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Not only are you familiar with Dilbert as a member of the business world, but as a boss in the business world, you probably even think that Dilbert is sometimes funny. After all, these cartoons are not making fun of you, right? But then again, when you start to see Dilbert strips tacked up on your employees’ cubicle walls, it is easy to start second-guessing this self-assuredness. Sure, it seems silly to be concerned about the effect that these cartoons might have on morale, but you also probably start to think about the fact that you have, after all, read articles that talked about how Dilbert cartoons create a negative environment. And so you are forced to ask the question for yourself: Are Dilbert cartoons bad for the morale of your employees?

First off all, one must remember that humor and laughter is good for morale. Certainly, these cartoons are posted on people’s walls because they induced a laugh, so this is a sign in the right direction.

The issue, of course, is that many of these cartoons induce laughs by poking fun at corporate culture. And it is difficult to keep your own self out of the specifics of this discussion when you see a cartoon on an employee’s wall that makes fun of the boss. But the solution to the problem might be more complicated than just banning these comic strips. After all, it is unlikely that banning these strips would have any effect except to make employees think that you are out of touch with the way they feel.

Don’t just order that all comic strips be taken down from office walls; instead, you ought to take the time to look at these comic strips yourself. Many of these strips are funny because they poke fun at the way businesses are run; if your employees think that these strips are applicable enough to be tacked on their cubicle wall, the problem might not be with the strip itself. The problem might be with the way your company itself is run!

While some might think it is trivial to turn Dilbert into a topic of serious discussion, many businesses have, in fact, banned these cartoons from cubicle walls. Every boss wants to improve morale around the office, but instead of banning humor and hoping it will do anything but alienate employees, you should aim to improve employee morale by improving all the ways in which your business itself is run!

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Affiliate site marketing is a growing business, but this popularity has made it tougher to get into. The following four principles will help you succeed instead of fail as you dive into the field of affiliate marketing.

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Do your research to discover what the best converting offers are. Ask your affiliate marketing manager to advise you on which offers are converting best, and be willing to pay for an offer that truly pays out. If you’re a newbie affiliate marketer, you definitely don’t want to take on the gigantic task of trying to drive traffic to an offer that isn’t going to convert.

Choose a niche that isn’t already overly saturated. This may mean promoting obscure offers that may not appeal to you personally, but the key is to promote offers that both convert well and are not flooded with other affiliate marketers like yourself. You may end up with some oddball topic, and you may take a while to research it and promote it, but you’ll reap the rewards when it starts converting for you.

Recognize how important it is to get in good with your affiliate site manager. Be willing to accept low-payout offers, and put the time into promoting them, even if the pay-out is not garnering you much per hour, and then seek approval for higher paying offers. Create top notch affiliate sites that your manager will be proud of. Employ a professional copywriter if your writing is anything but excellent, even if it costs a lot; a grammatically incorrect site with poor writing won’t convert any offers, because your visitors will think you are promoting junk. Respond promptly to all communication from your affiliate manager, and always communicate with respect and gratitude.

Follow the search engine rules. You don’t want Google to shut your site down because you bent the rules. Don’t think you can throw together a lame one-page site full of promotional junk and get approved by search engines. Invest in at least ten pages of content, all legitimate stuff that discusses the topics related to the offers you want to promote. Provide a contact page and yet another page that points to established sites that rank well to help your page look legit.

AffilIate marketing isn’t easy, but you’ll get your piece of the pie if you stick to it.

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You will certainly put a great deal of emphasis on the idea of hiring the “right” employees for your company when you run a business, but you will also reach a point when you need to hire consultants or freelancers for projects (sometimes small projects, sometimes large), and it can be difficult to know if you are following the right steps to hire good workers. If you are running a business – regardless of whether it is a small business or a large business – here are a few tips you can follow in order to fulfill your desire of hiring the best people for the assignments you have.

Have patience: When you have a time-sensitive project in hand, the temptation can be to post an ad on a job site and to hire someone from the first few freelancers who respond. Keep in mind, however, the fact that your project is important to you and your company; if you give it enough time, you will likely receive hundreds of inquiries regarding the job you have posted, and even though it will feel nice to “get it over with” and hire someone right away, it will be much better in the long run if you take the time to make sure you are putting the project in good hands.

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Look at the resumes: Any good freelancer will also have a freelance resume that they can send; unless you are unable to pay for an experienced freelancer, you should make sure you take the time to look over these resumes, setting aside the resumes that display experience and a history of good work.

Ask for samples: A great way to narrow down the “applicants” for a freelance job is to ask for samples of their work, but an even better way (perhaps the best way of all) is to ask them to create unique samples, off of an assignment you give them. When you take this final step, you will be able to truly discern which of the qualified applicants are the right applicants for the assignment you need taken care of.

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