Birdfeeders birdhouses- the perfect outdoor accessories

Choosing the right birdfeeder and/or birdhouse can be a rather difficult decision. Anytime is the right time to mount or hang your birdfeeder or birdhouse. As birds begin to search for a place to feed and create their nest, make sure your birdfeeders are mounted or hung and your birdhouse is ready for their inspection.

Birds that usually occupy bird houses include wood ducks, goldeneyes, buffleheads, mergansers, american kestrels, owls, woodpeckers, northern flickers, flycatchers, tree swallows, purple martins, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, bluebirds, starlings, sparrows, and house finches.

Ever wonder which birdfeeder to use and/or what bird food will attract certain birds? Your solution is here. Use black oil sunflower seed in a tube feeder with a tray to attract cardinals, finches, jays, sparrows, chickadees, pine siskins, titmouses, nuthatches, woodpeckers, and redpolls. Use a thistle feeder with thistle seed to attract finches. Use a tube feeder with peanuts to attract cardinals, sparrows, starlings, chickadees, juncos, finches, titmouses, grackles, doves, and jays. Use a humming bird feeder with hummingbird nectar to attract, your guessed it, a hummingbird!

Many birds will establish an area of land and trees where they will not be disturbed by other birds. Although some birds, such as Tree Swallows and Purple Martins, love to have lots of other birds of the same type around them. Each bird requires different birdhouse measurements, so be sure you choose the right birdhouse for your wildbird interests.

Birds can be a bit choosy when finding their home. Some will inspect several houses before deciding on a particular one. You may wish to embellish your yard with many different birdhouses for your wildbirds to choose from, knowing that only one will be occupied. By giving them a choice, you might keep them from choosing the neighbors birdfeeder!

3 ultimate japanese automakers

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Japan has been producing automobiles for almost as long as America, to the surprise of some. As the American automobile industry has changed, so has Japan’s. To this day, however, Japan still has the highest concentration of automakers of any country on earth: nine to be exact. Three, however, are real standouts producing not only high quality vehicles but reaching well beyond Japan to all corners of the planet. Let’s take a look at the top three and how they are impacting the North American market.

Toyota – As the largest of all Japanese automakers, Toyota ranks only second to General Motors in global production. Toyota vehicles were first introduced to the North American market in the 1960s and were, at the time, widely panned by critics as being too small and inferior in quality. By the late 1970s, Toyota quality levels began to exceed the industry standard. Today, some consider Toyota the benchmark by which all car lines are judged; the company’s Lexus line of luxury vehicles and Scion brand of youth oriented vehicles are also leaders in their respective classes.

Honda – The only thing Honda lacks versus Toyota is size. Still, when you compare Honda vehicles with comparable Toyota models, Honda holds its own. The first Honda, a Civic, was introduced to the North American market in 1971 and was soon followed by the Accord as well as the Prelude. Routinely, the Accord battles Toyota’s Camry for the top spot in U. S. car sales year in and year out, while the Honda Odyssey battles the Toyota Sienna for the highest quality minivan [Chrysler’s minivans still are the best sellers]. Acura is Honda’s luxury car division which has also competed successfully with Toyota’s Lexus line up.

Nissan – Toyota and Honda are the only two fully independent Japanese automakers left in the world today as Nissan has since ceded control to Renault, France’s largest automaker. The first Nissans to hit the North American market did so in the 1960s under the Datsun model name. By the early 1980s the Datsun name was jettisoned in favor of Nissan and today the Nissan name is equated with some of the highest quality cars on the road. In the late 1980s Nissan launched the Infiniti division, a maker of luxurious cars that routinely battles with the likes of BMW, Lexus, Acura, Cadillac, and Mercedes as a top provider of opulent vehicles.

So, there you have it. Three top Japanese brands that have made a name for themselves. You may not own a Toyota, a Honda, or a Nissan, but you have to give credit where credit is due: all three automakers are proven leaders in a highly competitive and every changing industry.

Finding and using an nlp coach

Top performers in every area from sports through arts to business have coaches to help them reach and maintain the highest levels of performance.

The benefits of coaching

Just imagine a combination of your best friend, your most cherished teacher, your most hard-nosed manager, and your most positive guru available and committed to your personal development.

How much more will you achieve when these resources are available to you?

A coach will provide you all of this and more.

Seems a bit like counseling or therapy?

There are superficial similarities between coaching and therapy but there are fundamental differences. Coaching essentially is about commitment and development in the present moment to achieve future goals and outcomes.

Many forms of therapy are about fixing problems from the past. In coaching you might discuss past issues but this is only in the context of future goals.

Are there different forms of coaching?

There are many different names for different forms of coaching. Lots of coaches and coach schools have marketing names for different types of coaching. In broad terms you can fit most forms of coaching into five categories.

Peak Performance Coaching

This is very common with sports where a coach is generally a specialist in a particular sport. Peak performance coaches also appear in business, a sales coach for example.

Often peak performance coaches will have specialist skills such as NLP or Hypnosis. Many coaches have benefited from a good NLP Training Course.

You will find coaches working in markets that they have credibility in. For example I get a lot of clients from the coaching, training and NLP community simply because they are circles I move in and I am known in them. As a result I have more experience and reference clients in these Coaching is usually about personal discovery, so coaches do not need skills and experience from the context they are coaching in. markets. But since coaching is more about the client’s personal exploration and goals it is not necessary for coaches to have experience of the context.

Life Coaching

Life coaches cover a broader area and might be looking at different areas of a client’s life and their relationship to each other.

Executive Coaching

Executives coaching is usually about the challenges and issues of leadership and can cover anything from personal style, stress reduction to finding your passion for the role. Lots of executive coaches will use a personality profiling tool as a vehicle for their client’s to explore and develop their outcomes.

Special events Coaching

Some coaches will specialize in a niche area like presentations or writing and publishing books. Often they have specific experience, skills or qualifications in the area and they may not conform to traditional coaching models because of their ‘insider’ knowledge.

Accelerated Success BreakThrough Coaching Sessions

This is a highly specialized area of coaching involving leading edge psychological, NLP and Hypnosis tools to facilitate great changes very quickly. There are only a small number of coaches skilled in this area and also not all clients are suitable for this approach. Hence there is a lot of pre-qualification before using this form of coaching. For those it suits it has great impact very quickly.

What happens on coaching programmes?

Coaches are very individual in their approach. Also coaching is more about the relationship between client and coach so there is no set format or approach. Some coaches work just by telephone and / or email, whilst others stick exclusively to face to face interventions. A lot is Dependant on how you set up the coaching programme from the initial consultation.

Any coaching programme should start with an initial consultation where the programme can be set up. This would include duration of the programme, the sessions and overall outcomes and a whole raft of other areas that your coach will take you through.

After this typically sessions will be about updating from the previous session, clarifying outcomes for the current sessions and then targeted discussions of the current issues. The session will finish with action plans for the client to take away and complete. That said each session can be as individual as the client and the coach want.

Finding a coach

Since coaching is such an individual context it is difficult to fix criteria for finding a coach. Although some general rules of thumb do apply.

Coaching is all about a relationship between the client and the coach. Therefore in the initial consultation if the client does not feel they have great rapport that will allow them to be open and comfortable then it probably is not worth continuing.

It is also worth talking to your prospective coach about previous clients, experience and approach. Often when picking a coach it would be worth talking to previous clients.

The right coach will give you great value for money and could take you further than you had ever achieved without their support. It makes sense to spend a little time to ensure you get the right coach for you. You can find more in depth articles on finding a great coach on my website.

Blog traffic tips - get more blog traffic

Blog traffic is crucial if you are in the business of making money with your blog. If your blog traffic is low, chances are so is your revenue. So how do you increase your blog traffic? Easy if you follow these basic steps:

Post On Niche Realted Forums

Please don't spam. Search for the forums that can be added to the niche that you wish to promote. Carefully study the entire discussed topic and relate it to the questions asked during the discussion. The discussion can also answer personal questions. Make sure that in every discussion made, you put a small resource box at the end of it to serve as a link to your blog (not always your homepage). Many forums will have you tossed if all you do is promote affiliate products, so don't do it! It is necessary to put your bio in every end of your postings with a relevant keyword link back to your blog. Do not pursue with some of the forums that do not allow the posting of a resource box.

Write Your Own Content

You can pass an article or web content in many websites. Usually, these sites are free and if you are cash tight, you can pass your own made web contents initially. Writing your own web content will save you a ton of cash, but will also cost you a lot of time. There are freelance writers that will do the work for you, but there is something to be said about having your own personally written content. Therefore, it is wise to do your own article. The article that you will be writing must match the niche of your blog. Put knowledge that you know into every writings, you can discuss tips, tricks, guidelines that you get from your own life experiences. This will encourage your blog traffic to frequently visit your site.

Get Involved In Link Exchanges

This is the most effective way to bring traffic in your blog. This is a careful study of all the links shown on the search engines. It is important to secure the sites that are linked to you to have topics same to your blog. Blog traffic is generated if the same subject is seen on the recommendation by the site that you share your subject with. There will be an increased chance of reaching the highest rank with the benefit of linking with other site or search engines. Both sites exchanging links will benefit from this exercise. Don't get involved with "link farms". Send an email to the blogger you wish to exchange links with and simply ask if they are willing to exchange links. You will be surprised how many say yes. Also, if you create well written, highly niche targeted posts, bloggers will link to that post creating tons of "search-engine loved" one way links.

Create A Newsletter

If you have regular blog traffic, you must develop a newsletter for your readers. Your newsletter can be either on weekly or monthly basis. This can sometimes seem too difficult for the new blogger, but this is the time to use those freelance writters. Have them write 5-10 articles on your niche, and use tose as your newsletter. You should only put a small resources box after every article. The small box will serve as the link back to your blog. This will surely increase your blog traffic and returning visitors. If your customers like it, they may even recommend you to their friends, relatives and colleagues.

Join Traffic Exchanges

This is another form of exchange links allowing the member to view each other’s blog posts by surfing. By surfing to the blog, you are gaining points, the more you surf the more points you receive. You are also given an option to gain credits. This will not produce much blog traffic but it will obtain the names for your visitors by using squeeze pages. If you display Google Adsense on your site, be careful joining traffic exchanges as it can violate Google's TOS.

Follow thes 5 steps and watch your blog traffic grow. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen. Stay patient, stay focused and work harg to increase your blog traffic.

Chase platinum credit card chase extends promotional period

Consumers looking to obtain a new credit card may just want consider the Chase Platinum Visa card. The Chase Platinum Visa card has been in existence for a long time, but just recently some strong improvements have been made by the J. P. Morgan & Chase Co. making the card a strong competitor in a highly competitive market. Is the Chase Platinum Visa card right for you? Please keep reading to find out for yourself.

Extended Introductory Rate

In the credit card business, all the top cards are still offering 0% APR for an introductory period. Six months is the standard length of time, with some offering a twelve month introductory rate period. Chase, on the other hand, recently served notice that they are extending this introductory rate out for a full fifteen months to qualified customers! If your credit history is good and your application is in order, you may be eligible for this extended introductory rate offer.

Balance Transfer Offer

When applying for the Chase Platinum Visa card you're eligible to transfer balances from high interest rate credit cards to your new card. You could potentially save yourself hundreds of dollars in interest costs by transferring your balances to your new card.

No Annual Fee

Many platinum or premium credit cards charge annual fees, but with the Chase Platinum Visa card no fee is assessed.

Free Travel Accident Insurance

Chase Platinum Visa cards offer up to $500,000 in travel accident insurance, an amount much higher than what most credit cards are offering today. Save money on insurance premiums as the Chase Platinum Visa card plan includes this type of insurance for free!

Free Car Rental Insurance

Use your Chase Platinum Visa card when renting a car and your rental insurance is completely covered too. For a one week rental, this type of insurance could easily tack on an additional $100 to your bill. With the Chase Platinum Visa card you are completely covered.

Chase’s offer is all the more remarkable in the face of constantly climbing interest rates. As you probably already know, most credit card rates continue to rise along with the upward swing in all consumer rates. Thus, the Chase Platinum Visa card is truly a unique opportunity for the savvy consumer.

So, if you have a good credit rating and are in need of a new credit card, the Chase Platinum Visa card may be just right for you. With credit card rates surging, taking advantage of a card offering 0% APR for 15 months is a surefire way toward saving yourself plenty of money.

Finding cheap flights

If you want to fly abroad and your budget is limited, what could possibly be the best option for you? You would definitely prefer cheap air travel. And the next question that would come to your mind would be where you would find cheap flights. The answer is again very simple - find it on the internet.

With internet access, finding cheap air travel is too convenient for you. It is just a matter of few clicks and you are through. With the availability direct and new airline inventory to the people, finding cheap flights on the internet are becoming increasingly popular. Everyone is finding better and cheap deals on the net. You need not waste time with any of the local travel agencies now.

With the availability of cheap air travel reservation on internet, you have the option of planning your own travel arrangements. You can even compare the prices on your own of your favorite destinations. The greater number of consumer access on net has also enabled the airline industry to introduce new air policies. The internet reservation has drastically reduced the air fares.

If you want to find cheap air tickets, prefer going for the last minute flights. The chances of getting cheap air tickets posted at last minute are fairly high. Airlines do not announce cheap tickets for their initial opening seats. They usually announce them a few days before take off. So whenever possible opt for buying last minute tickets.

You have to be flexible in your approach. You should begin yours search with a pre-determined target price in mind. This would narrow down your search. If you find an air price similar to your target price, try and work around some travel days, to see if you can get an even more reduced price. This option requires that your planning for travel should be flexible.

Finding alternative air travel is a very good option, if you want to reach your destination at a low cost. You can book and fly to a secondary airport of the city. This ensures considerable reduced air flight tickets. For example if you want to travel to Chicago, you can book your ticket for midway. Traveling to a location close to your destination can also cost you comparatively less.

While searching for cheap tickets, you should check on the day and time of the ticket purchase as both play an important part on ticket prices. Prefer buying a ticket during midnight as there is a valid reason behind it. The airlines reload their database regarding reserved and booked seats during the midnights.

So you can buy the reserved seats which are available for booking. The cost of their booking is comparatively low. Traveling on weekends is a good option if you want to avail cheap air tickets. You can get relatively cheap tickets if you plan to leave on Saturday and return on Monday rather than leaving on Friday and returning on Sunday.

Considering all these strategies and you will have the cheapest of air travel.

Cut down your interest rate with secured loan uk

In simple terms, a secured loan is that where the person uses his property to get a loan. And this property acts as a security to the lender in order to balance the risk involved in lending the amount to the borrower.

Needs and requirements vary from person to person. So the amount being borrowed certainly depends on the individual circumstances and the capacity of the lender to provide the money. Moreover, the interest rate or the annual percentage rate depends on the value of the collateral, ability of the person to repay back the loan and the financial status of the borrower.

Getting the best secured loan is not an easy task. The person has to shop around in the financial market to various lenders. While visiting the various lenders, the borrowers have to ask for the quotation from the lenders. This quotation generally contains the costs involved in getting the secured loan UK. These costs vary from lender to lender; as it also depends on the amount to be borrowed.

After receiving the quotations from various lenders, the next step is to compare these quotes on the basis of the costs involved in it. Always try to choose that lender that offers loan at lower rate of interest and suits your financial needs. While choosing the lender not only consider the cost but also the terms and condition of the loan. In other words, consider the various other aspects such as its repayment period, the clause regarding early repayments, its flexibility and many other. Generally, the repayment period varies person to person but the maximum limit for repayment of secured loans UK is up to 25 years. But it is also dependent on the amount of loan being borrowed.

Secured loan UK can be used for any purpose you want. There are rarely any restrictions on the secured loan UK. So from your education to your wedding and buying a car to buying a house, it can be used as one wants. In other words, it is a multipurpose loan.

Before you go for such secured loan UK plan your budget. That will you be able to repay it along with some unforeseen costs involved in it. Just for instance, when you are taking loan for your home improvement, the unforeseen cost can be the increase in the price of material and the labour.

As borrowing larger amount from the lender reduces and cuts the interest rate on the loan, so if the person has the capacity to borrow larger amounts, then he should always give priority to it as to cut down his rate of interest.

Fibromyalgia pain that may never go away

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that brings widespread pain in the muscles, ligaments, and tendons. This condition may also be accompanied with fatigue and sleep disorders. Medical studies show that as many as six million Americans have fibromyalgia, many of them are women. And no matter how many over the counter muscle relaxants and prescription drugs they take, these individuals still experience pain. The severity of pain that accompany fibromyalgia may vary from person to person. This condition should never be taken for granted even though it is not progressive or life-threatening.

Fibromyalgia can cause pain all over the body but the most commonly affected parts include the elbow, forearm, hip, knee, back, forearm, jaw, and shoulder. In addition to pain, fatigue and sleep difficulties are the other symptoms that can be experienced by individuals with fibromyalgia. These individuals may feel tired even after hours of sleep.

Other symptoms may include the following:

Irritable bowel syndrome (constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain, etc.)

Headaches and facial pain

Depression

Numbness in the hands and feet

Mood changes

Chest pain

Dry eyes, skin, and mouth

Painful menstruation

Dizziness

Researchers have not determined the exact cause of this condition. But some specialists suggest that the increased sensitivity to pain is developed because of an abnormal increase in levels of chemicals in the brain. Because of this abnormality, the brain may interpret ordinary sensations as pain.

Other possible causes of fibromyalgia may include the following:

Sleep disturbances. Some researchers theorize that disturbed sleep patterns may be a cause rather than just a symptom of fibromyalgia.

Injury. An injury or trauma, particularly in the upper spinal region, may trigger the development of fibromyalgia in some people. An injury may affect your central nervous system, which may trigger fibromyalgia.

Infection. Some researchers believe that a viral or bacterial infection may trigger fibromyalgia.

Changes in muscle metabolism. For example, de-conditioning and decreased blood flow to the muscles may contribute to decreased strength and fatigue. Differences in metabolism and abnormalities in the hormonal substance that influences the activity of nerves may play a role.

Treatment for fibromyalgia may include medication and self care. Medications may reduce the pain and improve one's sleep. Analgesics and over the counter muscle relaxants may be used for this condition. Analgesics may ease pain and stiffness caused by fibromyalgia. Aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen sodium may be recommended by health professionals. Taking muscle relaxants before bedtime may help treat muscle pain and spasms. However, these drugs should be used for only a short time because to prevent the development of side effects and drug interactions.

Affected individuals may not only deal with the pain and fatigue of fibromyalgia but also with the frustration of having a condition that is often misunderstood. Understanding this condition and finding individuals like family, friends, co-workers, support groups to share information about fibromyalgia is essential in overcoming the pain. Support groups may provide a level of help and advice that you might not find anywhere else.

5 tips to select the best wedding reception location

Being disc jockeys, we get the opportunity to evaluate many reception facilities while having little or no bias to "sell" one location over another. Most Brides and Grooms know where they will be holding the ceremony before they decide where to have the reception, so we have compiled five observations that can help you when selecting your venue.

Distance - If people have to drive a long way to get from the ceremony to the reception, some will get distracted or decide to do something else. Try to keep the reception within a 15 to 30 minute drive of your ceremony. If it is not possible to get a reception hall close to your ceremony, make a caravan. Have the Bride and Groom lead the parade, and people will follow you to your reception.

Time - Time is just like the distance issue. If your reception is several hours after the ceremony, people will get busy doing other things and not show up for the reception. Try to start the reception within an hour or two of the ceremony. If you don't want to start your wedding dance at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, have a Meet and Greet mixer before your reception. Serve some punch and get people to mingle. This will be one of the few times that both families will be together. Encourage family members to share stories about your childhoods.

Size - People like their personal space, and they have most likely spent an hour packed into a church for your ceremony. If you let them spread out, they will enjoy themselves more. Make sure your reception hall has plenty of room for your guests. The people renting the location might tell you it holds 200 people, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will hold 200 people comfortably! Make sure to visit the venue before booking.

Climate Control - Having a summer wedding? Is your reception hall air conditioned? If people sweat while just sitting, they won't dance. On the flip side, if they are cold they won't dance either (who wants to dance in a parka?). Also make sure you know who has control of the thermostat so the temperature can be adjusted if needed. Chances are your reception will be warm and stuffy while all the guest are there, but as they trickle out during the night the room will begin to cool down.

Smoking - This is a hot button issue, but if your reception hall is non-smoking, you can fully expect smoker's to leave your reception for 15-30 minutes every hour. If enough of them leave the reception area, you may find a large percentage of your guest just hanging out in the smoking area. This can be a big problem if you have many smokers in your wedding party. You don't have to allow smoking, but it is something you should consider, especially if anyone has any health problems like asthma or allergies that could be triggered by smoke. If you decide not to allow smoking in the reception area, how close is the nearest place for a smoker to go? Is it close enough that you will be able to get needed wedding party members during events like the bouquet toss or garter auction?

Facility coordinators will no doubt bring up several other factors for you to consider when you interview them for your booking, but these are often missed items, especially if they don't favor the potential venue. If you keep the overall picture in mind and work with your wedding planner or event coordinator on the decorating ideas, you will no doubt have an enjoyable and memorable wedding reception.

Poker movies top 5 films about poker

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Since the golden age of the Western, poker playing has always been a popular theme in Hollywood. Although many of the Hollywood films that feature poker are not very good and some of them even display poker in a ridiculous manner, watching poker action on the big screen is great fun, especially if you play poker yourself.

Here are the best poker movies that were ever produced in Hollywood. Some of the movies are actually excellent movies regardless to their display of the poker game, while in others the poker games is the feature that makes them worth watching. However, if you are a poker fan, add these movies to your musts list.

The Sting directed by George Roy Hill in 1973

The Sting is less about poker and more about the art of card sharking but it will provide you two hours of sophisticated fun. The 1973 Academy award winner features young Paul Newman as the greatest con artist of them all who mentors young Robert Redford in the art of trickestry. David S. Warn screenplay is based on true con games stories.

The Cincinnati Kid directed by Norman Jewison in 1965

The classic stud poker film known for its climatic final hand and the unforgettable quote: Gets down to what its all about, doesn't it? Making the wrong move at the right time. In short, The Cincinnati Kid is about the battle between Steve Macqueen who plays a young poker player also known as The Kid and the veteran poker gambler known as The Man who is played by Edward G. Robinson during the Great Depression in New Orleans. It may not appear at any other list of best movies, but it certainly has one of the best poker scenes ever seen on the silver screen.

California Split directed by Robert Altman in 1974

California Split may not be the pick of Robert Altmans creation, but is one of the best movies to depict the messy everyday life of two professional gamblers played by George Segal and Elliott Gould. Like in many of Altman films, the narrative is not particularly straight and the end is not necessarily happy, but it does succeed in describing an authentic experience. Additionally, poker trivia fans would be thrilled to learn that poker legend Amarillo Slim plays a small role.

Rounders directed by John Dahl in 1998

It is hard to tell whether the movie pushed to the 21st century poker boom or the rise in the popularity of poker during the last decade made Rounders a cult hit. However, Rounders is one of the best poker films to display the contemporary high stake poker scene. The core of the movie is a long poker marathon in which Mat Damon and Edward Norton are trying to earn money to pay off the latter gambling debts. World Series of Poker champion Johnny Chan plays a featured role.

Maverick directed by Richard Donner in 1994

Although Maverick is not the most brilliant film ever made and some of the poker scenes are kinda silly, it is a fun and lightheaded poker movie. It might even provide you a basic idea on what it was like to be a rambling gambler in the old west card scene with Mel Gibson as a maverick who tries to earn enough money for the big five card draw poker tournament.

8 things you must know to build a great website

Last week we talked about how a bad website can do your business more harm than good. That column brought several emails asking what is the key to building an effective business website. I replied with the same answer I always give: building an effective business website is a simple matter of definition.

Before the first graphic is drawn or the first line of code is written, you must define the website’s budget, purpose, target audience, design, navigation, and content. And when that’s all said and done you must define the marketing that will bring visitors to your site.

It sounds easy, but you’d be amazed at how many really bad business websites there are out there. Yours might even be one of them. If so, listen up. For nearly ten years now my company has been building and rebuilding websites for every kind of business you can imagine: from mom-and-pops to multinationals. We’ve designed (or redesigned) a couple hundred websites and along the way I have come to the conclusion that most business websites do a pitiful job of working for their owners.

What’s that, you didn’t know your business website should work for you? You think it should just sit on a server somewhere taking up digital space and collecting digital dust?

Wrong. Every website, business or otherwise, must serve a purpose, and that’s usually where most websites falls short. They serve no purpose because the website owner never gave much thought to it. It’s not the website’s fault. A website is inanimate. It is only what you make it. The only life a website has is the one given to it by its designer and owner. If the human element doesn’t do a good job of defining the building blocks, the website will serve no purpose and eventually die a digital death.

Building an effective business website isn’t brain surgery, thank goodness, since that’s how I make a nice percentage of my living. Building an effective, well-designed website that works for its owner, that actually serves a purpose, is all about definition.

Define the Budget

Every website, no matter how large or small, must have a realistic budget, with “realistic” being the key word. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat with a potential client as they listed off the eight million cool things they wanted their website to do, only to find out that their budget was just a few hundred dollars. I always feel like saying, “Well you just wasted three hundred dollars of my time, so here’s your bill…”

Define the Purpose

Every website must have a purpose. Purpose drives everything: the audience, the design, the navigation, the content, and the marketing. I could do an entire column on purpose, but suffice it to say that there are five categories of purpose under which most websites fall: the purpose to inform, to educate, to entertain, to generate leads, to sell, or a combination thereof. If you fail to define the purpose of the website, all else is just wasted effort.

Define the Target Audience

Your target audience refers to that segment of the public that you hope to attract to the site. For example if you sell shoes, your target audience would be anyone with feet. Taking it a step further, if you only sold women’s shoes, your target audience would be women (with feet) Why is defining your target audience so important? If you have no idea who your audience is, how can you expect to design a website that will appeal to them? Your target audience could be customers, investors, job seekers, info seekers, etc. Define your target audience, then figure out how to serve them.

Define the Design

Website design theory has changed over the last couple of years, primarily because the search engines now ignore graphic heavy websites and give preference to those that take a minimalistic approach to design. If you look at some of the big boy websites like GE, Oracle, Raytheon, HP, and others you will see that in many cases the only graphic on the homepage is the company’s logo. Search engines now give higher preference to websites that offer keyword-rich text over flashy graphics. Don’t fight the design trend. You will lose.

Define the Navigation

Bad navigation is the number one reason website visitors abandon a website. Navigation refers to the chain of links the visitor uses to get around your site. If your site has an illogical navigational hierarchy or too few or too many links or is simply impossible to get around, you’ve got problems. We live in a microwave society. We stand in front of the microwave tapping our foot and glaring at our watch wondering why it takes so damn long for a bag of popcorn to pop. Why can’t a three-minute egg be done in thirty seconds? If it takes a visitor more than 3 clicks to get to any page on your site, your navigation needs improvement.

Define the Content

Content refers to the information on your website, be it graphics, text, downloadable items, etc. Since the top search engines no longer use HTML Meta tag data to index websites, it is vital that your website content be text heavy, succinct and well-written to appeal to the search engine spiders.

Define the Build Method

Next, who will build the website for you? Will you do it yourself using one of the point and click website builders or will you hire the kid next door? Will you hire a freelance designer or a professional firm? Budget usually dictates the build method, but be warned, when it comes to website development, you get what you pay for. Sure, the kid next door will throw up a site for you if you buy them a pizza or make your daughter go to the prom with them, but you will end up a with a website that looks like and performs like it was designed by the kid next door.

Define the Marketing

If you build it, will they come? Not on your life, at least not without a good marketing campaign. Your website should become a part of all your marketing efforts, online and off.

Put the website address on your business cards, brochures, letterhead, and all collaterals. Include the address in your ads; print, TV and radio. If you prefer to do online marketing, figure out where your target audience surfs and advertise there.

If marketing is foreign to you, do yourself a favor and call in an expert. Many businesses fail because they simply do not know how to market their products and services effectively. This is also the downfall of most business websites.

Here's to your success!

The virtual schools of tomorrow are in the florida schools today with more on the horizon

The kindergarten through 8th grade virtual school was created in the Florida schools in 2003. It was sold to lawmakers as a great way to save money, offering coursework to replace on-campus teachers and classrooms at a savings of $700 per student. Only students who had attended the Florida schools the previous year were eligible to participate at a cost to the Florida schools of $4,800 per student. The savings over physical classroom instruction for the Florida schools was expected to be $700,000 with a 1,000 student enrollment in the virtual school program.

Though in theory the money saved by the Florida schools was substantial, someone forgot to tell the rules to Jim Horne (then education commissioner). He allowed kindergarten and first grade students, who had never attended the Florida schools previously, to enroll in the virtual school. These newly eligible students accounted for 27 percent of all students enrolled at a taxpayer cost of $4,800 per student. All projected savings were lost, and it ended up costing the Florida schools an additional $653,000, according to a March 14th article in the Palm Beach Post.

The Florida schools have found the virtual school a success, even though a costly one in the beginning. All participating students must meet the Florida Sunshine State Standards and must take the state-required Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT).

In March, the House education committee approved HB 799, which expands the K-8 virtual school program. If passed by the Senate, all home and privately schooled children in Florida will be allowed to participate in the virtual school program with no cap on the number of students enrolled.

Currently, the virtual program is limited to 1,384 students at a $5,200 per student cost for a total of $7.2 million funding cost to the Florida schools. Though few privately schooled children are expected to enroll (a parent must be present during use of the program), there are currently 52,000 children in Florida being home schooled. The expanded program, which provides parents with a computer, books, software and online access to teachers, could easily cost the Florida schools about $312 million with a per student cost increase to almost $6,000.

Such a cost to the taxpayers and the Florida schools may force lawmakers to place an enrollment cap on the virtual school program. Backers believe the Senate will insist upon it, since they expect a tight budget this year.

The bill also requires all program providers to be nonprofit. Current contracted providers are the Virginia-based K12 and Maryland-based Connections Academy. The Florida subsidiaries of these two firms are currently making a transition to nonprofit status in compliance with HB 799. Though the subsidiaries will be nonprofit, they will be allowed to continue purchasing supplies and equipment for the virtual school program from their for-profit parent companies. The bill does not require competitive bidding by these providers.

The expanded virtual school bill, HB 799, is sponsored by Representative Will Weatherford (R-Wesley Chapel). He believes that the parents of home and privately schooled children pay taxes, and their children should have equal opportunity to participate in this state-paid program of the Florida schools, too.

Garden tips for planting super-sweet grape tomatoes

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Spring time comes and with it comes the time to plant your garden. Garden tips range from the type of soil to plant in to ways to water your plants in order to get a full yield. However, when planting grape tomato seeds, the main garden tip is to plant them in a container inside. This will help keep them warm and give them a safe growing environment.

The best garden tip for planting sweet grape tomatoes is to prepare the soil properly. Using a good soil is essential and it doesn’t hurt to beef it up a bit. Depending upon where you live, soil can range anywhere from very fertile to don’t plant here dirt. When living in an area that has dirt that is not ideal for planting, go to a garden store and ask what type of soil they advise. The more fertile the soil, the better the plants will grow. If organic grape tomatoes are what you seek, using ordinary potting soil and an indoor container will keep the insects away and will make the tomatoes pesticide free.

Container gardening will help those who live in apartments or houses without large yards grow tomatoes indoors. These containers range from the average flower pot to multi-plant containers that can hold up to a dozen small plants. Another form of container gardening is to rent or buy a hydroponics system to grow your tomatoes in water. Growing grape tomatoes in a hydroponics system guarantees a completely organic, juicy, and super sweet grape tomatoes. The only problem with using a hydroponics system is finding a way to prop growing tomato plants up while they scale to new heights.

The greatest garden tip that you’ll ever receive is to water your plants. The more water that a tomato contains, the more watering it will need. Tomatoes are approximately ninety percent water and if they are not watered enough they will end up being shriveled and sour. No one likes a sour grape tomato, so keep your tomatoes warm and the soil wet and you’ll have super sweet grape tomatoes growing in no time.

Whitetail deer hunting for beginners

Whitetail deer hunting is one of the most popular hunting genres in the entire world with more and more enthusiasts every year. For a first time whitetail deer hunter it can be a rather difficult thing to do that is why a few tips and tricks about this type of activity are needed in order to start out with decent results.

Experienced hunters recommend checking the hunting equipment when going into the stand, not later when a buck will eventually walk out. Check if your scope is clear, the shells in the chamber or if you use a bow, check if your bow will draw back properly. There are many issues to take into consideration that is why we strongly advise to prepare well ahead.

If you plan on hunting whitetail deer in a food plot or a large field it is recommended to do it during the late hours of the day. Remember that deer like heavy cover so it is advisable to try and clear a path through the cover that you consider these animals might be using. The whitetail deer usually prefers using the easiest routes possible. Once you have set up a path, hunt over the built path in a hunting tree stand.

If using deer calls isn’t your cup of tea ( mainly because you are afraid of scaring these animals ), it is advisable to use it only after you see a deer that you are not willing to shoot. Once you have done so, you will notice that it doesn’t scare them and you will observe their reactions. Be sure to use the most suitable calls, otherwise the animals will get suspicious.

The best advice possible is to hunt whenever you have the possibility. Experience is crucial, only by going out there in the wilderness you will learn more about their habitat, feeding habits and other characteristics that you will eventually use in your advantage. We strongly suggest that you follow our advice and the next time you have the possibility to hunt, don’t hesitate, you know what they say: practice makes perfect and this is statement is entirely applicable for hunting not only whitetail deer but other animals as well.

When you are about to hunt in a new area, it is advisable to hunt at a new stand each day for a short period of time as this is the most efficient way to learn about the deer movement routes. If you spot a deer and shoot it and afterwards you jump it up a very short distance from the position you have made the shot, it is advisable to stand back and give it time to take its last breath, if you shot it during the late hours of the day it is recommended to wait overnight.

If you plan on hunting whitetail deer with a bow, experienced hunters recommend doing it from a tree stand because it is way more efficient in comparison with hunting from ground level. Another advice, use only one pin because it is easier to aim high or low on the whitetail deer than attempt to remember to use a specific one when the large one walks out.

We hope that our suggestions will come in hand and on your first attempts on hunting these animals you will get at least decent results. Remember; practice every time you have the chance.

Control dust with the touch of a button

According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, more than 50 million Americans have allergies. Quite simply, an allergy is overreaction of the human immune system to a foreign protein substance that is eaten, breathed, injected or touched.

While you can't eliminate your body's reaction to allergies, you can limit its exposure to contaminants such as dust and pollen.

ODL's new Motorized Doorglass Blinds can help control dust from settling in your home as they are enclosed between two panes of insulated safety glass. As no dust and debris come in contact with the blinds, dusting is never required, which means reduced allergens in the home.

As the name alludes, the Motorized Doorglass Blinds are automated, meaning there are no strings or cords to fool with. The blinds operate at the touch of a button, which is integrated into the doorglass frame. As there are no cords, the blinds are a safe and worry-free option for homes with children and pets.

Motorized Doorglass Blinds meet ADA Accessibility Guidelines for maximum forward reach and operating force, adding another measure of convenience for homes that accommodate aging adults or disabled individuals.

As you think about ways to improve your home this spring, don't forget to take a look at your entry doors. It just may be it's time for an update. If so, the Motorized Doorglass Blinds are a great choice for controlling light and privacy as well as dust and pollen. They are available from many suppliers of fiberglass or steel entry doors for new home or retro-fit applications.

An obvious manifestation secret

There is a well known and very much overlooked ‘secret’ that Master Manifestors use continuously. It is a very basic, simple component that sets in motion all that exists in the human world. We all know it is real and absolutely necessary. Yet the vast majority of people do their level best to avoid it.

Without this ‘secret’, all dreams, hopes, wishes and well intentioned goals will remain in a keepsake box stuffed under the bed. The box will be pulled out on rainy afternoons, and its carefully saved articles dusted off and cherished once more. Some time will be spent in pondering potential possibilities, and hopefulness will expire. Great wistfulness will settle over its guardian, and with a tired resolve, the goals, ambitions and really serious potential will be carefully put to rest once more.

The real definition of potential, to put it politely, is ‘worth nothing as it sits right now’. Goals, dreams, wishes, hopes and desire have only potential without the obvious secret that can only lead to manifestation. Not worth a darn right now. There is little so common in the world as latent potential. But add the magic ingredient, and your desires will become manifest before your eyes. Pour a viscous, electric blue liquid into your keepsake box, and it will empty itself into your real world.

This secret, magic ingredient is commonly known as ‘action’. Git’r done, get it on, go, just do it, start, ACTION. This is a billion dollar concept that gifted speakers devote entire seminars to.

All desires must begin their journey into manifestation somewhere. All things already exist, but you must accept them, or go get them. You must actively allow results to happen. Take action, and get what it is you want.

Consider a sated, comfortable diner sitting after dinner at a lavish restaurant buffet. All he wanted to eat waits in shiny serving dishes. He tremendously wishes for a piece of delicious pie, but has none. Magnificent fresh pie is only across the room. Does he really want the pie itself, or is the activity of wanting pie more fun? Which will be more satisfying, wanting the desire, or fulfilling the desire? What will it take to fulfill this dream? In the diner’s case, the monumental undertaking of getting up and taking the pie will satisfy a craving.

Lose the potential, and take the action. Start and the path to success will unfold in front of you as you walk upon it. The pathway will continue as long as you wish to travel, but you must take that first step. Desire all you want, but without actually doing something about it, the reality will never manifest itself in front of you, and remain a wistful keepsake stuffed under the bed in a box.

Take action, start, and your path will reveal itself to you. Action.

By Kelly Archibald

Car dealers

Automobile dealers are the bridge between automobile manufacturers and consumers. Car dealers are primarily engaged in retailing new cars, sport utility vehicles, passenger cars and cargo vans. New car dealers employ 9 out of 10 workers in the automobile industry. Along with vehicle sales, car dealers provide and perform other activities such as repair services, selling used cars and selling replacement parts and accessories. Large dealers are a one-stop shop for customers who wish to buy, finance, and service their vehicle. Used car dealers specialize in used vehicle sales and account for 1 out of 10 jobs in the industry.

Sales of new cars, trucks, and vans tend to depend upon changing consumer tastes and the price of fuel. The popularity of the manufacturer’s vehicle model and the intensity of competition with other dealers play a vital role in the sale of a car. Consumers are also highly sensitive to the cost of financing. Automotive dealers are more likely to offer generous incentives, rebates, and financing deals during sluggish periods to maintain high sales volumes and to reduce stocks.

According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, new vehicle sales account for more than half of the total sales proceeds at contracted new car and new truck dealers. These sales generate additional revenue in other departments of the dealerships. By putting new vehicles on the road, dealers count on after-market additions, repairs, and service for added revenue.

Leasing a car or truck is one financing option for consumers. Leasing services have grown in recent years to accommodate changing consumer-purchasing behavior. As vehicles have become more expensive, growing numbers of consumers are unable or reluctant to make a long-term investment in a new car or truck purchase. Car dealers are a key resource for manufacturers who use them to establish brands and motivate customers to purchase their automobiles.

Vacationing in costa rica

Costa Rica is a small coastal country of Central America. This affluent country lies between Nicaragua and Panama and is the most admired holiday spot in Central America. People come from far and wide for vacationing in Costa Rica.

Eco - Diversity

Costa-Rica is diverse in terms of climate, topography, Flora and Fauna. You will find vast difference in climate, in very small distances. While vacationing in Costa Rica, you can visit its sultry beaches, rain forests and cloud forests. Hundreds of species of birds and animals are the treasure of the country.

Tourist Adventures

There is something for everybody vacationing in Costa Rica. The wild life tours take you to see the wild animals and reptiles in their natural habitats. Tourists can take a tour of a forest from a cable car, which gives them a complete view of plant and animal life in that forest. A series of ropes fastened to the trees in a jungle, allow the more daring tourists to swing from tree to tree.

Various inert volcanoes also make for hot tourist attraction. They can see eruptions from active volcanoes like Arenal, safely from a distance. Scuba diving in Costa Rica is a different experience altogether due to the abundance of aquatic life in the Caribbean Sea. The west coast of Pacific Ocean is the spot where scuba diving takes place.

Beauty in Nature

Natural wonders are also in abundance in Costa Rica. Be it the crystal blue lakes formed in craters around the inert volcanoes or the hot water springs surrounding the active volcanoes, they can take you in awe.

Getting There

The tourists have to fly in to the San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, as all major flights are connected to this city. Flying in to Liberia is another option. To move around within the country, the people vacationing in Costa Rica usually hire a vehicle, as there is a lot to see.

Stay in comfort

Besides hotels, tourists also rent houses while staying in Costa Rica. The houses can be as simple or luxurious as you would like to spend. It is a safe country with good food and a very low number of tropical diseases.

Costa Rica is the best choice for people looking for Eco-tourism. Visit it once, and you would surely like to return there very soon.

Refi home mortgage loans how soon can you refinance an adjustable rate mortgage

Homebuyers have several loan options. Hence, purchasing a new home has never been easier. Individuals who cannot afford a down payment or closing costs may take advantage of loan programs that offer assistance. Furthermore, those hoping to obtain a low rate mortgage may consider a loan with an adjustable rate. Because of the initial low cost of adjustable rate mortgages, monthly mortgage payments are also lower. However, low rate mortgages are short term. To avoid an interest rate hike, homeowners should refinance before rates begin to increase.

Advantages of Adjustable Rate Mortgages

There are several advantages to accepting an adjustable mortgage. For starters, a low rate mortgage allows buyers to purchase pricier homes, while maintaining an affordable monthly payment. Moreover, because of record low rates, homebuyers who obtain an adjustable rate mortgage can enjoy falling rates without refinancing their mortgage. Thus, they avoid closing costs and other fees.

Adjustable rate mortgages are also ideal for individuals who plan on moving in a few years. Some people enjoy the stability of living in one place for many years. In this case, refinancing for a fixed rate is a wise choice. However, if you prefer the flexibility of moving every three to five years, you will save money with an adjustable rate.

Pitfalls of Adjustable Rate Mortgages

While adjustable rates offer many attractive features, one major drawback is that low rates are temporary. If interest rates continue to fall, you will not be subjected to the dangers of these loans. However, if rates begin to climb, so will your mortgage payment. Homebuyers who cannot afford an increased mortgage are at risk of losing their home. Thus, if your goal is to remain in your current home for many years, refinancing for a fixed rate will offer predictable mortgage payments.

How Soon Can You Refinance a Mortgage?

Fortunately, home mortgage loans can be refinanced whenever you like. Some lenders suggest allowing the loan to mature at least 12 months. However, if you detect a change in market trends, refinancing shortly after purchasing your home is a smart maneuver. Those contemplating refinancing must be prepared to pay additional closing fees. Moreover, contact your current lender and inquire of prepayment penalties.

From loneliness to connection

Dear Jane, I know a lot of people as acquaintances but I don’t seem to have close friends anymore. Everyone seems too busy. Sometimes I’m too busy to sit and listen. But then I feel lonely and isolated. Does everyone feel this way?

As a life coach for over 20 years, I have noticed that my clients are looking for more than insights or pearls of wisdom; they want a guarantee that they can trust that they will not have to vie for someone’s attention, that they will be heard and cared about, and that they will be listened well to, without interruption and without feeling rushed.

Most of us don’t consider ourselves isolated or friendless. Yet, almost 25% of Americans say they don’t have even one close friend they confide in. What this tells me is that we may no longer expect friends to take the time to listen or to have the skills to help us reflect on our circumstances. In other words, intimacy, while valued highly as suggested by the price people are willing to pay for it professionally, is no longer a criterion we gauge our friendships by.

This puts more pressure on mates, who are as ill prepared and time crunched as everyone else. Many of my clients fight with their significant others more about communication or lack of it than about sex, money, or children. They have a hard time resolving day-to-day issues because they can’t find the time to talk to each other or don’t feel listened to, resulting in escalating arguments rather than solutions.

Couples sometimes schedule with me as a way of carving out uninterrupted time to talk or to have a mediator who will keep them from hurting each other’s feelings. My work is about supporting a receptive environment where they can each listen better and can practice communicating sensitively. This takes practice—lots of practice—which we are increasingly deprived of in our culture.

It isn’t just technology that is at cause; it is the dwindling social skills as a result of technology that hinder intimacy and friendships. It takes more than just time to be a good listener; it takes skill. One has to learn to focus one’s attention on someone else to discern and help with underlying feelings that might be too painful or embarrassing to reveal immediately. This can’t be done via text messaging or email. It is tricky enough to do on the phone when we can’t see someone’s face. Without practice or the expectation from one another that we provide this, we lose both the ability and the commitment to provide the glue that binds us as something more than acquaintances.

How does technology affect our friendships and even our ability to know how to be a good friend? In the 1970’s my husband was on the baseball team at Stanford and when the team traveled to another university for a game, the guys spent their time on the bus talking together. About what? He doesn’t remember. But there was nothing else to do. Without ipods and laptops, these guys were forced to use each other to pass the time and build the camaraderie that cemented friendships he has to this day.

He went back for a Stanford reunion last year and saw something that alarmed him: When the football team got off the bus, they weren’t talking or laughing; they were all plugged into ipods. None of them seemed connected with each other. He imagined they spent the entire duration of the trip alone in their own world of music rather than goofing around, strategizing, learning more about each other, in other words, creating bonds that would last beyond their time as college athletes. He felt saddened for them. How would kids from the suburbs and those from blighted urban areas bridge the gap among themselves if they didn’t find more common ground than what was underneath their feet during a game?

If what used to be a natural alignment such as teammates can be broken by a pocket-sized white rectangle that isolates us in a bubble, how are we to reach out or be reached out to? Even taking the bus to work used to involve seeing the same people every day, affording us an opportunity to reach out to our neighbors and develop connections. Today, on a typical bus ride during commute hours, more than likely we will be on our cell phone or plunking at our laptop keyboard, using the bus as our mobile office. We’re working longer and harder and the price we pay is increased isolation.

With online chat rooms and dating services, text messaging, and email, we can “exclude the wrong people” and avoid “wasting time.” But how many of us who are happy in a relationship would have picked our mates out of a line up? Did we really end up using the criteria we had in our minds or on paper? Does our partner really look or always behave like our wish list? Who are we overlooking by not taking the time to have a cup of coffee but instead choosing to not “wink” back at?

What can we do about this trend? And do we want to do it? Is it simply more efficient to pay for therapy or coaching? The problem with relying solely on “professional friendship” is who is going to pick up your child from school because your boss wants you to stay late or the car breaks down? And unfortunately, you might be afraid to bother even those you consider friends if you haven’t taken the time to nurture these relationships. Needing something in an emergency becomes an embarrassment instead of part of the pact of friendship.

But even beyond emergencies, we owe it to ourselves to have at least one or two people who are available to us without having to whip out our appointment calendars. It takes conscious effort these days. We live in suburbs where we may not be in walking distance to that special friend. We have jobs and chores and families that demand so much of our time and focus. But we need friendship perhaps today more than ever.

Friendship, community, and intimacy require changing our routine, unplugging from the TV and computer, picking up the phone instead of emailing, having meals together regularly, even doing errands together. Most of all, we need to slow down long enough to listen. We will make these efforts when we remember that a true friend is both an investment and a treasure.

Link multiplying with free gifts

If you are looking for an effective method of multiplying your links, you should try offering an option to other website owners, allowing them to give your items away free. However, there is a catch, they must, in exchange, place a link to your website on their own.

You may be question why any website owner would be willing to do this type of thing. If so, here’s why…

Essentially, website owners love offering their visitors a value, what better value is there, than free. Freebies have a way of luring visitors to a website. For one reason or another, rather it be because they lack skills, knowledge, or time to create freebies electronically to offer their customers, therefore, they will turn to you and accept your offer.

You will find that the multiplying factor continues to grow. It's a domino effect: one webmaster offers the freebies, then before you know it other visitors decide they want to give away freebies as well, and your links keep coming.

The benefit? By increasing links, you are improving your website ranking on the search engines. Backlinks are imperative to successful and high rankings on the search engines, a major part of SEO. Essentially, the more backlinks you have to your website, the more traffic you get, the better your ranks in the search engines.

If you're having trouble coming up with ideas for freebies, take a look below, we have provided you with the 4 most popular freebie gift types today.

1) Give Away Software

Software is a big hit, but when it's free it's an even bigger hit. You can offer almost any type of software as freebies, such as demos, shareware or even freeware software. You should place an about box near the bottom of your page, which displays your website link.

2) Online Services

See the key here is free, who doesn't love something for nothing. By offering free services on your web page, in exchange for a link, you are offering a real value. Free online services could be things such as a free consultation via email, search engine submission or even a free email account. However, the key to success with this one is to make sure that you are not offering free services that will eat away at time you could be making money.

For this freebie, you might want to find an automated script, which can help you automate the process, taking up little time. Many free services are provided in the form of pop-up creation or search engine submission.

3) Information

The key to making this freebie work is to make sure that any information you offer on your website is extremely valuable. For example, this could be email courses, audio recordings, ebooks, articles or even reports.

Note: Articles work very well and also work double-time for you. Not only are they offering valuable information, but they can also provide you with backlinks from your visitors’ websites.

4) Affiliate Programs

These are perhaps the most popular freebies. In exchange for a link, you offer your visitors an affiliate program for free. These could be two tiered, click through or pay per sale types of affiliate programs.

You can also come up with your own great ideas for multiplying your links. Some other ideas include cross promoting and joint ventures as well.

Herbal acne home cures

Herbal acne home cures can be an effective adjunct to whatever other treatments are being used. It is important to understand that they are not hard and fast 'cures' in the absolute sense, but will instead support the body's capacity to metabolize fats and carbohydrates, and encourage elimination through the lymphatic system.

The class of herbs known as alterative herbs are conceptualized traditionally as 'cleansing' the body's tissues. They are thought of as detoxifying herbs, but they don't work in any obvious way on the body's elimination channels. - Namely, the lungs, kidneys, or colon. As such, they do not easily fit into a Western model of understanding the body. However, they do have a long tradition of use, and are certainly worth trying as an acne home remedy. Because they work on the internal condition of the body, they are not going to replace any of the topical, over the counter acne treatments. But they may provide benefit in an indirect way that these acne products don't.

Alterative herbs tend to be quite gentle in their effect, so they are best used as a long term treatment. Results won't be sudden, but they will improve the general health of the body. They tend to be given for chronic inflammatory problems, especially relating to the skin, such as acne.

These herbs include burdock, cleavers, red clover, figwort, poke root, echinacea, and blue flag. A great combination is blue flag, burdock, yellow dock, and echinacea. These can be mixed together and infused with hot water to make a tea. Drink a cup of this 3 times a day. You can put a little honey in it to make it taste better.

Another possible combination is burdock, dandelion, and sarsaparilla (not the cola!). Mix these together when they are dry herbs, and make a tea in the same way. They can be used separately as well.

There are a number of options for topical acne home remedies as well. Tea tree oil can be applied directly to breakouts, though for those with sensitive skin this may need to be diluted. Fresh cabbage juice can also be applied directly to acne blemishes, and this may be a better option for those with sensitive skin.

An anti inflammatory skin wash can be made from calendula and chamomile. Make a tea as above, then let it cool and keep it in the fridge. Spray or dab this onto the affected areas regularly.

Another combination for an acne home cure skin wash is yarrow, elder flowers, and lavender.

Colloidal minerals such as potassium phosphate and magnesium phosphate can help support the skin. Zinc is excellent to help prevent scarring, as well as fortifying the immune system, and help supports the normal functioning of hormones.

Vitamin C is excellent for encouraging the healing of acne lesions, as well as providing antioxidant support to the immune system.

References:

1. Simon Mills, The Essential Book Of Herbal Medicine

2. Judy Jacka, A - Z Of Natural Therapies

3. Paul Bedson, The Complete Family Guide To Natural Healing

B2b garments and jewelry markets

Due to today’s technological innovations, merchandise trade can now be done online. Stocks are sold and bought online. All kinds of merchandise are being bought and sold online, as well. Business-to-business (B2B) trade is also being done online.

B2B Trade

An online B2B trade typically refers to trade between the manufacturer and the distributor and the distributor and the retailer of merchandise. The contact between supplier and buyer is usually established online, particularly in B2B markets or B2B networking sites. The suppliers describe their business and list their inventory. The buyers, on their part, browse around for the supplier/s that can give them what they need in terms of merchandise type, volume, quality, and price and proceed to contact their chosen suppliers/supplier.

Online B2B trade is not limited by geographical boundaries. A buyer could go to B2B trading sites with a worldwide membership base if he wants to obtain supplies from offshore territories. Correspondence between the trading parties is usually done online and payments are processed through internet funds transfer and banking services.

A B2B trade is similar but not the same as online retailing. It is similar because contact and sales occur online. There are also suppliers who display or auction off their merchandise and there are buyers who look for the best merchandise quality at the best price.

However, the suppliers and buyers in B2B trade are unlike that in online retailing. In the latter, the suppliers are the retailers and the buyers are the end consumers who will use the product or merchandise bought. In the former, both suppliers and buyers are business owners or entities.

The buyers in a B2B trade are not the end users of the traded merchandise. They are one step higher in the supply chain than the end users; they’re going to be the direct sellers of the merchandise. In some cases, the buyer may also be a manufacturer who has bought raw materials for his own merchandise production (say a boat builder buying air conditioners for his line).

B2B Trade in Garments and Jewelry

Online B2B trading is particularly useful in the garments and jewelry industry. An American retailer can directly order wholesale sarongs, Aloha dresses, kaftans, crochet dresses, and other types of garments from garment factories in other countries like Indonesia. Sterling silver accessories and jewelry can also be ordered direct from Asian factories or their authorized distributors. Masks, tribal artifacts and carvings can also be bought directly through B2B trading portals.

If you wish to become a retailer of garments and jewelry, you need to seriously consider becoming a member of a B2B trading site so you’d have access to authorized distributors and manufacturers. On the other hand, you can browse through the wholesale garments and jewelry dealers in the web and find those that offer quality merchandise at reasonable prices.

The secret of acne treatment

Acne has become awful disease for modern day people, especially girl. People just can’t wait to get rid of red pimple in their face. A lot of quick-cash seeker may offer you product that can clean your acne in a day.

However, sadly to say, what works for one may not work for others. The most important things to remember when it comes in terms of acne treatment is not about magical product that can remove your acne problems in a night. But knowing the simple rule of lifestyle is all you need to solve your acne problem.

For example, you must never be pop your pimples no matter how desperate you want. Another example is knowing what you eat can make significant different in getting rid from your acne in long term as we know that oil is the number one cause of acne.

Another things to bear in mind is give time for something to works. You can purchase hundreds of dollars acne treatment product but without give it a time to works it will do you nothing.

Choosing your acne treatment products is something that cannot be counted on your friend's opinion. Because every people has different skin condition. So when choosing your acne treatment products you have to try yourself what works for you and what not.

Or you can simply consult to doctor or professional to know what best to do. Not only they can point you out on what works best for your skin type but also they can save you from months of trial and error.

The worse thing about acne is not of acne itself but because psychology condition it may impact. When you feel low self esteem because you have over-extended acne remind yourself that others too have same problems with yours. You may want to create your own discussion group to support each other along the way.

Don't worry about whether others may want to join your discussion group or not just simply ask for it. You will be shocked at how many people that will become your new friend-in-needs.

The amortization schedule take a closer look

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Your amortization schedule provides you with a wide range of information about the mortgage that you are taking on. This information may not seem important right now, but when you use it to help you find the best rates available and the best mortgage for you, you can actually profit from taking a good look at the schedule in front of you. Will it matter in the long run? That depends on how you use it.

How To Use This Tool Effectively

The amortization schedule provides you with a good wealth of information. It tells you how much you will pay for your mortgage with interest applied to it. Unless you are a wiz at math (and really you have to be very good to figure this out) you need it to know where the money you send in for your mortgage is going. This is critical because you need to see not only that you are paying off your home but that the bank is getting a huge cut of that check each month.

But, there is more to it than just that. You can use the schedule to help you to find the right mortgage for you. For example, if you planned to purchase a home for $200,000, how would you know how much the payment amount will be a month? Most people have no idea about how much of a home they can purchase. This will help you to know. If the payment for your $200,000 home is too much for you to make over the course of 30 years, then lower the number, look for a better rate or lengthen the terms of your loan. You can use the calculators found on many websites to help you to do just that. It will help you to determine just how much you can afford in a home based on the monthly payment amount.

Is This Information Right?

You may think that using a tool like this is just too broad, and you are right there. Although the information provided on the amortization schedule that you'll get from a calculation done online is not completely right, it is fairly close and a good tool to utilize nonetheless. Here's what you need to remember though.

• The interest rate of the schedule is very important. Problem is, though, that you don't know what this number will end up being until you sign on the dotted line. Make sure to take into consideration your credit score and the market's ability to fluctuate. Punch in the interest rate that is closest to your interest rate abilities.
• The amount of the purchase of your home is not necessarily the amount that you will have a mortgage for. For example, the taxes and the insurance haven't been figured into your loan just yet. The amortization table takes into account the amount you punch in without these things. Also, if you plan to put a down payment down, this money has not been accounted for yet either.
• Lastly, remember that there are differences in the types of loans available to you as well. The terms of the loan may change, the payment schedule may be different and the interest rate may be variable or fixed.

There are many benefits of the amortization calculator. First, this tool is a tool you will find on many websites out there. It is designed to allow you to find out how much of a monthly payment you will make on your home loan. It will also provide you with details about how much interest and the total cost of your loan will be by the time that you pay it off. And, it will tell you how much of your mortgage payment will go towards interest and how much will go towards the principal. But, did you know that you can use an amortization calculator to help you to save money?

Natural asthma treatments may be the alternative for you

Our immune system is our main fighter against anything foreign in our bodies. It protects us from diseases by recognizing and eliminating and removing that foreign material from our bodies. Introduction to a variety of chemicals can affect our system badly and put us at risk for illness and disease. Allergies are caused by an over sensitive immune system which leads to a misdirected immune response. Our immune system should protect our bodies against harmful substances like viruses and bacteria. When the body has an allergic reaction it's our bodies immune system reacting to some substance or allergy which is generally harmless to most people and will not cause an immune response. Allergies (including asthma) however are abnormal inflammatory responses of the immune system to dust, pollen, a food or some other substance. Those that involve an antibody called immunoglobulin E (IgE) occurs immediately or within an hour. Reactions may include coughing, sneezing, runny nose, hives, diarrhea, facial swelling, shortness of breath, a swollen tongue, difficulty swallowing, lowered blood pressure, excessive perspiration, fainting, anaphylactic shock or even death. There are some great Natural asthma treatments that may help you with your asthma better than what you're using now. I'm by no means a medical doctor, and I'm not recommending you stop what your taking now, and before using any medications natural or otherwise, consult with your doctor first.

Most medication for treating asthma seeks to reduce the inflammation by using anti-inflammatory medications, or use pharmaceutical inhalants to temporarily dilate the passageway. Pharmaceutical medications have long term affects and usually only offer a temporary relief. Many asthma medications contain steroids which can have long term affects on a person. There are two popular Natural asthma treatments, one is from the Middle East and has been a primary treatment for asthma and allergies. A traditional extract blend taken with honey includes black cumin, chamomile, cinnamon, cloves, rosemary, sage, spearmint, thyme and other herbs. Natural asthma treatments have herbs that contain antioxidants, and Black cumin seed, rosemary and thyme are known to inhibit the contractions of tracheal smooth muscle that is stimulated by histamine and acetylcholine. In Asia one natural asthma cure is a blend known as Saiboku-To is used clinically for asthma treatment and contains 10 herbs like ginger, Korean ginseng, magnolia, Baikal and licorice. In Japan , 40 asthma patients were treated with Saiboku-To for six to 24 months, and all were able to greatly reduce their steroidal asthma medications.20 Saiboku-To have also been shown to inhibit lipoxygenase.

When you're looking for Natural asthma treatments on the Internet, make sure you're not allergic to any of the natural ingredients themselves, which would defeat the purpose. Always take small doses and one at a time than recommended if you've never taken something before to make sure your body will not have an adverse affect from anything. Just because something is natural does not mean it can't be dangerous to you

Getting traffic to your new website

So you’ve just finished creating your new website. It looks good and you are ready for the visitors, you can’t wait for the traffic to come. So how are you going to get traffic to your new site? You will now need to promote your new site. Here are a few things you could start with:

1. Submit your site to the Search Engines.

If you want people to find your site then you should start by submitting your site to the biggest 3 search engines, which are Google Yahoo and MSN. They will find your site eventually without submitting to them but why wait. You should also submit your site to all the other lesser-known search engines because some people don’t or can’t use the big 3. Can be time consuming to submit your site to most of them so Search Engine Submission Software is recommended for this.

2. Submit your site to Directories.

People go here to find other websites. Provides good incoming links when your site is listed on directories, which can over time increase your website’s popularity and SE rankings. There are so many directories that this can also be time consuming.

3. Submit your site to Classifieds.

Was once considered to be an excellent way to get traffic to your site but not as effective today, however, it still could be worth your while submitting your site to the classified sites using Search Engine Submission Software because most of those sites are considered high traffic sites.

The above three methods are great ways to promote your site and start getting traffic but they can be very time consuming if you decide to submit your site manually to the above, however, there is a much faster and incredibly simpler way to get your site on over 700,000 Search Engines, Directories, Classifieds, Online Malls and Link pages by using Search Engine Submission Software like this easy. top5submitters. com

You could also consider other ways of getting visitors to your site like

1. Article Distribution – Writing articles about what can be found on your site and distributing them to article directories with a link to your site included in every article you write.

2. Participate in Forums that are related to your sites content - Post your opinion or expertise on the subject matter, and over time you’ll be allowed add a link to your site with every post you make.

3. Add lots of related links to your site – This is reciprocal linking where someone adds your link to their site while you agree to add their link to your site – make sure the sites you link to are related to your site in some way, this will improve your search engine ranking for more traffic, eg. If you have a weight loss site you should link to other weight loss related sites like health, fitness, diet, exercise.

4. Use Pay Per Click (PPC) – Brings in quality traffic but it can get costly if you don’t know what you’re doing. Every time someone visits your site it will cost you a pre-determined amount usually a few cents. I recommend you learn all about this method before you dive in, however, you can at least set your limit on how much you are willing to spend on this.

5.Traffic Exchanges – This is where you view other people’s sites to gain credits that will allow them to view your site. Most of the people viewing your site will have no interest in your site, they are only clicking on your site to gain credits. Worth a try because it’s free to join.

6. Advertise in Ezines – This can be an excellent way to advertise your website. Only use ezines that are related to your site and have a large circulation. Allow your site ad a few months of advertising to get the best value.

7. Hit Boosters – Instant traffic to your site using software technology. Some can be quite useless but others can bring in truly remarkable results for your site. Here’s a good one traffic. top5submitters. com

There are many more traffic gaining techniques. The above are 10 good ways that will get traffic to your site and a couple of solutions to your site promotion ventures. My advice is to try the above first and then when you are familiar with them you can look for other methods.

Website or no website that s the question

Do you want to make money through the Internet but you don't have enough experience or capital to start your own online business? You don't have to worry, for a lot of online marketing options exist for you to start with. One of these options, and shall I say the best, is affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing provides first time online marketers like you the chance to market something online even without having your own product to sell. All you have to do is to sign up with an affiliate marketing program, which is usually owned by an online merchant or retailer, and start picking the products you want to promote. As an affiliate, you are paid by the merchant for your services on a commission basis, that is whenever you have directed a visitor to the merchant's site and the visitor actually buys something.

Becoming an affiliate in an affiliate marketing program is often quick and easy, and for most affiliate programs, signing up is also free. But despite these and all the benefits being promised by affiliate programs, many people are still hesitant to get into affiliate marketing. One of the reasons why a lot of people remain hesitant is the lack of a website to start marketing his affiliate products with. This now leads us to the question of whether a website is required or necessary in affiliate marketing or not.

Many people say that one can do affiliate marketing even without a website to start with. Actually, one can really start promoting and marketing his affiliate products even without a website; and there exist a lot of ways on how this can be done. In fact, many affiliate marketing strategies that leads to success can exist without actually needing a website. Among these strategies are email marketing, offline promotions, writing e-books, writing ezines and engaging in online discussions like forums, chats, message boards and others.

* Email Marketing

Email marketing, or maintaining email lists, is actually the most popular affiliate marketing strategy that doesn't require the affiliate to maintain a website. In this affiliate marketing strategy, what you basically do is maintain a list of the email ads of your prospective customers and provide them with articles that are relevant with the affiliate products and programs you are promoting. Articles that you provide your contacts with need not always be promotional, for many individuals find such types of email annoying. Rather, it would be better if you provide them with something informative and just add small text ads that link to your merchant's site.

* Offline Promotion

There are many ways on how you can promote your affiliate products offline. Among the common medium used for such promotions are classified ads, brochures and flyers. Classified ads would generally work better compared to the other two because classified ads in periodicals often get a wider audience.

* Writing Free e-books

If you have a knack in writing, writing an e-book can be the best way for you to promote your affiliate products in the absence of an actual website. Just like in emails and newsletters, your readers would better appreciate your e-book if it is not too promotional but rather informative. Be sure, however, to make the contents of your e-books relative to the actual affiliate products you are promoting. And just like in email marketing, you can just place text ads or banners somewhere near the end of your e-book that links to the merchant's site.

* Writing Free Ezines

Ezines are publications or articles that aim to inform individuals about a particular topic. If you don't have a website and yet want to be an affiliate, you can well use ezines to promote your affiliate products or to insert links to your merchant's site. If you have a website, your ezine article may actually work well as content for your site. But since you have no website, you can just submit your free ezine articles to various websites that hosts ezines, like goarticles. com, ezinearticles. com and others.

* Online discussions (Forums, Chats, Message Boards, etc.)

With or without a website, you just can't ignore online discussions because they are great venues for marketing your affiliate products. In chats, forums, message boards and discussion boards with topics related to your products, you can easily find people who may be interested with the products you are promoting.

With all these strategies, it may appear that one really doesn't need to have a website to start marketing his affiliate products and promoting his affiliate programs. Well, starting in an affiliate program without a website may be easy, but getting successful in affiliate marketing without a website is another thing. While one can actually gain enormous success in affiliate marketing even without a website, it is a rare instance that "newbies" like you can reach the same levels of success.

Having a website is not really a pre-requisite in entering into an affiliate program, unless otherwise the program owner would require you to have one. But while this is so, I would still recommend that you have for yourself a website, if not now, then maybe at a later time. Having a website creates a lot of advantages in affiliate marketing. For one, it provides you a place where you can creatively promote not only one of your affiliate products but all of your affiliate products. With a website, you can also advertise your affiliate products to a wider market.

Again, having a website is not a requirement in affiliate marketing. But with the advantages that a website can provide, I'd rather have one for myself and make affiliate marketing a lot easier for me.

Plants and emotional appeal in house selling

As a home seller you want to initiate that positive feeling from a prospective buyer; choosing a new home is a very emotional thing and it is this emotional vibe that you want to tune into to. It is always the first impression that will dictate the buyer's mood.

Think of the times that you have been in the audience waiting to hear a speech. When the person walks onto the stage you are expectant and interested in what he has to say. In the first one minute he either has your attention - or you are wondering where he bought his shoes from. If he has wit, a smile and a bright voice you will listen. If he drawls, sounds dull and is talking too quietly your brain leaves the stage.

You will only listen to a boring speaker if you really want to hear what he has to say. Your house is like the speaker. If it appeals in the first minute, the buyer will proceed with interest and enthusiasm. If the first appearance doesn't draw the buyer in, he will approach the viewing of your home with the thought that he is wasting his time. This is where the price of your house comes in; if there is nothing much going for it, then make sure you take the realtor's advice about the price.

If you know your house is a no-frills house, then the first impression will be critical to set the mood. A realtor calls this curb appeal, and if yours is not able to look 'fantastic', it can at least look promising.

Step out side your house, and walk to the street and scrutinize your own home from the sidewalk. Check for things like scuff marks around the base of the house and broken parts of fence. Sweep the paths and hide the garbage can. Make sure the gardening is done - no dead weeds or yellow patches on the lawn.

Certain additions can make your home look as if it is cared for. For instance, plants in pots around your front door. A statue or an elegant bird bath placed centrally in your lawn can take away the plainness of a yard. If you are worried about theft, most of these are too heavy to be easily moved. Flowers or plants can be grouped around it.

This applies to any season. If you are selling your home in autumn you can always buy some potted chrysanthemums or azaleas, if you are selling in spring use daffodil and crocus etc. Whatever time if the year, there can be either flowers or berry bushes in the yard. The back yard will not count so much in terms of first impressions. So concentrate on the front for the first visual impact to your buyer.

One very easy solution to the visual appeal problem is to have a very soft bed in the front and cover it with wood chips. As each season turns, a different group of pot plants can be 'dug in' to the soft soil. Once the daffodils die, those pots get pulled out until next year and the petunias go in, then chrysanthemums, until finally it is the winter pansies and the berries. With a bird bath in the center and about three small ever green shrubs, your front yard will always have appeal.

It is not just that you are appealing to the type of person who likes a nice yard; if the yard is looking good, it will make the buyer think that the rest of the house will be looked after and he will approach the viewing of your house in a positive way. This positive attitude means that the buyer's frame of mind will be open to the emotional appeal of your home.

Heart disease

Heart Disease is a hot health topic today. With all of the information about heart disease on both TV and the Internet, do

you really know which information is advice that you can trust on heart disease? How about information that is not accurate

on heart disease?

There are many different kinds of "heart disease" and we will briefly touch on those in this article, as well.

Are you ready to learn more about what heart disease is and the different types of heart disease? Good, then keep reading!

What Is Heart Disease?

What exactly is heart disease? The latest definition of heart disease is any disease that affects how the heart normally

works. Narrowing or hardening of the arteries that lead to the heart is the most common type of cardiac disease, today.

Of course this can encompass quite a few types or variations of heart disease.

Various types of heart disease include:

* Alcoholic cardiomyopathy

* Aortic regurgitation

* Aortic stenosis

* Arrhythmias

* Cardiogenic shock

* Congenital heart disease

* Coronary artery disease (CAD)

* Dilated cardiomyopathy

* Endocarditis

* Heart attack (myocardial infarction)

* Heart failure

* Heart tumor

* Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

* Idiopathic cardiomyopathy

* Ischemic cardiomyopathy

* Acute mitral regurgitation

* Chronic mitral regurgitation

* Mitral stenosis

* Mitral valve prolapse

* Peripartum cardiomyopathy

* Pulmonary stenosis

* Stable angina

* Unstable angina

* Tricuspid regurgitation

As you can see, there are many categories of what actually constitutes heart disease. Now that we have identified different

types of cardiac disease, let's explore some of the underlying causes of these diseases.

Causes Of Heart Disease

Just as many different names for cardiac disease can be confusing and complicated, so can the causes of heart disease. And we

will cover the most common causes below.

Briefly, here are some causes:

* Hypertension ("high blood pressure")

* Heart valves that do not function normally

* Electrical conduction of the heart that causes an abnormal rhythm.

* Heart's pumping function that is affected by toxins or infections.

* Congenital or "birth defects" of the heart.

How Many People Are Affected By Heart Disease?

According to the National Institute of Health, there are approximately 70.1 million people affected by some type of cardiac

disorder! Heart disease continues to be the number one cause of death in the US.

Among minorities, cardiac disease or heart disease, ranks first as leading cause of death. The rates of deaths declined for

those groups with the exception of one group, American Indian females. The time frame for this study was between 1985 and

2002.

Between 1992 and 2002, the percentage of decline of death rates for CHD (Cardiac Heart Diseas) was the highest among white

males and the least decline was in the black female population.

Financial Impact Of Cardiac Heart Disease

Besides the horrific costs of CHD in terms of personal tragedy, society also bears the brunt of the effects of this disease.

According to the study, 2005 costs for CVD(Cardiovascular Disease) were staggering. Overall, costing 393 Billion Dollars!

Costs broke down like this:

* 242 Billion Dollars for direct health care costs.

* 35 Billion Dollars for indirect costs of morbidity.

* 117 Billion Dollars in DIRECT costs of mortality.

As you can see, cardiovascular disease is one that while complicated and intricate in name and causes, is simply devastating

to both the individual and to the society that the affected comes from. It should be taken very seriously and not ignored, so

education and prevention are essential in decreasing the effects of these diseases, commonly know as cardiac disease.

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This article was written and screened by a license medical professional. This article is for informational purposes only.

This material is in no way a substitute for the medical advice of your own physician. The National Institutes of Health

served as the basis for this medical article. © 2006 medicalcontentsolutions. com . All rights reserved. Want to reprint this article, feel free as long as you include the following: