Hey guys, do you look in the mirror, wish you looked hip, and cool without looking like you stepped out of a music video or Saturday Night Fever? If you think you need some help, then you probably do. If you don’t think you need help, then you definitely do! So, read on for some great dressing guidelines from me. Dressing men is one of my favorite things, because just a few tips can make a big difference for you. Of course, I do love menswear and helping men look and feel their best. Moreover, because I have dressed many men on television and in private life. I know just what is needed.

First, it does not matter what shape you are. You can have a body like Brad Pitt or Sponge Bob, and still look great, IF you know what to wear. Second, buy what fits you regardless of the size on the tag. All designers cut clothes differently. For example, Hugo Boss tends to cut narrow. Some of his labels, especially in small sizes, run very tight and narrow and would barely fit your baby brother. You may need to size up to get the right fit. Third, if you have to disguise some extra pounds or gain a few pounds because the only six pack you own is in your frig, then read on for some more dressing tips.

Broaden your chest:

• Lighter colors and interesting details around shoulders in clothing will make you appear broader
• Avoid clothes fitting too tight unless you are going for the scrawny, rock star look
• Horizontal stripes will be your friend, and make you look wider, verticals will only make you look narrow
• Heavier, textured fabrics and knits will give you needed upper body bulk
• Slightly wider lapels on jackets (now don’t get crazy on me and do a total 70’s flashback)
• Layering shirts is another trick that will add dimension to your chest

Take my belly…please!

• Vertical stripes will give you a long lean look
• Dark and muted colors are best to camouflage, along with lightweight, soft, matte fabrics. Never shiny Boogie Nights specials
• Shirts too baggy will only make you look bigger. Skim the body, Baby!
• Wear your pants at your waist guys! Under the belly will make you look heavier. Trust me on this one!
• Opt for suits that are dark, pinstripes will be amazing
• Try a 1 or 2 button jacket to give you a sleek silhouette
• Monochromatic dressing will always make you look like you lost 10 lbs

Do not forget to look at the rear view:

If you have a full-size butt:

• Pants need to be a bit looser (I am not talking clown styles here), relaxed, easy fit. Flat fronts will work but make sure they are not so tight that the front pockets stick out, go up a size if needed
• Waistline of pant should not be too high. Otherwise, your butt will look even bigger. Think elephant!
• Keep pants dark and sleek. Pants with a lot of whistles and bells will add attention to hip area

If you have a pancake butt:

• Back pocket details such as flaps add heft
• Baggy pants still not good here, makes your butt look flatter
• Jackets and long shirt tails that hit below the hip are best for camouflage

Check your neck:

• Thin necks need a wide spread dress shirt collar to give width
• Thick necks should stick to a regular point collars and open neck styles look awesome
• V necks will make your neck look thinner, crew neck will emphasize thickness
• Turtlenecks on long necks only, makes short necks look thicker and well… like a turtle

Arms and the man

• Great arms, flaunt them with short sleeves and tapered shirts
• Skinny arms need more fabric around them to look fuller, layers again, will be your friend, along with sweaters
• Thin arms look better long sleeved shirts with sleeves rolled, and then short sleeves. Gives your arms bulk
• Big biceps need full cut shirts, and sometimes custom shirts are best to get a perfect fit

So there, you have my tips for emphasizing the positive and eliminating the negative. Hey guys, I do not think I have worked with anyone who has not looked significantly better with these few adjustments. My fourth tip is to find a fabulous tailor to achieve great style and terrific fitting clothes (this may take time to find the “one” but it is well worth the effort!). And my fifth and final tip is to know your skin color and best colors and use them to your advantage. Darker colors really do diminish your not -so -hot spots and light colors highlight your hot ones. Beyond darks and lights, there are cool and warm colors, mixing patterns, etc. but those pointers are for future articles, so stay tuned.

If you found this article informative and would like more enlightening info and tips please visit http://larconsultants.com

Lori Ann Robinson is an image and fashion consultant, speaker and Emmy nominated costume designer. She works with women and men to match their personality, lifestyle, and body type to today’s clothing styles.

Author: Lori Ann Robinson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Let me say right up front that I’m not Honeywell rep. I do not make any money buying or selling Honeywell products. I’m just like you — I’m a homeowner who wants to figure out what sorts of products Honeywell offers; the names that they’re sold under and what they do. Once I’ve done that, I can make an informed decision about the best solution for me and my family.

By now, you probably know that Honeywell is (among other things) a global supplier and distributor of residential and commercial security systems. In addition, Honeywell monitors millions of private homes commercial businesses and government facilities all over the world.

Honeywell’s residential security systems are installed through a network of local dealers.These dealers are trained to understand your needs and respond in a way that’s appropriate. They’ll discuss your lifestyle with you and build a system that meets your needs.

For example, some families have young children. If that describes your family then perhaps you want a system that alerts you when your kids come home from school. Your Honeywell dealer can design a home security system for you that meets that need.

On the other hand if you’re business owner with an small office or home office, you might have an area that needs extra protection (expensive office equipment, valuable records, etc.). If that describes your situation, then your Honeywell dealer can discuss with you the installation of a system that includes motion detectors or cameras.

Ademco Home Security Systems: The Relationship To Honeywell

When considering the scope of possibilities, be aware that Honeywell offers a wide range of products marketed under many different labels. You probably are already aware of the Ademco line, but there are quite a few other brands in the Honeywell home security system family.

The Honeywell product family can be divided into broad categories of hardware including (but not limited to):

• Control Panels: Ademco, Apex, Omni, Lynx
• Keypads: Ademco, Apex, Omni
• Expansion Modules: Ademco, Apex, Omni
• DIY Kits: Ademco, Omni, Lynx
• Wireless Accessories: Apex, Street Smart, Life Safety
• Alarm Communications: Optiflex
• Sensors: Dual Tec, V-Plex
• Smoke Detectors: V-Plex
• …and much more.

Who, Or What, Is AlarmNet?

One last thing that I found interesting: As you might know, most alarm systems communicate with the monitoring company using telephone lines. But for those of you who were concerned that the phone line might be cut during a burglary, Honeywell has a reliable alternative called AlarmNet.

AlarmNet is a radio network run by Honeywell that has extensive coverage in the United States and Canada. It gives you a second layer of protection — beyond your phone line — in the event of a home intrusion or other kind of emergency. This means peace of mind for you and your family. And isn’t that what a home security system is all about?

Conclusion

Again, in closing: I am not a Honeywell representative, nor do I make any money by recommending their products. It’s just that Honeywell offers a complete line of excellent products. When considering a security solution for your family and/or business, you should consider them when making an informed decision.

For more info on Honeywell home security systems and/or Ademco home security systems, visit Ara Rubyan’s Home Security Systems.

Ara Rubyan is not a part of the home security system industry, nor does he sell home security systems, nor does he pretend to be a guru of any kind. Instead, he is like you: a consumer, a business owner, and someone who has been researching the industry so that he could make an informed decision about the best home security system for his needs. Now, he’s put all his research (so far) in one convenient location and he’s sharing it with you, no strings attached.

Author: Ara Rubyan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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I will start by admitting that I have a very biased opinion on the subject as I have only sought the training of two ‘Gurus,’ both related. So, what I say will only be based on what I have studied and observed from them. What I know permeates the Certified crowd, however, will be fairly common. With that in mind I will do my best to address the opposition that I learned about while trying to give advice, warning and encouragement to a young horse trainer upstart. What it seems to all boil down to is worth, money / greed, and perceived knowledge.

Knowledge by definition in Encarta Dictionary is about as complex as the matter at hand: 1) information in mind – a general awareness or possession of information, facts, ideas, truths or principles 2) specific information – a clear awareness or explicit information 3) all that can be known – all the information, facts truths, and principles learned throughout time 4) learning through experience or study – familiarity or understanding gained through experience or study 5) transmission of information – communication. Nevertheless, you can see in all definitions, knowledge is based on information learned, whether by experience or study and the communication of such. Nowhere is there mention of knowledge simply existing or appearing in a mind.

What this means is the amount of knowledge a person has is in direct correlation to the amount of study, application, and experience a person has had in any given field. So it would be fair to say that the individual that has spent 5yrs training one horse on their own would not have as much knowledge in horse training as an individual that has spent those same 5yrs studying and putting into practice on several different horses, the same proven techniques of a person who used them to successfully train hundreds of horses.

Let’s say those two people had decided, due to their own success in training, to become professionals, how might you tell them apart? No real way except by their word and of course their product. Let’s look at a third option, there was a third individual who not only study and applied proven techniques, but also went to the individual they felt had the most knowledge of the usage of these techniques and went through classes with this teacher. Upon completion, the individual by displaying a satisfactory understanding of the materials presented by the teacher, received ‘proof’ of completing this course in the form of a ‘title.’ This person also decides, due to their success in and out of the class, to train others. You, as a prospective client, now have reason to believe this third individual has sufficient knowledge to help you.

There is the argument that there are lots of trainers out there who do not ‘certify and are not certified,’ and are great at what they do. This is very true, however, it is not to say that these trainers did not learn what they know from another more accomplished trainer then they. Some would even bring up trainers centuries ago who would fit this bill. Yet, how do we learn about these trainers? Study. How do we know what these trainers had to say was ‘good?’ Application. There were no ‘certification programs’ then? Maybe not in those words as then words of a man had more value than they do today. You cannot even be safe with a handshake or hand written contract anymore. But, before I get way off topic I would like to point out the Spanish School of Riding. You had to be a very accomplished rider to get in and when you came out you would be the creme de la creme. If you told someone you went to this school, I guarantee you were well exalted. I could see a rider from that school either charging more for their services and being extremely picky about the students they took. After all, it was this type of selective-ness that got them into the school to begin with.

Which leads us to the hot topic of money, which like politics, makes poor dinner conversation. With the matter at hand, it is directly related to worth. What drives us to spend money is need and desire. We grumble about gas prices, but continue to pay as we need to get to work and as many live too far from their place of employment to walk or bicycle, and thus it is worth the price. Desire, however, is a personal preference and is solely based on an individual’s perception of worth.

Worth (noun) by definition in Encarta Dictionary: 1) value in money 2) amount equaling given value – the amount of something that can be bought for a particular sum of money or that will last for a particular length of time 3) moral or social value – the goodness, usefulness, or importance of something or somebody, irrespective of financial value or wealth 4) wealth – the wealth of a person, group organization, or other entity Worth (adjective): 1) equal to particular amount 2) important enough to justify something.

Outside of the trades that cater to horse owners, horses are a hobby and an expensive one at that. Show horses are at the top of the chart when it comes to ‘frivolous’ spending. Saddles for thousands of dollars, bridles for hundreds of dollars, special feeds and supplements, pampering and care every day done by paid grooms and workers not to mention all the expenses accrued with showing. Showing is not everyone’s idea of fun and some shun the amount of spending as they do not see the worth. However, they may see the worth in having a trail horse that is not only calm, but also responsive and willing. In fact, they may have had an accident and they find these attributes are not just worthy, they are necessary. They would put great worth in a trainer that could help them create this kind of horse for them and would look for the trainer that has a track record of success in that area. In that same mind, there are trainers that want to help people achieve these goals and instead of continually ‘fixing’ the horse they want to also teach the rider how to maintain their horse as well. In other words, pass their knowledge on to the horse owner which in turn empowers the owner and enables them to continue training their own horse.

Sound like greed to you? If you wanted to become the best in any chosen field of employment you ‘pay for your education.’ You can go about it many ways: 1) You can read, research, and in essence train yourself, 2) You can attend free seminars, community college classes, and workshops, 3) Pay for a Trade School, 3) Pay for State College or University, 4) Pay for Private College. When it is time to hit the pavement which education do you think will best prepare you for your career choice? Which path is your perspective employer most likely to be impressed with and why?

Some people have the luxury of taking their training skills and helping others whenever and however they like. They don’t need the money and don’t charge or want to protect their ‘non-pro’ status and can’t take money. Training for them is a hobby. Others are trying to pay the bills, enlarge their facilities and grow a business. There are a lot of expenses that go with any entrepreneurial venture. As with feed stores and horse shoers, many horse owners think, “Well, I pay them ‘x amount’ every time I see them, they must be rich.” Or, “They make a bunch off me, they have lots of clients, they could give me a deal and still be racking in the dough.” You have to understand most horses are a hobby and an expensive one at that. The feed store, trainer, shoer are providing a service and it is their business. There are business expenses such as web design, advertising, office equipment, liability insurance, health insurance, and possibly workman’s comp. There are physical expenses such as expansion, ground maintenance, human amenities, building maintenance, equipment maintenance, tack, equipment, possibly workers, as well as storage and purchasing of hay, bedding, and such. That is not even an exhaustive list as you consider there could be a flood, fire, or other disaster that insurance may not cover. That is the average trainer just running a business.

Let’s say this trainer is really good at what they do and now people want the trainer to teach them how to get the results. The trainer has some options. They can say, “No, these are my secrets, they are what keep me in business,” or they can say “Yes, but I will not have enough time to train as many horses so I will have to get picky about what horses I take in. Supply and demand. The supply of the training is going down and the demand is going up.

Now you add travel, clinic expenses, additional insurance, vehicle maintenance, and other travel costs when that trainer decides to add clinics to their calendar. Many clinicians do not do horse training as it is obviously impossible. “But I want so and so to train my horse, how much will it cost.” Now this trainer’s time is more valuable to them. It has to be worth it to them so they don’t become resentful for taking time away from their clinics to train the horse.

As a product becomes more in demand, you have two options: 1) humor everyone at a low price or 2) raise the price and get pickier. In horse training it goes something like this: New trainer on the block takes everything with 4 legs, works four times harder than others as the horses are tougher, have destructive behaviors and many times the clients are not as committed. After awhile, as word gets out of the quality of the work, more people use the trainer and slowly the quality of horse and owner gets better. The trainer is getting older and realizes there is more to life than being kicked in the head, bit in chest, and left with non paying owners. The price goes up and the trainer will not accept the worst of the horses into training or perhaps stops training and starts running clinics only.

So how does this translate to Certified trainers? Holding a certificate only shows what you have accomplished in ’school.’ It does not make you a master of your trade. It is a strong advantage to those who do not come from a ‘horse training’ family or live in a ‘horse training’ community. It shows others your dedication and desire to be the best at what you do. You have to beat the pavement just like everyone else. It does not make you a success, it gets you going down the road in the right direction with an edge over some of the competition. If someone finds value in that, they will become a client.

Greed will always drive some people and I don’t deny it, however, to put a label on people who’s desire is to be the best through education in order to provide the best is simply wrong. True wisdom and knowledge is obtained through experience and application, yet you will find those with arrogance and conceit to hide what they don’t have. I believe you have to be fairly blind to not see the difference in trainers no matter where they received their ‘education.’ And worth is as individual as the people who own horses. So, it all boils down to what you as a horse owner would like for you and your horse and what a horse trainer feels is important to them to pass on to the client. Why then the fuss? If I choose to study under an individual in order to become proficient in the techniques I feel are best, why is that any different than any other who studies under another via book, video or lesson? There are many different kinds of boats that traverse the waters, they all have to float, but they get to their destination in different ways.

Jodi Wilson is a recognized authority on the subject of horse training and has spent almost 30 years developing training techniques and solutions for horse owners no matter the discipline or breed.

Jodi is an Accredited Josh Lyons trainer, and is Certified in John Lyons training techniques. Her website, http://Jodi-Wilson.com, provides a wealth of information to improve the relationship between horse and rider. Jodi is also available for clinics and demonstrations as well as lessons, apprenticeships, and horse training.

Jodi has trained and competed in Reining, Sorting, Jumping, Dressage, English and Western Pleasure, Trail and Problem Solving.

Author: Jodi M Wilson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Although my childhood wasn’t anywhere near as heartbreaking as hers, I can relate to Precious. Her character seems to have struck a chord with many people and resonates as the “super” underdog. Sad can’t begin to describe how viewers feel when watching these captivating performances, graceful direction, and all round fantastic storytelling. In fact, it is not hard to forget that you are watching a movie at all. However, the rich sounds of the movie made it almost bearable. A mixture of Rap, Disco, Gospel, and Soul music helped to tell the tale of this tragic character that rises through the rubble and finds a better world for herself and her two young children.

With a heart-wrenching lead song like Mary J. Blige’s “I Can See in Color”, the director brings you into the private life of an abused 16 year-old, Claireece Precious Jones. The film begins in the late 80’s and resurrects the old Queen Latifah hit “Give Me Body” and Sunny Gale’s version of the 1933 hit “Did you Ever See a Dream Walking”. Together with a few other little-known finds with powerful messages, this soundtrack underscores the colorful dreamscapes that our heroin fantasizes about while being victimized in countless hard-to-watch scenes of severe abuse and neglect.

But, the track that brings it full circle is “It’s Been a Long Time” by Labelle, and is the payoff and the redemption song for our Precious character as we see her ultimately overcome her dismal circumstances. It’s a great choice, and gives you that permission to exhale after almost two hours of holding your breath.

Depressing, I know. It can get to you if you let it. Unfortunately, life is full of those moments. So, over the years I have found it necessary to keep some special music handy when faced with any kind of adversity. My daily ritual now to listen to the music that keeps me focused and on the right track.

As a matter of fact a steady “diet” of motivational songs keeps me CHARGED, power-filled and ready to finish ANY race. I even feel like I can move mountains, jump over obstacles, and all that good stuff. Maybe Precious could have escaped sooner if she’d been listening to lyrics like “Keep on fightin’ for the cause, we gotta keep on standing tall, keep on doin’ what you believe, you know you’re gonna make it.” (See song #11)

Critics of the soundtrack complain that it is too short. However, each song on the 12-song compilation was tastefully picked, and most even had motivational messages. Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve been inspired and have come up with a few suggestions to serve as, I guess you could say, a much needed antidote to the film!

1. “Just Fine” by Mary J. Blige
2. “Be OK” by Chrisette Michelle
3. “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child
4. “Superwoman” by Alicia Keys
5. “Brother Sister” by Brand New Heavies
6. “Respect” by Aretha Franklin
7. “I’m Every Woman” by Chaka Kahn
8. “Golden” by Jill Scott
9. “Soldier of Love” by Sade
10. “I Am” by Lina
11. “I Can See in Color” by Mary J. Blige

With this mix, the best in R&B are represented from Aretha Franklin to Mary J. Blige. The songs are a good combination of oldies and some new. The best thing is that after listening to this mix a few times, something will resonate with you. A hook or some lyrics will repeat over and over in your head until oblivion. And, isn’t it true that what you think about all the time actually comes to fruition?

Just think, you can become happier, healthier, and more successful simply by letting the lyrics in those songs become mantras for your own life. Listen closely and let the strength of the message become the pep in your step, the glide in your stride, and the length of your posture. And, after listening to ONLY these motivational songs for a few weeks, I’ve been inspired to:

* do approx 1109 push-ups
* do approx 1436 sit-ups
* focus on the good
* welcome new and exciting opportunities
* take the time to write my own song!

Like Precious, you too can ascend from obscurity and be victorious. And with songs like these, it will make the struggle that much easier. Because more than likely, listening to music is probably what you already do. And, making some new choices can make all the difference with your energy and motivation levels. It’s also CHEAP and EASY to do.

After all, it’s not all about entertainment anymore. Listening to certain types of music is definitely therapeutic much like doing yoga, eating a good meal, or even taking medicine. It can actually help you to feel better but without any harmful side effects.

Try listening to motivational songs for yourself. What would you do with some extra motivation? Finish that novel you’ve been writing, tackle the treadmill, pursue that promotion, plan that trip, start that business, or go back to school? The possibilities are endless…

This article is dedicated to those precious girls everywhere…

Stay-at-home mom returning to work to pursue life-long dream of launching a successful music company. Together with her partner, they are building the web’s largest list of motivational songs to serve a a resource for people looking for some extra encouragement. To check it out, please click here: Motivational-Songs.com

Author: Jennifer Washington
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Elton John has been making music his entire life and made himself a big name in the 1970’s as the eccentric performer that sat at the piano wearing crazy outfits, huge sunglasses and creating hit after hit from his British studio. His fame even earned him to be knighted by the Queen and often goes by the title of Sir Elton today. His extensive work in charities particularly the Aids foundation has raised millions of dollars and this charitable part of him drew him to be close friends with the late Princess Diana. He was chosen to sing at her funeral and personalized his old favorite song of “A Candle in the Wind” to suit her. He continues to perform and raise money for his charities and will go down in history as one of the most influential musicians of our time.

The American equivalent in talent and success has to be Billy Joel. He is a native New Yorker whose career also took off in the 1970’s putting out one great album after the next to raise him to the top. Just like Elton John, he is usually seen crooning his great songs while sitting and playing on the piano. In fact one of his songs is called Piano Man. He is one of the most recognized singers of our time and continues to be in the news for his professional life as well as his private affairs including his once marriage to supermodel, Christie Brinkley.

A newer but just as talented singer and pianist is Alicia Keys. She came onto the music scene just several years ago when Oprah introduced a young classically trained pianist with a soulful voice that sounded well beyond her years. She was soon signed by a top record label following that show and has continued to create great music and chooses to play the piano for several of her songs with her talent. She will probably be the Elton John or The Billy Joel for this generation.

Many people that are more mature complain about the lack of talent that is successful in the music industry today but no one will dispute the talent of these talented musicians. Their vocals and piano skills are amazing and will be remembered long after they are no longer with us.

Connor R. Sullivan owns and operates a top ranking web site to help people find piano bench cushions to meet their most special decorating tastes. His daughter had a custom piano bench cushion made for her piano bench.

Author: Connor R Sullivan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Cardboard Shredders

If you’ve ever had to dispose of a lot of cardboard, you know how much of a pain it can be. Those cardboard boxes take up a lot of room even after they are flattened, plus they’re awkward to move. A cardboard shredder can help you with that by turning any cardboard you don’t need into useful packing materials. Intimus has two different cardboard shredders on the market: the PacMate and the PacMaster S 220v. These two machines make it easy for you to dispose of those pesky cardboard boxes and turn them into shreds that can either be recycled or used for packing material. Not only will you free up some much-needed space, you’ll be helping the environment by reusing and recycling! And if your company is on a budget (like everyone else these days), the PacMate is a reasonably priced machine that can not only create packing materials from cardboard, but newsprint and other types of paper as well. If you have more financial freedom and/or you need a really powerful shredder, the PacMaster S 220v is the machine for you. It will even help you cut your boxes down to a suitable size for shredding.

Multimedia Shredders

If your company routinely destroys media such as CD’s, credit cards, and floppy disks and your current paper shredder can’t handle such items, you definitely need a multimedia shredder such as Intimus’ Multimedia Particle-Cut Shredder or their 502CD Multimedia Shredder. Both of these shredders pulverize media so you can be sure that your sensitive data is totally destroyed, even if it’s on a CD-ROM or DVD. The 502CD machine has two different compartments so your shredded CD’s and DVD’s don’t get mixed up with your other waste, making for easy recycling. Meanwhile, the Multimedia Particle-Cut Shredder can not only shred CD’s and the like, it can destroy Zip disks, DAT tapes, and Superdisks. If you need the ultimate in multimedia shredding, the Intimus Multimedia Particle-Cut Shredder is the machine to get.

Pharmacy Shredders

Finally, Martin Yale, the parent company of Intimus, manufactures the ScriptStroyer pharmacy shredder, a machine that’s a must-have for every drugstore, doctor’s office, and hospital in the country. Anyone dealing with any kind of health-related information (prescriptions, medical charts, etc.) must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), a federal law that was passed to ensure patient privacy. Not complying with HIPPA (such as not shredding private information) can lead to big trouble, but the ScriptStroyer can help ensure that you stay on the right side of the law. This powerful machine shreds pharmacy labels as well as pill bottles, making it the ideal choice for total HIPPA compliance. It also has an automatic oiler, so it’s easy to maintain. The ScriptStroyer runs quietly, so it won’t create a ruckus in your medical office or drugstore. There isn’t another product like this anywhere on the shredder market, which makes Intimus/Martin Yale a leader in shredding technology, and one that clearly has its customers’ best interests in mind.

There’s more to the shredding world than just cross- and strip-cut shredders. Indeed, there’s a shredder out there for just about every need imaginable. If you’re in the market for a specialty shredder, be sure to give Intimus some consideration. Whether you need to shred cardboard, diskettes, Zip disks, or medicine bottles, there’s an Intimus machine that’s perfect for you.

To learn more about Intimus Shredders or to buy one of the units discussed in this article you should really check out MyBinding.com. They have great prices on the full selection of Intimus specialty shredders. In fact, they carry a huge selection of Paper Shredders from manufacturers such as Intimus, Fellowes, GBC Shredmaster, Martin Yale, MBM DestroyIt and Dahle. Check them out today!

Author: Jeff McRitchie
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Fast Forward. It’s 2013. Whatever has happened in 2012 has happened. I classify what people are predicting in three ways:

1) Complete Cataclysm in which survival impulses, if there are people, are the only things people will be pondering and acting on for years.

2) Major Civilizational Disruption – Again, through whatever means, (astral, solar, earth wobbling, warfare, weather calamities, etc.) civilization’s disruption puts everyone down at the bottom of “Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs” – We drop to survival methods, and since this is actually what we are wired for, we throw ourselves into this. There is little thought beyond survival projects – Food, warmth, shelter, self defense, physical security, protection of neighborhoods and communities, obtaining necessary resources and struggling mightily over all of the aforementioned.

3) Celestial Events and Minor Disruption – As I have said in my previous articles, it is hard to envision, not only what people “want”, but also what possibly could happen in regard to a major “spiritual awakening”. You will have to ask each prophet what their vision is. But let’s go along with the scenario and say that people are “imbued with a new sensitivity” to spiritual and religious topics. Let’s assume that “materialism” has taken a back seat to “meaning”. Let’s assume that limited resources have left us all with new found sense of our own interior and the sweet souls of our loved ones. Let’s assume that we are all collectively breathing a sigh of relief that ALL of the myriad things that we conjured up in our imagination did not happen! For days we just thank God that “all that stuff didn’t happen”.

Then collectively, like a million groundhogs living in a vast mound on a ranch in Eastern Colorado, we start peeping our heads out of our holes, cranking our necks around and staring at all the others who are also peeking out of their holes. For several months, we all stare at each other. The ones who never believed anything was going to happen are out first, kicking up dust and jumping around and pointing at all the silly people who actually thought the world was going to end. Then they realize that people don’t really appreciate that. So, even the Jerks get a sense of perspective: “What if all that stuff could still happen? A little fear creeps back in, and they take a newer spiritual outlook. They get thankful too, that what they feared in their innermost private selves did not actually kill them all. They also ponder.

For Months Religion is On People’s Minds, But Churches are Not Quite The Answer Anymore. Revisit the “Black Plague in Europe”.

During the years of the Black Plague in Europe, an amazing thing started happening. People watched as neighbors and loved ones dropped like flies. Funerals, hourly, daily and weekly, filled their lives. Moving dead bodies became the hottest jobs. And people wanted to be religious, or spiritual, but they realized that the Church did not have any answers! Oh, they were involved in cleansing and healing and preaching, but the people realized: “These guys don’t have any power over the Heavens, or the Powers that Be. They are just scaring me about my fate!”

The Black Plague, Some Say, Led To The Renaissance.

An amazing thing happened to Europe after the Black Plague, lowered populations caused an economic change up and down. Fewer workers made new technologies necessary. New crops were planted. Those who survived had a different relationship with the around simply because they were more valuable in terms of numbers. And lo and behold, people thought less of the church. Hold it. You would think they would get MORE religious. No, actually, giant movements were engendered, people theorize. The Reformation and other powerful religious ideas were seeded during this time. The super prominence of Roman power was now being eaten away by the bold new doubts of human minds.

What’s Next?

Of course, “what’s next” would be on everyone’s mind. People would start to say: “You know, whatever happened (you fill in the blanks) that Mayan Astrology thing really was right!” People would conclude that something amazing happened, but still we did not all get splattered!

An appreciation for the meaning of life, the individual spiritual path that people are on, and previously untried systems might be more talked about. The TV and Internet (if disruption did not destroy them) would be alive with the electricity of new currents of thought.

Something Else Might Happen!

People might just start thinking about all religions and see similarities in the systems. People might see the coming down of walls of separation. People might feel a great sense of brotherhood and a communion of the heart, that everyone had just gone through something historically unequaled and massively, society-changingly different.

They might just start talking about the basics of religion instead of all the things that they differ on. Someone might say: “You know Redemption is what people are after”. “And God is up there, we think.” And “Growth is a part of all human life, through our phases”. “And Birth Death and Renewal are fundamental to nature”. And “Who knows, maybe we do have multiple existences.” And maybe we should see every last soul who made it through this thing as one of “God’s Kids”. And “Maybe love is some super powerful animating force that lies in each soul.”

And just maybe some people come up with new constructions that embrace these ideas. And maybe that makes some people war driven, and others peaceable. And maybe great transcontinental arguments get started. And all the old people who have a lot to lose get furious. And maybe the new thinkers get an audience. And maybe the whole thing goes wild for years. And maybe some crazy guy comes up with some new name for this and a brushed off label from hundreds of years before gets burnished with a new shine. And maybe new and old and semi-old and semi-new all get thrown together in new ways. And then after a few years, all the craziness sorts itself out.

“TheoThanaCathartics” and “ChristoGnosticRomanism” and “JewishnessMessiahness” and “HinduBuddhisticShamanism” become new things, along with a bushel of other ideas that get thrown together in new ways. And maybe, because of this, people start seeing each other in new ways. And thousand pull their hair out, and thousands start combing their hair differently and thousands don’t think about their hair at all.

TheoThanaCathartics? A nutty eccentric comes up with the idea for a new religion that comes from the Cathars of the early Middle Ages. Every body says: “What a Nut”. And then they start saying: “What does “Theo Thana Cathartics” mean? And then somebody threatens his life and his kids. And they throw a rock through his window and he shuts the hell up.

And, so time passes, and the new children that are born just go up in a slightly different world, and they go on to make a new even more slightly different world than the one that existed before they were born, and then the people who were alive during the great transition all die; and then we go on, with new outlooks about God and our souls, and new ways of framing our fates and we go on —- growing. Check out Christofer’s new website: http://www.astrologygetalong.com/.

http://www.astrologygetalong.com/

Author: Christofer French
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Unix inter-process communication (IPC)

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9. Life isn’t fair

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably been warned that life isn’t fair. The saying is uttered so much that everyone begins to forget exactly what it means, and nobody stops to consider its meaning.  Is life not fair when you’re passed up for that promotion for which you’ve worked for months? Is life not fair when your neighbor can afford to buy a more expensive car than you can? Or, is life not fair when a close friend or relative is stricken by a serious illness but you are left unscathed?

In all of the above circumstances, life certainly isn’t fair, and this statement applies to high school as well. Life isn’t fair when you’re rejected from the National Honor Society because you participated in more out-of-school activities than in-school. Life isn’t fair when someone sitting next to you can solve an equation in two seconds, while you ponder over it for two hours. Life isn’t fair when athletes receive all the recognition while other clubs and activities are forgotten.

Not only is life not fair, but no matter what you do, you can’t make life fair. Most of the important decisions are completely out of your control and you have no power whatsoever to change them. There are those who are gifted in every respect, and there are certain people who fail utterly even though they’ve tried their hardest. And finally, even though several teachers told me that they disagreed with many of the school’s policies, their efforts to change them were in vain.

So therefore, in such an unequal world, how can one strive to succeed against all the odds? Some people would say to “try hard,” but sometimes trying hard is not enough in such an unforgiving environment.  As long as you’ve tried your hardest, however, what does it matter to everyone else? Sure, you could worry about what happened, but as an English professor once told her class, regret is an empty emotion. If things don’t go your way, there’s only one action you can take:

Accept defeat, and try again.

8. Take a wide variety of courses

Whereas many of the top ten on this list were prompted by my regrets or by experiences that I didn’t have, one of the positive decisions I made during my high school career was to take a variety of courses.

I would recommend that everyone take a wide range of courses, regardless of intended college major. For example, my parents and I were browsing through the course catalog in eighth grade and we stumbled upon a woodworking course. Even though I had no intention of becoming a carpenter when I graduated, I had enjoyed “industrial arts,” as it was then called at the Upper Moreland Middle School. While I was nervous on the first day of class as to whether I would benefit from the course, by January I had produced several pieces, all of which are still in use in our and other family members’ homes four years later.

I was also hesitant about putting AP Government on my roster at the end of my junior year. Again, I didn’t know whether I would benefit from taking a government class when I could have taken any number of easier courses. While I had some luck in that I took the course during what could have quite possibly been the most eventful presidential election in history, I enjoyed the class thoroughly and learned much general knowledge about political systems that will help me in the future as an American citizen and voter.

AP courses are also a great benefit. Through these courses and the related tests, I was able to accrue 18 credits before attending college and will be able to graduate in seven semesters. With the exception of one course (which didn’t even count for college credit at Penn State), I would recommend highly all of the AP courses that I took. Be cautious though – some of these courses do require quite a bit of work, and those who don’t think they can keep up would probably be best with a lighter schedule.

In conclusion, if you see a course you might enjoy or think might be of benefit in the future, take a chance and schedule it. AP courses are also a great chance to earn college credit in high school, so take advantage of these opportunities!

7. Keep your grades up in 9th grade

The Upper Moreland School District has a very good “transitional” program for helping students succeed in their freshman year of high school after attending the middle school for three years. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the high school, I didn’t have any idea of how difficult the workload would be.

For reasons that escape me now, I somewhat slacked off during 9th grade, earning a B average. While some of the courses I took were very difficult, I should have been able to earn better grades if I had tried harder. After I was ranked 59th in the class (in about the 22nd percentile), I decided to pull everything together and work harder, eventually graduating in 10th place. While a final GPA of 99.59 wasn’t bad by many standards, it wasn’t good enough to earn scholarships at Penn State or (even though I had decided against it before I received their final decision) to attend the University of Pennsylvania.

Most likely, I was misled into believing that 9th grade wasn’t important because of what some seniors said at an orientation day the year before I began high school. On the contrary, a poor performance in your freshman year will haunt you for the next three (or possibly even seven) years. Therefore, treat each course as if it could determine the rest of your life.

Depending on your goals, it could.

6. Ask around before taking courses

One of the worst mistakes I made in the past four years was not investigating the courses I was taking. Having no information on what a course was actually like or how it would benefit me in the future, I was blindly thrown into situations for which I could have been better prepared.

Three courses in particular come to mind when I look back at experiences I may have been better off without. While I won’t go into details, I will say that I gained little or no lasting benefit from these courses and could have better spent my time doing something else. However, looking at the past, I now realize that courses in which teachers attempt to “prepare students for college” are most likely not worth taking.

Throughout high school, I continuously heard certain teachers state their goals to “prepare students for college.” As far back as 9th grade, I took a class where the teacher asked students in the class to define hundreds of terms in a single weekend. While I spent hours completing the assignments and “preparing myself for college,” I remember very few of the terms now and have realized that college is actually easier than those teachers would have students believe. College teachers don’t require students to define hundreds of terms for homework credit.

I encountered the last and worst class of my high school career in my senior year. At times, the teacher of this course assigned over 10-15 hours of homework in a single weekend, and I received the lowest grades of my twelve years of school. In short, what I didn’t know was that most colleges, including Penn State, didn’t accept the AP credit for this particular course (even though I scored a four on the test), and that scholarships were awarded for higher grades as opposed to tougher courses. Therefore, my work was in vain – but I could have discovered all of this information by simply doing a little research before creating my schedule.

Therefore, while I’d like to say that the attitude of the teacher of a particular course shouldn’t have an impact on whether you roster the class, there are certain courses that simply aren’t worth the effort. Becoming an informed student is another step on the road to success.

5. Don’t be intimidated by college planning

In today’s world, successful people plan well ahead of the times. The typical retail chain, for example, begins ordering Christmas inventory in early January. Look at any celebrity’s success story and you’ll discover a hidden story where someone was outstanding in some activity at a very young age. Therefore, it’s not surprising that high school students are flooded by college propaganda. Somewhere in a pile of old papers I have a college admissions “road map,” which details how students can prepare for college as early as seventh grade!

Obviously, such a flood of information can be overwhelming. Between preparation for the SATs, decisions about which college to attend, and the pressure to keep the grades up, those I know who were inundated with this information took one of two paths of action: began their college search as early as tenth grade or put off the process until the last minute.

First, don’t check the box on the SAT’s which gives you the option of receiving information directly from colleges. Not only will you receive a thousand useless pamphlets that will require hours of your time to review, but you’re probably more likely to make the wrong decision because of a nice looking picture or an unsubstantiated promise.

Believe it or not, you probably already know where you want to continue your education. As early as the beginning of eleventh grade, my dad first brought up the idea of my attending Penn State. I pushed it aside, figuring I would look through all the pamphlets, attend visitations, and eventually make a grueling decision in crunch time. As a result, I visited ten colleges and spent a hundred hours or more of my time writing nearly twenty essays, having them proofread, and completing application after application.

In the end, I decided to attend Penn State anyway, which required no essays, and from which I had already received a decision before I even began applying to the other colleges.

I also took an SAT preparation course, but in truth, statistics agree that SAT preparation programs rarely, if ever, improve a student’s scores. Finally, as I discovered, attending an ivy league school doesn’t assure success in the real world – as I’ve heard from stories involving those who attended such schools. In most cases, a more reasonably-priced university will be as good as, if not superior to, the education offered at an ivy league school. One of my teachers at UMHS once told his students that the only reason private high schools appear prestigious is because they can afford to reject those who won’t succeed no matter how much guidance is offered. The same applies to ivy league universities – they appear exceptional because their reputation allows them to reject less capable students from their larger pool of applicants.

So, in essence, the college admissions process is simpler than you might think. Ignore all the rhetoric and decide where you think you would succeed and be happy, and stick to your decision.

4. Learn to drive at 16

The headline for this tip is somewhat misleading. Let me state that if I were the dictator of the world, the legal driving age would be 18. Since the driving age in Pennsylvania is 16, however, I have to include advice to learn to drive as soon as reasonably possible.

With the enaction of the new six month wait laws, however, I waited until I was 18 to learn how to drive. It wasn’t until after I knew how that I realized how important the skill of driving is to everyday life. It had never occurred to me how many seemingly insignificant tasks that would normally require days to be completed could be finished in a short time when one has the ability to drive to obtain whatever is needed. More importantly, I discovered that many of the commonplace activities in which many young people participate frequently (such as going to the movies), while not all that difficult before, become infinitely easier with the freedom to come and go as I choose.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that everyone obtain a license to drive back and forth from school every day. Driving to school is one activity I strongly recommend against. However, if you have the money to hold a license after you are 16½, then do so. While it might not seem important in the beginning, having a license earlier rather than later will save a lot of hassle when you really need one.

3. Don’t be afraid to pursue romantic relationships

Of all the tips I’ve included in this feature, this one is by far the most difficult to comprehend. Not only is it an awkward topic to discuss, but you probably won’t listen to what I have to say anyway. Hey, I didn’t listen to what anyone else had to say either.

While a number of experiences shaped my opinion on romance, one that stands out occurred during the fall of my senior year. Someone with whom I was enamored suddenly began making idle conversation and showing all the traditional signs of flirting. As the person in question was quite possibly one of the most “popular” students at UMHS, had won about every award imaginable, and most importantly had at least two other guys I knew swooning over her, I figured that what was happening was impossible. For weeks, I battled within myself as others attempted to convince me to ask her out, but eventually decided to give up because the embarrassment of rejection would be too great because of her “social status.”

It wasn’t until well after these events (and a conversation with some fellow students) that I was able to remove the dust from my eyes and realize what had actually been happening. Contrary to my belief, I wouldn’t have died had I decided to take a chance, and so-called “popular” people aren’t any different than anyone else. A girl doesn’t stare at a guy throughout an entire AP Government class for no reason!

On a side note, I was never very enthusiastic about attending school dances. While I had danced somewhat in the past, I ridiculously assumed that dancing was a laborious task that required years of practice to master. Therefore, I was nervous that by dancing, I would make an idiot out of myself. To make a long story short, since I hadn’t danced much before the senior prom, I believed that my lack of experience would be painfully obvious. As you can see by the picture of me that somehow made its way into the 2001 yearbook to be preserved for all eternity, it wasn’t that hard after all.

I should also note that I know someone whose parents “strongly recommended” against dating until the junior or even senior year of high school. This person was forced to reject four girls’ questions during his freshman year and not attend the annual dances and formals. As a result, this person was completely unprepared for later experiences when many of his peers had been associating with members of the opposite sex since they began high school.

And finally, one last tangent – if you’re stuck in a bind and a major dance is approaching, ask a friend. I made an entire weekend out of the senior prom to meet old friends, and I can say (as my “date” probably can as well) I had much more fun doing the things with the group that weekend than I would have looking across the table and smiling at a first date.

So in conclusion, if you’re in doubt, just ask. This statement applies to a number of life’s lessons, and it applies to relationships as well.

2. Be your own person

College, like many universities boast in their propaganda, is a place where you will meet people with a variety of interests. In high school, by contrast, everyone is (or appears to be) startlingly like each other.

Peer pressure is referenced constantly by the media. For example, parents are urged to talk to their children at a very early age to prevent them from being talked into taking drugs by their peers. All of this attention is given for a simple reason: peer pressure plays a huge role in high school life.

In college, however, the pressure vanishes overnight. There aren’t any popular “cliques” that are exclusive to certain people, nor is there a group of forgotten academics who put their grades above everything else. Whereas a student who sits alone at a cafeteria table in high school preparing for the next day’s classes would be labeled “weird” by those who care more about sports during high school, college students make no such divisions because there is one purpose to attending a university – to get good grades and graduate.

A fellow student and I joked about the state of the world’s affairs one day during my senior year. The premise was simple: one day, the jocks, who were the most “popular” kids in the school, would be the average joe, while the “nerds,” scorned by a large number of people for their studiousness, would be running the world.

At your fiftieth high school reunion, nobody will remember who was the most popular or who was involved in the most activities. Even Mr. Daher recognizes the impact of these social “cliques” when he said that each class tends to “pull together” around the time of the senior prom. It’s true – the social divisions vanish, and everyone is left with a realization that the “in” group wasn’t much different than everyone else who was trying to be accepted.

In short, if someone thinks you’re “strange” because you are unique among everyone else, it’s not the end of the world. Just because you aren’t part of the group that everyone looks up to doesn’t signify that you’re any less intelligent, attractive, or “cool” than they are. Be your own person and do what you want to do.

1. Get involved

“That’s the number one tip?” you ask. That’s right – my number one pointer is something that your teachers, parents, older siblings, and just about everyone else says every day. I must have heard this phrase at least a hundred times during my high school orientation process.

Unfortunately, I didn’t listen, at least in the beginning.

One of the biggest changes I swore that I would make when starting college was that I would become involved from the beginning. For some reason or another, in 9th grade I limited myself to the school orchestra. What high school orchestra, you ask? Actually, the orchestra fell apart at the end of the year, leaving me out of the loop in tenth grade.

During that summer, I had a revelation that I was missing one of the most important parts of high school life. As a result, I came back sworn to become involved, and that was one of the best decisions I ever made. I discovered an entirely new aspect to high school life. Why is it important to become involved early? Most of the upper positions in clubs are chosen from those already involved in the clubs, as one would expect. If you want to be the captain of the football team, join the team in 9th grade. If you want to be class president, join class council in 6th (!) grade. In short, as is true in the working world, the important positions are reserved for those who have been with an organization the longest.

I should note, however, that while I joined activities that I enjoyed, I also joined a few organizations for the sole purpose of being accepted to colleges. Attending meetings of these clubs was a chore that I didn’t enjoy, but I persisted because I believed that my résumé would look more impressive to college admissions officers and employers.

I found out too late that most admissions officers would prefer a fewer number of activities toward which a prospective student dedicates him- or herself rather than participation in every club imaginable. And even though I participated in so many activities, I still was unable to obtain a paying job during the summer of my senior year. Therefore, I recommend participation in activities that you enjoy to add a new dimension to your life, but don’t join clubs because some college in Indiana told you to “participate.”

Also, becoming involved in out-of-school activities isn’t a bad idea either. Myself, I was involved in more out-of-school activities than in-school organizations, and I enjoyed both equally. However, don’t expect to be nominated as Student of the Month or be accepted to the National Honor Society if you’re involved in out-of-school activities, simply because many of the awards at UMHS are given to those closely associated with school clubs.

Speaking of the NHS, however, I should add a word of caution. In eleventh grade, I was rejected from the society because I had concentrated on my out-of-school involvements. I immediately decided that I would get involved in so many clubs that they couldn’t possibly turn me down the following year. Surely enough, I was accepted, but into an organization that met once a month for five minutes and held one event during the entire year. Universities, for some reason, boast of the NHS as a club for the best of the best, while in reality the only goal in which it succeeded was to provide another means of further separating the all-around students from those who were more reserved in their participation.

In conclusion, get involved early. If you don’t, you’re missing out on exciting experiences that could never be had otherwise. But be involved because you want to be involved, not because you want to satisfy an admissions requirement.

——————————————————————————–
Steve Sokolowski holds a Masters’ degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Penn State University and is a professional software engineer at a large engineering firm. He created remixSite in 2009 to provide a non-profit place for composers of game music to share their music with the world. Stop by http://www.remixsite.org/ today to listen to some of the best game music around.

Author: Steve Sokolowski
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Spot #1: The Baths

Situated on the southern tip of Virgin Gorda, the Baths is one of the most well known and popular landmarks to visit in the BVI’s. Gigantic granite boulders and half submerged rocks line the southern seashore of Virgin Gorda, creating grottos, tunnels, and arches. Sandy beaches are lined with coconut palms and the area offers a dramatic and lovely place to swim, snorkel and explore.

A second beach in the area, called Devil’s Bay, is reached through a maze-like passage through the boulders and shallower grottos. The path is lined with ladders and ropes to ease the hike along steeper rocks.

Spend time exploring the area, with tidal pools of pristine clear waters, and white sand. Snorkeling is great, however more for the marine life, than coral, as this is not a reef area. Due to the various inlets and pools created by the landscape, marine life is caught here in the pools with each tidal change. Be sure to pay attention to the safety flags as certain weather can cause currents with heavy undertows in this area. However, even if swimming is cautioned against, there are always the rocks to climb and the white sandy beaches for sunning.

Spot #2: Bitter End Yacht Club

In the North Sound, located at the northern end of Virgin Gorda, is the home of the well known Bitter End Yacht Club.

The North Sound, once home to pirates Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins, was a remote quiet anchorage, rarely visited for centuries. In the early 60’s, a rustic bar and cottages existed clinging to the point of land on the north end of North Sound, which was a destination intended for adventurous sailors. The Hokins Family arrived, fell in love with the area, and built the resort into what it is today, which while offering resort style accommodations and services, still runs in true Caribbean style, using generators for electricity and cisterns for collecting rainwater.

The North Sound is still an attractive anchorage, made more attractive by shoreside establishments like the Bitter End Yacht Club. While in the anchorage, take advantage of the shoreside services offered at the Bitter End Yacht Club, which include a marina, pool, beach, water sports, restaurants and bars, and even a spa. The Clubhouse Steak and Seafood Grille has been a yachting landmark for years. This open air restaurant sports the burgees from hundreds of yachts and yacht clubs from all over the world. These flags flutter gently from the rafters in the breeze made from the numerous ceiling paddle fans, evoking a colonial Caribbean feel. The Clubhouse Steak and Seafood Grille buffet is well known for homemade soups, and breads, and if you have not tried a grilled Caribbean lobster, basted with butter, this would be the time and place for this uniquely Caribbean treat.

Spot #3: Jost Van Dyke

Jost Van Dyke is a four mile-long barefoot paradise known for its casual lifestyle, fine beaches and beachfront restaurants and bars. The Painkiller, a drink made from the Tortola local rum called Pusser’s Rum was created here at the world famous yachtsman’s bar named “Foxy’s”, named after Foxy, the long time Owner of this bar and restaurant.

Perhaps Foxy’s is best known as the spot to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Yachtsmen started congregating in Great Harbor several decades ago to ring in the New Year at Foxy’s. This has now become such a tradition, that it is wise to get to Great Harbor a day in advance for a good spot to anchor. As the New Year draws near, the harbor erupts with activity and the buzz of dinghies heading here and there, throughout the harbor, as everyone visits friends, and ultimately heads ashore for Foxy’s, to hail in the new year, dancing on the beach under the stars.

Although Jost measures just four by three miles, the island is rich in history. It’s been home to Arawak Indians, Caribs, Dutch, Africans and English. Jost was the birth place of William Thorton, architect of the US Capitol, and John Coakley Lettsome, founder of the London Medical Society, was born on nearby Little Jost.

Great Harbour is sheltered by small mountains and offers moorings. In White Bay, just around the corner from Great Harbour, is the Soggy Dollar Bar, so named as generally patrons must swim ashore for the cool Caribbean cocktails. All patrons lined up on the bar stools are usually dripping wet, including, as you probably guessed, the money in their pockets.

Jost Van Dyke has other offerings. Trace the old trails that connect the island. Explore the overgrown ruins of sugar mills. In the fall and winter, watch whales and dolphins from a hilltop. Or visit the bubbling pot at the East End, where the foaming sea forms a natural Jacuzzi. And you can stop by Foxy’s newest watering hole, Foxy’s Taboo, on Diamond Cay, at East End. You could walk across to Little Jost or take the dinghy to deserted Sandy Cay, the perfect castaway island for your own beach barbeque.

Stop #4: Soper’s Hole

Tucked away, on the western tip of Tortola, is Soper’s Hole and Soper’s Hole Marina. This area, also called the West End, is home as well to a British Virgin Islands customs clearance office with a dock that is used by ferries and yachtsmen alike. Across the harbor from the customs clearance office, on the other side of a small anchorage is Soper’s Hole Marina. The pirate Blackbeard, who real name was Edward Teach, once made his home in Soper’s Hole from 1715 to 1718. Called a “Hole” because of the protection offered by the deep cut of the anchorage into the surrounding hills, the harbor allows yachts to anchor with good weather protection. Soper’s Hole is a nice spot to stop while on charter in the British Virgin Islands as the same protection and calm anchorage that made Soper’s Hole attractive to Blackbeard, is attractive to yachtsmen today.

Surrounding the dock area are a series of brightly painted Caribbean style buildings creating a sense of a traditional Caribbean marketplace. Browse the shops for artwork, crafts and jewelry made from a stone local to the British Virgin Islands, or stop for a bite to eat at the Pusser’s Landing Restaurant and store.

Pusser’s Rum was the original rum of the British royal Navy and for over 300 years, the seamen on board a Royal Navy ship were issued a tot of rum, each day with a double tot of rum issued just prior to battle. The on board Royal Navy rum was doled out by the Purser on board, and so eventually the Purser’s rum became known as Pusser’s rum. In 1970, the daily rum tot tradition was abolished in the British Royal Navy and the recipe of the blend of 5 different West Indian rums was sold privately to the Owner of Pusser’s Ltd. This company was established in Tortola and the same rum served for over 300 years to the British Royal Navy was bottled and has now been sold to the public since 1980

Pusser’s Rum quickly became a favorite of visiting yachtsmen when cruising in the British Virgin Islands. A percentage of the proceeds from each bottle sold now go to the Royal British Navy Sailors Fund, known commonly as the Tots Fund. Soon after 1980, the now infamous drink, The Painkiller was born, only properly made with Pusser’s Rum. The Painkiller is now served in a variety of locations in the BVI’s. The best Painkillers, however, are claimed to be served at the Pusser’s restaurants, including Pusser’s Landing Restaurant in Soper’s Hole, where the Pusser’s Painkiller is ordered by number according to the number of shots of rum poured in each drink.

Attached to the Pusser’s Landing Restaurant is a Pusser’s Rum store selling products branded with the Pusser’s official label. In addition to Pusser’s Rum, Pusser’s Rum drink mixes are sold along with Caribbean spices and condiments, for a taste of the British Virgin Islands.

Missy Johnston was a charter crew on charter yachts for a number of years, has sailed in the British Virgin Islands as charter crew on yacht charters many times, and has personally visited each location included. Missy Johnston has been a crewed yacht charter broker for over 20 years and has organized many crewed yacht charters, including the itineraries, in the BVI’s,. For more destination information on the British Virgin Islands, please access http://www.njcharters.com/destinations/bvi.asp To read more about Missy Johnston and her background in crewed yacht charter, please access http://www.njcharters.com/people.asp

Author: Missy Johnston
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Evaluate your printing needs: Every organization has different needs for printing. Before buying a printer, you should analyze your needs and answer some questions – Do you need a printer just to print text, graphics printing or both? Need to print documents in large or small volumes? What is the priority – the quality or quantity? Do you need a printer that is shared by a working group or do you need for home users? Need a color printer or black and white printer? What is your budget? Once you are well versed with their needs, next door, you must upgrade the technical aspects of a printer.

Printer types: The market is packed with various types of bar code printers, such as printers, scanners and Med-matrix printers, label printers, laser printers and ink jet printers. The latter company is the multifunction printer. For printing text documents, inkjet printers and dot matrix printers are an appropriate option. For printing graphics and images, color laser printers make the best choice. Printing large number of documents that directly affect the speed and cost of printing. Again, if you need to print large volumes, but the quality is not a problem – for example, retail stores that need money to print the notes, etc. – dot matrix printers are the best option. However, if you’re looking for then the quality of laser printers are adequate. Multifunction printers or All-In-One printer can print, scan and fax too. They are very cheap and suitable for any office

Resolution: The quality and clarity of printing depends on the resolution of the printer. Top of the dpi (dots per inch) for the best printing quality. A monochrome laser printer, which normally has a resolution of 600 by 600 dpi to 1200 by 1200 dpi while a color printer has a low range of resolution 1200 by 600 dpi to 2400 by 1200 dpi. High-end laser printers to give you the best resolution is that between 2400 by 1200 dpi to 2400 by 2400 dpi. If your work requires professional ultra bright, clear printing of text and graphics, you should opt for a high resolution printer.

Speed: The speed of a printer is measured by the number of printed pages per minute (ppm). Inkjet and laser printers have three levels of quality, that is, the project settings, normal and best. Print speed is on the decrease with the increase in the level of quality. A reasonably priced ink-jet printer has a speed of approximately 28 ppm for black text and about 20 ppm for color graphics. A typical color laser printer in the other party has a speed of between 6-20 ppm for black text and 12 ppm for color graphics.

Paper Handling: In general all printers have the ability to print on standard paper, with letter and legal sizes. Most printers have personal input and output paper trays for paper handling facility. Paper-handling capabilities of inkjet printers is lower than laser printers. Purchase of inkjet printers by reloading the paper tray with more frequency than in a laser printer. High-end printers have a better paper handling and have an available option for both sides printing and printing on tabloid-sized papers too. If your need for printing is above average, to buy printers that have high capacity for handling paper and verify that the printer should print without bending or folding the sheet.

Report: High-capacity memory helps to increase the speed of the printer and it is very beneficial to the needs of printing graphics. If you are planning to change your printer with a printer of high memory, review your current printer for memory expansion. Some printers have the option to upgrade the memory. It is advisable to buy everything in one printer with large memory capacity and greater functionality.

Connectivity and compatibility: Buy a printer that is compatible with your system. Also check that the printer has software that matches your network if you plan to install a printer from working. Buy printers that have a USB port so that they can be easily connected. USB 2.0 connectivity provides faster than USB 1.1 port. To fulfill their needs for network printing, it is necessary to have an Ethernet port.

Compare prices: Review and compare prices before buying a printer. Calculate the gross expenditure, which includes cost of the printer, the cost of packing and shipping cost. Often dealers add hidden fees to the cost of the printer after you place the order. Compare the cost with other vendors before making the final agreement. To meet their printing needs in its budget, buy multifunction printer that meet their need for a scanner, fax and printer.

Buy online: for the safety of the printer shopping online, be sure to ask everything regarding mode of payment services, technical support, warranties, guarantees, shipping policy, private and the policy of return policy . Buy only reliable printers distributors to make sure you are buying genuine high-quality printers and not the duplicate ones.

For more info of this article please visit at www.barcodeblog.net.

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Now there are many different styles of work, from the plain and simple lines of the Quakers, to the highly decorated Queen Anne pieces with turned legs and curved fronts, to the ultra modern pieces that infuse wood and other materials. In my mind the best style is Arts and Craft. I think there is a lot of agreement with that choice. One of the things I have learned since I began to research the Arts and Craft movement is that the style is not limited to just the furniture. It’s a whole package which can encompass your entire house. If you doubt this, go to your local DIY store, where you will find an ever increasing supply of Hardwood Oak moldings and trim. Or go to any of the thousands of furniture stores, and even though a lot of the stuff is particle board and laminate, a lot of the designs have very strong Arts and Craft influences. When we moved into our current home, we had the standard builder’s grade painted 1 3/8″ molding on every door and window. As time and budget has allowed, we have replaced every single piece of it with wide, stained oak molding. We recently replaced the stair risers and treads with oak, and most of the carpet has found its way to the junk yard. Why, because we love the look and feel of real wood. Most of the furniture I make is either a reproduction of an Arts and Craft piece, or a variant of it. The furniture that we have purchased is either Leather or Danish Modern.

Both the Leather and Danish Modern blend well with the Arts and Craft design, Most of the early work done by Gustav Stickley, the father of the Arts and Craft movement in America, was done using the natural beauty of the Wood and Leather. The only difference I can see between the Arts and Craft and the Danish Modern, is the choice of finish. The original Arts and Craft pieces tended to be rather dark, while the Danish Modern is a light, oil based finish. Both styles of furniture feature simple lines and honest craftsmanship. Some of the Danish pieces are too eccentric for my personal taste, but I have to admire the craftsmanship.

The Arts and Craft Movement in America can trace its humble beginning back to late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. Most of the furniture of the era was being mass produced, highly decorative, and to some, shabby in appearance and workmanship. While at the same time, Europe was under going a cultural revolution, lead chiefly by William Morris, who later became infamous for his “Morris Chair”, and fellow Britisher John Ruskin, against this mass produced, and highly decorated style of furniture. These followers of the Arts and Craft Movement preached a return to handcrafted styles and a philosophy of a simpler life. The young American, Gustav Stickley, during a trip to Europe, became a disciple of the movement and the world of woodworking and furniture in America was forever changed.

Upon his return to America, Gustav opened his “Craftsman Store”, in 1898, where he perfected his unique design. His work was based on rectilinear designs, featuring mortise and tenon joinery, or dovetails. These joints were celebrated, not hidden, as it was in the Victorian pieces. One of the tenants that Gustav believed in was hand craftsman. This ultimately led to his company’s demise. In 1916, a short 18 years after it inception, Gustav Stickley filed for Bankruptcy.

While his stay in business was short, Gustav’s legacy lives on today. Many of his designs are still copied and his original pieces now are in museums or private collections. Their monetary value is unreachable for most.

Gustav had two younger brothers, Leopold and John George, who were also very accomplished craftsman. Together they opened their own company, “L & JG Stickley, Inc” in 1904. The L & JG Stickley Company is still in business today. Although it is no longer held by the Stickley Family, they still produce high quality furniture of the Arts and Craft era. Leopold and John George also believed in hand crafting the furniture, but understood that machines could be used to get the piece to the point that hand workmanship could complete the piece.

The Stickley’s were not opposed to machinery, they just the rejected the sloppy workmanship that mass production and machines brought to the work place. A concept that still plagues some work places over 100 years later, perhaps it’s not too late to learn from Leopold and John George. Today we would call this a “strong work ethic”, but what ever you call it, it worked, because in 1918, Leopold and John George purchased the bankrupt “Craftsman Store”. Leopold and John George are also responsible for the 1905 introduction of the Mission Oak design that is still very much in vogue today. And in 1922, they introduced their “Cherry Valley Collection”.

A lot of other names have been associated with the Arts and Craft Movement, too many to name. However, in my mind, no discussion would be complete without adding the names, “Greene & Greene”. Charles and Henry Greene were not actually furniture builders, but rather Architects, along the line of Frank Lloyd Wright. When commissioned to design a home, they also designed the furniture to go in the home, this was a strict requirement. If the client could not afford their furniture, Greene and Greene would require that they purchase furniture from Gustav Stickley. The Greene and Greene designs varied from the traditional Arts and Craft, their choice of wood was Mahogany, instead of Oak, and instead of straight stretchers, their Asian influenced designs have a “Cloud Lift “. Often the Cloud Lift was repeated in the bottom of the apron. Today’s woodworkers can replicate the Cloud Lift detail with a template and a router. I marvel at the skill it took the original craftsman to do this.

Another design element that identifies the Greene and Greene style is the use of inlaid ebony pegs into major joints. These pegs were either decorative, when used to cover a screw, or structural. After a mortise and tenon were fitted and glued in place, a hole was made in the side of the leg into the tenon. A corresponding ebony peg was inserted into the hole, creating incredible strength. The ends of the pegs were shaped to add visual interest.

Greene and Greene home and furniture designs were published in a magazine, created by Gustav Stickley, fittingly enough named “The Craftsman”. The magazine was also an avenue for Gustav to spread his gospel regarding all manners of life. If you were to compare the writing in “the Craftsman” to those of today’s DIY magazines, you would truly note that the authors of the Arts and Craft movement were more renaissance men than strictly woodworkers. They shared their beliefs on all matters of life.

There has been some confusion about the name, Craftsman home. Some feel that the name represents the design concepts of the Arts and Craft Movement, while other think of the “Craftsman Home” sold by Sears. From about 1908 to 1940, Sears manufactured a line of stick built homes that were sold from a catalog and delivered to the job site with all of the pieces cut and labeled. Sears had over 400 stock designs, but allowed individual customers to modify any of the Plans. Sears reportedly sold some where between 70 and 75 thousand of these homes. Out of the Arts and Craft movement, also came some interesting, and some what dangerous, methods of finishing. Gustav Stickley and his followers advocated “Fuming” as the finish of choice. Now remember, this was long before, OSHA, and the workers rights movements. The completed pieces were placed in an “airtight” room, and exposed to high strength ammonia. The tannins in Oak, will react to the ammonia, and color the wood. This is a practice not in use anymore in industry, as working with the high strength ammonia is a health risk. Just like I marvel at the craftsmanship, I often think about the workers who day after day carried the wood into the fuming rooms, having little or no breathing protection.

What actually killed the original Arts and Craft Movement? Historians tell us that World War One was the Death knell to the movement. With the country at War, most of the able bodied men left the factories and shops in support the war effort, including the craftsmen and artisans of the day. Factory productions were switched to supporting this effort, leaving few resources for furniture manufacturing that wasn’t strictly functional. Returning GI’s, brought back with them a new love for the Art Deco look which was very popular in Europe.

I think that there are probably two other factors that created the end of the movement, the 1930’s brought about the great depression, where people were much more concerned about actual survival, then obtaining quality furniture. The second thing is a problem that still haunts us today, a knowledge drain.

With the skilled craftsman leaving to go to the Europe and the Asian theaters of War, their knowledge left with them. The woodworking guilds closed down as the craftsmen left and those who took their places in the workplace were unskilled laborers. As woodworkers, I think we can all agree that the difference between an average woodworker and a craftsperson, is often training under a skilled master woodworker.

So there you have it, if you are like me, I look for every book or article I can find about the Arts and Craft movement. Not because I want to build everything in the book, I don’t have the room, time or budget for that, but because I love the style. If you’re new to the Arts and Craft style, you came at a good time, recently there has been a renewed interest, and with that brings more information, books, and CD’s. Go find a project you like, and work at it, but be careful, you might get hooked on the style.

The Jersey Woodworker has been a successful woodworker for over 30 years. To see more of his tips and projects please visit Sawdust on the Floor

Author: Dave Salow
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Ace Agent. I can’t say it enough. Your home is likely your biggest financial asset and its sale should only be put into the hands of a star real estate agency. Educate yourself. Interview at least three agents. Ask critical questions and call their references. Collaborate with your mate and decide together. Seek skill, high level of practical experience, professionalism, and integrity of business practices. Make sure they have a full escrow support staff and find out how they’ll manage your sale when they’re traveling or on vacation. Like a doctor who does ten surgeries a day vs. one who does two, the more practical experience, the better your chances for positive results. Once you find the agent who has the skill level you are seeking, strive for a good personality match and then rely on your intuition to make the final decision.

R-e-s-p-e-c-t. Be respectful of your agent and their staff and expect to be treated respectfully in return. That being said, if you’ve made a sincere effort to work things out and it’s just not working, hire a new agent. It may not be comfortable, but your financial well being could be affected for years to come. I did this and my second agent was not only a gem to get along with, but he listened well, was a good negotiator, got the job done, and did it with professionalism.

Bug Screen. Find an agent who’s willing to screen prospective buyer calls and will only send qualified buyers to your door. While agents aren’t magicians or mind readers, they can do their best to find out ahead of time if buyers are qualified for a loan, can pay cash, or if they are simply people who go to every open house in the county as a hobby. Let the agent work out the “buyer bugs” behind the scenes so you can carry on with your daily life and work and continue to prepare for moving your entire household and family. If you interview agents who say they don’t have the time or staff to screen buyers, interview more agents until you find one who is happy to do it for you. My second agent offered to pre-screen buyer calls before I even asked.

Underwear Drawer Blues. If you’re a gregarious person who loves drop-by visitors and lots of people in your home, it may not bother you to have potential buyers peering into your cabinets, toilet, and home office, commenting on everything from your style of decorating to the shampoo you use on your hair. But for those of us more private personality types who prefer quiet evenings at home reading and being alone with our mate, it can be downright unnerving to feel like your whole life is under a microscope. Forgo a lockbox and ask your realtor to notify you at least an hour in advance of any showings. Leave your home during the showings so you don’t feel pressured to answer buyers’ questions and so you won’t have to hear their comments about your underwear closet.

Serene Showings. I learned to turn the time I had to leave my home for showings into something positive. I parked my car on the street so I could see the prospects come and go and would therefore know when I could return to my home. Like moms who wait in their car for their kids at soccer practice, I used that “found quiet car time” to read a book, make a call to a friend on my cell phone, or say a prayer. (That my house would sell!) I also kept a notebook in my car to record writing ideas, business brainstorms, and decorating ideas for my new home. Even though it was difficult to leave my home office so many times a week, I made my best effort to use the time wisely and stay in a positive frame of mind.

Clutter Buster. Declutter your home before the sale. Put possessions like trophies, awards, and family photos in storage. Buyers need to see the space well enough so that they can visualize themselves living there with their own furniture and belongings. Clean windows, new plants, and fresh paint are important. If your décor is dated, it may help to hire a real estate staging expert, but be cautious about anyone who advises you to spend huge sums of money. Have them walk through and give you ideas, and then implement their suggestions yourself as your intuition and budget guide you to do. Remember that if you decide to take your home off the market and it’s been staged, you may not feel comfortable living there and your personal things will be in storage. I hired a real estate stager, implemented her suggestions, and I felt it helped sell the property. But I also felt like I was living in a stranger’s house which was a downer for a homebody type like me.

Beautiful Experiences. Be sure to find something to do that will bring beauty and happiness into your life while you wait. Paint a picture, go see a play, hit some golf balls, or walk on the beach. Do whatever you find enjoyable for you and your family; it’s a tonic for the spirit. During our 30 day escrow, which lasted the entire Christmas holidays and disrupted our seasonal plans, I accepted a last minute writing assignment for an article that was later published in a popular national decorating magazine. Yes, really. By focusing on someone else’s beautiful home and telling their happy family story, it enabled me to remember that my home would finally sell and I’d have a serene home life once again too.

Plentiful Paperwork. Be prepared for an onslaught of paperwork and keep it organized. Legal documents abound during a home sale transaction and it’s best to start a file for them before an offer ever comes in. I purchased a brown legal size accordion file folder from the office supply store to store escrow papers as they arrived one by one. Once the transaction was over, I organized them into several labeled manila file folders and archived them to my storage closet. And I was thrilled when a few weeks after the sale I received all my signed escrow documents on a CD from my real estate agency and could file the CD right along with my own papers.

E-mail Elephants. Yes, a home sale will create e-mails in your in-box the size of an elephant. Accept that fact and plan ahead. I opened up a file folder in my e-mail program with my real estate agency’s name on it and every incoming and outgoing e-mail was put in that folder. It enabled me to stay on top of what was happening during three escrows, and it also helped keep track of forms that were attached to the e-mails and had to be signed and faxed back to my agent or his escrow officer. My agent and I worked almost exclusively by e-mail and it worked great.

Contented Kids. If you have to leave your home on short notice, it’s not always easy to “grab the baby and go with a toddler also in tow.” To make it easier, keep their stroller and a big bag packed with snacks, bottles, diapers, wet wipes, and other essentials as well as toys and books by the front door so you can leave on short notice and avoid cranky kids. If the weather is bad, head for the car and take a little drive. Depending on their age, present the move as a fun adventure, talking up positively that they will soon have a cute new room and a new school with great friends. Don’t let your own anxieties show to your children; they need stability, reassurance, and love during this time.

Weekend Getaway. Yes, really. Maybe you can’t afford to jet off to a tropical island, but if your in-laws will keep the kids for even one night so you and your mate can check into a nice hotel or B&B for some rest and romance, do it. Ask your agent not to contact you unless it’s an emergency. During our escrow, my hubby and I drove to Palm Springs for a getaway. The warm desert weather, watching old movies together, going for walks through the beautifully decorated Christmas shops, and attending a moving Christmas church service were a balm to our spirit and gave us grace to face the delayed holiday closing and the big move ahead. It also helped us get perspective and give thanks for our blessings.

If you’re in the middle of a trying home sale, keep the faith. With the combination of some advance planning and sweet serendipity, you and your family will be walking over your new threshold in no time and into the newest happy chapter of your lives.

Copyright 2008 Kathryn Bechen and Kathryn Bechen Ink. All rights reserved worldwide.

Kathryn Bechen is a professional home & garden author whose work has been published in magazines, newspapers, and online. For your downloadable copy of her e-book, Moving With Ease: The Eight Week Plan for a Stress Free Move, please visit http://www.KathrynBechenInk.com

Author: Kathryn Bechen
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Did you know that almost everyone has had to deal with Acne at one time or the other be it as adolescents or even as adults? One would then have to really be surprised at why most people still don’t what Acne really is, What causes it and how to treat it.

Lets ask this question. Is Acne that Big a Problem?

Acne is not terminal in anyway and can not really have a serious adverse effect on ones health. The reason we are concerned about it is that it can really eat up ones self confidence. I guess you would agree that anything that affects a persons self confidence is important enough to give some quality time addressing. This then means we really need to know its causes so as to know how to effectively treat it.

We’ve all heard many interesting theories and insider stories about causes of Acne ranging from diet issues, to hygiene and Stress to name but a few.

This article is not meant to shock you but to tell you the truth based on researched facts. Did you know that washing ones face too frequently can contribute to it? I am not trying to promote uncleanliness but the truth is that washing your face twice a day is your best bet.

We all agree as far as common sense dictates that a well balanced diet is good in fact ideal for living well (this also includes the skin) But eating your chocolates, pizza and all those “junk” has not been scientifically proven to cause Acne.

But surely, stress must cause Acne! Well, lets have some proof because there is no evidence to support such claims.

What about the gains of sun bathing? Many of us like a nice tan. T he truth is that it may mask Acne symptoms but would certainly not cure it. We have lots of documented proofs on the other hand of the harmful effects of the sun on our dear skin.

What then causes Acne?

The body like we all must know has its own private Army. When the skin pores are clogged, oil and bacteria are trapped within and the body sends it Army to the rescue. The ensuing fight leaves the skin with inflammations no wonder they say ” when two elephants fight, the grass suffer” skin here is the grass. ( that was on lighter note)

Seriously now, can this condition be treated? certainly but I am sorry to add that seeking and finding the right treatment would involve some trial and error.

When you have found a treatment that works for you which you should know after using a product for about 8 weeks (Note any product that doesn’t show improvements after about 8 weeks, should be discontinued and another option sought), add these simple tips to further improve the result you get.

1, Do not squeeze, pick or play with the affected spots
2, Wash your face with a mild cleanser.
3, Use cosmetics labeled noncomedogenic and finally,
4, Follow the instruction given with whatever product you choose.

Like I said earlier, give it 8 weeks to determine it effectiveness.

Now, that was interesting and I’m hoping that we all now have facts about Acne and we would be looking forward to building back our self confidence by getting the most out of our skins.

Happy skin make over.

Chimerenka Odimba is the publisher of Skincare.getting-ahead-in-life.com where he has huge reserve of information on skincare and health.
Get more help at http://skincare.getting-ahead-in-life.com

Author: Chimerenka Odimba
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Under the social bookmarking system, online users can save links that they would plan to share to others or just remember for whatever purpose. While social bookmarks are usually public, they can be saved privately if the online user thinks there is a need to do so. The online user has the option to share the links to a certain group of people that he or she deems interested to the information contained within the website or web page. The bookmarked websites can only be viewed by the permitted online users.

Social bookmarking offers a string of benefits, especially for website owners who aim to popularize or advertise their websites. Since social bookmarking allows users to share content with other online users, there is a high chance of getting more traffic since users tend to work in a collaborative way. In social bookmarking, users can create accounts that help them to extend their networks to other users as well. Bookmarking is organized these days since users can set categories on the websites they want to keep or share.

For most search engine optimization experts, social bookmarking is a great help in making websites more popular in the online community. Social bookmarking tends to target the grassroots that is actually an effective way of targeting the right set of audience or market online. If there are a significant number of online users that bookmarked an article, video or podcast, the other online users consider the bookmarked material more interesting and credible. And this means, more could be interested in viewing the bookmarked material online.

Author is an expert in Search Engine optimization. If you want to know more about our SEO services, Visit us here at Bookmark Services.

Author: Sarkar Kumar
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Spyware and Viruses are both classified under a broader heading labeled as Malware. Malware refers to malicious software. Malicious software can be written to do anything a computer is capable of but is most often used to track user activity or collect user’s private information without the consent of the user. These malicious programs often are designed to transmit the collected information to a computer on the internet where it is combined into a database with the information of thousands of other users and then sold to advertisers or to anyone willing to pay the right price.

Technically the difference between a virus and spyware is that a virus has the ability to reproduce and spyware does not. Historically viruses have been used with a harmful intent toward either the infected computer or some other target whereas spyware has been used for data collection. Whatever the intent of the malicious software there are often negative effects on the infected computer which include reduced performance.

How does a computer become infected with malware? Sometimes hackers will break into a system and plant malware directly, most often though viruses are passed around by way of virus files impersonating legitimate files. This can be done through email attachments and increasingly commonly through file sharing downloads. For example you might use limewire or some other file sharing application and look up a song that you would like to download. You find a match and download it. Very risky, here’s why. File sharing applications generally do not verify that a file is what it claims to be. I could upload a file saying that it is a country song when actually it is a rap song.

Also pay careful attention each time you install a new application onto your computer. You will often find the installation program asking for permission to install spyware. The program won’t blatantly identify itself as spyware; it will have a friendly name like update manager, or service helper. Be very wary of such added installation programs, some are legitimate, many are not.

Perhaps I will overstate this because I am in the trenches on a daily basis on behalf of my customers but the fight against malicious software is a daily battle. The “bad guys” come out with new stuff every day and “the good guys” are constantly fighting them off. There is a huge industry built on the basis of this battle and profits are being made on both sides. Sadly, you the consumer are paying the price.

What can you do to protect yourself and stay out of the fight? You can start by reducing your exposure to danger. Stay out of high risk areas. These would be peer to peer file sharing sites and adult related sites just to name two, I am sure you can think of more. Also be sure that if you are opening an attachment in an email that you know the sender and you are expecting the attachment. Even then there is a risk.

After reducing the exposure your next step is to install and update reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware software. The discussion and debate about these programs could fill volumes but I will try to be brief here. You will need to do some research into the points I will make. Some of the biggest names in protection are known to be very expensive and sometimes be so intrusive into your computer that they cause your computer to run noticeably slower. Test results show that these “big” name programs do not perform any better than lesser known programs. In fact some of the best performing programs are relatively unknown outside of the computer security circle and usually cost far less. There are even a few very good programs that are free.

The bottom line here is that you need to have anti-virus and anti-spyware software installed and it needs to be updated regularly.

A slow running computer can really be frustrating and is not something you have to live with. There are several options for bringing your computer back up to speed. You can find more information about causes and methods of correction for computer issues, or you can have your computer repaired online right now.

Author: Taylor Allin
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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When I was in college (the first time around), I was always told to find a niche and keep it
simple. Little did I know at the time, I was learning a sound business principle. After all, there
is nothing simple about Ebay, Yahoo, or Google.

Or is there?

There was. At least at first. All three built their “foundations” on one particular thing
they did well. Ebay for instance was the place to buy and sell Pez dispensers in its early days.
Yahoo was only a search directory and Google a search engine. No other real products or
services. In other words they kept it very simple and did what they did best.

I’m an entrepreneur. My mind is complex. Chances are, if you are reading this, so is yours.
Some days we are ready to conquer the world, some days we are in bed late licking our wounds from
trying to conquer it yesterday.

Zen is at work here. There is a yin and a yang pulling us in either direction. The secret is to get centered, focused, and open to learn.

There are many “opportunities” on the Internet. I put opportunities in parenthesis because, as you
may know from my previous writings, I do not believe in Internet gurus. The only way they are gurus
is that they make money off your hard earned money and time promoting themselves. If that is a guru to you, go get him, tiger. To me, it is another snake-oil cyber-sales con man/woman.

The other day I was looking at some statistics of what were the top sellers (especially at Ebay); and, of course not surprisingly, Ipods, consumer electronics, Armani, Gucci, and the usual suspects. I even did further research to find out the few legitimate wholesaler/drop shippers Could this be my “big break”? When I say big break, I do not mean “finally make money on the Internet”. I have been doing that for several years and it is virtually on autopilot now. Am I in the league with Bill Gates? More like a barbarian at the gate. But I do okay.

So I looked over the list of brands and items and common sense (fortunately) took over and replaced my ego. If these, are indeed the biggest sellers, someone out there is selling them, probably a lot of
sellers, and I am not the only one reading this and making a big new discovery.

I have a slight advantage over some entrepreneurs (and this is not to discourage you, you can have the same advantages if you work at it); I own a large cartoon site with copyrights to the images.

I own several stores that sell a myriad of products, but none of them really specialize in a niche product. I want to try what the superstars tried when they got started. My “success” evolved over the years by having a following; but not necessarily because I was using the marketing technique of
“finding a niche”.

So after more research I opened a “funny apron shop”; yes that’s right, funny aprons. Nothing too sexy about funny aprons of course. I don’t expect Austin Powers to come forward and say “Funny aprons, Shagadellic!!!” But you never know. The minute I started listing the stores in directories and search engines, people started buying. Yes, a cyber-field-of-dreams. Build it and they will come.

Find your niche today on the Internet. It is not rocket science. Find out what the top sellers are and
refuse to sell them. You are in a land of sharks and unless you have a trust fund and a lot of patience
the sharks will look at you as their main en tree’.

Then research further, and find a product on the web that people need, and use, and make it
a little different than what others are selling.

Sure, I did a Google search and plenty of folks were selling aprons and some even selling
funny one; but not one vendor was selling cartoon-themed offbeat aprons geared toward the
baby boomer, who, like me, was weaned on Gary Larson’s Far Side, and missed it greatly, or at
least the offbeat humor of it after Gary retired.

Though I don’t, for a moment, put myself in that great cartoonists league, I do understand the spirit, the essence of the humor, and can purvey it adequately if not professionally onto quality cotton products such as aprons.

Sure I sell totes, key chains, sweats, t-shirts mouse pads, etc. on my other sites, but this new site is just one who is looking for funny unique aprons whether as a gift or collectible.

Find your niche whether it is cell phones (a certain kind), chocolate, pet treats, organic dried fruits, your own private coffee label (yes I have one of those too), or whatever you think will sell; perhaps
do an informal survey or focus group and you would be surprised what people want.

The promote, promote, promote with blogs, article writing, ppc engines, pinging, and every other method of which you can think. Suddenly you will wake up successful. The odds are on your side.
The harder you work, the more research you do, the more action you take, the luckier you get. In fact,
the big dogs did the same thing to become big dogs, and they have nothing on you, if you just allow
yourself to take the action. Keep an open mind and be prepared for some mistakes. You will make
some.

It is not how many times you fall down that count, but how many times you get back up. So get back up and get back to work. Good luck!

Rick London is a writer, cartoonist, inventor, and entrepreneur. In 1997 he launched what is not the largest independent online cartoon site londonstimes.us and this week launched a “funny aprons store”; with aprons bearing his cartoons at [http://www.justfunnyaprons.com] He is known for his Londons Times Superstore at http://www.londonstimessuperstore.com and quality items at http://www.ricklondonwear.com

Author: Rick London
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital Camera Times

So, what is a slideshow widget?

First of all, a web widget is simply any kind of web application that you can add to your own webpage, community profile, or any other website that allows html codes. If you’ve ever been to a social website like Myspace, you’ve probably seen a lot of cool gadgets and tools on people’s profiles. Surveys, pictures, and videos that users like are usually embedded in the page. These widgets are free and easily used as a viral tool for the companies that create them – users pass on the videos or photo collections they like to other people they’re connected to via a simple link or a few lines of html that they cut paste.

A slideshow widget is a collection of photographs that move frame-by-frame to the next image. Users can add captions, music, and in some cases, video and user-created sound clips.

Why are slideshow widgets good for marketers? Viral webmercials!

First of all, any widget that gives viewers or users the capability to pass their creation on is a good thing for marketers, period. Users pass on what they like – and they’re used to it. Myspace addicts pass on all kinds of internet goodies on a daily basis. (Most likely, they do this when they are supposed to be working. Myspacers are notorious for using their space during work hours and typically consider social media incredibly addictive…) Every video on YouTube or Google has the option of emailing it to a friend. Internet users are becoming accustomed to viewing media – not just text – online. And when they like it, they share it.

Why make a slideshow webmercial?

A slideshow widget can be used to create an online commercial for use on your business website, social networking profile, or anywhere else that html can be embedded. If you haven’t noticed, a lot of the big media companies are adding “webmercials” to their websites. This kind of marketing typically costs a lot of money – the kind that consists of hiring an ad agency with the technical expertise and the marketing-savvy to get it produced, direcibuted, and perfected. The traditional webmercial is a streaming media marketing video, similar to short clips that can be viewed on YouTube or at the beginning of the footage shown on news websites (like CNN). Slideshow webmercials are not as high-tech, but can still be an effective and professional medium for marketing to customers using rich media formats. (If you’re having trouble with the concept of webmercials or slideshows, scroll down to my author box where I link to a few of our webmercials created on-the-fly…)

If you’re looking to add some multimedia to your website, and you don’t have the technical skills or resources to hire a flash designer or design a minisite, a slideshow can be crafted easily to showcase your products or services.

Creating a slideshow webmercial for your business

There are a few different sites on the web that offer strong capabilities when it comes to slideshows. Do a search for “photo widgets” on Google. My favorites are RockYou (http://www.rockyou.com) and Slideroll (http://www.slideroll.com). RockYou is the easiest option if you are not the most tech-savvy but have some good graphics and a general idea of what you want to say or showcase. Slideroll has software that allows you to download some software and add your own media as well as a premium upgrade, if you want more of a slick, professional feel and you have access to licensed music or your own video feeds.

Tips for a successful slideshow webmercial:

1. Decide what you are promoting. If you simply want to show off a few products from your online catalog, choose the best images you have. If you’re promoting an event, you’ll want to choose the best photos from the bunch. If you want to tell a story, you can use clip art or stock photos for a slick, professional edge. It takes a marketing eye to know what works, so you may want to consult with business associated or friends if you don’t have your own marketing department.

2. Remember it’s all about branding. The text and music you add should reflect your business or the commercial’s theme. For example, if you own an online boutique that sells hot club clothing, you’ll want to play hip club music rather soft classical music. If you are a virtual assistant, you’ll probably want to keep the music slow and professional. A webmercial communicates to two primary senses – sight and sound. Make sure you don’t annoy your prospects with music that isn’t synced to the visuals.

3. Get to the point – quickly. You’ll want to grab your viewer’s attention with a strong opening image. Keep your message simple and stress your benefits. A webmercial allows you to the opportunity to “show” and “tell”. But nobody wants a webmercial that shows your entire business plan.

4. Don’t forget a call to action. At the end of your webmercial, close the sale. Ask for action. Post your website address or email address. Tell them about your Yahoo group. You don’t have a lot of room, so send them to either your primary home on the web or whatever part of your web promotion you are trying to expand.

Getting eyeballs to your slideshow webmercials

You can embed your webmercial in any format that accepts basic html and/or JavaScript. You can post your webmercial on your own social networking profiles or your close (and I mean close) friends and business associates. Other users that create slideshows also have access to yours if you make sure that your “profile” options are not set to private.

A few tricks to getting people to view your webmercial:

1. Use a webmercial as an intro to your site (i.e. landing page…)

2. Cut and paste the code into Myspace, Bizpreneur, and any other social networking website profiles you may own.

2. Bookmark your slideshow using social book marking websites (such as Digg or Del.icio.us)

3. Link to your webmercial in your next newsletter. (Or, make a weekly webmercial for your newsletter!)
4. Link to your webmercial in your blog. (Or embed it.)

5. Send out a press release announcing your new webmercial (or its purpose – such as the event you are promoting or your new product line)

6. Link to your webmercial in your tag lines, articles, directory listings and anywhere else you can post a standard html link.

7. Share it with me! (Shameless plug, but I would love to see what you’ve created. Send me a message or join my network at LinkedIn (capitalcreativeinc) or Myspace (capitalcreative). (I am at other networks with the email address “yourfreelanceneeds at gmail.com”)

Other uses for slideshows

If you’re trying to sell a concept or an idea, or simply want to add some multimedia for your website, there are other uses for slideshows as well. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Short business presentations you can email to prospects, bosses, or clients.

2. Ecards featuring your products, websites, or URL. (If you are posting these on somebody’s social profile, besides your own, you probably want to nix the music.)

3. Quick tutorials and how-to’s.

4. Any other occasion that you want to communicate visually and quickly.

Webmercials are nothing new, but they’re moving toward simplicity and accessibility for all small businesses that want to market “web 2.0 style”. They’re also a lot of fun to create and share. Take your time choosing the right visuals and copy for your webmercial, and you’ll be able to share your message with a larger audience. And, with any luck, that audience will pass it on for new prospects to share.

Melissa Brewer is Creative Director and Senior Copywriter at Capital Creative, a marketing and copywriting agency that specializes in new and social media. (Whats that mean? View our Social Media Marketing intro here. Or our Social Media Marketing Webmercial here.

Author: Melissa Brewer
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Books – both print and electronic – (actually, their publishers) get assigned an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) by national agencies. Periodical publications (magazines, newsletters, bulletins) sport an ISSN (International Serial Standard Number). National libraries dole out CIP’s (Cataloguing in Publication numbers), which help lesser outfits to catalogue the book upon arrival. But the emergence of new book formats, independent publishing, and self publishing has strained this already creaking system to its limits. In short: the whole thing is fast developing into an awful mess.

http://www.doi.org/

Resolution is one solution.

Resolution is the linking of identifiers to content. An identifier can be a word, or a phrase. RealNames implemented this approach and its proprietary software is now incorporated in most browsers. The user types a word, brand name, phrase, or code, and gets re-directed to a web site with the appropriate content. The only snag: RealNames identifiers are for sale. Thus, its identifiers are not guaranteed to lead to the best, only, or relevant resource. Similar systems are available in many languages. Nexet, for example, provides such a resolution service in Hebrew.

The Association of American Publishers (APA) has an Enabling Technologies Committee. Fittingly, at the Frankfurt Book Fair of 1997, it announced the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) initiative. An International DOI Foundation (IDF) was set up and invited all publishers – American and non-American alike – to apply for a unique DOI prefix. DOI is actually a private case of a larger system of “handles” developed by the CNRI (Corporation for National Research Initiatives). Their “Handle Resolver” is a browser plug-in software, which re-directs their handles to URL’s or other pieces of data, or content. Without the Resolver, typing in the handle simply directs the user to a few proxy servers, which “understand” the handle protocols.

The interesting (and new) feature of the system is its ability to resolve to MULTIPLE locations (URL’s, or data, or content). The same identifier can resolve to a Universe of inter-related information (effectively, to a mini-library). The content thus resolved need not be limited to text. Multiple resolution works with audio, images, and even video.

The IDF’s press release is worth some extensive quoting:

“Imagine you’re the manager of an Internet company reading a story online in the “Wall Street Journal” written by Stacey E. Bressler, a co-author of Communities of Commerce, and at the end of the story there is a link to purchase options for the book.

Now imagine you are an online retailer, a syndicator or a reporter for an online news service and you are reading a review in “Publishers Weekly” about Communities of Commerce and you run across a link to related resources.

And imagine you are in Buenos Aires, and in an online publication you encounter a link to “D-Lib Magazine”, an electronic journal produced in Washington, D.C. which offers you locale-specific choices for downloading an article.

The above examples demonstrate how multiple resolution can present you with a list of links from within an electronic document or page. The links beneath the labels – URLs and email addresses – would all be stored in the DOI System, and multiple resolution means any or all of those links can be displayed for you to select from in one menu. Any combination of links to related resources can be included in these menus.

Capable of providing much richer experiences then single resolution to a URL, Multiple Resolution operates on the premise that content, not its location, is identified. In other words, where content and related resources reside is secondary information. Multiple Resolution enables content owners and distributors to identify their intellectual property with bound collections of related resources at a hyperlink’s point of departure, instead of requiring a user to leave the page to go to a new location for further information.

A content owner controls and manages all the related resources in each of these menus and can determine which information is accessible to each business partner within the supply chain. When an administrator changes any facet of this information, the change is simultaneous on all internal networks and the Internet. A DOI is a permanent identifier, analogous to a telephone number for life, so tomorrow and years from now a user can locate the product and related resources wherever they may have been moved or archived to.”

The IDF provides a limited, text-only, online demonstration. When sweeping with the cursor over a linked item, a pop-down menu of options is presented. These options are pre-defined and customized by the content creators and owners. In the first example above (book purchase options) the DOI resolves to retail outlets (categorized by book formats), information about the title and the author, digital rights management information (permissions), and more. The DOI server generates this information in “real time”, “on the fly”. But it is the author, or (more often) the publisher that choose the information, its modes of presentation, selections, and marketing and sales data. The ingenuity is in the fact that the DOI server’s files and records can be updated, replaced, or deleted. It does not affect the resolution path – only the content resolved to.

Which brings us to e-publishing.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of “Malignant Self Love – Narcissism Revisited” and “After the Rain – How the West Lost the East”. He is a columnist in “Central Europe Review”, United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

Author: Sam Vaknin
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Moving to the web with the Software as a Service (SaaS) model.
We’re all familiar with software that you buy and install on your computer to use, well there’s a new way of getting things done and it involves accessing functionality and services online. If you’ve used the Hotmail email client or Google Reader then you’re already familiar with hosted web applications and some of the benefits that this kind of online software can bring, the business model for delivering these services is called Software as a Service (SaaS) and there are a number of key characteristics that make software delivered in this manner different.

1. Available anywhere.
You can access your software from any computer equipped with a web browser and an internet connection, this means that offices in a number of locations can all work on the same information in real time, without having to go to the complexity and expense of setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

2. Automatic Updates.
Updates and improvements are rolled out automatically without you having to install any upgrades onto your computer.

3. Low entry cost.
Because the overhead for running the system is managed centrally the infrastructure costs are spread across a high number of users. Also, you are not paying for implementation so set-up costs are minimal.

4. Managed services.
Because the software is delivered as a service you can generally get a level of support built in.

5. Scalable.
Usage levels are linked to a pricing scale which means that you can pay as you go and scale up or down smoothly without having to buy servers or employ more staff to maintain infrastructure, just add or remove licences and service packages to match your needs.

6. Cross Platform.
Whether you use a Mac, a PC or even Linux, because you access the software through a web browser your operating system is not a problem.

There we have some compelling benefits already!

Invoicing Online to get up to internet speed!
Widespread uptake of the internet within businesses around the world has had a profound impact on the way in which business is done, imagine trying to do business without email or research your projects using the web! The availability of information and the speed at which communication now flows has changed the culture of business and removed geographic boundaries forever.

For over 10 years, forward thinking businesses have been looking to leverage the new medium for competitive benefits, automating and streamlining processes to reduce overhead and increase profit margins, often building their own bespoke systems.

Today these ideas and processes are being commoditised and made available to anyone who has the forethought to implement them.

So let’s make an invoice. On-line.
There are a range of web based invoicing services to choose from and you’ll have to do your own research to decide which one’s best for you; most of the steps and points that follow should be fairly interchangeable with most systems. First of all you’ll need to create an account, luckily most services offer the first month free or have a ’starter’ package for training purposes.

Once you have uploaded your logo, tweaked your invoicing template and are happy with how your invoices will look when emailed and printed; it only takes a few minutes to prepare and send an invoice.

Good online invoicing software will also include customer relationship management (CRM) functionality to allow you to track and organise invoices by client as well as status; this is one of the key time savers, because when you create an invoice you can simply select who you want to send it to from a drop down menu instead of keying in your customers details over and over again for each invoice.

And whilst creating an invoice there should be the flexibility to edit and re-edit your invoice until you are happy with it, and then ‘lock’ the invoice when it is sent to ensure you always have an exact copy of what was sent to your client.

VAT rates and payment terms will also need to be set, along with any particular exclusions you may wish to list. This will either be done on a per invoice basis or as a general setting dependent upon which specific online invoicing system you are using.

Dependent upon how complicated your invoices are you should be able to set one up and email it to your client in a few minutes, saving the time and cost of printing envelopes, stamps, address labels and at least 2 days in the postal system.

If you save 10 minutes per invoice with an hourly charge-out rate of £60 per hour that’s £10 of productive time per invoice. over 1000 invoices that’s £10,000! An added benefit of online invoicing is the ability to view reports to help you manage the process of getting paid, these reports include an overview of invoice status, highlighting overdue invoices, aged debt analysis and of course the ability to close invoices when paid.

Online invoicing is only part of the picture.
It’s great to be able to create, send and manage your invoices on-line but that’s only part of the picture as far as making the most of the web for your business goes; the same principles can be used to cover everything from the creation of project proposals to invoicing and accounting, customer management, website management and even eCommerce. But each of those is an article in itself!

Remember that it’s usually free trial services of this kind so it shouldn’t cost you anything to make sure any particular service is right for you before you pay a penny.

Ultimately whichever service you feel is the right one for your business you’ll be using the speed and efficiency that the web can bring to your business and working faster and more effectively.

About the author:
Matt Fenn (matt@mooloop.com) is a Director of Mooloop, the web development company that develops and manages online invoicing software as part of Moobiz Business Management Software.

View the original article in context at the Moobiz Blog.

Author: Matt Fenn
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Duty on LCD/Plasma TV

Regardless of the recent silence, however, this lion of an argument is sleeping and will certainly awake the closer we get to November. It’s really a complex topic and I don’t claim to be able to defang it here, but I want to preemptively put a thought about this eternal topic out there before a passing gazelle (or donkey, as the case may be) disturbs the lion’s sleep.

A couple weekends ago I had the privilege to spend an evening chatting with a radio journalist from North Carolina. It was the night of the South Carolina primary, and inevitably the talk turned to politics. The journalist made a couple of comments that I found very interesting: first, he said that liberals were having a hard time making their political talk entertaining and engaging; second, he said that liberal bias in the media is a well-known and indisputable fact. The proof for this claim: surveys show that journalists tend to overwhelming vote democratic on election day.

Before moving on to my main point, a brief question: is the fact (hearsay) that a majority of journalists favor one political party in their personal life evidence that their reporting is biased toward the same party? It’s a legitimate question to be sure, but I don’t think it conclusively proves a thing. It’s like saying that doctors tend to vote for republicans, therefore you can’t rely on them to get you unbiased information about abortion and stem cell research. Private lives and careers must not be taken for the same thing. Journalistic integrity, which I do believe exists in the majority of people who have chosen this as a career and have spent years in J school, prevents rogue reporters from injecting their opinions into their coverage.

So there is a quick and dirty refutation of the second point. I want to get back to the first point, however, and start off by asking the basic question: what is bias? Is it the fact that some anchorman reading the news happens to have voted for John Kerry in 2004? Or is it structural? Media scholars traditionally examine the idea of media bias by recording and comparing the air time spent addressing select topics. For instance, if CNN spends 45 minutes in their evening broadcast addressing problems in the health care system and only 5 addressing the merits of tax cuts for the wealthy, this is judged as liberal bias. (for more on the methodology of this stuff, any book by Robert McChesney will do marvelously.)

There are a lot of problems with this method. First, the poles of “liberal” and “conservative” are entirely relative – what was moderate 30 years ago is flaming liberal today. Second, how can a reliable rubric be created to analyze the position of an article on a newspaper page and the weight given to it by the editors? Does a 16 point font give a headline 25% more weight than a 14 point font? The whole affair starts to look really ridiculous really quickly. There are a lot of statisticians out there saying that all this measuring of time/importance of coverage is a lot of bunk, and I’m inclined to agree, as interesting as some of the finding are. (On American networks, for example, nearly 50% of air time is dedicated to human interest stories. You know, like the kid who got stuck in a washing machine in Kentucky.)

Despite the problems associated with actually proving media bias, however, I agree with my journalist acquaintance – republicans have effectively hoodwinked many people into believing that the media is a vast liberal machine. And many of those who are suspicious of the cultural elites feeding them their news are the ones who tune in to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and the other guys. Conservative talk is a huge industry and networks like FOX freely trample on the idea of fair and balanced coverage. On the face of it, it seems quite odd indeed that conservatives complain about bias in the media when conservative voices dominate the public discussion. It’s like Christians in America playing the victim card, another unfortunately common and comical irony in our modern culture.

So why have liberals failed to “entertain and engage” audiences? Why do conservatives keep winning both the media wars and the war over our perception of media despite their claim that they’re being bullied by the liberal elite? I think that some of the answer has to do with the structure of our primary means of dispersing information, namely TV and radio.

When I was in college, I took a great media course with a New York Times writer named Jeffrey Scheuer. He had just published a book called “The Sound Bite Society” that brought complexity theory and philosophy to bear on the topic of bias. It was a formative read for me and really got me thinking about this whole issue.

Here’s the thesis in a nutshell: conservatives are winning the media wars because the media themselves are inherently conservative. Let’s say that again differently: conservatives have the edge because the way people get their information is fundamentally, structurally better suited for the conservative message.

How does the right-wing define itself? It is a political ideology that argues for decreased government involvement on most levels (your sex life excluded, apparently), strong national security, “traditional” social values, less complicated red tape and bureaucracy, a return to the good old days, etc. Fundamentally, it is an argument for small government. The conservative philosophy is – no denigration implied – one that values simplicity. Cut taxes; cut gov’t regulation; cut welfare rolls – it is a political ideology based on eliminating perceived excesses and returning to the foundational social principles of this country, like strong families, man-woman marriages, etc. The liberal philosophy, on the other hand, thrives in nuances. Our modern society, it argues, is too complex to return to the halcyon days of yesteryear; we need a strong central government to keep corporate interests in check and to administer social welfare programs. On the question of taxes, abortion, health care reform and a lot of others issues, the liberal answer is “yes, but..” while the conservative one is “no.” Fundamentally, it is more complex than conservative philosophy, and again, no value judgments implied with the terms “simplicity and complexity” (I’d prefer pizza to foie gras any day).

So how does this relate to the media? The primary way millions of people get their news is through the television and radio. Oceans of ink have been spilled criticizing the role of television in modern societies (my favorite commentator is the wonderfully curmudgeonly Pierre Bourdieu) and I don’t want to start down that path. Needless to say, TV and radio (but particularly TV) are coercive forms of media – they set the pace that the passive viewer must follow. Not quite understanding an argument? Too bad, we’re off to the next topic. Where print media allow the audience to take it at their own pace and process things at their own leisure, TV pushes you along. Add this structural reality to the commercial apparatus behind the major networks and you have a simple system of transmission that, according to Scheuer, inherently favors simple messages. Besides C-SPAN, cable networks spit out their stories and their messages quickly, and in recent years politics has become the art of the sound bite. (”Read my lips: no more new taxes”; “I’m the decider”; “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”…)

In Scheuer’s estimation, Al Franken is not failing on Air America because he isn’t bright or entertaining enough; he is failing because the message is not suited to that medium. Conversely, put Limbaugh in print and his arguments will seem dull and uninspired (they really do!). This is because the screaming heads thrive on a platform that pushes their rants into the minds of their audience without the inconvenience of push and pull, nuance, or critical debate.

Next time a pundit reaches for the “liberal bias” canard, keep in mind the medium on which their message is being broadcast. Also take comfort in the fact that our arsenal of news media keep changing. The blogosphere offers new possibilities for the transmission of information and the stimulation of critical dialog; indeed, the internet in general has this effect on our public life. It is the ultimately complex format, so perhaps in the future we’ll start to see the complex messages breaking through all the noisy sound bites.

Zach Wallmark is a staff writer for Mirth and Matter, a daily blog covering politics, the media, the arts, and a range of other fun and informative topics. Visit us at http://mirthandmatter.blogspot.com

Author: Zach Wallmark
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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I feel that one of the most important ingredients in your formula for success is having a clearly defined and vivid vision of where you want to be. At first the “how” is not that important, you need to create a vision that gets you so excited that you develop the mentality that you will stop at nothing to get what you want. Many people first focus on the how than very quickly find themselves overwhelmed with too many details and just as quickly talk them selves out of pursuing their goals. You have to take a leap of faith and trust that the how will be shown to you as you go along. Do you remember the days as a kid with dreams of epic proportions? What happened those dreams? You got older and domesticated by a society that says that having those dreams is foolish. That’s nonsense, why wouldn’t you want to accomplish the things that even as a kid you knew would make you happy. I encourage you to dream like you once used to.

“Shoot for the moon…even if you

Miss you’ll still be amongst them stars”- Beanie Sigel (rap artist)

One way I keep myself motivated and keep my vision alive is through my picture book. In my book I have everything that I want and every morning I look at it to remind me what I want in life. Go right now and get some magazines and cut out every picture of the things you want and places you want to visit, don’t be thinking if you can actually get those things now, dare to dream. Remember your mind thinks in pictures, look at your picture book until in becomes as vivid as possible in the theater of your mind. Your mind cant tell the difference between something you remember or something you experience in real time.

Visualization Exercises(meditation):

(Please read this whole section, I will explain why almost all self help fails to produce the results people want)

You can think of meditation as conscious sleeping. Just as you sleep to gain energy for your daily functioning, meditation is conscious sleeping that gives you all the energy(creative abilities) you need for what you intend to accomplish.

I also use lucid dreaming as another way to increase creativity, I will soon write an article on lucid dreaming.(Lucid dreaming is when you actually become aware in your dream that you are dreaming, once properly trained you can control your dreams)

Use the power of meditation to help you achieve your goals. Strive to everyday meditate one minute for each year of your current age. I am 24, so everyday I try and meditate at least 24 minutes. If you are new to meditation check out this website on transcendental meditation There are many techniques find something that feels good to you.

Daily Routine:

1. Pick a nice comfortable place where to meditate. Have an intention on what you plan to meditate on before hand. Ex. A destination you want to visit.

2. Find a comfortable position to sit. Sitting on a chair or on the floor, does not really matter as long as it is comfortable for you.

3. Cross your legs, clasp your hands together.(this helps make your own energy circuit and gives stability)

4.Close your eyes, than stop inner and outer chatter.

5. Relax, begin thinking that your whole body is becoming extremely relaxed.

6. Eyes should be closed.

7. You will notice that your mind is full of many thoughts. Your mind will than begin to ask questions to those thoughts and try and come up with answers whether they are known or unknown. This is why your mind (ego) can be your enemy if it mostly thinks in negative terms.

8. You will need to transcend your mind and thoughts in order to meditate. Your mind and thoughts are what separate you from your higher self, you can also think of your higher self as your subconscious mind don’t worry about the labels.

9. You transcend your mind by simply observing your breath. Don’t inhale/exhale consciously just observe your natural breathing. Don’t go behind your thoughts, if you catch your self drifting just always come back to your breathing. Slowly the amount of thoughts reduces and your breathing becomes thinner and shorter. If you are able to keep all your focus on your breath, you will get to the point of no thought and no breath. This state of no thought is your connection to your divine being and energy body. The more you meditate the more benefits and energy that you will receive. Your own self awareness and consciousness will also expand.

10. You will feel a very pleasurable feeling meditating. If you feel any discomfort in your body these can be possible areas of disease or illness. If you meditate everyday you will heal your body naturally.

11. Now that you are in a state of no thought and total relaxation. Begin to think only on your intention. Remember whatever you think now is in a state that will be impregnated directly into your subconscious. It is incredibly important that you don’t color any of your thoughts with any lack,limitation,dis belief or doubt. This is why almost all self help material does not produce the results people expect. Wishing for more money(or anything else) never works, the thought of wanting more money also has the thought of doubt attached to it. Ask your self how many thoughts that you think about have been modified in a way that is not beneficial to you. You just never realize that you are programming your sub conscious all day. This is why meditation is so powerful. You are able to make suggestions to your subconscious where the thought is not modified in any way shape or form. Just as a computer programmer gives a computer instructions to complete a task, you program the most powerful computer you have which is your subconscious. Your conscious mind acts as the gate keeper as to what thoughts you let in. Now that you know this choose to become more aware and conscious about what you think all day long.

Thoughts = feelings = actions = results (just like that you can begin to shape your life)

12. Mentally rehearse every moment of it with all your senses. Dare to be like Peter Pan

13. Visualize in vivid detail, your intention as established fact. Also make sure you meditate only on days you feel good. Remember you want your thoughts to be as pure as possible. This also means that you really find out what you want, make sure its not something you want solely for ego purposes. Thoughts that involve the ego are usually always colored with negativity.

14. With time you will begin to be able to hold vivid pictures of anything (you will develop you third eye). The more you are able to hold onto an image in your mind the more power you give it.

15. Get up and go have a great day notice how much energy you have the rest of the day. As you advance in your discipline, you will have a lot of fun basically creating your day before it starts.

Beliefs:

To start making that vision a reality you will have to change some of your beliefs and adopt beliefs that will help you reach your goals. Because if you have this great vision of you retiring on your own private beach but deep down you don’t believe you can do it, you have already sabotaged yourself. Your desire and your belief are in conflict with each other and therefore you will not manifest what it is that you want into your life. If you want to be a good leader one day but you currently have the belief that you are a shy person, it will not happen. You need to truly make a decision to adopt the belief that you are really outgoing. When you truly decide to do something you will find a way to do it.

“Nothing happens unless first a dream” – Carl Sandburg

Some Ways to shape your beliefs:

1.Always think Success- as soon as you think about failure forget about it and don’t let anymore negative thoughts snowball. The more attention you give a thought the more powerful it will become than you will make it harder for yourself to get back to a productive mind state. The only way to change how you feel is to think about something else. Whenever you feel doubt, fear, and failure creeping into your mind have a default thought that you can use to avoid giving attention to mental poison. As soon as I feel I am entertaining thoughts of negativity I immediately begin to think about relaxing on a beach and affirm to myself that “I attract abundance to all areas of my life”. The more I try and have the feelings of being on the beach with no worries and remind myself that I am in complete control of how I feel, I immediately feel the negativity begin to melt away as I begin to focus on my new positive thought.

2.Develop the belief that you are better than you currently feel- don’t look at your weaknesses as a burden but as an opportunity to improve your self. When I find something I don’t like about my personality I don’t get down on myself for it, I just realize that now I have something I can work on to make myself better. Most importantly love and accept who you are, not who you will or should be.

3.Believe that sky’s the limit- if you have little goals you will have little success, the bigger your dreams the more potential for your possible success. Even If you think your dream is too big, strive to reach that dream, because you will end up at a better place than if you would have set your sights on a smaller goal. The trick is to really believe you can do it, this just isn’t wishful thinking. Wishful thinking never got anyone anything, you need to find out what you want and get out there and get it. If you really want that house on the beach your mind will come up with ways to help you get it.(develop faith in your self)

How to remove junk beliefs:

1. Meditate on your old belief and tell the truth about it. Now replace it with a belief that will better serve you. Meditate on it until you feel you have changed that belief.

Now when you accept these beliefs it means you will have to raise your standards and develop a strategy that will put you on the road to accomplish what you set forth. Do whatever you have to do. Read any books that will spark your interest or help you discover any distinctions that will point you in the right direction. Find a role model, a person who has already accomplished what you want. Find out what some of their beliefs, interests, body language, image, etc. is and adopt them as your own. Your role model can serve as a blue print, the goal is to cut down on the trial and error so you can get where you want faster than you ever thought possible. You can take all the qualities from all the people you admire and add your own personal touch. Just think of if it as if you are trying to build the person you want and know you can be. Thomas Edison is one of the greatest inventors in history, he was able to elaborate, modify and adapt on other peoples ideas. You don’t have to recreate the wheel just constantly be aware of any success ingredients you come across and make them part of your identity. Think of your mind as a warehouse the more you learn and store will eventually serve as an inventory for future reference, which will breed new ideas and perspectives.

Consistency is key we are all creatures of patterns and habits. In order to become the person you desire to be, start by changing your patterns. Think of all the quality traits you must possess, make a pattern which uses those traits efficiently than strive to be consistent. Consistency will develop into habits and this is key because if you fail to be consistent with your actions you will not be consistent with who you desire to be. This lack of confusion between your actions and what your mind knows you are capable of leads to tremendous amounts of stress, confusion, and even depression. Many other consequences also come from a lack of consistency.

This is why awareness of self is critical; you need to be constantly evaluating your self. Decide if the persona you are currently displaying is the reality that you want for yourself,because with enough time thats what your reality will become.

Thank you for reading my hub, I love to hear anyones opinion or suggestions. Good luck to everyone.

Copyright © 2008 Ivan Campuzano

http://www.howtogetyourshineon.com

Author: Ivan Campuzano
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Because Search Engine Optimisation and Marketing has so many different features, and with more being offered within the label of SEO, it is becoming increasingly difficult to describe its function within website development and online marketing in simple terms any more. It’s like asking the question: what is education? I could spend a number of days writing about High School education alone, and the individual subjects and curricula that are taught throughout the UK to pupils aged 11-16 in state-maintained schools. But what about private schools? Primary schools? Sixth From Colleges? Institutes of Higher Education? Universities? Adult courses? The same can be said for SEO and Online Marketing – there’s never a quick and easy way to quantify Search Engine Optimisation, so the job of any good SEO Consultant is to provide you with the things you need to know about SEO that will make the most impact into your online presence.

We looked at the three questions at the top of this page long and hard. We considered 1001 responses that we thought answered the questions. Some of them were extremely pretentious. Some of them were far too simple – some far too complex. Then we started to think: hold on, what is the end result of SEO? Why do we want to achieve success online? It is without doubt that the end result of any SEO or Online Marketing is to generate more ‘conversions’ – yet another word that is used to describe the work that we do, but never fully explained or understood (even by some SEO Consultants).

Hopefully, when you developed your website, you were asked by your web designers to come up with a list of targets for your site: targets that you hoped to meet eventually, in order to make your website do exactly what you intended it to do when you started. Without those targets, your website doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of being designed around your needs – something which is absolutely essential if the return on your investment is to be fully achieved. Most of our commercial-based clients, those whose main target is to generate more revenue, would consider their conversion to be the transformation from a site visitor into a customer. This would be quantified by the accumulation of revenue through the website. However, a not-for-profit website that extols the wonders and virtues of a visit to the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales, for example, would ultimately consider a conversion to be someone who asks for more information, even something as simple as completing an online questionnaire can be regarded as a conversion: you are essentially engaging your site’s visitors with your online content, whether that is through sales or by completing an online information request form. Why do we focus on conversions? If you do not know what you want your conversions to be before starting a web design project, you may as well save your money and take your family or friends to Euro Disney for a weekend, because without knowing your target audience and what you intend that audience to do with your site, your website will spend the rest of your domain registration treading water in the virtual sea of the information superhighway. Your conversions should inform and shape the build and design of your website. Making it ‘conversion friendly’ is the key to any successful website.

Think of conversions as a transfer of status from visitor to ‘customer’ (it’s no accident that in rugby a ‘try’ must be converted to a real result). A change occurs; a switch is thrown; a transfer is made at the point of conversion on your website. Choosing and developing the right conversion point can mean the difference between a new customer and someone who clicks on the red X on the top right hand corner of their browser and exits your site. Why, you may be wondering, when we post the question ‘What is SEO?’ have we chosen to focus on ‘conversions’ in this article? Well, quite simply, it comes down to a matter of results – what do you really want to achieve from your website? Whatever you answer, if you aren’t currently achieving that, then you need to start looking at developing an SEO Plan.

What is SEO? If you were a client we’d explain that it’s the process we go through in order to increase the conversions on your site, generating you more revenue for commercial sites or increasing the visitor frequency to a particular page on your site for not-for-profit websites. What exactly is Search Engine Marketing? Well, again, we would tell you that it’s what we do to ensure your targets are met, that people are able to find you and more importantly become a converted visitor. Why do so many people say it’s so important? Because it is! Gone are the days when you just need to have a website address, a dot com or dot org to advertise your company or organisation. The days of businesses reluctantly putting money into developing websites are long behind us: we are entering a point of online development that is seeing billions of dollars being spent on website development, SEO and online marketing by businesses across the world. SEO and online marketing are more important, and in some cases the most important area of site development, than the way the information is presented on the screen – because, quite frankly, if your site can’t be found, what’s the point in having a site?

You may be asking yourself at this stage: “how do I get more conversions?” We would say: “develop a good SEO and online marketing plan”. Find and research the best keywords for your product or service; rewrite your website to make it more engaging and include the search engine friendly keywords. Plan your strategy of conversions – target perhaps 3-5 pages that will become ‘conversion pages’ (areas of your site that you will want your visitors to interact with your content, whether that means spending money or sending you an email). You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink! In the SEO world, this is not the case. You can take your visitors to your conversion page and you can also make him or her convert to a customer. How? Develop the best SEO Plan you can possibly afford, whether you do it in-house or invite an SEO firm to guide you. I cannot over estimate the importance of having a strong and well-developed SEO Plan. Take the leap today and contact an SEO company and ask how they can help you generate more conversions and exceed your online potential.

If you would like to discuss how we can help guide your SEO development and provide advice and support for your online marketing [http://www.cortinawebsolutions.co.uk/seoindex.html] needs, contact us today – we are always happy to hear from people who are taking their first steps into the SEO and online marketing world. We offer website design [http://www.cortinawebsolutions.co.uk/designindex.html] and specialise in advanced SEO and online marketing solutions. Visit our SEO pages today at [http://www.cortinawebsolutions.co.uk]

Author: Daniel Gibbins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Our industry offers four different professional roles to choose from — and making the right choice is crucial to your success. In this article, we’ll describe four types of private practices — Speaking, Training, Consulting and Coaching and explore the pros and cons — and earnings potential — for each. We’ll discuss the dangers of dabbling and take a personal inventory of its impact on your future.

“Dabblers are rarely DO-ers and DO-ers are rarely dabblers.”

One of the things that people in our industry have in common is that many of our business cards say that we are a “Speaker, Trainer, Consultant, Coach”. Some may choose just two or three of those identifiers, but more and more are putting ALL 4 or even MORE. In addition to Speaker, Trainer, Consultant, and Coach we also have Author, Facilitator, Counselor, Lecturer, Professor and a growing litany of others. Its amazing the kind of creative labels that some people have put on their cards, but the four basic disciplines in our industry are Speaker, Trainer, Consultant and Coach.

Over the more than two decades we’ve been working with human development professionals, we’ve discovered that the people who achieve success in our industry are the people who entered the profession with a very clear picture of who they are and what they were trying to do. We believe it is such a critical factor to their success that it has become central to the work we do with our instructors and instructor candidates. As someone progresses through the pre-work for becoming certified in the MasterStream Method, we help them explore the differences between the four disciplines in vivid detail, and before their certification is over, each newly-certified professional has to make a personal choice as to which one of them he or she favors. Likewise, the success you will achieve and the speed at which you will achieve it depends on you understanding the choices — and making the one that is best for you.

So your first step — whether you are embarking on a new career or trying to take your existing business to a new level — is to distinguish between the various roles you can serve. Keep in mind your background, skills, experience, and goals when making your evaluation. Your choice will establish a basis on which you will focus your business strategy and marketing plan.

Let’s take a closer look at each of the professional roles and explore some of their pro’s and con’s:

Speaker — A Speaker is someone who travels frequently on a national or even international basis, stands in front of a large audience for a relatively short period of time, delivers an upbeat message, and gets paid a substantial amount of money for doing so. On the downside, as the audience gets bigger, the chance for meaningful audience contact suffers — and regardless of the quality of work they do, when they step off stage they are generally unemployed. That’s the nature of the beast for being a professional speaker. In order for a speaker to fill 100 days of billable services over the course of a year, he or she is going to need to have the better part of 100 different clients. They may have the occasional client who will bring them back again, but in all likely hood the intervals between those engagements is going to be measured in months or years before someone will be brought back. To make matters worse, the Speaking profession is the one most susceptible to changes in the economy and, as the events of 9/11 clearly demonstrated, changes in the marketplace’s willingness to travel to or sit in a large public venue. While speakers command a seemingly large fee for their services, their total income divided by a 40-hour workweek normalizes their actual earnings. For example, a speaker with two $5,000 engagements per week is actually making about the same as a consultant billing themselves out at $300 per hour. Finally, to develop a successful career as a speaker requires a very specific marketing plan, very specific marketing tools, a very marketable “main stage” image and a lot of time “paying your dues” before your reputation earns you access to the bureaus and meeting planners who in large part control the pool of potential bookings.

Trainer — A Trainer spends considerably less time in airplanes and rental cars, and can build a very tidy practice while staying relatively close to home. They spend more time with a smaller group of people and have an opportunity to get to know their students more intimately as they share practical information with their audiences. The goal of a trainer is to impart a body of knowledge, and to make sure that knowledge has been absorbed to whatever degree the client has asked them to attain. If the trainer does a good job, then the likelihood of being asked to come back and do more training is very high. Also, since trainers focus on longer programs than speakers — routinely conducting programs ranging from a full day to an entire week — trainers tend to be more content-rich. If they choose to focus on mission-critical topics like sales, leadership and customer service, trainers have an even greater opportunity for repeat business with their clients. When a corporate client finds a trainer they love and a training program they love, then they are going to continue to use that program and that trainer in whatever frequency they need it done. In addition, training engagements generally feature far more billable hours in the customization process prior to and the reinforcement program following the main training program. A trainer markets their programs as much as they market themselves and building a successful training practice requires a very different approach than the route taken by speakers.

Consultant — A Consultant is an individual with very specific knowledge and skills, who is brought in to serve as an adjunct to a client’s management team. They are contracted to work on a particular project, deal with a challenging issue, serve in an advisory capacity, or complete a specific task, but one way or another, consultants are brought in to DO something. Once that something is done, the contract ends. While consultants may travel to a destination anywhere on the planet, once they arrive, they are there for the duration of the contract, so in their daily routine, they stay pretty local to where they landed. The challenge with consulting (and coaching for that matter) is that you are trading time for dollars. As a trainer or speaker you develop one program and you can keep doing it over and over, but the work you do as a consultant is unique to each specific client more often than not. But the biggest problem with building a stable and successful consulting practice is that during the time the consultant is working with a particular client, they don’t have or take the time to continue marketing themselves. The longer the contract, the longer the period of unemployment that follows. Feast or famine is the reality for most consultants.

Coach — Coaches work primarily with individuals on a one-on-one basis to pinpoint areas in which they might be in need of attention and focus their energy on helping their clients take care of whatever their issues happen to be. Within the realm of coaches, you will find a broad range of levels of intensity and involvement from “life coach” to “performance coach.” Whether the individual is trying to better understand themselves, to set meaningful goals, to be held accountable or to develop greater skills, a coach could be the perfect tool for the right client. In general terms, a coach is a professional who is working with an individual to deal with specific areas of need. It is certainly possible for a coach to do more of a group kind of thing, maybe a small cluster of 3 or 4 people, but by and large what they are doing is just for those specific people. As a result, the likelihood that these clients will become large contracts is low because they are dealing with individuals. Coaches have very little need to travel and can work very effectively with their clients over the telephone. But, while a coach’s goal is to build a rather small pool of lifetime clients, the truth is that most people who seek out the guidance of a coach do so for a much shorter period, generally a few weeks to a few months. Creating a stable and consistent income stream proves to be the coach’s greatest challenge since the hourly rate tends to be lower than that of any of the other three professional roles and the coach must collect their fees from an individual rather than an organization.

Perhaps the biggest problem that people in our industry face is dabbling in these four roles and not focusing on just one of them. If someone were to focus their energy on one of these roles, they have a much greater chance of becoming successful in that discipline. But if you start to spread your energy across multiple and very different roles then you are also spreading out your marketing resources too thin to have any real impact, and you are also confusing the market place as to what it is that you do and what it is that that they can call on you for. By putting your time and energy into just ONE of these four areas, you will find that success is a much easier summit to reach.

T. Falcon Napier is an internationally-recognized human development expert, specializing in sales, leadership and change management. His organization identifies, certifies and supports independent and corporate training professionals in the design, delivery and reinforcement of the entire family of programs and professional services based on the MasterStream Method. Qualified instructors are encouraged to learn more at www.masterstream.com.

Author: T. Falcon Napier
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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But with a new job starting tomorrow, a new leaf opening up, I wish to create the best impression possible, so I decided to look up a little research and voila – an article in the making to also help others like you who may be starting a new job. What I learned surprised me, some ideas made me laugh and found funny as you will, and lastly, I thought I’d share my experience in seeing if following said tricks actually work.

A little background:

I have over 20 years of office work experience having worked for large firms as well as small firms with various titles. Due to my level of creativity and style of personality I have found much success with working at smaller-type firms. I personally was not one of those people who perfected the ‘fitting in’ system as many are comfortable to do and as required to live by for working with larger firms. Though due to the internet, some of these large conglomerate companies understand many factors for creating a highly successful working environment – and Bravo to that!

I have a friend for example who works for a privately owned credit card company – you know the company that says things are priceless? – ok well, she has comfortably been able to play the role, be able to do the ‘fit in’, and now makes ridiculous amount of money – good for her! Though this longtime pal of mine is someone I may have never wished to become like, but I could learn a few things from her. Her resilience and ability to be flexible has certainly helped create the life she wishes to lead. Some of us though may not have her talent let alone any wish to work for a huge conglomerate.

So You Want to Create The Best Impression on Day One

• Wear comfortable clothes, and be a little understated – I read somewhere where one woman wore a mini-skirt and chunky shoes on her first day, and the poor thing was known as the ‘chunky shoe’ ‘girl’ for many years. Now I am not sure what to complain about first, how this writer referred to this woman as a ‘girl’ or this woman’s poor choice in clothing.

  This doesn’t mean despite a relaxed dress code you should wear jeans on the first day. But you do not wish to stick way out completely either, it’s not a black tie event unless you are the waiter. But by being comfortable, you will be more relaxed with yourself and it will give you the chance to give the right impression versus someone whose shoulders might be hunched to hide a too-tight shirt for example.

• So do yourself a favor, wear comfortable shoes, have a jacket that can come off and you feel comfortable in, wear slacks that fit, lay off of too much perfume or cologne – since you may be in tight quarters as people lean over you to show you their computer software, have and use tic tacs so that your mouth is always clean.
• Wait at least until the third week to start decorating your cubicle or desk. You want to make sure you are staying first of all. Secondly, no one wants to see your teddy bear and think you are all washed up before you lead your first sales meeting, regardless of how lucky that teddy bear actually is for you! Also allowing this much time to pass will allow you to see and observe others in their decorating techniques and what might be appropriate.
• Remember the names of your coworkers as soon as you can. When being introduced to people on the first day, do your best to remember their names, and what they do. Respecting their success and their experience with this company will assist you greatly when you need to ask questions such as how long is your lunch break to what certain work policies are. Show real appreciation for those who show you the ropes and this will help you gain the respect from your coworkers.
• The first day, is not the day to share your humor! We all have funny jokes, and want to come across as likable, but telling anything political or religious could literally label you as not a serious worker, but a goof ball right from the very start. Now I know this seems obvious, but it is an important remark, especially when there will be times when undoubtedly you will be nervous on your first day, and usually some of us try to be funny to help break that nervousness. Keep mum and simply smile your nerves away.
• Remember there was a history before you arrived. There may be a number of reasons why you were hired besides your expertise. It could very well be that there’s a colleague or manager no one likes, hence the reason for a very high turnover (or maybe you forgot to ask why the job was available in the first place – ouch!) or hopefully it was open due to promotion and growth. Keep this in mind as you learn the ropes.

  As you learn the tasks at hand, keep your nose to the grind, and your ears wide open. By not jutting in on conversations that do not include you, you will learn who you can really trust and who you might really like. What someone may appear like to you on the first day, could be the person you least would like to know or be associated with a few weeks down the road when you learn this person is up for the boot. So choose your associates closely – and remember that no one likes a brown nose either – so find that middle ground and stick with it until you know everyone and the ropes and position you are to fill.

• Be yourself and do not pretend you are something you are not. Several CEO’s have mentioned this trick. You were already hired, so relax. You got the job, now is the time to pay attention at dealing with the responsibilities of your new job.
• Arrive a little early and stay a little late for the first week, and learn when the best times are to approach your new peeps to ask them questions. They want you to succeed as much as you do and do not expect you to be perfect from day one, but you can at least try and ask questions at the right time.

  At the end of the day, clean your desk area so that is it tidy, write down any notes and tasks you might have to accomplish the very next day. Being organized from day one will only assist you in doing your job fantastically.

• On the night before, set out your outfit, don’t drink yourself crazy – who wants to smell your beer breath in the morning?!? Get a good night’s sleep too.
• Try and be as prepared as you can, check out the company’s website, learn as much history about the company’s doing as you can. Keep a pad handy to write down any notes during your initial meetings so you can refer to them later when you need to.
• Lastly, be flexible, project confidence and really show them you are happy to be there at your new job and you will help make the transition of being the new employee to being one of the faved employees who have a bright future for themselves with the new company. Lastly enjoy the first day so that is it not your last and you will find yourself comfortable in your new shoes at your new desk in your new position.

Congrats on your new job, good luck and get going!

Leah Quinn is a writer specializing on food, health and entertainment and is a multi-media artist living in New York. Stop by her food site to learn many more healthy and interesting recipes at http://dinner-and-jam.blogspot.com and to find links to her many other sites and blogs such as http://divaliscious.blogspot.com

Author: Leah Quinn
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Do me a favor. Before you read this article, get a glass of water. Really! Don’t just read on; first get a glass of water.

Got it?

Okay. Now, hold the glass of water in your hand and pick it up. I’m serious. This is not a joke! A seminar speaker tried it on me before!

Are you holding it up?

Now let me ask you a question: How heavy is the glass of water?

What’s your guess? 1 pound? 2 pounds? Less than a pound?

Keep holding the glass up. Don’t put it down yet.

What do you think it weighs?

As you continue to hold the glass of water, you’ll notice that its real weight won’t matter as much as how long you are holding it. The longer you hold the glass of water, the heavier it feels, right?

If you hold the glass of water for one minute, it’s not a problem. It’s not heavy.

But if you hold the glass of water for an hour, your arm might start to ache. Eventually the glass of water will feel like a ton of bricks.

The weight of the glass of water is always the same. But the longer you hold it up, the heavier it gets.

That’s the way it works in your life. This world is imperfect and things are bound to happen between you and your family of origin, your spouse, friends and people at work. At the beginning you may say to yourself: “No big deal. I’ll move on” But if the events repeat themselves or others happen with the same person things may begin to get heavier. The fact is this: the longer you “hold them in,” the heavier the emotional burdens will get.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ll discover in coaching private sessions that the source of someone’s toxic anger or bitterness is something that happened 15 years ago, or a year ago, or just three months ago! A spouse will tell me in detail what happened years ago!

“Did you ever discuss what happened with your spouse? Did you ever discuss your feelings about what happened?” I’ll ask.

“No.”

In an effort to make sure I understand I’ll ask, “You never talked it through? You never processed this issue with your spouse at all?”

“No.”

Rhetorically I’ll ask, “This has been building up inside you for 15 years and you never said anything?!”

“That’s right,” is the response.

Do you hear that? It happened 15 years ago! And it still plagues them TODAY. In fact, as I illustrated above, the burden gets worse, not better.

Do you know what always amazes me? The burden gets worse for the person who’s holding it in. But usually their spouse, their friend or the offender forgot about the incident 15 years ago. They’re clueless that the pain even exists. They would be SHOCKED to learn that their spouse, friend or family member still remembers what happened, let alone that it pains them and remains in their heart.

Do you know what’s bothering your spouse? Do you know what resentments your children carry inside their hearts about you as a parent? Do you know the root of their frustration? Do you know why they just can’t let go? And most importantly, do you know how to draw it out and help them finally heal? If you have been the offender you need to look at your role in the relationship and assist in the healing of it.

Most people have something that continues to bother them; something that happened years ago that they never let go of; something that they never “moved through” with their spouse, children, family or relatives. And there it sits, getting heavier and heavier as the years go by. Until finally it comes out as, “I’m not happy,” or “I want a divorce,” or “I don’t love you anymore,” or “Why is it that I don’t hear from my kids anymore?”

Old wounds that don’t get treated aren’t really old; they remain fresh. They’re still open sores that eat away at your relationships from the inside without you even knowing it. Old wounds usually end up controlling your life. They make you bitter! How do you stop the bleeding? How do you finally let go and move on in your relationships and life in a healthy productive way?

There are two ways.

FORGIVENESS is the first way. People who do not forgive, NEVER reach inner peace and happiness. I teach the people I coach to never say “never” or “always.” This is one time when I have used the word “never” with intentionality. I have NEVER seen in over 20 years of dealing with people and marriages one single person becoming happy by not forgiving.

An unforgiving spirit ALWAYS creates toxicity and fosters twisted thinking and distorted emotions. An unforgiving heart tends to exaggerate small events and is totally blind to the power of love and the liberating experience of letting go of resentment. Forgiveness is tough because it requires thinking, change and humbleness. When you are hurting and resentful, it is easy to react and divorce. When you allow resentfulness to drive your anger, you can force your mind to believe almost anything. You can change into anything you want as long as you have a strong belief in something; and if you lack character and a moral compass, there is no right and wrong to protect you from hurting yourself and others. It’s scary, isn’t it? It is easy not to deal with the root problem. Denial and reactivity only require enough anger and resentfulness to fuel them. No reason, no thinking, no spirituality, no boundaries. To forgive means to think, to take a look at the impact of your life, to revisit your purpose in the relationship, to stay in the marriage and deal with what caused the problem. To forgive means going back to a son or a daughter and humbly say: “I am sorry! I was wrong! Would you forgive me? What can I do to repair our relationship?” That spirit takes immense fortitude of character. Not even religion can help people do that! It’s deeper than religion! It requires a change of heart and spiritual eyes. Forgiveness is difficult, but it describes character, commitment and real love.

The second way to let go of hurts and wounds is COMMUNICATING clearly what caused the hurt. The best way to communicate hurt feelings is by using statements such as: “When you did that, I felt like this…” Avoid accusing, labeling and incriminating the other person. When you say, “I felt ignored…” or “I felt mistreated…” you are assuming responsibility for your feelings rather than “accusing the offender.” Why is it so hard for a spouse to tell the other: “Look, this is something that has bothered me, and I would like to deal with it. I feel this way or that way about it…” Usually there is one of two reasons why someone won’t talk to another person about a hurt. First, by exposing what hurts you, you will have to let it go and there are no more excuses to be resentful. Second, you predict what the response from your spouse or child is going to be, and choose not to share what bothers you at all. Both are defeatist ways to deal with hurts. One is based on pride, the other one on prejudice.

The best way to heal your hurts is to expose them, share your feelings and put them on the table. Give your spouse or friend a chance to deal with those hurts. Sometimes it means you have to share them and let go of the moment. I know, letting go is tough, though!

Emotional hurts and wounds are painful, and sometimes they are difficult to deal with, but forgiveness and communication can turn those wounds and hurts into opportunities to create bonding and a love you never thought would be possible in your marriage, family and relationships. There is hope for the wounds of the past in your life. The most positive people I know are the ones who have traveled the road of forgiveness often; and not just superficial forgiveness, but intelligent communication and implementation of strategies to avoid the same mistakes and hurts again.

Your past can be the source of healing if you look at it as your springboard to forgiveness and letting go of the experience that caused you the hurt. Forgiving an offender means you are free from that person’s control; you are free to move on. Forgiving means that your PAST is not controlling your PRESENT. I believe that the smart, and the spiritually enlightened, forgive from the heart, even learn from the past hurt, they live in the present, and always look with anticipation to the future.

Harold J. Duarte-Bernhardt is co-founder of the “LIFE ZONE.” Harold is a consultant, a seminar speaker and a LIFE Motivational Coach. The “LIFE ZONE” is a resource and a coaching center for personal and spiritual growth committed to providing sound strategies for dynamic living and LIFE FITNESS. Harold believes that PAIN is the greatest window into the best life has to offer! PAIN is never pleasant, it’s never fun; but great people have always faced PAIN and difficult times before they found the key to a magnificent life. Harold resides in Southern California and is the father of four wonderful human beings! For more information and coaching visit: http://www.lifezonelive.com or call 1-888-MYZONE2 (699-6632)

Author: Harold J. Duarte-Bernhardt
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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So, what is a joint stock company? You want to tell me it’s an association of persons who come together for a specific purpose. Well, I don’t dispute this… but what about the statutory definition? Let me define it for you, right? Statutorily, a joint stock company is an association of persons who are registered under the companies Act. Ouch! This one doesn’t sound complete to bring a clear elaborate meaning that satisfies you. Ok, let me elaborate it by not using the statutory approach…

It is either a voluntary association or organization of persons who have contributed money or money’s worth to a common stock. These persons employ this money or money’s in some business or trade and there after share either the profits or losses from such a trade or business. Got it? Right!

Let us consider Haney definition, “A joint stock company is an incorporated association, which is an artificial person created by law, having a separate entity, with a perpetual succession and a common seal.” You now conclude from these definitions that the persons who contribute the money and money’s worth are the members of that Co. These money and money’s worth contributed is what is referred to as the company’s capital. What the Co does is that it divides its capital into a fixed value of shares.

The members of the Co are entitled a share which actually represents their money and money’s worth. Through these shares, the members possess the ultimate control of the company. Here is how you exercise the control power of your Co as a member:

1. You can install new directors.

2. You can remove existing directors.

3. You are the one who amend the memorandum of association.

4. You are the one who amend the article of association.

5. Lastly, in any general meeting, the directors cannot act without your approval in certain cases.

There are many types of companies which are classified on the following basis:

On the Basis of Nationality

1. Domestic.

2. Foreign.

On the Basis of Incorporation or Registration

1. Chartered.

2. Statutory.

3. Registered.

On the Basis of Ownership

1. Government.

2. Non government.

On the Basis of Liability

1. Limited by shares.

2. Limited by guarantee.

3. Unlimited.

On the Basis of Control

1. Holding.

2. Subsidiary.

On the Basis of Members

1. Private.

2. Public.

Trust me, using Sbi to build a website for your company is easy and makes you succeed. Click the link to learn more about Sbi reviews.

Author: Joshua Nyamache
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The Design

The post office has specific guidelines for postcard design and delivery. If you are producing this material in-house, meeting the criteria will allow the use of the less expensive postage rate. Below are the qualifications (as of this writing) by the US Postal Service:

Rectangular and have angular (90 degree) corners

At least 3-inches high x 5 inches long x .007 inch thick

No more than 4-inches high x 6 inches long x .016 inches thick

A larger or folded postcard does have advantages. For instance, a real estate company might want to show a panoramic view of available property or a car dealer could highlight a fleet of the newest automobiles. One of the more popular oversized postcards measures 9-by-6-inches. It is certainly bigger than a #10 envelope and will garner more attention when mixed in a stack of mail. Naturally, the mailing cost will increase with the dimensions increase in size, and folded cards are considered first-class mail. If you have any doubts about your piece, the US Post Service has a business division to answer your questions. A printing service or other third-party professional creating the piece should know the post office’s rules.

Now, to answer the question that burns in everyone’s head: Horizontal or Vertical positioning? Think over the years to whenever someone handed you his/her business card and it was vertically aligned. Unless it was presented to you so the words could be read immediately, you had to shift the card to look at it. Did it feel a little odd having to switch the direction? The natural habit is for a business card to be horizontal; same applies to a postcard. There is nothing wrong with a vertical postcard, but people are accustomed to reading horizontal ones. A vertical postcard is terrific for putting coupons at the bottom while allowing your message to remain intact at the top, such as for a pizza delivery company.

Next, you will need to determine your headline and message. Actually, you’ll need two headlines: One on the address side and another on the message side. The headline on the address side should elicit some sort of reaction that will be a prompt for the card to be turned over to the message side. The address-side headline would appear on the left side of the postcard and below your return address. Definitely have your return address on the postcard. This will help to filter bad contact data. Your company logo, stylized fonts, or whatever else is used to brand your business can be used, as well. It is suggested to include your phone number and web site, too. There is a 50% chance the address side will face up when on a stack of mail. Might as well use that to your benefit and there isn’t any additional printing cost. Be aware of the positioning of any copy or images so as not to interfere with the post office’s design requirements.

On the message side, the headline will communicate 90% of your message, like the tabloids at your local grocery store. This attention-grabber will give the recipient a compelling reason to continue reading. The content of the copy should be to the point and provide a reason to take action or contact you by phone, email, or viewing a specific web page (more about this later). Squinting is not a comfortable thing to do. The postcard will end up in the trash quickly if the font is too small to read. Graphics and images typically have a greater communication function due to the limited space for copy; photo of a car for car sales, house for real estate, giant tooth for a dentist…you get the idea. Remember a picture is worth a thousand DOLLARS (that’s a paraphrase).

Here is a critical aspect of the process: PROOF YOUR MATERIAL SEVERAL TIMES! Did you understand that? There are many tales about someone finding grammatical errors, missing or wrong telephone number, incorrect graphic, or using dot-net instead of dot-com AFTER the material was mailed. Some mistakes could cost more than others. What happens if you’re advertising a “Buy One, Get One 50%-Off” and nobody noticed the “Buy One” portion was missing? Okay, that example was over the top, but you get the idea. Conditions, restrictions, copyright marks, and other “read the small print” objects will need to be checked for errors and to make sure it’s actually on the piece. Try to have several people check the material for accuracy before sending it to the printer, and check it again when the printer sends a sample proof. You might find a previously missed gaffe or the colors didn’t turn out the way you intended.

There are probably several printing services in your immediate area. Take advantage of the Internet and research printers in other areas as well as some of the online print companies.

Contact Data

Let’s assume your client contact database is up to date and used on a regular basis. Yay for you! If that is not the situation, NOW is the time to get it organized and remind your clients that they are still important to you. Yes, that’s right: Your current clients will feel slighted when non-customers (prospects) receive some promotional price on your goods or services. If your business isn’t structured that way, then think of mailing a postcard to your clients as providing good customer relations.

Your company’s web site is the next inexpensive and easy method for collecting contact data. Give the web visitor a reason to reveal their all-secret identity by offering something you have that has intrinsic or real value, such as joining a list for discounts, a free newsletter, or access to an informative article. Just be pushy about it. Asking too for too much personal information too quickly is a turn-off and will chase away potential customers. A “Contact Us” page with a standard form is sufficient for most business models.

Some lists are available for free. Government records, apartment complexes by unit number, or cooperate with another business on a joint mailing. Ask your current clients for the names of people they know who might be interested in your product or service. By the way, the easier it is to get a list the more other groups/businesses will be using it too.

Business associations, social organizations, and publications where your company advertises might allow you to use their list of members or subscribers. This will provide an additional level of filtering to reach a more targeted audience. In many instances the organization will ask you to supply the materials and they will coordinate the mailing in an effort to keep their list private. Some associations will permit a third-party (fulfillment house) to process your campaign under the agreement the list will be kept confidential. Whether or not there is a charge for acquiring the list depends on the policies of the business or organization.

Purchasing data is a very efficient means of acquiring quality contacts. There are many companies that specialize in gathering and purifying contact data. This will save some marketing dollars as you can target a specific audience. The list can be as simple as name and address by geographic location or filtered by a detailed demographic search. The more detailed the information the higher the cost will be. Lists range in price from 15- to 75-cents per contact. When you interview list companies ask about the error rate for their data. At last check, 9% bad data is the industry average.

Use the recipient’s name whenever you have it. Mail addressed to “Occupant” or “Resident” is a signal to throw it away immediately. Be a little creative for when the name isn’t available. “Hungry BBQ Lover” to advertise a restaurant is a good way to get attention.

Distribution

Get your postcards, buy the stamps, print address labels, attach both, and drop in the mail. Done! That was the simple version. Some businesses will engage the entire family in this type of production. Many independent contractors will sit at home in front of the television and process all their material. It works and it might work for you.

Let’s say you plan to mail considerable quantities – 500 or more pieces – on a routine basis. Take into consideration the man-hours (labor cost) of using your staff and executing a timely campaign. You might want to think about having a bulk mail license to save on postage. It is suggested to assign one or two people to ensure all the bulk mail is sorted according to the licensing agreement with the US Postal Service.

Fulfillment services can process your materials, get it to the post office, and most will allow the use of their bulk mailing license. Their representatives can offer ideas and suggestions for how often you should send mail, the latest trends in direct mail strategies, and help coordinate your mailings with the rest of your marketing plan. Some printing companies also offer mailing service; a one-stop shop for all your distribution needs.

Follow-up

As with any mailing, the success rate of the campaign increases considerably when it’s followed up with a phone call. This “warm call” can be used to confirm the postcard was delivered to the intended recipient or find out if there are any questions about the postcard’s message. When dealing with a large number of contacts, it might be best to retain the services of a telemarketing or business development company. A personal visit (door knocking) can be equally as effective.

Earlier in this article it was suggested that one way for people to act on your message is for them to visit a specific web page. Specific because it’s easier to know why web traffic has increased and who is visiting. Make sure the web address (URL) is simple and clear, for instance ‘YourWebsite.com/postcard.’ People will get frustrated if they can’t get to where they want to go quickly. It is not necessary to have a unique page for the campaign; it only makes it easier to track responses. Remember to test the web address and review the page as part of the proofing process.

Your frontline staff should be prepared to react with any calls or responses. Create a system and teach your staff the process. If your postcard included some type of discount, make sure your computer or cash register system has been programmed accordingly. For retailers who featured a particular product: Think about the in-store presentation. You could have the product prominently displayed at the front of the store. Since the customer already knows about the item from the postcard, a suggested strategy would be to have the display in another section of the store to encourage shoppers to walk through to see more of your offerings. Situate a complimenting product close by to capture any impulse purchases. For example, if your featured product is kitchen knives, place within arm’s reach a selection of cutting boards, blade sharpeners, and protective gloves. Grocers do this all the time. When you buy ice cream you don’t have to go very far to find the chocolate and caramel sauce.

Tracking Results

You will want to have a system for tracking each mailing. The message, any offers or discounts, to whom the card was sent, when it was sent, its projected delivery date, and the cost of the campaign. Aside from your due diligence as a responsible business person, you’ll want to know the effectiveness of the promotion.

Tracking the response rate is vitally important. Criteria such as who responded (because it might be someone who was not on your list), promptness of the response compared to the arrival of the offer, the offer that got their attention, and how they contacted you (phone, email, web hit), was the person making a purchase or an inquiry call and when do they plan to buy. Record how many postcards were returned to quantify your database and update your mailing list for future use.

With the information on the cost of materials and distribution compared to responses, you will be able to calculate your key numbers. This information will aid in the design and content of future mailings.

Key Numbers

Percentage of Bad Contacts =

Number of Returned divided by Total Mailed

Percentage of Responses =

Number of Responses divided by [Total Pieces Mailed minus Returned Pieces]

Cost per Response =

Total Cost of Campaign divided by Total Responses

Cost per Sale =

Total Cost of Campaign divided by Total Responders who made a Purchase

This example is a simple analysis. Depending how many factors were included with your original data, it is possible to delve into the information (datamine) to find more responses from a particular zip code, people in a certain age range, by gender, or any other demographic aspect. Whether it’s simple or profound, you need to know the effectiveness in order to plan the next campaign.

For some, postcards will be the best communications tool, and for others it won’t fit their business structure. Without a doubt, postcards are an effective way to stay connected with your target audience when incorporated into an overall marketing strategy. They will help to keep your message fresh and your name in front of current and potential customers. See if they will work for you!

John Safin has written non-fiction, fiction, humor, and political ravings plus acted as ghost and speech writer for top business leaders. He can be found as a gregarious marketing and public relations professional. In addition to his writing talents, John creates promotional materials, graphic and web site designs. John is the founder Writers Round Table Phoenix. Originally from Upstate New York, John now calls Phoenix, Arizona home. http://www.johnsafin.com

Author: John Safin
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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What is Google Docs?

Google Docs is best summarized as a completely web-based, simplified, free version of Microsoft Office. It provides basic functionality such as word-processing, spreadsheets and presentations. The fact that it is an online service gives it a number of advantages, but there are also one or two disadvantages you need to be aware of.

Web-based service

The fact that Google Docs is an online service has a great advantage, you can work on a document from anywhere you have Internet access and a browser. This is more convenient than it sounds. For example, I have several computers and, using OpenOffice, I might create a Word-compatible document on, say, my desktop computer. If I am then on the road I don’t have access to that document from my laptop as the document might still be on my desktop computer’s hard-drive.

There are ways to transfer between computers, and one technique I used in the past was to email the document to Hotmail. This ensured that I could access the document from any of my computers and it was backed-up by Microsoft. This wasn’t convenient though as I ended up having several versions of the document on different computers and keeping track of the current version proved difficult. Google Docs solves this problem as all the documents you create are hosted by Google. You can access your documents from any computer that has a browser and Internet access.

Document import and export

One of the nice features of Google Docs is that you can import existing documents such as Word documents or OpenOffice documents. This means if you have existing documents you can easily import them to your Google docs account. The interface allows you to see all your documents at once and you can also organise the documents into folders using labels. This is similar to how Gmail works. In addition to importing existing Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations you can also export your documents to different formats. For example you can export a Google document to PDF, Word, or OpenOffice XML format. Being able to export documents to a PDF is particularly useful for those creating information products. This also provides a neat backup facility, as in the event that Google disappears (unlikely) you can have versions of your documents stored locally or on another server in any convenient format you wish.

You can easily publish documents to the web

At the click of a button you can publish a document at Google Docs to the web. By default the documents are private and secure (as you would expect), but by publishing the doc Google will make the document available via a URL. You can then email or other publish the URL on your website as required. Further, if you update the document in Google Docs, it will automatically republish the modified document if you require this. This means you can use Google Docs as a basic Content Management System (CMS). This is particularly nice as, because the documents are hosted by Google, the documents consume zero disk space and bandwidth from your hosting provider!

Integrated with Blogger

If you maintain a Blogger blog you are going to love Google Docs. Google Docs is fully integrated with Blogger – you can write documents at Google Docs and then publish them to a blog of your choice (if you maintain multiple blogs) in a couple of clicks. There are a couple of minor niggles with this – the document title doesn’t currently transfer correctly, so you have to go into Blogger and add the title. But apart from this it works very well. It’s convenient if you are creating a longer post that you might want to reuse on other sites. For example you might want to generate a PDF to email out, and also publish the same post to multiple blogs. Google Docs lets you do this with ease.

Google Docs with other blogs

Google Docs also works well with other blogs or even your own site. Google Docs currently integrates with BlogWare, LiveJournal, Wordpress, BlogHarbour and SquareSpace. There are also options for publishing directly to your own server (although I haven’t tested this yet).

Simple interface

Google Docs provides a nice environment in which to write, spell check and view your article before publishing.

Using Google Docs is about as simple as it gets. Once you’ve created your Google account – if you don’t already have one – Docs will appear in your Google account service list. From the service list you can access services such as Docs, Gmail, Blogger, and Picasa, with a single click.

The built in spell checker in Google Docs is particularly useful and easy. Click the ‘Check Spelling’ link and any errors are highlighted in yellow. You can also right-click on a spelling mistake to obtain a list of spelling suggestions.

Google Docs also sports a Wiki-like ‘Revisions’ tab. Clicking on the tab shows you previous versions of the document that are created through Google Doc’s auto-save feature. You can easily revert to earlier versions should you wish to do so.

Spreadsheets and presentations

I now manage all my personal finances via Google Docs. I used to keep my finances in an Excel spreadsheet – I simply imported those Excel docs into Google Docs – a process that took seconds. I can now check or update my finances from any computer, anywhere in the world.

I also played a little with the presentation facility in Google Docs. You can create a nice presentation very easily using the templates provided. Again you can publish to the web and the built-in interface that the user sees allows them to click through the presentation or just watch the presentation as an automated slide show (they can modify timing and so on as required).

Why should a blogger care about this? If your blog features charts, spreadsheets or presentations then you can simply link to a web published version of the document. It’s also possible to use more traditional methods like copy and paste!

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage of Google Docs is that you can only access your documents if you have Internet access. In the worst case, if you knew you were going to be without Internet access, you could export to a local document on your laptop, work on it and then import it back into Google Docs when you get Internet access.

It’s also important to remember that Google Docs isn’t Microsoft Office and doesn’t have all of the features that Office provides. For example, automatic generation of Table of Contents doesn’t seem to be supported (although you can have links and bookmarks to help navigate).

Summary

I would say I am addicted to Google Docs and find it to be an essential part of running my blog – it is one of the main reasons I use Blogger. It is convenient, easy to use and being able to store your documents (and publish them) on the web is a huge advantage. I no longer have to transfer documents between computers or worry about issues such as versioning. It is very easy to be able to export the documents to a local file, such as a PDF. So far, I have found Google Docs to be invaluable.

Google Docs can be found at http://docs.google.com

Tony Bedford first started blogging in March 2000. Tony currently maintains a free guide to more profitable blogging at http://the-business-of-blogging.blogspot.com

Author: Tony Bedford
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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In this article I want to give you the full scoop of what having an attitude can mean to your business.

The Pro’s and Con’s to using an attitude.

First let’s look at the positive and negative sides of having an attitude:

-Scaring away bad customers – positive

-Scaring away good customers – negative

-Expressing your feelings more – positive

-Creating a bond with your customers – positive

-Having people talk bad about you – negative

-Creating ‘raving fans’ – positive

-Gaining more feedback from people – positive

Probably there are many more to list. You might think I’ve purposely listed so many negatives to get this article into the direction I want. But that is not the case. The above points have been based on my own experience for the past few weeks.

The only thing I must warn you for is that I can’t identify long-term results yet. These maybe either positive, negative or both.

How I use an attitude to ’select’ my customers and clients.

By becoming more ‘brutally’ honest with myself and my customers I’ve become increasingly selective in the people that are allowed to purchase from me. Of course I can’t literally put everything thru a test before they buy a product or service – but I can qualify them with my copywriting and communications with them.

The moment you start being honest to what your expertise are, you also start firing customers or declining clients that want something you can not deliver upon. This saves you a lot of money and time. It also decreases your refund ratio till around 0%

Since a month ago I’ve promised myself to stop working with the customers and clients who are desperate and find all kinds of excuses to not be successful. Those that aren’t willing to learn and work to become successful have to get out right now! Further I pledged to put more time and effort into the clients that have what it takes and fit me and my business well.

Immediately I started to have better relationships with the clients I had. They began to take more action and are slowly forming to my ideal clients. Consuming less time overall on the things that don’t matter (like the response time of an email) and focus on those critical elements that contribute to success (like finishing another product).

Being honest with customers, even telling them the truth in a quite brutal way hasn’t had any negative effects on me. I feel much better after I expressed my feelings, the customer learned something and even provided genuine and useful feedback that I can use to improve my products and services with (Thanks John C.!)

What to do if people complain?

Between all the good clients you’ll attract there will probably be some bad apples. Get rid of them as soon as possible. If you offer a money-back guarantee, refund them and then ban their IP’s from reaching your sites, label their email as Spam and never think about it again.

But sometimes you get the weird people who aren’t customers complaining about you. Actually that’s publicity for you and in the end the ’small’ people won’t be a threat to your business as readers will form their own opinion about you.

In case it’s a big guy spreading negative news about you, ie. a guru – then act immediately and put things straight. Just by expressing your feelings about the situation and offering a solution privately you can get a long way. If that doesn’t help you can always reply in public. Though be careful with what you say, everything can be used against you once people dislike you.

The results I got from using my attitude.

To give some specific numbers about what results of using an attitude in my business, here are some: 21 clients and customers are fired, spend 6 hours per week less on customer support and email. Incoming post, email and phone calls reduced from 1.5 hours a day to 12 minutes.

Profits gone up with 174%. Websites received 1,872 more visitors the past 2 weeks without any other promotions going on. More JV partners, affiliates and clients have found me in the past month then in the past 6 months: 9 new JV partners, 51 new affiliates and 24 new clients added to my business.

To get more money-making strategies and Dave Origano’s free report ‘How My Friend Obtained 16 JV Partners’ together with Copy&Paste JV proposal templates – go to Dave’s website

Author: Dave Origano
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Why Have An “About Me” and What Should It Include?

Personalization- Having a well written and detailed “About Me” helps create a “welcome” atmosphere to your blog. It allows your viewers a unique look into your world and your writing. It also offers an opportunity for you to engage your readers in an emotional connection, whether by your knowledge and experience on given topics, your sense of humor, or the “realness” of you and your work.

Digging Deeper - An “About Me” provides an extensive opportunity to delve deep into your Archives, drawing attention and linking to previously written posts, perhaps not yet found by your readers. This one step, by far, has helped me personally increase readership, subscribers and comments on my blog.

What Should An About Me Include?

Create An “About Me” PAGE - Take the time to create an informative page on your blog that is titled “About Me”. Link to it from your sidebar. Simply write a post as you would any other, titling it “About Me”, then bury it deep into your archives using the “Post Options” link. Be sure to suggest subscribing to your blog, with a direct link for viewers to do just that.

Use Your Real Photo - Using landscape pictures, pictures of movie or music stars, or animated silliness takes authority away from your blog. If you want to be taken seriously as a writer or blogger, prove it with a real photo of yourself as the author. It has been my personal experience that I am much more likely to click on links to your blog if it’s accompanied by a real photo of yourself. Sorry, but I highly doubt that Brad Pitt, Cherize Theron or whatever actor is currently playing James Bond, has time to blog.

Introduce yourself - What is your real name? At least include your first name if nothing else. Explain in some detail your knowledge and experience on the topics you write about. Have you or your writings been featured in some way, on television or radio, been given an award of some kind relating to your blog? Say so on your About Me page. Be sure to include an easy way for people to Contact you personally, by providing an email address protected from spam, or by linking to another page on your blog titled “Contact Us” that has a contact form to fill in. There are many Contact Us forms available on the web if you don’t yet have one.

Position On Your Blog - Be sure to place your profile, or link to your profile page, in a prominent position on your blog. ***Special Note: This is often the first place I go when I visit a blog, and what I find there has everything to do with my decision as to whether I return again, provide a review and recommendation on my blog, or not. No one should have to tediously search throughout your blog trying to find how they can learn more about you, or how to send you a private message.

Make It Engaging - Your profile page should provide readers an easy answer to “What do I do now” once they’ve finished reading your About Me. That is a perfect example of why your profile page should provide links to articles you’ve written. I recommend providing links to whatever “labels” or “categories” you use, which in turn makes it easy for your readers to go to the posts they are most interested in. Spend significant time writing your About Me, as this is no place to get writer’s block.

If you’d like to see examples of an “About Me” page, and a “Contact Us” page to help you get started on your own, I’ve listed mine below.

My About Me Page

My Contact Us Page

If you have enjoyed this article, or have been helped in some way, I would appreciate your comments.

Author: Lin Burress
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Wordpress plugin Guest Blogger

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Mr. Bork’s cause of action arises out of an incident which occurred on June 6, 2006, on which date Mr. Bork was visiting the Yale Club, a private club, in New York City, to deliver a speech at a luncheon sponsored by the New Criterion Magazine. It is perhaps interesting to note that Mr. Bork, though not a Yale alum, was a professor at the Yale School of Law during the Sixties and Seventies. He is currently a Professor of Law at the Ave Maria Law School located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It does not appear that he was on medical leave during the 2006-2007 academic year.

Mr. Bork’s complaint was not verified, but was signed by his attorneys on his behalf. Your correspondent is unfamiliar with New York legal procedure. It is unknown whether there is a one year statute of limitations on tort actions in New York, and the suit was started on the last possible day it could successfully been brought, or if the filing on the one year anniversary of Mr. Bork’s injury was merely coincidental.

While attempting to ascend the dais on the date in question, Mr. Bork lost his balance, and fell backwards, hitting his left leg on the subject dais and hitting his head on an inconveniently placed heat register. While other, lesser, non-originalist, non-textualist men may have been deterred from a further assault on the lofty height, Mr. Bork, being a trouper, was made of sterner stuff. Though he may have been bloodied, he was unbowed. He raised himself up from the shambles of his fallen self, ascended that self-same dais, and delivered his oration like a good ‘un. It is unknown whether the head injury affected the form or content of the speech. I suspect that, after his talk, and after thunderous applause, Mr. Bork descended the dais, unaided, shook the hands of many well-wishers, and left the premises. One assumes, but admittedly does not know, that Mr. Bork, as a Virginia resident, employed in Michigan, was paid some small stipend for his comments.

The members of the Yale Club may well have been distressed, if not confused to read the subsequent complaint served on the organization by Mr. Bork’s attorneys. The complaint alleges that the Yale club failed to provide a safe dais or stairs or a handrail between the dais and the floor. Also, the dais was at an unreasonable height from the floor.

Mr. Bork’s complaint contains two counts, one alleging negligence and one alleging gross negligence. The allegations of fact in both counts are exactly the same in both counts except the words “wantonly, willfully and recklessly” are substituted in Count Two for the word “negligently” in Count One.

Mr. Bork alleges a leg injury (apparently the injury to his head from the heat register resolved), causing a large hematoma, which later burst, requiring surgery. Excruciating pain resulted, which prevented him from working his “typical” schedule after the injury. He also endured months of “relative inactivity” due to his injuries, and was “largely immobile” for some months.

Medical bills were incurred, and some lost income alleged, though, as indicated, he gave his speech that day, and was not listed as “on medical leave” on the Ave Maria website.

What does the complaint indicate that Mr. Bork, the accident victim, deserves in order to make him whole for this injury, caused by the negligence and willful, wanton, and reckless conduct of the Yale Club:

1. $1,000,000, and

2. Punitive damages, and

3. Pre-and post-judgment costs, interest and attorney fees.

For those who may not know Mr. Bork, he has served as Solicitor General of the United States, acting Attorney General, and Federal Court of Appeals Judge. In 1987, he was nominated for the US Supreme Court by President Reagan. His nomination was vigorously opposed by many groups, and the Senate eventually rejected his confirmation. The word “Bork” has now become a verb and as of 2002 has appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary. The word is defined: “To destroy a judicial nominee through a concerted attack on his character, background and philosophy.” During the confirmation process, opponents went so far as to obtain Mr. Bork’s video rental records. It is some interest to note that one video rented by Mr. Bork was the Marx Brothers’ “A Day at the Races”.

So we see that even highly educated, intelligent persons with long pedigrees of public service like Mr. Bork can become victims of negligent and reckless actions by organizations and corporations.

While it appears that Mr. Bork has much in common with many other persons injured apparently through no fault of their own, we should not separate Robert Bork the victim from Robert Bork the legal scholar and philosopher, and former judge, quite yet. For while this case may be the first occasion where Mr. Bork has been a part of the legal system in the role of injured plaintiff, he has previously expressed some definite opinions on the subject.

Mr. Bork has long been an advocate of “tort reform” measures to restrict the rights of injured persons. As recently as 2002, in an article he authored in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Mr. Bork that Congress, by legislation, displace state tort law. He admitted, however, that the framers of our Constitution did not grant Congress such power. Mr. Bork wrote:

“State tort law today is different in kind from the state tort law known to the generation of the Framers. The present tort system poses dangers to interstate commerce not unlike those faced under the Articles of Confederation. Even if Congress would not, in 1789, have had the power to displace state tort law, the nature of the problem has changed so dramatically as to bring the problem within the scope of the power granted to Congress. Accordingly, proposals, such as placing limits or caps on punitive damages, or eliminating joint or strict liability, which may once have been clearly understood as beyond Congress’s power, may now be constitutionally appropriate.”

Such a federal tort system would, Mr. Bork believes, combat the problem of frivolous claims and excessive punitive damage awards that apparently plague state courts.

Mr. Bork has long been an advocate of judicial restraint. He has criticized judges who “legislate from the bench.” Reinterpreting the US Constitution to grant Congress powers admittedly not included by the Constitution’s authors sounds like a liberal dose of judicial activism to me.

Admittedly, I know very little about the facts of Mr. Bork’s accident. If the Yale Club did not provide a means of ascending a dais and if it was a very high step and if there was no support provided, I can see how a case of negligence could be proven. No argument from me that the claim itself is frivolous. And, if Mr. Bork can prove his case, and if he incurred medical expenses, and wage loss and pain and suffering, he is entitled to reasonable compensation from the responsible parties. That seems to make common sense. But what makes this case especially interesting, is the nature of the claims a person of
Mr. Bork’s philosophy makes against the parties he holds responsible and the relief to which he claims he is entitled. It is also equally fascinating to consider what relief Mr. Bork get if his accident occurred under similar circumstances at the Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit, Michigan, the state where Mr. Bork is employed as a Professor of Law. And, coincidentally, a state where much of the indigenous judiciary has made Mr. Bork’s legal philosophy (or what they thought it was), the law of this state.

First, let’s take a closer look at Mr. Bork’s New York complaint. Quite honestly, if there is negligence here, it is because someone at the event didn’t think a step or railing to the dais was needed. Or forgot to even think whether one was necessary. Or accidentally removed on that was already there. Simple carelessness. Well, that is not quite good enough for Mr. Bork, the advocate of restraint, and the opponent of the frivolous claim. He alleges that the actions of the Yale Club were not merely negligent or careless, but willful, wanton and reckless. Maybe I misunderstood the facts. Maybe a member of the Yale Club threw him off the dais.

Anyhow, the actions of the Yale Club were so shocking the Mr. Bork does not merely want reasonable compensation ($1,000,000), but Mr. Bork wants the Yale Club to pay punitive damages, which of course he will be happy to keep for himself.

The reader might say that if the law in New York is so screwed up so as to allow people to collect such damages, why should Mr. Bork, merely because he doesn’t personally believe in such remedies, be precluded from obtaining all allows.

I would agree. It takes a man of strong character to let his personal beliefs restrain him from glomming onto all the bucks he can.

Except for this. Mr. Bork asks for punitive damages. New York law does not allow them. Mr. Bork asks for pre-judgment interest. New York law does not allow it. Mr. Bork asks for attorney fees. New York law does not allow them. Mr. Bork asks for $1,000,000 compensatory damages in his complaint. A federal complaint need only claim damages of $75,000 to invoke the jurisdiction of the court.

Now if these are the kind of remedies Mr. Bork wants included in the national tort law legislation he advocates, he might find that he has a lot more support among plaintiff attorneys than he thought.

Second, let’s move the location of Mr. Bork’s accident to the great state of Michigan, where Professor Bork helps develop the skills of future members of our state Bar.

In Michigan, the jury Mr. Bork demanded in his complaint would never hear his case. Mr. Bork would not get compensatory damages, much less punitive damages, even if the owners of the club admitted negligence. Mr. Bork could have fallen and killed himself due to the admitted negligence of any and all possible defendants, and Mr. Bork’s estate would be entitled to nothing other than possibly the bill for cleaning his blood off the dais.

Like Mr. Bork, many members of the Michigan Supreme Court are members of the Federalist Society, long-time advocates of “tort reform”. Mr. Bork’s judicial philosophy is called “Originalism.” The judicial philosophy of the Michigan Supreme Court majority is called “Textualism.” They are merely different euphemisms to label what is the worst kind of judicial activism as judicial restraint.

Well, cases decided by Mr. Bork’s adherents on the Michigan Supreme Court would make short work of Mr. Bork’s complaint. The height of a step is something Mr. Bork could see, so it was up to him to make sure he ascended it without injuring himself. The club has no duty to provide a step or railing or warning or anything else. After the fall, Mr. Bork ascended the dais without falling again, which is elegant proof that he should have done it without falling the first time.
If Mr. Bork was to argue that there was no other way to get onto the dais other than climbing an excessively high step, he would be no further ahead. Michigan cases would inform him, as his case was dismissed, that he was not required to ascend the dais at all. He could have spoken at floor level. He could have refused to speak at all, or he could have had the event cancelled and rescheduled for another day when there was a step or railing to the dais. If he had simply followed one of those three available alternate courses of action, he would not have fallen. If he hurt himself he has only himself to blame.

If Mr. Bork did not like the result of his Michigan case, he could appeal its dismissal. And some time down the road after an Appeals Court upheld the dismissal, Professor Bork might find himself using his own case to teach his Ave Maria law class the advantages of “tort reform.”

Robert Bork is a fine teacher. He teaches us a great many things by his actions in this case. First, the principles of tort reform apply to others, not to me. Secondly, frivolous suits are those brought by everyone–else. Thirdly, legal philosophy be damned–show me the money!!

May there always be men and women who will protect the common citizen from those who think them worthy of no consideration.

From the Originalists and the Textualists, Good Lord, deliver us. And, as they might say at the end of class at Ave Maria Law School—Amen.

Michael Butler is an attorney in the Detroit area. He can be reached through http://www.Attorneybutler.net

Author: Michael Butler
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

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Do you know how you can get a good act to remain good if the social custom is hurtful? Don´t worry, I do not know the answer either. The terms moral and relativism are contradictory. The prevailing thought or custom of society needs to contain a safeguard to prevent immorality. How will you keep your behavior in check if you do not adopt a morality that contains absolute rights and wrongs? Today, more and more children are adopting their parents´ “feel good” morality, which often causes them to inflict hurt toward others. If more people declare a behavior an acceptable social custom, the behavior will become morally acceptable according to a relative moral view.

A person´s view on a social custom can be influenced by music, television, movies, literature, and societal trends. If these views are not held to a standard that is absolute in regards to right and wrong behavior, the person can begin to lose his ability to see the line between good and bad. Have you ever searched for a good feeling through sex, drugs, material possessions, or open expressions of anger or rage? Are your thoughts rational when you think that you can maintain a healthy relationship while pursuing only those things that make you feel good? What is right or wrong without having an absolute morality? You may question how this absolute standard is set. This will be defined and explained in more detail in the next chapter.

Susan is a seventeen-year-old growing up in a family that does not teach morality. Susan and her friends have classroom discussions with teachers and counselors saying that sexual activity is appropriate if both people are consenting and safe sex is practiced. Through the media and discussions with other students, Susan concludes that the act of oral sex is not considered sexual due to this act not involving penetration. Susan really loves her boyfriend and decides this is a way to remain a virgin and show her boyfriend she loves him.

Can you relate to Susan or Susan´s parents in this example? If you have watched the news and special reports on television, you have been informed that this example has occurred among many teenagers. Many boys and girls believe they are keeping their virginity by engaging in oral sex. They perceive the social custom to be that oral sex is not sex. Where have you heard this before? This is an another example of moral relativism. The conclusion made by Susan was not based on rational thought processes. If Susan understood that her actions were in direct opposition to an absolute moral code that defines acts of love and intimacy, she would make more rational choices. If her parents developed clear behavioral expectations based upon specific virtues, she would be faced with the responsibility of making a decision either to respect her parents´ view on morality or not.

This is not to say that Susan would not have engaged in a sexual relationship. Her choice needed to be based upon her knowing that this behavior had consequences and was not endorsed by her parents or the other systems of care in her life. She and her boyfriend would need to learn what virtues should guide their decisions, and develop behavior expectations based upon these virtues. These expectations would need to align with their parents´ expectations in these same areas. Her thought that oral sex was not sex was easily adopted, since she did not have an absolute morality to challenge this view. As you see, irrational thoughts can be used to justify behavior and avoid responsibility. The person who thinks in morally relative terms would experience difficulties recognizing the hurt that he would cause another person.

The abuse that children suffer within their families also contributes to their irrational thinking. Do you see how the thoughts and actions of parents can contribute to their children´s adopting the same thoughts and behavior patterns? More than three children die each day as a result of child abuse in the home. In 1998, approximately 1100 children died of abuse and neglect. Most of the children who die are under the age of 5; 38 percent of the children are under the age of 1. This is the leading cause of death for infants and young children. This includes falls, choking on food, suffocation, drowning, residential fires, and motor vehicle accidents. Almost one-half of all substantiated cases of neglect and abuse in a family are associated with a parent´s alcohol or drug abuse. As mentioned previously, people with addictions are grounded in irrational thoughts.

Children can act in horrific ways because of the irrational thoughts they develop from negative verbal messages, sexual and physical abuse, and moral relativism.

Brendan Smith was sixteen years old when she killed two people and injured nine. She had decided to shoot a 22-caliber rifle across the street from her house onto the entrance of Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, on January 29, 1979. She discussed how her violence grew out of an abusive home. She claimed that her father beat and sexually abused her for years. She stated, “I had to share my dad´s bed ´til I was fourteen years old.” She went on to say that her father bought her a gun for Christmas when she asked for a radio. Brendan was the original school rampager.

On September 2, 1996, fourteen-year-old Barry Loukaitis broke into algebra class at the Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake, Washington, with a high-powered rifle and shot three students and their teacher. Two of the students and the teacher died. Students recalled that Barry shot one of the students with whom he was always having a conflict. Barry´s mother suspected that one of the songs that Barry listened to had driven him to commit the crime. The father suggested that the family had three generations´ worth of depressive illnesses in the family. Barry´s mother told the jury that she treated her son as a “confidant” and told him everything. She went on to say that this included plans to kill herself in front of her ex-husband and his girlfriend on Valentine´s Day, 1996. He had been an honor student at school.

The hurt in families is being broadcast in the media more and more. The media is also endorsing acts of abuse. Do you know that there are people in academia who endorse pedophilia? In the April 22, 2002, edition of U.S. News & World Report, John Leo wrote an article entitled, “Apologists for pedophilia.” Larry Constantine, a Massachusetts family therapist and sex book writer, stated that children “have the right to express themselves sexually, which means they may or may not have contact with people older than themselves.” Wardell Pomeroy, coauthor of the original Kinsey reports, stated that incest “can be sometimes beneficial.” Minnesota sociologists included pedophile sex with those “intimate relations that are important and precious.” There are propedophilia rationalizations still being made today.

Some of these rationalizations include the following statements: “Children are sexual beings with the right to pick their partners.” “The quality of relationships, not age, determines the value of sex.” “Most pedophiles are gentle and harmless.” “The damage of pedophilia comes mostly from the shocked horror communicated by parents, not the sex itself.” A new controversial book called Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex by author Judith Levine, contains a foreword by former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders. One report said that this book plays down the dangers of pedophilia and that Levine thinks this is a good time to endorse “some priest-boy sex.” The report discussed how the “disorder of the intellectual world” trickles into the popular culture, including the school system. Tom O´Carrol has been asked to address the international sex convention in Paris regarding the private rights of pedophiles and their children partners. His pedophile book is on a course list at Cambridge University. If more people in society find this to be acceptable behavior, pedophilia will be a morally acceptable behavior. Does this sound like rational thinking to you?

Here are examples of irrational thinking patterns:

Perfectionistic thinking – Should statements/thoughts: In your relationships, you criticize yourself or other people with phrases such as “I should have”, “I must”, “I have to”, or “I shouldn´t.”

All or nothing thinking: A tendency to think in absolute black or white. There is no middle ground, no room for mistakes. Many men that are survivors of abuse think in these terms. They describe emotions in their relationships in terms of happiness or anger.

Labeling oneself based upon one experience or internal feelings: The tendency to take one isolated event and make a general rule from the experience. “If I do not succeed once, I will never succeed.” “If I made a mistake once I will always make a mistake.” “I feel terrible, so I must be terrible.”

Negative Thinking: The tendency to always focus on the negative and to omit the positive aspects of a situation. Childhood experiences and ways that problems were solved in your relationships will determine what type of lense that you view the world. “I can work through this event and gain valuable experience”, or “There is no hope to make this situation better or to solve this problem.” This also causes you to blow situations out of proportion. “My decision to go on the business trip was the cause for my wife’s death in an automobile accident.”

Factors that lead to irrational thoughts

Mental Illness – Panic, phobias, depression, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, thought disorders, hyperactivity, personality disorders.

Trauma – Abuse, witnessing horrific events, abduction, bullying, and other life threatening events. Receiving Negative Messages as a child – not wanted, minimized, not the favorite, not good enough (perfectionism), not able to make decisions or think critically (codependency).

Family and Societal Norms – 60% of families are single parent, 75% of families have each parent working, bigger houses, better life for children.

Moral Relativism – Morality based upon social customs – “feel-good society”, issues of sexuality, music, television, video games, and quick fixes to problems.

Each of these factors leads a person to look to self and away from evaluating how he or she is relating to another person. Self directed activity has the potential to cause hurt to others in a relationship. The subtle hurt in relationships are what cause the majority of relationship problems today, not physical or sexual abuse. The missing element in many relationships is a conscious attempt to incorporate an absolute morality to the relationship that can be evaluated in an objective manner. In my relationship book, I outline objective ways to evaluate hurt in a relationship along with ways to heal this hurt.

Jay Krunszyinsky is a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Counselor and Abuse Investigator for the state of Pennsylvania. His core approach to moral issues is broadly that described as ‘virtue ethics,’ that is, consideration of the chief virtues which contribute to a fulfilled and purposed life. Krunszyinsky holds a master’s degree in counseling from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and has worked for numerous human service agencies, counseling families, children, adolescents and adults. Visit his website at Relationship Repair

Author: Jay Krunszyinsky
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Cool mobile gadgets

It is alarming to think that the Internet has brought to the world the most efficient communication system in human history and yet it is so easily exploited by criminals, hackers and cyber crooks. It is unfortunate that something so great is so greatly abused. If we consider the amount of crime on the Internet along with the inconveniences caused by SPAM, Splogging, SPIT, which costs 100s of billions annually in lost productivity, you can begin to see the pending crisis. Then we are warned of the threats of cyber attack 911 style on our financial and banking systems and you might understand why governments, industry and military are preparing for that potential eventuality.

Today we have good hackers and bad hackers and we have nation-states who are hiring hackers to potentially exploit large IT networks, Internet backbone infrastructures and bring entire countries to their knees. Worried yet? Well perhaps you should be, as your Internet privacy is at stake, not only from the bad guys, but from the good guys also as your privacy rights may not be so private as the good guys find ways to catch the crooks, hackers, spies and attackers.

Of course with all this said we want the Internet to remain TAX Free and as regulation free as possible, because excessive regulation will ruin this communication system and drown it with the blog of bureaucracy nearly as fast as the criminals. There in lies the rub of Internet Fraud and Freedom in the Balance.

This is a serious issue to all those using forums, Blogs, sending email, owning a website, buying thru the Internet, selling on ebay or doing online banking. These issues are especially serious for those running IT systems at work, for the government or in the military. I certainly hope you will enjoyed this article, as we take a look at the runway ahead. Perhaps this article is of interest to propel thought in 2007?

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Author: Lance Winslow
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Gold medalist Cheek capitalized on his moment of fame (he was on the podium, accepting his medial) to announce he was donating his entire $25,000 medal bonus to humanitarian organization Right to Play (which helps disadvantaged children worldwide gain physical benefits and develop life skills and strong values through play and sports.) He reiterated this high-impact marketing strategy with his $10,000 bonus when he won the silver in the 1,000 meter race. And he challenged his Olympic sponsors and other advertisers to do the same:

“I’ve always felt that if I ever did something big like this I wanted to be prepared to give something back. So … I’m going to be donating the entire sum the USOC gives to me, which is $25,000.”

“In the Darfur region of Sudan, there have been tens of thousands of people killed,” Cheek continued. “My government has labeled it a genocide. I will be donating [my prize money] specifically to the [Right to Play] in Chad, where there are over 60,000 children who have been displaced from their homes.”

Way to go, Joey. And I don’t mean the medals. Of course he could have donated his winnings without telling anyone. But in a radio interview, Cheek discussed his pre-race thinking on how to respond to the bonus, if he got one. He realized the great impact he could make by talking about Right to Play, its good work and his giving, rather than the standard thanks.

“I’ve learned how news cycles work,” Cheek said, “and I’ve learned that there is a gold medal tonight, and tomorrow there’s another gold medalist. So I could take the time and discuss how wonderful I feel, or I could use it for something productive.”

In making that decision, Cheek generated a flood of interest in Right to Play (shown in a huge upswing in website hits), and a total (as of today) of $300,000 in donations (including his and those from sponsors Nike, Gap, Jet Set and Leveno to date).

So Joey zigged while others zagged. Here’s how he made this tremendous impact:

o Strategized how to draw the most attention to a cause that is personally meaningful (and showed great personal generosity in doing so), rather than just making the donation privately.
o Did the unexpected in talking about Right to Play, donating his bonuses, and challenging sponsors to join him.
o Established himself as credible – in sharing the story of his personal experience with Right to Play – a model of citizenship, and intelligence (particularly significant in this cadre of what the New York Times calls “showboating, self-absorbed” US Olympians). Cheek is now a credible philanthropist, following the model of Right to Play founder Johann Koss (a former speed skater himself), who has motivated fellow athletes to join him through his personal reputation and his understanding of what’s important to his athlete colleagues.

It was Koss – a triple gold medalist in 1994 – who inspired Cheek to go from in-line skating to speed skating.

o Detailed a clear and specific call to action, in challenging Olympic sponsors to join him in supporting the organization.
o Inspired others to do the same, as is evidenced by the upsurge in donations and visits to the Right to Play website. It’s likely that Cheek’s impact will spill over into motivating athletes, Olympic and otherwise, who are Olympic fans, to volunteer with Right to Play.

Already, Canadian speed skater and gold medalist Clara Hughes, a long-time Right to Play volunteer, has cited Cheek as her inspiration in donating $10,000 of her prize money to Right to Play, and challenging fellow Canadian Olympians to give. You can see her Right to Play fundraising page here: [http://www.righttoplay.com/site/TR?px=1074046&pg=personal&fr_id=1040]

Right to Play was poised to capture the upsurge of interest, with its kiosk in the Olympic Athlete’s Village, photo exhibit in Torino, and well-designed, user-friendly website with clear points of entry for prospective donors and volunteers. Take a look at the website here: [http://www.righttoplay.com/site/PageServer]

When you do, you’ll see that Right to Play wasted no time in covering Cheek’s and Hughes’ donations, knowing that memory is fleeting and that the time to capture the interest is now.

And talk about viral marketing power. What’s better to pass down the lane than the Joey Cheek story. Not only has his strategy generated huge recognition and dollars for Right to Play, it’s done the same for Joey himself. As an example, last Monday’s New York Times featured a lengthy article on Joey’s actions, deeming him the “good-will ambassador” of the Olympics. Joey, you’ve set a new gold standard.

Nancy E. Schwartz helps nonprofits succeed through effective marketing and communications.

Subscribe to her free e-newsletter “Getting Attention,” at http://www.nancyschwartz.com/getting_attention.html and read her blog at http://www.gettingattention.org for more insights, ideas and great tips on attracting the attention your organization deserves.

Author: Nancy E. Schwartz
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Unix inter-process communication (IPC)

The first wave of Web hosting started in the middle of 1990s. At the time, there weren’t really many web hosting companies. Web hosting was a part of ISP (Internet Service Provider) operation. Within two years, the number of ISPs had grown from a few dozens to a few thousands in United States alone. Many analysts predicated that the consolidation of ISP industry was unavoidable. But the analysts didn’t pay much attention to the future of the web hosting. The web hosting clients for ISPs were most small to medium-sized organizations which couldn’t offer to have dedicated Internet connection.

The Second Wave – One Plan Hosting Wave

As large telecommunication companies entering into the ISP industry and the prevailing of broadband connection into both commercial and residential buildings, a few leading ISP, such as AOL had grabbed residential users from small ISP companies, and telecommunication companies had stolen or acquired commercial clients from small or regional ISP companies. Because of the economy of scale, ISPs couldn’t compete with either AOL, Comcast or Qwest for Internet connection service. Most ISP companies were disappeared as fast as they were emerged.

On the other hand, the growth of the Web has pushed the second wave of web hosting. The web hosting companies offer hosting service at a fraction of cost of what ISPs used to charge. In contrast to the Web hosting service from ISP, which is often customized for each client one way or another, the idea of one hosting plan has helped grow the client base from a few hundreds to hundreds of thousands at few leading hosting companies in a few short years. Todays’ web hosting companies don’t offer Internet connection service at all. It’s unbelievable that early ISP companies had never attempted to transform themselves into web hosting companies to survive the inevitable consolidation of ISP industry.

The Third Wave – Hosting Plan for Users

Seasoned webmasters can easily setup a new website in minutes with one of their preferred hosting companies. Novice webmasters are often confused by the various web hosting plans – affordable web hosting, Cheap Web hosting, ASP Web Hosting, Budget Hosting, Dedicated Servers, eCommerce Hosting, FrontPage Web Hosting, Hosting With Templates, Managed Web Hosting, PHP Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Shared Hosting, Unix / Linux Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, Windows Hosting and Co-location Hosting.

The size of the Web will continue to grow exponentially as more and more people join the crow to create their own websites. If web hosting companies do not expect average Joe to understand operating systems, programming languages or variations of web servers, they’ll develop the service and sell the hosting plan that’ll make sense to average Mary. New web hosting plan will be labeled in terms of what is can do for hosting customers, instead of technical buzzwords.

The Web hosting industry has been enjoying healthy growth as the global economy and IT industry revives. It’s too early to see the tide of the third wave in Web hosting right now. If the first and the second wave of Web hosing were pushed by the start of a new economic cycle, the coming of the third wave may not be an exception either.

Copyright @2005, Bruce Zhang

You have permission to publish this article electronically free of charge, as long as the bylines and links in the body of the article and the bylines are included.

Bruce Zhang currently manages dozens of websites using Managed Web Hosting and Unix / Linux Hosting, including a site that sells CBT software online.

Author: Bruce Zhang
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Here are 5 steps for getting started on stepping outside of your comfort zone and publicizing your written word.

1. We are all experts in something
A rule of thumb is to always start with something you know. My experiences differ from yours, and so do yours from the next person, making your knowledge and experiences something unique. For writers who feel the pressure of trying to sound too entertaining, start with composing a how-to article that way you offer factual expertise, instead of focusing on wit. That will come, and this will provide as a good warm up to your inner creative voice. Once you finish, post your articles on sites like this one, that share information and knowledge with others.

2. Blog
Blogs are like journals and can be made public as much as you would like them to. What is nice about blogging is that it provides you with an any-topic free write any time you want. Blogs allow you to share with others, or keep the entries private. Since this is a personal writing venue, you can set up a theme to your topics, or keep it random. The more serious and confident you get, the more you can solicit your blog site out–accruing both an audience and confidence in your voice.

3. Participate in your favorite artistic medium
Every writer has their beat, meaning you have your favorite stuff to read about and write about. Whether its poetry, screen writing, prose, or comic books, by now you know what you like and what you wish was out there; so change it. Your talent gives you a responsibility to the world to share what you know and like. Just think, there are some out there who are hungry for the content you can provide that does not yet exist. Submit your work to contests, online writing communities, or try to turn your writing into a published book or purchased movie.

4. Don’t worry about making it right, just write
Contemplative by nature, writers oftentimes sit and conjure up ideas and won’t write until the plot or crises, or iambic words are in perfect harmony with the what you set out to do. This is sometimes labeled as writer’s block or pure procrastination. Either way, its poor form. What you need to do as a writer, is the same thing any other expert needs to do: just do it. Of course you are entitled to brainstorming and research, but there comes a point where you must fight yourself on waiting for the right time and turn it into write time. Many writers fail to even get the words out of their head, if they never make a move on their ideas.

5. Start promoting yourself slowly
When I first started to share my writing, I started small, and by that I mean one person. I believe I even hid in the other room while he read my first blog which he urged me incessantly to do before I finally folded. I was lucky to have someone who recognized my talent and push me to do something about it. I always wanted to, but I was stuck in step 4, waiting for perfection to come to me. After a few blogs, I invited a few close friends to read. I figured there would be something in there that might make them laugh or smile. Slowly, I started stepping out of my own shadow, writing more, sharing more, becoming more confident and expert in what I was talking about. I’d always been a writer, but with no one to ever read it, I never held myself accountable to do it more frequently or even completely. If you’re a closet writer, I suggest a progressive step such as sharing with those who will only encourage and support your endeavor.

There’s no wrong answers in writing (unless we’re talking editing here), all of the most esteemed writers began somewhere too. Whether you start out gingerly or throw yourself in, the important thing to remember is that everyone has a good idea, everyone thinks they could have written that story way better, but what separates the enthusiasts from the real writers? Proof. Prove your talent to those waiting to hear your story, but best of all prove it to yourself.

Susie Medina
Health and Movie Blogger
http://www.susiemedina.com
http://youcanquotemeonthat.wordpress.com/

Author: Susie Medina
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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It is rocking big time these days! If you are not aware of it by any chance, read this . Social bookmarking is just one of the “newest things” sweeping the Internet. In essence, social bookmarking lets you maintain a personal collection of links online, similar to the bookmarks or favorites in your browser, but they are also accessible to others on your own personal archive page.

It is a great way to save pages you like and help others find articles, blog posts, lenses and sites you create. But what sites should you use?

Share your favorites with friends and get access to community public views. Works better than anything I have found, and compared to a normal linear list is a very easy system of drag and drop menus. Share This plugin also allows you to email the article to your friends. Below every post you will find a Share This link. Share it on a social news site. Not every article you write is going to get on the front page.

Share, discover, bookmark, and promote stuff thats important to you! Using bookmarklets, you can add bookmarks to your list and categorize them Reddit: Reddit is a source for whats new and popular online.

Tag and full text search with filter tags! User tag list and cloud. Tagging allows you to share the benefit of your research and favorite sites by allowing others to find them. However, if you wish, you can also choose to keep your bookmarks private.

Tagging, clipping, and saving are all great ways to save a group of select webpages. However, what good is all that great information if you cannot effectively showcase your findings in a concise and organized structure? Tags are simply keywords that you include when you bookmark a site. The secret to tags is that they can be searched/filtered and then filtered again and again in a hierarchical fashion as needed.

Tags may be used to organize bookmarks.

Web sites usually appreciate unexpected spikes in traffic. But if your server isn’t prepared, it can cause the site to go down. Web-based social bookmarking sites have already taken hold, especially in the consumer space with sites such as del.icio.us (pronounced delicious,) a service that was acquired by Yahoo last year. Other online social bookmarking sites offer more specialized services. Websites are marked by users of specific (bookmark) service. Some services give you access to tiny icons or buttons that can be integrated into your browser.

Web sites focusing on topics explored during the semester could be shared. Using social bookmarking to label, categorize and organize Web sites is a beneficial tool that goes beyond search engines and Web indexes for browsing the Internet and retaining important information.

Todd Ash Is An Entrepreneur and A Master Of Network Marketing.To Find Out More About Succeeding Online Click Here To Visit Toddash.com For Free Information

Author: Todd Ash
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The question was sent in from “Desperate.” The desperate son or daughter described the second husband as: “(a) pessimistic, domineering control freak.” It went on to say, “They moved away from all family. When (the writer) calls, her new husband seems to be supervising from nearby. “

The mother, who had been a very active and civic minded woman, is now described as “a shell.”

The advice columnist response stated: “…You don’t get to manage your mother’s heartache. A strong man may be keeping her from falling apart right now. Unless your mom invites your opinion or you see evidence of real abuse, I’m afraid you’ll just have to watch from a distance and send love and support from the sidelines.”

It is important to point out that mother was not described as a shell prior to marrying her second husband. Therefore this psychological state does not seem to result from the death of her first husband, but instead appears to be an outcome from her current relationship. Among other things “Desperate” pointed out, this significant personality change justifies her family member’s concern.

In cases of potential abuse, I liken family member’s intuition to that of mother’s intuition. Think of how many times we have heard stories of a mother’s intuition saving her child’s life? The other way around is true too. Loved ones are frequently the first to be concerned or aware that something is not quite right. Sometimes they are aware before the victim or before the victim is able to speak out or seek help; this is why it is imperative not to dismiss family members’ intuition – it may save a life.

While providing rehabilitation within my hospital setting, I see a growing need for greater understanding of the unique vulnerabilities that our baby boomer mothers and widows have to domestic abuse. Although there is an array of possibilities for the elderly to become victims of abuse, one way elder abuse occurs is under the secrecy surrounding domestic abuse when a widow remarries an abusive second husband. Our widowed mothers are vulnerable to being preyed upon and becoming victims of domestic violence; even and especially when they have had a loving husband their entire lives.

Adding to the issue, these women belong to a generation that does not talk about such private matters and fears being ostracized and humiliated if they admit they are in such an unhealthy relationship, so they tend not speak up. Most often, families are the first to be concerned about the relationship or ’sense’ something is wrong, but just don’t know what to do.

Each time I interact with a family that has been torn apart by their grandmother’s victimization, I hear any number of these comments, “I just knew something was wrong (or) she couldn’t talk with us, he seemed to be listening (or) supervising all her communications with us (or) he moved her far away from us. (Or) I just wish we’d have done more or said something. We didn’t know what to do.”

Learning to recognize the ‘red flags’ of abuse is the essential first step in being able to help. However many American’s, even professions where one would expect the expert to have knowledge, lack a general understanding that real abuse is so much more than physical violence.

To help explain, I’ll use the Power and Control Wheel which is a diagram commonly used to educate national and international audiences about domestic violence. Picture the Power and Control Wheel as a bicycle wheel with a tire surrounding eight inner spokes. The outer tire of the Power and Control Wheel is labeled physical and sexual violence – it is the functional outcome from the strength and support of the properly aligned inner spokes. Inside the wheel are the eight spokes or the foundational elements of domestic violence. They include: 1) isolation “moving far away & supervising communications” 2) emotional abuse 3) economic abuse 4) minimizing, denying and blaming 5) intimidation or making her afraid “a shell’ 6) coercion and threats 7) using male privilege “domineering, control freak” and using children. In other words, without the strength of a properly aligned foundation, the relationship does not successfully achieve physical violence, just as the bicycle wheel will not smoothly roll without strongly and properly aligned spokes.

Now with an increased understanding of domestic violence and how it may pertain to the relationship described by “Desperate,” we can consider how advice might differ. Not only should one encourage unconditional love and support, but the family should also be advised to listen to their intuition. Then seek additional information on abuse which may help the family determine whether their concerns are warranted.

Information on abuse can be obtained through their local domestic abuse agency or a national hotline, provided at the end of this article. The community agency also may have support groups available for concerned others or they may be able to provide a list of professionals within the community who have a special understanding of the unique challenges inherent to domestic violence and its impact on family members. Knowledge and a community of support may just help the family learn how to best support their mother and/or intervene in an early stage of abuse to prevent further harm.

Waiting for the real signs of abuse, just might be the most devastating response for all family members involved, especially for the potential victim. Each one of the families I work with would undoubtedly love to have known what to do sooner, instead of waiting for the real abuse to start.

(Because between 85-95% of relationship violence victims are female, I use the terms ’she and her’ to describe the victim in each of my articles.)

Copyright 2008, by Kate Carlson

National Domestic Violence Hotline

1-800-799-SAFE (7233), 1-800-787-3224 TTY, or http://www.ndvh.org

Kate Carlson is a uniquely qualified expert who speaks, writes and trains on relationship violence.

Almost 20 years ago, her case set a precedent as a first to acknowledge that domestic violence directly and negatively impacts children and base custody decisions accordingly.

Thriving beyond her violent relationship and subsequent disability, Kate earned her degree in occupational therapy. Since then she has worked in healthcare and education settings, providing direct rehabilitation services, and community and staff trainings. She also has had the opportunity to work with organizations that serve families in transition from violence both from the United States as well as international immigrants.

Currently she writes, speaks and trains on relationship violence in a variety of settings. Her mission is to promote open and hopeful dialogue on relationship violence within all workplace, school and faith settings for the betterment of our communities. Her suggestions are easy, make sense and they work – no matter the setting.

Kate’s inspirational, intuitive and energetic style has attendees of her presentations walk away transformed!

For more information or to schedule your organization’s inspirational and informative presentation, visit Kate at VictorySpeaks.com

Author: Kate Carlson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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First, let me start off by saying that I am no Tony Robbins… I don’t have his special gift of gab. I do not know the English dictionary word for word, and I do not go into these long wonderful speeches or have everybody walk on fire or anything like that.

Next, I’m not here to motivate you… If you are not already motivated or absolutely determined to make something out of yourself & get the all the things in life that your heart desires, then you should go to YouTube and do a search on motivational speakers or grab a Tony Robbins box set. I am here to show those who do want to better themselves, and whom are already motivated to make a better lives for themselves and those around them, how to go about setting up a proper foundation for the rest of their lives and how to effectively Market & Advertise their businesses in this modern day & age.

Finally, I am not here to play “Mr. Nice Guy” or to hold your hand and baby you through this process. I go about my training with more of a “tough love – in your face” kind of approach, and if you do not like it… I ask that you find another mentor like Richard Simmons. Succeeding in business takes individuals who are strong. Not just physically, but EMOTIONALLY & MENTALLY!

Ok, so before I get into the training part… Let me tell you a little bit about myself, my background and how Mapping Out My Millions came into existence. I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. I was a middle child with one older sister and one younger brother. We moved a lot! I lived in Hawaii, Colorado, Minnesota, Georgia and Oklahoma, before spending my teenage years in Florida. I am one of those weird guys, who’s parents are still together, you know? I always had a business frame of mind… Selling pet rocks as a very young child, putting on horrible concerts in my back yard, starting a photography studio as a young adult, and failing in several business ventures before finally finding incredible success, and earning a full time income using nothing but the internet. I then started M.O.M.M. to help educate others on the steps necessary to take in order to find similar success.

The morals of the story or “the points” to all of this are:

A- Sometimes it takes longer than we would like for our dreams to come true. We may feel like giving up and going with our “back up plan” but I think this is absolutely the wrong idea. I sincerely believe that you must go with your heart and soul… NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES! (Think Actress Helen Mirrem, who worked as an actress for several of decades before winning an Oscar.) We have to remember that everything happens when and how it is supposed to. This has been proven to me personally time and time again!

B- It is because of the internet that I am able to wake up anywhere in the world (as long as I have an internet connection) and I can do what is necessary that day to earn an income… And it is due to the internet that I am able to live such an incredible life!

With that said, let’s get into the training. Question: How many of here are in business? Raise your hands. Most of you, great! Ok, how many of us have a blog or a website in place online, in order to promote our business or handle client orders, ect? Keep your hands raised. Some of you huh? Now, how many of those with your hands raised have a “Capture Page” or a “Squeeze Page” in place? Awesome, I see a few people over here with their hands raised, the rest of you are like “what the heck is a capture squeeze thingy” right? Don’t worry, I am just trying to feel this group out a bit. Ok, how many are involved with an MLM style company, or business in which you must build a downline or team underneath you? Good, you can put your hands down. How many of us have our very own products or services that we may be trying to promote? Great, how many feel like they are back in grade school and wish I would stop asking so many questions?

The reason I ask is because I am trying to get a better understanding of where this group is at… But in the best interest of everyone involved, we are all going to start from scratch today. So for the sake of argument and for the purpose of this session, we are all back at square one. I have to be honest with you as this is my favorite place to be along the journey, because no matter how hectic things may get I can always go back to the very beginning and get reorganized and re-energized. Also, by putting myself in this mindset, it is almost like being a child again with no fears or pre-conceptions of what is going to happen to me in the future.

Now I am not going to be able to cover each and every single detail about absolutely everything there is to know about business, basically for two reasons:

1) Things are constantly changing and by the time we finish this session there will be something new for us to cover.
2) There is simply not enough time in today’s training session to go over everything. However, you will leave here today ready to build a solid foundation for the rest of your life. I live in Los Angeles where if you do not have the proper foundation built, your entire world will come crashing down as soon as the ground shakes just a little bit. So, foundation is key!

Whenever I am working on helping to build the foundation for new private coaching students of mine, I always start by evaluating their businesses and developing the student in these three main areas:

PSYCHOLOGY – MARKETING & MONETIZATION – ADVERTISING

If you truly understand and focus on these three aspects of your business alone, you are almost guaranteed to find more success than others.

Now I am no telling everybody to go out and become psyche. majors or anything, I just want you to know that Psychology plays a major role in your success… both the psychology of you, as well as all of the others you interact with.

PSYCHOLOGY:

The mind is a very powerful thing… Let’s start with yours:

* You Must Always Have A Great Attitude & Strong Mindset!
* You Must Always Have A Clear And Precise Vision Of What You Want In Life / Business!
* You Must Always Have A Un-Wavering Belief In Yourself And In The Beauty Of Your Dreams!
* You Must Always Have A Un-Dying Determination To Achieve Your Goals In Life!
* You Must Always Remember That Your Thoughts Create Your Reality… What You Think Is What You Get!
* You Must Always Feel “Attractive” To Others. (Not Beautiful, But Attractive)
* You Must Always View Yourself As The Professional, Expert, Alpha, Leader, ect.

There are things you can do to help with your psychology such as creating a vision board, or educating yourself and making just a bit of progress… As well as people you can learn from, such as Tony Robbins and even Jonathan Budd. Also, watching movies & listening to audio… The movie “The Secret” will definitely help out a lot!

Another thing you want to do in order to position yourself as an expert and to prepare you for your journey is to thoroughly learn all of the “Tools Of The Trade” if you will. There are a lot of crazy names out there (such as Digg, Delicious, twitter, Thwirl, ect.) that you should get completely familiar with. Become an internet “geek” or “nerd” and always try to stay on the cutting edge as far as the new marketing & advertising tactics online. Also, learn to write great copy! You won’t go very far in business (or in life for that matter) if you can’t at least read & write well.

Now as far as the psychology of others and how the outside world views you:

* They Must See You As The “Alpha Dog” Of Your Particular Industry Or Niche.
* They Must Consider You As A Professional That Stands Out From The Crowd.
* They Must View You As A Leader WITH VALUE TO OFFER.
* They Must See You As Genuine. There Is Zero Tolerance For Hype.
* They Must See You Expert As Opposed To A Salesman!

(I recommend that you do more research on “Attraction Marketing,” and that you look up Mike Dillard’s Magnetic Sponsoring… There you’ll find some really great material!)

Anyway, so how is this achieved? How do you get the world to know you as an expert and a leader? Through Marketing & Monetization, and Advertising of course! You should probably know that both of these are completely different topics of discussion.

MARKETING & MONETIZATION:

It’s kind of like a “front-end vs. back-end” situation. On the front-end you’ll have your advertising tactics that you’ll use in order to drive traffic to whatever you happen to be promoting at the time. We will go more in-depth with these methods in a short while, but first we must address the most important aspect of running any business, no matter what type of business it is, which is the MARKETING & MONETIZATION. This is what you’ll do on the back-end, and this is where you decide just how much money you will make! Look, you can have the best advertising campaign in the world, but if you do not have your back-end set up properly you are wasting all of your time and money!

In order to explain this better, I am going to use three types of examples that we talked about earlier… “Case Studies” if you will?

A – Someone who happens to be starting without any company, products, services or business at all… Just a dream of earning a full-time income with their computer. B – Someone who is involved with a MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) style company or business in which they are trying to build a team of individuals underneath them. C – Someone who already has their own company, product, service or anything else that they are trying to promote. (This includes those who are trying to promote themselves, such as entertainers, as they are their business.)

Now like I said before, the front-end or ‘Advertising’ for all of these is almost the same and we will get to that part next, but the back-end or ‘Marketing & Monetization’ for each of these can actually be very different.

So let’s take a look at the first of the three I mentioned. This is somebody who happens to be starting without any company, products, services or business at all. Q – Is it possible for someone without a company or business to earn a living online, and if so how? A – Yes, it is absolutely possible. And now more so than ever!

Here is how they are doing it:

* Signing Up For Affiliate Programs (Amazon, ClickBank, ect.) & Direct Linking.
* Creating A Blog / Webpage With Links To All Of Their Affiliate Promotions.
* Some Are Even Forming Two Blogs… One Free & One Paid or “Premium” (Thus Establishing A Continuity Program, or Additional Monthly Stream Of Income!)
* Almost All Are Building Lists & Launching Email Campaigns Through The Use Of Auto-Responders, Thus Putting Their PR &/or Sales Efforts On Auto Pilot!

So once again, the answer is YES it is very possible to earn a healthy income online without even having a business of your own.

Next, we have our MLM style companies… One more time, how many of us are involved with this type of business, where they are trying to build a downline? Ok great! How many of those with their hands raised have a website of some sort for your business? All of you, right? Ok, now how many of those sites were given to us by our company… replicated for everybody in the company? You may even have like four or five sites given to you, and you figure “I just have to drive traffic to these sites” right? Keep your hands raised. Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if this is you then you are almost guaranteed to fail miserably! Ok, you can put your hands down now, thanks for being honest. Sorry to put you guys on the spot here, and I know it may be a little too soon for a bit of “tough love” already… However, It’s Sad But True!

Here is why I say this… First of all, it goes right back to being the professional, the expert, the leader, ect. in whatever industry you happen to be in at the time. For example, let’s say we were doing research on the latest health craze biz, we will call it “company x” and we were considering getting involved with this company. So we are performing searches online and we do a Google search on “company x”. We will see ten or more results returned for this company and we go ahead and take a look at the first listing.

We then read a little bit about the opportunity and although we don’t join just yet, we would like to know more, so we continue our research by going to the next listing on Google. Now what happens if we find another “company x” rep who is using the same exact replicated site with the same exact info? WE CLICK BACK AND GO TO THE NEXT! Well, if this continues to happen over and over again WE GET REALLY MAD, right? Well I do. Now when we come across a new and unique website with fresh content and value, WE GET EXCITED! If the site is really designed well and informative, we would sign up right then & there, rather than wasting any more time sifting through more generic “company x” related websites, right? This is one reason we want to have our own unique domain name and web content.

The next reason we would want to have our own professional domain name / hosting account and web content is because we want ABSOLUTE CONTROL of what happens when our site has visitors. If we are using a replicated website and a visitor comes to do a little research but does not join our business right away, we do not just miss out on a sale for that day, but we just lost out on a potential LIFE LONG CLIENT, And you may NEVER see this person again!

So, what are the successful business owners doing? How are they managing to build these massive networks of people who buy from them? They have ALL set up what is called a “Marketing Funnel” for themselves, and they are driving traffic to a certain “Capture Page” or “Squeeze Page” – ah hah, there are those terms again. They are OFFERING VALUE on the front-end (in exchange for their email address or other contact info) and making the sales offer or “pitch” at a later time, once the person holds them in high regards as a person with true value to offer them. These individuals truly understand that THEY ARE WHAT THEY SHOULD ACTUALLY BE PROMOTING & NOT JUST THEIR CURRENT MLM COMPANY! They know the difference between building a List of people searching for info related to one particular company or product, and building a Network of people who’d just like to do business with them in general… And by doing it this way, they can actually market to these individuals FOR LIFE! Most people will usually stay on your list (or in your “Network” rather) for quite some time, as long as you do this properly, do not send out junk mail, and truly offer them a ton of VALUE!

Another thing that the top MLM’ers are doing is maintaining an “Alpha-Dog” mentality, or an ‘Attitude of Abundance’ while dealing with new prospects. They are reversing the role during interviews, turning “why should I join your team?” into “why should I let you join my team?”, and they always maintain control of their conversations. The good ones often limit access to join their team to a once a month ‘recruiting week,’ or by only offering the opportunity to the “Top One Percenters” again always maintaining this attitude of abundance we discussed.

THEY TOO ALL USE AUTO-RESPONDERS AND EMAIL MARKETING, and the really successful ones have found ways to outsource some of the recruiting process via call centers, virtual assistants, auto-dialers, ect. They also have found ways to incorporate related affiliated products or services into their marketing in order to generate an up front income for their business, or to make a bit of money off of those who DO NOT join their business opportunity at the time. (Some call this a “Funded Proposal” and will spend this money on advertising costs to generate more leads for their businesses.) Now as far as Continuity for these individuals… These companies usually have a “Residual Income” in place of, and that is basically your continuity plan for now.

To make it easy, I will keep it blunt and simple; If you want to FAIL… Send people to a company replicated website! If you want to succeed in MLM… Set up your capture pages, tie them to an auto-responder & email marketing campaign, sign up for a few related affiliated products or joint ventures, and establish your marketing funnel by positioning yourself as a leader, offering a ton of value on the front end and then doing your recruiting on the back end.

Finally, the last of the three scenarios I am going to cover: Those trying to promote their very own company, product, service, business or self. (This includes entertainers such as actors, models, musicians, comedians, ect. As these people are their business, and must treat themselves up as such.) Not too much changes here. You still want to offer value, position yourself as a leader & an expert, drive traffic to your capture pages, build your list/network, ect.

However, there are a few major things to consider, and I will go over just a couple that I feel separate the “men from the boys” as they say. There are two very important strategies to consider implementing into your businesses: 1) Continuity & Upsells 2) Product Launching.

1) Continuity & Upsells – Most business owners with a product or service to offer, have just that… And they will spend thousands of dollars in advertising costs to sell just a few hundred dollars worth of their products or services. They can often go broke due to the fact that most times (unless their product is a digital e-book or something, therefore 100% profit) there are other costs associated with the creating and packaging of their products, or in providing their services. When they are done paying all of these expenses and factor in their advertising costs, they are most times actually losing & losing bigtime!

So again, how do people Succeed in making hundreds of thousands of dollars each month, or millions of dollars each year? Repeat After Me: CONTINUITY & UPSELLS!!!

I want to start by saying that nobody knows this better (in my opinion) than Ryan Deiss of Continuity Blueprint, but I will do my best to explain how it works.

Rather than promoting their “Big Ticket” items on the front-end, these business owners will lure customers in with a lower priced “Small Ticket” item, or what is called an “SLO” (Self Liquidating Offer). This is usually like a CD or report costing very little money. However, what they are doing is separating the curious folk from the BUYERS, and generating an upfront income stream to be pumped right back into their advertising costs. This also funnels all buyers into a CONTINUITY PROGRAM of some sort! (This can be forced or optional. I prefer optional & studies actually seem to show higher conversion rates.) Anyway, this can be like a monthly insiders newsletter or a members only website, where the first month is free trial but it costs $29.99/mo thereafter. Everybody gets this option, no matter what!

Now, after they purchase your SLO they should be taken to UPSELL #1 which can be as simple as another version of what they already purchased, such as an upgrade to a DVD or physical copy of an e-book, for a small increase of fees. If they say yes here & buy this as well, they can be taken to UPSELL #2 which can be anything you want… Usually it’s double the price of your total upsell #1 price. If they say yes to upsell #2 or if they say no at any time to any of the upsells, they are then directed to your “Big Ticket” offer or sales page. If they say no to any of your offers, including your upsells and your “Big Ticket” items, DON’T WORRY! They entered through a capture page, remember? They are now in your email marketing campaign which markets all of your products and services to them until they buy or unsubscribe from your list. So, you can get them later when they are in more of a buying mood! If all of your marketing attempts happen to fail, you can then pass it over to a good call center and let them have a crack at selling your products to your tougher leads! (They Will Simply Do This For A Small, Agreed Upon Sales Commission.)

So, where do you think the most money is to be made here? With your big ticket items, small ticket items, upsells or continuity? If you said CONTINUITY, then you are a smart cookie! Imagine just 1,000 members paying $30 a month… That would be $30,000.00/mo income, with almost no production costs! CONTINUITY IS KING AND YOU SHOULD BUILD YOUR BUSINESS AROUND IT! This is something that adult entertainment sites know how to do very well. Think of companies like “Girls Gone Wild” who gets young men hooked on a monthly DVD plan by offering them a trial DVD on TV. As well as companies such as Pro-Active who spends millions of dollars hiring celebrities to promote a $30 product… Do you really think they are not trying to sell you on something else further down the road? Of course they are… And the “Top-Dogs” will spend every dime they make on their front-end products or services in order to drive as much traffic as possible into their monthly continuity programs!

2 – Product Launching – Rather than creating a product and having it available for sale until the end of eternity… Some business owners will add elements of “Need, Greed & Fear Of Loss” to their marketing campaigns. They do this by hyping up their product with a major web presence and buzz (usually with the help of affiliates) for a couple of days prior to a “Launch Date” and then pinging on the fact that their product will only be available for a limited time, or to a limited number of buyers. This in essence can create a buying frenzy, and this is often the case for people like Frank Kern of Mass Control, who for sure does this best.

Ok, We’re Finally Ready To Be Going Out In Public!

ADVERTISING:

Now that we know exactly what we should be promoting, we can discuss the ways of actually accumulating traffic…

Here are the main methods I use to advertise any & all of my businesses:

1 – S.E.O. (Search Engine Optimization) – On Page & Off… Back-Linking & Book-Marking… This should be the very first thing you study & master… Trust Me!

2 – Free Classifieds – There are several sites like Craigslist.org which allow you to post free classified ads or listings, but you have to get tricky with your marketing because they don’t allow blatant ads for business opportunities. You can also post to several individual cities in order to target your marketing to a certain geographical location. The best part about these ads is that they are FREE!

3 – Articles & Press Releases – This is a great way to establish yourself as a leader and an expert. You can write several articles and press releases related to your industry and link them back to your capture page for more info. This can bring a ton of free traffic if your articles are written well.

4 – Video Sharing Sites – This is the best way to get your name, face & information out to the world. Sites like YouTube have become more of a world library than a video sharing site. You can educate yourself or others on almost any topic of choice. This is a great way to offer value to the community and in return receive an enormous amount of traffic to your site!

5 – Forums, Message Boards & Blogs – Start getting involved with conversations online and making your presence known. Do not blatantly advertise as you will be labeled as a spam artist and you will be removed from the community. However, you can usually add your link to your site in what is called the “Bio Box” which appears at the end of your post. Another thing that works very well is putting your link into your email signature.

6 – Social Media Networks – If done correctly, this is absolutely the fastest way to grow your network of individuals by the thousands! Keep in mind that this is a social environment and you should NOT SPAM these communities EVER! You are there to build relationships with these individuals, and when they are ready to they will ask what it is that you do… And Trust Me, They Will!

7 – P.P.C. (Pay Per Click) / Other Paid Advertising – Although this will most likely become the only form of advertising you will need in the future, for now I recommend it be the last method you spend your energy on. The reason is, if you have implemented all of the other methods properly, you will have set yourself up for higher quality scores and cheaper click rates, as well as forming some sort of advertising budget in the process, that you can then use for PPC and other paid advertising methods. Also, you may have a few classified ads that are converting well that you can now turn into PPC ads.

These are the main advertising tactics I suggest using, however you can later get really creative in finding other ways to promote your businesses online, such as starting an internet radio or TV show, ect. You can also try some ‘offline’ techniques if you feel you need to, but I doubt by this time you will ever even want to mess with those anymore.

Ok, so here is the deal… Finding success in business can be made easier by building the proper foundation for the life that you want to live, finding a way to balance your personal life & your business life, and by focusing on the three main areas I mentioned today: Psychology, Marketing & Monetization, and Advertising.

I am going to leave you with this: “The best way for us to grow as individuals is by empowering others… Therefore it is your duty to give back, pay it forward, and to help others as much as possible, once you have made it to where you are trying to go… And NEVER stop increasing the value of yourself and others!” – JP King

JP King offers FREE training for all entrepreneurs at his official blog. http://www.JPKing.biz

Author: JP King
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

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This article addresses some of the motivations you might have for wanting to learn to program computers, looks at some things to consider, and discusses a few different ways to start learning now!

What is it you want to do?

There are a lot of reasons for wanting to learn computer programming, and what you want to do with it can help guide you in choosing your path in learning. Perhaps you are interested in programming as a career. In that case you will want to make sure you are learning things that will make you attractive to those who hire programmers. On the other hand, you might just be looking for a fascinating hobby, and in that case you can let be a bit more casual about what you learn and focus only on things that interest you.

Maybe you need to automate various applications you use at work. For example, perhaps you want to automate a word processor to do mailing labels or a spreadsheet to do customized financial forecasting, or maybe you want to write computer games, or have a cool web site, or… the reasons are endless, just as the things you can do with a computer are.

The languages you learn will be influenced by these things, as well as the approach you will want to take as you begin to learn to do computer programming.

What resources do you have available?

Time, money, people who can help guide you, computers, books, programming clubs, classes, programming forums… these are all resources that will be handy as you are learning to program.

If you have a lot of time and money, a computer, and access to learning opportunities like college classes and developer group meetings, you will probably be able to learn at a rapid pace. If you can only spend an hour or so each day, and you don’t have your own computer, and you can only buy one or two books, you will have to adjust your expectations a bit. However, either way, or somewhere in-between, you will be able to learn to program.

What is the level of your motivation?

This is a very important consideration. This isn’t going to be easy. You are going to need to keep going even when things seem impossible and you can’t find the answers you need. It takes a fair amount of brain power, will power, and the ability to work things out. You will be well served if you can muster a “stick-it-out” kind of attitude.

One of the attractions of computer programming is that there is a lot of problem solving, and you will have to solve a lot of them both while you are learning as well as when you are using your skills to do useful things. It takes a lot of interest and dedication to stick with it long enough to get somewhere – if this still sounds good to you, you will probably do okay.

So, how to get started?

There are a lot of ways to go about getting started. You can get started today, regardless of how you are going to approach this over the long run. Here are a few tips on getting started quickly:

* Learn in baby steps – Start with something very easy, and add to it. There is no advantage to jumping in with both feet unless you have unlimited time and resources.

* The quickest way to start might be to use a language that comes with software you already have. For example, you can do a great deal of programming in Microsoft Word using Visual Basic for Applications. There are numerous commercial software applications that include a way to enhance them using programming or scripting languages.

* Here is another idea for getting started quickly: There are simple languages available with almost every operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac) for automating your repetitive tasks. For example, in Windows you can use VBScript. Again – a simple internet search will get you lots of information.

* Pick a more full featured language that is available free – To get started with the least expense and as quickly as possible, one approach is to download a programming environment for free on the internet. For example, you can download the Ruby language and everything you need to work with it for free. Another example is the Microsoft .NET Express languages (VB.NET or C# are good choices) – again, you can download everything you need for free from Microsoft. A little internet search on either “Ruby Language” or “Microsoft .NET Express” will get you all the info you need.

* Use the internet – You already know this or you wouldn’t be reading this article, but the internet is full of resources to help you learn to program. That makes sense, since the internet has been created and programmed by programmers. A lot of programmers are willing to share their knowledge through free tutorials, forums, tips sites, and articles. You will find links to a lot of good resources just by doing a simple search. One thing is certain, there is no shortage of information.

* Work with what you have, or what you can easily get – To get started quickly, my advice is to do something right away and keep doing something every day. Soon you will be better able to judge what areas are most interesting to you and best fit your needs, as well as where to get the information you need to keep progressing.

* Buy used books – Many of the book sellers on the internet now offer used books through a network of thousands of book re-sellers and private individuals. You can save a lot of money this way.

* Once you get started, write simple programs that help you automate something that is wasting your time. For example, if at the end of every day you make a backup of the files you worked on during the day by copying the files “by hand” to a cd, you could write a program that automatically searches your working folders and copies the files for you – without you having to do anything. The extra time you get from each little helper program you write is time you can use to learn more about programming.

* Find a computer programmers “user group” somewhere near you. Almost all larger cities have such groups that meet on a regular basis – usually monthly. Many of these meetings are free, and usually they provide presentations on “how-to” do various programming tasks. They often also have study groups and beginners sessions. Not all languages are represented in all cites – but anything is better than nothing, so it can be worthwhile to attend any meeting of this sort that you can find that is within a reasonable distance.

* Take a beginners course at a local community college or extended studies program. These classes are usually offered at a very reasonable cost, and will help you get started. I have found a number of these classes available on line – and if you are eligible for entry, it can be very convenient to take a course this way.

It’s time to get started

Programming can be fun, challenging, useful, and profitable. Not everyone has the nature or interest to become a full-time programmer, but almost anyone who can use a computer can learn to do something useful or fun with computer programming. If you think it is something you might enjoy, then I encourage you to give it a try and see what it’s all about. It is going to take time and dedication to become proficient, but it all starts with a single step. So now is the time.

Roy “Woody” Zuill is a Senior Software Engineer who has been programming computers for over 25 years. He currently works for an international software company that provides customized customer care and billing software for businsesses all over the world, and has previously taught computer programming at a state universtiy. His site, http://LearnToProgramNow.com , is full of information, articles, book reviews, useful links, and helpful tips about learning to program computers.

Author: Woody Zuill
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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I should start by saying there is not one right answer that suits every ezine publisher or every reader.

Some people might feel it’s unprofessional to chat about their personal life. Perhaps as a solicitor, accountant or stockbroker you feel your newsletter is for dispensing professional advice and that chit-chat about your golf handicap would not go down well with your readers.

But does your business depend on new clients feeling they know and trust you? Revealing something about what’s going on outside of your work is a wonderful way to create rapport, build a relationship and show that you are human too. When I first met my dentist, I loved the way he chatted about his family and where he was thinking of for his next holiday. I knew I could trust him not to hurt me!

If you are by nature a very private person, then there is no sense that you have to share anything more personal than how much you are enjoying this beautiful weather and looking forward to the Easter break so you can play a few games of tennis. In any case, however chatty and open you are, it is absolutely true that there are certain things we, your readers, never want to hear like whinging about your clients, sniping about your family or any intimate health problems.

If you enjoy writing, my experience is that more readers will comment on your personal update than on your central business article so don’t feel you have to maintain your subscribers at arm’s length. Let them get a peek into the man or woman behind the business label and you might just find it’s the best thing you ever did for your business.

Are you interested in writing online, whether by blogging regularly, article marketing or creating an eBook? Would you like to build your business online, attract clients more easily and increase your passive income? Would you like to read tips to improve your website or blog written by someone who doesn’t speak geek or assume you know more than you do?

Visit the Online Business Gym now for information and short articles that will grow your understanding of doing business online.

Marion Ryan is a website / blog designer, writer and online business manager, helping consultants, solopreneurs and other small business owners boost their business online. Visit her blog at http://www.OnlineBusinessGym.com/

Author: Marion Ryan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Get my ex back

When you need to get a contact phone number for a company, sometimes it takes a while to get to the right page. Bing will give you the number right on the search results page. No need to even visit the website.

If you want a preview of a web page without having to visit the website, Bing shows you the information, just scrolled over the desired search result and a preview box will appear. The text will give a short description of the web page, and shows what other links appear on the page.

GOOGLE ADVANCED NEWS SEARCHES

Google offers Advanced News Search, allows a visitor to scour headlines by date, location, exact phrases or publication. People can use it retrieve articles from more than 4,500 news outlets publishing on the Web.
Check out Googles official guidelines for quality listings. They offer a re-inclusion request option that will give your business an opportunity to appeal if a listing is removed too.

In some other Google-related news that online businesses and business with websites might be interested in, they have introduced a new Sitemap Generator.

Google is planning to include website load time as one of the Ranking factor in algorithm in 2010. This is not a done deal, but it could be a good idea to check your load speed.

WEB PAGE TRANSLATION

This feature is particularly helpful if your search has non-English results. Google offers a facility to auto-martially translate a page for you in English. Currently, Google supports Italian, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese.

For the best information for your site or to check your competitors for persons who use Google AdWords, try out the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

False and Misleading Advertising What’s truthful? The FTC has attempted to deal with this question by establishing the following standards:

The intention to deceive is not what matters. What matters is the perception of the public. The test of whether or not an ad is misleading will be based on the effect on the average or unsophisticated person. Your advertising may also be deemed deceptive through omission or misleading implications. The bottom-line, just the facts.

SCREEN SAVERS

If you are looking for something different remember windows has a great choice. Don’t unload any free ones from anywhere, could have bugs, and almost impossible to delete.

For windows screen savers, right click on a blank area of desktop. Click “properties”, “screen savers”. Click the arrow to the right of “screen savers” just below the monitor. Pick the one you want.

LIGHTSIDE

A teacher was getting to know the kids in her class by asking them what their father did for a living. The first kid she asked said: ” My name is John and my dad is a truck driver.” The next child she asked said: “My name is Bill and my dad is a striptease dancer.” The teacher quickly changed the subject.

Later, the teacher approached Bill privately and asked him if it was true that his father was a strip tease dancer and danced in the nude. Bill blushed and said: “No, he really is Information Director at Microsoft, but I am to embarrassed to tell anyone”.

COMPUTER WARNING, INTERNET MARKETING INFORMATION

Security company McAfee has prepared its predictions for hacker threats in 2010. It forecasts a troubling year for Adobe software, which McAfee believes will be heavily targeted in 2010.Nearly every PC and Mac in the world seems to have a copy of Adobe Reader, a necessary tool for reading portable document format files.

The prediction is not particularly surprising. Adobe itself admitted in early 2009 that it had seen attacks on its applications climb steadily in recent years.

Still, it’s not just Adobe and its many users that will need to be wary in 2010. Also steadily rising in popularity are social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

The tip on unplugging your computer from the wall outlet during a thunderstorm was sound advice. And we’re coming to the season when thunderstorms become more frequent. But let’s take that advice one small step further. Take the time to also unplug your modem from the telephone line! Surges can also pass through the telephone lines and even a small surge of static electricity can fry the delicate circuitry in your modem.

Your Clipboard can be seen by any hacker. For your protection you should not copy passwords, credit card numbers or other sensitive information. To prevent this from happening go to: Internet Explorer: Click Tools, Internet Options, Security tab, Internet section. Go down to the Security level box, and click the Custom Level button. Scroll down to Scripting, and find the entry, “Allow Programmatic clipboard access” or “Allow paste operations via script”.
Click Disable or Prompt. Click OK.

Protecting your computer against malicious software is an ongoing activity and, at minimum, all computer systems need to be regularly patched, have up to date anti-virus software, and a personal firewall installed.

Within the last several months, the FBI has seen a significant increase in fraud involving the exploitation of valid online banking credentials belonging to small and medium businesses, municipal governments, and school districts.

In a typical scenario, the targeted entity receives a phishing” email, which either contains an infected attachment, or directs the recipient to an infected web site. Once the recipient opens the attachment or visits the web site, malware is installed on their computer. The malware contains a key logger, which will harvest the recipients business or corporate bank account login information. Shortly thereafter, the perpetrator either creates another user account with the stolen login information, or directly initiates funds transfers by masquerading as the legitimate user.

You can make a difference-and help protect your own systems at home and at the office-by taking these basic steps: Change your security passwords regularly, have a firewall in place on your computer, get the latest anti-virus software, and install current security patches for your computer’s operating system.

Also, take time to visit the FBI’s cyber web page to learn more about how our cyber action teams, computer crimes task forces, Innocent Images program, and Internet Crime Complaint Centre are playing vital roles in protecting cyberspace. Can you avoid getting caught by a scam artist working the web? Not always. But prudence pays.

The FTC offers these tips to help you avoid getting caught by an offer that just may not click:

Read the fine print and all relevant links. Fraudulent promoters sometimes bury the disclosures they’re not anxious to share by putting them in teeny-tiny type or in a place where you’re unlikely see them.

Look for a privacy policy. If you don’t see one – or if you can’t understand it – consider taking your business elsewhere.

Be skeptical of any company that doesn’t clearly state its name, street address and telephone number.

The FTC has publicly Announced Its Newly Developed Cross-Border Fraud Guidelines. The FTC has joined with Hundreds of International Law Enforcement agencies around the world to form a combined force and aggressively combat what they see as the growing problem of Cross-Border Fraud.

This combined force has vowed to enforce the FTC”s Rules and Regulations on a world wide basis. They have really cracked down on Internet marketers, and actively going after those that don’t rigidly adhere to all their rules about disclosures disclaimers, terms of use, privacy and other legal documentation! They filed 45 criminal and civil law enforcement actions against Internet Marketers, in a single day.

Government agencies do not send u