WORK911 Ezine - Announcing The Busy Learners Free Toolbar, Free Stress Tips Giveaway, Our Smal Business Book Hits Stores

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Robert Bacal

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Jan 19, 2009, 12:44:18 PM1/19/09
to Work911 Ezine
January 19, 2009 Contents - Announcing The Busy Learners Free Toolbar,
Free Stress Tips Giveaway, Our Smal Business Book Hits Stores

In our last issue we indicated we'd be changing during 2009, and we're
pleased to announce the first of these changes. We think the tool that
we've created for you will be useful, practical, and even fun
sometimes. It's intended to let you take advantage of (mostly free)
learning resources via the Internet, and more specifically with your
browser without wasting time searching through piles of Internet junk,
flotsam and....

The Busy Learners Free Toolbar

A toolbar is a small "strip" that lives towards the top of your
browser, completely UNintrusively. It's possible to put all manner of
things in a toolbar, and so we've partnered with Conduit to create one
for you. It's intent is simple -- to provide access to great business,
career, and personal development resources, so you don't have to hunt
things down all the time. Because the toolbar is updatable, we can
constantly add great new stuff to it, as we find it.

The best way to understand this great tool (which we've installed on
all our computers) is to go to http://bacalswork911.ourtoolbar.com/
where you can see what it looks like (it's similar but not identical
to the picture), and download the code which gets installed on either
Internet Explorer or Firefox. But here's some of the features:

1. It's under your control. You can add features (for example, online
radio of your choice), or remove ours if you don't like them. Don't
want the toolbar anymore? No problem. Just uninstall.

2. Search: You can search the entire Internet using the Google search
engine, but you can choose to search ONLY our sites, which will be a
huge timesaver if you are looking for job or professional articles.
You'll be able to find things on our sites, finally.

3. Highlighter: When you search and end up on, let's say, an article,
you can turn the highlighter on, and it will highlight the text you
used in your search. This is really handy for longer webpages and
articles.

4. Free Offers: Here you'll find links to the newest free whitepapers,
webinars, and other offers you can receive. The range is quite good,
and often there's material from companies like Adobe, IBM, Microsoft,
Google, and more. All reputable. We often use this facility.

5. Talk With Us: We have the ability to send messages to people who
have our toolbar installed, and they are completely unobtrusive. When
we send a messages, a little number shows, letting you know how many
unread messages there are. In this way we can guide you to new offers,
great articles or media, and even free giveaways (see below). What's
even better is you can send messages to us. They'll be public and
we'll read them. No need to use email. Just click click, type, and
your suggestion or need or comment is sent.

6. Shop: Well, this might not excite you, but this section allows you
instant access to our store, where we have our books and helpcards
available, and free previews and chapters.

7. Topics: You can instantly go to one of our web sites -- topics
include leadership, conflict, relationships, communication,
performance management, and more. A great convenience given all the
articles (literally thousands) we have available.

8. Radio/Pod cast Player: Here's the gem. We've found great sources
for audio programs that range from 3 minutes to 60 minutes in length
on various business, and personal development topics, and they are all
free. You'd be hard pressed to find them without our toolbar. Now, all
you have to do is click on the little radio player and it will show
you what is currently available. For example, right now there's audio
from The American Society For Training and Development, and programs
for "the cranky manager", and some material from Robin Sharma, to name
a few. This section is updated often. Great for taking a "learning
break", for busy people.

You can also add your own online radio stations. We deliberately do
not include music to the "basic" setup but you can certainly do so.

9. To Do List: Nifty little to do list. We use it as a jotting pad for
ideas. Don't like it? You can remove it.

10. Featured Today: Here you'll find articles or collections of
articles we think have value as learning sources. They are auto-
updated, and we will add and remove materials regularly.

OK. I'm really loving this for myself, and we've only just begun. We
believe that with your feedback we can make it even better over time,
so we hope you will download the toolbar today, so we can get started
with making it even better. Rest assured we WILL improve it, so feel
free to have it installed, and keep it invisible if you don't need it
right away. (It's under your control).

Once again: Go to http://bacalswork911.ourtoolbar.com/ and follow the
instructions.

Now, two more things. First, security and safety. We are extremely
careful about the safety and security of our computers, because our
livelihoods are attached to our machines. We looked thoroughly at the
company we partner with, looked at it's other partners, and did what
we think is pretty extensive due diligence. We found that Major League
Baseball, Greenpeace and many other large organizations also use
similar toolbars. We also found that the download is certified as save
by TRUSTe. We believe that given that, and the control you have over
what the toolbar does, that there is no reason not to make use of the
features.

Now, if you are not sure whether you want to take the 30 seconds or so
to install this, we have a January Giveaway that is ONLY available to
Busy Learners Toolbar Users. We'll be giving away a whole bunch of
copies of StressBusters and Stress Tips Helpcard. This has sold for
prices between $6.95-12.95 and now you can have it free no matter
where you live. Simply install the toolbar, and sometime this month
we'll let you know how to get your free copy. Simple. And, we'll
continue the free giveaways in the coming months. We will also offer
product discounts via the toolbar.

Odds and Ends:

Our book, Perfect Phrases for Managing Your Small Business, published
by McGraw-Hill, is now in stores, and available at amazon. If you want
to buy from amazon (and we hope you support us, since we get a small
referral fee from amazon), you can go to:

http://smallbusiness411.org/cgi-bin/library/jump.cgi?ID=12890

It's about 10 dollars, and it's full of hints, ideas, and cautions
about small business. Ideal for even experienced business owners, but
also great for those who might be interested in starting up a small
business. Given the current economic instability, a good investment.

Our Sites:

Just a quick summary of our sites that have information on the
following topics:

Leadership Resource Center: http://work911.com/leadership-development/index.html

Communication Resource Center: http://www.work911.com/communication/index.htm

Conflict (both workplace and family) http://conflict911.com

Business, Strategic and Personal Planning: http://www.work911.com/planningmaster/index.html

Performance Management & Appraisal: http://performance-appraisals.org

Customer Service: http://customerservicezone.com

Our Main Site: http://www.work911.com

Multi-Purpose Articles Database: http://www.articles911.com

Well, we'll see you in our next issue, probably within a week or two,
but please install the toolbar now, send us your comments and
suggestions, and get ready to get your free copy of the StressBusters
helpcard later this month.

To new subscribers: The work911 newsletter is published no more than
once a week (but usually no more than once a month) and contains
articles on all things work related, and contains other work related
resources, and updates about our sites, and their contents. Past
history indicates we publish about every ten days. Subscribe at
http://work911.com/newsletter.htm

Don't forget that you can access free, useable previews of over twenty
of our books and helpcards at:

http://www.work911.com/products

and that we continue to offer special freebie offers and discounts to
our newsletter subscribers! (and our toolbar owners!)
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