The Helpful Pointer

Just about every successful Internet Marketer will tell you that, “The money is in the list”. But, how do you go about building a good-sized email list? Here are several wise ways that you can use to start building your own large list of email addresses.

Wise Way #1 - OFFER A FREEBIE

You have to give in order to get. If you want people tooffer up their email address, you`re going to have to offer up an incentive. Nothing works better than something that`s complimentary (you spell that f-r-e-e). You can give away no-cost reports, books, software, or even sample pages of a book.

Wise Way #2 - USE POP-UPS

Pop-ups are one of the most common methods you can use to capture email addresses and build your email list quickly and with ease. Simply construct a web page containing code for a form and set the page to open (pop up) when visitors enter or exit your site.

Make sure the pop-up offer is something that`s valuable enough to motivate visitors to take time to give you their contact information. Your offer can be a complimentary report, download, or ebook that arrives instantly through your autoresponder to their email inbox when they give you their email.

Be cautious when using pop-ups. Most computer users consider them to be annoying. Multiple pop-ups on a site can really turn off a potential customer, so limit yourself to one pop-up per site.

Wise Way #3 - USE POSTCARDS

If you have a mailing list that contains snail mail (street) addresses, convert it into an email list by sending out a postcard and inviting people to visit your website to receive a gift of some kind — a report, a discount coupon, etc. Visitors don`t have to pay in order to receive their gifts, they simply need to enter an email address.

A Word to the Wise from the U.S. Post Office: Postage is much less expensive for a postcard than a standard-size letter. (Not only are they economical, postcards are more likely to get your message across since the consumer doesn`t have to open an envelope.)

Wise Way #4 - SUBSCRIBER BOX ON EVERY PAGE

This is a clever trick that so many people overlook. Put a response form on every page of your website offering a newsletter or other freebie. This will increase the number of email addresses you capture exponentially.

Why? When search engines index the pages of your website, a visitor may come directly to a page other than your home page. If you only have a subscriber box on your home page, you`re missing the boat, not to mention the thousands of visitors who bypass your homepage.

Wise Way #5 - CONTESTS

Contests very often prove to be a good way to generate traffic and buzz for your business. Create a contest and put a form on your site or in a pop-up box. The entry “fee” is their email address.

You need to be aware that not all the people who sign up for your contest are good prospects. Many are just contest “junkies” — people who are only looking for freebies and have no intention of buying a product or service.

Warning to the Wise: If your prizes are cash or
large-ticket items, you should be sure to check with local agencies to make sure you`re not violating any contest laws.

Wise Way #6 - DISPLAY YOUR AUTORESPONDER ADDRESS

Most people give their website link when they place soloads, ezine ads, or other marketing messages. To be one step ahead of the game in collecting email addresses, list your autoresponder address instead of your URL. This way you can capture email address and funnel them into your follow-up sales letters.

Wise Way #7 - JUST ASK

If you`re chatting with a prospect on the phone or a potential customer stops by your place of business, don`t be shy: ask for an email address or business card (which usually includes their email address).

Okay, you know what you want…you know what you need. It`s time for you to set your traps and capture those email addresses.

Copyright 2005 Ronald Gibson

Ronald Gibson is a Web Designer and Web Marketer. He is the Webmaster of AffiliateUtopia.com, which offers information about some of the best money making opportunities on the Web. For more information, visit:
http://www.affiliateutopia.com/

online gambling sites

Supposing you haven’t got the picture on casino gambling, then you’ll find more about this topic here —

A valid description of a casino is a house that focuses on gaming. Aficionados are expected to bet by challenging the one armed bandits or alternate pastimes of luck. Casino games frequently include logically derived balances informing them which promise the gambling organization holds on to an upper hand against the gaming devotees.

A lot of gaming hall games can sway you into getting hooked very rapidly. A case in hand is the standard one armed bandit, a cash operated gadget with 3 plus gears that rotate once a crank attached to it is yanked. The contraption customarily reimburses in accordance with an array of designs perceptible on the lit panel of the instrument. Sadly, gambling house games put forward an apparition of jurisdiction, effectively hoodwinking the betting devotee - the victim can make judgments, but they won’t ever really remove the patron’s overall handicap. This is induced by the casino never paying the full wager as hoped for. This theory is generally found in famous casino games like blind poker, dice games, roulette or blackjack.

Seven card stud poker is certainly a highly popular casino pastime. The players, closely guarding their covered cards, must place bets into a central pot which is finally awarded to the prevailing punter carrying the best combination of cards. (As everybody knows, the bluff may well prevail too!)

Commensurate with seven card stud poker, blackjack is also an immensely popular casino game. A sizeable chunk of its fame is a result of the mix of luck and knowledge & decision making, and a trick dubbed card counting. It is a tactics by which gambling enthusiasts will actually bend the chances of the game to their personal gain both by betting and systematic actions established on the cards deployed.

Craps is a well-known casino wagering game making use of the throw of dice. Gamblers are placing bets on the score of 1 cycle, or on a sequence of rolls on 2 dice. Contrary to blackjack, there isn’t any conceivable sustainable killer system players could exploit to improve the odds.

Roulette is another insanely popular casino based pastime — a croupier spins a roulette wheel which holds a set of exactly 37 (applies to European roulette) or thirty-eight (Vegas roulette) uniquely numbered slots in which the tossed pellet will settle, determining the winner as well as its related odds. Supposing that our gamester happens to wager on a number and is successful, in other words it’s their lucky day, the set profit is 35:1, the original pledge proper will be returned. Therefore in totality it is multiplied by a factor of 36.

Please try to be very much attentive for all that because all of these casino pastimes are considered particularly habituating. Countless lives have probably been spoilt due to gambling + albeit it indisputably feels entertaining, strive to not get carried away.

Here are 22 simple but highly effective methods to build an

email opt-in list easily…

List Renting

One of the quickest ways to build an opt-in list is to rent a list from a company.

These lists are normally targeted and you can request what demographics you are looking for.

The company can then provide you with such a list that you can then market to and try to get them to opt in to your personal list. These opt-in prospects will now become your list members.

There are many companies that sell leads but you’ll have to exercise caution here. You should never buy harvested email addresses that usually come in the millions on CDs for $9.95. Emailing to such list can get you trouble fast.

There are other companies that claim that all their leads are opt-in leads but how they opted in will still determine the quality of the leads. Marketing Sherpa, an online marketing research firm, reported that “fewer than 10% of lists on the rental market today may be safe. The rest are gathered using questionable tactics.”

A general rule of thumb is that you should only buy leads that come with the signup IP addresses and full names The IP address can usually be used as verification evidence that the person actually signed up to receive emails from you. If the lead company cannot provide the IP addresses this is a good sign that your leads are of low quality and of questionable origins. Having the IP addresses will provide a safer haven from spam complaints.

The ideal is to generate your own leads but many marketers, including myself, have used this method to build very responsive lists.

Here is a sample list of email list rental companies:

http://www.BlanketMail.com

http://www.briefme.com

http://www.digitalharvestmedia.com

http://www.HTMail.com

http://www.opt-influence.com

http://www.PostMasterDirect.com

http://www.targetmails.com

http://www.yesmail.com

http://www.xactmail.com

Co-Registration

As the name implies co-registration companies can place your registration form next to the forms for similar products and charge you a per subscriber fee.

For example, if you run a pet related website, your newsletter subscription box would be presented as an additional resource on the ‘thank you’ page of the subscription form for another pet related product. You often see this practice when signing up for a newsletter subscription and you will have other suggested newsletters that you may also be interested in.

Here is a list of co-registration companies with some comments on their services:

http://www.webcashlink.com/coregistration.html

Joint Venture List Building

Do joint ventures with newsletter owners in your niche and include a signup form on the web page that contains your offer. You can even collect the email address before the offer is shown.

You may have to do some research to find these newsletter owners but you can use a resource such as:

http://www.ezine-dir.com

http://www.ezinelisting.com.

Sign-up From Any Page

The more often your sign-up forms appear, the greater the probability that you will get subscribers.

This may be in the form of a popup box or on every web page itself. You must realize that everyone who comes to your website will not necessarily come through your home page. A different web page may show up in a search engine results so it’s not every time that someone would arrive by your main page.

Thank You Page

Trade real estate on your ‘thank you’ page for your subscription form with other list builders in a complimentary field.

For example, if you are running an Ezine on health, then you may place a short text ad for an Ezine on natural cures in exchange for the health Ezine owner placing an ad for your newsletter on his/her ‘thank you’ page.

This is a simple win-win proposal that works to the benefit of both Ezine owners.

One of the most effective system using this concept is the free service known as Thank You Ads.

Bonus Lead-In

Offer a ‘demo version’ of a program you are selling or free chapters to an ebook in exchange for their email address.

In this way you have a second chance of making the sale along with building your list. This is also an easy excuse to collect the email addresses of your website visitors when you don’t have a newsletter of free report to give away.

Simple Signature Files

Add an opt-in message in the signature file of your emails - this works.

In this way with each email you send out you give the prospect a chance to sign up to your list. The use of signature file in emails is how the major free email service providers were able to build their list so fast.

Here’s an overused but classic example which illustrates the method perfectly:

Just think about how many subscribers used the Hotmail service because they signed up form the ad attached at the bottom of every email sent out by Hotmail?

Referral Script

Use a “Tell-A-Friend” script on your website that will allow your visitors to recommend your website by filling in the form on your site.

This can work effectively at the bottom articles where you place the “Tell-AFriend” form to encourage readers to share the article with a friend.

One of my examples of this can be found at:

“How To Create Million Dollar Product Ideas From Scratch!”

http://www.instantmarketingsecrets.com/millionideas.html

There are several “Tell-a-friend” scripts available online that you may find by using the search engine with that term.

Here is a free one:

http://www.stadtaus.com/en/php_scripts/tell_a_friend_script

Article Marketing

Write articles regularly and submit them through article submission services to be picked up by newsletter publishers.

You can include an opt-in message in the resource box. When people read your articles you are considered as an expert on the subject. Those readers who require more information on the subject will sign up for your list.

Instead of going from website to website to submit articles you may use a paid service such as available at http://www.submityourarticle.com

I use “Submit My Article” as the main method to get my articles published to hundreds of thousands of readers. With the resource boxes all listing my site,

you can imagine the amount of targeted traffic and sign-ups I get every day for free. It’s a great service that cuts down your time and effort.

If you need help in creating articles quickly and easily, here’s a short 17 page

report called “Lifetime Traffic” I created recently. It literally walks you through the entire process of article writing AND marketing:

http://instantmarketingsecrets.com/lifetime.htm

Back-End List Building

If you sell a product or service you can include an opt-in box on your ‘download page’ or ‘check out’ page for your list.

Be sure that the customer is aware that they are signing up for it at this time.

Refrain from using “pre-checked boxes to comply with present laws.

Ecourse Marketing

Offer a short course by email. It’s interesting too that some marketers have been able to offer paid courses just by emailing the lessons.

It should not be difficult to offer a free course by email on the condition that you are providing valuable content.

One way in which you can build this course is to write an ebook and then offer each chapter as one lesson in that course.

In this way there is a higher perceived value by calling it a “course” rather than an ebook and because of how the information is delivered in stages the anticipation makes it more attractive.

Viral List Building

Include your list’s opt-in information in all of your reports and information products.

This gives every reader an immediate opportunity to sign up to your list and helps to brand your name with your newsletter. Especially if your ebook is a viral product then as the ebook spreads then so will your list increase in subscribers.

Web Site Announcement

Even if you do not offer a newsletter, you can offer website update announcements to those who sign up for them.

This gives you a legitimate reason to collect the contact information and send them related offers from time to time.

Pass-It-Along Recommendation

Place a note at the end of your newsletter (if you create one) encouraging your readers to pass on the newsletter to their friends who they think will benefit from the information.

Just this suggestion makes it more likely that they will because you suggested it and they respect you.

Pay-Per-Click Capture

Include an opt-in form on the landing pages of your pay-per-click campaigns to collect the emails of your visitors.

Keep in mind that you are paying to have these visitors to your website and should capture their information whenever possible.

Press Release Opt-In

Include your opt-in information in press releases about your product or service.

Here is another point of contact where you may obtain new subscribers from those who read the article and have interest in your product.

Here is website that offers free press release services: http://www.prweb.com.

You can discover more about getting thousands of dollars worth of free press release traffic by downloading the special report “Press Release Magic” (click on link to download).

Offline Capture

Even though you are building an online list you cannot ignore offline marketing. You can use list brokers for direct marketers and snail-mail these lists with an offer redeemable at your website. You can also hand out fliers, business cards and use a vehicle logo to advertise your business.

Even Google is now getting into the local market idea. So don’t neglect the traditional ways of list building.

Phone Contacts

Ask your telephone contact and queries for their email addresses and their permission to email them from time to time.

Most likely if they are willing to spend time on the phone with you they will also read your emails.

Safelist Marketing

Run a safelist and send your promotional emails to the contact email addresses.

Most safelist are not very responsive at the list email address because of the deluge of emails received there. But as the business owner you can send emails to the less crowded contact address.

The real profits are not found in being a user, but an owner of a safelist.

Start A Forum

Run a forum addressing a niche topic.

Those who sign up to use the forum will normally give you permission to contact them with important updates. As the forum becomes more popular so will your list grow almost effortlessly.

Service Delivery

Provide a free but valuable service and require password entry to the web page with the information. This will build the perceived value of the information and you will add subscribers to your list this way.

Viral Services

Run a free viral service such as a start page program or list builder.

New subscribers must build their downline in order to earn credits. All of these subscribers now become your subscribers that you can send promotions to This is one of the best hands-off methods to building a list. If it’s not abused, this method can be very effective at building your list.

A number of smart marketers have in recent times demonstrated the effectiveness of this method - all by creating free viral list builders.

They build their own list to the mammoth proportions while helping others too.

It’s a great example of leverage through other people’s efforts. One of the best is

Mike Filsaime’s List Dot Com that you must try.

I’ve just provided you 22 ways to build your opt-in list above, as it’s obvious that your email list will be the lifeblood of your email marketing…

Mike Tugend is the owner of http://www.quantumwealthmagnet.com
A web site dedicated to building wealth using the laws of the quantum universe.

It seems that Google is revolutionizing the Net in more than one way. Recently they announced that they will be offering a free email service called Gmail. It will offer its users 1GB of memory space. Now that is a lot of space for anybody to have.

Now an email storage war has begun. MSN, Yahoo and Askjeeves have all offered their free subscribers extra memory to make them stay loyal to their service. Yahoo went from 4 Mb to a 100 MB; Askjeeves has upgraded to 125 MB and MSN has moved from 2MB to 250 MB!

If you used to worry about your mailbox being overwhelmed with emails, it is time for you to relax. No more need for you to purchase extra memory, you have loads of it available for free. You have tons of space for messages, attachments etc.

I believe that Google’s competitors are afraid that the Big G is out to snatch away some of there market share. Google’s foray into email service is unusual and many a person is excited to hop on board and take advantage of what they have to offer.

Gmail has had some major issues since Google announced its arrival. Most notably is that they intend to place advertisements in each email sent. These ads are supposed to be related to the content of your message. This as lead to squabbles about privacy and several related issues.

Google has faced some strong opposition to its Gmail service. Some of the cons of the service are you can’t save a draft of your messages and the reply button is all the way at the bottom of the page.

Gmail also lacks a built -in virus scanner although they may add one in the future. There is also no way to create HTML emails or the ability to add a signature to your messages.

You can check out Gmail at http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html . Please note that they are still doing beta testing on the system. Give it a try and see how it stacks up against your other email providers. Happy mailing.

Best Regards,

Copyright © Nicholas Dixon

About The Author

Nicholas Dixon is the editor and publisher of The Roc Newsletter. Visit our website http://WWW.Geocities.com/Oceanroc and subscribe to receive resources and articles to help you achieve success.

Oceanroc2003@yahoo.com

It appears that Mr. Gates’ prophetic prediction that charging marketers to send email across the Microsoft email networks (MSN and Hotmail) to cut down on Sp*m is about to come true.

According to CIO Today, Microsoft is now employing “IronPort Anti-Spam Technology.”

“IronPort” is a paid “white-list” for people who send “mass email” (including newsletter publishers, ezine publishers, affiliate managers, mini-course operators, and basically anyone who has a list of opt-in emails).

If you send any type of email where you do a broadcast to everyone on your list, this applies to you.

If you want your email broadcasts to get through their filters, you must pay a hefty fee and post a “bond.”

Here are some facts about this developing story:

1. They charge by how much email you send a month, but the minimum charge is a:

$375 Application Fee, plus

$500 Annual License Fee, plus

$500 “Bond” fee.

That’s $1,375.00 just to get in the game.

If you want to see the complete breakdown, go here https://www.bondedsender.com/fees.jsp

2. If you go over the “complaint” threshold of 1 complaint per month, then they will debit $20 from your bond fee for each complaint to “fine” you for being naughty.

Now that sounds good on the surface, but here’s a scenario to try on for size:

Your competitor / enemy / Net “psycho” signs up for 50 fr~e email accounts at HotMail and complains about you every month when you send your newsletter.

49 complaints (50 - 1 allowed complaint) times $20 a complaint comes out to $980 in fines.

Now, can you dispute the fines? Sure, absolutely!

But how much will you lose in time, energy and effort disputing the allegations? (My guess is, a whole lot more than that.)

You can check out all the “rules” here https://www.bondedsender.com/fees.jsp

Here are the details of the program straight from the horse’s mouth… https://www.bondedsender.com

Here’s my take on this whole thing (which dropped on me out of the blue today):

First, don’t get me wrong… I hate sp~m with a passion!

I spend at least an hour a day fighting it (down from 3 hours a day just a few weeks ago before I shut down about 2 dozen email addresses that got harvested by spambots over the last few years).

With that said, this whole “IronPort” thing sounds and smells to me like “white list” extortion.

Why?

Here’s the basic premise: “Pay to get your email through our filters, or else you run the very likely risk of not getting your email through at all.”

In fact, here’s a *direct quote* from their website https://www.bondedsender.com/faqs/sender.jsp:

“What happens if I don’t bond my email? You’re rolling the dice and taking your chances with spam filters, black lists and bulk folders. Some days all of your email may be delivered; other days 30-50% could be blocked.”

Kind of reminds you of a cheesy mafia movie on late night TV:

Me: “Hey Bugsy, what happens if I don’t pay my ‘protection’ money this month? What if I stand up to you and refuse to pay?”

Bugsy: “Well, maybe nothin’ will happen to you because the Boss ain’t payin’ attention when I tell him you decided not to pay. On the other hand, maybe I’ll just smack you around a little bit… or maybe– I’ll BREAK YOUR LEG with this baseball bat! Go ahead and not pay us… then we’ll see what happens!”

Now, back to my question: “Why should I have to pay a huge fee to send email to people who have opted in to my lists?”

The argument from Microsoft (and soon to be other ISP’s) is that the uncontrolled sp~m on the web is costing them a lot of money to deliver email nobody wants to read.

Well, if that’s the case, aren’t email users shelling out cash or credit to pay their ISPs for email services (mine charges me $40 a month for cable), or paying for free services like HotMail or Yahoo Mail through viewing advertising on every page?

I was under the impression we were already paying to receive email… and last time I checked, there was no place to put a stamp!

Okay, even if we make it past that and we accept the argument that legitimate emailers should have to pay a fee in order to get on that big “whitelist in the sky” somewhere… there are still two very important considerations here:

1. First, what about the little guy who starts doing really well?

You know, the small newsletter publisher who puts out a great ezine or fr-e report or whatever, and gets a lot of subscribers and then wants to broadcast email to them on a regular basis?

Let’s say they start making $20,000.00 a year from their ezine… are they now supposed to shell out 6-10% of their earnings in order to get their messages through? (And that’s if they never get a fine!)

Do they have to be penalized for being successful?

Apparently so if this system gains widespread acceptance by all the big ISP’s and email service providers!

2. Second, what about the high potential for abuse at the hands of unethical competitors and just plain jerks that populate the Internet!

I know it might seem hard to believe, but there are psychos out there who will sign up for a bunch of free email accounts just so they can make trouble.

(This is not paranoia! I had a user who signed up, definitely opted-in from my website, had the emails routed through a SpamCop address so I got blacklisted by SpamCop until I could get it straightened out. Oh, and guess who owns SpamCop… IronPort, that’s who!)

Now, some idiot making waves with 100 email accounts won’t put a dent in the pockets of most big players in the email arena… for them it’ll just be a business expense.

But for the case of the “little” guy, fighting that potential abuse and those fees could seriously cripple and even kill a fledgling enterprise… and that, in my opinion, is a serious problem.

In my opinion, all this is going to do is cut out the little guy and make it easier for big companies to email the hell out of the rest of us.

A small newsletter publisher will find it cost-prohibitive to pay for the service, and some giant company will just keep pumping the email out because they have the staff and resources to fight the inevitable complaints.

And let’s face it, if a big company is paying a $10,000.00 a year licensing fee plus posting a $4,000.00 bond, how aggressive do you think the IronTrust people will really be to get rid of them?

In my opinion, not very.

In conclusion: Despite my ranting, I actually think this is a step in the right direction (albeit a wobbly, drunken, and inconvenient step).

Something has to be done to fight spam.

However, at this point, this whole system has (in my opinion) too many unanswered questions, especially for us little guys.

Namely:

• Do I really need to do this if I’m a little guy operating and growing a newsletter?

• What happens if I get unfounded spam complaints?

• At what level does it make financial sense for me to do this?

• What if my newsletter isn’t a big profit generator… am I supposed to give up the revenue I do create just to get my emails through?

To their apparent credit, Yahoo! is also trying to pioneer a solution, but this one doesn’t appear (at this point) like it will cost publishers or subscribers any money (and I like the sound of that). http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys

But with so much at stake (on both sides), this issue is a far cry from any satisfactory resolution.

Stay tuned for further updates as events warrant…

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links? “Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate links… without spending a dime on advertising! Click Here> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

We’ve holidayed in a lot of European skiing holiday resorts e.g. Les Gets, Espace Killy, Verchaix and La Plagne, however through all our ski holidays Chamonix Mont Blanc France without a shadow of a doubt is our favourite French resort to go for skiing holiday.

The place of birth of alpine history and dwelling to the glorious Monte Bianco - at 4807m European Unions’ highest peak - Chamonix Haute Savoie touts a brilliant snow register, a longish snowboarding season (December-May), peerless extreme skiing, and perspectives to die for. So Chamonix has an global reputation for a lot of the most outstanding, challenging, and invigorating skiing on hand anywhere in the cosmos.

The Chamonix valley is enormous and every bit as intimidating, and that is before we even look at the neighboring ski towns; including Isola 2000, Alpe d’Huez, Auron, Les Menuires and Meribel.

The Mont Blanc skiing lift pass covers 9 Chamonix, and twelve regional skiing mountains; with terrain upwards of 3842m, upwards of 240 cable cars, and 770 km of ski pistes - and the bulk of the ski areas higher than 2020 metres. They supplies for each tier from novices as well as experienced skiers. Come to the snowboarding fields page for up to date look at each of the main domains: Chastreix-Sancy, Les Orres, Savoie, La Chavanette, Flegere and Serre Chevalier.

Nominated for 45 Emmys, and winner of 16 during its eight-year run on NBC, Mad About You became an instant smash hit among TV viewers, in large part due to its Seinfeldian portrayals of married life in the big city. Sporting a catchy piano-laden theme song, the series showcased the unique comic talents of co-creator and co-star Paul Reiser, who sought to produce a show telling the true story of married life (he would later publish the bestselling book Couplehood, a compilation of various anecdotes on relationships)…

Mad About You follows the lives of newlywed couple Paul (Paul Reiser) and Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt), two urban professionals sharing an apartment in New York City. Although they are head-over-heals in love, the two appear to be near total opposites. Paul, a documentary filmmaker, is extremely meticulous, cautious, and careful. Jamie, on the other hand, is a public relations expert with more of a free-spirit outlook on life. With a number of friends and family always in the picture - Jamie’s sister Lisa (Anne Ramsay), Paul’s cousin Ira (John Pankow), and friends Mark (Richard Kind) and Fran (Leila Kenzle) - Paul and Jamie are constantly bombarded with job-related stress, the strange antics of their friends, and the discovery each others’ individual quirks and habits. And it’s a recipe that translates into great sitcom entertainment…

The Mad About You DVD features a number of hilarious episodes including the season premiere “Romantic Improvisations” in which, following a mere five months of marriage, Jamie informs Paul that their sex life in not quite what it used to be. To rectify the situation, Paul comes home early from work intent on planning a romantic evening, but everything unravels when the two discover that both of them thought the other one had cancelled their scheduled dinner plans with friends… Other notable episodes include “Out of the Past” in which Paul invites Jamie to a personal reunion with his ex-girlfriend, and “Token Friend” in which Paul avoids the subway when he discovers a former friend from film school is now a token clerk at the local station…

Below is a list of episodes included on the Mad About You (Season 1) DVD:

Episode 1 (Romantic Improvisations) Air Date: 09-23-1992
Episode 2 (Sofa’s Choice) Air Date: 09-30-1992
Episode 3 (Sunday Times) Air Date: 10-07-1992
Episode 4 (Out of the Past) Air Date: 10-14-1992
Episode 5 (Paul in the Family) Air Date: 10-21-1992
Episode 6 (I’m Just So Happy For You) Air Date: 10-28-1992
Episode 7 (Token Friend) Air Date: 11-04-1992
Episode 8 (The Apartment) Air Date: 11-11-1992
Episode 9 (Riding Backwards) Air Date: 11-18-1992
Episode 10 (Neighbors from Hell) Air Date: 12-09-1992
Episode 11 (Met Someone) Air Date: 12-16-1992
Episode 12 (Maid About You) Air Date: 01-06-1993
Episode 13 (Togetherness) Air Date: 01-13-1993
Episode 14 (Weekend Getaway) Air Date: 01-27-1993
Episode 15 (The Wedding Affair) Air Date: 02-06-1993
Episode 16 (Love Among the Tiles) Air Date: 02-13-1993
Episode 17 (The Billionaire) Air Date: 02-20-1993
Episode 18 (The Man Who Said Hello) Air Date: 02-27-1993
Episode 19 (Swept Away) Air Date: 05-01-1993
Episode 20 (The Spy Who Loved Me) Air Date: 05-08-1993
Episode 21 (The Painter) Air Date: 05-15-1993
Episode 22 (Happy Anniversary) Air Date: 05-22-1993

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Mad About You (DVD).

These lessons are designed to be easily used for personal Bible Study or as a guide for group Bible Studies. Each of the lessons will include a set of discussion questions at the end of the lesson, which can be used either privately for introspection or in a group setting as provocative discussion builders.

The very first thing that God gave to man after He had created them was dominion over the all the living creatures that moved on the earth, and he gave to man every “herb bearing seed” and every “fruit of a tree yielding seed” for food. He told man to “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth”. (Gen. 1: 28-30). Think about that for a moment. He GAVE man the command to replenish the earth, and GAVE man control over the living things, and He GAVE man the herbs and fruits and vegetables of the earth for food. Think about this: Once He had given that command, the control, and the means to do it, to the people of earth, could He have taken it back?

In the next chapter in Genesis, we receive more detail about his gift and instructions: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen. 2: 16-17).

So why give man everything but one tree, one fruit of one tree? Could it be symbolic (to man) that everything we have belongs to God, but He has GIVEN us the use of it? So by not eating of that one tree, man shows God that he recognizes that He is in control, that He gave it to man, that only He has the ability to create anything? You see, if man could create, if man were God’s equal, then the restriction would not have been necessary. Actually, it would have simply been a power-trip, as we might say today. It would have been God simply exerting His Godship and Ultimate control over His creation (Not that there would be anything wrong there, either.) But by giving man control over everything except one thing, one tree that probably didn’t have any special characteristics the other trees didn’t have, except there was a virtual sign that said, “Don’t touch this”, the tree became symbolic of recognizing that God created and owned everything.

Wasn’t Old Testament tithing much the same? Did God really need the Israelites to tithe to provide for the poor and the Levites (the priests of the day)? Of course not! He could have provided for the poor and the Levites the same way He provided for everyone else! But by requiring a tenth (or more), He simply reminded the people that everything was created by Him, given by Him, and under His authority. By tithing, the people recognized that what they had did not come from their own personal creativity and self, but rather was a gift from God.

New Testament giving is much the same way. Although tithing is not a requirement today (we can give as much as we want, 20%, 30%, whatever!), we are admonished to give cheerfully: “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (Paul, writing in II Cor. 9: 6-7).

When we give, we recognize that God is truly God, that he is the true giver of everything, of all life and things. We do not give to appease an angry God, we give to recognize a loving God as more bountiful than ourselves.

Questions for discussion:

How do you feel about giving back to the Creator of the Universe?

Do you see the fall of man, and God’s provision to give us back the life we lost, in a different light now than before reading this?

Do you see that when we give God back a portion of our bounty, we recognize Him as the ultimate giver and creator?

Note: Scripture references are from the KJV.

You have my permission to reprint and distribute this article as long as it is distributed in its entirety, including all links and copyright information. © Sean Mize 2006

“I have come into my garden…”(Song of Songs 5:1); “Thinking he was the gardener…” (John 20:15).

Many gardens are mentioned in Scripture, but four are extraordinary: the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8); the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36); the Garden of Joseph (John 19:41); and the Garden of Paradise (Revelation 2:7).

EDEN tells us of the creation of man in the image of God, a pure and holy genesis of what might have been unbroken fellowship. It also speaks to us of a fall and God’s precious promise of lifting up. It was a dark, dark evening for God and man when Adam and Eve were expelled from this beautiful Garden.

GETHSEMANE became necessary because of this expulsion. Otherwise, we would all be lost. This is where the agony, the atonement, began. In Eden humans fell. In Gethsemane the divine Savior bent to the ground in the ultimate sorrow. It was to restore the lost ground of Eden that the Deliverer endured the terminal spiritual illness of man. Will we ever understand what He endured and accomplished?

THE GARDEN OF JOSEPH tells us of victory. From the cross He went forth to death and seeming defeat; from Joseph’s garden He came forth to everlasting life and fulfillment. “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” 1 Corinthians 15:22.

PARADISE tells us of Eden renewed. Sin abounded in and after Eden so grace much more abounds in Paradise (Romans 5:20). It is here that our beloved Jesus will wipe away every tear. “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4) in our new Eden, our lovely Paradise.

Thank You, Father, for being our Gardener!

The September/October issue of Time Compression Technologies magazine includes a feature article, “Lean Manufacturing: How Big is the Market? Lean Enterprise: How Much Bigger is the Market?” authored by North America’s leading manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler (www.trcutlerinc.com).

Cutler provided a detailed history of the lean manufacturing marketing including how e-kanban solutions are central to an effective lean manufacturing initiative. According to Matthew Marotta, founder of Datacraft Solutions, “We do not charge for upgrades to the system as we learn about new best practices that clients ask us to incorporate. Before Datacraft incorporates the request, it is reviewed buy a lean advisory board to validate the value of the best practices and the value added impact upon our partner community. Once it is passed, they develop, test, and implement.”

The hosted solution provides the customer with their own set of servers which are maintained offsite by and outsourced set of administrators. All of the administration fees, equipment, support teams and software updates are all included in the monthly service fee which is less then the cost of hiring an internal system administrator.

The value of an ASP is that manufacturers can buy “by the drink”, low risk, and a see a rapid ROI. Only internet access is required.

The non-ASP option leaves manufacturers investing a large sum into the communication network, IT personnel, IT training, application servers, consulting for system modification, along with all the hidden costs that come with it. The only disadvantage of using an ASP is the client never owns the system (application), only their own data. This concern tends to be the issue of IT since they want to control all phases of the e-kanban operation. The cost of the control is wasteful and completely antithetical to a Lean Initiative.

While some ERP systems QAD, Factory Logic, and Supply Works have some e-kanban functionality is not their core focus, so manufacturers are purchasing the ERP system at a significant price tag including all the prices increases (and upgrade charges). From the perspective of Lean functionality and immediate ROI the cost cannot be justified, unless there is a plan for a manufacturer to replace the ERP system.

Datacraft Solutions www.datacraftsolutions.com Matthew Marotta 800-819-5326

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