Adore sipping cocoa by a fireplace on chilly nights, immersed in the latest Oprah Book Club must-read? Love lounging poolside in July, Piña Colada in one hand, People Magazine in the other?  Heart skip a beat when you last stumbled upon a used bookstore with a cute Nietzsche-reading hipster behind the register? (OK maybe just me…).  You fellow bibliophiles out there know there’s an undeniable romance to the act of reading.  But if you’re anything like me, you’ve entertained a thought or two about jumping on the new E-reading bandwagon.  Well before you drop $150 on the latest Kindle or iPad, or declare yourself permanently anti-Nook, read on as I weigh the main pros and cons of this new literary phenomenon!

I love to dish out unsolicited relationship advice. I also love my job as a marketing intern for the number one web-design firm in Washington, Blue Water Media (shameless plug, my apologies). So for your reading pleasure I’ve combined these loves in the following post about…drum roll please…dating and the Internet! No, I’m not talking about Match.com people. I’m referring to the fact that the same commonly used strategies to find, attract, and keep a romantic partner can be successfully applied to maximize your business’s success online. Both in the dating pool and the realm of Internet marketing, there’s no excuse for passivity. Rather than praying the cutie across the bar asks you out or interested customers randomly land on your self-made website, take action! Having a large following of loyal and involved customers, like finding “the one”, happens overnight only for a select and fortuitous few. The rest of us have to work at it! So ladies and gentlemen, if you want to up your game, get back in the game, or simply win the game, read on!

Want to eat away at your spare time? Cut your work productivity in half?  Cultivate every gossipy tendency you’ve ever had?  People worldwide can’t wait to sign up thanks to Mark Zuckerberg’s creation, Facebook.com.  Over the last six years what began as a small meet and greet website for Harvard yuppies has morphed into a global social networking phenomenon.  Facebook.com has catalyzed the formation of a generation of wall-posting, status-updating cyber-zombies whose offspring will likely tweet from the womb.  And I love it!  Hello my name is Rebecca Rubin and I am a Facebook-aholic.

As a society, we are constantly searching for the latest and greatest technological breakthrough to “simplify” our lives and make us more “efficient.”  The question I would like to pose is simple.  Does technology “simplify” our lives or actually cause us to lose sight of the “simple” things in life?

This question brings us back to the age-old debate of which generation was the best to grow up in.  I remember these debates with my parents.  Their argument always centered around how things were simpler when they grew up and how they enjoyed outdoor activities and family time more than my generation.  I can almost hear them now, “When I was young we actually went outside and played with our friends unlike kids today who play video games all day!!”  Well, are they right?

I was getting a haircut.

The barber went on and on about a colleague of his who had been consistently convincing customers not to buy the expensive products at the shop. “Oh, you don’t want to buy that here. Just go up to CVS and you can find the same thing for a lot less money there.” Funny thing was, the employees at the shop are all paid a commission on the products they sell. Nonetheless, employees continually undersold the products – probably the same employees who complain about not making enough money…but that’s another story.

I couldn’t help but think about a situation I recently had at a restaurant when I asked the server for a different side with my entrée. He proceeded to hem and haw followed by an apologetic explanation that my request would result in an additional charge. In my mind I was hearing, please sir, don’t spend more money here. I spent some time in the restaurant industry. Up selling and suggestive selling is basically what brings home the bacon (sorry, I couldn’t resist).