Parents nowadays are amazed or even flabbergasted at the high cost of college tuition fees.

The average cost at a private college or university in the US is about $21,235 per year, and about $5,491 per year at four-year public universities. In 2006, public college tuition jumped 10.5 percent. (egad!) And when you add in room and board, the cost of attending a private college is $29,026 per year on average, and $12,127 at four-year public universities. According to msnbc, published prices are up 35 percent in five years — the largest increase of any five-year period in the 30 years covered the report.

Taking inflation and the rising cost of living into account, monetary help is needed much more than ever. So before sending your teen out to the big school, make sure you're prepared, at the most, financially. It’s never too early to research on available support, and that’s where a site like eLearningYellowPages.com can help. They have a list of scholarship matching services where you or your child can apply online and get a head start on that tuition aid. There are informative and useful articles regarding how to find financial aid including grants and scholarships via the Internet, and how to avoid potential scams.

There are also available resources which can be used for any type of educational opportunity, including GED courses, Certificate Programs, Undergraduate & Graduate School, Online or Distance Learning Programs, Home-Based Study, Continuing Education and Career Training.Secure your children’s education and secure their future now.

How can we make cold calls "work" when we’re talking to someone we haven’t met, about something they may not need? Well, it’s really simple. First we look at how to relate to them rather than hoping they’ll relate to us and our solution.

When we approach cold calling with a question about what their needs are, potential clients respond much more readily to the idea of talking with us.

To help you with this, here are a few examples of dialogues within four very different industries.

Example: Staffing

In the staffing or recruiting industry, the goal is to call a company and identify whether they need help finding new staff.

The old cold calling approach is, "Hi. My name is... I’m with XYZ Staffing Company, and we offer these services. I’m just calling to..." And by that time, the person pretty much says, "We’re not interested," right?

With this new cold calling approach, the idea is to think about the problem you’re solving. The problem you’re solving is helping them find good people.

So I would start the conversation with, "Maybe you can help me out for a second?" And they usually say, "How can I help you?"

I reply, "I’m just calling to see if your company is still looking at finding good, quality employees to hire?"

The response to that is likely to be, "Well sure. Who’s this?" This is a normal response which we want to be ready for. I would simply say, "My name is Ari and I’m with XYZ Staffing Company and we help companies identify and find good people. I’m just calling to see if your company is in a situation now where you’re looking to hire and find new people."

Example: Software

Let’s say you’re in the software industry, and that you sell software to improve the productivity of an organization. What you want to do is focus on the problem that you solve specifically.

What most software salespeople do in cold calling is say, "Hi, we sell software to help improve productivity." But that doesn’t really identify the problem it solves. You have to focus specifically on an issue.

So, for instance, the software might solve a problem with lost paper-based documents. That’s a very specific issue.

In this case, I might call and say, "I’m just calling to see if your company is having issues with lost paperwork because of manual paper-based filing systems."

See how specific that is? It’s very directed to the problem in their world. This is in contrast to, "I want to see if your company is looking to buy some software or looking to improve productivity," or something similar.

Example: Advertising

Advertising is a very good example. Typically, what most advertising sales folks start with is an introduction. They talk about their advertising product or services that they offer.

But with our problem solving approach, the question becomes, "What does advertising solve for people?" The first thought usually is that it gets people leads.

It gets more branding.

Let’s go deeper than that. What do leads do for companies? Leads provide sales, right? So if I sell advertising, I might call and say, "Maybe you can help me out for a second. I’m just calling to see if your company is open to new ideas of generating leads for your business."

From this place, the discussion unfolds around their world, and not your advertising.

That’s the real shift in making cold calling relevant to their world.

Example: Collections

Another example is the collections industry. Typically, collection agencies call companies to see if they can be hired to collect invoices that are unpaid. They usually talk about their services as opposed to making their cold calling focus on the problem.

The client is looking to bring in more revenue from invoices that aren’t paid. So an approach might be, "Maybe you can help me out for a second?" The reply is once again, "Sure, how can I help you?"

"I’m just calling to see if your company is still having issues with unpaid invoices." And the response probably will be, "Well, yeah, we are. Who’s this?"

You can then respond in a very relaxed tone, "This is John. I’m with XYZ Collection Agency. I’m just calling to see if you’d be open to some new ideas on how to better solve that problem."

These are some examples of how to make your cold calling relevant to the other person and his or her needs. Practice this, and you’ll find that your cold calling conversations become more relaxed. You’ll no longer have to shift into an artificial "salesperson" role.

Ebooks are part of the new frontier of cyberspace.

They are an entirely new medium for sharing marketing

information, ideas, techniques, and expert knowledge.

Each day the number of people accessing the Internet

grows, causing the exposure of your ebook to increase

incrementally. It's obvious why electronic

self-publishing has become so popular so quickly.

The publishing industry, I hope, does not intend to

forever banish the printed word to the dustbin of

history. Books in print have their own special

qualities and merits, and the world would be

diminished by their disappearance.

Having said that, let's look at what makes ebooks so

important and so unique. Ebooks have certain abilities

and qualities that other mediums do not possess.

For example, ebooks are fairly easy to produce, and

their production cost is inexpensive. Just think about

it: you don't need a publisher, an agent, a printing

press, offset film, ink, paper, or even a distributor.

You just need a great concept, the ability to write it

or to hire a writer, and the right software.

Additionally, ebooks are easily and rapidly

distributed online. They are also easily updated; they

do not require a second print run. All you need is to

go into your original creation and modify the text or

graphics. Because of this flexibility, ebooks can

change and grow as fast as you can type.

Ebooks are also immediately obtainable. You don't have

to go to a bookstore or search through endless titles

at an online bookstore. All you have to do is download

it from a website, and presto! It's on your computer,

ready to be read.

Ebooks are interactive. This is one of the most unique

and specific qualities that ebooks offer. You can add

surveys that need to be filled out, order forms for

customers to purchase your products or goods, sound

and video that draw your reader into the virtual world

of your ebook, even direct links to relevant sites

that will expand your ebook outward. The potential is

virtually limitless.

Ebooks have a particular kind of permanence that other

mediums do not possess. Television shows and radio

shows air once, and then may rerun a few times. Ebooks

remain on your computer for as long as your choose,

and they can be read and reread whenever you choose

to. They can even be printed out and stored on the

shelves of your traditional home library.

Another wonderful quality is that ebooks have no

barriers in terms of publishing. You don't need to go

through the endless process of submitting your

manuscript over and over again, and then once you land

an agent, having the agent submit your manuscript over

and over again. Nor do you have to shell out thousands

of dollars for printing a self-published book. All

ebooks require is a writer and appropriate software.

Figure out your market, write your book, post it on

your website, and with the right business savvy, your

audience will come to you.

Finally, you have creative control over your ebook.

You don?t have to compromise with an editor or the

publishing trends of the time. You don't have to

haggle with a designer or wait for copyedited galleys

to arrive by snail mail. You are in complete control

of the design and the text.

How to Use ebooks for Marketing and Promotion

There are innumerable ways to use ebooks to promote

your business and drive quality traffic to your

website. Once posted on your site, you can turn them

into a daily course, which brings your customer back

to read the next chapter. You can use them as a free

gift for making a purchase or for filling out a

survey. Put your ebook on a disc, and you will have an

innovative brochure. Blow your competition away by

inserting the disc into your sales packages.

The most effective marketing products are those that

are unique. Copyright your ebook, and immediately, you

have a powerful tool that you, and you alone, can

offer to the public. People will have to visit your

site to acquire your ebook, which increases the flow

of quality traffic and the potential of sales and

affiliate contacts.

Make sure that you keep your ebook current. Update it

frequently as the market and trends change. Add new

advice and techniques to show your prospects how your

goods or services can enrich their lives. By

constantly keeping abreast of new trends and

techniques, you can continue to see profits from your

ebook for years after your original creation.

Another phenomenal advantage of ebooks is that you can

test their marketing potential without putting out

hardly any cash at all. You can even produce an ebook

one copy at a time, each time you receive an order,

eliminating the need for storage and inventory. By

this method, you can gauge the saleablity of your

ebook, and make adjustments as necessary until the

orders start pouring in. Ebooks allow you to learn

about your market and customer habits and motivation

over a period of time, without risking your precious

financial resources. They also provide you with an

invaluable way to gather marketing information, which

you can use in many different facets of your business.

Use your ebook to discover what the specific goals and

problems are in your specific industry. Then figure

out how to solve these problems, and publish an ebook

with this invaluable information. This will increase

the value of your business, upgrade your reputation,

and get you known as an expert in your field.

You can extend the value of single ebook by breaking

the book down into chapters for a serial course, into

special reports available on your website, or into

audio or visual tapes. Ebooks can be broken down into

several different promotional materials by excepting

some of the articles and using them to promote your

product. You can include a catalog in your ebook to

promote all the products or services you sell. You can

include a thank-you note for reading your book and an

invitation to download a trial version of your

product. Or you can include a form for your audience

to contact you for further information or with

questions, thereby building your business

relationships and your mailing list.

Using ebooks in this manner helps to cut the cost of

individually producing separate promotional materials.

You can use a single ebook to entice new prospects and

to sell new products to your current customers.

No other medium has this kind of flexibility and

ability for expansion. Think of your ebook like a

spider spinning a beautiful and intricate web. Now go

and create that web, and see how many customers and

prospects you can catch!