Hey, Internet marketing chump. Looks like you've been fooled again. You must like it!

  by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

 Author's program note. I can't stand it another minute, Poopsie. I just cannot  stand by and let you fail for even one more minute. Because today, like yesterday,  and all the days before, you are going to fail; you are not going to make a single  penny from that joke you call your online "business".

 Instead by day's end when you've racked up another day of chump change, you'll  be worse off... a day wasted, a precious day you could have used to get ahead,  now in the cosmic trash can... clueless on how to get out and make the money you  say you want. Look at  yourself closely in the mirror right now... that's one poor puppy  staring back at you.... pale, wan, hapless, helpless, pathetic, disgusting. And this is  the guy you expect to lead the victory parade? LOL! LOL! LOL!

 It's time for your Internet marketing make-over... It's time to own up to and  grasp what you are doing (the stuff that doesn't work) and what you must do (if you  expect to have any chance of online success at all).

 Let's get started with a cool tune that pretty well summarizes the mess you're  in, the mess you'll stay in if you don't follow sensible advice and make a radical  change.

 ""Fooled Again (I Don't Like It") 

 Go to any search engine now.  Find the tune and set it on the highest decibels,  for you're about to fly. Put up your collar... find those ultra cool shades you sheepishly  wore just once... wear them like the symbol of insolence and impertinence they were  meant to be ... now move that arthritic body... for babeeeeee, you are about to astonish  the world;  Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers -- plus one extra guy looking remarkably  like... me -- are about to help you out of the sad situation you just can't seem to shake  .  The song is "Fooled Again (I Don't Like It"). Recorded in (1971, it was what rock  was all about... attitude... edge... in your face... don't tread on me, maggot...  stand back world and prepare to be astonished, I've got the ticket to ride.

 Now belt out the lyrics that pretty much summarize your entire Internet experience...

 "Looks like I've been fooled again/ Looks like I'm the fool again/ I don't like it,  I don't like it."

 Now hear this... you're not just singing a tune... you're announcing the advent of  the new regime... the regime where you're a successful online marketer, not just  some luckless schlepper, kick-me sign always on your back side, the guy it's  oh-so-easy to ridicule, disdain, and dismiss. You can always feel sorry for these  toads, but you can never, ever respect them. And that's why you don't  just need  to scream "I don't like it". You've got to do something to turn the fiasco you call  Internet marketing around... and at once!

 Try these suggestions on for size.

 1) STOP doing what you're doing. It doesn't work. Can't work. And the silliest  thing is that you ever thought it would work. The great thing about the 'net is how  easily you can test your ideas, thoughts and suppositions to see how well they  work, indeed to see whether they work at all.  For you see, something that doesn't  work today is not going to work tomorrow. Thus, experimentation is and must  always be the order of the day, every day. If you won't test, you won't succeed.
 2) Get trained. In my role as an Internet success counselor at Worldprofit Inc,  have had occasion to train, work with, and nudge thousands of people worldwide  over the last 20 years.

 Nudge? What that means is not just setting the objective and teaching folks how  to achieve it... but to keep each student's nose to the grindstone, keeping them  focused, accepting absolutely no excuses, including absolutely no "special pleading"  where the candidate offers "reasons" why she didn't do what she was pledged to do:  following each and every step, no ifs, ands, or buts.

 Your nudge is an essential part of your success team, and though I say it myself, I  am the best nudge on Earth, the least easy to deceive and hide from, unrelenting,  never losing sight of the goal, more determined to see you successful than absolutely  anyone except  your mother. You'd be exceptionally lucky to work with me, and that's  a fact.

 So, I ask you. Who's helping you set goals, brainstorm means of reaching them,  reviewing results to see what worked and what didn't, and always ensuring you  stay on track? Yeah, I thought so. You're not doing it, no one is helping you do it.  You're not focused on results, no one is helping you get focused. Thus your results  are non existent, just the way they have always been. What an embarrassment!  Have you got any self-respect?

 3) You have no list and are not doing the consistent, strenuous work it takes to grow  one. This one's a real killer.

 For the last over 40 years now I've been telling my students, beating it into their  often amazingly resistant brains that "the list is the business, the business is the  list."

 How important is your list? Say there's a fire in your office. What would you  grab first to save? Inventory? No, inventory is easily replaceable. Your computer?  No worry here. Easily replaceable again.  (You do back up, don't you?) That picture  of your mother-in-law; you know the one that confirms her near perfect resemblance  to a rare genus of ancient lizard? (Please try to be serious.)

 The correct answer, of course, is your list. It is essential, irreplaceable, unique.  It's loss would be catastrophic, a body blow from which you might never recover.  And that is why "the list is the business, the business is the list." The $64,000  question just this: What did you do today to build your list and turn it into the huge  money-making tool you require to make the big bucks you say you want and haven't  got a clue how to get. Self-deception, self-deceit, self-delusion. This is what you're  specializing in and your thread-bare results give ample testament about just how  successful you've been... and will always be. That better make you happy, because  that, lamb chop, is what you're going  to get.
 4) How are your copywriting skills? Can you write the words that dance and  thrill, the words that make people from Alabama to Beijing jump up and shout,  causing even the deadest heart to beat faster, faster, faster still? You'd better  be, because otherwise you're in for a lifetime of significance expense, since  top copywriters command top dollars... the dollars that come straight out of your  pocket; so sad for you but absolutely necessary if you expect to have ad copy  that pulls the more lucrative response.

 Of course knowing you, you'll try to conjure the magic words yourself; anything  to save a penny. But that, as you'll quickly learn, just won't cut it... words without  the wizard's legerdemain, without the magic, produce dismal results... and that  just won't do unless you like endless outflow and driblets of income, few and  far between. This is your certain fate when you turn down demonstrated experts  and attempt to do their crucial job yourself. Sucker.
 5)  Trying to build a money-making business off of "free"? Are you one of the  hundreds of millions of would-be entrepreneurs online this very moment who is  making -- and every single day, too -- the critical, fatal error of trying to make  money off "free stuff" to be found online? If so, listen up. That is IMPOSSIBLE,  can't be done, and only wastes your time and energy. Did you hear me? The  extent to which you want Internet success without reasonable investment is  the extent to which you will fail, absolutely, positively, guaranteed.
 Now for the real craziness. Day after futile day would-be entrepreneurs and  Internet marketers enter the Live Business Center at Worldprofit.com. They  are told, clearly, honestly, politely, thoroughly what they need for success...  and go right out  to do the EXACT reverse, ensuring failure, DOA. The Internet  has empowered these sad creatures, each a candidate for spam, rip-off, certain  loss and every variety of bamboozlement.

 Why does this happen to so many so often with such miserable results?  Because the typical 'net entrepreneur is the very model of sloth, laziness,  avarice. They want wealth without effort; magnificent results without knowing  how to get them; falling victim over and over again to those who find victimizing  these foolish people a piece of cake; integrity, honesty and old fashioned  business standards and acumen the first to perish in such a pernicious  environment; once gone, gone forever.

 Must it be this way? Certainly not. Failure as much as success is a choice.  Now it's time for you to make the right decision at last.

 Visit me in the Live Business Center at worldprofit.com where we work together  in a giant worldwide team so that you have expert assistance 24/7/365 advising,  counseling, guiding, reassuring, all accomplished in an environment of  professionalism and good fellowship. This is the proven way to substantial  financial wealth, a unique place online for people who have not hitherto seen  such benefits, much less so fast or certain. It's good, isn't it, to "see you think so  much of me"? What's more, unlike Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, you'll never  be fooled again, and you'll surely like that!

About the Author

 Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of a dozen printed publications, several ebooks and over one thousand online articles on a variety of topics including internet marketing. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com

Last days of the egregious Evan Dobelle, still hanging in there as president of Westfield State University... to the embarrassment of everyone but... Evan! A cautionary tale.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

 Author's program note. The summer of '13 was blown out of town yesterday, winds  gusting, the rains torrential, a whole forest of venerable oaks and maples cast  down into the ancient soil of New England, a scene from Currier and Ives... or  Norman Rockwell, the man from the Saturday Evening Post whose eye for  gen-u-wine Americana was never wrong, cherishing as he did our stern verities  and picturesque mores.

 Yes, fall has come to New England and with it whole brigades of eager-beaver  students who come to crack the  occasional book... and to attend the virtually  non-stop parties that make Ol' P.U. such a satisfactory place to pass one's  uninhibited, gloriously misspent salad days. Rah-rah-rah!

 These students, particularly the ones at places like Westfield State University in  bucolic, entirely forgettable Western Massachusetts who attend an institution so  little known that it and its glamor starved students couldn't even be forgotten,  never having reached the eminence of "Where did you say you go to school?"

 Admit it, Westfield State University is a place you never heard of until recent events...  that's ok. Even though I live just a hop, skip, and a jump from its hallowed halls I'd hardly  ever heard of it myself... that  is until its born-again adolescent president Evan Dobellle  took over; a hot wire who never met a  party he didn't insist on attending, never mind it  was a couple thousand miles away.

 As for cost, no problem. He could authorize up to $500,000 without board approval;  $200,000 with a university funded credit card. With so much virtual cash in hand,  he was the chief cheerleader; masquerading as chief executive, his objective clear:  let's parteeeeee.

 Thus he placed the hicks of Westfield State in the middle of the biggest scandal  they have ever had since their inception in 1838. It is a scandal that should  never have take place and wouldn't have taken place had the Board of Trustees  not been asleep at the switch. For the truth is, the real scandal here is not that  Evan Dobelle does the shocking, selfish, self-aggrandizing thing at every opportunity.  That's what Evan Dobelle has specialized in throughout his roller coaster career.

 The scandal is that every time the board could have ditched Evan by the side of  the road, their problem no more, they didn't act... thereby ensuring bigger and  more costly problems to come, until the entire campus at Westfield State was  involved, its esteemed trustees at each other's throats, politicians up to  and including His Excellency Deval Patrick the governor, ordinarily so  bored and distant from his duties we could easily forget we even have a  governor... all these wasting time and money because Dobelle passed his day  wasting time and money, for he was a past master of that razzmatazz.

 The music.

 Before we dig further into the matter of the beguiling, fast-talking, "Hi, it's me,  Evan, your BBF" thing, I want you to watch a clip from the 1963 film "Cleopatra",  the amazing  and mind-bogglingly expensive movie featuring Elizabeth Taylor  and Richard Burton.

 Like Evan their objective was never to work; work is for other people;  the people who don't know anything about how to live right, that being  interpreted as the complete unwillingness to behave responsibly, to do the  good thing, the right thing, the thing that will help the maximum number of people  and inconvenience the least. It goes without saying that this is not how Dobelle  thinks... or anyone whose universe begins and ends with ME FIRST... as his so  obviously, so flagrantly... so totally and completely does.

 At this point, you should go to any search engine and find a magnificent film  clip from "Cleopatra", specifically when the great (and greatly self indulgent)  queen of Egypt sails down the Nile to meet the great (and greatly self  indulgent)  Marc Anthony... both pledged to secure and enjoy a world entirely  focused on them, their wants the only ones that counted.

 Thus, as  you watch this clip, think Evan Dobelle and how very lucky he was  first to inherit, then to shape a pliable board of trustees so beguiled by Dobelle  and whatever pop foolishness came out of his mouth that they allowed him every  license, every privilege, the increasingly irresponsible Evan aided and abetted  at all times by the board and its increasingly irresponsible members, their very  timidity the most regrettable feature of all.

 For if Dobelle was already tainted when he arrived at Westfield, the university's  board ensured he would get worse as he battened and grew fat on their very  limited resources using for personal trifles and whims money clearly earmarked  for educational programs and scholarships, in due course bankrupting them.

 As Massachusetts Inspector General Glenn A. Cunha reported it was all done "indiscriminately with little or no consideration" for its intended purpose. In  pre-revolutionary France such people were branded with the single letter "V",  for "Voleur". Unfortunately, our advanced civilization does not allow such  directness or honest labeling.

 It is time to review the Board's many opportunities for curtailing the Dobelle parasite  so destructive in every feature, fatal if not eradicated.

 Item: The board's presidential search program was clearly flawed. The board,  of course, now says that Dobelle was the best of a crop of not particularly stellar  candidates. In such cases, it makes more sense to appoint an interim  president and re-open the search. The alternative chosen by the board put in  office in 2007 a man whose entire career was shadowed by frequent,  vivid, detailed and entirely credible reports of mismanagement and financial  chicaneries. No doubt members of the search committee hoped Dobelle had  changed his M.O. How naive! Does the leopard change his spots? And so the  hot potato was kicked upstairs to the full board.

 Item: At this point  it would have been easy to derail Dobelle's express towards  the $250,000 a year job he coveted. A few phone calls to senior administrators, at  say, his previous trough the University of Hawaii, would no doubt have yielded a  bumper crop of doubts and hesitations... thereby saving Westfield from all the costly mistakes and errors which have followed. The trustees gambled, however, and  Westfield lost. It was to become a habit, deleterious, out of control.

 Item: Given the fact that Dobelle was hired to raise funds for scholarships and  for various educational  programs designed to sharpen Westfield's edge in a  very competitive market, wouldn't you think it advisable for the board to appoint  oversight committees, the better to understand and guide the process, ensuring  the desirable results? But this was not the sensible path they selected. Instead their  policy here as elsewhere was "Let Evan do it"... and so the folly was well and  truly afoot.

 Boards do this, of course, because they are composed of busy people and like the  self-congratulatory kudos better than work and, besides, they reckon their president  can walk on water... like he said he could.  Ol' Evan is a caution alright and if there  are no results, it surely couldn't be because he didn't know squat about fund raising,  although he always talked a good game.

 And throughout it all, Dobelle squandered, all on that overworked credit card some  over trusting worthies on the board gave him... as the bills came in, they worried.  Evan never did. "It takes money to make money". "You've got to be patient." And the  granddaddy of all, "Rome wasn't built in a day".

 It was malarkey, but the grandiloquent Evan could charm the shoes off your feet... and  sell them back to you at twice their cost. What's more, you'd be glad to cough up, to  help such an enterprising lad along. Problem is, this "lad"  is now 68... and because of  the high visibility scandal at Westfield, following tarnished records at other institutions, therefore unemployable... and that promises a real imbroglio. His quiet exit from  Westfield, you see, is his last major asset, a cushion for his old age.

 Evan predictably says he won't leave; intends to stay forever. He would. He  gets money from impoverished and hurting Westfield by the day. At this point  a majority of the board wants him gone... but, incredibly, he still has his  adherents, people still dazzled by Dobelle and his visions; (think Cleopatra's  royal barge and its flashy opulence, all paid by credit.) What a show!

 Bit by bit this slow-moving, lethargic, irresponsible, timid board will get its act  together and push the flagrant Dobelle to leave. He's a street fighter, however;  he'll threaten a lawsuit citing irrevocable damage to his "reputation", as he did at  the University of Hawaii, a very nasty business from which he emerged with millions.  The board better get themselves a real good Boston attorney prepared for sturm  und drang.

 Evan will in due course go... his saddlebags filled with whatever he can  carry,  including all the plastic cutlery in the cafeteria. He'll no doubt  have the best  reasons in the world for taking it. Some poor sap will believe him. Thus the  phoenix that is Evan Dobelle may well rise again. After all, as P.T. Barnum  once memorably said, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Author's note.

 This is the second of a two-part series about  President Evan Dobelle and
 the scandals in his administration at Westfield State University, Westfield,
 Massachusetts. For the first part, go to jeffreylantarticles.com and search
 on Dobelle, Westfield, etc

 About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of over a dozen print books, several ebooks, and over one thousand online articles on a variety of topics.  Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com

A commentator's anniversary, three years, one thousand articles, more than two million words, one man's work, his vocation, his bliss.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

 Author's program note. This is an article of joy and celebration, of luck and  commitment, of cold nights, nimble fingers on the key board, and of a wrestling  with words, from which God willing emerges a case clearly understood, clearly  argued, clear to all.

 It is an article extolling hard work and the rightful pride that comes from  a job well done, that is to say a job that is based on unending, meticulous  research, on precise words precisely rendered, on fairness, on boldness,  audacity, and risk, for no commentator wishing to rise to reputation, eminence  and renown can tackle only the easy subjects, the light and airy subjects that  make readers chuckle over their morning toast, only to be forgotten at once and  forever.

 This is an article about vision, about truth, about integrity and of tackling the  difficult subjects, the subjects that rightly concern and alarm people of intellect  and reason; people who rely on commentators to represent them and their desire  for a better world.

 It is the commentator's task to rouse, motivate, anger, chastise, warn, engage,  outrage, admonish and always to educate; it is his righteous task to point to where  injustice lurks and where there is a worthwhile difference to be made... then summon  the words in all their power, force, and majesty to make certain it will be.

 It is an article that reminds readers that "retirement"  blights, eviscerates life  and leaves one discontented, de trop, the intellectual edge gone, the need no longer  apparent for getting out of bed to undertake something significant, noble, even  sublime;  saving a disconsolate child or a desolate nation the grand work which is our metier.

 In the beginning there was the word... and it was no doubt published as an article.

 I cannot recall a single day of my life when words and I were not in the closest  possible communion, producing my first published article when just 5, over 61 years  ago, then many thousands of articles (and many books, too). This is not to say, of course,  that there were days, and not rare, when the words and I were not on speaking terms,  each determined, before making up again, to cause infinite trouble and the kind of  acute irritation only one who knows you well can connive and render just so for acute  misery.

 The music.

 Before I go further into the arcane world of articles and commentators and my particular  niche, I recommend you visit any search engine and listen to the film score of Orson  Welles' 1941 classic "Citizen Kane" so closely based on newspaper king William  Randolph Hearst, their spittle was deemed identical. Certainly the score by cinema  master Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) caught the larger than life publisher, at once  mesmerizing, grandiloquent, sophisticated, grand as a white-tie evening at the opera;  his faults as magnificent as his carefully promoted merits... a commentator's dream  come true... But then a seasoned commentator could take a grain of sand and using  it as the seed draw forth the rich lands of Egypt and the Nile and their mighty and  glorious caravans. That is what I learned to do day by day, word by word, article  by article; eager to learn; eager to share.

 Scribbler, the early years.

 >From the eminence of breaking into print at the hoary age of five, it was all up, up,  and away. A string of editorships in high school; the school's paper, literary magazine,  and class book and... importantly... a weekly column. That column continued in  college... and it continued after I graduated from graduate school. Life for me was  an intricate game of dreaming up subjects of importance, researching and writing  them, then sitting pretty "having written", as my mother said, the happiest state in  the cosmos.

 When you add to this demanding agenda the fact that in those days I wrote a book a  year (the text to be finished, significantly, by July 4, Independence Day), had a  syndicated radio show, published the nation's largest card deck each quarter AND  taught at a rotating roster of over 30 colleges, you may believe that life was hectic,  needing efficiency, energy, precise timing, and the legerdemain that all true wizards  possess, magic I had and to spare.

 60, bone tired, art, and a man named Kosch.

 One more thing must be added to the agenda of "things that must be accomplished"  and that was my burgeoning collection of European art and artifacts. This is important  for several reasons, including fulfilling a lifelong ambition. As my collection grew (rather  like how Hearst's grew, with exuberance, frenzy, and a wide net) it soon became  obvious that I needed to remodel my home to accommodate my frequent acquisitions...  and so began over 5 years of discomfort, dislocation, and disarray, which is to say the  usual chaos, confusion and constant expense which are the true expertise of any  remodeler and what may loosely be called his "craft".

 During this exhausting period I exhibited all the signs of a distressed individual  enthralled by marauders, systematic fleecing being their goal and daily task,  the host to be kept alive and trapped until the parasites have eaten everything. My  blood sugar soared, my mood was as variable as New England's famously  changeable weather, and when I had to move into a hotel for the last several weeks,  I knew things had reached a nadir...

 Needless to say during this time of self-induced troubles, my writing suffered; there  was much to write about but my habits were injured along with everything else. The  man of words wondered whether the last one had been written. And then George  Kosch entered the picture.

 George is a brilliant inventor of practical business and traffic generating software.  He has a knack for knowing where the 'net is growing and therefore is able to  invent the next sapient application... and the one after that; in short, he is just  the fellow you want on your team if online profit is your goal, just as the third partner  and co-founder of Worldprofit.com, Sandi Hunter, has demonstrated the patience  of Job and the soothing touch of Mother Teresa in keeping customers worldwide  happy and promptly served.

 One day George asked me if I would write a couple of articles for our promotions  and blogs. My reply speaks volumes for my emotional state: no, I said. But George  is a clever guy and he persevered... just write a couple, he said; you know you can  knock them out fast. Here's where I shall be forever grateful to him... for he knew  that I would only be truly happy marshaling words to influence people. Then he  clinched the deal by saying I could write about anything... "Anything?" I asked with  a whiff of suspicion. "Yes, anything," he responded... and the deal was struck  which in time gave members of Worldprofit.com over 1000 articles on a huge number  of subjects... 1000, I might say, and counting. In short, I was given at the precise  moment I needed it, an entirely new career at once challenging, exciting, worthwhile  and pace setting, inventive, developing new ways to use words and change history.

 Item: Ample space for developing a line of reason, nothing hurried, rushed or given  the shortest of shrifts. As newspapers cut the amount of space dedicated to commentary,  my articles, at least 1500 words, revived the personal essay so much a part of our glorious  literature; supremely correct for the man who called himself The Master of the Lyric Words.

 Item: Worldprofit personnel, called Monitors, were taught to read the articles  with meaning, eloquence, proper pacing and verve thereby reaching millions of people  through Worldprofit's Live Business Center who heard therein the Master's masterful  prose rendered by the most artful of instruments, the human voice.

 Item: A  Writers Team was established, staffed by Monitors who assist me daily  find critical facts and details; a team every writer that sees it envies.

 Item: Music was added to every article, thus enhancing the impact of each piece  as well as its instructional value.

 Item: No punches were ever pulled. Where an article called for emotion, pain,  even anguish and profound humanity, these were summoned and used. The goal  at all times truth... the most difficult subject of all.

 Item: Images were added to every article, again adding a new dimension.

 Item: Flowers talked about their point of view; animals voiced their pleas for survival,  as important to the planet as humans and given far less attention. All were real,  not cartoons. Thus what they said was never sweet and superficial, but as vital  and genuine as necessary to make their case as planetary co-voyagers, their  sentiments as significant as ours. This, too, was new.    As the articles began to appear, so did the warm response of readers worldwide, a  response George Kosch monitored until he was ready to assist the process by  inventing software that enables folks to create e-books in three minutes, video articles  in less than a minute, and blog postings even faster. It was all Kosch, all Worldprofit.com,  all good; all the content freely produced  for and given to the members of our  unique community.

 "The last of life for which the first was made."

 I am asked more often than most just when I shall retire. My answer comes from Edgar  Allan Poe's raven, "Nevermore" and from the celebrated words above from Robert  Browning, always quoted with reverence and affection by my mother.

 Under the circumstances to retire, having been handed just the task for which everything  in my fruitful life has prepared me would be deeply remiss and completely irresponsible.  Why unless held at gunpoint would one stop the benefits of a broad education at  several of the world's most famous universities; worldwide travels; a practical affability that  makes human contact easier and more productive; words without stint and proven ability to  add more to the language...

 ...all this diminished upon traditional "retirement", cast aside, along with great gifts and tools  to stay always and forever young in mind and out look, always grateful to learn, even more  grateful to share with readers who have given the emoluments of interest, intelligent response,  and praise sufficient and lavish. It is indeed all good, a garden worth tending for all the days of  my life, for the benefit of all, whether they know it yet or not.

 Envoi.
About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of over a dozen print books, several ebooks and over one thousand online articles on a variety of topics. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com

How To Profit From Facebook Marketing - Tips To Use Now

Corporations and chain restaurants have already taken advantage of Facebook marketing to spread the word about what they have to offer, but small business owners can use it too! Use this marketing tool to benefit instead of ignoring its power in every day life. Read this article for helpful tips!

Use tools to measure the power of your Facebook marketing. There are all sorts of tools out there these days to help give you an idea of how potent your Facebook marketing is. You could take a look at something like Sprout Social as a paid service or simply check out your Klout score to see if your efforts seem to be moving the needle.

Fill in the blank posts are a great way to get your subscribers engaged. You should use this technique to ask your subscribers about their favorite products or their location. Test this method and count how many subscribers comment on this update. This is also a good way to learn more about your audience.

Once you create a Facebook account, it is very important for you to be quite active. If you never post any content, how can you expect people to remain interested. Videos, pictures and regular postings are just a part of what you will need if you want to do well on Facebook.

Be very careful when using humor in posts on your wall that you don't offend anyone. While you may think what you're posting is cute or funny, others may take offense and your reputation could suffer. Pass any humorous posts by a few people before you post them publicly on your page.

You should choose a strong argument to convince customers to subscribe to your social media updates. People need to see a value in joining your Facebook marketing campaign. You could for instance offer a small immediate discount to the customers who subscribe to your Facebook campaign before completing an order.

When you are choosing a Facebook URL, make sure you choose one that is very similar to the name of your business and/or your website. This will help you remain consistent with your branding. If people cannot find you very easily, they may become discouraged and look for a different business to work with.

Use videos to make your Facebook page even more engaging. Facebook is a really visual social media platform. It's much more visual than Twitter. Photos are great on Facebook, and videos can really be show stoppers. If you've got great videos to share, you can see your posts get a lot more likes!

Don't waste time trying to create viral posts every time. Facebook marketing isn't just about getting a post to become viral. That's sort of like spending your entire day searching for the needle in the haystack. It's a pretty big time waster. Instead concentrate on creating quality posts that people can appreciate. Let the viral thing happen on its own.

As said in the beginning of this article, Facebook marketing can benefit your business greatly. It's not only for corporations or other well-known venues, but can be used to benefit the mom and pop shops as well. Remember the tips in this article to use Facebook marketing for your benefit.


Ruthsella Corasol is the Owner of http://WorkingAtHome101.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

How To Pick a Legitimate Home Business Opportunity

You've seen the emails, the offers, the promises and the claims. Everyone it seems has a way to help you make money online.

But how do you know who you can trust? How do you know what system works? How do you protect yourself?  

The fact is that you CAN earn money online from legitimate sources, here's what to look for when picking an online business opportunity.

Products or Services with actual value

Many companies including large companies like Amazon and ClickBank offer what is known as an Affiliate marketing program, or sometimes called a Reseller program. This allows you to promote a company's products or services and earn a commission when a sale is made through your website link.   The key in knowing what is legitimate is to be sure you are actually promoting a real product, or a digital product, or an actually service.  Beware of selling anything that seems without substance, and has no real market value.   An example of something suspect would be getting paid to recruit people into a program who have not paid any money to do so.  All business online and off works when there is an exchange of money for a product or service.    Pyramid schemes exist online and off and are an example of focus on recruitment into a program rather then the sale of an actual product. In the case of a pyramid scheme, and example is someone paying to join a program but receives no product or service of REAL value in return.  In short, make sure that you are actually selling something of value. 


Customer Service and Support

Legitimate companies that sell actual products and services will support or service what they sell. In other words, good companies will have a Customer Support Department, or a Service Department or Technical Support division to assist customers who have either bought a product or intend to do so.    Reputable companies offer this support in any number of ways, online chat, support forums, Twitter, Facebook, telephone support, or online support.  


Time in business

Legitimate business opportunities most trustworthy are often those that have stood the test of time.  On the web it is very easy to set up a company, sell questionable products and services, then disappear into the night when the business practices come into question.   When picking an online business opportunity select a company that has been around for at least a few years. Companies that continue to exist are usually those that demonstrate an interest in keeping their customers happy, are accountable, and adhere to policy and legislation that permits them to provide a product or service.

Reputation

When picking a reputable business opportunity people will often look to review sites for feedback from others. This can offer you some interesting details about what people think about a company and how the company responds to complaints.  In reading the reviews though keep an open mind knowing that no company exists without complaints against it. Good companies that you would want to associate with, are those that try to address customer complaints or resolve issues brought to their attention.  People with an axe to grind will sometime post negative reviews and hide in the anonymity of that post.  So be  smart when reading review sites, and look for dates, patterns or themes and try to separate the intelligent comments from the less helpful and questionable ones.


Look before you leap

When you decide on which business opportunity you wish to join, be sure to take your time and read over what you are agreeing to before you sign on the dotted line or hit the submit button. Determine what your up front cost is, your monthly cost (if any), your ongoing cost? What happens if you want to cancel, is there a guarantee, or is there any long term obligation or a penalty for cancelling?  Find out how your sales will be tracked, how often will you paid, for which services and how will you be paid.

In summary, here are 5 questions to ask yourself for any company you are considering for a home business opportunity.

1. How long has the company been in business? What is their reputation?

2. What is the product or service you will be selling? What is the value in the market place? There should ALWAYS be a product or service being sold.

3. What is the initial cost to get started in the business? What do you get for that amount of money? What are the ongoing costs? 

4. What kind of support or service will you receive as an Affiliate Marketer or Reseller for the company to help you make sales? What kind of support of service will the people you refer receive when they make a purchase?

5. How much money are you paid by this company when you make a sale, how often, and how will your sales be tracked?  

These questions and information contained within are a guideline to help you make a smart decision about an online business opportunity that is right for you.

One final bit of advise. Once you have found a company to represent be sure to be realistic about your earnings and accept some responsibility for your own success.  At the end of the day, your success comes down to you, and your efforts.  It won't matter what business opportunity you select if you don't take the time to learn about the program, learn how to market online, and make an honest consistent effort to build your own success.

I hope this has helped you so you can select one or more legitimate companies and you can join the growing population of people making money at home using the power of the web.


About the Author Sandi Hunter is the President of Worldprofit Inc., a company providing training and support for small and home based business since 1994. Services include home business training, reseller programs, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.
 

Solidarity with Arianna Huffington and her timely views on user generated content and online 'trolls', the people who use anonymous comments to denigrate, destroy, defame and demoralize. Stand up and be counted as we make the Internet a far, far better place.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

 Author's program note. Over the course of the last three years, I have written  over 1000 articles of what I call "cultural commentary," that is on any subject  relating to mankind, our acts, thoughts, behaviors, works, triumphs, and tragedies.  These articles are read by over 1,000,000 people each month who visit me at jeffreylantarticles.com

 The subjects are timely, the research precise and thorough, the conclusions my  own... and always, always signed, never anonymous or signed with a nom de  guerre or "handle".

 Most readers are supportive, even lavish and fulsome about what I write, how  I write it and the essential fairness of my approach, the attempt to understand  different people's often astonishingly disparate (and fiercely antagonistic) points  of view. However, I adhere to severe standards.

 I must be fair, scrupulous, true to my subject and true to myself, not just a man  with an opinion but a man honorable about the facts at hand, even where I disagree  with them. I say anyone can have an opinion about anything, but commentary,  about any aspect of man and man's affairs, must be based on, sustained and  bolstered by rigorous fact and cool deliberation.

 Even so, there are readers who find my conclusions, however factual, however well  presented and unarguable they may be, disagreeable, enraging, infuriating, controversial,  irritating, and, because irrefutable, the more annoying and aggravating; sometimes rising  to the unhelpful level where reason and a reasonable response give way before the bitter  expletives of grammatically challenged and misspelled choler, anger, and  vulgarity; the  noxious tools of those who do not aim for respectful understanding or peaceful persuasion  but rather maximum hurt, as sharp and painful as possible, all covered by the cloak  of secrecy and anonymity; offering near total protection to the insidious perpetrators  who make the most destructive use of it. 

 Here is where the trolls reside... in the dark bowels of the 'net... a place where there is  no light, no harmony, no respect, no courtesy, no truth, no justice, the dangerous,  destructive and pernicious place where intentional man made mayhem and violence  of thought and action are the order of the day, every day.

 It is these people, the dregs of our species, capable of any outrage, any violation,  cruel for the sake of cruelty, inflicting random pain their constant study and endeavor,  their putrid minds taking joy from every wanton act good people abhor.

 It is time to curb and curtail these diseased creatures and their dark usages, for they  are the persistent, irrepressible enemies of civilization, carrying their malignant views  to the wide world via the Internet, a technology they purport to love but which their  disgusting behaviors, ignoble, unfettered, cowardly, abhorrent without any redeeming  social value, threaten. There is evil in these people who stand against everything that  makes a community work, whether online or off.

 "The March of the Trolls" ("Trolltog").

 Edvard Grieg (1843-1907 has captured the atmosphere in which these outrageous  trolls live and contrive their deadly works. The piece is "Trolltog", one of the 66 short  compositions for solo piano he wrote between 1867 and 1901 under the name  "Lyric Pieces". "Trolltog" is one of the most well known, short, brilliant, a work of  eerie perfection. You will find it in any search engine. Go now and listen. Grieg's  work is so evocative and precise you will not merely see the trolls at their outrageous  capers but even smell their acrid stench and rancid perspiration. Thus the stink rises  as they disport themselves, regaling each other with past outrages while bragging  about outrages yet to come, each designed to be more outrageous, more  offensive than the last.

 "May I hack him on the fingers?/ May I tug him by the hair?/  Hu, hey, let me bite him in the haunches!/Shall he be boiled into broth and  bree to me/ Shall he roast on a spit or be browned in a stewpan?/  Ice to your blood, friends!"

 Yes, Grieg captured the precise environment where evil in all its manifestations  can ferment until its irresponsible perpetrators decide it is ready to provoke maximum  pain and bitter outrage. They then release it... safe in the knowledge it can always be  delivered anonymously, their work certain to create pain... their part unknown, a  totally contemptible, irresponsible act; a crime against humanity; perpetrated against  all of us on the Internet which was invented to bring the world together, not empower  yet another means of keeping us divided and at odds, when instead we should all  be working for mutual understanding, respect, civility and the maximum unity possible.

 What Arianna Huffington has proposed.

 Here is how she opened her remarks at a recent conference in Boston, a city  well acquainted with the benefits and drawbacks of the Internet:

 "Trolls have become more and more aggressive and uglier. I feel that freedom of  expression is given to people who stand up for what they're saying and not hiding  behind anonymity." Such people have no desire to advance the discussion and  understanding about important aspects of any problem; their goal is nothing short  of destroying the necessary rules, procedures, protocols and recognized usages  for the useful dissemination of information.

 They hurt because they can hurt... the hurt helping no one, not even the offenders  themselves. They don't want to be part of a constructive dialog; rather, they aim to  destroy the environment in which such dialog can occur and the benefits that result  from sharing and cooperation.

 Huffington has announced that starting this month, readers of the Huffington Post  will no longer be able to post comments anonymously. They can still use their  handles, but they must register their real identities with Facebook before they can  comment. By thus forcing commenters to identify themselves, even if only behind  the scenes, Huffington hopes at least some of the most offensive comments will  be eradicated along with the bullying that has proliferated online; bullying which  would never be tolerated anywhere else, in any civic forum, where people might well  differ, but not to the extent of demonizing them, their unacceptable comments  worsened by shocking language and unadulterated anti-social thoughts, views and  actions.

 Is this the only constructive action that could be implemented now to advance the  solution to this worsening problem? Certainly not, nor does even Huffington say  so. But we must start somewhere, and for this we must thank Huffington, who has  always been a frank and informed voice on the benefits and drawbacks of the 'net,  and what must be done to effect improvements instead of giving way to despair and  a pervasive sense of "What can I do?" What indeed...

 How about an international conference on wiping out the trolls and eradicating  their baleful ways? There are plenty of online billionaires who could lend their  names and a few bucks to kick things off. Let's hear what the best and the  brightest have to say. It could only be instructive. Then let's mount a determined  Web wide cleansing operation. After all, as Edmund Burke said in 1770, "All that is  necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing". Let us be those good  men and women, each and every one of us.

 The issue of "free speech".

 The trolls, of course, will not go gentle into their good night. They will howl with  outrage and leave a trail of sulphur and the rawest and most malodorous  sewage.  That, after all, is their way and that will only change as we pick up the rocks under  which they exist and force them into the most radiant sunshine.

 As they are identified, they will scream bloody murder that they are being victimized,  that their intentions have been misreported and misunderstood and, above all else  that their right to free speech has been thwarted, trampled, twisted. For this moment,  we need one of the greatest of American jurists, a man of Harvard, of Cambridge,  and, above all, of common sense. We need Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Associate  Justice of the Supreme Court, 1902-1932, his proud sobriquet, "The Great Dissenter".

 In March, 1919 in the case of Schenck v. United States Justice Holmes spoke to the  issue of what constituted "free speech" and what restrictions, if any, might be allowable.  His common sense opinion entered the language: "The most stringent protection of  free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a  panic." Moreover, "The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which  it is done." By this standard anonymous defamatory messages where the subject can  get away with any amount of distress, yet be held responsible for not a single word,  cannot be called "free speech" but rather unaccountable license, proof unnecessary,  nothing attributed, whatever the subject and degree of rancor and accusation. "Free  speech" is not the question; responsible speech is.

 Thus consider this. Change the word "trolls" in this article to" Nazis", and you will  clearly see what must be done, what you must do. You would be outraged if Nazis  did what the trolls do. You would demand thorough immediate action.

 Thus, we must protect the maximum amount of responsible speech and destroy all  vestiges of hate speech and of those who use the 'net to deliver their anti-social views  and opinions; views and opinions safe-guarded by our sloth and the feeling that there  is nothing that can be done to improve matters. But there is and the ancient Greek story  of Pandora's box shows us the way.

 In classical Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on Earth. Zeus ordered  Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship, to create her. In due course, Zeus presented  Pandora to Epimetheus. She came with a beautiful container and instructions not  to open it for any reason. But of course she did, thereby freeing every evil, allowing  each to proliferate.

 This box, filled with malignities, is the Internet, where we may all find every evil any  time we go online. However, there is one last thing in the box, the thing that makes all  the difference. There is hope... hope that we may yet cleanse the menace and restore  its utility and integrity. That is what Arianna Huffington has done... and what each  of us must do. That is the power of hope, a power that can change the world if  we will but do what is so clear and necessary.


About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of over a dozen print publications, several ebooks and over one thousand online articles. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.

So, what is it about the great Volunteer State of Tennessee anyway... the land where evolution is suspect and activist judges like Lu Ann Ballew decide what name you can give your kid. This story's a lulu...

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

 Author's program note. The folks in Newport, Tennessee, (7,242 residents at  the time of the 2000 census) are hoping against hope that the old adage  about the only bad ink being no ink is true... because their fair metropolis  is today the butt of every joke, of sarcasms too nasty and ribald to be printed  here, and of enough raised eye-brows to keep barbers worldwide busy as  bees for as long as they live.

 Welcome to Newport.

 Newport is the kind of place where the movers and shakers gather at their  favorite greasy spoon after a long week-end of over eating and epic belches  and belt loosening to complain about the injustice that nobody but them knows  the virtues of their civic home, sweet home... if only the world and his brother  would drop by they'd see for themselves why this dogpatch of 5.4 square miles  is a little bit of heaven.

 Well, the Solons of Newport have now got their fervent wish... and as a result  are hiding out under verandas, in attics which are hot as a pistol in August, and  in some of the most beautiful and verdant acreage on God's green earth,  secret places where the connoisseurs of back yard hootch can so easily find  the white lightning, the liquid fortitude, the raw satisfaction that goes down like  silk and enlivens even the oldest bones; that was until just the other day their sole  claim to fame... but no longer.

 Now, thanks to a pair of squabbling parents who never met a subject on which  they agreed.... a ramrod stiff magistrate whose uptight rectitude and rock ribbed  certainties have made even her most avid supporters cringe with embarrassment...  and a bouncing baby boy of just seven months with a smile that just won't quit,  the Chamber of Commerce got its wish: the great wide world now most assuredly  knows Newport... and the truth of this old saw, "Beware of what you ask for, for  you may get it."

 The music. "Running Moonshine on Highway Nine."

 My, my have I ever found a great tune to accompany this article. It's a wisp  of a song titled "Running Moonshine on Highway Nine". You can find it in any  search engine and when you do, turn it right on and crank up the toe-tappin'  melody.

 It's a corker of a tune about the bold, fast-moving boys of Appalachia, the smooth  talkin', smooth drinkin' sons of the Great Smoky Mountains, kings of the blue  highways and the back roads that take you to nirvana, oblivion, and a headache  that reminds you the next morning just how good a time you had the night before,  and your race with the law; "out of the woods comes a cop named Jackson and  he tries to steal my action".... but to no avail.

 No flat footed ossifer can ever touch these boys, young, cocky, crazy jive-talking,  petal pushin' gods of the great ribbon of highway where the 'shine moves like  greased lightning and goes down like fire; the law nothing more than an  inconvenience, brushed off with cool nonchalance... just the way child support  magistrate Lu Ann Ballew handled her now famous (for all the wrong reasons)  case in Cocke County Chancery Court.

 The facts, stipulated, not in dispute.

 Jaleesa McCullough went to court because she and her husband just couldn't  agree on whose surname their now 7-month-old baby Messiah should get.  To end an argument that had lost its savor, they sought succor from the law,  which turned out to be magistrate Ballew.

 They expected Ballew to find a way to settle the matter through arbitration,  flipping a coin, pulling the solution out of a hat, or maybe using the well-known  slicing technique applied by King Solomon himself. But Ballew didn't do this;  instead when she saw the name of that sweet baby boy Messiah, she knew as  a Christian that wasn't right; that it was an outrage; that she had to do something  about it.

 And so magistrate Ballew, charged by the State of Tennessee to protect and  defend the Constitution of the United States promptly took action that outraged  that Constitution and defiled the rights of the bickering Martins. The Constitution  was explicit, the First Amendment clear: "Congress shall make no law respecting  an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...."

 Knowing this as we suppose Ballew did, she nonetheless first thought, then acted  thus:

 Messiah is a religious name earned by only one person, "that one person is  Jesus Christ" and that she must heed the higher authority, affronting her oath,  her mission, and the great Constitution from which her authority derives.

 Then she rendered judgement: that the boy Messiah could not have the name  his parents gave him, a name already held by hundreds of other boys; further,  that having expunged the name given by his parents, she, not they, would provide  his new legal name, Martin, thereby well and truly trampling on the parents, who  were now the victims of a magistrate who may have meant well but delivered  insult, controversy, not to mention a decision with absolutely no basis  in law,  precedent, logic, or natural right.

 It short it was nothing more than an ignorant, uninformed, intrusive judicial  authority imposing her prejudice on people who sought the benign assistance  of the court but instead were hurt, pained, disrespected and offended by it.  Thus was a writhing, wiggling, glistening, slithering can of worms opened.

 If not Messiah, what about Jesus?

 Once the judge rendered judgement, once the McCulloughs left the courtroom  chagrined and dismayed, once the media was alerted to this startling  failure to adhere to the Constitution and so render truth, not religious bias,  the Associated Press was on the case and the sharp questions began.

 Your honor, do you believe "Jesus" qualifies as a "suitable" name? Knowing  there were legions of honorable men and all-American boys of that name, the  magistrate took refuge in silence.

 And what of Mary, Marie, Maria, all named for the Virgin? And what of Joseph,  Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the plethora of other names, all Biblical? All  used by millions?

 The magistrate was now unavailable for further questions. She had gone to  ground, silent, anxious, worried, her very judicial appointment now in jeopardy,  because she interjected the affairs of God into the rights of citizens.

 The matter will, of course, be appealed; both McCulloughs agree on this if nothing  else. The magistrate, having erred so greatly, will be overruled and cold  shouldered even by those who concur with her outrageous position.  Tennessseans, you see, like winners and that magistrate Ballew most  assuredly is not.

 As for the citizens of Newport, they should stick to 'shine. There their skills are  unequalled and their product sublime.


About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of over a dozen print books, several ebooks and over one thousand online articles both fiction and non-fiction. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.

It’s been a long, a long-time coming.’ A man, a heart stronger than metal, his choice, our challenge, singing out to ensure that change is gonna come. The Louisville Interdenominational Male Chorus in its 27th year.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

 Author's program note. It has just gone 7 a.m. here in Cambridge. It is one of  those precious summer Sundays when the good people, the indispensable  people of the land are engaging in time sanctified slowness... the universal  desire to refresh, renew, recharge, recreation the order of the day, not revolution,  not even here in the citadel of revolution.

 The day promises to be sultry, kissed by sunshine, so choice that even fervid  movers and shakers, their every move calculated, deliberate, serious sit down  for a moment and allow themselves to be touched by the simple majesty of a pink  hedge rose, enriching every passer-by with the wanton liberality of its insinuating,  insistent, evocative and always joyous scent. But here's the important thing.

 Two years ago these flowers were not to be found in my neighborhood park,  the Common. They are only there now because one person decided to make it  a better and more soothing place by taking roots from another place alive with their  radiance, planting them in dead of night, thereafter giving them the water and  the tending required. A man. His task. His secret... and a happiness that comes  from making the world, even in such a small matter as this, a better place.

 You may guess who this horticultural benefactor was; I will neither confirm nor  deny. But I tell you this: the good folks of Louisville, Kentucky applaud such initiative  by emulating it... and this is the point of this article. That if there is to be change, you  must designate yourself as the change agent, selecting the work you must do to  change a world in constant need of revitalizing and thoughtful revisions.

 That is why for this article, I selected one of the most moving songs about change  ever written, not merely on the need for change, but the need for you to get up and help  make it happen. The song which you can find now in any search engine is "A Change Is  Gonna Come". It was written and recorded by Sam Cooke in 1964. It has been called  one of the most inspiring anthems of the Civil Rights Movement. And so it is... but we  have need of it now for so many other purposes. What good are anyone's civil rights  when we as a species are daily assaulting, by means various and pernicious, what  we must have to survive?

 "Oh, there been times that I thought I couldn't last for long/  But now I  think I'm able to carry on/ It's been a long, a long time coming  But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will."

 Thus sayeth the folks of the Louisville Interdenominational Male Chorus, making  a difference, note by melodious note, for over 26 years now. Here is their story...  and it's well worth the hearing.

 What must be done to bring about beneficial change.

 The world we inhabit today will not be the world we live in tomorrow. It is not just  that the verities we knew so well yesterday are in the process of transformation;  it is the verities of today which will not be the verities of tomorrow, whether we like it  or not.

 The first task, therefore, of mankind in general and each of us in particular, is to move  with change, keeping in step with the developing evolution of everything, for everything  is evolving, embracing as much as we can with optimism and joy rather than bemoan  and bewail the loss of the "good old days", the passing hours we lived in just the other  day, precious in our mind's eye but gone, gone forever, replaced and irrevocably so by  the change that is gonna come, the change that is, after all, nothing more than a bridge  to the change that grows out of the change, great and small, we make today.

 It is easy in these circumstances to feel insignificant, a person of no consequence,  no meaning, less even than a grain of sand in the midst of infinite time, space, and  eternity. Such a realization can easily lead to dismay, despair, and  demoralization.

 But this would be wrong... for the stupendous challenge of our life is to craft our  planet and every feature that distinguishes it, the goal perfection, the objective  crucial, the task glorious because it involves us all and calls upon us all to act, for  without the act there cannot be the achievement.    If the goal was not monumental and demanding, we should be cheated. We, all of  us, were created to rise above, then rise above again, our every sinew and muscle  required for the task at hand, a task that calls us from the pedestrian affairs  of daily life to be and act like the children of God that we are and must never forget,  no matter the difficulty of the road we must each trod... for this is the only road worth  traveling.

 How change comes.

 On August 29, 1983 a small group of reverend fathers assembled at the First  Congregational Methodist Church, their numbers few, their work necessary,  their steadfast determination notable and essential. They would make music,  holy music, thereby uplifting the people, disseminating the good news... and from  monies raised through their musical and charitable endeavors, they would help  as many meritorious students as possible attend institutions of higher learning,  education necessary if these students were to rise above their circumstances  and, in their turn, assist others not yet as fortunate as they now were.

 Thus from the First Congregational Church, Greater Salem Baptist Church, Little  Flock Baptist Church, Mount Nebo Baptist Church, and Portland Memorial Baptist  Church The Interdenominational Male Chorus was founded and a new light lit for  the churches, their pastors, their parishioners, the great city of Louisville, and mankind,  for a good idea that makes life better is never merely local and parochial but a good  deed and high example for the world at large which can only advance by such means,  a fact we can never forget.

 Two revered gentlemen, Brother Harry Brown and Brother Alfonso Vance, were  honored by their honorable colleagues; assigned to protect and foster the happy  idea and take particular responsibility for its success... and so they did. Thus they  acted from the first day as all the truly great people on this Earth have ever done;  they started, one foot after another, minute by minute, one day at a time, so are  the greatest goals achieved. Here was their unbeatable agenda:

 They committed... for without commitment there can never be greatness.

 They did more than their share... for change is always carried by the few... for the  good of the many.

 They urged the good people of Louisville to join them... for it is the undeniable  fact that those doing good have a responsibility to recruit those who might also  do good... if only they were asked to help. And asked again... and again... for you  cannot achieve maximum results if you ever take no for an answer.

 They listened to excuses. They didn't make them. When you work with people  you hear people's excuses. The excuses which diminish progress, or even stop  it all together: "I can't..."; "I'm sorry but..."; "I forgot...", "I'll be your best worker -- next  time" and all the rest. People become leaders because they disdain the making of  excuses as unworthy of them and their important mission.

 They covered for those who said they would do a certain thing, then failed to do it...  forcing the true believers, the people who nurtured and cared for the idea, to do more...  and to do it with the smile that was often under the circumstances deeply difficult  to summon, but always there notwithstanding, for heart is always part of the kit of  every one who works for change. For such a one there will always be heart... and  at just the precious moment most necessary. That is what is meant by the old  adage, "God helps those who help themselves". No one epitomizes this more  that William Buck, fighter, survivor, inspirer, man of the  cloth , my friend.

 Brief history of a man of courage, tenacity, faith and resolution.

 Of the many things I could tell you about William Buck, this one reaches the core of  the matter. He woke up this day in pain. He will go about his important business today  in pain. And he will go to bed tonight in pain. Yet this pain will not define this or any other  day; rather his determination to continue to effect the most positive of changes will. He  has pain; pain does not have him.That is the crucial difference and the reason his story  is worth attending to far beyond the confines of Louisville's Greater Shepherd Church,  (which he founded) and the New Jerusalem Baptist Church, where he acts as Assistant  Pastor, in his "retirement" years.

 Some of you will have been born with debilitating back problems like Pastor Buck.  Have they defeated... or empowered you?

 Some of you will have worked the most demanding and laborious jobs, the kind of  job that progressively destroys even the strongest of bodies. Pastor Buck did. Has it  defeated... or empowered you?

 Some of you will have become so enfeebled and weak that one day you missed  your step and fell helpless to the floor, all alone, no one to call, no means of calling  them... and so spent hour after excruciating hour alone with only your fears and the  name of the Lord to comfort and sustain you. Did the experience defeat...or  empower you? William Buck was cobbled together with titanium in his back... and  unequalled resolution in his mind. The Lord was his shepherd and he rose to the  task.

 Pastor William Buck was tested by such experiences... was challenged by such  experiences... was born again because of such experiences... and so because of  such infirmities, their constant pain, and the faith they tested and thereby helped  secure, he moved to God, a grateful child of the Lord, a man who learned to lean  on Jesus where he found everything he needed to rise above, rise above, rise above  and bring the good news to the people, particularly in the songs sung by the Louisville Interdenominational Male Chorus, his special cause, his particular joy. Hallelujah!

 Envoi.

 This is more than a story about one particular man in one particular place. It is instead  a story about the individual commitment, responsibility and constant work that have  built thousands and thousands of worthy organizations across the Great Republic.  Select one of them as your special cause and learn the joy of giving like the good  people of the Louisville Interdenominational Male Chorus, currently in 15 churches,  have done, for they in general and William Buck in particular are worthy models  of what we can do when we put our minds to the task and work together to achieve  it.

Dedication.

The author, with great pleasure, dedicates this article to all the people who have  used song as the means to advance the favored young people of Louisville and  especially to Mrs. William Buck, Bulah Mae, and their two children, Lakesha (37) and  Contrallo (32). These are his rod and his staff, nothing likely without them, but with  them the great change that gonna come, that he works for every day of his blessed  life. 


About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of over a dozen books in print, several ebooks, and over one thousand online articles on a variety of subjects. One of Dr. Lant's favourite topics is to write about interesting people who are changing our world for the better one day at a time. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.

'Ya got trouble, my friend, right here.' Disappointment, anger, chagrin, shame, sadness, smoldering rage and a sense of betrayal as Westfield State University's embattled President Evan Dobelle faces the music, man, about his egregious spending habits. And those aren't even the worst part of this developing scandal.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

 Author's program note. "Professor" Harold Hill was broke, skinned, impecunious,  the source of his very next meal dubious. But despite threadbare clothes and  growling stomach he maintained one golden, unassailable asset: his unrivaled  ability to dazzle people, motivate people, and arouse people through Big Ideas  and a licketty-split presentation style unmatched anywhere on Earth. He knew  that if he could excite the people, he could pick their pockets. And so, arriving  at River City with nothing, he was undismayed... for he had the means readily  at hand and perfectly honed to get everything... And this, as he walked  confidently into the local pool hall, is precisely what he meant to do.

 Thus was born one of the great moments of the cinema, when in the 1962  film "The Music Man"  Meredeth Willson, as Hill, belts out the best example of  fast-talking, wise-cracking, get up and at 'em quintessentially American  patter ever made. The speech is brilliant; the delivery astonishing, each  word clear as a bell and utterly unmistakable, a rollicking tour de force  leaving us breathless and in awe, and in possession of the certain knowledge  that the good people of River City, the church-going, sober-living, tax-paying,  civic-minded, gullible hicks haven't got a chance against the determined genius  of Hill and his mesmerizing, unbeatable "can-do" approach to any problem.

 I shouldn't be at all surprised if Evan S. Dobelle (born April 22, 1945) mentioned  it was his favorite tune and that "Professor Hill" was his main source of  inspiration. No, it wouldn't surprise me at all.

 "Friends, lemme tell you what I mean."

 The first time you look at Evan Dobelle's resume you cannot help being  impressed. But the second time you review it, if you scrutinize it carefully,  you begin to see certain worrisome aspects. He was elected twice (1971 and  1975) as Republican mayor of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a notable achievement  which immediately established him as a player in perhaps the most Democratic  state of the Union. Then he ditched the GOP to work for Jimmy Carter's  presidential campaign. He wanted fast promotion (he always did).

 Having been a Republican until just 5 minutes ago, he wanted to be a power in  the Democratic Party. But Timothy Kraft was in the way. No matter. The  Wikipedia  reports that Dobelle charged him with using cocaine in New Orleans (doesn't  everyone?) in 1978.

 Kraft was forced to resign, clearing the way for the exigent Evan, who became  National Chairman of the Carter-Mondale Presidential Committee. The charges  against Kraft were later dropped but the damage was already done, whether  by that you mean Kraft's demise... or Dobelle's ascent.

 Carter, of course, won the election... and  Dobelle got a hefty part of the bling:  he became U.S. Chief of Protocol with the impressive rank of ambassador;  (his wife Kit served as Chief of Protocol and Chief of Staff to First Lady  Rosalynn Carter). Dobelle was also appointed treasurer of the Democratic  National Committee. These were the glory days...  Dobelle was everywhere...

 He had everything necessary to scale the heights of power... yet he never did so.  He knew everyone; everyone knew him. Maybe that was the reason real power  eluded him.  (Note. It was at this time that Dobelle took me on a tour of the  White House, including a visit to the Oval Office, which like everyone else  who sees it, I found smaller and less impressive in person. What was impressive,  however, was how virtually everyone we encountered greeted Dobelle warmly, as  an old friend. Yes, these were the salad days... and of course he dangled the  prospect of a plum job in the Carter White house before me...)

 "It takes judgement, brains, and maturity to score."

 It soon became obvious to the power cognoscenti that Dobelle, like Kansas City,  had gone about as fur as he could go. Seasoned Washingtonians play this  crucial game with withering skill; their acid judgements determine destinies.  Dobelle failed to impress these oracles. So, his mind ever fertile and inventive,  he changed course -- again; this time he selected higher education administration  as his designated bailiwick. And so his rather odd  (and always short-termed)  trajectory began.

 First, from 1987-1990, he was president of Middlesex Community College in  Lowell, Massachusetts. He stayed just long enough to get the library named after  him, but not a minute longer. The irony here is that he was not a notable reader  and has no scholarly work at all.

 >From Lowell, he became president and chancellor of City College of San  Francisco (1990-1995); president of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut  (1995-2000), then the University of Hawaii (2001-2004).

 Take a good close look at the dates of his administrative tenures, on average  just about 4 years. Now, as any college administrator knows 4 years is grossly  insufficient to effect major change. Thus Dobelle's accomplishments were  meagre, often merely cosmetic, never pace-setting, though he insisted that  he was a visionary with the future lashed to his chariot. Maybe so, but to old  college hands he came across as glib, superficial, impatient, and lazy; his bags  already packed for quick get-away when the need for real leadership and  major decision making and planning became glaringly apparent.

 It all came to a head during his presidency at the University of Hawaii. There  Dobelle ran through 5 chairmen of the board in a breathtaking 2 1/2 years,  a situation not only unparalleled in Aloha's paradise, but perhaps in all of  higher education's history. One food fight after another occurred, with  Dobelle's wanton spending habits and his disdain for the University's trustees  providing particular flash points. Finally the board had enough... and dismissed  Dobelle "for cause."  Dobelle said he'd sue; the board blinked; a mediated  settlement was the result, a settlement worth millions to Dobelle who, amongst  other things, agreed he would never, ever apply for any other post at the  University, something to which both sides happily subscribed.

 Enter Westfield State College, Dobelle's latest feeding trough.

 People like Evan Dobelle, so generous, so profligate with Other People's Money,  so niggardly with their own funds, always need a host to feed on; all parasites  do. And in Westfield, Massachusetts he found one tailor-made for his habits --  and his expansive, unquenchable needs.

 Brief history of Westfield State.

 Located 45 miles from Hartford, 90 miles from Boston, Westfield's main 256- acre campus is located in a well-tended, leafy neighborhood. It was founded  in 1839 at the behest of and with the enthusiastic support of Horace Mann (1796-  1859), the premier educator of the Great Republic. He wanted Westfield to serve  the needs of the Commonwealth, producing citizens who would be a credit to God,  the republic, Massachusetts, its business and industry, and, of course, Westfield  itself.

 It was a noble objective... and on this basis the institution prospered, with the  overwhelming majority of its graduates women who become the teachers that  transformed immigrants into Americans.

 It was crucial work and it was done thoroughly and well. Sadly, in a state where  private institutions reigned supreme, public institutions like Westfield often felt  undervalued and left behind. They often felt sorry for themselves, felt they should  get more than the occasional pat on the head, always an afterthought.

 They were thus positioned for their own Professor Hill. And this Evan Dobelle,  with a catalog of dubious acts and lavish spending longer than Leporello's  (as reported by The Boston Globe, August 18, 2013), brought his specious and  superficial visions, pulsating Big Ideas et al to Westfield, which despite a  stadium of red flags flying appointed him president in December, 2008. The  virgin was well and truly in Bluebeard's experienced hands. He knew precisely  what to do.

 And he'll have fun, fun, fun 'til...

 In 1964, the Beach Boys had a hit on their hands entitled "And she'll have  fun, fun, fun 'til her daddy takes the car keys away." The same applied to our  Evan, only he had fun with a credit card the school's private foundation gave  him for charging dinners with potential donors and other small amounts. It  was a big mistake since Dobelle never met a credit card he didn't like, so  long as he didn't have to pay the bill.

 In the fall of 2008, these bills started to come in and staid, respectable, rather  dull Westfield State (soon to inflate its standing by calling itself a university)  discovered what their popinjay was going to cost them... and their collective  gasp of pocketbook pain and shocked disbelief rang out, for Bluebeard was  having a helluva good time... all at their expense.

 $539,201 on a "celebrity speakers series"... $145,000 on a group trip to Asia...  $58,000 for a campus rock concert... $16,000 for a welcome party at a Brewster  resort... $10,000 for Tanglewood tickets... and on and on and on. My personal  favorite is the $939 bill he racked up taking three journalism students to New  York to shake hands with Katie Couric and dine at Stage Deli and fabled 21.  He wanted them to have the full "Queen for a Day" treatment. Oh, yes, they  were all female and, I'll bet, cuties, each lovier -- and younger -- than the last.

 There was no stopping this born again teenager.. . he thought it, he wanted it,  he got it... especially if it took him away from the institution he was supposed  to be administrating; (78 out-of-state trips in his 68 months as president)... and,  of course, he charged it.

 How could he get away with it? The same way Professor Hill succeeded... by  enthusing, smoozing, taking their minds off their troubles and the merely  necessary and lifting them with the Big Dreams... the dreams he never stayed  around long enough to achieve. Dreams were fun... work for hicks... the hicks  who paid all his outrageous bills, long-suffering, decent, fleeced, regretful, now  exposed to the entire world as the bumpkins they were afraid from the get-go  people would adjudge them.

 As for Dobelle, this time his gig is surely up as his twin Nemeses, the state's  attorney general and inspector general, fueled by leaks from his office,  gather their forces, prepared to pick up every rock to see which of Dobelle's  schemes, chicaneries, plots, stratagems, tactics, hustles, extravagances, and  ploys is underneath  .  It should be most instructive for all... not least for the next institution of higher  learning which has the bright idea of gambling their future on appalling,  unrestrained, irresponsible, fritterin'  Dobelle, never guilty, always innocent, soon  to be available to eat at your fine trough.

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of several books, ebooks, and over one thousand online articles both fiction and non-fiction. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com