NCsoft and ArenaNet today announced that the Guild Wars Gold has sold over five million units worldwide. The series of games includes the original Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, and Guild Wars: Eye of the North. Currently, ArenaNet is developing a full-fledged sequel in Guild Wars Gold.
“Voice is a significant feature for the ongoing development of the NCsoft community,” said Peter Jarvis, vice president of operations at NCsoft North America. “By partnering with Vivox, we will be able to offer our players a commanding set of communication tools that will simplify communications amongst the player base with far reaching options. Vivox is the clear leader in quality, features and operational excellence and we anticipate a successful integration and long-term relationship.”
“NCsoft is an industry leader in the advancement of gameplay and engagement of the player community,” said Rob Seaver, CEO of Vivox. “They recognize the power of a communication solution that is open to all players and lets them communicate effectively and reliably. Vivox is gratified in this collaboration and we look forward to contributing to the advancement of the NCsoft community.”
“gold is a proven success and has set a new standard for online RPG games with its unique business model and superior playability,” said NCsoft CEO Taek Jin Kim. “ArenaNet is dedicated to creating games that expand the market and provide great new content to our loyal player base. This success has built a great foundation from which the next generation of Guild Wars games will grow.”
“Reaching the five million mark is extremely gratifying for us at ArenaNet because it shows the hard work and dedication we put into our games has resonated with the fans,” said Mike O’Brien, co-founder of ArenaNet. “We are committed to supporting all of our Guild Wars players to buy gold, and at the same time, we’re extremely excited to work on the game’s evolution. Certainly the future of Guild Wars is as bright as its past and present.”
Essential career management and communication secrets to protect your career through the recession.
An officer stops a car for speeding. As the officer approaches, the driver is frantic. The driver is waving his arms, shouting incessantly in Spanish and pointing to the passenger who appears to be in agony and his holding his side.
Is this:
a. the get away car and the two men who just robbed a store down the road, one of whom was shot, or
b. a man and his nephew who are rushing to the hospital because the nephew has appendicitis?
If the officer doesnât know even basic Spanish this situation could easily turn tragic. With Workplace Spanish® a dangerous situation can be averted.
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Workplace Spanish® offers both Spanish learning manuals accompanied by audio CDs, and an easy-to-use CD-ROM called âClick Itâ¢â which features clickable audio Spanish terms and expressions that help law enforcement professionals speak Spanish in a basic and effective manner without having to learn academic Spanish. It uses relevant “bite-size” terms and phrases to get a message, question or response across.
Workplace Spanish worked closely with the Las Vegas police department in creating the law enforcement program. Workplace Spanish president Tom Sutula says, âThey told us what was critical to them on a day-to-day basis â what was most important to their officers. Like most law enforcement departments, they didnât have the time or budget to have everyone become fluent in Spanish.â
Over the past year law enforcement agencies from across the country including Nashville, TN, Eagan, MN and the FBIâs Atlanta office have addressed language challenges by adding Workplace Spanish® . They all recognized that the lack of clear communication for their staffs could be frustrating, potentially dangerous and costly.
Sutula says that Workplace Spanish® has been used by thousands of officers. Many appreciate the flexibility of the new Click It⢠CD-ROM. âIt gives them the ability to look up an expression and “click on it” to hear the Spanish and phonetic pronunciations played aloud. They can either repeat the Spanish or play it loud enough for a Spanish-speaker to hear.â
Detailed information and sample excerpts from on the Law Enforcement program are available on the companyâs website at the following link: www.WorkplaceSpanish.com/law_enforcement.htm
Founded in 1998, Workplace Spanish, Inc. develops materials that for basic, effective communication with Spanish-speakers in various work situations. Designed for time-stressed professionals in government, industry, health care and education, the company’s materials are easy-to-use and non-academic; they do not require prior Spanish training. Users learn Spanish pronunciation and how to say brief terms and phrases that are relevant to their work and everyday conversation.
Its job-specific programs are used in more than two dozen industries and the company is continually adding new areas. The company recently launched its first English learning program for Hispanic workers in manufacturing and industrial occupations. Many colleges and schools teach Workplace Spanish programs.
Weblogs or Blogs are interactive dynamic communication tools, in the online world. Whatever a blogger posts is published instantly. Blogs can be updated whenever you want and as often as you want. Blogs are distinct from other types of online writing in that they follow an informal style in their expression. Anyone can keep a blog. Earlier, blogs were not taken very seriously and were considered of not much use, but now they are a force to reckon with, considering the different ways in which they are being used. Even US Presidential Candidates are using blogs to communicate in their campaign strategy. Anyone can maintain a blog.
Purposes Of Blogging
In the blogosphere or the blogging world, there are different kinds of bloggers – personal, business, organizational and one step ahead – professional blogger.
Personal blogs are like journals or diaries. It could be focused on a topic that the blogger is interested in or just record whatever the blogger feels about, like a personal diary. The aim of organizational blogging is internal communication within the institution. Colleges may maintain a blog to talk to their students; companies may talk to their employees and customers. The unique thing here is that uniformity of message is maintained, with no scope for misinterpretation. Professional bloggers do it for money. Blogging is a lucrative career and many organizations hire bloggers to write for them. These people bring in fresh ideas. They also maintain blogs about a particular industry when hired by a network.
Business Blogs – Effective PR
Business blogs are informal and useful for connecting with customers. The main advantage is that it is easy to maintain and it gives the company a chance to be in regular touch with its staff as well as customers. It’s an ideal way to reach information about product promotions, accomplishments and new systems. Many successful blogs hardly use any advertising. Instead they include relevant comments and information that its readers can use.
These days, practically every company of repute has a blog incorporated into its website. And these companies also motivate their employees to blog, promoting freedom of expression. A company can market itself through its blog in several ways. Some of them are:
– Blogs humanize a company, and this enhances its image on its website.
– Company values and opinions can be expressed through blogs. This brings in a regular set of readers who can directly respond on the site.
– Also, if the company’s blog is picked up by, say Google, it gets wide publicity. Blogs are permanent so even if you go deleting a post, they will be archived somewhere. So companies usually ensure that proper guidelines are given to employees so that they are careful about what they post.
– It is easy to get competition information by browsing other companies’ blogs.
– Blogs have ever-changing content. And since readers are aware of this, they enjoy visiting the blog frequently to keep up to date with what’s going on.
When Employees Blog
As mentioned earlier, companies allow their employees to blog. But they must be careful about revealing company information that could be confidential or copyrighted. In an informal environment it is very easy to be expressive. The Pew Internet & American Life Project conducted two surveys in November 2004, and this study shows that even in 2004, at least 12 % of Internet users posted comments on blogs. Which means that with the traffic flowing to the website, bloggers must exercise caution about what they want to say.
Information Exchange
With the evolution of blogging as a serious form of publicity, audio and video blogging have also become popular, with technological advances.
Blogging has swept the online marketing world by storm. Companies in the PR business are using blogging for their clients.
Roswell, GA, October, 28 2008 – Workplace Spanish, Inc. has added âHotels & Hospitalityâ to its repertoire of Spanish learning materials. The new learning program will help English speaking managers and supervisors in the hospitality business communicate with their Spanish speaking staff members.
âWorkplace Spanish® for Hotels & Hospitalityâ was developed specifically for hotels, motels and other hospitality properties where basic, effective Spanish will improve communication and teamwork with Hispanic associates resulting in higher quality service and property maintenance. The 75-page, 2 audio CD program covers all the important conversational expressions as well as supervisory and hotel-related topics including Interviewing, Scheduling, Job Rules, Standards, Safety, Accident & Emergencies, Hotel Terminology & Locations, Housekeeping, Laundry and Property Maintenance.
Tom Sutula, President of Workplace Spanish, Inc. stated âThe hotel and hospitality industry was in dire need of an easy Spanish learning program like this to help keep their business running smoothly. With todayâs diverse workforce, speaking even a little job-specific Spanish will translate into better understanding, teamwork and efficiency, which pays off in smoother operations and enhanced profitability.â For more information please visit www.workplacespanish.com or e-mail info@workplacespanish.com.
About Workplace Spanish, Inc.
Founded in 1998, Workplace Spanish, Inc. develops job-specific learning materials for both English and Spanish-speakers. Designed for time-stressed adults in government, industry, health care and education, the companyâs materials are easy-to-use and non-academic; they do not require prior language training. Workplace Spanish® programs have been used by over 350 colleges and schools across the country and are suitable for class training or self-study.
School district moves towards new, ’21st century’ teaching tools
As the New Year approaches, the opening of American Canyon High School is just a few months away. Everything about the state-of-the-art school will be brand new, including its educational method.
Marketing directors whose job is to promote desktop publishing software, web developing software or word processing software need to explore as many different ways as possible to communicate the benefits of their communication tools to the public. When you understand that every person on the planet learns new information via auditory, kinesthetic and visual processes, it makes sense that you will want to utilize all three in explaining your communication tools to potential clients. You can cover the visual aspects of your marketing ideas very effectively through utilizing custom Microsoft Visio programming.
While auditory learning occurs when people take in new information by hearing and kinesthetic learners gain new ideas by using a hands-on approach, visual learners hone in on your creative use of pictures and diagrams. Strategic communication tools marketing campaigns utilize Visio because the visio drawing easily diagrams hard to understand data and transforms it into capsules of information that can be grasped in a single glance.
There is limited space available on packaging and a brief amount of time available to put your communication tool’s best foot forward, so the flexible diagramming available with Visio makes it easy to get your message across quickly.
Visio Templates offer an instant way to get started with diagramming your project. They are ready-to-use pictures that communicate complicated and technical information from tables and spreadsheets quickly. Use the diagrams to show how the processes in your communications tools work, because when clients understand your tools, they will see the value to be gained by their use.
When your client can visual the specific information on how your tools can help them solve an issue their company faces, they will act on that information. This aspect of visualizing is crucial to the effectiveness of your marketing campaign, and any resource you can use to help your clients see why your tools will help them can only be to your benefit.
If you have specific diagramming needs that go beyond the scope of the traditional Visio program, you will be pleased to find out that there is a wide range of customizing that can take place with Visio. Your specific marketing needs unique to each product that you are placing can be met with customized Visio development.
Internet marketing of communications tools is made more cost-effective when using customized diagramming in Visio. Your diagrams and shapes can be viewed by your audience online on your web pages as well as on e-mail. You can customize the program yourself, if you wish, although Visio developers can perform this service as well. The versatility of Visio shines in connecting your important data to the unique shapes that are customized to your exact specifications.
Jonathon Blocker is a visio programmer who has been teaching sales professionals how to master the skills required of an expert visio developer. The visio software has become second nature to him and his detailed articles on the visio drawing application provide fresh insight into learning the wide array of tools included within the visio software package.
Essential career management and communication secrets to protect your career through the recession.
International business expansion can be expensive and laden with risks. Well this is true when companies limit themselves to only using traditional marketing methods in their international business development.
This can also be the case when companies use some internet marketing but rely heavily on traditional marketing methods.
Creating foreign language content for one internet marketing communication medium is a good way to start.
Traditional & Internet Marketing Mix
Today’s best marketing practices are based on implementing both internet marketing and traditional marketing campaigns. Companies rarely rely on both methods to the same extent. One marketing environment is often used more than the other.
The emphasis of either of these marketing methods depends on several factors including the company’s culture and history. It can be said that traditional, long standing companies now have to develop real internet marketing strategies, beyond the brochure website. And it is recognized that internet companies will get better results with some traditional marketing added to their marketing mix.
Internet Marketing Reduces Risk In International Expansion
When considering your international business expansion internet marketing reduces the risk in international expansion. But how can you really develop your business with internet methods? Some companies put up a website and think this opens their doors to international clients. Yes, it may. But the results will be very limited.
An interactive internet marketing campaign must be carried out in each and every foreign market you want to target. Simply having your website written in a way that communicates with you will not get you many international clients.
A Single Foreign Language Blog Can Start Your International Development
Today most businesses understand the value of having a blog. Instead of thinking with traditional marketing mindset, why not use today’s trend in social media and start off your international business expansion with a single communication tool specifically targeting one foreign country.
For example, Abercrombie & Fitch has a blog in French specifically targeting the French market. They are not physically present in France. It is getting recognition.
Creating foreign language content for one internet communication medium will greatly reduce your costs. It would be easier to keep control on from where you are now and reduce a large percentage of the risk involved with your international expansion.
Companies seeking international business development should look at how they can use this to their advantage. Internet marketing can be used as the sole marketing strategy when targeting a foreign market in the beginning.
A Dynamic Foreign Lead Generation System
Once you get some feedback from your foreign market you would be in a position to adjust your offer to fit better with your foreign market and develop your first foreign client base using only internet marketing strategies. Your first clients could finance further foreign language communication to create a more dynamic internet marketing lead generation system.
An effective internet marketing campaign will give your company the knowledge you need to make the international business decisions. You will then be able to choose which traditional marketing you should use to further your expansion. As your international business you will then move towards localized websites in all of your foreign markets. This is how to become a truly international company.
Are you committed to speeding up your international sales cycles?
Learn how to combine cross-cultural marketing tools and international sales strategies for faster sales.
Marketing communications is one of the most talked about topics in the world wide web internet today. Obviously, as the term implies, it is simply communicating to people anything that pertains to your brand, products, or services. There are a lot of ways to do this. The best way to do the job greatly depends on the target audience you want to reach. One way may work best with a particular group of people, while another type of audience can be reached effectively using another way. Whatever way is used, it must go hand in hand with the rest of ways employed to communicate your brand.
With the advancement of technology come also broader and better avenues through which you can bring the message to people regarding your brand. The ancient way of communicating your message to clients and target audience was limited to radio advertisements and TV commercials, billboards and prints. But momentarily, the picture has changed. Now the internet has opened unlimited ways so you can creatively and effectively reach your clients and target prospects in no time at all, at a cost that is unbelievably cheap, yet with higher potentials of accomplishing your goals. Using the internet you can now transact business anywhere in the globe without really going there. You can also take the challenge of competing in the international market.
Some of the most popular marketing communications tools nowadays include blogging like that of WordPress, micro-blogging like Twitter, podcasting, email marketing, and SEO of Search Engine Optimization.
Email marketing is among the most popular tools used by most companies and business organizations today. It brings so much convenience and saves more time for other tasks because with just a few clicks on your mouse you can send emails to all of your clients and prospects whose email addresses are on your list. However, you need to be careful in doing this because just like its older brother – the snail mail, emails too can sometimes find their way to the trash bin. To prevent this from happening, your message must reflect creativity and relevance so that recipients may find them interesting. It must be as concise as possible and readable at one glance so it will not steal your readers’ time and consider your email boring.
Blogging is another great breakthrough in marketing communications. Unlike its older brother – the personal diary which you try to hide for in there you keep some secret thoughts, a blog is meant to be published and read. Readers also have the freedom to react, interact, and express their approvals or disapprovals of certain issues you publish. Marketing experts have found blogging as a potential tool in communicating your brand to people because of the many opportunities to connect with your regular customers and target clients and establish a good relationship with them.
Finally, micro-blogging is another latest awakening in today’s marketing arena. It is like a younger brother to blogging and a cousin to SMS. Like SMS, micro-blogging allows you to send short messages or short blogs to your followers, in your situation your clients and prospects. Your purpose is to update them with your latest products or services, latest deals and offers, and to make your presence always felt. Indeed, modern marketing communications tools give marketing a whole new look.
FRANk is a creative communications company working across a broad client base to originate clear and sustainable solutions for brands to realise relevant connections with their customers. Marketing communications, Social Media Agency and Media Innovation
Essential career management and communication secrets to protect your career through the recession.
Texting, tweeting could be used as teaching tools: Expert
Washington, Dec 11: While debate is going on as to how text messaging and its distant cousin ‘tweeting’ is degrading formal writing among teens, a media literacy expert at University of Illinois has said that these new forms of communication have a far bigger role to play in education and research.
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description A no-fluff, easy-to-read compilation of the best advice from the top 20 time management books. Recommendations cover five areas: Focus, Plan, Organize, Take Action, and Learn. Short chapters cover the A to Z of time management from finding out what time means to you to prioritizing, overcoming procrastination, and managing stress and well being. You can read the book from start to finish or zero in on specific areas for improvement. The book includes a… More >>
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