Saturday, December 13, 2008

Business Relationships and Social Networking

Business Relationships and Social Networking

If you are in business you know the importance of relationships. Word of mouth is the best source of leads for your business. Once you are done with your warm leads then you have to be creative and find other ways to convert those cold leads to hot leads.




One example of Business and Social Networking is Direct Matches. Register for free. Complete your profile, include your business, product or service, benefits, contact information and you click save, 100K+ members will have access to your information. Now, do you want to contact them? They may be good source of leads for your business. Some people pay top dollars to get leads.

Here, you just upgrade to account executive for only 29.95 a month. Cancel anytime.

Want to make extra income or serious money? Without spending one cent more... you already have a worldwide business opportunity. Work at home is a plus with this economy. Lots of people are looking for that extra income that will help them with these difficult times. Work from home and save money; you can deduct a good amount from your home expenses.

Direct Matches has been around for 4+ years and have been issuing checks to their members every Friday. Nothing like a "pay day" every week.

Furthermore, when you join my team, http://dm01.homestead.com, I go the extra mile making a customized website for you including links to your other businesses if that's the case, and optimizing that page for Search Engines with SEO, Search Engine Optimization, so you will get more traffic and will get a higher ranking in Google.

For example, from Google, if you type: "Cotati Directory". It varies, but probably you will find more than 150,000 results. Well, the first website is my little directory. Do you want to exchange links?



Contact me if you have questions or to find out about my experience with Direct Matches. I am studying a system to get new contacts right on your desktop, MessageMagicBBS.com, I will talk about it in the next article.

Skype me. My username is spanishvoice. If you don't have Skype, free download from the Cotati Directory

Friday, December 12, 2008

*The History of Santa Claus in America

*The History of Santa Claus in America-
A story of its own!*
In America the History of Santa goes back four centuries. The evolution of the character as we know him today is a remarkable one with world-wide implications. 
Santa Claus History in the USA begins 4 centuries ago

1600's: The Puritans made it illegal to mention St. Nicolas' name. People were not allowed to exchange gifts, light a candle, or sing Christmas carols.


17th century: Dutch immigrants brought with them the legend of Sinter Klaas.


1773: Santa first appeared in the media as St. A Claus.


1804: The New York Historical Society was founded with St. Nicolas as its patron saint. Its members engaged in the Dutch practice of gift-giving at Christmas. 


1809: Washington Irving, writing under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, included Saint Nicolas in his book "A History of New York." Nicolas is described as riding into town on a horse.


1812: Irving, revised his book to include Nicolas riding over the trees in a wagon.


1821: William Gilley printed a poem about "Santeclaus" who was dressed in fur and drove a sleigh drawn by a single reindeer.


1822: Dentist Clement Clarke Moore is believed by many to have written a poem "An Account of a Visit from Saint Nicolas," which became better known as "The Night before Christmas." Santa is portrayed as an elf with a miniature sleigh equipped with eight reindeer which are named in the poem as Blitzem, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donder, Prancer, and Vixen. Others attribute the poem to a contemporary, Henry Livingston, Jr. Two have since been renamed Donner and Blitzen.


1841: J.W. Parkinson, a Philadelphia merchant, hired a man to dress up in a "Criscringle" outfit and climb the chimney of his store.


1863: Illustrator Thomas Nast created images of Santa for the Christmas editions of Harper's Magazine. These continued through the 1890's.


1860s: President Abraham Lincoln asked Nast to create a drawing of Santa with some Union soldiers. This image of Santa supporting the enemy had a demoralizing influence on the Confederate army -- an early example of psychological warfare.


1897: Francis P Church, Editor of the New York Sun, wrote an editorial in response to a letter from an eight year-old girl, Virginia O'Hanlon. She had written the paper asking whether there really was a Santa Claus. It has become known as the "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter. 4


1920's: The image of Santa had been standardized to portray a bearded, over-weight, jolly man dressed in a red suit with white trim. 5


1931: Haddon Sundblom, illustrator for The Coca-Cola ™ company drew a series of Santa images in their Christmas advertisements until 1964. The company holds the trademark for the Coca-Cola Santa design. Christmas ads including Santa continue to the present day.


1939 Copywriter Robert L. May of the Montgomery Ward Company created a poem about Rudolph, the ninth reindeer. May had been "often taunted as a child for being shy, small and slight." He created an ostracized reindeer with a shiny red nose who became a hero one foggy Christmas eve. Santa was part-way through deliveries when the visibility started to degenerate. Santa added Rudolph to his team of reindeer to help illuminate the path. A copy of the poem was given free to Montgomery Ward customers. 6


1949: Johnny Marks wrote the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Rudolph was relocated to the North Pole where he was initially rejected by the other reindeer who wouldn't let him play in their reindeer games because of his strange looking nose. The song was recorded by Gene Autry and became his all-time best seller. Next to "White Christmas" it is the most popular song of all time. 


1993: An urban folk tale began to circulate about a Japanese department store displaying a life-sized Santa Claus being crucified on a cross. It never happened.


1997: Artist Robert Cenedella drew a painting of a crucified Santa Claus. It was displayed in the window of the New York's Art Students League and received intense criticism from some religious groups. His drawing was a protest. He attempted to show how Santa Claus had replaced Jesus Christ as the most important personality at Christmas time. 

Enjoy the Spirit of the Holidays...








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