God, chicken, Bean Town and mud pies. What's not to like? Are you good enoughfor Chick-fil-A?

by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. I've got to tell you, stories like this make me glad to be alive and, as a commentator, have the solemn responsibility to report the facts and nothing but the facts to you... while trying hard not to bust a gut as both sides realize that America is enjoying the cat fight we're reporting... in fact, we just can't get enough of it.

But, first, I want to introduce you to the music that accompanies this tale of fowl behavior and roosters crowing on their own dung hills. It's Rodney Carrington's tune "The Chicken Song".... and it perfectly fits the bill: red neck, down home, big hat, bigger ego, not much up there, howdy ma'am, finger lickin' good, you dawg you, God bless America. It starts like this, and Rodney insists you learn these lyrics... or kiss his.... he's that kind of guy:

"I like my women like I like my chicken/ With a little bit of fat on the ends/ Not too much and not too little/ Just enough to make me grin."

You'll find the rest (and there is more of the same) in any search engine. Go now; it's got just the right sound for the rollicking article that follows.

"My way or the highway. Don't you even try to spend your tainted money here."

You'd be hard-pressed to find a businessman in our punk economy who made a point of letting you know in no uncertain terms that you'd better believe as he believes about God, Cosmos, and the American Way... or take your business elsewhere. Yeah, it's hard to find 'em, because that point of view is the very antithesis of capitalism, plutocracy, making a buck and laughing all the way to the bank.

Sure we each have our very own opinions on such Big Questions of Life, but we're shrewd enough, careful enough, discrete enough to keep them to ourselves. Remember Karl Marx's celebrated assertion, "The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope"? That about sums up what all of us in business do to get us through the day... and keep something beside for the next rainy day. We go along to get along, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

It just doesn't happen to be the way S. Truett Cathy, Chairman and CEO of Chick-fil- A and his son Dan, president, do business. With them, it's all glory, glory, hallelujah, those saints are marching in. They sell their chicken, done just the way Rodney Carrington likes his women, "with a little bit of fat on the ends", only to the "right sort" of people... and woe if you want a chicken sandwich and have money in hand but your foot doesn't fit their shoe. The welcome mat will surely be removed as you're shown the door.

Unlike virtually every other business in the customer-starved Great Republic, you are not necessarily welcome at Chick-fil-A. It all depends on what S. Truett and Danny believe today and would feel a whole lot better about you believing, too.

Founded in Georgia in 1946. $4.0 billion revenues in 2011. Over 1000 restaurants in  2012.

If you're a student of American literature and mores, you no doubt recall F. Scott Fitzgerald's celebrated line from "The Rich Boy" (published 1926): "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me." And the Cathys are way beyond comfortable. As such they dish out their bigotry without remorse or understanding. Indeed, there may even be a nubbin of profound business insight in their disdain: if they stress their Godly views with vehemence and dogmatic insolence, they may actually sell more chicken and reap more profits.

After all, if you believe yourself saved and a certain candidate for heaven, you feel a whole lot better paying for chicken delivered by fellow believers, sanctioned by Jehovah. Chicken McNuggets eat your heart out. Mere taste has been trumped by sanctity, righteousness and rock-ribbed certainty about absolutely everything, including how you should live your life and express your love.

S. Truett's adamant point of view is summarized in the final step in his Five-Step Recipe for Business Success, "I was not so committed to financial success that I was willing to abandon my principles and priorities. One of the most visible examples of this is our decision to close on Sunday. Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and of directing our attention to things that mattered more than our business."

Now, the usual way for such zealots to pursue their celestial work would be to set up a charitable foundation and go to town, leaving the business to focus on chicken, all the fixings and cold hard cash. But the very rich are different. Thus, while they did establish a (501(c) (3) tax-exempt organization, they also used company money to co-sponsor a marriage conference and this, in due course, lead them to the unholy bugaboo of homosexuality... a subject guaranteed to send most every Southern Baptist like old man Cathy and son into a bona-fide, ripe-roaring rodomontade about the Sins of the Flesh and a plethora of Unspeakable Outrages. Foaming at the mouth was recommended, but not required.

And so Dan Cathy sat down with the Baptist Press one July day in 2012 and made it clear why the Founding Fathers added the First Amendment to the Constitution. This day he confirmed that his company was "guilty as charged" for being a supporter of organizations rallying against same-sex marriage. It was the usual jeremiad that proved nothing so much as that President Cathy had a mania for peeping in other people's bedrooms and being horrified (as well as titillated) by what he went in search of and forced himself to see.

Chicken in Bean Town?

At just this moment, it happened that Chick-fil-A was going through the necessary motions to do business in Boston. Now as all the world knows, not a creature stirs in The Hub of the Universe not even a mouse without His Honor Mayor (since 1993) Thomas M. Menino knowing the reason why and stamping it with his approval, or not.

Menino is also an adamant "my way or the highway" guy and he made it clear he'd do anything to block Chick-fil-A, unto the full panoply of his considerable powers, to keep those Southern fried gay bashers out of the Shining City on a Hill, a place of liberal ideas where gay people are very much at home and accepted, marriage and all. Thus the fat was truly in the fire for all that Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas (who never met a kooky anachronistic view or uncivil behavior he didn't like), promptly opted for God and chicken.

And so the tempest in a teacup continues... with each party fulminating, posturing, speaking darkly of rights and lawyers, sound and fury signifying nothing so much as each and every participant in this fiasco looks like a card-carrying knucklehead, the Cathys for assuming they know God personally and know His will and intentions, which no man, whatever his outlook or denomination, has ever known or can know... the Honorable Tommy needing a cold shower bath while a responsible adult explains to him the realities of business and just what he can and cannot do. Thus in due course, after filling out innumerable municipal forms and paying considerable municipal fees, Chick-fil-A will come to Boston.  But I shall never go. I have tasted their recipe and prefer McNuggets, and that's a wrap.  

 About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, 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

 

Getting The Most Out Of Something FREE

Hi Here’s how you can get the most out of a program called Free Monthly Websites. Free Monthly Websites, in my opinion is one of those programs you either know what to do with or you don’t. I will now show you how you can get the most of it and why Free Monthly Websites is such great tool which can earn you an extra income stream to your business for a long time to come. 

The Three main categories we need to concentrate on here are: 1, Selling eBooks 2, Writing articles 3, Affiliate promotions When you first login and download your website follow the tutorials which is very easy to do and eventually get your website onto your webspace. You are presented with a very nice well designed Adsense website. What can you do with this free website? Well to be honest the free website has duplicate content so you can rule out getting to the top of the search engine rankings, the premier websites are a different kettle of fish all together but I will get to those in a moment. 

Take option 1 above ‘Selling eBooks’ if you sell eBooks especially PLR (private Label Content) conversions, you will find Free Monthly Websites have a rather large verity of websites that correspond with a lot of the PLR out there (if you are a premier member you get a bonus PLR eBook). All you need to do is upload your eBook to a convenient location on your webspace and place a few corresponding links inside your PLR eBook for example: I have a weight loss eBook and a small paragraph saying “there are 100’s ways to lose weight which can be found in various forms from Books to television to fitness programs bla bla bla” you could not take this small paragraph and insert your Free Monthly Websites website link in a prime location for instance “there are 100’s ways to lose weight which can be found in various forms from Books to television to fitness programs the best resource I found is at www.yourfreemonthlywebsites.com/fitness_website” Now imagine you done this to all your eBooks! Simply take a little time upload your Free Monthly Websites website to your webspace then reopen your PLR eBooks and insert the relevant hyperlink which corresponds to your website and there you have it. For about 2 hours work you have created an income stream for life. Now imagine you have 50 PLR eBooks doing the rounds on eBay or your blog. Your AdSense revenue is going to creep up and up until you are earning a very respectable income. It’s a simple case of wash rinse repeat. Option number 2 is even easier. I know most of you will at some point, or do write articles and submit them to relevant article directories. Well why not try writing an article about one of the subjects related to Free Monthly Websites? Upload your website to a location on your webspace, place the link in your article and there you have it, submit to article directories like:

 http://www.articledashboard.com/ http://www.articlebasement.com/ http://ezinearticles.com/ http://www.goarticles.com/ 

 And another income stream will start. The third option is a little different. Using your Free Monthly Websites affiliate link to promote the website and earn a potential 98.50 per referral. You can place your link in the websites provided for you and in the eBooks you sell and articles you write this can generate a missive earnings income of 98.50. So with your website up on your webspace and your eBook on eBay and your articles in the article directories, you will be well on your way to earning a nice income from a free resource. I mentioned earlier your Premier Members website. These are a fantastic resource and are worth every penny for the simple fact you receive a private label eBook and 20 articles with every Premier Membership website every month. Not only can you use the eBooks and articles in the ways I have explained, you can key word optimize your website for the search engines, change the content and make your sites as original as you like. In other words you have full edit rights. So if you imagine directing a visitor to your Premier Website via an eBook or article, they will find a fully edited site with offers and affiliate links promotions, and even an Aweber signup box (which you can integrate with a little HTML knowledge) which in turn will create more revenue and more subscribers for you. My recommendations are if you have a few hours to spare get started with this and you will soon see a Google AdSense income. If you use the Premier Websites, you can place affiliate banners, Clickbank affiliate links and Aweber signup box on your site as well as edit all your own content via an easy edit control panel.. If you are going to move into this business, I recommend you take the Full Premier Websites Access! Here's a link for you: Free Monthly Website Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed my review. Regards, Ruthsella Corasol

Facebook - A New Marketing Avenue

Facebook and Social Media - The Next Marketing Opportunity

Marketing as an activity is all about reaching the right customers with the right products, and the result sought is delighted customers who are more than willing to open their purses wide enough to boost your revenues. For many years, marketers stalked their target customers through various means and by trying to get their message across to spread awareness about their wares.


Traditional Means of Communication

Traditionally, marketing communications were conducted via print, broadcast and such traditional media through disruptive advertising, where advertisements appear in between the content of interest for the customer.

Traditional media does give a large reach to a marketer with its programming of mass appeal. However, the wastage is equally high, since a large portion of the audience would belong to a different segment than the one that is to be targeted by the marketer.

Enter Social Media and the Internet

The revolution stirred by the internet as a medium took place because of the fact that it is highly personalized and provides more content on-demand than any other available medium. Social sites proliferated far and wide in their usage for a few simple reasons:

The power to create and distribute content is equally available to every user, irrespective of him/her being a customer or a marketer. In the earlier forms of media, that power rested with the editorial staff of the channel or the advertiser, but hardly ever with the user.
The medium is completely personalized, and a user can create or join groups and further create content based on what he/she likes.
Opinions are free and fair. This is one reason why social media is of utmost concern to marketers, since buying decisions are no more influenced as much by advertisements. The traditional word-of-mouth marketing approach has grown leaps and bounds on social networks.


Facebook – At the Center of Social Media

With 500 million (and growing) unique users worldwide, Facebook is the number one social networking site in terms of activity and subscriptions. What started as a garage initiative by Mark Zuckerberg has now become the biggest phenomenon on the internet.

A user interface that allows for quick communication and the ability to create fan pages and groups at the click of a mouse button are what make Facebook extremely popular. Another important reason for its immense popularity is the wide variety of social applications that have been developed and made available within the Facebook environment.

These applications can allow users and friends to do joint activities like playing games that run endlessly, sharing photos, videos, and web links, and many more.


How does this help a marketer?

Traditionally, media plans were drawn to include television channels, publications, or any other media that can grab maximum eyeballs and effectively reach a selected target audience. The science of segmentation and targeting has become only more accurate in the case of social media.

Facebook provides a wide variety of avenues to communicate with the audience, which opens up an entirely different world of possibilities to have a fruitful dialogue with customers. Some of these methods used popularly by marketers are:

Advertising: The first opportunity, which is the most obvious one, is advertising on Facebook. The difference, however, is the fact that you can create your own advertisement in a matter of minutes and also specify the details of your target group in terms of demographics and types of discussions where you want your advertisement to appear.
Fan Pages: Facebook allows every brand, as well as individual users, to create fan pages for their favorite celebrities and their own homegrown businesses. Large brands have also created their official pages on Facebook that have a huge, immediate fan following around the world. The fan page has immense utility to convey first hand information about the brand and also to collect immediate and frank feedback from your customers.
Branded applications: One of the most effective ways to engage a user toward your brand is by creating an application; this could be a game or a contest, with your branding coming across subtly through it.

What makes Facebook even more exciting is the way it allows you to target your communication sharply just to the customer segment you want to attract. It also provides analytics and page insights that give good feedback and measurement on the activity done.

The options provided by Facebook can be creatively explored and used judiciously for bringing about maximum benefits to any brand.

However, while doing all this, you need to be aware of the fact that customers have an equal say and have the ability to respond immediately to any of your actions with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Availing the service of a social media consultant to work out a social media strategy may be required so that your efforts will not be in vain.

Get more information here for the best Facebook training available:: ##http://www.WorkingAtHome101.com/?rd=te9qac0F## 

How do I keep track of the social popularity of my website?

When social signals started being used by search engines such as Google and Bing for ranking popularity of websites, one common question was heard throughout the blogosphere, “How do I keep track of the online popularity of my website?” Now, a concrete answer has arrived to that question, in the form of the product known as Social Metrics Pro.

The best part of using Social Metrics Pro is its simplicity. This is what makes it possible for even the most amateur online marketer to use this tool and harness its potential to gauge the online popularity of their website.

Social Metrics Pro is driven by a dashboard that keeps track of the social status of the content on the website. The dashboard is simplified with a system of color coding. Different colors indicate the relative popularity of the posts. Reds indicate posts that are performing poorly on the social networks, while greens indicate posts that are performing well on the social networks. As the poor performing posts are worked upon, the reds turn into greens, which is a direct measure of the improvement of the social signals of the website.

Social Metrics Pro also allows the optimizer to directly transfer the output into a Microsoft Excel file. This can be used to further analyze the performance of the website. These files are viewable on all spreadsheet processors.

The best part of Social Metrics Pro is that it is available as a plugin. Once installed, it sits pretty on the taskbar of the browser, until it is called upon to perform its analysis. The plugin works for any blog that has been created on WordPress, upwards of Wordpress 3.2 version. Its access is also available through the admin dashboard of Wordpress as well.

There are small features that help the newbie optimizer immensely. For instance, the webmaster can choose to refresh their data. The frequency can be preset, which helps to give an updated version of the social networking status of the blog at any required time. The plugin begins performing as soon as it has been downloaded and installed. Once installed, the plugin keeps on updating itself. There are free lifetime updates provided with the plugin, and a dedicated technical support team helps people with any issues that they might have.

Our final verdict is that Social Metrics Pro is a great tool for people who want to tap into the potential of social signals to bring their website on the top of the search engines. If you have any apprehensions about its functionality, you might put them to rest as this is one of the easiest optimizing tools that we have come across. Get Complete Details Here Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.