[Note from Michael:  The following is a guest article.  To get a syndicated feed of Dream Jobs Dialog, select your format at the bottom left of our home page.]

You don’t have to look far to find the initials RSS on many of your favorite websites. Maybe you see the term “RSS Feed” and wonder if this is a special agricultural product for livestock or possibly something you’d purchase at an electronics shop.

The initials RSS actually stand for ‘Really Simply Syndication.’ Some in the technical field also use the initials to correlate with ‘Rich Site Summary’ or ‘RDF Site Summary.’

No matter what you call it, RSS is a means of reducing online searches for regularly desired information in articles, stories, blogs or other specialty information sites.

RSS, as we know it, was unleashed just after Christmas 1997 and has been improved upon many times since its inception.

The World at Your Fingertips

In the simplest of terms, RSS allows you to select categories of interest and you will be alerted when new content has been discovered. This information is collected and sent on to you for your consideration.

For instance, if you have a site you regularly review, an RSS feed allows you first-hand notification when new material is available.

Those who do not use RSS feeds are forever conducting online searches to find the information they desire. An RSS feed eliminates the frustration.

In order to use an RSS feed you need a feed reader. In most cases this software application will appear similar to an email account. While the software can be purchased, it is also possible to find free versions online.

One of the benefits for the end-user is that, unlike email, you do not need to receive unwanted material. With email you have to opt in and opt out. With an RSS feed you can change the settings whenever you want and receive only the information you desire.

Most RSS readers also provide the requested material in a simplified text format allowing the material to be read without photos and unwanted formatting.

Typically a cut-and-paste of an appropriate website link and a list of predetermined topics is all that is needed to have your RSS reader search for articles related to your interest.

An RSS feed allows you to opt in and opt out without the service you are interested in having to manage a list. An RSS feed also allows you to be as specific as you need to be in the subject matter you want to read.

While RSS feeds are becoming more readily available you should know that not all websites are equipped to provide this service. Look for the orange box with the RSS inside to ensure availability.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. No programming or design skill required. Get your own website online in just five minutes with HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com
 

Popularity: 4% [?]

The following, from writing pro Terri Pilcher, is really for just about anyone, not just writers.  Good way to add some supplemental income and get your name out there.

Why would anyone want to write for trade journals? Aren’t the topics are dry? Don’t they require specialized knowledge? Not necessarily. You may want to consider trade journals to increase the potential market for your articles – and for the money. Trade publications make up a significant portion of the hidden source of funds for professional writers. Breaking in can be surprisingly easy – when you know the tricks.

What Can You Write?
Use a brainstorming list to begin your search for a specialty. To write for a trade publication, you will need in depth knowledge of a topic. Don’t force yourself to learn the inner workings of gravel mines when you love the elegant designs of classic furniture. Trade publications require professional knowledge of a topic, so make sure it’s a subject you’ll want to spend a lot of time with. Start your list by including things you enjoy and love. Whether you volunteer for a non-profit organization or have a degree in agricultural science, include all of the categories in which you have experience. Some trade publications accept articles of personal experience or interviews with recognized authorities in their field. Include your connections with professionals to make your list more complete. Keep this list handy and add to it regularly.

Where Can You Find Those Trade Journals?
Now that you have a list of specialty areas that you want to be immersed in, you need to find the journals that pay for your information. Almost every profession has a trade journal. The first place for you to look is with a professional organization related to your area of specialty. If you love elegant furniture, than perhaps you should consider “Interior Decorators of America”, “American Furniture Manufacturers”, or “American Pine”. Join at least one of these major professional organizations. Membership rates are often cheaper for affiliate members (those not practicing professionals in the field). Marketing companies buy the organization’s list and send free publications and resources to members. These items may include “throw-away journals”, free journals paid for by advertising. Even if you join the organization only one time, the professional materials will appear in your mailbox for years. This information will keep you on the cutting edge of your chosen industry.

Online resources are helpful in finding associations, but they include only a few of the possibilities. The most complete resource available is the Encyclopedia of Associations found in your local library. It contains the most complete list of organizations, many of which produce magazines specific to their members. It may take days for you to wade through this tome, but when you find ten journals that correspond to your qualifications, it will be worth the effort.

How Do I Start?
Begin by researching past issues of the magazine. Editors always recommend that potential writers analyze at least six months of back issues and a copy of their writer’s guidelines. This is essential with trade journals. Articles seen in the trades are far different in style than those seen in consumer magazines. Pay attention to the complexity of sentences, commonly used terms, and the assumed knowledge of the readers. Style is often less conversational and more technical than what most people read. Many trade magazines use technical terms that are a foreign language to industry outsiders. Make sure you use their language, or you will sound amateurish.

Make a list of published topics. You want to know what not to do as well as the topics they prefer. Painting and Wallcovering Contractor focuses on the professional painting industry, while Walls and Ceilings focuses on plaster restorers and finishers. There is some crossover, but you increase your chances of selling the interview with the restorer of the Sistine Chapel to Walls and Ceilings because of the focus. In addition, Painting and Wallcovering Contractor likes articles on how-to meet regulatory standards. If you know of a regulation that has not been covered recently, send a query offering to update their readers on the topic. Trade journals often recycle subjects with fresh information on three to four year cycles. If you can approach old ideas in a new way, you can give them an article that they will buy.

Which Comes First, the Query or the Manuscript?
Query first, but if the editor does not know you then he or she will want to see a complete manuscript before making a commitment. Many writers despise writing on speculation, but in this case they should consider it. Most journals are in desperate need of good writers. They don’t have huge slush piles stacked around the office that your article will have to compete with. As long as you have a topic they can use and can match their style, your article will sell.

Where Can You Find That Professional Knowledge?
Begin with the Internet. Online searches enable you to find the title, author, and journal of the article you want, and request a copy of it from your local public or college library. Medical and health topics can be found on Pubmed at http://www.nih.gov/. For other journal searches, contact your local community or college librarian. Without charging you, most libraries will order the article from another library if they don’t have it in their collection. They’ll even call you when it’s ready.

Other useful sources of information include government regulators, local businesses, the business section of the phone directory, and professionals in the industry.

Can You See Your Byline in Trade Journals?
Most full-time professional magazine writers include trade journals in their portfolio. Trade journals need knowledgeable writers who can produce interesting and well-written copy specific to their magazine. Finding these writers is difficult, because most people don’t think writing for trade journals is interesting. You’ll know differently when you see the check in your mailbox. Many trade journals pay $200-$300 for a 1,000-word article, making it well worth the effort to learn to write for this large and diverse market.

Trade journals are not the flashiest places to publish. Your friends may not be amazed by your publication in Pit and Quarry but, as a writer trying to sell work, do not ignore the journals that want to find you.

Terri Pilcher publishes a free weekly e-ezine, Writers Guidelines Magazine. Sign up at http://www.terripilcher.com/. She also wrote “MONEY Markets 2005: 101 Publishers that Pay Writers in 6 Weeks or Less” and edits PowerPen Market Search (2-day free trial). Find both the book and the searchable database of writer’s guidelines at http://www.powerpenmarketsearch.com/.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Seth Godin is just so good.  He is simply so right on most of the time, that it’s just hard to ignore what he has to say.

So, please, don’t ignore the below.

(Click here for a recent review I did of his book, Small is the New Big.)

Seth recently wrote about the best time to start something.  Here’s what he said:

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The best time to start is when you’ve got enough money in the bank to support all contingencies.

The best time to start is when the competition is far behind in technology, sophistication and market acceptance.

The best time to start is when the competition isn’t too far behind, because then you’ll spend too long educating the market.

The best time to start is when everything at home is stable and you can really focus.

The best time to start is when you’re out of debt.

The best time to start is when no one is already working on your idea.

The best time to start is when your patent comes through.

The best time to start is after you’ve got all your VC funding.

 

The best time to start is when the political environment is more friendly than it is now.

The best time to start is after you’ve got your degree.

The best time to start is after you’ve worked all the kinks out of your plan.

The best time to start is when you’re sure it’s going to work.

The best time to start is after you’ve hired the key marketing person for the new division.

The best time to start was last year. The best opportunities are already gone.

The best time to start is before some pundit declares your segment passé. Too late.

The best time to start is when the new generation of processors is shipping.

The best time to start is when the geopolitical environment settles down.

Actually, as you’ve probably guessed, the best time to start was last year. The second best time to start is right now.

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 See . . . told ya’ the guy can nail ‘em, huh?

Popularity: 8% [?]

A few days ago, I introduced you to Lois Prinz and her ideas about bringing abundance into your life.  Click here for that article.

Here’s more from Lois on Creating an Abundant Life. 

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Years ago, Emil Coue, a French pharmacist and hypnotist created a phenomenal phrase to attract positive energy into the lives of his clients.  His phrase still works to this day: ”Every day in every way I’m getting better and better.”

That’s it!  That’s all there is to this miraculous phrase.  However, repeating this phrase just before entering into sleep-state can create positively wonderful changes in attracting abundance of all forms into your life.

It is absolutely true that prosperity is much more than how much money you make.  Many people may be rich with money and material assets, yet poor and impoverished in the things that really matter most.  So, this would be the perfect time and your opportunity to recognize and appreciate all the prosperity that surrounds you.  Appreciate it.  Be grateful for everything you attract, every day, all of the time.

Then, there are those people who think that to be a spiritual person, you have to be poor.  Truth is, there is no separation between spirit and money.  That’s right.  Money comes to you when you are ready to grow and achieve more of your own potential.  If you think having money makes you better than others, then your money is likely to create only heartache.  And if you think about it, money can actually enhance your personal sense of spirituality.  Honor what you have rightfully earned.  Bless your money.  Be grateful and joyous for having what you have and everything will be right in your life.

With this information every person on this planet has the potential to create unlimited wealth.  It’s been said that if all the money on earth were divided equally between every man, woman and child on earth, we would all be millionaires!  Innately, you have a source within you to ask for and receive everything you desire.  But, you have to ask!  You must bring the expectancy of receiving that which you desire.

Your subconscious mind has programmed for how much money you approve to accept.  Just tell it what you want to have happen, and it will happen.  You may find this concept hard to understand and accept at first; however, the power within you to create what you want is unlimited.  With an old mind-set that places you in fear, scarcity or lack, you will continue to live far below your abundance potential.  Change that negative old mindset now!

First, ask yourself, what do you want?  What do you want to become?  What is it that you want to do with you life?  Take control of your thoughts, and step out of the poverty consciousness that you and you alone have created.  Your life is more than a series of unrelated circumstances or sets of conditions.  You make yourself who you are.  Your quality of life is determined by you through your own intentional choices to be happy.

So, change your old negative ways of thinking along with a new alignment in energies of abundance, self-trust, and happiness; flowing, rich energies aligning with prosperity consciousness instead of scarcity consciousness.

Give yourself the permission to live every moment of your life in the thought of abundance.  Just know and believe that you can create it and you likely will, you’ll see.  You are an awesome being who deserves only the best life has to offer.  Believe this, and you’ll live your best life attracting the abundance you truly desire and deserve.

Gary Quinn, author of Living in the Spiritual Zone, provides us with helpful affirmations to stay in “top abundance shape.”  Use them every day until they become integrated within your own belief system:

• I believe everything is possible
• Life is abundance and a celebration
• I can change my reality
• There is always enough of everything
• I trust that abundance is within me
• I am a money magnet

Lois Prinz is a Certified Hypnotherapist and Designated Trainer and Examiner for the National Guild of Hypnotists.  Lois also practices the Thought Field Therapies of Neurolinguistic Psychology and Emotional Self Management with EFT in her business, Center for Hypnosis.

She is the founder and director of National Hypnotherapy Training Center in Albuquerque, NM.

Popularity: 2% [?]

It’s funny how these things work out sometimes.

I’ve been thinking, talking, and reading a lot lately about success – specifically about how you define it and then go after it.

So, it was rather fortuitous when I ran across an article in a national health and wellness magazine by someone who turns out to be an almost-neighbor of mine — Lois Prinz — on how to attract abundance into your life.

I don’t run many guest articles, but I was so taken with Lois’ ideas, that I thought I’d share them with you and then see how they might apply to helping you identify and then find your dream job.

Here goes, Part 1 on Creating an Abundant Life.

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How do you measure prosperity in your own life?  Do you think of your prosperity as abundance, joy and fulfillment?  If so, you are allowing yourself to live your best life, while having it all. 

Or, do you think of abundance as a difficult concept to swallow?  Is it hard for you to accept the idea of prosperity into your life?  Do you remain financially stuck where you are?

In order to be prosperous, it is vitally important that, first, you give yourself the permission to “have it all.”  To create the flow of abundant thinking, our mind, body and belief systems must be in harmony with the laws and principles of prosperity.

How do you focus on creating abundance and prosperity in your life?  Are you choosing to live a prosperous life or one of lack and scarcity?

By this point, you are probably asking yourself, how can I create this flow of prosperity in my own life?

The answer is as follows:

The human mind is a powerful creating mechanism.  The absolute powers of our own thoughts are able to create anything, including abundance and personal wealth. The choice belongs to you in manifesting and maintaining an awareness of what prosperity means to you.  For example, when you become generous and are upbeat and positive, glowing with feelings of self-trust, you become more open to the great abundance available to you.

Take a minute right this moment to recall the last time you felt a sense of well-being and complete satisfaction in life.  Imagine feeling this way right now.

When your life feels full, rewarding and satisfying, you then can attract the best of the best into your world.  As you habituate and cultivate these satisfying feelings while remaining in this positive prosperity mind-set, you are more likely to harvest the abundance of (spiritual) riches.  When you choose to view your world accordingly, believing in abundance and feeling deserving of it, you begin to look at the world in the opposite light of scarcity.

Conversely, if we allow feelings of self-doubt to creep in; if we allow ourselves feelings of unworthiness, or undeserving, we attract the very energy that won’t allow us to “have it all”.

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Okay, we’ll have more from Lois in a few days.

But, for now, I ask you to set aside a little time and really think about what we’re talking about here.  In your quietest of quiet moments, ask yourself if you think in ways that bring success and prosperity into your life.

Has this worked for you?  Tell me about it.

Lois Prinz is a Certified Hypnotherapist and Designated Trainer and Examiner for the National Guild of Hypnotists.  Lois also practices the Thought Field Therapies of Neurolinguistic Psychology and Emotional Self Management with EFT in her business, Center for Hypnosis.

She is the founder and director of National Hypnotherapy Training Center in Albuquerque, NM.

Popularity: 7% [?]