It's Vacation Time

Take a vacation, for your health's sake
By Alina Tugend

Gas prices are going up, the economy is going down, and it seems hard to justify a vacation when many of us are glad just to have jobs. But now, more than ever, we need to take a break — a real break, not just a long weekend — from our stressed-out lives.

But, it turns out, even before the downturn, a lot of Americans were working through their vacation time, taking fewer and shorter holidays.

Well, vacations are not simply a luxury. There is increasing evidence that they really are necessary for good health.

Using information from the Framingham Heart Study, which started in 1948, researchers looked at questionnaires women in the study had filled out over 20 years about how often they took vacations. Those women who took a vacation once every six years or less were almost eight times more likely to develop coronary heart disease or have a heart attack than those who took at least two vacations a year, said Elaine Eaker, a co-author of the study and president of Eaker Epidemiology Enterprises, a private research company.

The study, published in 1992, was controlled for other factors like obesity, diabetes, smoking and income, Eaker said, and the findings have been substantiated in follow-up research.

"It shows how the body reacts to a lifestyle of stress," she said. "This is real evidence that vacations are important to your physical health."

Another study, published in 2000, looked at 12,000 men over nine years who were at high risk for coronary heart disease. Those who failed to take annual vacations had a 21% higher risk of death from all causes and were 32% more likely to die of a heart attack.

The trick, these days when going on vacation, is not only to physically remove yourself from your normal routine, but mentally as well. Checking your BlackBerry every few hours or rushing to the nearest Internet café doesn't cut it.

For 10 years, the Faculty of Management at Tel Aviv University has conducted a study looking at what is called "respite effects," which measure relief from job stress before, during and after vacations.

Professor Dov Eden, an organizational psychologist who has conducted the study, found that those who are electronically hooked up to their office, even if they are lying on the Riviera, are less likely to receive the real benefits of a vacation and more likely to burn out. Here's one trick. My neighbor Mark had a colleague who was a workaholic. But when he went on vacation, he made sure to go where there was no cellphone or Internet service.

Edited from Vacations Are Good for You, Medically Speaking, New York Times, June 7, 2008. For the full article go to

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/business/yourmoney/07shortcuts.html
(if it is still online).

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For your information-

The Printers, inc. will be on vacation the week of the 4th of July. We will be closed from Monday, June 30 through Monday, July 7, 2008. We will reopen on Tuesday, July 8th at 8:00 am.

Carol (without her Blackberry) and I (sans laptop) will be away from it all camping and hiking at Gooseberry Falls State Park on the north shore of Lake Superior. We'll post some pictures in future blogs!

Buy None, Get One Free!

Sometimes you get what you don't pay for.

If you know where to look, you can get some pretty cool stuff for free—and with the price of gas these days, "free" may be just what your budget calls for.

Free Education
Get your geek on with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT offers a comprehensive selection of free online courses that includes nearly its entire undergraduate and graduate curriculum. Downloading materials takes minutes. A newsletter highlights new offerings, from Quantum Physics to American Women Authors. The catch is, users can't enroll, take classes on campus or earn degrees. But if you're looking to broaden your horizons, you can find these free courses at ocw.mit.edu.

Free Photos
If your digital camera is full but you need some good old-fashioned prints, visit websites Adorama, Dotphoto, Kodak and Snapfish. In addition to photo sharing and online albums, these popular services provide 15 to 50 free prints when you register. You have to pay for shipping, but that's usually not more than a few dollars. Get more details at www.adorama.com, www.dotphoto.com, www.kodakgallery.com and www.snapfish.com.

Free Tech Support
Need your own personal help desk? The next time you have a tech issue, don't spend your hard-earned cash for someone's expertise—at least not right away. Protonic.com is an online community that provides technical support to computer users around the world for absolutely nothing. To date, the website has provided over 160,000 answers to computer-related questions. On the site, you can browse through other people's questions and answers or simply ask a Protonic.com technician for help with the tech troubles you're facing. Find out more at www.protonic.com.

And the next time you need a phone number, dial 800-FREE-411. Instead of dialing 411 and getting charged 50 cents to $1.50, call this 800 number for free nationwide directory assistance. You'll have to listen to a 20-second ad before receiving your number, but you won't have to pay a thing.

Consider Statement-based Marketing

5 Reasons It Works

Because other marketing channels are plagued by spam filters and do-not-call lists, statements are becoming an even more valuable component of the overall communication mix.

1. Unrivaled Openability. Statements and invoices are expected — they contain important financial information and usually require action. So it’s not surprising that more than 95% of transaction documents are opened and read each month — far more than any other type of direct response effort.
   
   
2. High Involvement. Bills and statements receive more attention than any other form of communication, including television advertisements. The average customer invests between one and three minutes for statement review.
   
   
3. Trusted Media. While e-security and telephone fraud continue to make headlines, nearly everyone trusts the Postal Service to send and deliver mail — including highly important documents.
   
   
4. Functionality. Not only do statements command more attention when they are initially opened, they are often viewed more than once. The paper-based nature of transaction mail is valued by consumers as they pay bills, submit expense reports, prepare taxes and file documents.
   
   
5. Greater Returns. As statements are already in the mailstream today, marketers are finding TransPromo* to be one of the most cost-efficient communication channels. Statement-based marketing is also more effective simply because of the target audience: current customers. A five percent increase in current customer business can translate into as much as a 50% increase in bottom-line profits.

From Mailing Systems Technology - March-April 2008

*TransPromo is the combination of personalized promotional messages with must-read transactional documents such as statements, invoices, explanations of benefits, policy notifications and other customer-facing documents including receipts and point of sale/purchase documents.

Fun Facts

Wood fiber for paper - Where does it come from?

You may be surprised to learn that about one-third of the raw material used to make paper in the U.S. is residue - wood chips and scraps left behind from forest and sawmill operations. These “leftovers” would probably be burned or discarded if not used by the paper industry.

Another third of the raw material is recovered paper. Although some papers contain 100 percent recycled fiber, papermakers often combine various amounts of recycled and new fiber to produce the desired quality and grade of paper.

Only about one-third of the fiber used to make paper in the U.S. is from whole trees, which the industry calls round wood. It is not considered economical to use large logs for paper when they could instead be used for lumber. For this reason, only trees smaller than 8 inches in diameter, or larger trees not suitable for solid wood products, typically are harvested for papermaking.

From - TAPPI - The Leading Technical Association for the Worldwide Pulp, Paper and Converting Industry

Effective Direct Mail for Non-Profits

Donor RETENTION
• First priority
• Maintain Top of the Mind Awareness (TOMA)
• Targets the person who has already invested in you

Donor DEVELOPMENT
• Continue to educate about the mission of the organization
• Your donor learns about the successes and continuing needs of your organization

Donor RECRUITMENT
• Prospecting
• Identify similar groups of people or businesses that have an affinity for your organization

Don't forget to provide an opportunity for people to contribute to your cause! That remains consistent whether you are trying to retain donors, recruit donors or develop donors.

Postcards Work!

What's one of the best values for your buck? Postcards!

Why?

• They cost you LESS to produce and give you great exposure.
• Postcards are a great marketing tool for businesses, individuals (i.e. elections, sales), you name it.
• Immediate impact - no envelope to open; they HAVE to see your message.
• Get them to call you! Give them the info; don't get too detailed; be visual; grab them; make them an offer. The card generates the lead but you must finalize the deal/close the sale when they respond.

Whom do you target?

• Present customers first. They know you; they already have a relationship with you; they like you.
• Seize the opportunity to introduce other products or services. Expand their commitment (loyalty) to your business. It is easier for you to generate new sales with current customers than get new customers in your door. Spend most of your effort with those you already know.

What's next?

• SEAL THE DEAL!
• Be prepared for questions.
• Take care of their needs.
• Fulfill your promises.
• Can't close the deal when they call? Then follow up. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

Postcards Work!

Paper Costs Increasing

Over the past year, we have seen the cost of paper from our suppliers increase significantly. The increase varies a bit from paper manufacturer to paper manufacturer. Here are a couple of snippets from articles specifically talking about price increases and some of the reasons why. With the cost of energy and the weak dollar, increases are to be expected unfortunately.

Prices take another step up
July 1, 2007 12:00 PM , By Jim Tierney
Mulichannel Merchant Online

It's not a great time to be shopping for coated freesheet paper. Nine major paper companies — Domtar, Sappi Fine Papers, NewPage, West Linn, Verso, PineBluff, Appleton, Bowater, and Myllykoski — have announced price increases of $3 per hundredweight (cwt) price for the grade. A tenth, Stora Enso North America, announced a 7% increase on coated freesheet.

Paper prices continue to climb
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jim Tierney
Mulichannel Merchant Online

If you thought 2008 might bring relief from rising paper prices, think again: Industry watchers say reduced demand, several mill closures, along with rising energy and manufacturing costs, have rendered paper markets extremely tight.

At the moment, Maine says, “nobody is canceling any orders — even if they don't need the paper, which could lead to some inventory building in January and February. If the market doesn't open up by February, it won't open up at all in 2008 — and paper availability will be an issue all year. We expect LWC prices to rise 14%-17% year-over-year in 2008, and the risk is that they might rise even more than this.”

Let us work together to help keep your printing costs down!