Weiss Report Blog

Web design or Web development has become immensely popular over
the last few years. In these short few years, many new code
standards, technology and design concepts have come to the fore.
There has also been an immense amount of knowledge distribution
and with it the demand for more functional and independent web
design packages and tools.

The knowledge distribution has also led to shift in demand to
the content management systems which facilitate content updates.
These updates have become immensely necessary to keep the
consumer’s interest for visiting the web site again and again
and also to keep the consumer abreast with latest happenings
regarding the company and its products and services.

CMS or Content Management Systems are becoming more and more
popular with web design organizations. They have come to realize
that CMS is the future of web site design and may be left behind
in the industry if they do not begin offering CMS services.

CMS does not in any way spell doom to web designers. CMS
certainly saves the company’s time it spends on web design and
allows tem to put more efforts into marketing. CMS gives the
company the freedom it needs by providing them with an ability
to update the site when needed, not when convenient. CMS also
saves the company’s costs by not having to run to the web
designer every time an update is needed.

Any typical CMS consists of the following features - Provides an
interface to Add/remove/edit pages. - Provides easy interface to
update content of each page. - Capability to add or remove
images where needed. - Interface to update contact information.
- Display updated listings (ex: Mortgage and interest rates). -
Facilitates addition of news on the industry everyday.

Inference

A web design organization should seriously consider offering CMS
to their clients to prepare for the future. It is still at a
nascent stage, so if a web design and development organization
is considering developing a customised CMS and marketing it,
they can still see success in the near future. More information
and tips are available at http://www.cobbwebdesign.com.

When I first started my small business marketing consulting business in 1998, I knew cultivating relationships was key to growing my business and getting new clients.

I knew I would need a way to stay in touch with the people I met at networking events, as well as my past clients, friends and business colleagues in order to facilitate referrals.

So I started sending out a monthly text email called “Tips & Trends.”

It consisted of a brief “hello” message and a link to a page on my web site with information on a current marketing trend I’d read about and some helpful marketing tips.

This whole process was pretty crude. I managed it out of Microsoft Outlook and my goal was never to build a big list, but rather to stay in touch with people I already knew.

And you know what? It worked.

For five years, 100% of my small business marketing clients came from referrals from people who received those emails. I am confident these are people I would have lost touch with otherwise. That was my first taste of email marketing, and I was hooked.

Fast-forward to 2004 and the launch of my new small business marketing venture, 10stepmarketing.

Email marketing was the first marketing tactic I selected. At this point however I realized my goal had to be to build a massive list of prospects. I needed to do more than simply stay in touch with the people I already knew, I needed to attract lots of new
prospects.

So I focused much of my marketing on writing and publishing my ezine, and building my list.

I took the same articles I was publishing in my ezine each week and started posting them in free article directories on the web. And I started offering a free gift to encourage my web site visitors to subscribe.

And the rest as they say is history.

Email marketing has been one of my primary marketing vehicles. It has helped me create a presence on the web with little monetary investment. And it has enabled me to build a large following of prospects who are interested in what I have to offer.

So what lessons have I learned in my eight years of email marketing?

Here are 5 of them:

(1) Email marketing is the easiest, cheapest way to stay in touch and generate referrals.

(2) Put an opt-in box on every page of your website to build your list quicker.

(3) Write and post lots of articles on the web to drive traffic and build your list for free.

(4) Offer a free gift to encourage more of your web site visitors to join your list.

(5) Be aware of spam trigger words and avoid them at all costs so your email messages get delivered.

Even with the newer technologies such as RSS, podcasting and blogging, I believe email marketing will continue to be a popular and effective way to generate prospects and build relationships.

After all, relationship marketing isn’t new, it’s always been effective, and our goal as small business marketers and business owners is to use whatever technology is available to us, and is used by our prospects and clients, to stay in touch with them and to serve them.

(C) Copyright 2006 Debbie LaChusa, 10stepmarketing

Debbie LaChusa created The 10stepmarketing System to make marketing your own business as simple as answering 10 questions. Learn more about this unique, step-by-step system and get a free 10-week Marketing E-Course when you subscribe to the free, weekly 10stepmarketing Ezine at http://www.10stepmarketing.com.

No matter what home business you are
considering, there are a few principles
that, if followed, will give you a much
better chance of having a successful home
business. Who wouldn’t want to have a home
business? Work from the comfort of your own
home, be your own boss, there are so many
factors that make a home business very
attractive. Yet there are so many people
that fail at their home business dream. Why?
If a home business is so great, why do so
many people have a hard time making their
home business work?

The answer to these questions is that many
people make the mistake of seeing a home
business as a life-long vacation. They
equate the fact that their home business
makes them their own boss with the freedom
to do what they want when they want. While
that is true, in reality that truth means
they will have to work harder at their home
business, not get off easy.

Keep in mind that there are a great number
of people that are successful in their home
business. These people are very good at what
they do, they’re smart, and they have no
intention of letting your home business take
business away from them. Therefore you need
to be committed to your home business. Work
your home business and work it hard. Don’t
be afraid to make mistakes in your home
business. That is how you learn. A friend
once told me that he didn’t mind making
mistakes as long as they were always new
ones. As long as the mistakes you make in
your home business are not the same mistakes
over and over again you will be moving
forward.

The hardest time in your home business will
be the beginning. Starting the ball rolling
on your home business takes a lot of work
but don’t despair. Your home business won’t
always be this hard. It is always hardest to
get something started but once it’s moving
it can benefit from its own momentum. A home
business is not exempt from this truth.

When problems do arise in your home
business, how you react to them will help
determines your success. Getting angry or
frustrated will only hamper your ability to
move your home business forward. Looking at
an obstacle as a challenge to be overcome
and learned from will only benefit your home
business in the long run.

Don’t fall into the trap of seeing a home
business as a get-rich-quick scheme. A truly
valuable home business rarely is. A home
business can however be the tool whereby you
become successful. Determine what your long
-term goals are for your home business. What
would constitute success for you in your
home business? Is it money, or free time?

Perhaps the most attractive facet of having
your own home business is not having to
answer to a boss. Whatever your personal
motivation for having your own home business
keep it clear in your mind. Then you will
always have a clear path in your sights
toward making your home business successful.

About the author:

To find the best home based business ideas
and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.MakeItBigForLife.com

The process of checking has its origins in the ancient banking system, in which bankers would issue orders at the request of their customers, to pay money to identified payees. Such an order was then referred to as a bill of exchange. Bills of exchange helped merchants do away with carrying currency and facilitate trade to purchase services and goods.

In its most basic form, a checking account allows one to give money to another person or a business firm when it is not safe or practical for direct currency transfer.

A checking account is more than just a place to keep money. It simplifies your financial matters and helps you manage money easier.

In the present day scenario, understanding the complexities and fast pace of life, almost all the banks have developed a very wide range of checking accounts that offer all the services one requires. All this is done with a focus on ease of use and convenience.

To help simply their customers’ life, banks have come up specialized checking accounts with minimal fees and hassles.

Checking has a wide range of benefits as compared to direct transfer of cash.

They provide a paper trail or written proof that a payment has been done which is important for tax purposes and whenever one is paying a person or company by mail.

Checking is safer than cash. Taking and spending cash leaves no trail, while the paper trail a check leaves discourages theft.

Also, they are cheaper than buying money orders or cashier’s checks and have a lot of account accessing options that other types of accounts don’t offer.

Moreover, Checking accounts have no limitations whatsoever on the number of electronic transfers one can make each month.

Suddenly gripped with a vision of what I wanted from his company, I seized control of the conversation and asked the salesman whom I should talk to about my idea. He was startled, of course, that I was turning the tables in the middle of his presentation, but he complied.

A few calls later, I was speaking to, and pitching a guy, who after hearing my idea volunteered, “Your timing couldn’t be better!”

I love that phrase, because it symbolizes what is tremendous about selling, especially when you’re doing it, unconventionally.

When you take the initiative you literally make things happen. You create something where there was nothing. You amalgamate the most intangible things we know, a goal, a concept, your words, a telephone connection, and the next thing you know, you’re doing business with a person who was a stranger, mere seconds before.

What can be more exciting than this?

An artist, who rummages for discards and then assembles this erstwhile junk into something interesting or beautiful, is no more creative than you are, at such a moment.

The key to all of this joy and success is to be prepared to pitch anybody, at anytime.

I’m really fond of taking calls that are made to me, and injecting into them my own agendas.

There are several advantages:

(1) You can find out a lot about the company that the caller represents because salespeople are talkers and you have one on the line;

(2) As the caller’s perceived “customer,” he’s going to be more polite and patient with you as you do the Vulcan Mind Meld with him than he would be if you had actually phoned him;

(3) If you’re really persuasive, he’ll do a hot transfer on the spot, connecting you with someone who can provide even better information as well as tips for selling to the firm; and

(4) You’ll sound loose and relaxed, because you’re sailing in their wind, and you know it.

Win, lose, or draw, turning the tables is great practice, and it pumps you up.

You’ll know you’re getting pretty good at it when you start hearing, “Your timing couldn’t be better!”

Dr. Gary S. Goodman © 2006

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Having heard several different ideas of the unpardonable sin
I decided to write on an obvious and extreme end of this
subject. I rather felt that by working from this direction
that any difficulties might become clear.

Some may wonder and worry if they have just gone too far and
committed the unpardonable sin. Jesus said, “but whoever
speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him,
either in this age or in the age to come.”(Mt 12:32) A
statement like that should send immediate and strong fear
into anyone who claims the Christian label. For if we still
shoulder our own sins then we are in danger of what Christ
calls the “second death” (Rev 21:8.) This speaking against
the Holy Spirit is again mentioned in Luke 12:10 as
blasphemy but what is this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
Well to understand we first need knowledge of what the
Spirit is for how can we avoid our wrongs in ignorance?

The Holy Spirit is the might, power, force, mission, mind,
and direction for Godly works that exists among the family
of God. This power emanates from God the Father. This is not
an exhaustive examination but let’s touch upon some of these
points from scripture.

The spirit is power, notice, “And the Spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let
there be light”; and there was light”Genesis 1:2. Is this
power or what? Clearly God’s Spirit was there at creation
and only a word was needed to create the awesome sun our
tiny planet circles. Have you ever met someone you had real
magnetism? That is without doing anything could shape events
by what they say? The President has such power.

Our
president can cause death and destruction, preserve life,
build cities and more simply by uttering words. There is
power in words. How much more of the power of God’s word and
will called His Holy Spirit? Holy means something set that
is set aside for doing right and good. And God is righteous
and does all good. Counter to this observe that the spirit
in man is rarely holy. Man’s spirit or force is usually bent
on vanity, greed and a host of other evils. But it is God,
His word, His power and His Spirit that drive events or as
God says, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My
mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall
accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing
for which I sent it” Isaiah 55:11. God speaks and things
happen.

His Holy Spirit or force is also put in certain men who God
decides can be used as vessels of good. Jesus said to His
disciples, “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you” Acts 1:8. And that event did occur on
Pentecost as described in Acts chapter two. Here scripture
shows the Spirit coming down as a power saying, “suddenly
there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind”
and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance.” Peter then stood up to say that the Spirit had
been poured out.

And it is by that Spirit which was in them
that the Church began to do the works of God in both deed
and in word for now these individuals began to transcend
human knowledge unto Godly knowledge. The apostle Paul also
wrote of how the Holy Spirit “teaches” 1Cor 2:13 and is “in
you” 1Cor 6:19 giving these selected individuals the, “mind
of Christ” 1Cor 2:16 and to speak the words of the Father or
as Christ taught, “for it is not you who speak, but the
Spirit of your Father who speaks in you”Mt 10:20. But in all
of this it still remains that the Spirit of God is the
power, mind, will and strength which, “proceeds from the
Father” John 15:26.

So what does it mean to blaspheme? It is written in Mark
3:30 that the Scribes (the interpreters of the law) said
Christ had, “an unclean spirit” and by this were
blasphemers. But scripture says that the Spirit that was in
Christ was “of God” Mt 3:16. The Scribes attributed the good
will and intentions of God the Father to the intent and will
and desire of Demons. Just as God has a Spirit of pure good
and right and man has a spirit of vanity, the Demons also
have a spirit which is much lower yet as you will see.

And
Demons do have spirits Luke 4:33 and Demons do have
doctrines or agendas, 1Tim 4:1. So the Scribes had words
saying of Christ that, “He has Beelzebub” Mark 3:22, meaning
the spirit in Christ from God the Father was evil. These
were just words but Christ said, “things which proceed out
of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.”
Christ taught that what evil is in your heart is just the
same as the action by teaching things like, “whoever looks
at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery”
Mt 5:28. In a few minutes you should see why these things
are being mentioned but first let’s look at the definition
of blasphemy.

The exact word used in Matthew 13:31 comes
from the Greek word “blasphemia” and it means to slander to
detract from and to do injury to by speech. It is the last
definition called injury that I want to focus in on which
will lead you to understand why this article is titled, “The
Black and White of the Unpardonable sin.” Christ taught that
words that come from your heart are as bad as actions. But I
want to focus in on not just the words but the action of
unpardonable sin. The scribes had the words but we will see
the actions.

A few paragraphs back we saw that the Spirit of God the
Father works in Christ and in chosen individuals. This is
the body or the Church. The Spirit carries the direction of
the Church and its doctrines if you will. Demons have
doctrines or direction counter to the truth. So here is the
black and white you’ve been waiting for. Satan is called
the, “adversary” who is “seeking whom he may devour” 1Pe
5:8. Revelation chapter 12 teaches that Satan both pursues
and persecutes the body of Christ. Remember the definition
of blasphemy and how it means to injure by words. Well in
Satan we see an individual who takes the injury to action.
Satan has a doctrine or agenda or spirit to do injury to the
Church.

Another definition of blaspheme is the Hebrew
“naqab” which figuratively and literally means to poke
holes. Satan is seeking to poke holes in the doctrines and
direction of God’s elect, the Church, thus attempting to do
injury or blasphemy to God’s Holy Spirit. And what is
Satan’s fate? Certainly it is never forgiveness as Christ
said. Certainly it is the lake of fire Rev 20:10 which is
called the “second death” verse 14. But Satan is not the
only one. For there are individuals among the Church whom
Jude says are, “twice dead” verse 12. These tares that bring
in their doctrines of demons are not simply backsliding
Christians. They are not sinners who trip and mess up and
need to repent from wrong. Rather they like Satan are active
in their agenda to do destruction to the Church. They
attempt to tear at well-established proven doctrine. They
attempt at division among the brethren. These are not
outsiders who have never agreed to the doctrines or knew the
truth but are like Satan and know the truth.

And like Satan
hate the truth. Excerpts from 2Peter 2:15-21 say, “They have
forsaken the right way and gone astray…for whom is
reserved the blackness of darkness forever…they speak
great swelling words of emptiness, they allure…they
themselves are slaves of corruption…it would have been
better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment
delivered to them.” It is clear from the preceding that like
Satan they knew the right way but turned from it. They have
doctrines counter to the truth. And their fate is never
forgiveness. They like Satan are unpardonable.

So the real impending message here is watch that you do not
begin to fight or poke holes at the Spirit of God, at His
work or against the work of those that have His Spirit. For,
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God” Hebrews 10:31. Of course this may raise the question of
where is God’s Spirit working? Who are the elect doing His
will? What are the direction and doctrines of God that are
among them? Is there one true Church on this earth right now
and could you recognize it? The answer to this will have to
wait for a following article.

Learn more from our website at www.cornerstone1.org

Glenn Williams is editor at Cornerstone Evangelical
Association. A site dedicated to teach Christians are not to
separate from Old Testament laws yet still look to Christ
for salvation. You can sign up for a free weekly newsletter
at http://www.cornerstone1.org or
mailto:subscribe@cornerstone1.org

I want to share with you the two most powerful marketing methods
I’ve found for the copywriter. And they are (drum roll
please)…direct mail and… networking!

In my coaching program I have my students go through an
intensive 24-session web/mail marketing program that gets them
the high quality leads they need for financial and professional
success.

However, as one of my previous students recently reminded me,
networking is also a very strong marketing tool.

In fact, it was networking that got me my first clients, and it
was direct mail that got me the right clients during the second
phase of my freelance career.

Here’s what you need to know about networking…

Rule number one: Avoid the Chamber of Commerce!

Almost every copywriter I know (including me), automatically
puts the Chamber of Commerce on the short list of good places to
network. And almost every copywriter (myself included), is
disappointed with the results.

Now I’m not saying the local Chamber is always a losing
proposition; I have one past student who said Chamber networking
paid off for him, but 99 percent of the copywriters I talk with
agree the businesses found there are just too small (and usually
clueless about direct marketing).

What’s more, the Chamber is comprised of many types of business,
so niching is not possible.

It is much better to go to events and meetings that focus on
marketing, like those of a local Direct Marketing Association
and American Marketing Association. This is where you’ll find
marketing directors, direct marketers, and marketing-related
vendors likely to have a high interest in copywriting services.

When I first started my freelance career I joined the Oregon
Direct Marketing Association and took every opportunity I could
to get my name known.

I wrote the newsletter (and placed a free ad in the
classifieds); I wrote the press releases and I accepted
responsibilities for putting on the yearly conference. I even
gave a speech on the proper elements of a good sales letter. And
I put myself on the board.

All of this led to my first freelance clients: mini-cataloger
and manufacturer Stash Tea, LawnPro, a small landscape
maintenance firm, and an ad agency that locked me in a tiny room
on site, as though to prevent me from making a personal call on
their dime. Not the best clients, but it gave me my start.

Over the years, technology has made niche marketing the smart
way to go, and for that reason I also highly recommend that you
seek groups, organizations, trade shows, and associations that
pertain to your niche.

Another one of my current students is niching into a very
specialized area of the alternative health field. Within her
unique niche she’s found huge trade shows she can attend, and is
now making calls to vendors to introduce herself and let them
know she’ll be stopping by their booth. The positive response
she’s been getting has us both very excited!

Many copywriters find it difficult to network simply because
they live remotely. For them, I like to point out online
alternatives.

For instance, as a specialist in software who lives in
California’s remote Palm Desert (near Palm Springs), I must seek
online opportunities to network.

To this end I’ve participated in marketing forums on
SoftwareCEO, a popular site for software execs. And I’ve also
written articles for its newsletter.

I can report that networking on SoftwareCEO has paid off nicely,
as a large chunk of last year’s income came from a client who
saw my name there.

Online networking has another plus, and that’s that it’s an
especially attractive route to take if you’re shy and have a
difficult time of meeting people.

With online networking, all you have to do is answer a question,
provide an opinion, or share a resource. It takes just a few
minutes, you don’t have to dress up, or travel anywhere, and it
doesn’t cost a thing!

In summary, there are many ways for copywriters to market
themselves. Public speaking, writing articles, cold calling,
running ads, and so on.

But most copywriters have neither the time nor the finances for
multiple marketing efforts; most pick one or two methods that
appeal to them, and work hard at making them effective.

One thing is sure: I wouldn’t be where I am now without
networking. I found my copywriting mentor via networking and he
taught me everything he knew.

With networking I made the connections that got me an agency job
that changed the course of my career…and my life.

Reflecting on what networking has done for my career, I must
wholeheartedly encourage my ambitious freelance friends to take
advantage of its benefits.

I’ve often thought that in any business, it’s the people who
make things happen. With networking, you can capitalize on this
truism. You can develop relationships that last a
lifetime…gain experiences that greatly impact your
career…and enjoy rewards far beyond your initial imagination.

I encourage you to find networking opportunities, both online
and off. Network consistently and I guarantee that when you’re
“fat and happy,” you’ll attribute some of your success to
networking.

Companies have been focused on using the Internet to market goods and services to the consumer. Many see this as the major revenue stream on the net. But there is an undiscovered El Dorado, a goldmine of opportunity that very few have begun to mine.

Traditionally, companies have tried to capitalize on the Internet by establishing a Web page where consumers can research and buy products or services on-line. These Web sites are elaborate brochures touting the company’s many qualities and competencies. A few companies, like Amazon.com, and retail giant L.L. Bean, have turned these online retail brochures into huge success stories. Many companies have tried to replicate this success, with uneven results, stumbling because of a few inherent problems with the Web page.

Web pages are static. They require a potential customer to find them, and once found, to bookmark the page and forget about it.

Some have managed to mitigate these problems with direct email offers. For instance, I periodically logged on to Amazon.com to look at the latest fiction releases. Some time last year, emails from Amazon began arriving in my inbox. These emails announced new releases of fiction, and in some cases offered a discount. Links took me directly to the Web page. In some cases, I have bought books that I might never have bought, or might have bought from elsewhere. I am not alone.

The Motivation to Go Online

More than half of American adults are online. They use the Internet for two primary purposes, email and product research. Almost half of Americans now use email and more than one-third use the Internet to search for product and service information before making online purchases.

Not surprisingly, marketers have been quick to try to capitalize on this effective sales channel. Opt-In News, published by Keaton Communications, recently reported that 54.2 percent of advertisers used emails to promote their products at the end of 2001, making direct email marketing the most used retail channel on the Internet. Almost 60 percent of email marketing campaigns in 2001 were focused on retail.

The report also revealed where the undiscovered gold I previously mentioned will be found. Amazingly, only 20 percent of these companies used email newsletters, and so capitalized on the first use, but failed to make use of the second reason people log online. Email newsletters fuse the two main purposes for which people go, email and research, and it’s more effective than simple email offers, which often come across as “SPAM.”

But there is an even larger undiscovered mother lode. Consumers are only a portion, and a minority portion at that, of the users surfing the Internet. Nearly 80 percent of the managers and professionals in the nation use the Internet at work. 70 percent of sales, marketing, technical support and administrative workers use the Internet in their jobs. Again, the two biggest uses were email first, and research second.

Leading the Reader to Read the Newsletter

Given this, it might seem astonishing that the marketers haven’t begun mining the B2B gold with email newsletters. The reason is that most marketers use the form poorly.

The average businessperson now gets over 50 emails a day. When they open their in-box they have three thoughts in mind - which do I read, which I save to read later, and which do I delete without opening?

Therefore, the first rule is to only send your newsletter to people who want it. Encourage people in your database to opt-in to receiving your newsletter. This brings us to the second cardinal rule, the newsletter must provide value if they are to continue receiving it, opening it, reading it, and most importantly, acting on it.

Most marketers simply want to beat the company drum, talk about new products or services, tout recent awards, new hires, or promising mergers. But the better strategy is to focus the content of the newsletter on the reader. It is better to pull than to push with your content, better to provide articles that explore issues, engage dialogue, solve problems common to your readers than it is to simply blow your own horn. Americans are so snowed under with advertising that we have effective filters. Anything smacking of a pitch will be screened, the message lost.

Marketers can keep their newsletter in the ‘read and saved column’ by making sure their content meets the following criteria:

Relevant - the content speaks to the customer’s interests and not your own.

Anticipated - Distribute on a regular basis so people expect your newsletter to arrive on a certain day, but don’t publish so often they become fatigues with you.

Monitored - One of the best benefits provided by online marketing channels is the reporting. Monitor how readers are looking at your newsletter and alter it to conform to their interests.

Email newsletters with timely, interesting articles are more apt to get forwarded, increasing the number of readers with time. Everyone who reads the newsletter and decides to opt-in to a company’s list is a qualified lead. B2B newsletters are the latest undiscovered gold in the virtual world.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl’s notes, eNewsletter Journal, and The Remediator Security Digest. She is also a PC Today columnist and a tour guide at InformIT. She is geared to tackle your editing, writing, content, and process needs. The native Texan resides in Plano, Texas, a heartbeat north of Dallas, and doesn’t wear a 10-gallon hat or cowboy boots.

Dogs have long been welcome on the mystical white sands of southern New
Mexico. When America’s space age began at White Sands Missile Range with the firing of a Tiny Tim test booster on September 26, 1945, it was important to retrieve small missile parts to analyze success or failure. These searches routinely wasted countless man-hours as ground recovery crews scoured vast expanses of desert for often-buried missile fragments.

That ended in 1961 with the introduction of the Missile Dogs: Dingo, a
Weimaraner, and Count, a German Shorthair. For up to a year before firing,
important components of a missile were sprayed with squalene, a shark-liver oil
that the dogs could smell from hundreds of feet away.

After a missile firing, Dingo and Count raced among the sands sniffing out the
scent objects. With a 96% recovery rate, the program was so successful that other
military and scientific agencies requested the services of the original Missile Dogs of
White Sands.

Today you can hike with your dog anywhere in the giant sandbox that is White
Sands National Monument. The world’s largest gypsum sand dunes form when
gypsum dissolves in nearby mountains during rainstorms. Instead of being carried
off by a river (this is an arid environment) wind transports the crystals where they
accumulate in brilliantly white sand dunes.

White Sands offers 6.2 miles of marked dog-friendly trails but there is no need
to limit your explorations. Any dune is open to a canine hike. Stay alert for reptiles
and rodents scampering on the dunes that have adapted to the white sands and are
now a funny bleached white color.

During the heat of summer, try a night hike - when the moon is full, the park,
located in New Mexico on U.S. Highway 70 between Alamogordo and Las Cruces,
stays open until midnight. The desert cools off then and the sands are haunting by
moonlight.

I am the author of over 20 books, including 8 on hiking with your dog and the
widely praised The Canine Hiker’s Bible. As publisher of Cruden Bay Books, we
produce the innovative A Bark In The Park series of canine hiking books found at
http://www.hikewithyourdog.com Articles in the Doggin’ America series of dog-
friendly parks can be found at http://www.DogginAmerica.com During the warm
months I lead canine hikes for hikewithyourdog.com tours, guiding packs of dogs
and humans on hiking adventures. Tours, ranging from one-day trips to multi-day
explorations, visit parks, historical sites and beaches. My lead dog is Katie, a
German Shepherd- Border Collie mix, who has hiked in all of the Lower 48 states
and is on a quest to swim in all the great waters of North America - http://web.mac.com/crudbay/iWeb/Katies%20Blog/Katies%20Quest.html

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About the Author

Gary Gresham is the webmaster for http://www.1stopshoppingonline.com
Discover this amazing, digital-quality, radio for yourself at http://www.1stopshoppingonline.com/satellite-radio.html