Mediterranean Shore in Selimiye

In the last two years, I have been blessed with making deep connections in Turkey. Up until I came here, like for many of you I am sure, Turkey seemed a faraway exotic and mysterious land. One constant blessing from the gift of travel, is finding out that people are people everywhere. I know it sounds trite, but the reason people keep saying it, is because it is always true!

People everywhere just want a peaceful life, decent work, to raise their families, have some good experiences, and love and be loved. Underneath all cultural differences, the human heart and its needs and motivations are universal.

I came to Turkey in late 2010, to meet potential partners in an internet marketing business venture. We clicked immediately and I ended up staying for over a year. When I am in Turkey I live in the tiny Mediterranean seacoast village of Selimiye. I look out my windows upon the blue vista of the Mediterranean washing up against the mountain shores. The sun is brilliant, the people are friendly and helpful, and life moves at an easy, peaceful pace.

Because of what seems like an epidemic of paranoia in the world today, visa restrictions are ever increasingly rigid. Upon my last return to Romania I found, much to my heartbreak, that there are astronomical hurdles to clear now if I want to stay longer than 90 days at a time. I am beginning a serious inquiry into obtaining a long term visa, or perhaps one day even a dual citizenship. All I have to do for that is learn to read and write Romanian!! EEEK!

Fortunately I have made many loving and solid connections in Turkey and though it looks like I will be traveling back and forth between Turkey and Romania in 90 day stints, I have friends and a secure place to light in both countries.

As soon as I can find a workable way of posting a photo gallery of my home in Turkey on my blog, I will load more pix. I hope you enjoy them and be as delighted as I am to see the great beauty here.

Below you see the Yacht Shangri-La, the white boat toward the end of the jetty, belonging to my friend and business associate Captain Allen Cox. She originally belonged to Robert Mitchum. Spent many idyllic hours there bobbing in the water, and sometimes we believe we hear Robert still puttering around the deck.

Shangri-La Off The Jetty

Where I live when I am in Selimiye. Jo Tempest has become a dear friend and invaluable partner in our internet marketing activities. This lady is the finest article writer I know and I am incredibly lucky that we work together.

Jo's Apartment and My Selimiye Home

And we must not forget “The Girls,” and their guardian Sultan, who serenades me under my window and bays at the brilliant Turkish moon.

Sultan And His Harem

Internet Marketing Advantages

Internet marketing is an effective and affordable form of marketing. Both the automotive industry and television have benefited from this method of marketing. Lenders, in search of customers for auto loans, have used Internet marketing to capitalize on the millions of Internet users who research products online. Many investors are considering the approach as a viable way to increase business revenue.

In 2008, PRNewswire revealed that Americans spend on average eight hours researching a car purchase. In contrast, they only spent five hours researching a home loan, even though homes are typically the largest and most expensive purchases that Americans will make. According to a 2010 Kelsey Group report, 97% of consumers use the Internet to research products and services in their local area.

By contrast, in 2010, Pew Research Center found that nearly 58% of adults have researched a product online. To be conservative, the smaller percentage will be used. Given this fact, then potentially 58% of people are spending up to eight hours on the Internet researching a car purchase. Internet marketers have ample opportunity to advertise and initiate an auto loan online or vehicle sale online.

Internet research is the easiest way to receive information if the consumer has a computer and an Internet connection. For this reason, Internet marketing has grown in popularity. Internet marketing is cheaper than traditional television and billboard advertising. Furthermore, this form of advertising is targeted towards individuals that are interested in the product companies are attempting to sell.

By evaluating the websites that consumers have visited, the companies can advertise based upon the previous visit. If the Internet user searches for auto for sale online, the algorithm can assume that the individual may also need an auto loan and advertise lenders that can provide auto loans. Marketing dollars are not wasted when companies advertise to a person that has an interest in a related product.

Though targeted advertising is a way to help companies maximize their marketing budgets, business owners must also recognize that each week a frequent Internet user, driver or television viewer could view 150,000 advertisements in a single week. Though not all may be related to auto loans, many Internet users become desensitized to the advertising. Companies should invest in Internet advertisements that will entice their customers to click and buy the product that is advertised.

With traditional advertising, there is no easy way to measure success of the marketing campaign. With Internet marketing, the results are immediate. Furthermore, companies can easily track the results of the campaign to determine how to improve their strategy. Companies may use direct targeted advertising or interactivity with customers through surveys, quizzes, blogs and contests.

Online advertising allows customers to gather demographic information such as age, gender, occupation, hobbies, income and educational level. This cannot be easily conducted with a television advertisement, and it is nearly impossible with a billboard. Nielson requires a lot of effort to gather information about a television program. With the Internet, the information may be gathered immediately in real time.

Internet marketing has opened so many doors for small businesses and older businesses that needed to refresh their business model. Internet marketing has the potential to significantly increase revenue and also save the company marketing dollars. To maintain a company’s competitive advantage, Internet marketing should be considered. Many companies are realizing a significant increase in sales as a result of Internet marketing.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another way that companies may increase revenue online. SEO techniques increase the amount of traffic to a company’s website. Many companies found that in an economic slowdown, the Internet will yield the most return as people are conserving money, trying to save money and save on fuel costs. At the height of the economic recession in 2009, Shop.org revealed in the State of Retailing Online Marketing Report through Forrester Research that retailers are investing more in the Internet than in other marketing areas to reduce spending.

Companies are increasing the amount they spend on SEO techniques, email and social marketing. The retailers interviewed for the Shop.org survey predicted that online retail would withstand the economic down turn better than traditional retailers. Eighty percent of the retailers interviewed agreed. While sales in other channels slowed, Internet sales increased or remained steady.

Based on this information, more opportunities to earn an income in graphic design, SEO, article writing and blogging will be available as the demand for Internet marketing increases. Economic recession is good for these businesses.

Kathleen Hubert is a blogger who writes on a variety of different sites. Check out more of her work at Auto Loan.

Bill Hayward Sings

Hello all my friends,

I have recently met Bill Hayward, a “retired” 80s rock singer from the UK. He has a beautiful and powerful voice…quite amazing really… and I talked him into letting me have a track of one of his songs from 1986. Here is Bill Hayward in an 80′s track he wrote. Bill, I’m so blessed to meet you and get to hear you sing live now.  The stories he can tell!!! And What a Voice!!!

Click on the Link Below

It’s Only Money

William Hayward 1980s

This week William Shatner turned 80 years old! I was in high school and already a hard core scifi fan when Star Trek exploded onto the culture. From that moment I also became a hard core Trekkie, and yes, Trekkie, not Treker. I have attended many Star Trek conventions, and was blessed to meet all of the crew. I am an unapologetic Star Trek geek.  It has been pure joy to have Bill Shatner present on earth for all of this time. Happy Birthday Bill, and keep havin’ em.

Here is a video tribute and typical fandom foolishness regarding “International Talk Like William Shatner Day,” established by the inimitable famous voice artist Maurice LaMarche (Futurama, The Simpsons and the legendary Brain in Pinky and the Brain). Maurice decided that William Shatner’s birthday would hence be known as “International Talk Like William Shatner Day.” I predict this will be come a religion!

Have fun with this!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOGkDsH0OsI

Patch Adams

Every great once in awhile we have the great good fortune to cross paths with a true human. Patch Adams is a bright and shining light and I want to share this video with you. It is 16 minutes long. Do yourself a kindness and give it your full attention. He speaks of his work and his goals before a large group, and the progress on The Gesundheit Institute and its model of holistic medical care. We would do well to demand it as our health care system model, and restore our system to sanity.

You will come away on fire to seize life and live your song. Patch is a pure testament to the power and grace that comes from living a life of unwavering alignment with one’s mission on Earth. Enjoy!

I Must Not Fear

In the great American novel Dune, author Frank Herbert gave us the Bene Gesserit, an exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning, to rise to extraordinary abilities. I have  never forgotten their “Litany Against Fear.”

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

There are times when we all feel fear. In these days, there seems to be plenty of good reasons. So many of us are facing major life changes, major losses. And we wonder how we will get through, how we will come out on the other side intact. Some mornings we awake and it all hits, seemingly right in the gut. It can feel like a physical blow. And we think, how can I have a productive day today when it is starting out like this?

Coping with fear is an essential personal skill. Many years ago I took the EST Training. Some of you might remember it. One thing I came away with that has stood me in good stead in the years since was the idea that it is possible to have a thought or a feeling and do nothing about it. I was young then, and that was a new idea. You mean I could feel frightened, or angry, or desperate about something, and just let it be?

I really soaked this up then, and it allowed me to go through the coming decades with a kind of strength I had not had before. I could just let those thoughts and feelings be there and keep doing what I was doing, what I had committed to, what I had given my word for. It was not necessary to act it out, make changes, or do anything, solely because of the urgency of  the feeling. I could choose, rather than be driven to act.

Fear is a part of our lives. The question we have to ask ourselves is, have we developed the ability to choose when to act on it, or does it drive us like a deer bolting from a noise? No doubt it is a wretched feeling, something we naturally want to escape. But often the circumstances that are generating the fear persist, and are nothing we can change. So we are left with the feeling. Then the moment of choice comes. Will I go on or will I let this cripple me? Will I keep putting one foot in front of the other, or will I make self-destructive choices?

The one constant in life is change. And this too shall pass. “And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”