Hook Report

In the early days of shoes and handbags, only the very rich or those with kind employers, had shoes and bags. Once these things started to filter down through the merchant class to the working classes, it could be said that certain tastes, such as Tudor clothes or Georgian clothes were so memorable that they set a fashion that both men and women from all walks of life adopted as best they could.

Certain artists and other creative people very soon recognised that there were fortunes to be made for the person who could design clothes that everyone wanted; and that the rich were prepared to hand over a small fortune. Although design was apparent in clothes from the sixteenth century onwards, it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that fashion design started to take hold.

The fashion design of the early nineteenth century began with the royal courts, those who mixed with royalty adopted the style of clothing that was worn by the ruler and this then filtered down to the masses. At this point, anyone who could copy and stitch clothes like those worn at court, was a fashion designer, the term did not carry the meaning that it has today until the turn of the nineteenth century.

If you’re looking for the best toys around that can also serve as educational tools for helping your child’s brain development, then you can’t go wrong with these four best-selling items.

1. Snap Circuits Jr.
This is a winner of the “Dr Toy 100 Best Children’s Products Winner” and it consists of 101 useful and exciting electronic gadgets and games. It’s easy to use and understand, plus all the parts snap easily into place. It’s just perfect for those aspiring engineers. Among the intriguing experiments are Flying Saucer, Music Alarm Combo, Pencil Alarm, Space War Flicker, Voice Controlled Lamp, Spin Draw, Race Game, Strobe the House Lights and Spinning Rings.

2. Deluxe Standing Easel
If it’s your child’s creativity and imagination that you want to develop then the Deluxe Standing Easel is what you’re looking for. It has an adjustable height, offers high-quality construction and is comprised of attractive colors. It also comes with a dry erase board on one side and a chalkboard on the other. Its accessories include a paper cutter, four large clips to post artwork and two extra large plastic trays that are ideal for storing all your budding artist’s essentials.

3. Deflexion
Deflexion is a unique game that offers both high technology and tons of action. The game uses lasers in a classic chess-like strategy setting that is both cool and smart. At the start of the game, each player has 12 Egyptian-themed pieces & a laser that is built into the board. The players take turns in moving their pieces around the board while firing safe and low powered laser diodes. If a player hits his opponent’s pieces, they’re dead. The object of the game is to bring down the other player’s Pharaoh.

4. Snap Circuits 300-in-1
Here’s another winner of the “Dr Toy 100 Best Children’s Products” award. It offers a diverse collection of colorful materials that kids can easily snap together in the format they wish by simply following easy-to-understand instructions. There are over 300 possible projects, including Music Radio Station, Spacey Fan, The Lie Detector, Spinning Rings, Race Car Engine, Mosquito, Water Detector, Old Style Typewriter, Blow off a Space War and Steamship.

Tree lighting is one of the most superb forms of lighting design. Any landscape with large enough trees will be enhanced by this highly sophisticated and innovative lighting technique. Tree lighting is done by concealing mercury vapor lights in the higher branches of the tree where they cannot be seen by viewers on the ground. Mercury vapor lights give off a blue-white light very similar to moonlight that filters through the leaves and branches and rains down onto the ground. Tree lighting’s close approximation to natural moonlight adds a romantic, almost mystical element to a place, and contributes to a feeling of time being suspended under the ambient radiance of the trees. Illuminations Lighting and Design has worked for many years as an outdoor tree lighting and landscape lighting design firm. Over the years we have developed a number of strategies for using tree lights in almost any commercial, municipal, or residential environment to create specific benefits for a wide variety of clientele. Municipal Parks Tree lighting is an essential component of outdoor park lighting. Parks are special places people seek out to escape the pressure and mediocrity of the mundane world. Parks help ground and center the mind in the energies of Nature and release the stress that accumulates within the self during after prolonged activity in offices and industrial environments.

It is very important that a public park visited at night be sufficiently lit to provide clear visibility for walking, conversation, and safety. As a close approximation to natural moonlight, tree lighting extends the romantic and sentimental nature of the moon itself into the general landscape. Benches located beneath tree lights or other commercial outdoor lighting are excellent places to have a meaningful conversation with a significant other, and they are much safer as well. Academic Institutions The architecture and landscapes of academic institutions often suggests Old World and Classical Motifs. Although America is a young country and its academies nowhere nearly as old as those of Europe, larger trees help add a sense of antiquity to these institutions because they are obviously older, and contribute greatly to the university’s image as a place of established learning and credibility. Tree lighting is needed on college and university campuses because many trees grow outward as well as up as they age. Simple up lights installed near the trunk of a tree will not adequately light its branches and leaves. Tree lights, on the other hand, can be positioned in key locations throughout the lower branches and upper canopy, creating a sublime and stately presence for students and faculty to enjoy and admire throughout the night. Commercial Properties Tree lights will also create a feeling of established presence for a corporate landscape. A brand new company surrounded by a canopy of mature trees will look older than it really is, and possibly gain a competitive advantage in a marketplace that often emphasizes experience over talent a bit too much. They are vital to commercial security lighting, too, because of the fact that shadows under trees allow vandals and burglars too much room to maneuver in secret. Tree lighting helps emphasize a company’s dedication to environmental concerns. As more and more companies seek to enhance their public image by either going green or supporting green initiatives, illuminating trees around the building helps harmonize the architecture with Nature. Hospitality Industries All major hospitality industries depend greatly on resort tree lighting in their outdoor landscape design. Landscapes around hotels, resorts, country clubs, and five star restaurants contribute to a feeling of refined escape and elegance.

Country club diners look out of clubhouse windows onto landscapes that appear sublime and timeless under the surreal ambiance of tree lighting. Guests at warm weather resorts can enjoy the site of palm trees from their window throughout the night, and hotels with tree lighting create the illusion of both a larger edifice and a more remote getaway from the pressures of life. Tree lighting, however, does a great deal more for hospitality industries than provide decoration. These lights can actually contribute significantly to general outdoor garden lighting in a number of ways. Many resorts host events at night on a pavilion or stage under lighted trees. The illumination from the mercury lights provides an exotic compliment to general lighting that improves visibility without diminishing the feeling of escape and altered reality that a vacation is supposed to create. Golfers who play at night will especially appreciate the additional lighting under trees for those shots that are hard to make under moonlight alone. Restaurant diners who prefer the patio also will enjoy the added general lighting that comes down from the trees and fills the spaces between tables with a warm glow. Custom Homes Custom very often to have high fences and ornamental, gated entrances that open into a long winding drive leading up to the house. Trees that grow along these driveways sometimes arch over the pavement and mesh together into a canopy. Placing lights in these trees creates a sense of removal from the rest of the neighborhood, and the feeling that you are entering an estate and not just another home. Tree lights also play an important role in home-based entertainment. Trees that overhand a patio can create an aura of accent lighting around the patio itself, and tree lights installed above flower beds and gardens provide a layer of ambient down light that overlaps the garden and path lights installed within the foliage itself.

One tactic used by several of the top Internet Marketing greats out there is the use of a predictive dialer software system. What is a predictive dialer, and what does it do? Well, this software has been around in one form or another for quite some time now, being used in call centers all around the world. The simple premise of this system is that the software is fed a database of names and phone numbers, which it then begins to call. If the system finds no answer but for voicemail or an answering machine, it leaves a simple message asking the person to call back for important information. Once complete, it moves on to the next person in the list.

However, when the system actually gets a physical pick-up, it asks the receiver to please hold for the next available agent, and then transfers the call. The agent answers and then delivers the message to the person. Once complete, either the person or the agent disconnects, and the system yet again continues down the list. Pretty simple so far, right?

So, what companies are using this software now? The list is rather huge, but some examples include: Doctor and dentist offices, reminding patients on the next check-up or scheduled visit. Debt Collection Agencies, in an attempt to begin payment negotiations or settle the debt. Major Airlines, either as a courtesy reminder of scheduled flights, announcing delays in flights, or even to offer frequent fliers discounts and flight packages. Political Campaigners, asking you to vote for them or their proposed changes or additions to a law, an amendment or even the Constitution. And now, Internet Marketers, too!

You see, business-savvy Internet Marketing Gurus have taken notice to these call tactics, and they realize that although the world wide web is a wonderful place to conduct business transactions, it is also a rather impersonal place, thus making it harder to strengthen relationships with their customers. So, they realized that a customer hearing their voice (or the sweet voice of a polite customer service representative) is much more powerful then the impersonal emails everyone else uses exclusively.

Through their research, they found that to purchase an automated predictive dialing system was extremely expensive, and only a smart investment when used by the large call centers – that is, until they found that someone made a system that can be used with a small calling system (as little as just one person) all the way to a larger facility. Their research also showed them how the predictive dialer utilized Skype to make all the outbound calls, which is very inexpensive to use. Thus the solution was completely clear to them, and they put the system to work.

Here’s the big secret to making this system a success that the Gurus don’t want you to know about: After purchasing a license to the software, installing it and then loading your list of buyers’ phone numbers, there is three things you must do for every successful call: One, make sure to answer any questions the buyer has with product, or write them down to answer later. Two, make an ‘over-the-phone’ special one-time offer to the customer. This can be an upgrade to their package, an added product or service, an offer to join a membership site, or even just giving them a coupon code to use for with your product line (that lasts for only 48 to 72 hours). And finally three: Conduct market research for either improving the product, adding to it for an updated version, or simply to find what product your customers want to buy next.

That’s it! You perform these simple three steps, and you will be ahead of 98% of the other Internet Marketers out there, making more money, decreasing returns and unhappy customers, and working to always improve and grow your company.