Maybe it is a karma thing or watch what you put out into the Universe thing or maybe it was just time for me to get off the fence and join the smart phone nation, regardless of the reason I am forced to buy a new cell phone – excuse me handheld device.

My daughters and I have been talking about upgraded to smart phones and the timeline was to be January 2011 – that was before I dumped a bottle of rubbing alcohol on my Blackberry and fried it! Since it really doesn’t make sense to buy another Blackberry only to replace it in a couple of months, I am going to take the plunge now and I need your help.

Making a tech move usually requires a little research in order to identify the best features, compare reliability and determine which platform and specific is best suited to my priorities. Sounds reasonable but I need a phone now, so I want to draw on the advice of my readers, followers and fellow techy marketers who have taken the plunge

What do you say… iPhone or Droid?

Do me a favor and leave a comment with your opinions, recommendations, stories, etc. I would love to take the readers digest crash course in smart phone research with your assistance here on my blog. For taking your time to share your thoughts, I will think of some really cool way to thank you … I’ll send you a free product, send you an audio or something like that.

Thank you in advance!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

I have launched two new article sites that will bring you tons of targeted traffic if you think a little outside of the box and spend 10 minutes every-other day on each site. Both sites are article sites and as you know articles can be used several ways to drive traffic to your blogs or websites. I am going to provide you with a brief review of each site and then share a few ideas on how you can benefit from each site.

The first site is called  ”My Ezine World” and it is a niche e-zine article site that post articles in a wide range of niches and the articles are updated daily. You will note that in addition to aggregating  niches ranging from self improvement to politics, I have also created a category titled “Internet Marketing” with 22 subcategories - new categories will be added every month along with hundreds of new e-zine articles.

When it comes to sourcing popular content in the Internet and social media niches “Mashable” and “Tech Crunch” are among the best resources and both are closely followed. I have added an RSS feed for both of these powerful sites allowing you to source their articles on My Ezine World to bookmark, tweet to and help leverage to help you drive traffic.

If you are working in a niche that is not currently included on the site please leave a comment here or on the “Contact Us” form on the site and I will research your niche and the authority sites in the niche and consider adding it to My Ezine World.

Full access to the site is free and you can use as many articles as you need to maximize your viral marketing efforts.

Here are a few ways to leverage this site and drive traffic:

1. Post comments on the articles and include “deep links” with your comment registration. This means that you link to a related article within your blog, not just your home page URL. If you have not authored a post that is a perfect match, find something similar and link that post.

2. Copy the article URL and send it out with a Tweet.

3. Bookmark the articles that interest you on social bookmarking sites.

4. Write reviews on your blog on articles that interest you.

5. Post comments from the RSS feed for “Articles by James Holmes” and I will come by your site and return the favor. It is all about helping each other.

This site will evolve over time and I would encourage you to check back frequently. Shortly, I will be adding a subscribe via RSS feature so that you will be updated as soon as new content is available.

I am here to help you succeed in your business and life!

Be sure to check out the site: http://myezineworld.com

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

My friends Bradley Will, Russell Yermal and the other founders of “Social Spin” have come up with an amazing way to get the word out about their company… they are giving away their Wordpress 3.0 blog design, install and set-up service free for a limited time. Their service is called “The Free Blog Factory” and it they will literally be giving you a new WordPress blog on your domain name uploaded and optimized for SEO.

This is a perfect opportunity to get a professionally created blog on a premium theme if you do not have a WordPress blog, have one or more blogs but have a new niche that you want to target, or if you want to simply take your online presence to a new level.

These guys know what they are doing and this is a tremendous value – take a look at the site they did for me James Holmes Online

So what do you need to do?

I can assure you as someone who has taken action to claim my blog and complete their process, this is a tremendous opportunity. If you do not already have a hosting account don’t worry, part of the sign up requires you to set-up a Hostgator basic account using a special Discount Code that provide you with a $1.00 sign-up special.

I have spent a considerable amount of teaching you about list building over the past few months – this will not change as it is a key to your success online. Today, I wanted to share a strategy that has worked extremely well for me and that will work just as well for you provided you take action.

Here is the bottom line, people love getting quality information for free! One great way to build your list and add value for the member of your list is to provide quality e-books and special reports that help your subscribers build their businesses and improve their lives. I have a VERY EASY way for you to do this starting right now.

My friend John Guanzon has partnered with Brett Phillips to introduce “TE Reports” is a membership website that contains twelve e-book titles that you can re-brand with your links and give away as part of your list building campaigns or as a free bonus on your blogs and websites. These are quality high in demand e-books that will add tremendous value for you and your subscriber list.

Here is a list of the authors and titles you will gain immediate access to and full rights to give them away:

So how do you use these free reports to build your list? I have a step by step plan for you here:

Step 1: Go here and claim your free account TE Reports Special

Step 2: Organize your reports by entering the referral IDs that will be provide by each author

Step 3: Add your profile photo and integrate your auto-responder in the back office

Step 4: Promote your website referral link and invite others to claim a free account

Step 5: Contact your new subscribers and build relationships

In addition to building a list with this website you will also be paid up to 50% commissions for anyone you refer that decides to upgrade to a paid membership in order to access customized squeeze pages and other bonuses. It has been my experience that a percentage of your new subscribers will see the value of the upgrade offer and will decide to take action by doing so.

The set up for this free site is super simple and marketing free reports is comparatively easy as people are very receptive to these offers. So, give this site a try and be sure to read each of the twelve books yourself in order to benefit from the content contained in each book.

Be sure to return to this post and share your comments and success stories – if you need assistance in setting up your account let me know. I know one of the owners and many of the authors personally and I know this program will benefit you in a variety of ways.

I am here to help you build your list and succeed!

P.S. Here is the link again to grab your free account:

http://askjamesholmes.com/tereports

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

Note: I am a Affiliate Marketer and it should be assumed that links provided within the content of this blog and individual blog post are affiliate links from which I may be compensated for sales made at the recommended sites. All products and service recommendations are made as a result of my personal experience with the product or service provider.

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

Press Release & Blogging Expert Tatyana Gann will be my guest on the Internet Business Blueprint podcast on Friday March 26, 2010 at 1:00 PM EST

Tatyana Gann is a homeschooling mom of two beautiful boys and owner of SmokinHotPR E-Zine for small business owners and solo entrepreneurs. She teaches how to create the Smokin’ hot PR with new PR 2.0 strategies to attract solid clients and partnerships for your business. Tatyana has been a professional blogger for the over 2 years. Press release maven and inspirational writer! Radio host of weekly blog radio show. Awesome pastry Chef, French Cheese and French Wine Gourmand! Holistic Health Advocate.

Tatyana will be covering 5 steps to creating a social media releases PLUS more cool content such as

1. Why you need social media release

2. Social media release and your brand

3. Social media release as a traffic generation method

4. Difference between traditional press release and social media release

5. The shift in social media and public relations

The information that we will discuss will be valuable to you regardless if you are promoting an offline business, online business, niche site or business opportunity program. I will be taking live questions from the audience and the chat room will also be open.

Here is a link to the show page:

http://www.JamesHolmesRadio.com

To learn additional PR and Article tips from Tatyana Gann visit her blog at SmokinHot PR

Join us for a lively conversation, feel free to call in with your questions, and the chat room will be open for your participation. This will be a very informative episode and will gain knowledge of a powerful tool and a system that actually works.

I am here to help you succeed!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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Sid Hale is the creator of Rapid Action Profits script (RAP) and has been working full-time as a marking consultant for more than 20 years and has been online  since 1995 as a marketer since 2002. Sid creates and markets tools to help Internet marketers build successful online business marketing multiple RAP sites.

Sid will be my guest on the Internet Business Blueprint podcast on Blog Talk Radio today. We will be discussing how you can use Rapid Action Profits to build your own successful online business to sell your own information products and build an army of affiliates. The creation of information products is one of the best ways to build a subscriber list through viral marketing and creating a list of loyal affiliates is among the best ways to create traffic for your websites. Rapid Action Profits will allow you to accomplish these objectives with tremendous results.

Here are the details:

Date: Friday March 5, 2010

Time: 1:00 PM EST

Where: Internet Business Blueprint Podcast:

http://www.JamesHolmesRadio.com

Join us for a lively conversation, feel free to call in with your questions, and the chat room will be open for your participation. This will be a very informative episode and will gain knowledge of a powerful tool and a system that actually works.

I am here to help you succeed!

P.S. If you want to take a look at the software click here:

Rapid Action Profits Preview

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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One of the primary purposes of your blog should be to collect subscriber names and email addresses to add to your list. The best way to achieve this is to consistently post great content to your blog to generate traffic and then offer a item of high value free in exchange for the subscribers opt in to your list. I like using either a free e-book, a seven part email course (delivered over 21 days), or a free video based product.

Let’s examine the options of offering an e-book in greater detail and take a look at a couple to tools to help you get up and running quickly. I am also going to show you a short cut used by many of top marketers on the Internet!

I. Free E-Books

Marketing free e-books is an effective way to build your list regardless if the content is your original work or work for which you have obtained “resell rights.” If you follow the recommendations found in this post, you will be able to create numerous viral funnels that will drive traffic to your blog and build your subscriber list by simply giving information away.

If marketed correctly your e-books will be viewed by thousands of Internet users over time making them viral. the more relevant the content is to your targeted audience the greater the opportunity for your e-books to be seen as valuable within your niche.

II. Write Your E-book Written

Be sure to select a relevant topic that your niche will respond to and create a high quality e-book. Just because it is to be given away for free, the subscriber is entitled to truly valuable content. Remember, you are making a first impression with your e-book.

Please understand, you do not have to be a Pulitzer Prize winning author to write an authoritative special report or e-book. Simply select a topic you know something about, do any additional research needed to create authoritative content, organize your material in a logical sequence, and write in a very instructional manner as you would be speaking to one person, make it personal to your reader.

If the idea of writing an e-book seems overwhelming you can employ a ghost writer or use resell rights for published work or private label rights products from a quality source.

Here is the shortcut I promised – use resell rights e-books.

III. Using Resell Rights

I have published an e-book titled “James Holmes Exposes Resell Rights Secrets,” which provides a number of tips to help you use resell rights to build and reward your list with relative ease. I highly recommend clicking on the link above, acquire a copy of the e-book by immediate download and take action.

IV. Quick Tips

1. There are few hard and fast rules when it comes to creating an e-book, you can provide a ten page special report or a one hundred page book – there are no limits to how you present your content.

2. Always deliver your e-books as a digital PDF, only offer to mail an e-book if it is part of a larger course that should also include recorded media, either MP files or DVDs. Your subscribers are looking for the immediate gratification of receiving your material as soon as they opt in – they will not want to wait for snail mail!

3. Be sure that your e-book is created to be viral by including several links to your website, blog, and other resources including affiliate links and your contact information. If the e-book is a free offer, be sure to provide “give-way rights” in the copy write section of your book.

4. Be sure to include a “subscribe” link in several places in your book so that anyone who ends up with a copy can easily join your list.

5. Do not stop with one e-book, you must continue to produce content on a regular basis, reward your current list members with new material and keep your offers for new subscribers fresh. The more content that you can produce and distribute online, the more traffic you will generate and the bigger list you will build.

V. Leverage Your E-books to Build Your Subscriber List

There are several ways that you can use your e-book to build your mailing list, pick one and master it:

1. Simply offer the complete e-book for free in return for your visitor’s name and email address.

2. Authoring an e-book helps to establish you as an expert in your field and builds your credibility.

3. Post your e-book on a variety of  niche sites and social media sites in order to maximize the number of opt ins and download your viral e-book receives.

4. Generate sales for your paid content such as e-books and courses by giving away the first two chapters of your e-book along with a special offer to buy the full e-book as a new subscriber.

5. Offer your paid content for free as limited “time sensitive offer” to create true urgency and deliver a valuable resource for free to new subscribers.

I welcome your comments or questions, so please feel free to leave a comment and if you like what you have read, be sure to re-tweet this post.

I am here to help you succeed!

P.S. Here is a free account that allows you to re-brand vial e-books: Get Free E-Books

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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In recent years many Internet Marketers and Solo-preneurs have embraced the tremendous opportunity to outsource a variety of daily task and projects in order to become more productive and free up time to enjoy more life. Smart entrepreneurs are becoming more profitable and getting more done everyday.

Most business owners I mastermind with have used outsource resources  in India, Philippines, Australia and other parts of the world often motivated by cost. These resources are effective, but their are often challenges centering around language nuances and time zone differences that can cause some communications issues. When most think about outsource they think about offshore, until now.

On today’s show my special guest is Traci Knobbe the creator of “Your Web Tech Team” a United States based outsource firm with a variety of advantages for you. Whether you are a newer marketer or an experienced marketer looking to maximize your progress, you will benefit from the time you  invest by listening to our show.

Your Web Tech Team is owned and operated by Traci Knoppe. Traci has been a professional web designer since 1999, primarily specializing in e-commerce web design solutions, and blog installations.

Here are the show details:

Podcast Show Page: Internet Business Blueprint

Show Date: Friday February 26th, 2010

Show Time: 1:00 PM EST

Call In Number Guest Line: 1-646-727-3058

I will be accepting your questions for Traci live on the air, so feel free to call into the show and return to this post after the show and leave a comment.

I am here to help you succeed in your business!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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Colin Klinkert Co-Founder of Viral URL was my guest February 17th on the “Internet Business Blueprint Podcast” on Blog Talk Radio. The program more than delivered on my expectations as we were also joined by Frank Bauer the other founder of this powerful marketing tool. During the show we covered the history and idea behind Virl URL, Viral Networks and Viral Hosts. In the event that you missed the show, I wanted to provide you with the replay link as well as extend a special bonus that Colin extended to my listeners.

Here are a few notes:

1. Viral URL was founded in October 2007

2. Viral URL has more than 63,000 active members

3. Viral URL has than 250,000 cloaked links in their system

4. Viral URL is a Link Cloaker, List Builder, Safe-list Mailer and Integrated Marketing System

5. Viral URL offers both FREE and Upgraded Paid Memberships

The services provided by Viral URL are ideal for Internet Marketers, Affiliate Marketers, or anyone that wants to cloak and track URLs for a variety of reasons. At the very least I would recommend signing up today for a free account and take a look at the marketing resources included in this system. In addition to being able to cloak all of your affiliate URLs and other links, you will be able to promote to your programs and track your marketing efforts to identify what is actually working.

In addition to discussing their businesses we also discussed several “best practices” and Colin and Frank both offered tips to help you grow your brand presence and financial results in your online business. I asked what the top users and most effective members of Viral URL are doing to generate opt ins to their list and generate referral commissions by referring new members, here are a few key points.

1. Consistently send high value email messages every three days

2. Don’t pitch and sell, instead brand yourself and add value to your market

3. Create splash pages and auto response campaigns to develop relationship with your list

4. Invest a little time reading member emails and take advantage of the credit links therein

In addition, we had a great conversation concerning viral marketing in general and innovations within the niche. This is a very informative interview and is worth your investment of time listening to the recording.

Here is the Interview Replay Link: Internet with Colin Kilnert

To Join Viral URL for Free Click Here: Viral URL Free Account

To claim your special bonus accept the one time offer when you sign up, log into your new account and go to the “Ad Credit Section” from there click on “Claim As Credits Coupon” from the drop down menu and enter this code: jamesholmesgold

Once you have joined and taken a tour of the site, be sure to set up your campaign and start marketing. Stop back here and provide your feedback after your have sent out a few messages and cloaked a few links.

I am here to help you succeed in all aspects of your business!

P.S. Here is a list of the sites referenced in the interview:

Viral URL

Viral Networks

Viral Host

When first began blogging I used Blogger as the platform for all of my blogs, I still have several hosted there. I must admit that what attracted me to the service was the ease of use and that fact that it was free. I couldn’t have imagined what my investment of a little time learning about Word Press and less than five dollars per month for hosting would mean for my results from blogging.

There are numerous advantages gained by using WordPress as the platform for your blog, the variety of plugins available is among the most significant. Plugins allow you to maximize every aspect of your blog both in appearance and function. Today, I was visiting with a marketer who is in the process of evolving his first blog and we were discussing how to make the most of your blog theme and structure.

I concluded the conversation by promising to write a short post sharing my recommendation of a few key plugins to optimize WordPress. I’ve decided to share ten, the list could easily be thirty as there really are some innovative options depending on what you want to achieve. Let me start with a quick explanation of what a plugin is and the purpose of adding them to your blog.

Simply stated, a plugin is a piece of code that controls certain aspects of your blog, from SEO optimization to appearance you can dramatically enhance every aspect of your blog. Here is a resource to help you better understand the value of using WordPress and Plugins:

Here is my top ten for today. I recommend that you install these in your blog and take care to set each one up and take full advantage of each customizable feature when available.

1. All in One SEO Pack by Michael Torbert: This plugin will provide you all of the basic features for search engine optimization and will satisfy the needs of most bloggers. There is a Pro Version of this plugin worth consideration and you can read more about Michael Tobert and his plugins on his blog http://michaeltorbert.com

I use this plugin or another called Platinum SEO Pack on all of my blogs. There are other SEO related plugins, but this is the one I would recommend for most bloggers.

2. Google XML Site Map by Arne Brachhold: This plugin makes it very simple to install a SEO friendly site map on your blog, which is essential to maximize both search engine optimization and your users experience. To learn more about Arne Brachhold and access some amazing content visit his blog http://www.arnebrachhold.de

3. SEO Title Tag by Stephan Spencer: Create a customized title tag for any post, static page, category page, UltimateTagWarrior tag page – indeed, any URL! And will auto-insert the tag name into the title on tag pages generated by UltimateTagWarrior plugin. Admin allows for mass editing of title tags. To learn more about StephanSpencer visit his blog http://www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin

4. Hyper Cache by Stefano Lissa: Hyper Cache system for WordPress will improve your blog perfomance and save resources. By utilizing a cache plugin you will improve page load times among a number of other benefits. To learn more about Stefano Lissa visit his blog http://www.satollo.net

5. MBP Ping Optimizer by Max Blog Press: Using this plug in will save your Word Press blog from getting tagged as ping spammer which may result in your blog being banned from these vital services.n. This plug in solves a couple of critical issues with the manner in which Word Press auto pings your post. To learn more about Max Blog Press visit their blog http://www.maxblogpress.com

6. Link Within by Link within: I love this plug in because it ensures that your older post remain relevant to new visitors to your blog by offering an attractive thumbnail of a few of your past post at the footer of every post on your blog. To learn more about Max Blog Press visit their blog, although there is not a ton of content there – just access to a few recommended uses and the download link http://www.linkwithin.com/learn

7. Pretty Link by Blair Williams: As an affiliate marketer and information products publisher, Pretty Link has become one of my favorite plugins. This clever plug in allows you to add a keyword redirect to the end of your domain name, which can be used to redirect your visitors to product sales pages, PDF doacuments, etc. This plugin cloaks, redirects and tracks your links all in one action. There is a very easy to use administration panel accessible within the WordPress dashboard. To learn more about Blair Williams visit his blog http://blairwilliams.com

8. Exclude Pages from Navigation by Simon Wheatley:  Provides a checkbox on the editing page which allows you to exclude pages from the primary navigation. This will remove the pages from any “consumer” side page listings, which may not be limited to your page navigation listings, so test the pages you exclude to ensure that they are accessible based on your initial intent. To learn more about Simon Wheatley visit his blog http://simonwheatley.co.uk

9. CommentLuv by Andy Bailey: This cleaver plugin shows the last post from your commenter’s blog by parsing the feed at their given URL when they leave a comment on your blog. This will reward your readers and encourage more comments because they are allowed to promote their post while benefiting yours. To learn more about Andy Bailey visit his blog http://fiddyp.co.uk

10. Sexy Bookmarks By Josh Jones, Jamie Carter, Gautum Gupta, Norman Yung: SexyBookmarks adds a (X)HTML compliant list of social bookmarking icons to each of your posts. This plugin does this beautifully with attractive icons and a unique multi-line listing of multiple social sites. To learn more about the authors visit his blog http://blog2life.net

Do you have a list of your favorite plugins that you can share? Be sure to add them along with a comment here and I will look forward to exploring your recommendations.

I am here to help you succeed!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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