ADUTAINMENT: Advertising as Entertainment
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Protecting Your Home Based Business Idea
Got a great home based business idea? Wonderful. But do you know how to protect your amazing home based business idea? Well, protecting your home based business idea is a whole different arena.

You Must Know These Two Things Before Starting Any Internet Marketing Business
Are you thinking about starting your own Internet marketing business? Congratulations on your courage and entrepreneurial spirit! Now for my next question. Do you have any idea what you're doing? If so, that's great, if not, maybe I can get you pointed in the right direction.

New BubblePLY.com Website Allows Users to Add Creative Layers on Top of Online Video
BubblePLY.com allows users to add their own personal creative input on top of online video, much like a "user-generated pop-up video". Users' thoughts, comments, links and other creative content can be added to a video and immediately shared with others to view.

Mannix Marketing Redesigns Albany.com GeoDomain
New GeoDomain Website Design Increases Focus on Capital Region Residents and Businesses

Vocus Executive to Present on Keynote Panel Discussing Modern Marketing, Promotion and Public Relations for Private Companies at IncBizNet's Promotio
Bill Wagner to Discuss Using Public Relations to Increase Visibility and Generate Sales for Small Businesses

Email Is The Future Of All Effective Marketing
In recent years email marketing has really taken off with more businesses trying it than ever before. The reason for this is that more businesses are realizing that they can get just as much done through email as they have been through other avenues. In fact, email marketing campaigns are becoming more and more lucrative all the time. Many experts believe that in the future that most, if not all, effective marketing campaigns will take place through email.

Newlywed Gary Coleman Admits to Knowing Better Confesses in Online Video: Gary Coleman Challenges Americans in One Million Dollar Online
Unilever (NYSE: UL, UN):

The Tao of Web Marketing
A few months ago I was watching a stream meandering back and forth across a flat plain in a high mountain valley. The stream reached it's destination - a small lake - but only after dozens of loops and curves.

Plateau Systems Appoints Senior Vice President of Marketing : Marketing Veteran Jeff Kristick Joins Talent Management Industry Leader's Executive T
Plateau Systems, a leading provider of talent management software, services and solutions, announced today that technology industry and marketing veteran Jeff Kristick has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Marketing. Kristick brings significant experience to this role and will be responsible for the company?s worldwide marketing strategy, overseeing product, services and field marketing, sales enablement, demand generation, corporate communications and new media strategy, customer outreach and events.

Successful Home Based Business Entrepreneurs Have These Abilities-Have You?
We have to accept the fact that operating a Successful Home Based Business is quite different from operating a mediocre home based business. When we start a business our sole objective is to succeed. Success does not come easily. We have to put in a lot of hard work, be dedicated, disciplined, passionate and above all remain motivated till we reach our goal.

Travel Vouchers As Business Incentives
If you own a business, you may be thinking of various ways that you can increase your sales, draw more customers, or reward your employees. There are a variety of different types of incentive programs available, but no doubt you want to use the one that will be most effective for your business. One of the most effective incentive programs is to use travel vouchers. Whether you give them to new customers who purchase products, to the best salesman for the most sales, or to other employees for meeting other goals, these vouchers are sure to bring about great results for your company.

Protiviti Licenses Approva BizRights Software to Perform Control Assessments for Oracle E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft Applications
Leading risk and internal audit consulting company standardizes Approva for Enterprise-wide Controls Monitoring

StangTV Video Channel for Mustang Enthusiasts to Launch on PowerTV Online Network
StangTV will incorporate PowerTV's NMRA TV Channel and feature late model Mustang & Ford tech, videos, installations, new product reviews, car features, interviews & more. Enthusiasts will be able to watch, upload and share Mustang and Ford videos and articles.

Is Your Business Producing Hazardous Waste?
Environmental and health concerns have led to a widening of the definition of ?hazardous waste?. Most people assume that this term refers only to toxic, chemical or industrial waste, but in fact all businesses are probably now producing some form of hazardous waste that needs to be disposed of carefully and legally.

Telecommuting is Good Business with FreedomIQ VOIP Hosted PBX
FreedomVOICE Systems, a licensed telecommunications carrier specializing in virtual office solutions, has developed a powerful tool to manage telecommuting with their FreedomIQ VOIP hosted PBX.

How To Use Humor Successfully In Your Business Communications

For generations people have been saying that laughter is good medicine. And now the scientists have taken an interest it turns out great-grandma was right. The boffins have discovered that laughter releases helpful goodies in the body which boost your immune system. In fact the therapeutic benefits of laughter are now being harnessed by academia and the business community into laughter workshops and other formalized chuckle sessions. Get the workers laughing and you raise productivity, so it seems.

However it is extremely easy to get humor wrong. And a joke that's sent to someone who doesn't see the funny side will create more ill health through raised blood pressure than a few laughs could ever cure.

So what's the answer? How do we harness humor and make it work for us, not against us?

People often say that the internet's international nature makes it an unsuitable environment for humor for fear of it not translating across national boundaries - and inadvertently causing offense. But there are a couple of simple rules which - although not universal panaceas that always work - can help you use humor without risk.

Use humor about situations, not people. If you think about it, the butt of many jokes and other humor is a person or group of people, so it's hardly surprising that offense is caused. The more extreme types are obvious - mother-in-law jokes, blonde jokes, women jokes, men jokes - but there are many more subtle ones too.

Then there are the nationality gags. I remember in one year hearing exactly the same joke (in three different languages) told by an American about the Polish, by a Canadian about Newfoundlanders, by a French person about Belgians, by a French-speaking Belgian about the Flemish, and by a Flemish person about the Dutch.

Obviously most humor is going to involve people in one way or another. But as long as the butt of the joke is a situation or set of circumstances, not the people, you're far less likely to upset anyone. And there is an added advantage here. Whoever they are and wherever they come from, people will usually identify with a situation. Take this one for example...

Some people are driving along at night and are stopped by a police car. The officer goes to the driver and warns him that one of the rear lights on his SUV isn't working. The driver jumps out and looks terribly upset. The officer reassures him that he won't get a ticket, it's just a warning, so there's no problem. "Oh yes there is a problem," says the man as he rushes towards the back of the car. "if you could see my rear lights it means I've lost my trailer."

As the butt of the joke is the broken rear light and the loss of the trailer, not the policeman or the driver, no-one can be offended. And most people can identify with how that would feel.

The other key issue with humor is wordplays, puns, and anything else that's based on figurative speech, slang, or jargon. The short answer is they don't work internationally. However if the play or double entendre is in the concept rather than the words, it probably will work.

These may be funny to us, but would not be understood by anyone who is not a good English speaker because there is a play on the words:

* Deja moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.
* The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.

These, however, probably would be understood because the humor is in the concept, not in the words themselves:

* You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.
* The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was.

Overall, I think it's wise to use humor as a spicy condiment in your business comms. And just as you would with the chili powder, use it in moderation if you don't know the audience well ... and if you know they have a very sensitive palate, don't use it at all!

Canadian-born Suzan St Maur is an international business writer and author based in the United Kingdom. In addition to her consultancy work for clients in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia, she contributes articles to more than 150 business websites and publications worldwide, and has written eleven published books. Her latest eBooks, "The MAMBA Way To Make Your Words Sell" and "Get Yourself Published" and available as PDF downloads from BookShaker.com.

To subscribe to her free biweekly business writing tips eZine, TIPZ from SUZE, click here.