Ladders HQ

1. Don’t make assumptions

It is easy to pigeonhole the UK Student population following years of stereotyping and spoofing via modern media. The common assumption is that a typical student:

* is aged eighteen and straight out of school
* follows a distinctly “grunge” dress code
* is lazy and sponges off the government
* follows a strict diet of canned-goods on toast
* binge-consumes copious amounts of alcohol on a regular basis
* spends all their spare time in pubs and clubs However, whilst there will be some students who commit to this list religiously, not all students are the same, and their interests, hobbies and lifestyles as individuals differ tremendously, and these common presumptions are often inaccurate.

For example:

* With regards to age, not all students go into higher education straight out of school. For example, students over the age of thirty make up a third of the student body at Oxford Brookes University alone (http://www.brookes.ac.uk/facts/mature_students). Understandably, there is a huge leap between what appeals to a teenager compared to that of a person in their thirties. Therefore, promotion which involves free entry to clubs or free booze might not be of interest to the slightly more wizened scholar.

* Fashion seems to be high on the agenda nowadays for modern students. The days of getting away with being as scruffy as possible are entering their final death rattle, with websites like ASOS proving popular with young people, and student discount offered at retailers like New Look. So, promotion via platforms which largely attract the “grunge” crowd, such as music festivals, might not have the impact you’d expect.

* It is a myth that students are spongers. Every UK citizen is entitled to three years-worth of student funding via the Student Loans Company. That money is there for the taking if you are climbing the education ladder, but it isn’t much in the grand scheme of things and, if you live away from home to study, doesn’t stretch very far. Most students are forced to hold down a part-time job alongside studying full-time – quite a feat considering the amount of coursework required of them, and the tight deadlines which must be met. Therefore, students are not always lazy, and they do have money to spend, but they will want it to stretch as far as possible, because they work hard for the little they have.

* Most of the money students accrue will be spent on food. Most discussion forums suggest that an average student spends around £25-£30 per-week on groceries. That’s £100-£120 per month, which is a lot when you have to pay rent, utilities, and buy books for study. Therefore, promotion incorporating discounted supermarket shopping would reach a wide student audience.

* Alcohol consumption amongst students is high, and most universities boast pub and club facilities with subsidized bar pricing. Going back to the issue of age, this will not appeal to all students, as mature students may feel that part of their lives has been done to death. Socially, students spend a lot of their time at the computer, in the library, at the cinema, or shopping – just as much, if not more, than being in a pub or a club. The best approach is to fully research the age range you are playing to, and create ideas which people of all ages will find alluring. Bear in mind student habits and routines based on fact and not assumption, and you will be ten steps ahead of the competition.

2. Fresher’s Fairs and freebies

A great way for students to get familiar with your brand is the Fresher’s Fair. Held on-campus during the week that students register with their university, these events often have rows and rows of stalls and stands, set up by local businesses who wish to capitalise on the population of students new to the area at that time of year.

Often, students will be given a bag to fill with the many flyers, business cards, vouchers and freebies that these companies are eager to hand out. Flyers and leaflets are light and easy to carry, and a student at an event like this will find these easy to slip into their carrier bag of goodies.

However, what the students really look for are stalls which are giving away free items, such as sweets, sample groceries, and promotional items like t-shirts or hats. This would ensure that your brand is remembered by the students who attend throughout the academic year, as Fresher’s Week occurs right at the beginning of a student’s journey, and they are nervous, impressionable, and will stick closely to anything that feels familiar.

If your way of doing things is the first they encounter at such a vital, life-changing time, they are likely to adopt that way for the foreseeable. Contact universities directly for information on the cost of acquiring a pitch for the day.

3. Utilise Social Media

As mentioned earlier, students spend the vast majority of their time in front of a computer screen. Spending hours on a three-thousand word essay brings with it the inevitability of looking for a quick distraction. So, if your average student is stuck and wants to ask a friend for help mid-essay, or is in search of some moral support, it is often the social networking sites that they will wander to. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter are now so essential in the world of communication. They enable the public sphere to gather in one place and discuss that which is relevant in their lives.

Many companies have taken to setting up Facebook Groups and Pages, as well as Twitter sites to create awareness for their brand or business. If this is where your target audience is spending much of its time, then it makes sense to have a presence there. Also, this is a great way to generate word-of-mouth advertising too, as sites such as MSN, and Facebook‘s Live Chat option enable people to swap information they’ve acquired online instantly. University campuses are like small villages – once word gets around, it spreads like wildfire. If people on the computers in the vast, university libraries swap info over the web whilst working, then chat to each other about it, pretty soon it’ll be the talk of the campus.

4. Gossip is good: Viral Campaign

On the occasions when advertisements are discussed, it is often the ones that kept people guessing until the last minute. Television campaigns such as the Cadbury’s “Gorilla”, or film teaser campaigns such as the “1.18.08″ posters for the movie Cloverfield (2008), are the ones that stand out in people’s memory, purely because they maintained an air of mystery surrounding the product.

Why not consider a set of flyers in the colour of your brand’s logo, featuring only the date of your launch? Or, an email to students with just a place or a time, leading them to you? They say curiosity killed the cat, but I say curiosity peaks your audience’s interest.

Students love to gossip, and have access to so many discussion forums that everyone will be speculating as to what it all means. It’s a great way to create buzz and have a strong impact all at once.

5. Student Sites and in-house publications

Most modern universities produce their own media by which to communicate to attending students. The University of Hertfordshire, for example, boasts their own website entitled StudyNet. Exclusively for the use of registered students only, StudyNet is an essential part of student life at this university. Tutors mostly communicate with their students via StudyNet email; university events and offers are advertised on StudyNet’s homepage, and there are also links to student union and academic referencing sites via Studynet.

It is a central hub for students at this establishment – an epicentre of information accessible to students only. It is a great place from which to promote if you are looking to market exclusively to students, or running a student-based offer, and other universities now have similar websites, so this will become a more common platform in time.

Often, a university will run their own in-house newspaper, which will largely be produced and distributed for free by the students themselves in conjunction with the student union. An advertisement cleverly placed, or a promotional article in such a publication would reach a large number of students at any given campus. Again, contact the university direct for information on how to achieve this.

6. Discounts

Students are always appreciative of the companies who offer to save them a pound or two. The more they save on the mundane things they need, the more they have to spend on some hard-earned down-time. Students spend £10.00 on their NUS Extra Cards – a card that allows them discount at certain retailers, restaurants and websites. With students being so careful with their cash, the fact that they are willing to spend money in order to save in the long term shows how important discounts are to them.

If your product/venue/service is something that will primarily interest university and college attendees, then consider a limited-time discount offer of some sort, or perhaps make it possible for them to save money elsewhere by using your product/visiting your venue/utilising your service. Promotional tie-ins with local businesses might provide the perfect opportunity for all to benefit from such an offer.

7. Outside the Box: Gaming

A relatively new idea which is emerging is the idea of gaming as a means to promote your business. Most recently, a gaming application called FooPets on Facebook – where the gamer must adopt and maintain the health of a digital pet dog or cat – used real-life pet food brand Purina in its graphics, which boosted their sales. Also, gamers on FooPets are encouraged to spend real money on FooDollars – the currency with which you first adopt a pet and then buy it food and drink – making it a lucrative business in itself. Other example of gaming as a means to advertise is online real-time, alternative-reality game Second Life. Shops within this game sell digital wares for real money, as well as configuring their digital retail space to place advertisements for the gamer to see.

A popular game amongst students at the moment is a Facebook application called Bejewelled – a Tetris-style, “match-the shapes” game which has proven highly addictive to players. It might be worth looking into how much a simple game like this would cost to program and produce. Bejewelled is something which has proven popular with Facebook users (a vast number of which are students) and has everybody talking – now imagine that with your company logo running on it, or along-side it – it would certainly drum up some awareness for your brand – perhaps even without the gamer even realising it.

Would you like a free PR resource pack and 10 day trial of our media request club?  Visit www.doyourownpr.com

Every house has to face the threat of burglary. People will try to do something to protect their homes from this danger and make their homes more secure. Before taking measures to protect your house, first you will need to know what areas of your house provide the most dangers and need security protection. If you can identify the dangerous areas and increase the security measures to protect these areas, you will be able to increase the whole security level of your house. You can also prevent some of these dangers by installing security equipment in these areas. This article will talk about some of these dangerous areas and what measures you can take to protect your house and yourself.

The first area you should take care of is the doors and windows. These areas are common places from which a burglar will enter your house. If your doors and windows are weak, a burglar will break into your house easily. To prevent this, you need to install good locks on your doors and windows and make sure that your doors and windows are strong enough to break into. The glass of the window should be hard to broke.

There are measures you can take to protect your doors and windows. You can install enforced glass into your windows and doors( if there is glass in the door). This glass is much harder to break,just like glass of car. Your home security level will be increased by using this. It is generally a good idea to install a second layer of glass. For more security, you can install door and window alarms. When the door or window are opened, the alarm will sounds you immediately.

The second area you should take care of is the garden or garage door. Many people will sometimes forget to lock these doors, Then a burglar will enter your house without any obstruction. So do remember to lock the door any time. There are also three things that you can protect your garden or garage door. First, you need to enforce your garage door and make sure it is strong enough. Also, you need to install good locks on the inside door that connects your garden or garage with your house. Third, you should install a driveway alarm that will inform you when someone pulling into your driveway, garden or garage.

The third area you should take care of is your roof. A burglar may climb to your roof and use it to get to your top floor windows and then enter your house. What you can do to prevent this is to make sure that your top floor windows are protected as much as the first floor windows. Also, if you have ladders outside of your house, burglars may use these ladders to climb to the second floor windows and try to break in through them. This is why it is so important to lock your ladders in the shed when you are not using them.

If you want to get some information about home security, please visit: http://www.security2020.com

People who are new to network marketing are always so concerned with what it takes to build a successful business.  I plan on sharing 5 things you DON”T need to build a network marketing business.

1. College Degree
The great thing I love about network marketing is that you don’t have to have any prior knowledge of this industry.  It’s not like you are applying for a job and won’t be accepted because of your lack of credentials.  Thousands of people flock to the internet yearly who were high school dropouts or unsuccessful in their day jobs and have moved on to make millions in this industry.  This is a place where people can come and succeed no matter what their backgrounds are.

2.  Approval from Others
There are a lot of people who join network marketing and end up being ridiculed by their family and friends.  It’s mostly because they don’t understand this industry or what is involved.  They may questions your sanity or try to convince you to get a “real job”.  It’s not that our family and friends don’t believe in us, but it’s hard for them to condone things they don’t understand.  How could a high school dropout get online and build a multi-million dollar business.  That just doesn’t happen, right!

As long as you believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who are in this for the same reasons, you will continue to climb up that ladder and succeed in anything you put your mind to.  You don’t need approval from anyone but yourself.

3.  Build a List of Your Family and Friends
The old way of joining the network marketing industry was to build a list of your family and friends and try to convince them to join you.  Don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of families that work together in their network marketing business and are having huge success but it’s not the norm.  If your family or friends never join you, that’s okay.  It’s just not necessary in order for you to grow a huge business.

4.  Negative Advice
New leads, prospects or customers may from time to time give you negative advice.  It’s usually because they aren’t having the success they had hoped for, therefore, they continue to try and bring others down sometimes not meaning to be so negative.  If you aren’t careful, it can sometimes rub off on you.  

My advice is if you want to be a doctor, get the proper education that will give you the skills to excel in your chosen profession.  If you want to learn how to build a successful network marketing business, learn from people who are already having success.  Don’t listen to negative advice.

5.  Learn Everything First
Most people become students of this industry always purchasing courses, attending webinars or participating in live seminars.  They truly believe that they have to learn everything about the network marketing industry before they can start building a business.  

As soon as you learn something, turn around and share it with everyone.  Yes that’s what I said, share it with everyone.  When you learn something else, share that as well and continue to go until people will start seeing that you are able to teach others how to build a successful business as well.  Don’t wait until you learn it all because you will NEVER learn it all.  Things evolve, change constantly and upgrade often.  Teach as you learn and teach others to do the same.

I hope that the 5 things you don’t need to build a network marketing business were helpful.  A good bit of the time, people mean well but you need to follow your heart and go where your gut leads you.  Learn from people who have built successful businesses and follow in their footsteps.  Remember, you can achieve anything you put your mind to.

I get asked quite often what kind of exercises to do to get in shape for softball. There are a lot of kids out there that want to play the game but have never played. I think this is great. Fastpitch Softball is one of the most exciting sports there is.

I see some kids that want to start at the high school level. Again, this is awesome. It may be a little tough if you have never played softball before to make your high school team though. It depends on several things, like how many kids are going out, how many teams your school has – Varsity, JV, C team, Freshman team, etc.

Some high schools are only able to field enough players for a varsity. Others only have a Varsity and JV. So in those cases it is hard to say, you may have a better chance there because they really need the players.

So, what kind of workouts are good to get in shape for the upcoming season? Well, you want to get some conditioning started now. If your season is 3-6 months away you have plenty of time to get into good shape. If you only have a couple months well, you better get going strong now.

There are several areas of strength and speed needed to play this game of Fastpitch Softball at an elite level. Probably the area you need to work on the most is your Core. That means work on your midsection, your upper body, your legs, your arm strength. Kind of sounds like your whole body doesn’t it. It kind of is.

You will also need to get your throwing arm into throwing shape and get the mechanics sound. A strong, and mechanically sound throwing arm will keep you playing and off the injured reserve list.

Always start your workout with some good dynamic warmups. Stretching is fine but that is really what you should be doing at home and after practice to cool down. Dynamic warmups are moving basically stretches. You want to get your muscles warm before you stretch them or do any hard workout.

Warm muscles will be loose muscles and loose muscles will be quick, strong and healthy muscles.     There are many resources available to find more information about dynamic warmups. I may write about that another time. Just do a search and you will find some good exercises to do.

Here are some good ones to get you started.
Arm Circles: Stand with your arms out to the side and make small circles, then medium, then large circles doing about 10 of each size, then reverse and go back down to small.

Torso Twist: Stand with arms out to side, and twist side to side about 10 times to warm up your lower back. Your back gets a lot of work playing softball.

Butt Kicks: Slowly jog forward kicking your feet up to your butt. Go about 20 feet, turn around and do them back to where you started.

High Knees: Raise your knees high as you slowly jog about 20 feet.

Power Skips: Skip forward as high as you can. This gets your nervous system kick started.

Carioca: This is old school but does a good job of twisting and getting your coordination working.

There are many more good ones but that should get you started.

To get yourself into shape for softball you need to work on your core.  A really good excercise for that is to start on your stomach on the floor, raise up on your elbows and toes and hold that pose for about 30-60 seconds. Drop and rest about a minute, then repeat this 3-5 times. You will definitely feel this in the abs, shoulders and the back of your legs if you are doing it correct.

Other core work can be medicine ball where you are sitting on the floor with your knees bent. Grab the ball and hold it in front of you. Twist from side to side. Another good exercise with the medicine ball is to remain sitting, have a team mate toss the ball to you. Catch it and then toss it back. Do this standing as well for a different set of muscle work.

Pushups are great for working the upper body, arms and shoulders. Try some variations such as the Inch worm.To do this get into a push up position, slowly walk your feet up as far as you can, then walk your hands out until you are flat again. Repeat this across the room or until you can’t go anymore. Then do one more.

The Marine style is a tough one. Start in an inverted pushup position with your butt in the air. Then lean forward over your hands and then back. Kind of a wave motion. This one will work your upper arms and shoulders.

Let’s move on to your legs. Doing Sqauts is a great exercise to increase your leg strength. This will also help with running speed. Spend time on these and do them slowly and correctly.

Another is to stand with your back at a wall, slowly slide down until you are in a sitting position and extend your arms out in front of you. Hold this for 45-60 seconds. Rest and repeat three times. This is really good for Catchers and Pitchers. Again, these give good gains on running and stopping which is important in fastpitch softball.

Plyometrics drills are great too. Basically this is standing and jumping as high as you can. This is a great explosiveness drill. Fastpitch requires a great amount of explosive movements in every position and play. Stand near a wal and try to jump and touch the ceiling or a mark on the wall. Try to go higher with each jump.

If you have some strong boxes or cardio steps you can use them too. Stand flat footed in front of the step, jump up onto the step or box, then off the other side. Turn and jump back on the box and off the other side. Try to find taller boxes or steps as your strength increases. Try variations of this drill by standing sideways and jumping with one leg. Alternate legs and repeat.

Now let’s work your throwing arm. The best way is to just play catch with a team mate. Start out with easy tosses close. Moving back as your arms get warmed up and loose. Gradually work up to full speed throws and as far distance apart as you can.  Do this for 10-15 minutes then gradually cool down by working back closer together and easier tosses.

If you don’t have a teammate to play catch with, you can use a batting cage, or pitching net to throw into. ANother great thing is to hand an old blanket or tarp or old piece of carpet over a branch of a tree and throw into it. Start out slow, get warmed up and then move back and really let it all out. You can hang this in your garage on those rainy days or when the weather is bad.

Running short sprints is always good for softball conditioning. You will get really good at these the more you get into softball! Usually about 20 yard sprints is long enough. Remember, the bases are 60 feet apart so not much use sprinting a lot farther than that. Running ladder sprints is a good idea too. Run these until you don’t think you can go anymore. Then run one more.

There are a lot of variations of these exercises and many many more drills and exercises that you can do. It is actually good to mix it up and do different ones every so often. That keeps the routine from getting boring and also works on different muscles and in different ways.

Now that we are done with our workout, lets stretch. You will get much better results from stretching now than at the beginning of your workout. Stretch your arms, shoulders, back, legs and your mind. Keep learning more about the game and exercises you can do.

Ok, so we worked on our Core, our legs, our throwing arm, and our sprints. That’s a pretty good workout. Try to break these up and do a couple each day. Maybe do the core and legs, then the arms, core and sprints another day. Try to workout 3-4 days a week. You want to give your body time to rest and recover between workouts so give it a day off between workouts.

If you follow this routine for the next 3 months you will be in good shape for fastpitch softball season.