Travel Agents Tips

Good Day AllIntroduction”Certification is a must!” “Certification is valuable!” “Certification nice but does not add significant value!”"Eliminate the accidental project manager – certify them”"Certification is required”There are too many arguments and positions on the value of certifications so what is reality, if there is one? The reality is limited to one fact: there is no agreement on the value of certification; at least in the domain of project management.What Do We KnowWhat we know is that there are numerous project management certifications, such as PMP, RMP, PRINCE2, MSP, IPMA (four levels), CCC/CCE, PSP, EVP, CPM, and numerous others with all kind of acronyms. We also know that some are specialized in a topic; some are more popular; and some are more valuable. Which is which and how do we define value? Here is where the debate starts.A few more questions:Should human resource managers and executives use professional certification as a filter to screen candidates?Is certification an indicator of excellence or a proof of expertise?Are the ‘certified’ individuals able to play an active role in transforming organizational performance?At least is project management certification contributing to enhancing organizational performance?We can post many more questions here and to answer them effectively and fairly, we are likely in need of a large volume instead of a short article and we need numerous contributors to make the case for-and-against. Once again, what is clear is that there no consensus in the project management professional community on the value of certification, or at least on the value of some of the common and even popular certifications.What Are The Common Views?We can categorize the most common views per the following:Some professionals, training providers, and even professional associations will defend the various introductory certifications and continue to promote them as “expert” level certifications and use terms such as “best practices” and “master project management”… The level of promotion is directly link to the benefit of the promoter and can often border the unethical behavior; or at least misguided.Other professionals will attack these introductory certifications as worthless, or use terms such as: “paper certifications”, “technical ___”, and my favorite “can recite the standard verbatim but cannot manage a hot dog stand. Here again, this practice can be unethical if the attackers have competing products and/or have hidden agendas; so they try to lift their products by attacking the competing products.Other professionals are in between and will offer a somewhat balanced view, with open and clear position and transparency of their affiliations.It is quite difficult and might be inappropriate to judge the various professional certifications and we will not do so; this is a huge topic and we are not qualified to offer such judgment. However, in the area of project management we do have extensive global expertise to allow us to offer a professional opinion although likely controversial.What Is Our Position?We will state the following:Most, if not all, certifications requires significant effort to achieve and do result in gained knowledge.For those with proper experience, a certification may add significant value since these professionals can put a formal knowledge structure to what they have been practicing on the job.We think that most will not argue with this statement: some certifications have significant value, others do not, and it is important to realize the difference.Some certifications have had good value but have lost it or are losing their value although their numbers continue to grow. Sound like a contradictory statement and maybe it is but we will argue otherwise.There is a huge gap in practice and awareness on the value of certifications in the market. This is usually the result of overzealous marketing, and as we mentioned earlier on bordering unethical behaviors.Unfortunately, some professional associations are more concerned with growing their numbers rather than clearly communicating the true value of each certification they grant or spend the necessary screening effort to ensure qualified individuals earn the right certification.Some certifications are introductory or early career but they are ‘sold’ as expert level.Some are general certifications for someone with project management experience (although limited) but are ‘sold’ as project manager’s certification.Most introductory certifications have good value as introductory level but not they are necessarily an indicator that the holder of such certification is an experienced project manager.The Question of ValueDue to some of the factors that we mentioned earlier, many technical professionals with limited or no experiences in project management are obtaining these certifications. Some of them do not even know the difference between a project life span and process groups, or a project plan and a schedule, or even the difference between a change and a variance.The above scenario is leading to contradictory market perceptions:On one hand, quite a few recruiters, human resources managers, and executives are using certification as a filter for screening employment candidates since they believe that these certifications are of a “great value” and indicators of “expert project managers.”On the other hand, for those of us who truly understand the value and limitations of these certifications, the action of professional associations granting these certifications create a situation of “mistrust” in the market and in the credential. We also lose respect for these commercial practices and lack of responsibility.Our RecommendationsFor human resources and recruiting managers and executives, we offer the following advice:Do not take certification as proof of expert level performerCheck into the certification requirements to help you understand if this is a basic level or a senior level or an expert levelDo not take the certification holder for granted… review the CV, challenge the person, ask the difficult questions, go beyond soft skills and ask the hard project management core questions (if you are hiring for a project management position)Does the certificate holder have project management experience or technical experience working on project; do not trust the professional association to verify this for you since they mostly depend on online applications with limited audit or verificationThe ActionIt is important to recognize that some professional associations might not be in the best position to address these concerns and we need an alternative. The alternative is to focus on educating the global community, educating recruiters and executives on the value of certifications.How can we do that?Through this article, we urge professionals and project management thought leaders to join us and launch an initiative under the title “Protecting Project Management: What Executives Need to Know”; this is like a consumers protection initiatives.What do you think?Can we play a role here? How can we be effective in creating the necessary awareness in as unbiased approach as possible?More in future articles!Mounir A. Ajam26 September 2011

So what is Affiliate Marketing?Affiliate marketing is a mutually beneficial business partnership between a merchant and a website publisher/owner whereby an affiliate is compensated (commission per sale) for every visitor or client provided through his/her effort. In other words, Affiliate marketing is simple and a quick way to offer products and services without creating them yourself.”By introducing your customers to products or services from other companies or individuals and get a commission on any sales is Affiliate Marketing.”Affiliate marketing is not an easy task for the marketers to market the affiliate products successfully. But it’s also not as difficult as most of the affiliate marketers typically earn well over six figures a month.The most important for every marketer is to build trust and relationship with the audience and consistently invest the time and effort.While traffic sources are a significant factor in affiliate marketing success, the relevancy of the traffic is applied for all digital marketing and sales personnel. The key traffic sources can be SEO, social networks, blogging, email marketing, etc.Digital products pay higher commissions than physical products as it requires least investment and effort to produce and distribute them. You can offer digital downloads to your readers like eBooks, audio/video files, software’s, etc., without any additional overhead cost of production or distribution. You can also provide online, hosted and professional services for your local audiences.What are the advantages of Affiliate Marketing?Many online advertisers are looking for cost-effective ways to drive-in web traffic and secure their expenses. So, Affiliate Marketing has several advantages like:

Drives-in large volume of web traffic

Helps you reach new customers

Builds relationship with your audiences

Gains a wider market place to sell products

Can sell the products directly

Track and monitor the customer behavior

Easy to implement

Low effort and low risk

Doable by a single person

Affiliate marketing campaign

In 2017, affiliate marketing has expanded into a multi-billion dollar industry. Marketers around the world are using it as an effective marketing campaign. It’s the right time to take action to grow your business and make money with affiliate marketing.There are some important tips to make your marketing strategy more effective that would gain you more revenue with less investment.Here are seven ways to maximize your perfect affiliate marketing program this year.

Identify your audience goalsThe first step for every marketer is to know their audience’s goals, interests, behaviors, etc. By understanding your audience’s goals, you can find the products that will make them engaged or they want to achieve.

List your audiences emails and blog post comments

Send them emails and ask about their problems promptly

Look for solutions in public places like online forum sites to understand and assess the discussions on your topic.

Reach your audience goals

After identifying a desirable goal, you can gather some points to engage your readers and their needs for a specific product. It helps to coordinate your online marketing strategy.

Define your audience objectives

Select and find your target audience

Choose the right kind of platform that appeals to different audiences

Determine the tools and resourcesThere are several tools and resources that you can use to set up affiliate program partners and collect commissions. Some of the blogging and affiliate marketing tools can be used to sell your work and grow large audiences.

Collect emails to connect with your audience

Introduce your product or services

Find specific groups and list all the products that would help your audiences.?

Select a product to promoteResearch for the best products that have affiliate programs and also meet your audience requirements. It’s easy to promote those products that you know so that you can evaluate various issues from the user’s point of view.

Promote a well-reviewed product

Connect with the influencers to sell their products

Get products through affiliate network?

Setup and manage your affiliate programAffiliate programs are an opportunity for you to get hundreds, even thousands of web sites all driving traffic to your site and making sales for you. It is based on your overall marketing strategy where you can setup affiliate program, manage and track the sales performance and more.

Analyze your competitors

Have a product that delivers promises

Provide affiliates with text links, banners, emails, articles, etc.

Track the sales?

Promote your productThe fastest way to get quick results is to start promoting other people’s products in return for a commission. There are several affiliate marketing promotional methods like PPC, SEO, coupon, Content, Social media, etc., that can be used for promoting your product.

Add affiliate links to blogs, eBooks, etc.

Create and promote custom content (write reviews, guest posts, etc.)

Craft promotional emails for other users?

Create an affiliate disclaimer pageCreating an affiliate disclaimer page on your website allows you to handle the commissions from products and services. So wherever you share an affiliate link, whether it’s in web pages, blog posts or emails, let your readers know that you stand to earn a small commission.

The disclaimer must appear on any page

Must be mentioned that you receive compensation for any review or rating on your product

Disclaimer should be immediately evident to a typical visitor who views a review or rating on your site

ConclusionAffiliate marketing is one of the best methods to start earning an income by promoting other people’s or company’s products. Simply identify the audience needs to reach their goals, and you can get started with affiliate marketing program. It can be a profitable venture as long as you put your effort into growing your business and solving people’s problems.

What exactly is a Sales Home Based Business?Okay, so it’s really nice to enjoy a money generating business opportunity but what specifically is a sales home based business?Basically, a home based sales business is really a business strategy that converts your home into the workplace. This implies that you can easily decide on a business and product or service that you simply appreciate; talk about it together with the people you know and earn either a few instantaneous sales or in most cases now, long-term residual cash (depends upon the business).Precisely how this approach operates is you’d hold the choice to purchase product at wholesale prices and offer the items at retail price which you’d then make the profits. Nevertheless, a lot of home based organizations are generally currently attracting more substantial household earnings simply by sponsoring other individuals and leveraging the capability of the business structure.Why Should I consider a Sales Home Based Business? A work at home revenue business gives you the capability to be your very own boss and have many tax advantages. You make the guidelines. You decide whenever your business opens or closes. You’ve the say in regards to what goods to sell and exactly who to sell them to. It is the ultimate opportunity to finally be in charge.Any sales home based business additionally will save you cash on baby sitters or nannies. But if your kids are actually still way too small to go to classes, then what person greater to manage them than you? With a sales home based business, you can earn funds while still being able to take proper care of your children.This home business strategy additionally saves you fuel money. Because you do the job and operate at your home, you won’t have to commute to work. It also significantly reduces your carbon dioxide wastes, which in turn signifies you are actually enhancing the natural environment.A sales home based business also provides you with the potential to share a product you enjoy with the world. If you are really passionate regarding your product, then a lot more individuals will actually buy from your business. It is simply because these people understand you are actually sincere with everything you’re selling and your experience with the product or service will show extreme value to your buyers.Just what Sales Home Based Business should I take into account?As stated before, one of the best types of a sales home based business is known as a multilevel promoting company. No, you do not need to fully develop one; it is possible to become part of one that already has a great reputation. Network Marketing businesses provide you with the opportunity to become your own representative and provides you with earnings determined by the merchandise circulated in your leveraged team. Not all Network Marketing Businesses are created equal so conduct your own personal homework previous to venturing too far. Due to many changes happening in the economic world, Network Marketing Home Businesses are becoming extremely popular and are providing many homes with above average incomes.Setting up a sales home based business is definitely an option that an increasing number of families are embracing due to the incentives and gains. Because of far more individuals trying to find a home based opportunity it has allowed quite a few individuals to develop amazing organization groups and earnings. However due to the following trend, many novice individuals are around growing to be Business owners without any Marketing Know-how. This can be really destructive with regard to one’s business. So please engage in as much marketing training as possible to have the most success.To conclude, the sales home based business is an astounding worthwhile choice for several individuals; young, old, men, female it does not make a difference. What a fantastic opportunity for every person to engage in. However, remember that it’s absolutely crucial to understand how to efficiently market your organization for the 21st Century. Without this information you’ll find it quite hard to be prosperous.