There have been many great points raised on both sides of this discussion. In order to make a final decision, we must look at how the business world is moving and at the purchasing patterns of the consumers who will be utilizing your services.

The Internet has changed the way people look for services (personal and professional). For example:
If you do a search in Yahoo for a Personal Coach you will get 1.4 million matches.
If you refine your search to Personal Life Coach you will get 760,000 matches.
If you refine your search to Personal Career Coach you will get below matches.
If you refine your search to Weight Loss Coach you will get 80,000 matches.
(search result numbers are subject to change)

Once you have selected the area of specialization you are interested in, you can then drill down into the results by location or other qualifying factors. As we are spending more and more time online, our patterns are shifting and adapting to more effectively navigate the over-abundance of information available. Web users know that in order to avoid a list of millions of possible matches, they must be more specific in their requests.

Generalizing - The Benefits:
As a generalist you aren’t limited in the type of clients that you can work with. Everyone is pressed for time; having one coach who can handle all aspects of your goals (personally and professionally) as opposed to multiple resources each with a unique area of focus would be of certain benefit.

Generalizing - The Challenge:
The trade off is assumed to be that if you are a generalist in all things you are not an expert in any of them or at least in most of them. To state that one individual can work on any aspect of any business and/or in any area of a person’s life and still achieve success is unlikely and may be interpreted as unrealistic or exaggerated on the part of your potential clients.

Specializing - The Benefits:
As a specialist you can attract a client based on his unique needs then share the wide range of additional areas you can bring benefit too. Each person wants the best for themselves and they perceive their situation to be completely unique. Specializing places you in front of the right client at the right time.

Specializing - The Challenge:
Initial pool from which you can draw clients is potentially smaller (but more refined), your copy must be more targeted, and you may be vulnerable to economic swings in specific market segments.

The concept of moving towards a more specific or niche approach to positioning and promoting your practice is becoming the standard in business. Building an environment that allows you receive the benefits of being positioned under Specialist and Generalist is one of the foundations of www.ldurandconsulting.com

Have a successful day!
Leslie Durand, Marketing Coach and Emarketing Specialist

Leslie brings over 10 years experience in new media marketing to every project and a unique coaching approach to every client relationship. www.ldurandconsulting.com

The quick answer is that sure it is possible to make money without working. But then we have to slow down because that sounds too good to be true. So what is wrong with an answer to this question in the affirmative? Well it is true that people make money all the time without working, but then you have to define work.

If work is something you loathe and you do only because you have to in order to make a living well then there are a lot of people who love their jobs and therefore are making money without “working”and I’m not even talking about all the people who make money playing sports or gambling. I am simply referring to people that love what they do and think that it is crazy that they can make so much money doing that. (This by the way is such a huge blessing, and something worth being patient and making the right decisions for isn’t it?).

Yes, there are people who don’t actually do anything and make money. These are the people who come by their money with a stroke of major luck. That is the lottery winners, and those who made some “fantastic” decision to invest in a company like apple or google before they got big, or even the people who just happened to be born into money. These people did nothing and yet are fabulously wealthy.

But there is another problem with an answer to the affirmative considering the title questionis it possible to make money without working? The problem is that it is asking more than just about working but rather about it costing anything. Maybe more correctly asking “is making money for free possible?” The answer to this question is decidedly NO! Anyone knows that having lots of money has tremendous and often unforeseen costs.

This “cost” may be more apparent to the person who goes from the relative anonymity of normalcy, such as a school teacher who wins the lottery. This person formerly was able to go home at night and relax. They could go places and blend in and do what they needed to do without interruption. They were not constantly bombarded with solicitation. Now that they are rich beyond their dreams they never have a dull moment. Their lives are not peaceful or simple any longer, and they wonder if having all that money is worth the hassle. These people might say that “no, it is not possible to make money without working.” So before you spend your whole life trying to prove the question, consider that the “costs” just might come after the fact rather than before.

Josephine Stungger, an expert in finance, writes prolifically on both the practical and the philosophic issues concerning one’s quest to make money. Go to www.begintomakemoney.info to find out more about personal investing.

Yachting as a sport, pursuit or used as a company tool is very advisable. There are also extraordinary boating events which make it equally refreshing & can be something that the total family can go and take advantage of together. One of the foremost weeks of the yachting calendar is the Skandia Cowes Regatta Week; this event takes place once a year & has been established since eighteen twenty-six that makes it the longest running sailing event on the planet. With more than five-hundred ocean racing boats & five thousand competitors participating, being inspected by 60,000 viewers a day, Skandia Cowes week has gained the name as one of the leading yachting corporate hospitality & public occurrence of the year. Find the best Cowes Week corporate event packages online at http://www.ondeck.co.uk

The 8500 contestants include Commonwealth & world class professional sailors to weekend sailors. Even if you’re not onboard yourself, watching the sailing, having fun at the gatherings and live performers, & to experience the unique sensation, makes it a one of a type corporate event.

With Ondeck Sailing School, in 2008 begins the initiation of their hottest Regatta Division. Improving on their brilliant position in the yachting and sailing charter market, this has seen Ondeck Sailing School, run some thrilling sailing events for businesses, they have now united with Britannia Sailing Events the foremost organisers of industry sailing events in the UK.

The course of the racing event itself will fluctuate each time as factors like that of the weather forecast, tidal currents and pace of each manufacture of sailing boat is taken into making the decision. A characteristic Skandia Cowes Event has over thirty-five starts a day for applicants of cruiser racers, one designs and keelboats; totalling over a 1000 boats. All through this moment in time the Solent which is an extensively busy merchant shipping channel, is bursting with sailing yachts of all classes & is particularly vibrant in colour due to the yachts spinnakers. As pointed out prior in addition to the power boating activities the week consists of a great number of onshore activities for example live festivals and cocktail parties. From private or commercial house parties and nominally private sailing organisations and boats, there are large marquees setup in the harbours offering food and champagne.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of discussion groups online in which people partake every day. Everything from religion to politics to support groups are available on the Internet and you can join any of them. Most discussion groups require you to register, as this helps reduce the number of people who are only looking to start arguments (and there are plenty of them). Some even require authorization from a site administrator and may ask several questions about your intentions in the group. However, many people do register and never actually join in, spending their time lurking until giving up altogether. Feeling comfortable can be difficult, even when you’re hiding behind a computer monitor.

Many new members of discussion forums find that the community seems very tight-knit and unwelcoming. Many people have been going to the same discussion forums for several years and have developed close bonds with other members. Some have even become close friends outside of the forum. This can be very intimidating for new members since there are often inside jokes and references to personal details. Joining new discussion groups can be just as stressful as trying to join a new circle of friends.

Making a good first impression is vital when you first join a discussion group. Many members may feel territorial about their online community and feel like they are being intruded upon when new members join. Spend some time looking around and getting a feel for the general atmosphere. If there is a welcome section, make sure your first post is a quick introduction of yourself. You don’t need to divulge any personal information, just say hello and perhaps a few short lines on why you have joined.

Also try and avoid joining in on too many controversial topics right away. People may see you as being too aggressive and avoid your posts. Stick to lighter topics and try to stay away from appearing too opinionated. Once you have some posts under your belt other members will stop thinking of you as a newbie and you can be as open as you like.

Many new members of discussion forums leave after posting a few times, feeling that no one cares if they post or not. Give it some time and understand that some of the other members have known each other for years. Be patient and continue posting, and before you know it you’ll feel like part of the gang.

Cynthia Bates is an Internet specialist, and periodically writes support group discussion articles for SupportDiscussions.com.

SupportDiscussions.com is dedicated to providing quality support discussions - www.supportdiscussions.com

You are an entrepreneur running a small to midsize business with let’s say 5 to 200 employees. Let’s assume that your outlook might be fairly well and you do have a healthy growth rate…or maybe not. Whatever the case is do you know the signs that something is not right in your business?

Do you know what it is you have to look for? Do you walk around in your business observing even the tiny details? And if you do, do have a structure behind it? Do you know what questions to ask?

How much time do you think the average employee is wasting every day? Would one hour be accurate and if, how much will this cost you? And being honest about that two to three hours wasted during the day are more close to the truth…

But maybe you don’t have the time to do that…

Watch out, you could be in deeper trouble than you would think. Of course you have your processes in place and your managers to control their areas of responsibility. But is your team, all of them, truly performing as they should?

Here are a couple of hints you should look for:

• How is the impact of you building on visitors? Is it clean?
• Do you customers feel comfortable in your building?
• Do you customers feel that your employees are passionate about your business?
• Is your customer parking lot easily accessible and are the parking spots in the “pole position”?
• Are there signs guiding your customers?
• Does your customer lounge appeal to customers?
• Are all your customers greeted friendly?
• How long does it take until a visitor is “seen” and greeted?
• Do you employees have often small talks in the hallways?
• How do their working spaces look like?
• What happens when you suddenly appear? How do your employees react?
• What are your managers doing? How do they communicate with their employees?
• How many internal emails are written?

Those are just a small number of randomly selected points you should observe. In reality it adds up to the hundreds of points and each and every point are telling you a story, the story of leadership or its lack of it.

If your employees and managers do not have the burning desire for excellence and if there is no passion for your product, then you are in trouble, maybe not today, but certainly tomorrow.

The signs you have to look for you cannot find in the book. You and your leaders need proper training by an experienced coach, who knows what he/she is talking about and lived once through it.

Walter H. Groth
Institute for Life and Career Transition

We specialize in Teaching and Coaching Businesses and Individuals the Power of Personal Growth and how to leverage this with down to earth steps and actions to become an expert in life and business situations. Our approach is different because we are taking into account the proven facts that anybody is creating its own world, creating the outer effects based on its inner world. We believe that your success in the real world is directly related to your inner boundaries.

The Institute for Life and Career Transition - a unique blend of traditional knowledge and know-how combined with enlightened wisdom.

Check it out at: http://www.truelifepurpose.com

Our educational system has a major flaw, and
I’m going to expose it right now.

We’re taught that we need to go to school and
get a good education, so we can get a good job
with a good company and work our way up the
ladder of success.

Give me a break!

How many people do you know who have followed
this advice?

And how many of them are what you’d consider
“successful”?

Not many, that’s for sure.

In fact, I can count on one hand the number of
people I know who have made their way up the
ladder of success by following this advice.

Instead, most of them are working in jobs they
detest, for employers they don’t like and
their chances of moving up the ladder is slim
to none.

But what if it didn’t have to be this way?

What if you could start half way up the ladder,
instead of at the bottom?

Let me share a personal story that explains
what I’m talking about.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had the dream of
owning my own business.

To make this dream a reality, I’d planned on
attending college so I could get the business
education I needed.

But things didn’t work out as planned.

My father passed away (back in 1981) and when
my mom became the sole income earner for our
family, she could no longer afford to send me
to college.

As a result, I had to come up with an
alternate plan.

I spent four years in the Army and seven years
as an Alaska Fisherman before starting my
first business, which was a cleaning and
restoration company.

Instead of going to college, I acquired
specialized business knowledge through
“hands-on” experience.

There were many struggles and failures along
the way, and it took me more than 3 years to
show a profit, but I finally came through with
flying colors.

In fact, that business grew to be one of the
most successful by-referral-only companies in
Washington State.

But more importantly, I now knew how to build
a successful business.

Armed with this knowledge, I decided to start
a second business.

And guess what!

It didn’t take 3 years to show a profit.

In fact, I had a profit within the first week.

Granted, it certainly wasn’t a big profit, but
it was profit nevertheless.

And before I knew it, I was making more than
5 Grand a month.

How was this possible?

I’ll tell you how!

In my first business I was required to start
at the bottom of the ladder, because I had no
previous experience or education.

But…

When I started my second business, I did NOT
start at the bottom.

Because I was armed with previous experience
and education, I was able to start half way
up the ladder.

In fact, as I write this, I recently started
a third business, which showed a net profit
of $2,295.87 in the very first month.

And now, I show others how to start half way
up the ladder as well, instead of at the
bottom.

Kim and Dana Kothrade, from Escondido,
California are a perfect example.

They recently started a new business, and
within the first 17 months they made
$266,940.00.

Had they started at the bottom of the ladder,
as many do, this would have never been
possible.

Because they chose to get specialized
knowledge (instead of general knowledge),
they were afforded the luxury of starting
their business half way up the ladder.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret.

The view from half way up is a whole lot
better, and a lot less crowded.

Kevin has been a massively successful home-based business owner and sought after expert since 2001. He specializes in systems that put your home-based business on auto-pilot. Get your complimentary copy of his special report “What 99.999% Of Stay At Home Moms Don’t Know, And Will Never Find Out About Making $5,000 To $10,000 A Month With Their Own Home-Based Business” by going to http://www.wahmsystem.com

Is there really a place for motivational posters in your home office? The thought of putting these posters in your home workspace may sound cheesy to say the least. Even worse it could even remind you of those dreaded, awful days when you were tied to a desk and forced to enjoy the company “decoration” of mission statements, useless slogans and their idea of motivational posters (more like propaganda eh?).

All these things were meant to make you more productive each day, to enhance your company “loyalty” and to increase staff morale. What effect did they really have? Yes they drove you a little bit more mad each day and actually made you resent where you worked - the exact opposite effect they were meant to have! It makes you wonder if management teams really think this stuff through right?

This is why you never really wanted to see a motivational poster again - ever. There’s a difference though when you’re doing it for your home office. YOU get to pick the poster. YOU choose a poster that means something to YOU. Gone are the days of you having to tolerate some pointless, hopeless and heartless company slogan that makes you physically ill when you think about it.

This time the poster choice is up to you. You can pick a poster that truly speaks to you and has real meaning. This is the essence of any motivational material - it has to actually mean something to you or otherwise it’s just a waste of time. Human resource and communications managers in most companies could learn a lot by just understanding that simple fact.

It doesn’t even need to be a “motivational” type poster. It could be a poster of a favourite movie that reminds you of something you want to achieve in life - financially or otherwise. Motivation in your home office doesn’t need to be as black and white as it was in the corporate world.

What motivates you at home is going to be totally different to what motivated (if motivation is the word) in work. At work you are most frequently motivated by fear - fear of layoffs, fear of not getting the promotion, fear of some petty office politics affecting your career. Too much fear!

Your home office can and should be devoid of this fear. Your personal motivation at home could be self-fulfillment, a better standard of living or more money for your entire family. These are all positive and are all driven by your desire to succeed. Any poster you decide to put up in your office can and should reflect this.

If posters don’t suit you then how about a motivational startup page for your web browser or desktop? These are a great way to constantly remind yourself of goals that you’ve set for yourself and really help to keep you motivated and focused.

So why not add a poster to your office today? Just make it something that speaks to you at the deepest level. It should make you smile as much as it keeps you motivated and focused on your work and goals.

This article was provided courtesy of HomeOfficeBuddy.com. If you’re looking for more information on home office design then drop by for a visit.

FACTA stands for Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act. The law went into effect Jan. 1, 2005. FACTA is the law which allows all Americans access to their credit report once per year. So what does that have to do with you?

On June 1, 2005, a new provision of FACTA went into effect. It says that any employer (even if you only employ one person) whose action or inaction results in the loss of employee information, can be fined by federal and state government, and sued in civil court.
Bet you didn’t know that. But you need to know, and need to know what you can do to protect yourself.

Small Businesses will be affected the most.

‘”A small businessman who makes a mistake could bear the brunt of a regulation like this,” says James Plummer, policy analyst at Consumer Alert, a non-profit group that focuses on a free-market approach to consumer regulations.’

If you don’t shred and information gets out, there are penalties. But what if you do shred all potential employee information, and take all necessary precautions to protect your past, current, and future employees’ identities, and the information still gets out somehow? Under FACTA, you could still be held responsible.

You may not think information theft could happen to you, but neither did a lot of companies, universities, government institutions, and businesses that have had employee or customer information stolen from them that have been in the news lately:

Lexis Nexis

University of Northern Colorado

California State University (Chico)

University of California - Berkeley

University of Maryland

Las Vegas Department of Motor Vehicles

Bank of America

Choice Point

Weld County (CO) Employees (information stolen by an inmate while in jail)

How can you, as an employer, minimize your liability?

There are hundreds of things you can do to minimize liability, which are probably things you already do. Document shredding, careful screening of employees who will be coming into contact with personal information of customers and employees, physically locking file drawers with sensitive information, and setting up firewalls on computer equipment connected to the Internet, among hundreds of other solutions, are all good ideas.

As Ben Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, is definitely the case when it comes to securing personal information. However, no matter what prevention steps you take, there is no 100% effective way to be sure that employee’s information won’t be compromised. Even if the information doesn’t get out from your company, an employee can claim that it did.

That’s a scary thought! What if an employee claims that their information was stolen through the actions of your company, but there’s no real proof to back it up? You will end up hiring (or using) an attorney to represent and defend you and your company in court. At $200 - $400/hour for most attorneys across the United States, how long can you afford to defend your company?

So what can you do?

One solution that would at least provide an affirmative defense against the fines, fees, and lawsuits you could incur as an employer, is to offer some sort of Identity Theft protection as a benefit to your employees.

As an employer, you can choose whether or not to pay for this added benefit. However, the most important thing you can do is to make the protection available, and have an employee meeting, to help employees understand Identity Theft and the protection that you are making available to them. When you make the protection available, and when your employees have been educated on the dangers of Identity Theft, they can either elect to have identity theft coverage as a benefit, or they can decline the coverage as a benefit.

If the employee has Identity Theft coverage and becomes a victim, it is beneficial to your business, because an employee with Identity Theft coverage will be notified immediately of the theft, spend less time, less money, and will experience less frustration while trying to have their information restored. This will get them back on the job and focused on work more quickly.

If the employee declines the coverage, and later claims that the information was stolen as a result of you or your company’s actions, you have a piece of paper, with their signature, saying that they attended the presentation and declined the coverage.

Choosing to not make Identity Theft coverage available leaves you exposed to an unlimited dollar amount that you can be sued for under civil liability, federal fines of up to $2,500.00 per employee per incident, and state fines of up to $1,000.00 per employee per incident.

Recommended course of action? Have a benefits consultant who offers an Identity Theft protection plan present to your employees. Help them set up a 20 minute presentation with your employees, and make it mandatory that all employees attend. You want your employees to be protected from this awful crime. If they choose not to be, but you’ve given the option of being protected, then the liability becomes theirs, not yours, when they become a victim of identity theft.

About the author: Steve Mueller has over 25 years of human resource experience. He has worked in various fields of human resources; as a Trainer for Cooper Industries, Compensation and Management Development Manager for Zenith Electronics, Plant Personnel Manager for a motor manufacturing company and Benefits Manager for a multi-location distribution company. Steve holds a bachelors of science degree in education from Pittsburg State University. He has taught numerous adult education classes and seminars in the community. Steve has received community service awards for his participation in elementary school child safety programs. http://www.solutionsplan.com

Hardens restaurant guide all began in the early 1990’s it was seen that London as an eating city had no vegetarian restaurant guidebooks at all. The idea was to design something that was pocket sized that hungry people could use to assist them to decide where is a good Pizza restaurant to eat. Over 13 years ago the first London South American restaurant guide was printed by hardens and has been a complete success ever since.

What makes Hardens so different is that the London Restaurants are scored by the clients, when the first ever review guide was published the food industry was just starting to prosper and with superb difficulty Hardens was able to ask around one hundred restaurant customers to take part in the first London wide survey. Over 600 meals over a 9 month period were eaten to make the Hardens Restaurant guide what it is now.

Hardens have the printed restaurant reviews and now have a fantastic website. The incredible website. is easy to find your way around and can tell one anything you need to know about pretty much any Portuguese restaurant in London and give you recommendations split into parts so it makes it easier for you to narrow down what it is that you are exactly looking for.

The brilliant website itself has tons of bits recommended on it, it is simple to read and work your way through and this is thanks to the review guides excellent clear arrangement you can view all the best up and coming afro Caribbean restaurants and of course reviews on them. This part is called Latest Reviews and is clearly placed on the opening page of the website, where you can see the extensive list of Lebanese restaurants which changes every few day depending on what restaurant reviews have been written. There is also an area down the right hand side of the hardens web page where you can search for perhaps a specific British traditional restaurant or if you’re looking for a restaurant to go to in a specific area such as London and you want to separate the tremendous ones for the not so good restaurants this will do the job perfectly for you. If you’re planning on eating out Restaurant Reviews from Harden is a good place to start.

Michael O. Brickell, CEO of Holistic Junction has
been the driving force behind the revolutionary site, Holistic
Junction — geared toward positive community awareness; a portal
to alternative & holistic education, and a plethora of
healthcare information resources and the arts.

I had an opportunity to speak candidly with Michael and asked
him what inspired him, and why he wanted to create an online
holistic journal with such a wide array of topics:

[C. Bailey-Lloyd] Good Morning Michael. Tell me a little
about yourself, personally — Where were you born, a fond
childhood memory, or perhaps what makes you — you?

[Michael O. Brickell] First of all, let me say how
appreciative I am of all the work our team members, including
those not directly connected to Holistic Junction, have done. So
much positive energy has gone into this challenging and
wonderful endeavor. Every single contribution regardless of size
and detail, was and still is so very important. Each one of our
team members bring certain talents to the table and everything
we have accomplished and continue to do is done with such
cohesiveness and great attention to detail. Everyday in some way
there is an improvement within the site and it’s such a joy to
see all of the integral pieces of this giant puzzle come
together as it does.

Most of the improvements have been program related but in the
very near future we will also begin to see notable changes in
the site design itself. It’s all very exciting to me and I look
forward to these visible changes as they occur. It’s something
that we will all be able to see and share.

Now before I get carried away, you wanted me to talk a bit about
who I am. Well, being that I really am an introvert at heart, I
am not always comfortable talking about myself, but I’ll give it
a go here…

I was born in Seville, Spain in 1956. When I was 2 days old I
was taken to a Spanish orphanage where I stayed until I was
about 3 and half years of age at which time I was adopted by a
very charismatic couple who at the time were not able to have
children. My Father, now deceased, was from Colorado Springs and
my Mother is a native of Canada. My Father was a Civil Servant,
which gave us the opportunity to live in various countries
including France, Greece, Turkey and Germany. I graduated from
high school in Wiesbaden Germany.

My fondest childhood years were those years I spent in Greece
from age 10 to 14. I have felt for a very long time that my
heart and soul belong in the Mediterranean. I love the life
style, the culture and spent many summers on the Greek Islands
Mykonos and Crete with young Swiss friends. I also remember on
one separate occasion while visiting Crete with my Mother,
actually sitting on the throne of King Minos of the Minoan
civilization and secretly thinking how I would have liked to be
King of such a colorful and advanced culture and society.

Wonderful memories while on the mainland too, of standing on the
cliffs at Sounion overlooking the great and beautiful Aegean
Sea, visiting the mighty Acropolis in Athens and of course one
of my favorite pastimes, going boating on weekends during the
summer with Scandinavian friends also stationed in Greece at the
time. I remember how beautiful and clean the water was. Swimming
in that turquoise colored water was such a joy. I remember very
well going snorkeling with my Father and actually seeing the
ruins of ancient civilization right there on the ocean floor. I
even remember falling in love for the first time with a
beautiful Swedish girl with whom I shared many swims in Greek
waters. Still to this day, I think about her with great
fondness. I have so many great memories of my childhood, but
those are a few of my favorite.

[C. Bailey-Lloyd] Thank you for that. I have always
wanted to ask you — why did you decide to create an online
journal, and what made you choose it to be holistic, in nature?
Is there any particular reason that stands out?

[Michael O. Brickell] Yes there are numerous reasons. I
have worked with many different people and organizations
throughout my life. Much of my work has been in public
relations, advertising and marketing. I gained a tremendous
amount of experience and knowledge from all of this, and I
wanted to parley these experiences and knowledge into work that
I felt would be more interesting, exciting and meaningful to me.

I have always had a thirst for knowledge and truth. I certainly
don’t claim to have the answers to all of the mysteries of life,
but I have always had a deep desire to understand the truth
behind all that we call `reality’. Much of what we call reality
it seems to me, are really illusions so it’s interesting to look
at life from a metaphysical and holistic perspective- things
such as cause and effect, the physical and metaphysical
organizational structure of the universe and the role that we as
individuals play in all of this. I have felt for a very long
time that to truly understand life and one’s self, it is
important to view life from metaphysical and holistic points of
view because it takes into account everything to do with the God
Source.

Traditional schools don’t typically teach this. We live in a
very fast paced world so staying grounded is vital. I believe it
is important for those interested in these points of view, to
have access to the information Holsitic Junction provides. Some
of the available information can be very helpful in making sense
of life and realizing just how purposeful and miraculous life
really is.

Life is an evolutionary process and much of the information
available on Holistic Junction does help define and give purpose
to our lives and the world in which we live. Holistic Junction
offers people from all walks of life a place to come and share
philosophies, truths, opinions, art, poetry and more. I also
wanted to include on HJ the opportunity for trade and commerce
so that schools, practitioners and retailers may join as
business members and promote their services and products. To me,
that is what a true on-line community is.

It’s interesting to note that even at this point in the
evolution of Holistic Junction with over 5 million page views
and more than 300,000 visitors annually, it is still in it’s
infancy! There is so much more growth potential. Things like
more submissions, greater traffic to the site, improved
navigation and site design, higher page rankings and everything
else associated with the expansion of an established website
such as ours.

We have received some very constructive feed back from members
and visitors to the site and we now know what areas to focus on
for overall site improvement. We are working on many of those
improvements as we speak. As a matter of fact, we are scheduled
to go live with our new homepage design sometime in August of
this year (2005). The results include a streamlined homepage and
easier site navigation. Very exciting indeed!

[C. Bailey-Lloyd] I’m certain that others may have told
you that Holistic Junction simply offers way too much
information, what is your response to that?

[Michael O. Brickell] Frankly, I don’t believe that is
true. Holistic Junction is an online community that integrates
all of the resources that human beings need or desire at various
times in our lives. The resources we offer are vast and are all
tied together in one way or another to some facet of life, thus
the name, `Holistic Junction’. The resources on the site are an
integral part of the whole, which does not allow us to leave
much out, including consumer products and services. Our primary
focus is targeted to topics that fall within the scope of those
things considered to be holistic, metaphysical and even
scientific in nature, however, one of the true functions of a
community, online or otherwise, is to provide its members with
what ever there is a demand for. Holistic Junction is no
different. The consumer resource directory is one of those.

We attract many kinds of people, blue and white collar
consisting of artists, teachers, scientists, doctors, lawyers,
fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, grand parents, people who are
just curious and others who are looking for something specific.
The point is this…It does not matter what type of person you
are or what background you have, we all have something in
common, and that is our needs. Those needs are what we as an
online journal and online community, focus on, whether it be
information on alternative medicine or a new car! Holistic
Junction offers something to just about everyone, if they will
take the time to look around and discover what we are about. As
you know, we currently have over 800 topic categories that are
split into various directories, specifically the holistic,
metaphysical, healing arts, vocational and consumer resource
directories. In reality, that number is still quite small when
you consider the number of additional categories that would
actually be needed to cover the entire spectrum of information
available on Metaphysics and Holistic topics alone. We continue
to add new categories as needed.

Back to the consumer resource directory for just a moment. Some
people have wondered why we chose to include the consumer
resource directory to the mix of things we already have. The
consumer resource directory is not a focal point, but it has
great value. The idea there is very simple. It’s to provide
everyday consumer products and services for those of us who
simply want them! Many of us may want to buy a home, a car,
change insurance carriers, purchase health insurance, find a
lawyer or subscribe to a particular magazine. HJ offers
retailers the opportunity to invest in a business listing for
that purpose. It’s there for convenience and it just so happens
that we actually generate quite a bit of traffic there as well.
Our site statistics tell us this.

Kind of a long winded answer to your question as to whether or
not we offer too much information, but no I don’t believe that
we offer too much of anything on HJ. It really boils down to
what our visitors and members are interested in and what they
want to look at, as opposed to what we want them to look at.
What we have available are lots of choices, and those choices in
this instance, are a good thing!

(For Complete Interview, please visit: Michael O. Brickell, Holistic Junction’s Visionary
Extraordinaire: A Glimpse into the Mind behind the Site
Interview)

© August 2005 - All Rights Reserved Michael O. Brickell,
Holistic Junction’s Visionary Extraordinaire: A Glimpse into the
Mind behind the Site Interview by C. Bailey-Lloyd/LadyCamelot

C. Bailey-Lloyd/LadyCamelot is the Public Relations Director &
Writer for Holistic
Junction — Your source of information for Holistic Practitioners; Acupuncture Schools, Chiropractic Schools, Massage Therapy Schools, and Reflexology Schools.