Articles written by Tim Beyers

How To Guides |
Community

About me - Tim Beyers

I've been writing professionally since 2004. For the 13 years prior to that I was a PR consultant to some of Silicon Valley's top tech companies.

I have also been, variously, a sports reporter, part owner of a comic book shop, and a girls basketball coach.

+ more bio information

RSS Feed

Hobbies & Games > Card Games Effective bluffing at poker: 2 of 10

Poker is a game of odds. Get your money in when the odds favor you, out when they don't. It's no different with bluffing; players who do it well know their odds of success before they push chips into the pot. If that punctures your view of bluffing as an art, a skill mastered only by smoke-stained, glass-eyed, silver-haired ...
Hobbies & Games > Hobbies & Games (Other) How to win your fantasy football league: 2 of 10

No one can guarantee that you'll win your fantasy football league. But if you want to improve your odds, you'll need a draft strategy that will put opponents back on their heels. You'll want to create separation by selecting top players in positions where your opponents are thin. Here's how. 1. STUDY YOUR OPPONENTS' LIKES AN...
Business > Marketing A guide to developing an effective and well written value proposition: 2 of 7

If you can answer in a single, declarative sentence why your product or service offers superior value to customers than the alternatives, then you've crafted an excellent value proposition. Think of businesses you know that stand out. When Nike says that you should "Just Do It," it's saying that, as a user of its gear, you a...
Computers & Technology > Home & Leisure Software Guide to personal finance management software: 2 of 5

3 Reasons to Try Mint.com You're good with money. So good, in fact, that you use personal finance software. From cash to checks to stock buys and sells, you track it all on your computer. Good for you. Or is it? Here are three reasons why you may be better served tracking your deepest, darkest financial secrets using (gasp!)...
Parenting & Pregnancy > Parenting Methods Neo-Hippie parenting: 1 of 2

Are You a Counter-Cultural Parent? I'm a hippie. No, not that sort of hippie. You'll find no Birkenstocks in my clothes closet. My last tie-dyed tee shirt was dunked some 20 years ago, in college, around the same time I last attended a Grateful Dead concert. Were I to walk by you on the street today, in my jeans, polo shirt,...
Religion & Spirituality > Theories of Spirituality Applying 'The Secret' to your life: 17 of 31

Not Much of a Secret Everyone has heard that money can't buy happiness - or, according to The Beatles, love - but none of us really believe that. Instead, we imagine that one day we'll have millions in the bank and, when that occurs, life will be grand. Hence the smash bestseller The Secret, an Oprah favorite that, in so man...
Arts & Humanities > Writing Tips How to write more a day: 15 of 23

How to write more a day Most writers I know want to write more. It's a hand-to-mouth problem: No words, no food - and yet they still don't write as much as they'd like. I'm the same way. Our excuses vary. For some, the problem is motivation. For others, it's time. Still others suffer from a terminal addiction to the Web and ...
Sports & Recreation > Martial Arts The best martial arts for kids: 15 of 21

Taekwondo Is the Best Martial Art for Kids All martial arts can be good for kids. So many of them suffer sedentary lives of television, video games, MySpace, Facebook, and cell phone thumb-hockey - or, as the kids call it, "texting" - that any activity that builds agility and muscle will do. But of all the arts martial, I fa...
Business > Leadership Strategies As a manager, is it important for your employees to like you?: 36 of 50

No, it is not important for managers to be liked. If it were, Apple CEO Steve Jobs - whose name plus the word "tyrant" yields more than 40,000 hits in a Google search - would today be a mid-level marketing cast off enduring a Dilbertian existence at some Silicon Valley start-up. Instead, Jobs is a tech superstar worth $5.7 b...
Politics, News & Issues > Political & Economic Theory Commentary: Independence and the hindrance of religion: 7 of 9

All religions hinder independence. But, oddly, that's why we need them; religions, like governments, use moral codes to establish boundaries and, thereby, create a superstructure for civilization. It's been this way for thousands of years. Hammurabi in 1760 B.C. codified laws to govern - or, in the language of our present to...