy and relieved. By talking things out, one feels relieved. Isn’t it?

Give and you shall receive. the third law of Newton. Apply this law in your life and make happy friends. You can make them happy right now by telling them about how much you appreciate their friendship. listening to your friends, keeping happy state of mind in their company and appreciating the friendship will make happy friends. Make your life happier and your relationships stronger with happy friends.

In the home, the office or in a classroom setting, it’s hard to imagine trying to get by without an easel stand. These versatile stands serve every imaginable display or presentation need. In a world of high tech presentations, easels still remain as useful and effective as ever. What kind of easel stand do you need?

In the home, we use them every day, often without even thinking about it. Our photographs are exhibited on brass stands that take pride of place on the mantel. We use a wire stand to hold open a cookbook while we work. Our kids may have a chalkboard mounted on an easel or do their fingerpainting on one. These examples just scratch the surface – you can probably think of many more.

In the office, secretaries use them to hold papers for transcribing. Another may display the company calendar. At the reception counter, a small stand holds business cards while a larger one contains informational brochures. A floor easel in the reception area displays company information or a promotional poster.

In the classroom, an easel stand serves innumerable purposes. It is ideal for presentations and as a teaching aid. Many educators believe that the humble easel is a far more useful teaching aid than more high-tech presentations because it creates a dynamic audio-visual link between the instructor and the class.

This concept holds true at business seminars, too. While a PowerPoint presentation, slideshow or video tends to distract attention from the speaker, a presentation given with the aid of an easel stand draws the attention towards the presenter and encourages audience participation. As the speaker uses a flip chart or writes notes and diagrams on the whiteboard, listeners feel compelled to take notes and ask questions.

Retail businesses, from cafes to five star hotels, find numerous uses for display easels as powerful advertising tools. Portable, sturdy and versatile, they can be used in any setting. A decorative stand can create a mood or enhance a setting. A functional stand can make an important announcement that is sure to capture the attention of every passerby.

The sheer numbers of different styles and designs of presentation stands available is testament to their popularity and versatility. There is literally an easel stand for everything. An ornate brass tabletop style in the home displays a treasured heirloom. A collapsible high-density plastic stand houses markers and accessories for easy transport and set up at important business functions.

What else can you think of? An elegant floor unit outside a conference room shows attendees they are at the right place. A fanciful wrought iron stand holds a blackboard lunch menu outside a cafe. The list of uses for an easel stand goes on and on.

Everyone has had the experience of driving in bad weather. So what are the important steps to take in fog, rain, snow, sleet, hail and any other type of weather that Mother Nature might throw at you? It is important that you’ve double checked all of the various features on your vehicle prior to getting stuck driving in poor weather!

You should always turn on your headlights in poor weather. Rain, fog and snow especially require you to turn on your lights so that other drivers can see you. While it does not tend to improve your visibility it makes you more visible to other drivers which will increase the safety for everyone.

Driving in poor weather will require that you know what to do. Having your headlights on is the first step. You might find that you need your wipers on as well in especially heavy fog, in rain and in snow. More importantly however is to keep the condensation down on the inside of the windshield to ensure good visibility. You might not need to use heat, but you will likely need to use some type of air flow to accomplish this.

Make sure you are very alert when driving in poor conditions. Keep an eye on the rear view mirror for drivers who might not see you right away. When you are aware that they are there you can help to avoid a collision. At the same time you need to watch closely in front of you and to each side. People needing to pull out onto the road you are driving on might not see you in time and may drive right into your path.

Keep in mind that the roads can become slippery with the slightest amount of rain or even fog. If temperatures are right, fog can also cause black ice to form. Black ice is a particularly dangerous form of ice that is nearly invisible. You discover you are on it when you begin skidding out of control. Remember your avoidance tactics and do not panic! That will only make the skid worse.

If you are trapped by bad weather such as a severe snow storm that put you in the ditch, stay in your car! Never leave your car if you become stranded. Turn on your hazard lights to alert other drivers that you are there. Today many people use cell phones and almost always carry them along. Make the calls that are necessary to get help, but still remain in your car. If you get out of your vehicle you might be struck by another vehicle or you might end up getting frost bite or a number of other problems that can occur in severe weather.

Never try to slam on your brakes in bad weather. Rain and snow alike can increase the distance that is needed to stop. For this reason it is important to remember to gradually and slowly push your brake pedal when you need to stop. This helps to avoid skidding and sliding. Just because you have anti-lock brakes does not mean you cannot slip and slide as good as those without anti-lock!

Actors know about acting auditions with the help of respective agents or managers. In going for a role, you usually must know what it is that you are auditioning for. You don’t just appear for a casting call just because it’s open. A real sure way to annoy casting directors is by wasting their time. In addition to that, this means that you should be sure that you fill the role and fill it well.

There are some cases wherein a casting director is going to give you sides for your acting auditions. All of these are going to be certain scenes for the role that you’re auditioning for. In case these sides are available, then you should make sure that you familiarize yourself with the scenes. Don’t go and stumble around the words or the direction. In case you go into acting auditions and be presented with the sides right away, then you are going to do something that’s called “cold reading.” The good thing about this is that everyone else is going to be in the same position as you are so you shouldn’t worry.

When entering an audition room, you should try to get an impression of the mood of the ones that you are reading for. You could do this by presenting yourself and asking how they are doing. This can open up a bit of conversation as well as help you relax. Before you go on and get into the reading, check with whoever it is that’s in charge about what they’re searching for or if there are things you about the part that you need to know. In case they want to know if you have any questions, then you should prepare one. This is going to help you ease up as well as leave an impression with those who could hire you for that particular part.

Oftentimes you’re going to be given one chance to read for a part in acting auditions. In case you don’t do so well, only ask for another chance if the atmosphere inside the audition room’s friendly. If the casting director demands that you make certain adjustments to the character, make sure that you take note of it and perform as you’re told. Often times, they like to check if you could follow directions easily. Finally, do not think twice about taking risks. However, that doesn’t mean that you overdo it and make the casting directors uneasy. What this means is that you should aim to make your acting auditions leave a good impression.

In this episode of Car DVD player 101, we are going to have a discussion over the question: what is ATSC? How does it work in a car DVD player.

ATSC stands for “Advanced Television Systems Committee.” Actually it is a set of standards on how sound and video are encoded and transmitted, which now includes 18 commonly used digital formats.T he United States is the first country in North America to quit analog broadcasting signal which provides a poor quality of picture and sound compared with even the lowest quality standard of ATSC. Canada and Mexico are now considering make a sweeping switch from analog signals to ATSC.

HDTV is the top level of ATSC standards, but whether you could see a high-definition picture and hear a clear sound depends on two factors. First the station that you followed should be broadcasting a high-definition signal that meet ATSC standards, secondly you have to have the right device to receive and view it which means that you should get a overall picture on the equipment that you shelled out money for.

Vertical Scan Lines

Vertical scan lines refer to the number of horizontal lines a television can display to create an image. As the number of lines increase, more information is displayed, resulting in better picture quality. Traditional analog TVs can display approximately 480 lines, while high-definition television can display up to 1080 lines.

Horizontal Pixels

Each horizontal line in a TV is made up of individual dots (pixels). The higher the number of pixels, the finer the TV picture becomes. Horizontal pixel measurements using today’s technology can range from 250 for a VCR to as much as 500 for a DVD player. Typical digital TV broadcasts have at least 640 pixels.

Aspect Ratio

Aspect ratio identifies the ratio of the TV screen’s width over its height. A 16:9 aspect ratio refers to a wide-screen picture format, while a 4:3 refers to a standard TV format.

Scan Mode

Interlaced scanning is a method that creates a TV picture with alternating lines of information and is the cause for flickering. Progressive scanning is a method that creates a TV picture with consecutive lines of information that results in flicker-free picture quality.

Frame Rate

Motion picture on your TV is generated by a series of still pictures that changes from picture to picture at a very fast rate. This rate is measured by the number of still pictures (frames) displayed within one second of time. The higher the frame-rate, the smoother the picture displayed.

In our next topic we are going to learn more about how HDTV works.

Your World Record attempts needn’t be trying to juggle a high number of objects. They can be as simple (or as funny) as you like! They may not get recognised by Guinness, but that doesn’t make them any less entertaining as long as you enjoy them and they improve your skills no matter how silly!!

Keeping a Tennis Ball in the air while climbing up a ladder (53 steps)! 2008 by Paul Sahli.

Longest Distance driven in a car (with open roof) while heading the ball (7km) by Agim Agushi in 2004.

Fastest Mile while hopping on a pogo stick and juggling 3 balls is 23minutes and 28 seconds. World Record set by the legendary Ashrita Furman in 2007!

Most bites of an apple while juggling in 1 minute (65 bites)!

Keepy Uppy with Football. 24hr 30 seconds nonstop without ball touching the ground! By Nikolai Kutsenko from the Ukraine in 1995. Imagine being able to do keepy-uppys for over a day without even dropping once!

Haggis Juggling Endurance World Records: This is an unofficial World Record (as Guinness have refused to recognise it as it would open up all sorts of claims for breaking world records for lots of different foods!) This is held at every Scottish Juggling Convention, so come along to the next one if you fancy trying to beat it – I almost won in the early years of the competition before the awesome Tempei and then Luke Burrage destroyed all the previous records!

6 Haggis – 11 catches – Luke Burrage (2008)

5 Haggis – 1m 14 secs – Wes Peden (2008)

4 Haggis – 1m 31 secs – Tempei (2006)

3 Haggis – 15m 5 secs- Luke Burrage (2008)

Joggling: Not too silly, but certainly something different from your ordinary juggle as you now need to do everything while running at the same time! The wonderfully talented Albert Lucas (holder of many Juggling World Records is heavily involved in organising a lot of these World Record attempts and you can find a full list on the Joggling Wikipedia page.

You can view all sorts of home-made video clips of people setting their own records for silly juggling stunts at Record Setter website. Their excellent search box will allow you to find lots of silly records being set for all your favourite hobbies and past-times! These include:

Most rotations performed on a slackline in a minute (12 rotations)

Most Helicopter head spins while juggling 3 baseball bats in 30 seconds (16 head spins)

Most consecutive golf ball bounces on a claw grip hammer while juggling 2 tennis balls (41 bounces)

I am sure you can think of a record to add to their collection!

Several years ago, I would have the opportunity to occasionally have lunch with an entertaining old gentleman who always had a good story. He was one of those gentlemen that every small town seems to have, a nice old guy who was always willing to talk and entertain whoever may be present.

Even though he was approaching 80 years of age, he continued to work every day, being the manager of the local city sewage treatment plant, he always claimed to know everything about everybody’s business. One particular lunch time, with several patrons present, the subject some how turned to chickens. He went on to relate how there were more chickens raised in the state of Georgia than any where else in the United States.

As the conversation continued, Art when on to proclaim that the state which produced the most eggs was Arkansas. After several minutes of listening to this conversation, I began to wonder, how could all the chickens be in Georgia and all the eggs in Arkansas?

As soon as there was a lull in the conversation, I posed this question. Everyone was startled, no one had thought of this angle. Of course then the topic of the day turned as to how this could be possible.

It was reasoned that since Arkansas and Georgia were relatively close in proximity, it might help to explain this peculiar circumstance. Then the subject turned to which came first, the chicken or the egg. It was reasoned the chicken had to come first, since Georgia had become a state before Arkansas.

Then someone else chimed in that since Georgia was further east, the sun would come up there before rising in Arkansas, and it only made sense the chicken had to be up before she could lay an egg. Hence the chicken had to come first.

Someone else then stated that since the sun went down later in Arkansas, there would be more sunlight available to create a warmer environment for an egg to hatch, and since chickens came from eggs, it only made sense the egg had to come first.

They even offered up the theory that daylight savings time had been created by Ben Franklin in order to provide a better and warmer environment for the eggs. The extra hour of daylight would provide a shorter night so the eggs wouldn’t cool off too much during the starlite evenings of Arkansas.

The conversation continued long after I had to leave, for once it was a pleasure to go back to work.