AtlantaEvent.com NewsFlash - Not Just for Dummies, or Is It?

Jeff Glaze - Editor Click here to buy my e-book.

From Jeff Glaze - Editor : Yes, I have been real busy again, but here is the good news, I am not too busy to share something with you. The newsflash this month features some good info you may want to share with others. My article is called "Online Networking - Not Just for Dummies, or Is It?" which will talk about the rise and fall of online business networking sites. On a brighter note, I have some tickets to give away. That is right, you know about the Tony Robbins seminar coming next month, (ad below), and although you might like Tony, you might not have the bucks to go see him. So here is your chance. Write an email to me at info@atlantaevent.com. Tell me why you want to go see Tony in one sentence. That's right, no essays, just one sentence. The 3 best reasons I receive will get you 4 days at the seminar. I have 3 tickets to give away. Each winner will get ONE TICKET. This is the ticket that will change your life. Here are the rules: 1. You do not have to buy anything to win-, in fact, we are just doing this to share the tickets with you. 2. If you ask for the ticket, you must promise to use it if you win-. 3. To enter, just send an email with your Name, Phone Number, Email Address, and your sentence. 4. Tickets are delivered via email for this event, so I need a REAL email. I will not be adding this to any list. 5. If you would like to go with a friend, forward this email to them and they might win one too. 6. Win-ner will be chosen tonight - October 22, 2007 at 10 PM, you have until then to respond. (The best reason to read the NewsFlash right away when it comes out.) If you read this email on Oct. 23, call the number on the ad below to order your tickets. It is still a great deal. 7. Win-ners will receive telephone and email notification on Oct.23. That is all there is to it. Easier than calling in to a radio show and no busy signals. Have a great Month! - Jeff Glaze Editor of AtlantaEvent.com You can forward this Email to anyone if you wish.   I just wanted to take a moment and share my feelings with you about this event. I believe so strongly that attending this "Unlock The Power Within Event" will change your life, we promote this event on AtlantaEvent.com for fre*e. Two years ago I had an opportunity to see this first hand when I attended one of his events here in Atlanta. I watched as people learned how to overcome the obstacles in their lives, not just someone talking to them to make them feel good, but teaching real techniques and giving the tools that lead to REAL SUCCESS. This event is so powerful it is possible to realize a return on your investment within weeks after you go, but the things you will learn will benefit you for a lifetime. My reputation means too much to me to feed you a line of crap. THIS IS REAL POWERFUL STUFF! If you have the ability to go, do so. You have nothing to lose, they even offer a money back guarantee. I hope you will consider it this time, make a commitment to be the success you have always dreamed you could be. If you don't win the tickets, Call the number above. I will be at this event. Jeff Glaze - Creator and Editor of this web site - AtlantaEvent.com

If you are like me, you have been getting a lot of invitations lately to join online business networking sites. There are far too many to mention. While many of us are familiar with the social online sites like MySpace, or Facebook, the ones getting all the media coverage, we are just now getting a taste of the growing number of online business sites.

Often the invitation you receive will come from someone you know, but if you already have a lot of connections on a business or social site, you may have gotten to the point where you just start accepting the invitations without question. Well here is the question.

What if you are actually being scammed by a site, would you know it?

I read a while back about a new site that encouraged users to upload their entire contact list, so in the future if they wished, they could invite their friends. Then came the AHA! moment. After the contact list was uploaded, the site sent invitation emails to the entire list WITHOUT the permission of the list owner. "Join this cool site I found" or something like that.

I got an email from one person inviting me to sign up for an online business networking site after reading this article so I decided to investigate. I searched the site for the company contact info, but could not find it. Then I went to Whois.org and checked the domain name. The site was registered to a company in India. Now I don't know about you, but I think it is a bit risky to share any personal info online let alone with someone in India, or China, Or Czech Republic. It just does not seem like a wise thing to do. Or to make matters worse, upload my contacts for them to sp*am with an invitation to do the same.

So it only makes sense doesn't it? Of course you already knew that, I just thought I would remind you. If you do feel it necessary to sign up on a site, do so on one that has been around for a while like linkedin.com.

I use that one and it has benefited me by being a member. It did not cost anything to sign up and you have full control of how you upload and use contact lists.

Just one thing though. Just because someone sends you an invite to link to them does not mean it will help you. Always read their profile before you accept the invitation. You may find that they are not a good fit for your networking/business marketing strategy.

It is a jungle on the web, bring some bug spray when you are visiting. Perhaps it is better to get out of the house and go network with people once in a while?

Jeff Glaze is the creator of AtlantaEvent.com, this newsletter, a web designer, artist, author, speaker, and president of Mostcool Media, Inc..

We Fix Ugly or Wrinkled Web Sites.
678.508.5975
Is your site ready for a little Nip/Tuck?
Cheaper than you think and at half the price of a normal website company.
Yes, we are not normal.
mostcoolmedia.com

Do you enter into business relationships, acquisitions, property investments, partnerships, or enter into a transaction without first verifying a companies identity, associates and affiliations?

Most people do and your not alone. However most entrepreneurs still enter into business relationships with curiosity and unanswered questions they may have regarding a company or associate of a particular company. Wouldn’t it be beneficial to you and or your company to limit liability and risk by conducting due diligence before entering into business relationships?

By limiting your risk and liability your business will have a far greater chance to succeed. By conducting simple due diligence and developing your own profile on any person or business you will have a much better understanding of a particular business and its associates which is vital to your business decisions. 90% of the information you need to know can be found on-line. You just have to know where to look for it, and how to look for it. I will show you how you can develop your own profile on anyone or any business on-line for free.

Example on a property investment acquisition. I contacted an individual who had placed a classified add through an on-line newspaper under real estate finance/services for hard money lending, private money lenders. I was really just trying to get a feel for the market in that specific area of the country. I do this by contacting various types of real estate professionals such Agents, brokers, title companies/escrow, private/hard money lenders, bird dogs, wholesalers, etc. When I call I get their personal name and the company name they work for (if any). If it’s a company its usually an LLC which is very common in the real estate industry or another type of corporate entity. A lot of times people talk fast or not very clear on the phone. So I always have them spell out their name and company name and have them provide me any additional contact numbers that they can provide should I need to speak with them at another time.

When the subject I’m speaking to on the phone tells me the name of the company he or she represents and it is a corporate entity such as an LLC, S-Corp, partnership, etc. I know right away I can get the corporate members names within a few minutes. I will first go to the states web site in which the individual claims to conduct business in and lookup the entity online by the name of the company.

Just about all the states in the U.S. have free online searches at their web sites where you can lookup information about a corporation by company name or agent names. Just go to your favorite search engine like Google or MSN and type in the name of the state and corporations. Example “Arizona Corporations”, “Texas Corporations”, “Nevada Corporations”. The search engines will typically return the results your looking for within the first two organic search result listings. Once you get to the states web site you will need to find where on the web site you can lookup a Corporation. Usually it will just read “Look up Corporations”. Type in the name of the company and you can find out all corporate members, addresses, resident agents, corporate status- good standing- dissolved, revoked, etc. What I typically do is find out if the name the subject provided to me on the phone is indeed an actual member of the corporation, and then I run his or her name through the states database and see if he or she is involved in any other types of corporations. I find that is quite common to have members involved in several corporations.

Sometimes you will not find a companies name in the specific states database. There could be a few reasons for this. The company may be a sole proprietor, or the company is registered in another state but has not filed as a foreign entity in the state they are doing business in. Sometimes companies operate this way. In this case it would be wise to search the Nevada and Delaware corporation web sites to determine if the company or agents are registered in either of those two states. There are a great number of corporations that register in Nevada and Delaware simply because of the asset protection. It’s difficult to pierce the corporate veil under the laws of those two states and that alone drives many, many companies to register in those particular states.

I then run the companies name and agents name through online courthouse records in the specific county where they are residing in or conducting business in. Again like with the states, most counties have some type of information that is accessible online. Civil, family law and criminal filings are what you would most be interested in. You can go to the National Association of Counties by going to- http://www.naco.org and look up the county of your interest and you will go to their web site and see what kind of records that are accessible on-line for you to search. If you don’t know the name of the county, you can locate a County by just knowing the City and State by going to the U.S. Census Bureau and searching their database located here:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/cgi-bin/qfd/lookup?state=01000

Or you can locate a County by Zip Code by searching this database by just entering a zip code http://www.usatrace.com/Search.html

As soon as you locate the counties web site that you want to search just run the subjects name and company name through the various online databases. It can be very interesting to what you might find through courthouse records.

You should also run the subjects name, company name, phone number, any addresses separately through Google- Using each category- Main Google, Google Groups, Google News. I typically run the above search criteria through Google to see what I can find and where it links to. You can also verify if any address is a mail drop (like Mail boxes Etc.) or if it is actually a street location by using a free database search located here: http://www.finaid.com/scholarships/maildropsearch.phtml

Let me give you a recent example of how my typical investigation starts.

The individual that I recently contacted in regards to private money lending had provided me his name and company name when I asked, which is typical with any dealings on the phone. I already had his contact number from the add that he had placed on-line in the classifieds under “real estate finance/services”.

I first ran the phone number to see if it was a cell number or a landline number. I do that by going to fonefinder.net I then ran his telephone number through Google to see if it appears online anywhere. I enter phone numbers in Google like this:- area code-prefix-phone number. Example- “111-555-1212” . Running this search gives me a good idea if the phone number he provided me has been used anywhere online. Sometimes I find a different name of the company other than what they provided, or I may find a web site where the phone number was used as a contact number, I may even find a personal add placed where the subject was trying to sell a classic car and the contact number matched that of which I already had. Or I can find out which forums the subject hangs out at, he may have used the phone number there. If I find a website where the contact number I entered into Google shows up, I find out who owns the web site by searching the whois directory located here- betterwhois.com I may find another name or indeed find out my subject owns this particular web site.

I start developing my profile of the business and the subject themselves by initially starting with a simple phone number. I can find all kinds of interesting things by simply running a search through Google with the subjects contact telephone number.

I then ran the company name that the subject had provided me by going online at the specific states website where I can look up and find out information about corporations. This will allow me to verify or reveal agents names. Sure enough he was a member of the corporation. However the last name he provided to me was spelled and pronounced much differently than what was revealed with the corporation search. It was way off.

I then went to the respective county web site to search online for civil and criminal records on the subject. I knew which county to search based on the subjects phone number and also the zip code that was returned for the subjects address revealed in the corporation search through the states website.

I found numerous civil filings on the subject regarding business dealings including an Ex-partner filed for a wire tap on the subjects phone number as well as family law cases involving domestic violence. I also found a criminal case-. Possession of marijuana

Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make up ones mind if they would like to enter into a business relationship with this subject. There is a greater possibility that I might have issues with this individual and things may not work out so well in the future.

There are many scenarios of why you would need to conduct due diligence on a individual or company. But remember you should always verify or reveal information on an individual or company prior to entering into a business relationship.

Frank Bruno has been a Private Investigator for 8 years and is an expert in on-line Investigations. He has been the manager of USATrace.com since 1997. USATrace.com

What makes one tradeshow exhibit memorable and another so-so? What can exhibitors do to get attendees talking after the show? What can motivate visitors who may have had no previous intention of visiting your booth decide that they definitely have to stop by?

Entertainment! According to tradeshow research, live presentations are the third most important reason why people remember the exhibit. Numbers one and two? Booth size and product interest. If you've got a limited exhibiting budget, hiring entertainment may be a cost-effective way to attract attention to your company without springing for the larger, pricier display space.

What are your options?

Entertainment options at tradeshows are almost endless. Any form of live presentation can work, including:

• staged product demonstrations
• theatrical skit
• magician
• game show
• choreography
• video
• audio
• robot
• singers or musicians

The key is to have entertainment that acts as an integral part of your marketing message. To do this, you need to know a few things:

• What type of entertainment will appeal to your target audience?

A robot that dispenses free samples might go over big at a tech show but fall flat at a pet care industry show. Conversely, those wired types might be more puzzled than pleased by a troop of trained terriers. Know your target audience.

• How much product information do you want to convey via the entertainment?

Some entertainment formats are better than others for educating attendees about your products and services. Product demonstrations, especially those that draw participants from the audience, are a great way to get the crowd focused on what you're selling. Other acts focus on simply getting the company name and logo out there, such as a magician who uses the company's name as the 'Magic Word'.

• What is your corporate image?

Any entertainment you select should positively reflect your company's image. This goes beyond a Western Wear company selecting a country singer to entertain the crowds -- attendees will hold you to a higher standard than that. Research the acts you're proposing to hire. Some acts may not be appropriate for mainstream companies -- ask to see a video of an average performance and ask yourself how would your customer base view the images.

With those questions in mind, decide what kind of entertainment you'd like to have and who will perform for the crowds. If you've decided on live product demonstrations, you may be able to use your own staff members, but other than that, you're generally better off hiring a pro.

How to Make the Most of Your Money

Hiring a professional entertainer is an expense. Ensure you get your money's worth by doing the following:

• Identify how the presentation helps achieve your goals -- let the entertainer know clearly what you expect for them to do.

• Create promotional activities centering around the entertainment. From pre-show direct mailings to on the floor interactions with attendees, make frequent mention of the event and have an incentive that will encourage attendees to visit your booth.

• If your staff is not on stage, find ways to involve them in the presentation. Use them to gather the crowd or to capture and monitor pertinent information during the presentation. Let them know it's okay to be enthusiastic about the performance -- excitement is contagious, and you want an excited crowd.

What to Avoid

Good entertainment is expensive, bad entertainment can cost more than you will ever imagine. Protect your company's image and reputation by avoiding the following:

• Crass, rude, or offensive acts. There are comedians who do very well with off color or hurtful humor, but the risk of alienating large segments of your consumer base by sponsoring one of these acts is too great.

• Under-dressed entertainers. Scantily clad women and barely dressed men wiggling provocatively have no place at most shows. In fact, the aggressive use of "Booth Babes" has been so off-putting that some shows are banning them all together. Unless you're exhibiting an adult-themed show -- ie, one that caters to the sex industry or some travel shows -- have your entertainment keep their clothes on.

• Acts that are clearly amateur. Tradeshow audiences are harsh. They won't be tolerant of second rate acts. Hire the best you can afford for better results.

Written by Susan A. Friedmann,CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, author: “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies,” working with companies to improve their meeting and event success through coaching, consulting and training. For a free copy of “10 Common Mistakes Exhibitors Make”, e-mail: article4@thetradeshowcoach.com; website: thetradeshowcoach.com