About Engagement Rings Styles

The engagement ring is a ring you can use for the rest of your life, in many cases people place the engagement ring next to their wedding ring, which means that its style should reflect the same idea as of the wedding ring, this combination should be on your mind when looking for your engagement ring.

It is traditional for Americans and Europeans to place an engagement ring on the left-hand ring finger of a woman who has accepted a mans proposal for marriage. The engagement ring is a symbol of the devotion and intent to be the one and only woman in her beaus life. It lets everyone know that this is a lady that is spoken for. In the classical history of engagement ring styles and traditions, the ring was fashioned from a plain gold band. Today, engagement ring styles have evolved into a monster of choices that rivals the purchase of the wedding ring.

Traditional engagement ring styles often deal with a precious band that showcases a diamond or another gem. Over the years, the modern engagement ring style seems to incorporate a wide range of band varieties, including silver, gold and the increasingly popular platinum option. Since the 1940s, a single diamond is practically considered standard in todays society. The well-known diamond company, De Beers, who pushed a highly successful advertising vision for the gem, made all of this possible.

It is not uncommon to see emeralds, rubies or sapphires taking the place of a diamond, but it is the latter that symbolizes strength and the concept of something that will last a lifetime. Engagement ring styles are often based on their durability, which is seen through the gems, as well as the bands. Gold and platinum last longer and represent higher quality than silver.

A growing trend among band materials includes titanium and stainless steel, which costs less, but also have a higher level of durability. It is these materials that allow a tension setting that projects the illusion of a stone that is floating.

There are many different engagement ring styles to choose from including classic and modern looks. With classic engagement ring styles, the settings are usually platinum in the bands with a round or emerald-cut for the stone. Modern engagement ring styles use a bezel-set design, making daily wear a compatible addition to any wardrobe.

As with all jewelry there are trends in engagement ring styles that are hitting the scene and includes antique rings that present a vintage flair that allows you to feel like you are wearing something rather historic. Some of the characteristics of these rings include floral accents, as well as filigree settings.

Platinum rings tend to be more expensive, but they will not only last longer, but will also keep its brilliant shine. It will not tarnish or yellow like other metals. These bands also make a variety of hand-carved, customized options possible.

Whichever ring you decide you go with you should always try and lower the price and ask for some kind of discount, if you know exactly what you want you can also search for the same design concepts in other shops, in either case it is always good to research and compare prices and quality.

Engagement rings are pricy and require some basic knowledge of how to buy jewelry. Roy Dietelzieg worked in the jewelry industry and has is writing Engagement Rings Buying Tips at http://engagementring.zupatips.com/.Biddie Blog86758
Betty Blog94984

What To Consider When Decorating Your Home

Home decorating for many people is about designing a living space into a personalized environment where you feel at ease and at home. Home decorating is an wonderful way of taking an out dated space and transforming it into a bright, happy atmosphere. It is not only about designing, organizing your living space, painting and manual labor. It's about accessorizing your living space which makes home accents just as important, if not more so.

Decorating your home is something you can do with confidence. Decorating on a budget can be exciting if you approach it creatively. Decorating living space to living space, and acquiring a few pieces at a time makes decorating your home less stressful and takes the strain off your wallet. Decorating your living space should be a fun experience when you use your home decor to show your personal style and taste. This also assist in making your life at home more comfortable. Decorating is a exciting, creative way to show some of your interests and tastes, as well as those of your family.

Its always best to plan ahead of time, before you actually start a home decorating project, whether large or little, its a good idea to understand what is involved and to think about how it will be completed. Before you engage in decorating your living space, you should envision exactly what you want people to experience once they walk into the living space. Most home interior design is varied in style, with a selection of traditional and contemporary furnishings, meshing new with the old. You should carefully choose furniture that suits your family and arranging the pieces in a way that coincide with the home decorating theme. Home decorating can involve a variety of different hues, fabrics, furniture, flooring and accessories. Once you researched such things as color and how it can be applied, room proportions and planning, you'll see yourself designing new ideas for your home decorating.

Design comes from within and is a reflection of your personality. Before you start to decorate, remember that most likely never is a living space decorated in one style. Most home interior design is assorted in style, with a blend of traditional and contemporary furnishings.

Accessories, are usually not something that is easily copied exactly, thus, more than anything else, accessories add personality to a living area. Accessories add character to your home. whether those accessories are art work or accent pillows, try accessories that show a interesting detail and stylish decor. By purchasing the most genuine accessories, you will be able to transform your living area design to look like it was decorated by a professional minus the high cost. To highlight your interior design display a variety of home accents like stuffed animals, artwork and photos in frames.

Home decorating is often seen as a desire however, it should be an exciting experience. It is of interest to anyone who wants their living space to look beautiful. Decorating your home is a memorable experience and one that will be cherished for many years to come.

Natasha Hopkins is an avid decorator and the owner of http://www.myhomedecorstore.net. She believes that it shouldn't be difficult to find bathroom furniture and accessories so she is quickly putting together a collection of furnishings for your home.Cathleen Blog11928
Calla Blog92271

Cold Calling Intel

The statistic quoted loudly by those who do not know how to cold call is this, "An industry rule of thumb holds that only about 2% of cold calls produce solid prospects." That has been the industry stat since the early 1950's and means any idiot can pick up the phone, call prospects, and expect to find that 2% of the people on the cold calling list to turn into solid prospects.

Successful sales pros know cold calling is a great way to build and add to a client base out of thin air.

The tremendous advantage of cold calling is this: No other marketing method allows sales professionals to reach as many prospects in as short a period of time.

Before your colleagues tries to lull you into believing, the 2% figure only proves that cold calling is a tactic with a low return on time spent, stop and do some focused thinking about the importance and value of cold calling metrics.

Fact is a 2% return is the very place where every expert cold callers start. 2% is the test number sellers know they can hit if they get up in the morning and make calls. These experts want great results; and make all sorts of adjustments that allow them to beat 2% in geometric proportions. How do they do this? By ruthless examination of additional metrics that have meaning to outrageously successful cold callers. Such as:

1. Percentage of appointments scheduled out of every 10 calls made.

2. Percentage of callbacks from voice mail messages

3. Percentage of appointment scheduled with callbacks from voice mail

4. Average number of calls made to each prospect to schedule an appointment

5. Differences in numbers of appointments scheduled with changes made in words spoken

The good news is your industry colleagues watch just one of these five important cold calling business metrics.

The bad news is you very well may be like most sellers who cold call and:

1. Settle for only one of five important cold calling metrics

2. Fail to leverage even that one metric into a higher response rate

3. Fail to capitalize on cold calling as a significant part of their sales strategy

You have got to ask yourself, are you going to be among the masses who settle for what's been the norm for half-a-century? Or are you going to join the ranks of the elite sellers who examine their Cold Calling Intel to leverage the power and profit awaiting the serious student of cold calling? The answer to these important questions can dramatically change the results of your cold calls.

For your mini-course Jealously Guarded Secrets to Cold Calling Company Presidents visit http://www.ColdCallingExecutives.com ! Or call Cold Calling Expert, Lead New Business Development Coach, Leslie Buterin (like butterin bread) at (816) 554-3674 9-3 CST (thats Kansas City/Chicago Time) Find much more on our http://www.ColdCallingExecutives.com/blog/index.htmlAmitie Blog30625
Calypso Blog8733

Golf And Arthritis

Good news! If you're an arthritis sufferer, you don't have to give up your golf game! In fact, playing golf can add strength and mobility to your body overall and improve your range of motion.

Research shows that one of the best treatments for osteoarthritis is exercise. It can improve mood and outlook, decrease pain, increase flexibility, improve the heart and blood flow, maintain weight, and promote general physical fitness.

Usually, osteoarthritis (the most common form of arthritis) comes on slowly. Early in the disease, joints may ache after physical work or exercise. Osteoarthritis can occur in any joint. Most often it occurs at the hands, hips, knees, or spine.

Right. All those areas used in playing the game of golf.

No worries, though. Golf actually helps increase your range of motion and your balance as well. And the walking, if you can do it, will benefit your health in numerous ways. In short, golf is one of the perfect exercises for someone with osteoarthritis!

Now here's the key - you are probably going to need some special products to make golf a little easier on your joints.

At http://arthritis.org, the Arthritis Foundation shares some tips for golfers to help you keep enjoying this wonderful sport and suggests some products that might help you.

For instance, it's a good idea to wear wrist braces and gloves when you play. This will help stabilize the joints in your wrists and hands. Both these items are inexpensive.

Try using a lower compression ball.

Golf shoes without spikes will likely be more comfortable for you.

Ask your local golf store specialist about the latest helps for making golfing easier on your joints. New products are coming out all the time.

Always warm up before you play. Do some basic stretches, take some practice swings. Start out swinging about half strength. Never try to hit the ball too hard. This one goes for everyone - not just folks with arthritis. It's accuracy that counts!

Using tees will help.

Drink water while you're playing. (again, a tip for everyone)

If you feel tired, listen to your body and rest a bit. It's not a mortal sin to play less than 18 holes. The key is to enjoy the game.

Now, if youre feeling sore after play, here are some things to try.

Take a warm shower.
Do some gentle stretching exercises.
Use an ice pack on the sore area.
Rest the sore joint.
Try magnetic therapy.
Try to keep your weight down. Too much weight can make your knees and hips hurt

If playing golf causes pain that lasts for more than 1 hour, its too much. Work with your physical therapist or doctor to adjust your game when you notice any of the following signs of too much exercise:

Unusual or persistent fatigue
Increased weakness
Decreased range of motion
Increased joint swelling

Continuing pain (pain that lasts more than 1 hour after exercising)

Really, when it comes right down to it, playing golf (along with warming up for your game with range of motion exercises) may be just what the doctor orders for arthritis help!

Burt CottonBlondie Blog80840
Annabela Blog61802

Spam Fighting Strategies for Webmasters

Battling spam is just like fighting any other activity that is illegal and needs to be fought in many areas. There are some easy steps that you can take to minimize the impact of spam in your email, as discussed in Part I. However, the webmaster of your email service has many more tools they can use to fight spam.

The effort would be small if a spammer had to collect email addresses one by one. This is why they take advantage of programming that is automated, such as using a spambot. A spambot is a program that looks through Internet websites for legitimate email addresses. These addresses are then "harvested" and put into huge lists.

The best way to deal with spammers is by raising their cost without putting too much of your own effort into it. Some of the techniques described in Part I can also be used by a webmaster.

CAMOUFLAGE

A spambot will only do what it has been told to do through a program. Many times a spambot will pass you by simply if you've disguised your email address. This is because a spambot is usually programmed to search for character strings that look like this: Jane_email@emailaddressdomain.com. You can fool a spambot by changing the email to Jane_email_at_NOSPAMemailaddressdomain.com.

Should the disguised email address be harvested by a spambot it will still need to "scrubbed" before it can be used. A program for scrubbing can be difficult to write since there are many variations that are possible, such as NO_SPAM and no*spam. Try to be as creative as possible.

There is a disadvantage to the above method: you need to remember to take out the extra letters as well as put in th@ sign.

You can make an email address impossible to harvest by putting it into a graphic instead of plain text or mailto:. Not many spambots are smart enough to translate a graphic and understand the pixel pattern as text that is usable. This is particularly true since graphics can have many shapes. Again, this method can be inconvenient because you won't just be able to reply to this address or copy and paste it.

Another approach is to get rid of the accessbile and visible email address completely. You can use a form for feedback that stores data in areas where a spambot can't search. You can also store the data inside of easy to write code that is difficult to decipher due to encryption. An example of this would be javascript.

BARRIERS

Communication becomes more difficult between trusted sources when visible email addresses are hidden in graphics or banned from visibility. You want to hinder the spammer by putting a block on any spambots that are known.

Many times they will have a signature that is easily seen through an IP address that is well known or a process name (and sometimes both). Other times they can search for User-Agents that are a non-browser form.

Webmasters can easily block IP addresses as well as block any unwanted processes. The webmaster just needs to begin a cron job that will scan the network for the name of a process and then terminate any IDs that are associated with the process.

A more experienced webmaster will have a daemon that will sleep until that time when a process name is noticed. The daemon will then "wake up" and terminate the process before any spam harvesting can occur. Sample programs, which are only a bit harder to implement, can be used and are available online.

You can get traps for spambots that will block any request that is incoming simply based on search patterns and behaviors. This method to fight spam is slightly more difficult to set up and attend to because it needs certain patterns to define it, changing the pattern slightly for different spambots. How-to information and sample perl programs are available online.

RAISE THE PRICE

After time most spammers will tire of trying different variations in programming just to get email addresses, making the reward much less than the effort. This is what you want to do: make the spammer cost much higher than the reward which will make your reward much more than the effort.

A spammer won't give up until there is no profit in the effort. US legislation, such as CAN-SPAM, has only seemed to deter businesses that are legitimate and that were never the guilty ones to begin with.

There are, however, some things being done to reduce the problem of spam to just an annoyance: there are penalties for sending spam, filters for junk mail are becoming smarter, and there are proposals underway that include needing a mailer ID.

This is all bad news for the spammer while at the same time is great for the rest of us computer users.

Paul Wilcox writes about internet security solutions for the Internet Cyber Security website. Sign up for our free newsletter at http://www.internetcybersecurity.comBambi Blog77126
Ammamaria Blog80728

Parenting Teenagers - Your Teenagers First Year At College

The first year at college is an extremely stressful time for both the parent and the teenager. Not only is your teen truly leaving home for the first time, they also are leaving their friends and a world that they have lived in and felt comfortable with for years.

For most teenagers their first year includes a new area, along with a new room and roommate. College comes with a learning environment that is fast paced and a lot less personal than high school. This is sometimes an extreme shock to a teenager and they may soon find themselves struggling to keep up with and understand all the material they need to learn. Tests and quizzes are longer and require knowledge of much more material than High School, causing students' stress levels to rise even more.

With no one to really guide them, sometimes a first-year student will find unhealthy or dangerous ways to relax and take their mind off of school. Although the dangers your teenager faces in college are the same as high school, the environment, rules, and people which present these situations are completely different. Your teenager is now in a place where they have to make friends all over again, and since you, nor any other adult is looking over their shoulder to tell them "No", they may make unsafe and regretful decisions.

Drinking is the biggest threat to a teenager in college. Alcohol is easy to purchase and even easier to consume. Parties constantly exist near or even on campus, with availability of alcohol and sometimes even drugs. With no adults present and security personnel rarely showing up, a teenager may feel almost invincible, therefore pushing themselves to a level of drinking and partying that they cannot handle. A teenager may begin to spin out of control without even knowing it. Partying too much on the weekend, or even during the school week, may lead to classes being skipped. Before they know it, teenagers in their first year of college may find themselves falling behind in class, possibly leading to the failing of classes.

What Parents can Do

Keep in contact with your teenager, but do not smother them. Call occasionally to see how much time they are spending in their room. Do not ask them if they are going to class or not. Instead, ask more personal questions about their classes. For instance, if they are taking an English class, ask what book they are reading at the moment. If they have an assigned book reading, ask what the book is about and if they like it. Ask whether they are or are not enjoying reading it and find out why your teenager feels that way. By asking about the details, parents will get a better understanding about the progress their teen is making and how serious they are taking their classes.

It is also important to ask them how they like the college environment and if they are making friends. Ask what your son or daughter is doing in his or her spare time and what entertainment options are available.

Make sure your teen knows that he can call home anytime, especially if he feels overwhelmed or homesick.

At the same time, ask your teenager about the best time to reach him so you can talk to him when you are missing him. By admitting to your teen that you miss him it will be easier for your teen to pick up the phone to call you if she is homesick or feeling overwhelmed.

Parents experiencing the empty nest syndrome are sometimes tempted to convert their college freshman's room to other use. There are several reasons why I would recommend not doing that. First, your teen will be home from college more than parents initially think. Secondly, already troubled by the separation of family and friends, it would cause further distress to your teenager if his room were not available for him when he comes home. During the first year of college your teenager has to work through several emotional issues. It would ease some of the stress for your teenager if everything were the way she left it when she comes home during breaks.

Christina Botto has been involved with helping parents and teenagers resolve complicated issues for more than 14 years, observing and developing parenting strategies. Her dedication to helping parents inspired her to write her book, 'Help Me With My Teenager! A Step-by-step Guide for Parents that Works.' Christina continues to help parents and their teens through her website http://www.helpwithteenagers.comAlisa Blog22877
Brinn Blog30379

You've Got E-mail!

At 7AM in the head office, Carly, the Vice President, walks into her office and immediately turns her laptop computer on. While sipping coffee, she goes through her e-mails and starts working on each of them. She surfs through the companys website to check for new announcements and her navigation leads her to a sales monitoring site where she quickly spots branches with significant change in daily sales. After sending an e-mail message requesting for a meeting with the branches, her screen pops up a reminder of another meeting an hour away.

At a later time, in one of the companys branches down south, Jerry, a customer service associate, opens the branch and starts the computer. He connects to the companys network and in a moment, he is pre-occupied reading e-mails for the branch. Seeing a company-wide memo to be kept on file for his co-employees to see, he downloads it. He fires up his internet browser and, in an instant; he begins to accept customers and encodes the data in the point-of-sale system. After a couple of hours, he consolidates his transactions and sends his data just in time for the branchs cut-off.

The two scenarios above depict a typical day for employees in the future. Carly and Jerry know the importance of accuracy in data. Jerry makes sure that his data get to the head office on time. He handles the data just like how he satisfactorily handles customers who flock to his branch. Carly is aware that without Jerrys data, she can never paint an accurate picture of the companys sales performance. Thus, she constantly visits the sales monitoring site to identify which branches need to be e-mailed for their data submission.

Three years ago, when the companys computerization program went full blast, nobody realized the sweeping value of electronic mail. Now that e-mail is ubiquitous in the company, there is an avenue where anyone can voice out and exchange concerns, reactions or ideas. As if it is not enough, everyone can take advantage of its natural benefits e-mail is cheaper and faster than letters (snail mails), less intrusive than phone calls and clearer than fax. Using e-mail, differences in location and time zone is a thing of the past.

Few people know that an electrical engineer turned programmer named Ray Tomlinson sent the first e-mail message; QWERTYUIOP. Tomlinson actually picked @ as the locator symbol in electronic addresses, which has been used ever since. Although at first his messaging system was not thought to have great significance, he never expected that he continues to affect peoples lives and businesses about thirty years later.

Just imagine the future without e-mail. Carly would use official memo (with a letterhead) to notify employees for a policy change in the company, phone call to set up a meeting with a co-employee in another team, make a mail-it to communicate with affiliate offices overseas, or set a face-to-face meeting to inform associates of a change in job responsibilities. It only takes a simple e-mail to actually do the job.

In hindsight, e-mail has become an important tool in peoples lives just like the lives of Carly and Jerry, or our lives in the future. So go ahead, log in and check if youve got e-mail!

Marvin O. Ayende is the site owner, author and webmaster of http://www.ayendeph.com. He works as an IT professional in a conglomerate with headquarters in the Philippines. His string of estimable achievements in IT are associated with programming, systems analysis, database organization, networking, security, technical support, data center operations, project management, documentation and implementation.Adore Blog33168
Celina Blog22967

Leave The World Behind, Live At Sukhavati Retreat.

The long winding country road from Seminyak offered picturesque views of infinity rice-field gently sloping down to the beach. Close to the horizon was the soaring wall of Uluwatu cliff at the South peninsula. The combination of golden paddy closing to harvest time and the azure of the Indian Ocean behind is nothing less than magnificent. Tourists might find it appealing, but I have been seeing these views almost everyday for the last five years. I needed something different to get impressed.

Before long enough, I turned right entering a serene farmers traditional Balinese village of Tibubeneng. Each modest house built from traditional material like bamboo-sheet and wooden frame, has its own shrine, where people put offerings to the Gods. Hiding behind the village I found a small thumb with the villa name, the only mark I found of its existence. There are no buildings, no soaring walls, no security post, nothing. Unlike many other villas soaring up to the sky compared to their surrounding, Sukhavati Retreat appeared as humble as the rest of the village.

Driving along narrow shady path I finally got to a small lobby hidden under shading trees and lush shrubs. Dan, the young Australian owner, and a few of his staffs greeted with their smile. So, no doubt, I havent been lost. But where is the villa? was the first question glanced in my mind. Dan must have been seeing my expression a hundred times, and with a grin on his face he said Hold your breath! before leading us to the inner entrance.

Stunned at what I saw, I was completely speechless for a while. I guess my mouth was wide open with a long wow. It was really hard to find the right word to tell you what I saw and the first impression I got. Within the lush tropical forest steeping down to the river, scattered the separated pavilions in traditional thatched roof, partly hidden under shady large trees. On the other side of the river the forest hiked up creating an image of a soaring green wall separating us from the bustling world outside.

As far as my eyes could reach, there were no other buildings of any kind around. Dan explained that for the sake of environment, in addition to the two hectares built as the villa and its perimeters, he bought eight hectares along the river as a buffer. It is really a complete solitude to dissolve ourselves with the mother-nature and temporarily forget the world behind.

Hundred steps led us down to the centre of the estate, the main swimming pool. Each bedrooms and functions were housed in separated building, mainly to conserve the land topography. In addition to the six separated bedroom pavilions, it has kitchen and communal area with comfortable lounge and dining tables.

The last pavilion caught my attention more than the others, it was the meditation pavilion. Separated with more distance from the rest, this open pavilion can comfortably accommodated yoga for 20. Wide lawn with soaring shady trees going down to the river allowed us to completely cleanse our busy mind. Flags of pray form Tibet spread the wish to the world by the wind breeze.

Decoration of each bedroom pavilions was a proper blend of luxurious comfort without creating distance to the nature, with wide openings and private garden terraces. All en-suited bathrooms were open to the sky, in a small garden covered by terrace perimeters.

Two of the bedroom pavilions were set as villas within a villa. Hidden behind its own gate, these pavilions enjoyed their own private swimming pool and garden gazebo. You can choose the one at the top of the estate, or the one at the bottom closer to the river. Just the matter of distance to either the entrance gate at the top or living pavilion closer the river really, both enjoys superb views. Even from the one at the top your views would not be bothered by other buildings.

As a sanctuary to separate yourself from the rest of the world, it made sense that Dan do not put TV in all bedrooms or provide wireless internet connection across the estate. However, for those who still want to keep connected or just couldnt live without modern entertainment, there were huge plasma TV with international channels at the living pavilion and a computer with internet connection at the lobby.

Well, Dan, now I understand why you got that glorious title for the villa. Sukhavati Retreat was not a holiday accommodation, at least not to my eyes. It was not a place for you to sleep at nights for exploring all the beaches Bali has to offer during the daylights. It was a place to cleanse your mind and soul by temporarily separating yourself from the bustling world by being closer to the nature and the holy spirits commanding the universe. Not only mind and soul, but body as well. The kitchen was staffed with professional chef to cater your culinary experience with healthy organic ingredients. The villa also provided some high quality mountain-bike so you can either hike or bike the natural countryside around the villa, and experience the real traditional Balinese living.

Its time to hike the steps up, back to the real world now. Among shortening breath when hiking up the steps Dan explained that in addition to in-house security he employed, he also maintained very close relationship with the neighboring villages. People have accepted the villa as a part of their family, making them willing to voluntarily took care of the villa and its guests.

I believed after a week or so in Sukhavati Retreat, I would have come back to the real world as a different person, with different way of seeing the world around me. Unfortunately I did not have that much of money to buy that luxury. It was mainly for discerning clientele I had, those successful wealthy people who care about the health of their body, mind, and soul.

While you can rent the villa by room, you are encouraged to rent it as a whole. If you are traveling in a small group which needs less than six bedrooms, you still can block the whole estate with an extra surcharge. Find detail of Sukhavati Retreat through our website Villa Rental Bali (http://www.villarentalbali.com).

Adi Arifin has been in online business almost since its first inception. In the last five years, he is heavily involved in real estate and holiday rental businesses in Bali.Celia Blog54655
Calypso Blog234

3 Reasons to Secure Your Own Domain Name - Even if it means Buying Cheap Web Hosting Services

When starting an online business, you might be tempted to use one of those "free" web page hosting services. You should beware of these plans if you want to build a successful web business. Having your own domain name is extremely important - even if it means buying cheap web hosting services! Here are three solid reasons you should secure your own domain name.

1. Build Trust with Customers

When visitors arrive at your site, they want to know that your company is legitimate and that it is there to stay. With your own domain name you reveal that you are in it for the long haul. For the mere price of cheap web hosting through a virtual host, you can have your own domain name and site up and running for as little as $20 or less as an initial investment. Some low cost hosting packages are as low as $5 or $6 per month!

It's well worth the investment to establish your own domain name and pay a small monthly fee for cheap web hosting. When you gain the trust of visitors, it's much easier to turn them into paying customers.

2. Freedom in Your Web Design

With your own domain name, you have total freedom to design your site the way you want. Even virtual hosts that offer cheap web hosting will give you the freedom to use the type of web design that will work best for your business. If you need to use PHP in your web design, you can easily find a low cost web hosting package that offers PHP integration. If you need to add MySQL databases to your site, you can find web site hosting packages with this feature included.

Another reason you need freedom to design your site is so you can test different designs and presentations to see which gets the most response from your visitors. Even with cheap web hosting, you can test almost unlimited presentations any time you want!

3. Maximize Your Promotion Efforts

When you secure your own domain name, you have complete freedom in your promotions. Many search engines, directories and other promotional sites will frown at "free" hosted sites. When you use a free web page hosting service, your site pages are placed on a website along with many other types of businesses. The search engines will not recognize your site as being a unique entity. They might even lump your site into categories with other sites that are using the free service. This wounds your promotional efforts tremendously, and you end up wasting time and money.

You'll actually save money in the long run with your own domain hosting. By securing a domain name and taking advantage of cheap web hosting, you can promote your site to the fullest.

Even with cheap web hosting packages, you can still receive a wealth of features and benefits such as email accounts, auto responders, PHP and MySQL capabilities, password protected directories and even reseller hosting opportunities.

Use these tips to start building your web business today!

Chris Robertson is a published author of Majon International. Majon International is one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing and internet advertising companies on the web. Visit their main business resource web site at: http://www.majon.comBrunhilde Blog46917
Alena Blog78898

Kids And Energy

Im not sure why, maybe because its summer, Im getting a lot of questions and stories about kids and energy. Ill put them all under that broad category but there have been several different subcategories discussed: kids and ADHD, kids and anger management, and kids and computers.

Kids and ADHD

Lets start with kids and ADHD. There seems to be a big trend here in the US of drugging our children so they can control their behavior in school. I am NOT in favor of this practice.

Why is there such an epidemic of ADHD diagnoses in our children? I dont want to oversimplify but I believe one reason is that our children dont have the opportunities they had in previous generations to run around and expend their energy.

In years past, kids got to play in the parks, in the streets and in their own yards. Today, that happens less and less. Parents are too afraid to allow their children to be outside unsupervised, and rightly so! There are predators out there who would do your children harm. However, kids still need to expend their energy, somehow.

So, many times the activities available to them at home are sedentary, such as playing video games, watching television, talking on their cell phones or using the home computer. None of this provides opportunity to release energy, unless your children are like my niece who paces vigorously while talking on the phone.

Then we send them to school and expect them to sit down and be quiet. In addition, many schools are reducing the amount of physical education time for our kids and Ive even seen recently that some schools forbid children to run at recess or use certain playground equipment because they fear of physical injury lawsuit. Is it any wonder our children are having difficulty?

Now I know there are parents and teachers out there who have stories of children who have been helped immensely by the addition of Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta or Dexedrine to their daily diet. If you know a child who is being helped by his or her medication, Im not saying to discontinue it but for every child who is being helped, I believe there are at least three others who are still exhibiting all the ADHD behavior the medication was designed to reduce.

There have been studies done on placebo medications that show that in double blind studies, when neither the patient nor the doctor knew whether the patient was getting the actual drug or the placebo, the ones getting the placebo actually did better. Is it possible there is a placebo effect with some children?

If your child displays what you or the teachers believe is an excessive amount of energy, do your best to create situations where that child can expend energy. I have two boys who could both have been diagnosed with ADHD as children. They were very physical. Luckily, I lived in the country during a time when parents sent their kids out the door to simply play. I also spent a lot of my spare time running them around to different athletic eventsYMCA soccer, wrestling, flag football, T-ball, basketball, you get the idea. This definitely helps.

Kids and Anger Management

I spoke with a woman over the weekend whose son is 10 years-old and she says has anger management issues. We didnt really get into his specific behaviors but it caused me to reflect on some inherent differences between males and females.

I think that from very early on, boys and girls deal with their anger differently. As a general rule, girls need to talk about it to feel better, while boys need to work it out physically.

So if you have daughters, you want to teach them verbal skills to be able to work out their frustrations but with boys, you will need to provide opportunities for them to work out their anger physicallymaybe with a punching bag, racquetball, running, or martial arts. The list of possibilities is truly endless but dont expect your boys to talk about it, at least not until theyve had the opportunity to release the anger in a safe physical manner.

Kids and Computers

This week, a mother contacted me about her child disobeying her limits with the home computer and sneaking time beyond her allowed limit.

In this situation, the mother had a need to protect and nurture her child. She wants to be able to loosely supervise her daughters time on the computer to possibly prevent her from falling prey to adults who victimize children by finding their victims on the Internet. She also wants to support her childs need for physical activity so she restricts her computer usage and encourage outside physical activities instead. Is this mother wrong? Absolutely not.

Her daughter, on the other hand, has a desire to be on the computer. All her friends are on there and want to know why she isnt. They dont have limits while this girl does. This girl is quite accomplished on the computer and can build website pages for her friends. She also has a high need for freedom and doesnt like being restricted and the computer is plain fun to her. She gets her love & belonging, power, freedom and fun needs met with the computer. Is she wrong? Absolutely not.

How does it get resolved? I think the way to resolve this issue is for the mother and daughter to sit down and talk about what each other needs and wants in the situation. If the child can convince her mother that she has the skills and knowledge necessary to protect herself from predators and she agrees to engage in other healthy activities each day, then her mother could relax her restriction on the amount of time she has on the computer.

In this case, and many others like it, the daughter wouldnt be able to meet her freedom need with the computer if there wasnt a rule to break. Sometimes we create the very behavior we are trying to stop with the rules we make. When a person has a high need for freedom, they will inevitably break the rules, particularly the ones they dont like or that dont make sense.

Parenting is one of the hardest jobs youll ever do and the stakes are incredibly high. We all do the best we can and hope for good results. Fortunately, when we have good intentions are kids generally survive in even thrive.

Kim Olver has a graduate degree in counseling and works with parents and children helping them with their communication skills ultimately leading to an improvement in their relationships. Sign up for her free teleclass Empowerment Parenting at http://www.therelationshipcenter.biz/EmpowerParenting.htm.Angela Blog97741
Bibbye Blog25884

Pre-Paid Wireless Plans End Outrageous Bills

One of the latest crazes from cell phone service providers is the pre-paid wireless plan. This type of plan offers many benefits that are normally unavailable from a standard cell phone plan. Pre-paid wireless plans represent a flexibility that many people crave. On the flip side of the coin, pre-paid wireless plans often do not have the same perks a long-term contract will yield with a service provider.

Of course there is a good side to pre-paid cell phone service. In many cases cards are offered by cell phone service providers that are then used to buy airtime. The great advantage to these cards is that a customer can always purchase additional cards at the same price when more minutes are needed. You never have to worry about overage charges if you run out of minutes, or whether or not you're killing your peak minutes or not.

It is, however, important to regularly purchase new minutes when using a pre-paid wireless plan. Often the service providers require customers to repurchase your minutes at regular intervals. For example, a customer may be required to purchase new minutes every month, every two months, or every year. The exact schedule will depend on the plan and provider.

Another great advantage to pre-paid wireless plans is that many of the phones used with these plans will keep track of the plans elapsed minutes. Sometimes they have a display of the exact number of airtime minutes left on the current card. It may even display exactly the next new minute purchase should be made and how much these minutes will cost.

This type of wireless plan is great for people on the go. If being tied down by long-term contracts is unappealing, a pre-paid wireless plan is often the best choice. Additionally, the fact that credit checks aren't necessary for these plans is a plus for customers who have had credit problems.

John Miller writes for several online magazines, including http://cheap-product.com and http://products-tips.comBarb Blog82843
Alisun Blog48559

Online Opportunities and Work

What's is this connection between home businesses, online opportunities and WORK?

Whether you like your "day job" or not, you need to really consider starting your own home business. Online opportunities and online work are, at their peak folks. No matter what you do for a living, you just can't afford to ignore the opportunities that are available on the internet today. Whether you are a stay-at- home mom or a company CEO, there is has got to be a way that you can benefit by using the internet and I'm not just talking about a few bucks here and there. I'm talking about an lucrative business that will give you the lifestyle you have been dreaming about, but could not see your way clear to achieve.

An online business is invaluable to those people who need a regular supplemental income, or maybe even a full-time income. If you are unemployed or underemployed, the internet is a potential godsend. The combination of online opportunity, available work, and viable home businesses can do wonders for those who need just a little extra money, but for those of us who aspire to a different lifeystle, it is a Godsend.

As long as you have something to offer to the global market, the internet is your key to better rewards. It doesn't really matter what you do you don't have to be a computer wizard to profit from today's high-tech world. You just need to be willing to learn. Just remember that these days, people still need very basic things to satisfy their very basic needs. If you can provide for the wants and needs of buying public, and do so at a reasonable price, you basically won't have a problem providing for your own needs. In today's capitalist world economy, you will be justly rewarded for the value that you provide.

Of course, starting a home business, any home business, does have its risks; but risk is simply the price of opportunity in this case online opportunity. Think about it. Even if you work regularly for a paycheck, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are not taking any risks. Trust me, this I know from experience. We live in an uncertain world, and there always exists the possibility of our losing our jobs. Hey, if Steve Jobs can get fired from Apple (the company he founded!), then you certainly can get fired from yours! So don't harbor any illusions about job security. More and more, there simply is no such thing.

The growing job uncertainties of the new millennium only makes home businesses, online opportunity, and online work more valuable to the average person. You may think that you being rewarded amply in your job, but that's actually not the case. Remember that your employer only keeps you employed because he or she profits from your labor, believe me, it's not for your good looks, charm or the Friday socials in the office. In other words, you are part of the production equation. If you produce $100,000 worth of productive labor for your employer, he may only get pay $25,000 that's part of the game and he will do everything he can to keep costs down the barest minimum.

In order to get the most out of your skills, you must be prepared to strike out on your own. By starting your own home business, you will be taking advantage of online opportunity and work and building an sustainable future for yourself and your family.

Copyright © Ali Brown

Ali Brown, a Personal Success Coach, helps new entrepreneurs to find home based business ideas and opportunities so they can work at home. For more information visit her blog: http://AchieveItNow.blogspot.comAlbina Blog46917
Brandi Blog44555

Beginning the College Scholarship Search

Are you anxious about going away to college? Or worse yet, worried about how your are going to finance your college education? If you have worries such as these, you are not alone. But, the best thing to do is to take action.

A college education is very expensive. Colleges and Universities offers higher payments on every course that one may wish to take. The average cost of a college education nowadays is around $20,000.00 a year. That amount is too high for most high school grads especially if their parents can't help.

Many parents opt to save with a bank college fund to be used for their children when they enter college. Some invest in educational plans to surpass the heavy burden they might incur later on. Good for those who have prepared for the a college education of their children but how about those who have not? Can their child still go to college even if they lack finances? By all means yes.

That is why scholarships and grants are available. There are many college scholarships that are being offered in different universities and colleges. They vary according to the beneficiarys capabilities. College scholarships may be in the form of academic scholarship, athletic scholarships and many others. There are also college scholarships that are funded by the government. In some cases, prominent and rich people fund scholarship grants offered to various college students.

Knowing those facts, one can definitely say that obtaining a scholarship or grant can't be too difficult. However the truth is finding college scholarship or grants is very time consuming and requires great effort.

Here are some tips on how to find college scholarships that best suit your child:

1) Ask the academic guidance counsellor. The school where you enroll your child in High School is sure to have a list of scholarships and grants. You may ask for it and compare the grants that are offered according to the capability and the needs of your child. This is the surest way to find a college scholarship or grant for your child.

2) Universities and Colleges offer special scholarship for academic excellence and athletics. This is one way to search for your childs college scholarship. The Universities and Colleges that offer this may require your childs effort academically (if awarded academic scholarship) and effort in athletics while maintaining a ceiling grade (if awarded athletics scholarship). There are also financial aids given to a child if he intends to join a club or organization in the University or College that he intends to join. One example of the clubs is a theatre arts club.

3) The internet is the widest and the biggest tool you may use in order to find a scholarship for your child. There are lists of scholarships that you may find on the internet. This scholarship may be funded by people or private organization who aims to support deserving students in their college education.

4) The most scholarships or grants that can be trusted are those offered by the government. There are government agencies that offer college scholarships and grants but limit the course a student may take. One advantage of having a government scholarship is the job that waits after your child finishes college. That is because, most of the time, the government is the one that looks for the students job after his schooling. Sometimes that is included in the scholarship grant contract.

These are the four major places where you may find a scholarship that best suits your childs ability and needs. Scholarships are a great help not just on the part of the parent but also on the child.

Luke GarfieldArlen Blog65841
Anthe Blog20513

Why MySpace.com is So Popular for Connecting with People

MySpace.com is a powerful web site which helps people connect with others who have similar interests in topics such as music, film, geographic location, and relationships.

This type of site is known as a social networking web site. There are other similar sites that have been popular in the past such as Friendster and Classmates.com, but MySpace.com has definitely become the leader in social networking sites, boasting a member list of over 100,000,000 people as of August 6, 2006. According to the owner of MySpace.com, located in NewsCorp of Hollywood California, it is growing at a rate of 500,000 new members every week.

Everyone from small town bands and rap artists to large film makers are using MySpace.com to connect with its large database of members and to provide more information about Pop culture.

MySpace has received some criticisms regarding the age of its users. Teenagers as young as 14 can register for a Myspace account. Although their profiles are automatically private, this has been the source of some controversy about allowing users this young to interact with others on the web.

Myspace does have other restrictions for users under the age of 18, but there are still possibilities that make many concerned parents and organizations uncomfortable.

How Does it Work

Myspace allows you to create an account using some basic information such as name and email address. You are not required to give up any personal information.

Once you have an account you can network with the millions of other members who have Myspace accounts. You can also search for people who have similar interests and then interact with them using special Myspace features such as blogs, chat and the add a friend to your page feature.

How to Signup

To singup for a MySpace.com account, just go to the signup link on their home page or visit Myspace.com for the link.

Once you signup, you can log into your account and build a web page using a simple menu and a step by step process. You can easily change the look and feel to reflect your profile using graphics from sites that offer free MySpace.com layouts.

You can also add photos, music, and videos to your profile that will attract others who are interested in the same things, which makes it ideal for up and coming bands and artists.

Finding Groups, Friends, and Relationships

You can also search the network using browse, keyword searches or by groups. Once you start to find people you want to meet, you can invite them to your network. In some cases, their friends see you and may also invite you to their network. Your network of friends can grow literally by being invited to one persons network.

Why is it so Popular

As more and more people go online, more people are seeking to meet others with the same interests. Web site networks that facilitate this type of communication have historically done very well on the Internet.

It is very easy to open a Myspace.com account and find tons of people and groups who have all of the latest news on various topics, especially music and film, which are staples of pop culture.

It is also free to join MySpace.com, which makes it even more attractive to the general public and gives it the power to easily compete with fee based interest and relationship sites that have been around for years.

As the online community gets larger, more people are looking for easy ways to connect with others without having to pay a lot of money or without having to spend hours of time searching different web sites. As a result, MySpace has become the popular place of choice to instantly connect with other individuals and groups of people.

Rod Davis is a web researcher who writes weekly articles on Popular Online Media and Unique Information found on the web. You can learn more about popular online media at http://110thstreet.com where you can get interesting articles, guides and information.Aile Blog77796
Alfie Blog28114

This Life She's Chosen

On the hit TV show, "Desperate Housewives," Gabrielle Solis has an affair with her gardener, John, a muscular, handsome seventeen-year-old high school boy. Stunning, passionate Gabrielle looks to John for excitement and escape from her dull, suburban life, her marriage to her husband, Carlos, having reached some untenable plateau. Though she's gotten everything she's ever wanted - a beautiful home, a devoted (if not jealous) husband, and plenty of leisure time to enjoy what many would see as ideal - Gabrielle's dissatisfaction continues to mount, until at one point she says, "Sometimes, I think I wanted the wrong things." This, of course, includes John, who's grown more and more attached to Gabrielle over time, an otherwise healthy response were it not for certain major obstacle, like his inexperience and her egotism.

Clearly, this type of illicit amour happens every single day. We hear about it on the news and read about it in the papers. As it should be, laws honor the younger and reproach the older for taking advantage of such innocence, even if the attraction is mutual and consensual. Desire, however, is irrational and has nothing built into it to safeguard against such entanglements. On the outside, it is easy to condemn Gabrielle for her transgression, for leading the boy on. Yet, where the heart leads us, we will surely follow and usually to our own detriment.

Though vast differences in ages aren't necessarily deal-breakers, differences in the levels of emotional maturity are. It is not surprising then that the roles are flipped, that Gabrielle acts like the teenager and John the adult. For all of her worldliness, Gabrielle's character is set up to behave with selfish abandon and she does, taking whatever she can from John whenever she can get it. This is less an uncommon situation than a tragic one, especially when John ends up falling in love. As it is set up, the lines are clearly drawn - John will never get what he wants from the adulterous Gabrielle and Gabrielle will never be able to give John what he needs. Rather than confront the life she's chosen, Gabrielle uses John for her own pleasure, a way to tamp down the numbing pain of a loveless marriage.

Sadly, people like Gabrielle Solis exist, on TV and in the real world; and it is up to you to spot them - and ultimately run the other way. Many people come with gorgeous pedigrees - ivy-league degrees, MBA's and PhD's and LLD's, expensive tastes, cultivated minds, glib tongues, beautiful apartments, hard bodies, disposable income. And while these people look excellent on paper, if they cannot offer anything but these things, these mere trappings, either they are as empty as the fancy rooms in their fancy homes.

The worth of any relationship can't be based solely on diamond rings and new appliances, but must rely on mutual respect and appreciation, qualities without price tags and receipts. Ultimately, if you're not getting what you want, in bed or in love, then you've got to determine if the objects you wake up to are more important than the person you go to bed with. Do not be fooled by material comfort, like Gabrielle, or by the sleight-of-hand seduction, like John. If you do, you might find yourself wondering how you ended up without a heart that never quite belonged to you to in the first place.

David Levinson is a young writer, who explores the mistiness of sexuality and human relationship, writing articles for http://www.edenfantasys.com/, where you can find his other works or discover new sides of intimate feelings for yourself.Bertine Blog15025
Bellina Blog24639

People Dont Buy Relationships!

Unless youve been living under a rock, youve probably heard that relationships are the most important part of business. In other words, people buy from people they know. If you want to make sales and build loyal buyers, building relationships is the way to go. Well, the relationship theory is WRONG.

Maybe, like your sales staff, you dont believe us. Okay. Think for a moment about the number of insurance agents you know. Do you do business with ALL of them? How about attorneys and real estate agents?

Of course you dont. And why dont you? After all, they are your friends. You have relationships with them.

Maybe you believe that only one friend can service you the best. Perhaps you think you dont have that much business to spread around. Or, like many of our global consulting clients, you dont want your friends knowing your personal business.

But if you took a closer look, youd realize that your buying decisions boil down to the same reason that everyone elses doesyou buy from those individuals whos companies fill your needs bestperiod.

Your sales staff probably wont be very happy to hear this news. If you spent your time kissing up, running ragged, and shaking hands, youd want to know it paid off, too, wouldnt you? Unfortunately, the reality is, none of that matters if your firms products and services dont meet the buyers needs and expectations.

Think about it. Do you know the owner of the grocery store where you purchase the bulk of your food? How about the owner of the Subway or pizza shop, dry cleaner, gas stations, or car dealership? You might know one of them, especially if you live in a small town, but honestly, most of us dont know our primary vendors well, if at all.

Think about how you decide to purchase from Amazon, Nordstroms, Toshiba or Chevyyou do so for the relationship? Nope.

Most likely, you dont purchase much of anything from people you know. So whats this relationship thing all about, anyway? Two things.

First, relationships open doors of opportunity. If a relationship exists, a prospect might take your phone call, give your new products an extra long look, listen to your pitch for an extra few minutes, or dial your number to make an inquiry phone call. Thats it. Even when your best buddy is the prospect, if you dont have the right product, you wont make the sale.

Picture yourself as the buyer. Your friend works for a bank. He might provide special services for you that makes you want to do business with the bank again. Your friend moves to a different bank where he has less leverage. No special services. You have to set up new accounts, the online services are not as good, and the new bank lacks the history you so much enjoy when doing your taxes. Are you going to move to the new bank with your relationship, or are you going to avoid your friend like the plague?

Second, the connection between the buyer and the COMPANY is the relationship. People dont buy from people they know as much as they buy from companies with products and services that they want. As much as you may want to give business to a friend, if the product isnt right, their company bills you incorrectly or sells shoddy workmanship, yet their competitor offers everything you need, the relationship that wins the sale is the one developed with the best company.

Lets transfer this to your business. You establish a relationship with someone, your new business friend, and everything seems fine until one day the vendor botches up a project or order. You call your friend and explain the situation. They promise to fix the problem on their end. The problem persists or recurs. You cant tolerate the incompetence and call your friends competitor. Wow, to your surprise, the person on the other end of the line also wants to be your friend. Offering better products and services, they win your business.

One-on-one relationships alone can get you only so far. Thats why the responsibility of good management is to build organizations where relationships between buyer and company work. Good news for salespeople, if theyre even involved in the sale at all, because the company that supports relationships increases sales and retains repeat buyers.

Here are 6 thoughts on how you can get started:

1. Provide products and services that do what you promise and have them available for purchase. You dont have to have the highest perceived quality in the industry, but you do have to offer something that consumers believe is worth the price. Then when they make the choice to use your firm, the product must be on the shelves so that they dont start developing new friends.

2. Build in integrated accounting operations that make working with your firm a convenience, not a hindrance. Billing procedures should ensure accuracy and be completed in timely fashion. No buyer will tolerate errors where money is concerned forever.

3. Deliver on time. Late work, whether youre a building contractor or a computer manufacturer, always leads to wasted money. If you want a strong relationship between your company and your customer, be sure you deliver as promised, or even early if you can. Constantly strive to deliver predictable, reliable results for the buyer.

4. Respond quickly. Return phone calls immediately. Issue refunds and replacements fast. Nothing blows a customers trust faster than when he cant get a response within a reasonable time. In our office, consulting and speaking service inquiries gain a response within 3 hours. The relationship is stronger when people find youre accessible when they need you.

5. Market clearly and honestly. Back every claim you make. Be sure that people understand what you sell and how theyll benefit from working with you. Most importantly, if you can differentiate yourself from the pack and back it with your actions, the relationship is reinforced and competitively stronger.

6. Spread the tools around. Give every employee in every department the tools needed to keep up his end of the deal in your companys relationships with customers. Good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software helps customer service keep on top of each customers needs by providing a history of the relationships. An integrated order processing system prevents important elements from falling through the cracks.

Finally, dont worry about freaking out your sales personnel. Sure, initially some people will be shocked to hear you say that people dont buy relationships. But the shock will turn into motivation once they understand that they no longer have to bear the entire burden of building and maintaining relationships alone. The company is just as responsible for the relationship as the sales person.

And thats why you, the decision maker, get it. You know that people dont buy relationships, they buy what works for themand your organization is primed and ready to do just that.

© David and Lorrie Goldsmith

David and Lorrie Goldsmith are managing partners of a firm that offers consulting and speaking services internationally.David was named by Successful Meetings as one of the 26 Hottest Speakers in the Industry. More information at http://www.keynoteresource.comAngil Blog81923
Alyse Blog30152

Ten Important People Of The Twentieth Century

Have you ever wondered who made the top one hundred important people in the twentieth century? What made them famous? How did they do it? Youll learn about ten luminaries that are listed in Time Magazines Most Important People of the Century. The Time 100 list comprises one hundred important people from such categories as: leaders & revolutionaries, artists & entertainers, builders & titans, scientists & thinkers, and heroes & icons. Those mentioned here are in chronological order, based on the year they became famous.

Dr. Albert Einstein: German. In 1905 he was well known for his contributions to quantum physics and the theory of relativity. With just a pen and paper, he peeked farther behind Nature's curtain than anyone had since Newton then spent the rest of his years living it down. Now, when we think of genius, we see his face.

Henry Ford: American. In 1908 he was praised for the first mass-produced automobile, the Model T. He produced an affordable car, paid high wages and helped create a middle class. Not bad for an autocrat.

Sir Winston Churchill: English. In 1944 he exalted in the success of the D-day invasion. The master statesman stood alone against fascism and renewed the world's faith in the superiority of democracy. Without a doubt one of the worlds most important people.

Este Lauder: American. In 1948 she began her billion-dollar cosmetics empire. She transformed beauty into big business by cultivating classy sales methods and giving away samples.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Albanian. In 1952 she was founder of the Missionaries of Charity in India. In fighting for the dignity of the destitute in a foreign land, she gave the world a moral example that bridged divides of culture, class and religion.

Lucille Ball: American. In 1952 the first lady of comedy brought us laughter as well as emotional truth. No wonder everybody loved Lucy.

Muhammad Ali aka Cassius Clay, Jr.: American. In 1960 he was celebrated for winning a gold medal at the Rome Olympics, and in 1967 as the greatest boxing heavyweight champion of all time. Floating, stinging, punching, prophesying, he transformed his sport and became the world's most adored athlete.

Rachel Carson: American. In 1962 she was an acclaimed zoologist and marine biologist. Before there was an environmental movement, there was one brave woman and her very brave book. Silent Spring, serialized in the New Yorker, gored corporate oxen all over the country.

The Beatles: English. In 1964 they were renowned for the film A Hard Days Night and in 1967 the Sgt. Pepper era. Irrepressible and irresistible, they were and remain the world's most astonishing rock-'n'-roll band.

Margaret Thatcher: English. In 1979 she was known as the Iron Lady or simply Maggie. She was British Prime Minister for eleven years. Champion of free minds and markets, she helped topple the welfare state and make the world safer for capitalism.

Naturally your choice of which celebrities were more important than others will no doubt be different but as you can see, this gives you a brief summary of some of the best. Now at least you wont be stumped when youre asked if youve heard of these important people.

Keith Valentine began his interest in leaders, artists, builders, scientists and icons, at seventeen. Now 52, he has written several articles about renowned individuals. For more interesting stories about famous celebrities, please visit the Important People Site at: http://101-people.blogspot.comBunny Blog2424
Becka Blog26504

How To Find The Best Deals Online

On the Internet, you can find just about anything you want to buy, but how do you get the best deal you possibly can? This article will show you how.

Price Comparison Search Engines

There are dozens of search engines that will allow you to compare prices at hundreds, even thousands of online stores without having to go to each site separately, which can take alot of time to do on your own. Some of the best general ones are PriceGrabber.com, Shopzilla.com, Nextag.com and MySimon.com. All of these sites will allow you to type in what you are looking for and will allow you to zero in on the store that has your desired item for the lowest possible price. These search engines should be one of your first stops when shopping for deals.

Specialty Price Comparison Search Engines

For different shopping categories, there are specialty price comparison search engines for them. For books, check out AddAll.com. For computers and technology items, try pricewatch.com, techbargains.com and shopper.cnet.com. For DVD's, try dvdpricesearch.com.

Coupon Codes

There are many sites that list coupon codes for all the large online stores. Whether it's large department stores, chain stores or smaller specialty stores, there are often coupon codes available for them. The code might allow you to take a certain percentage off the price, get you free shipping, a free gift, buy one get one free of some item or another deal. It always pays off to search around for coupon codes before making your purchase. Some great sites that list coupon codes for online stores include eCoupons.com, CurrentCodes.com and CouponMountain.com, among many others.

Deal & Bargain Forums

As a bargain hunter and deal finder, you are certainly not alone on the net. There are many forums where people gather and share deal information and alerts, post coupon codes and discuss online bargains. Some of the most popular ones are: FatWallet.com, SlickDeals.net and CheapStingyBargains.com.

Outlets & Refurbished Items

Just like the offline world where big brand name stores offer their overstock, clearance and refurbished items at outlet stores, many companies have a separate website or area of their website which offers these items for purchase online. Great deals can be had here. Apple, for instance, sells refurbished iPods at it's outlet store at Apple.com for a fraction of the cost of their new iPods.

Big Stores

Many of the largest web stores offer great deals and special sale areas. Don't skip sites like Amazon.com and Buy.com, they often have very good deals and prices on their items due to the massive volume they sell. At Amazon, if you find that something you want is out of stock or too expensive for you, they may have the same item available at other stores for less or even used and they will show you this on the item page!

Auctions

There are thousands of online auction sites, ranging from small auction sites that specialize in certain areas to the granddaddy of them all, eBay. On eBay, you can type in the item you are looking for and find both new and used auctions running for many items. It's always a good idea to check eBay when deal shopping, you'll get an idea of what the item is going for currently and whether you're getting a good deal elsewhere on the web.

Extra Tips

Don't forget to check reviews of your item before buying. You can check Amazon.com, Epinions.com, ConsumerReports.org and Cnet.com for reviews of a wide range of items. Also, don't forget to factor shipping costs into your deal hunting. Always check on the shipping cost before making a purchase, otherwise you could end up paying a fortune. Some web stores bring you in with great prices and deals, but will make up for it by charging you an exhorbitant amount for shipping.

In summary, armed with these tips you should be able to go out on the web confidently and find the best deal on that item or special gift you have been looking for.

Lydia Quinn writes for ShopWoh.com, an International auction website where you can buy and sell anything. Visit us at: http://www.shopwoh.com.Candace Blog61396
Ailina Blog89038

Planning The Perfect Back Yard Wedding

If youre looking for a one-of-a-kind wedding site, your own back yard may be just the place. If you are considering holding a wedding at home, theres a lot to think about. For example, do you need a tent? Are you required to have a special events license? Should you get portable toilets for the back yard? These small touches can make or break a back yard wedding.

According to Elana Lancit, founder and president of Vancouver-based Sweet Beginnings, a full-service wedding consulting and event-planning company, An at-home affair takes a lot of planning. Consider hiring a professional consultant. Although the benefits of a home wedding come with added considerations, if you arrange everything in advance, the day will be wonderful for you and your guests.

Weather or Not: First on Lancits list is weather insurance. Plan on renting a tent no matter what, says Lancit. Weather is just too unpredictable. Tents provide good shade in the heat, and if you are planning a wedding in the fall, heating lamps are good to have on-hand, she says.

Be Neighbourly: To ensure your neighbors dont complain about the noise, invite them along, or at least inform them about the event. If you are not inviting the neighbors, Lancit suggests dropping off a bottle of wine or a gift certificate to a restaurant a few days prior to the event. This shows appreciation and respect for your neighbours, says Lancit.

Menu Planning: Lancit suggests hiring a catering company to handle the food and bar. Before the wedding day, invite the caterers to your house so they can see what kind of space your kitchen offers. They may decide to bring a tent to provide additional space for prep work. Before signing the contract, make sure to discuss what is included in the cost. For example, will they provide plates and utensils? Also, consider the weather you want to choose foods that will not perish.

Parking: Parking can be a cause of distress on the big day. Since most homes cannot accommodate 200 cars, Lancit suggests using a valet service, which most guests appreciate. The valet service will handle all logistics and keep your guests from walking a great distance. If you choose to hire valet, consider having extra staff at the beginning and end of the event, says Lancit.

License: Lancit suggests calling city hall to find out if you are required to have a special license or permit for your event, such as a parking permit or a special event license. Also get information on notice by-laws and inquire about extra insurance.

Bathrooms: Dont forget to think about bathrooms! This is something that people all-too-often forget about. If you dont have enough bathrooms in your house or do not want people trekking through, consider port-o-lets. Have at least two set up not too far from the party. Lancit also suggests hiring someone to clean the bathrooms during the event.

Event Logists: Lancit recommends creating a complete floor plan and to consider the location of the musicians; head table; guest tables; dance floor; dressing room for bride, groom and attendants; and station for hair and makeup.

Power: Check on getting an extra generator. With all the music and lighting, you want to make sure not to blow a fuse during the event.

Flooring: If you are setting up your dance area on grass, consider ordering a dance floor. If the ground is uneven, work may need to be done in order to lay down the flooring.

Lighting: Guests need to be able to see where they are walking so they dont trip over anything. Make sure everything is well-lit. Consider adding candles, lanterns and mini-lights.

Flowers: Make sure to work with a florist who will provide flowers that can hold up in all weather conditions.

Coat Check: Depending on the time of year, make sure you have a place for guests to hang their coats.

Dont Forget The Inside: Make sure your house is presentable just in case guests take a peek.

Elana Lancit is founder and president of Sweet Beginnings. Sweet Beginnings is the worlds only franchised, full-service wedding consulting and dcor provider. Sweet Beginnings currently has 15 locations in Canada. Visit http://www.asweetbeginning.com for additional information.Anne Blog97788
Anett Blog8061

Reciprocal Linking Strategy

If you want to get serious about driving more traffic to your website and improving your search engine rankings you need to develop a linking strategy. There are three primary linking strategies:

1. Reciprocal Linking
2. Purchasing text links
3. Employing a link finding service

This month's issue of BizAtomic Advisor focuses on Reciprocal Linking How it can help. When a trusted site links to yours, people follow that recommendation.

Reciprocal link means your website links to another website and that website links back to you. Search engines use link popularity to rank websites. Exchanging reciprocal links with other sites will build a great link directory that will motivate visitors to bookmark your website to get access to your link directory.

One of the factors search engine's use to determine your relevancy to a search term is the number of websites linking to your website. This is an effective way to increase your search engine rankings.

Three key success factors for a reciprocal linking strategy are:

1. Quality of links should outweigh quantity
2. Link partners must relate to your site content
3. Partners should link to you from pages listing as few links as possible

Linking is what the web is all about. It helps you move from one document to another and from site to site while maintaining your focus on a particular subject. The ideal situation is to have one way links from related sites without you pointing back to them. However, you would have to have a lot of valuable information, tips, tools, articles, resources, etc. in order to motivate people to link to your website. Unfortunately most sites don't fall into this category and reciprocal linking is a requirement.

Step 1 - Get people to want to link to your website. Generating quality inbound links to your website requires a systematic approach and hard work. But the payoff is worth it. To begin with you must have good content on your website. Step one is to analyze the value of your content in relation to competitors. You will also need a page of outbound links on your website that visitors will find valuable.

Step 2 Research websites that are worth linking to and that will bring relevant traffic to you. You need to identify the portals, directories, news sites, ezines, blogs, and other information sources specific to your industry. You can let your fingers do the walking across the keyboard or you can purchase one of the many software tools on the market designed to locate relevant sites. They also help collect email addresses and even prepare letters requesting that a site add a link to your site. Without making any recommendations you may want to look into the following tools:

* Arelis Reciprocal Link Solution
* Zeus Internet Marketing Robot
* Linking 101 Linking Management Script
* Duncan Carver's Link Management System
* Hot Links SQL V2.3
* LinkMaster Pro
* Links Manager
* Links4Trade
* PowerLinks.com

Make sure you at least visit the sites these tools generate. However, the best way to build long-term link popularity is to offer good content and features providing real value to your visitors. People will discover your website.

Google is a great help with your research because it ensure your partners are properly indexed. Look for sites closely related to you in terms of theme and keywords. Google's ranking algorithm takes into account each link's importance along with other factors like the proximity of your search keywords in the documents. In other words, it's not just about the number of sites that link to a given page, but also the importance of those sites (measured by the links to each of them). Google has given a name to its ranking algorithm for determining a web page's importance; it's called PageRank(TM).

Human based directories like Yahoo and the Open Directory project have a lot of influence over search results. List your site in the correct category with a good description.

Next make sure you are linked to and from topic specific and niche directory websites. These are sites that provide information that is an exact match for what you provide.

Don't forget partners and vendors from your business. Since you already have a relationship you are more likely to be able to request and receive a link from their website.

Step 3 Implementing your strategy. Like any marketing campaign you need a plan.

* Set business benefit objectives for your Linking strategy. Think about what you are trying to achieve and write it down on paper.
* Develop a content plan for populating your website with valuable content.
* Set linking policies, pages, and linking code you can give to link partners for your site.
* Monitor the progress of your linking strategy so that you can see what results have been achieved and adapt or tweak what you are doing to improve results.
* Benchmark your site's link popularity against competitors

A Reciprocal Linking Program will require that you manage the following:

1.The name of the site

2.The URL

3.The name and email address of the person who runs the site

4.The date you contact the person who runs the site and the date he or she responds

5.The resulting deal (Some will say yes, some will say no, others will not reply at all, others will want a link back from you, some may want money for links, some will be out of town and take weeks to reply, etc.)

6.The status of the deal

7.Verifying that the link is in place

8.Checking the site periodically for the link (Yes, some folks swap links and then pull yours for odd reasons.)

Remember the most important benefit of a link exchange is the traffic resulting directly from these links. Search engines are highly unpredictable. They keep changing their algorithms every now and then. Your site is on the top 10 results today but it may not be so tomorrow. Of course, you don't want to exclude search engine optimization but your main concern should be getting traffic from direct links.

BizAtomic - http://www.bizatomic.com - 800-942-9475Aila Blog86872
Aggy Blog18192

Now Bad Credit is not Considered in Unsecured Tenant Loans

If we analyze financial market, it is generally seen that people with poor credit score faces problem in procuring funds from the market. Most of the poor credit scorers are asked to place collateral and besides of that collateral, they are also attached with an obligation to pay high rate of interest which affects their budget. And just imagine what if the person is not in condition to provide collateral to the lender? In such case, is the person can still procure funds. The answer is yes and it is possible through bad credit unsecured tenant loan.

Bad credit unsecured tenant loans are especially customized in such manner to meet the needs of bad credit non homeowners. Not only the non homeowners, but also those homeowners can apply for bad credit unsecured loan that are not willing place collateral.

Before we move further, there is need to understand how does bad credit happens. Bad credit happens when there is imbalance between income and expenses of a person. That is, when the person spends money lavishly and extravagantly without considering his income and after that he faces difficulties in repaying his entire bills. And, when the person fails in repayments it turns up with bad credit in the credit report of a person. Other factors which are considered as bad credit for a person are:

County court judgment

Individual voluntary agreement

Bankruptcy

Arrears

Defaults etc

After considering the reasons of bad credit, it is obligatory to know for a person that who falls under the category of tenants. They are:

Council tenants

Private landlord tenants

Living with parents

Students etc.

While availing bad credit unsecured tenant loan the person is required to provide certain details of his employment, flow of income, financial status, and address proof. Here, these proofs acts as security to the lender as there no property is required to keep it as collateral. Thus, there is also no risk on the property regarding repossession. But, this doesnt means that on missing any payment the lender cant take any action against borrower rather he has the legal right to sue the borrower.

Bad credit unsecured tenant loan are less time consuming as there is no asset valuation. Today every banks, financial institutions and building societies provide loan as per the convenience of the borrower. But, only thing required is that the person must choose the lender offering loan deal with low annual percentage rate and favorable terms.

Eventually, we can say that bad credit unsecured tenant loan not only provides financial assistance but also improves the credit score of a person.

Peter Taylor is a senior financial analyst at bad-credit-unsecured-loan with an acumen for finance and insurance. In recent years he has taken up to provide independant financial advice through his informative articles. His articles are widely read because of the lucid manner of wriiting and thoroughly researched datas. To find unsecured personal loan, bad credit unsecured tenant loan,unsecured loan, bad credit unsecured loan, bad credit loan. that best suits your need visit http://www.bad-credit-unsecured-loan.netAleece Blog58258
Beth Blog11758

The Web and Education--One Mom's Perspective

Parents should get more involved in the education of a child. How many times have you heard this statement? My question is, Where does a parent begin? I understand that as a parent I must be engaged. I truly do get that I have to ensure the homework is done and that I am communicating regularly with my childs teachers. But beyond that, what else can a parent do?

I imagine there are hundreds of things a parent might do, but I would like to share my personal experience with you. Lets begin with a little insight into my background. Several years ago while developing and teaching Air Force training courses for U.S. Space Command, I became fascinated with the use of computers in learning. So when my child was beginning her educational experience, of course, I loaded up on the best educational software in the land. But, I kept hearing this persistent buzz about Internet resources.

Did you know that if you Google educational resources, you get 163,000,000 search results? If you narrow it down to lets say math, you end up with a whopping 269,000,000 results. Some of them are really good, and some of them really stink, and some have so much advertising you cant tell if they are really good, really awful or fair-to-midland. But if you hang in there and really look, there are some real gems out there and most of them are absolutely free.

One exercise I have done with my child over the years involves researching the admissions criteria for different schools. We found sites like CollegeTours.com, a site providing loads of information and virtual tours of different college campuses, to be references for this exercise. We have even gone as far as to look at scholarship requirements using databases such as CollegeNET.com and CollegeIsPossible.org. We also compared the costs of different institutions. We began doing this in her sixth grade year. Because we started early, my child has understood the requirements for college acceptance and financing for sometime now. When I started the process, my hope was that we would not be running around in her junior and senior years trying to get things in order. It is awfully difficult to bring up that grade point average in a couple of semesters, especially if the young person is stressed by time constraints. Getting my child prepared early was my way of ensuring we were prepared when we got down to deadlines. A worksheet for this exercise can be downloaded from my website YouthPlay.org.

My daughter is now in the eleventh grade. She is a member of the National Honor Society, president of her junior class, a starting member of her high school basketball team, an apprentice for a local neurosurgeon and a social butterfly. And, we are already inundated with college recruitment materials from the best colleges in the nation. In other words, were getting thereour strategy has worked thus far.

There were several not-so-accidental elements in my Internet strategy. For instance, practice is an essential part of a successful study routineespecially when dealing with facts and rules. The Internet and various software can be very useful in providing repetition in a not-so-routine manner. Games such as Basket Math at ScienceAcademy.com where your child actually makes a hoop each time he or she gets the correct answer can make rote learning of multiplication tables a tad more interesting than just repeating the multiplication tables over and over.

I remember clearly when I began to dislike matha subject I had loved until, I believe, I ran into the wrong teacher. I remember my worst days in school. I remember my best days. I remember the teachers who were creative and inspiring and know that the best skills I possess today are in the areas they taught. Because of my own experience, I looked very hard for good learning websites to share with my daughter. I didnt want her to be turned off by sites that were really advertising monsters, just enticing you to a point of enjoyment and then launching an advertising scheme where you must make a purchase before you can go any further. Certainly I understand that many websites survive through their ability to sell products, however I believe this can be accomplished without bait and purchase gimmicks.

Goodness, have you ever tried to unlearn something you learned how to do wrong? You really have to make sure that the resources that your child uses are good resources. Every textbook is not a good textbook; every teacher is not a good teacher; and, every website is not a good website. Assuming these tools are good simply because they exist or because the school system uses them can cause your child a world of harm. A parent really has to do more than have these tools available. If you tryout a piece of software or an Internet resource and you cannot follow the instructions, then there is a very good chance your child may not be able to effectively use the resource either. And the same rule applies with other resources as well. Some sites such as Math.com and MathForum.com gave really simple step-by-step instructions to concepts my child was learning in school, yet I had long forgotten. I was able to refresh my memory and to get her on track using these resources.

The vividness of the learning experience can also be very important. If I take my child to the zoo to learn about animals, he or she will learn more than if I just explain the animals. One of my favorite sites for young kids is Switchzoo.com. My younger nieces and nephews are fascinated with the animals they are familiar with, but just spillover with excitement as they manipulate the animals to make new ones. I think that my daughter and I are really supposed to be a little old for the activity, but in all truthfulness we have a great time with it too.

There are so many places out there that I neither have the time nor the money to take my child. The Internet has been especially useful in getting my child to those places. At our fingertips we have the Virtual Smithsonian Institute and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. At GreatPlaces.org we have in living color enjoyed films and photos of Madagascar, Tibet, the Amazon and several other far away places. Websites such as the Academy of Achievement featuring diverse faces from different walks of life and Get Smarter provide children with the opportunity to interact with young people of different cultures. While certainly not substitutes for eye-to-eye interaction, these types of websites provide additional opportunities for young people to interact with peers from other backgrounds. Through the gateway of MuseumStuff.com, we have viewed museums all over the world including my personal favorite the web only exhibits of our National Museum of Air and Space in Washington DC. And lets not forget the brick and mortar library. Before computers the library is how my parents took me to far away places. It still works and every library that we have visited recently has wonderful computer resources as well. So, if you dont have a computer at home, that is certainly no excuse for not spending some time with your child using this wonderful technology. And I still buy books for presentswonderful, exciting, colorful books.

There are several good resources on the web that make the search for good, educationally sound websites easier for parents. The Education Place and Education World-- The Educator's Best Friend are sites developed by educators. These sites and the many others like them, including my own website www.YouthPlay.org featuring the websites I have used in educating my child, keep us updated on the newest and the best resources in education and help us in making decisions regarding our childrens education. My personal favorite is my very own YouthPlay blog (http://youthplay-org.blogspot.com) where I share my favorite educational websites daily.

I truly believe that the resources of the Internet have helped my daughter to tap into all of her talents and have the potential to help other children to do the same.

A.R. Linder is the editor of the YouthPlay blog found at http://youthplay-org.blogspot.com-- a daily review of her favorite educational resources. A cornerstone of the website is a wonderful area called YouthPlay.org --a collection of many of the websites she has used in educating herself and her child. Ms. Linder is a graduate of the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL. She has more than 15 years of experience in training and workforce development. Adriena Blog789
Alethea Blog96182