<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394</id><updated>2011-04-21T15:34:48.993-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Motivated Cottonwood</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>21</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-113050812197619797</id><published>2005-10-28T07:02:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-28T07:02:02.293-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Do Search Engines Scare You?. The List Is The Thing.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/iprogress.chtml" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; EZ DVD Copy - burn, backup, copy any DVD movie, dvd copy software, ripper, DVD to DVD, VCD, SVCD, D...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;What do the words "Search Engine" make you think of? I get immediate mind-pictures which vary but all have similar themes. Sometimes I see one of those tiny submarines which are used to explore the deepest parts of the ocean bed. I have this picture in my mind of the tiny submarine underwater in complete darkness apart from the beam of its searchlight which is probing the gloom. Other times I see a horse-drawn carriage driving through dense fog with only its weak lamp relieving the darkness.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/moviesadv.chtml" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; Movies: Search - Download - Copy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; This scene is from a movie where the police are racing through London in search of Jack The Ripper. The final picture is of a line of policemen in old-fashioned uniforms advancing across a moor in darkness through rising mist with only their flashlight-beams to light their way. &lt;p&gt;It can get a bit scary inside my mind at times. If these were dreams rather than passing thoughts, they would probably be analysed as meaning an obsession with darkness and getting lost. Maybe the lights penetrating the darkness symbolise a fear of ignorance (or maybe a fear of getting found out). The obvious link is that these pictures all relate to a search of one kind or another. The first one might represent a search for knowledge, the second one is obviously the search for a criminal and the final one a search for clues at the scene of a crime.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Why would the words "search engine" conjure up these dark visions? If you look at the words we associate with search engines, I think the connection will be clear. We talk about "submitting" our websites to search engines. We don't "send" our websites or "apply" to search engines or "register" our websites with search engines. We are submissive and the search engines dominate us.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We adopt this submissive posture and the search engines send their robots to "crawl" over our websites. Doesn&amp;amp;t sound very pleasant does it? The future of your website is entirely in the power of these monsters. You have spent time and perhaps some cash getting your website ready for the visit. Your website, the shop window to your home business, has been tweaked and "search engine optimised", now you can do nothing except hope that your efforts will be rewarded with approval by these invisible inspectors.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Web site owners act as if the search engines are neighbourhood dignitaries: "We must tidy up, the search engines are coming to visit". An anxious time follows while your website, brushed, polished and optimised to the best of your ability, waits to greet these visitors. The most respected visitor is Googlebot. He causes most anxiety and is renowned for being unpredictable. Webmasters try to analyse the "Googledance" in the hope of making Googlebot's visit enjoyable. If we can get the mighty Googlebot to dance instead of merely crawling, he might give us a good report, but Googlebot can't seem to decide what algorithm he prefers. How are you supposed to get his feet tapping? Unfortunately, the search engines are not the most communicative visitors and you only realise they have carried out their examination when something (either good or bad) happens to your prot�½g�½'s page rank.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The search engines are not like your school teacher who gives you a class test, they are more like the university Board Of Examiners: when you have passed or failed their test, you will never get to know which questions you got right or where your weakness lies. Further improvement will have to be a matter of guesswork but suppose your guess is wrong? You might destroy the very things which met with the search engines' approval. Then you hear that the search engines don't agree amongst themselves, so what pleases some of them might lose you points with others. Which ones should you try hardest to impress? Should you turn your website into some sort of private Googledancer and risk offending the rest of the robots? Would it be better to try to please one or two of the larger search engines or a big bunch of the lesser ones? Finally you hear a rumour that the search engines are changing their secret rules anyway but nobody knows what the changes will entail. You despair of ever satisfying the masters of your fate, you feel as if you are stumbling around in the dark. Panic takes you over.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Should you be afraid of search engines?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Anybody in his right mind should be afraid, very afraid.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This is one of a series of articles published by the author, Elaine Currie, BA(Hons) at &lt;a href="http://www.Huntingvenus.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.Huntingvenus.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For honest advice on working from home subscribe to Online Profits newsletter by&lt;br/&gt; mailto:huntingvenus@SubscribeMeNow&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/ebookgenst.chtml" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; -=* Plugin Sales Generator Internets online Plugin Sales Machine *=-&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Many companies begin their online sales ventures with the wrong strategy to build long term success. Thinking that a website is the core of their business leads them to focus on getting website visitors.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Making the site "sticky", by using a member-only area or a community feature such as chat or a forum, may get some of your visitors to come back for more. Unfortunately, the large part of your viewers may not use these features, and being in a hurry, they are just a click away from another new and interesting website. Many of your "hits" are just that, a quick click, and they're gone forever.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The visitor that clicked away likely found your site by using a search engine. They were interested in the search term that was one of your site's keywords. That means that they may be your "target customer".&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Isn't it a shame that you only had one chance to sell this visitor on your product or service? Don't you wish that you could follow-up on that "lead" at a later time? With a better offer or a different related product?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You can.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The focus of your online sales business "has" to be capturing lead information (email addresses) and building a database of prospects and previous customers.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/mediatunes.chtml" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; Essential reading for every worship leader Building a House of Worship by John Pape Jr.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; This "house list" enables you to keep in touch with your leads, building a relationship and your credibility over time. The website is an important part of the sales "machine", but is not the primary focus, building your house list is. &lt;p&gt;Many people might think that the value of a house list is determined by the number of leads it contains. This is true, to a point. Affecting the value even more is the quality of the leads, or subscribers. A small list that is highly targeted, with responsive leads, is more valuable than a large list that is not targeted.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Quality comes from the methods used to build the house list. You want leads to opt-in, or subscribe, to your list. These people are interested in your niche, or they wouldn't have joined the list. Using emails from one of those " One Million Email Addresses For $10" CDs will get little or no response. You will also be labeled as a spammer. Buying subscribers from list brokers is another option, but you have to be certain that the leads opted-in to the list. If not, they are practically worthless.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Build "your" house list, do it properly using opt-in methods, and reap the rewards of a responsive and loyal group of contacts. Follow-up with your leads on a regular basis, and you'll have it made.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About The Author&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;How do YOU get results online with little or no business experience? Get Ken Leonard Jr.'s new mini-course, "7 Ways To Beat The Competition", a smart first step for YOUR small business. End your frustration, get going in the right direction!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:7waystobeattherest@kljonline.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;mailto:7waystobeattherest@kljonline.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kenleonardjr.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.kenleonardjr.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://honestadirector.blogspot.com/2005/10/10-sure-fire-ways-to-get-more-ezine.html"&gt; 10 Sure Fire Ways To Get More Ezine Subscribers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://enthusiasticcomposer.blogspot.com/2005/10/playtime-project-memory-quilt-life.html"&gt; A Playtime Project: The Memory Quilt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bossyliszt.blogspot.com/2005/10/pros-and-cons-of-telecommuting-as-seen.html"&gt; The Pro's and Con's of Telecommuting - As Seen Through The Eye's of a Seasoned Telecommuter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://motivatedgypsy.blogspot.com/2005/10/student-removal-expenses-7-ways-to.html"&gt; Student Removal Expenses&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://outspokensteel.blogspot.com/2005/10/do-men-just-want-mommy-whats-that-in.html"&gt; Do Men Just Want Mommy?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://drivenpaladin.blogspot.com/2005/10/reach-your-goals-give-yourself-gold.html"&gt; Reach Your Goals - Give Yourself A Gold Star&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://funnyoms.blogspot.com/2005/10/star-trac-tr4500hr-treadmill-review.html"&gt; Star Trac TR4500HR Treadmill - A Review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/ctmanual.chtml"&gt;Microsoft Office Training : The Complete Computer Training Manuals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/simple4x.chtml"&gt;Forex Trading Software : Forex Trading With Real Time Chat Room Support!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/jcpubs234.chtml"&gt;Horse Racing Game : Horse Racing Systems, Handicapping Tips &amp;amp; Free Horse Racing Picks - BW2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/ntchosting.chtml"&gt;Smtp Servers : NTC Hosting&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/plexchange.chtml"&gt;Search Engine Submission Services : Auto-Blog Builder&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;a href="http://bookslack.com/2004/01/14/lines-running-vertically-sudoku-tips/"&gt; Lines Running Vertically: Sudoku Tips - Sudoku Guide, Strategies And Techniques Solving Sudoku Puzzl...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bookslack.com/2004/05/05/without-products-how-to-create-a/"&gt; Without Products: How To Create A Fortune On The Internet In Just 4 Simple Steps...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bookslack.com/2004/11/00/mystic-masters-understood-manifestation/"&gt; Mystic Masters Understood: Manifestation...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bookslack.com/2005/07/01/specific-questions-10-undeniable/"&gt; Specific Questions: 10 Undeniable Marriage Needs E-book-free Audio Session...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bookslack.com/2005/06/21/supporting-services-surviving-in-today/"&gt; Supporting Services: Surviving In Today's Economy, A Practical Approach To High-yield Investing...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-113050812197619797?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/113050812197619797/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=113050812197619797' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/113050812197619797'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/113050812197619797'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/do-search-engines-scare-you-list-is.html' title='Do Search Engines Scare You?. The List Is The Thing.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-113045747964313362</id><published>2005-10-27T16:57:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-27T16:57:59.673-07:00</updated><title type='text'>The Look of Grief. Publicity: Nailing a Media Interview, Part III (Staying on Topic).</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;p&gt;Never, since man has walked upright, have people all over the globe had more educational advantages or more opportunities to practice advanced social and interpersonal skills. And yet, for the most part, we still have not learned to look past the obvious, to see beyond the exterior shell of our fellow man, and to discover the worth of the real person.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We seem consumed by the superficial. We worry incessantly (to the tune of billions of dollars every year in "cures" and "helps") about being too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, too old, too young.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Men are worried about their hairlines or their baldness, or they dwell on the size of their shoulders. They build their biceps, often at the expense of their brains.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/steroids.chtml" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; Steroid Encyclopaedia - the ultimate guide to anabolic steroids&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Consider athletes who are so determined to win that they will sacrifice their futures for anabolic steroids. That's buying the "dream" but paying for it with a life. &lt;p&gt;Women wear bigger shoulder pads to offset the width of their hips, and they're nervous about their bra sizes. They'll sacrifice on groceries to have acrylic fingernails or a tan in the dead of winter. And everyone is fussing about their hair. It's too long, too short, too curly, too straight, too dark, too light, too fine, too coarse. So, by the millions, we're having everything changed to something it isn't.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Plastic surgeons, the executives of some big cosmetic companies, and owners of spas and gyms are living opulently in mansions and on yachts, and it's all being paid for by our national craziness about what we look like.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Sometimes we tell ourselves that our concerns are for health reasons, but I suspect if we took an honest survey, the results would be heavily in favor of vanity over verve.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Now don't get me wrong, I'm in favor of people doing the best they can with whatever they've got, and I'm just as guilty as the next person about a lot of the things I've mentioned. I just have a growing concern about our national obsession with unrealistic objectives.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Marriages and relationships are being dissolved over a few pounds of extra weight. The emotional stability of an awful lot of children is being uprooted and replanted in the soil of commercialism. We're so hooked on "beauty," we're missing basics.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So what does all this have to do with grieving? Well, undue concern over the external is basic to the issue of grieving. If our society is uncomfortable&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/mynippon20.chtml" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; MYNIPPON Shop: Guide for Small chested women&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; with someone who is scarred, disfigured, overweight, flat-chested, bald, or otherwise "different," how much less do they want to encounter someone who is in deep emotional pain? &lt;p&gt;We have become conditioned to wanting to live in both an emotional and physical "Disneyland." But remember, nobody really lives at Disneyland. It's just a fun diversion, not a substantial reality.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We seem to have forgotten how to appreciate the values of self-sacrifice, patience, and personal integrity-the things that made this country great in the first place. Our national victories originally came out of immense suffering and sacrifice, dedication to ideals, determination against unbelievable odds, a willingness to persevere no matter how long it took-not to mention the qualities of faith and hope. Betsy Ross didn't need to look like Jessica Simpson and Nathan Hale didn`t have to be Rob Lowe! There were no television or movie screens to make fantasy dilute reality.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If we weren't so afraid of confronting reality without its makeup, maybe we could produce a culture much less afraid of supporting and comforting people who are hurting. Maybe, if we could stop peddling quite so fast on the exercise bike, we'd have a chance to discover who we really are and what really matters to us.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;My own realities have taught me to catch myself short whenever I'm tempted to avoid someone or something that is un-beautiful at first glance. It's become almost a challenge to make myself take a closer look at both people and situations. It's not really such a noble thing to do, and I've been rewarded beyond my wildest imagination in the treasures I've discovered. People are truly amazing, and they can have so much of value to share if we will just stop, really look, and really listen. If you haven't done so already, give yourself a gift. Watch for souls instead of bodies. Mine a nugget or two of joy and love by daring to dig below the surface. Remember, Tammy Faye might be really beautiful underneath all that "stuff."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And you're beautiful, too. Enhance the beauty in you that really matters, because it's the beauty that was seen by the person, now absent, who unconditionally loved you and who may see you now from a very different vantage point.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Good Grief Resources (&lt;a href="http://www.goodgriefresources.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.goodgriefresources.com&lt;/a&gt;) was conceived and founded by Andrea Gambill whose 17-year-old daughter died in 1976. Almost thirty years of experience in leading grief support gropus, writing, editing, and founding a national grief-support magazine has provided valuable insights into the unique needs of the bereaved and their caregivers and wide access to many excellent resources. The primary goal of Good Grief Resources is to connect the bereaved and their caregivers with as many bereavement support resources as possible in one, efficient and easy-to-use website directory.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;p&gt;In a media interview, always stick to your main points without rambling or digressing. Practice this when you rehearse.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Sometimes, when you are doing a great job of keeping on topic, the reporter is leading to you talk about different topics, some of which you aren't as knowledgeable about. If the reporter leads you into different areas, go there only if it suits your needs and you are comfortable there.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/powerpath.chtml" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; Interview Techniques: How to get the job you want&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; One advanced technique you can use in a tough interview is "bridging." Bridging is simply steering the interview back to your topic. Going down any side roads a reporter pursues is usually a bad idea - even if the detour is innocuous, it takes you off your main points. You may find, when the article is published or the interview airs, that the only comments of yours that reach the general public are those about a topic that you don't know much about. This isn't going to help your marketing efforts at all. &lt;p&gt;Don't be afraid to bridge. If the reporter asks, "Well, how do they feel about that in Argentina?" and you have nothing to say about Argentina, diplomatically acknowledge that the question is valid. For example, say "That's a good question. I don't focus on Argentina in my practice, but I can tell you what my clients are saying." Then move back to your topic - gently but firmly.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.mediaimpact.biz/nedsteelebio.htm" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;Ned Steele&lt;/a&gt; works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of &lt;i&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/159196444X/" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt; To learn more visit &lt;a href="http://www.mediaimpact.biz" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.MediaImpact.biz&lt;/a&gt; or call 212-243-8383.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://enthusiasticasstar.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-crap-can-dramatically-boost-your.html"&gt; How *Crap* Can Dramatically Boost Your Profits!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sensitiveeditor.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-to-make-your-online-testimonials.html"&gt; How To Make Your Online Testimonials More Believable&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://relaxedoceanic.blogspot.com/2005/10/marketing-tips-free-first-kill.html"&gt; Marketing Tips: Free First&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://ambitiouscherry.blogspot.com/2005/10/achieving-your-goals-by-using-one-word.html"&gt; "Achieving Your Goals by Using One Word"&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://livingfrominspector.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-to-have-more-energy-today-ten-tips.html"&gt; How To Have More Energy Today&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://creativenorway.blogspot.com/2005/10/dealing-with-your-pets-allergies.html"&gt; Dealing With your Pets' Allergies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://straightforwardsteamfitter.blogspot.com/2005/10/kid-birthday-cake-idea-collection-cake.html"&gt; Kid Birthday Cake Idea Collection - Cake Decorating Without Fear&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/daytradeus.chtml"&gt;Stock Trading : DayTradeUSA.com Intra-Day Trading Tactics, Level 2 Candlestick Charting Technical Analysis&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/kocas.chtml"&gt;Search Engines Tutorial : Reciprocal Link Exchange SEO Management Software - Increase Targeted Traffic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/fsitwo.chtml"&gt;Foreign Language Bookshop : Fsi Spanish Level 1, 2, 3, And 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/ctmanual.chtml"&gt;Learning Microsoft Office : The Complete Computer Training Manuals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://scienster.com/plexchange.chtml"&gt;Search Engines Optimization : Auto-Blog Builder&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;a href="http://diamy.com/2005/08/20/jewelry-cartoon-series/" target="_blank"&gt;Jewelry: Cartoon Series&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://iampsychic.blogspot.com/2005/10/mediums-require-payment.html" target="_blank"&gt;In person, you can pay with cash, or credit card psychic...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://whatsyourtires.blogspot.com/2005/10/cause-vibration.html" target="_blank"&gt;None, they grow in service tire...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://joyofmarriage.blogspot.com/2005/10/which-grows.html" target="_blank"&gt;In the regulation of descent, inheritance, successi marriage...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://itstopspeed.blogspot.com/2005/10/fastest-animal.html" target="_blank"&gt;There are four signifiers - a cheetah, a runner lamborghini...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://gotimetravel.blogspot.com/2005/10/wrong-about.html" target="_blank"&gt;Another day passed. The Time Traveller came to time travel...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-113045747964313362?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/113045747964313362/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=113045747964313362' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/113045747964313362'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/113045747964313362'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/look-of-grief-publicity-nailing-media.html' title='The Look of Grief. Publicity: Nailing a Media Interview, Part III (Staying on Topic).'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-113019764390001546</id><published>2005-10-24T16:47:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-24T16:47:23.980-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Hey, I Have A Prospect! What Should I Do Now?. The Power of Present Day Professional Wood Bats.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZGV4cGVydC5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Download free music MP3, download unlimited software, DVD movies files and video games, p2p file sharing." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/m/ma/macduncan/326734_5256.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Download free music MP3, download unlimited software, DVD movies files and video games, p2p file sha...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you are in multi level marketing system, you have to get many prospects until they join to your business. You must follow up your prospect. But, not every person can make a good communication with their prospect. They follow up their prospect but they don't make a good communication. The problem is ; they let them go away or join with somebody else who can make them trust. It's a big problem! A good communication is a key to reach success in any business, especially in multi level marketing business.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Previously there were three ways to following up with people over the Internet.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;First, you could try and do it yourself manually. The problem is a VERY inefficient use of your time. Imagine, if you have 2 prospect with different place and time, you must manage your time. Maybe two prospect is not a problem. How about if you have 5 prospect a day. Don't fall through the crack! However, if you enjoy pounding your head against the wall from frustration and never getting any sleep, then this is *perfect* for you.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Second, you could use one of the online autoresponder follow-up services such as Aweber. This provided you with one autoresponder and a limited number of follow-up messages. This was nice because you just referred people to the autoresponder (usually a free report) and it did all of the follow-up for you. The problem came when you wanted to add more follow-up messages or wanted additional follow-up series for different promotions. That could mean a lot of extra money you had to spend and very little flexibility, weak database management and the ability to merge in your follow-ups only the prospects name!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Third, you could purchase&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuYmVzdGFmcy5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Automatic responder....Get an UNLIMITED amount today!" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/m/ma/macduncan/326734_5256.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Automatic responder....Get an UNLIMITED amount today!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; a contact database software that allowed you to create an unlimited number of follow-up sequences and an unlimited number of follow-up messages. This was great because you could create new follow-up sequences for the different promotions you were running, different training series for your downline, etc... The possibilities were endless and it never cost anything extra once you had the software. The only problem was you had to manually enter each person into the software and you had to open up the program, log onto the Internet and then have the program send out your messages. &lt;p&gt;Above, I have told you how to follow up your prospect. Follow up means you keep closely with your prospect. Make them trust to you! It's not easy. But you can practice to your prospect. If you could make a good communication while following up your prospects, they will come to join with you. I want to share some tips about that. Here there are:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� Think of everyone you are contacting as a personal friend of yours. You want to communicate with them as a manner. As a friend! Be conventional, be excited, be sincere.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� Know about the emotional button of your prospect and make sure you use those in your communications. Find out what your prospect wants and show them how they can get it!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� Have a brainstorming session with your teammates. Ask what made them sign up for the business. Think about what made YOU sign up. Your answer will give you a better idea of which are the top benefits you'll want to emphasize when you talk to a prospect.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� Give them the Testimonials. People don't like theories. They like real life examples with real life people involved. Almost no one can pass up reading a good story.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� Establish why your offer is such a great value. Your prospect must know that they are receiving a great value if you expect them to join with you. In other words, show them that what they are getting out of products and services, as well as support and training, is worth much more than what they are having to pay for it.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Always keep on your mind that your prospect is a person just like you. Treat them as you would like to be treated and you will have no problem communicating effectively!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Deny Hariyanto is a member of Elite Team Indonesia. Elite Team was found by Anne Ahira. She is offering 30 Days of FREE Training for people who are serious about wanting to build a better financial future for themselves. If you are interested in getting Anne's FREE Training simply visit &lt;a href="http://www.freedomforfinance.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.freedomforfinance.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUucHVjazIxMjEuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Pitching Workouts, Increase Fastball Velocity, Pitching Guide" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/r/rc/rcaliban/385835_1397.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Pitching Workouts, Increase Fastball Velocity, Pitching Guide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;The old time professional wood bats were the size of a red wood tree. They weighed as much as five men could handle and could knock down a brick wall with one whack. Mighty men like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb wielded these manly bats with a skill and precision that no modern day baseball pro could ever dream to have.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Then again, Ruth and Cobb didn't have hurlers that registered triple-digit with their fast balls. They didn't face the advanced and near magical pitching technique of the Braves bullpen or the Yankees superstars. Today's batters need to fight fire with fire, and so the technology behind today's professional bats has to match the velocity and movement of today's professional pitchers.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Superstar hitters like Derek Jeter and Scott Rolen rely on the best professional wood bats out there to give them a shot. Compared to the mythic sluggers of baseball golden days, today's batters rely on lighter weight bats that also have thinner handles.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;True modern science comes into the way that many of today's bats are cup balance.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaW50cmFtYWxsLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; "PromotionStation! Get all the traffic and marketing skills you need and as much income as you...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; This involves removing as much as three-quarters of an ounce of wood out of the end of the barrel to make the bat lighter. A lighter bat means a faster swing, and a faster swing means a farther drive. Experts estimate that as many as 30 percent of today's players use a cup balanced bat. &lt;p&gt;Today's professional wood bats mostly come from wood from the white ash tree. Some players, though, have been experimenting with wood from maple trees. No matter the tree or the amount of wood they scoop out, though, today's batters still have to be able to have the hand speed, dexterity, know-how, and vision to make that contact. Bats can only help you out so much, even if they are as big as a red wood.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Mike Long is the successful web publisher of Baseball-SuperGuide.com providing valuable tips, advice, and info about a multitude of relevant topics including &lt;a href="http://www.baseball-superguide.com/baseball-bats.html" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;baseball bats&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://perfectionistdating.blogspot.com/2005/09/free-search-engine-advertising-10.html"&gt; Free Search Engine Advertising: 10 Secret Ways To Indirectly Race To The Top Of Search Engines&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://drivenheisenberg.blogspot.com/2005/09/after-fifteen-years-or-more-of.html"&gt; After Fifteen Years Or More Of Frustration With Internet Marketing, I Think I've Found It!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://diligentthemis.blogspot.com/2005/09/four-little-known-baseballsoftball.html"&gt; Four Little-Known Baseball/Softball Training Secrets, PART 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://thoroughinstaller.blogspot.com/2005/09/case-of-duplicate-freaky-email.html"&gt; The Case Of The Duplicate Freaky Email Marketing Message&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sincerepainting.blogspot.com/2005/09/80000-americans-work-in-oil-change.html"&gt; 80,000 Americans Work in the Oil Change Industry&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://epicuriansteel.blogspot.com/2005/09/surviving-storms-of-life-six-causes-of.html"&gt; Surviving the Storms of Life&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://flexiblethetis.blogspot.com/2005/09/how-to-have-sizzler-of-honeymoon.html"&gt; How to Have a Sizzler of a Honeymoon. Article No.2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;a href="http://bookslack.com/2005/09/13/search-engines-how-to-send-your-child/"&gt; Search Engines: How To Send Your Child To College For Free Or Close To It...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bookslack.com/2004/12/14/never-attempted-instructions-to-make/"&gt; Never Attempted: Instructions To Make Roman Shades - How To Make Roman Shades - Directions Making Ro...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bookslack.com/2004/08/56/order-button-with-my-passive-income-you/"&gt; Order Button: With My Passive Income You'll Get Paid $20 Instantly...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bookslack.com/2005/06/36/sports-handicapping-picks-basketball/"&gt; Sports Handicapping Picks: Basketball Handicapper - Nba Picks, College Basketball Picks...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bookslack.com/2005/10/35/proved-definitively-it-s-not-just-for/"&gt; Proved Definitively: It's Not Just For Sex...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-113019764390001546?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/113019764390001546/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=113019764390001546' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/113019764390001546'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/113019764390001546'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/hey-i-have-prospect-what-should-i-do.html' title='Hey, I Have A Prospect! What Should I Do Now?. The Power of Present Day Professional Wood Bats.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-113000422901712393</id><published>2005-10-22T11:03:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-22T11:03:49.053-07:00</updated><title type='text'>The Secret Of Discovering Your Own Profitable Passion. Quit Talking and Listen! Give Clients and Prospects Your Undivided Attention.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div class="mytitle"&gt;The Secret &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubXdlYmIuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="500 Lovemaking Tips &amp;amp;amp; Secrets: Increase passion and intimacy through great sex" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/b/be/beezus/359503_8679.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; 500 Lovemaking Tips &amp;amp; Secrets: Increase passion and intimacy through great sex&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Of Discovering Your Own Profitable Passion&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Many people have stated that they would like to create an on line business but they don't have any idea where to start. I have seen people make the mistake of throwing up a website and creating a product without looking the basics first and then wondering why they haven't been able to get any traffic or customers.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I have noticed that people can be surprised when I tell them, that the first and most important step to take is to look inwards. This is also the first step in communication mastery. For you must first know yourself and know what it is you want to do before you can communicate that to others and and take the necessary steps to achieving your goals.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Some questions that you can ask yourself are:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt;What do I like to do,&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;What are my areas of interests&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Where to my skills lie&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;How do I like to accomplish things&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;What is my passion&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;What would my ideal life look like&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li style="list-style: none"&gt;And more importantly...&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;What area would I enjoy spending many hours working on and learning more of?&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt; This is important because if you hate what you are doing then you are not going to get very far. Once you are clear on your passion, you can then start to do some market research to find out is there is a market for your area. There are many resources and places that you can do this. &lt;p&gt;One of them is Overture.com. When you type in a word it will show you how many people have search for that word or description. If 5000 or more people did a search on that name or phrase, then your odds of doing well are looking up. However, if only a few people type it in, then you probably won't do well in that area. That said, further investigation is required. First, try typing in different combination of words and different variations on a word. If you are not sure what to use, a thesaurus can help you. If you don't have one handy, there are several on line versions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Next would be to look at other resources. There are several sites and software programs that can help you in your endeavours.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;GoodKeyWords.com&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Wordspot.com&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;WordTraffic&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;NicheMarketResearch.com&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;These can help you to define your area an help you focus on the most probalble area for success.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There are other things to consider to help you decide on the feasibility of your area.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;They are:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;What is the competition like.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Who are the competition&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;What are their websites&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;How successful are they&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Is the market swamped in this area&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Is there an aspect of this area that no one has looked at&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Are there books on the subject and how many&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Is my area narrowly defined into a specific niche&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;Once that is complete, you can start looking at your benefits. Make sure that you are listing benefits and not features. It is the benefits that convince people. For example if you were selling books for people with poor eye sight. Large print is a feature, ease of reading is a benefit.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;With that in mind, ask your self:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;How will this improve their lives&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;How does it help their business&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;How will this affect them&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Will it save them money&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;How will it help them or their family get ahead&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;How does it help the environment&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Does it improve their health&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Can it save them time.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;Once you have completed this you are well on your way to creating a solid foundation on which to build. To find out how to discover who your target market is read; &lt;b&gt;The Secret Of Focused Responsive List&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;P.S.&lt;/b&gt; If you are looking for a place to develop your own online business, you'll love, &lt;b&gt;"Master List Builder University."&lt;/b&gt; At this University, you gain access to premium features such as the step-by-step system that's guaranteed to generate more leads, traffic, customers and sales for you business.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Be a part of this history by going to &lt;a href="http://www.masterlistbuilderu.com" style="color: black;" targget="_new"&gt;Master List Builder University&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;All the Best!&lt;br/&gt; Maria Boomhower&lt;br/&gt; The Master Communicator&lt;br/&gt; To sign up for a free report on "The 7 Secrets to Communication Mastery" go to: &lt;a href="http://www.falconfreedom.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.falconfreedom.com&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.mariaboomhower.blogspot.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;Master Communicator Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuc2VvcHJvZml0cy5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Ebay Search Profits Toolkit - Auction ebooks and Your Auctions Upper Hand A Research Report for Bo...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;I have found that the best sales people are the best listeners, not the ones that talk your ear off. Listening is a skill that much more than just hearing the words coming out of their mouth. Here are some tips that you can use to see how well you actually listen.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Maintain eye contact&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This is more than just starring at them to appear to be interested. It also helps you concentrate on what they have to say.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ask relevant questions&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Don't assume that you understand where they are coming from. Be sure to ask a follow up question and rephrase or restate what they have said. This not only keeps you in the conversation but it also lets them know you truly understand what they said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Avoid distractions&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You want to control the setting as much as possible. If the sun is in your eyes, move your seat. If you are outside take off your sunglasses. If you are in a room make sure it is as quite as possible and don't forget to turn off your cell phone. If you are expecting a more important call let them know before hand. It will go a long way on keeping you looking professional. The more comfortable the both of you are the easier it will be to communicate.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Take notes&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Unless you have a photographic memory, carry a pad and pen with you wherever you go. Make sure don't spend the entire conversation looking down at your notes. It's important to write and look them in the eye at the same time it will give them a sense of importance and help break down the barriers between you. Create a short hand if you need to.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Multitasking is a No, No&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the back of your mind you may think you are saving time but you are making them feel neglected and their confidence in you will be shot. Taking the time to stop what you are doing will pay bigger dividends in the long run to pay attention in the short run.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Are you really listening to them?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Resist the urge to talk about yourself. This is your opportunity to stand out from everyone else and learn what it is that your clients/prospects really want. Take the opportunity to learn about their family, hobbies, favorite sports teams etc. This bonding time will make a big difference if it is between you and someone else.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A final tip is to ask someone close to you to rate your listening skills. Listen carefully to what they say - you might be surprised at what you hear!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Mical Johson is the publisher of &lt;a href="http://www.MyHomebasedBusiness101.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.MyHomebasedBusiness101.com&lt;/a&gt; which provides Case Studies, Resources, Tools, Software, Articles And Everything Else You Need To Start And Run A Successful Home Based Business. &lt;b&gt;Home-Based Business Success Toolkit&lt;/b&gt; The newsletter all home-based businesses need to optimize their success. The Toolkit includes free interviews, success tips, and more... To see all the free bounuses you get visit our web site. Join today and get started on the right track!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://energeticastronomy.blogspot.com/2005/09/home-day-care-facility-seeking-new-job.html"&gt; Home Day Care Facility&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://patientbasins.blogspot.com/2005/10/influencing-adolescents-guided.html"&gt; Influencing Adolescents - Guided Democracy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://honestmohagany.blogspot.com/2005/10/diabetes-how-to-find-fast-online-loan.html"&gt; Diabetes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://stubbornsweden.blogspot.com/2005/10/online-shopping-saves-you-time-and.html"&gt; Online Shopping Saves You Time and Money&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://dependablevenus.blogspot.com/2005/10/5-ways-to-improve-your-website.html"&gt; 5 Ways To Improve Your Website Immediately&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://friendlyaboutcrab.blogspot.com/2005/10/what-is-feng-shui-and-how-does-it-work.html"&gt; What is Feng Shui, and How Does It Work?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://enjoyablehalley.blogspot.com/2005/10/dare-to-dream-vacation-of-lifetime-in.html"&gt; Dare to Dream: The Vacation of a Lifetime In A Timeshare&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-113000422901712393?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/113000422901712393/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=113000422901712393' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/113000422901712393'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/113000422901712393'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/secret-of-discovering-your-own.html' title='The Secret Of Discovering Your Own Profitable Passion. Quit Talking and Listen! Give Clients and Prospects Your Undivided Attention.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112996031634537293</id><published>2005-10-21T22:51:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-21T22:51:56.366-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Ten Quick Tips for Inexperienced Writers. When Change Comes (Dealing With Grief and Loss).</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;p&gt;One of the biggest problems that inexperienced writers have is simply knowing how to get started. If you've unsure of your writing skills, then here are some quick tips to help you get started.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1. Get yourself a thesaurus-or better yet, two of them. These can be tremendously helpful tools when you're struggling to find the right word.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUud3Bvd2VyaWlpLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Wordpower 3 - The Sales Writers Thesaurus" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/d/da/danzo08/306317_3351.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Wordpower 3 - The Sales Writers Thesaurus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; A thesaurus is no substitute for a solid vocabulary, but it is still helpful in a pinch. &lt;p&gt;2. Avoid using the same word too frequently. This can make one's work sound repetitive. Again, a good thesaurus can be helpful in this regard.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;3. Keep your sentences fairly short, since longer sentences can sound unwieldy. I've found that 17 words or fewer is a good guideline. Do remember that this is just a guideline, though.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;4. Even as you keep the sentences short, make sure that they flow together well. Sometimes, unskilled writers will simply chop longer sentences up into shorter segments that don't blend together smoothly. If in doubt, try rephrasing the sentences or adding the proper connective phrases (e.g. "then," "so," "as a result").&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;5. Get a copy of "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. It's a short book, but incredibly helpful. There is no better reference for aspiring writers.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;6. Don't rely too much on your word processor's grammar checking features. They can be quite impressive, but their capabilities are still quite limited. Spelling checkers are also limited in their capabilities, since they cannot recognize a lot of proper names and technical terms. In addition, spell checkers cannot detect situations wherein the user has entered the wrong word in place of the proper one.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZXRkMjAwMi5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Proofreading and Editing service&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; 7. Proofread, proofread and proofread... over and over. When you're done, have a friend proofread your work as well. &lt;p&gt;8. Remember your target audience. Ask yourself, "What information will my audience require in order to understand what I'm saying?"&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;9. Avoid clever wordplay unless you're sure that it will work. In most cases, it is best to gain more writing experience before trying something witty.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;10. Remember the artists adage, "Practice, practice, practice"? If you want to become good at writing, then write, write and write!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About the Author:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuc2V2Ym9va3MuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="'Selling for Engineers' - how to sell technical services and products. Sales training books, manuals, seminars, courses for engineering, technical, scientific and manufacturing companies.&amp;amp;amp;lt;font size=&amp;amp;quot;" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/t/tb/tburgey/377254_7056.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; 'Selling for Engineers' - how to sell technical services and products. Sales training books, manuals...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; V. Berba Velasco Jr., Ph.D. is a senior electrical and software engineer at Cellular Technology Ltd (&lt;a href="http://www.immunospot.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.immunospot.com&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.elispot-analyzers.de" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.elispot-analyzers.de&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.elispot.cn" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.elispot.cn&lt;/a&gt;) where he also has various technical writing duties. &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaGVhbHBsaXZlcy5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt=" Past Forward: Past Life Healing, Higher Self Counseling" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/1/s/p/pl/plagiato/217099_9118.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Past Forward: Past Life Healing, Higher Self Counseling&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Needless to say, the time after loss is volatile and confusing for most people. Unresolved issues come to the fore and questions we have not answered must often be confronted. Along with a sense of abandonment and sorrow, anger often arises. Most have little understanding of what they are going through, or what to expect in the future. Facing the unknown can produce additional fear.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Yet crisis means opportunity. When the process of grief is handled properly suffering can be diminished and symptoms that may appear later, can be forestalled. It is even possible for the individual to grow a great deal during this time and benefit from the experience.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The more we understand what we are going through, the less out of control we will feel. At a time like this we need context, meaning and direction. We need to know what to expect and how to handle the many changes that are happening.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Dynamics of Loss and Grief&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Each person reacts differently to loss and that is fine. Some feel abandoned, others feel betrayed and afraid. Some reach out for love and comfort, while others withdraw, wanting time alone. Some go into denial and seem not to register the loss that has happened. These individuals are often unconsciously processing what has happened, not ready to face reality yet. They may fear they will be overwhelmed if they allow themselves to register what has gone on at this time.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It is best not to pressure a person to react differently. When the individual is accepted for who they are at the moment, it is easier for them to let go, and move on. This entire process takes time. It helps greatly to realize that the pain we go through during grief is normal. It does not mean there is something wrong with us. We need not feel ashamed of or afraid of our feelings.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;What Happens When We Are Grieving&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When we are grieving, interest in the outside world subsides, we slow down, sleep more, our social activities seem less meaningful. This is not necessarily bad. An individual may need more time alone. In this process the grieving individual is contemplating the nature of their lives and relationships, and coming to terms with the person they've lost. They may be reviewing that which was left unsaid or undone.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Grief is usually most difficult when the individual has had troubled or incomplete relationship. When there have been unsolved conflicts left behind, this makes it harder to be at peace. Many spend time blaming themselves for what they did or didn't do. Others blame doctors, helpers or family members. Casting blame is a way of removing the guilt and sorrow we feel. The sooner they are able to let go of blame and accusations, the sooner they start on the road of healing.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Let Go Of Blame&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Blame, self hate and other forms of anger, are common during grief. Although it is important not to repress anger and disappointment, it is best to feel it and then let it go. Some individuals hold onto anger as a way of keeping connected to the person or situation they have lost. The truth is that anger always keeps us out of balance. It is a poison to the one who holds onto it.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Coming To Terms - Steps You Can Take&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ultimately one must reconcile oneself to what happened. Most people do all they can to avoid experiencing their feelings or situation directly. Many fear that if they face their suffering, it will make them feel small and helpless. Actually, the opposite is true. In order to deal with grief wisely, it's best not to control or resist the feelings. When different emotions arise be gentle with yourself and patient. When these feelings are not resisted, they simply come to awareness and then fade away.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Feelings that are repressed come out later in different ways, including various physical symptoms, phobias and unwanted behaviors. If we do not address our feelings in one mode, they will appear in another - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Through acceptance of reality, of oneself and the other, one develops the power the affirm life, and to grow. One can then give to others, and become a source of inspiration, and live a life that is meaningful. The discovery and experience of value and meaning in one's life and one's losses is the most potent healing of all.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hopefully, we come to a point where forgiveness can take place, (forgiveness of the person we've lost, forgiveness of ourselves, the universe, or whatever it is we feel anger with). In order to do this, it is deeply helpful to realize that all of life is temporary. People possessions, situations are given to us for a short time. As we acknowledge the transitory nature of life, we can then begin to look deeper and see what it is that we never lose.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Below are a couple of exercises that are helpful in coming to terms with the relationship you have lost, and with the meaning of loss itself.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Exercise - Giving Gifts&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Make a list of the gifts you received from the person, the ways they taught and inspired you. Now find ways to give those gifts to others. As you do so, not only will you be acknowledging what you received from that person, but honoring their memory and keeping their spirit alive.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Exercise - It Suffices&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Whenever you think of the person and the way they fell short, what they didn't give you, say to yourself, "It Suffices." This is in recognition that they gave all they could, being who they were, and that you can feel satisfied with what you received. (This is an ancient Buddhist practice)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Prayer, Silence And Meditation&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Of course the deepest sense of healing, peace and security can come from our connection to God, A Higher Power or our Higher Selves, (different people call it by different names). During the process of grieving it is very helpful to be able to connect with that which is ultimately meaningful to you. Either through prayer, silence, contemplation or meditation, know that you are looked after and protected and that there is a larger purpose in all that happens, though you may not be totally aware of it. Our true security, in all kinds of circumstances, comes from this kind of understanding.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Exercise&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;- Turn to a feeling you are having and enter a dialogue with it. Ask, "What are you saying to me?" Listen for an answer. Ask, "What can I learn from this difficult situation? How can I grow strong?" Become silent and listen. As you do this more and more, insight and inspiration will come your way.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;- Think of three times in your life when you felt particularly sad or upset. Notice how you handled it. Did you express the feeling? Did you take action on it? Did you pretend it wasn't there? What happened to you physically? Take a moment to write all this down. Look at the connections between your feelings, actions and reactions. Become aware.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As you become more aware of the journey grief takes you on, you will grow, emotionally and spiritually. You will realize that after loss, something new is always born. Life never stops offering opportunities. Knowing this you will become a source of strength and inspiration to others at this time as well.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cc/author/2005&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Discover crucial steps that will turn a time of loss into one of strength and hope. Dr Brenda Shoshanna, psychologist, speaker, relationship expert has offered over 500 workshops on all aspects of relationships and personal development, including dealing with illness, change and loss.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZXNoaW5lLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Mental Health Support. Treatment For Depression, Anxiety and Stress with Zen." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/g/gi/girinath/376333_5165.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Mental Health Support. Treatment For Depression, Anxiety and Stress with Zen.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; She is the author of many books including The Anger Diet, (30 days to Stress Free Living), McMeel, &lt;a href="http://www.theangerdiet.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.theangerdiet.com&lt;/a&gt;, and Journey Through Illness and Beyond, &lt;a href="http://www.journeythroughillness.com/" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.journeythroughillness.com/&lt;/a&gt; Zen Miracles (Finding Peace In An Insane World), Wiley. You can contact her at: mailto:topspeaker@yahoo.com. or &lt;a href="http://www.brendashoshanna.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.brendashoshanna.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://hardworkingset.blogspot.com/2005/09/creativity-entrepreneurship-creative.html"&gt; Creativity &amp;amp; Entrepreneurship: The Creative Evolution of an Intellectual Property©&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://carefulbacon.blogspot.com/2005/10/body-calling-maintaining-excellent.html"&gt; Body Calling: Maintaining Excellent Health&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://nicemercury.blogspot.com/2005/10/weblogs-podcasting-and-rss-newsfeeds.html"&gt; Weblogs, Podcasting, and RSS Newsfeeds in the Marketing Mix&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://focusednewton.blogspot.com/2005/10/looking-for-new-hair-styles-or.html"&gt; Looking for New Hair Styles or a Completely Different Look?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://relaxedaustralia.blogspot.com/2005/10/bad-credit-student-loans-disjointed.html"&gt; Bad, Credit, Student, Loans - Disjointed They Don't Make Sense - Join Them and See the Possibilities&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://optimisticwetlands.blogspot.com/2005/10/three-category-approach-to-performance.html"&gt; The Three-category Approach to Performance Management: Effort, Ability, or Environment&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://controlingponderosa.blogspot.com/2005/10/7-key-features-any-good-article.html"&gt; 7 Key Features Any Good Article Submission Directory Should Have&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/06/32/result-of-domestic-war-1812-g/"&gt;Result of Domestic war 1812 g...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://helpfulcinematographer.blogspot.com/"&gt;Helpful Cinematographer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://productivenopolar.blogspot.com/"&gt;Productive No Polar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112996031634537293?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112996031634537293/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112996031634537293' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112996031634537293'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112996031634537293'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/ten-quick-tips-for-inexperienced.html' title='Ten Quick Tips for Inexperienced Writers. When Change Comes (Dealing With Grief and Loss).'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112986149647921740</id><published>2005-10-20T19:24:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-20T19:24:56.586-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Throwing Away the Throw-Away Culture. Aptitude Tests Reveal the Difference Between Your Aptitude &amp; Ability.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuYmlnY2xpZW50cy5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Weathy customers, affluent clients, marketing to the affluent, financial marketing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;From the middle of last century until today we have become the "throw away society". Buzz words like "disposable" and "one-use" have been commonplace. Where we used to "make do and mend" in the war years we now simply replace items that are no longer functioning or are no longer wanted. Now this is great if we have an everlasting supply of clean energy to make replacement goods and bottomless land fill sites. But we have neither.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In poorer countries this problem is negligible as most spending goes on food and essential items, leaving very little to be thrown away. More affluent societies, however, are at last beginning to wake up to the fact that the throw away lifestyle is not sustainable.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;How did we get here? Several factors have conspired to bring about our disposable disposition. The main one is affluence. As western societies became richer, the demand for goods rose. Also, our salaries rose. Manufacturing needed to be faster at pumping out goods. Product design and work practices needed to be changed to accommodate increased volumes and in an affluent society it is hard to recruit and maintain the staff needed to keep these places going. As a result, the factories were located in poorer states at increasing distances from the end user. Electrical and mechanical goods were made with ever fewer serviceable parts to the point where some goods these days are totally sealed and repair is just not possible.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In days gone by a factory would produce finish goods and do a good side business in supplying parts to customers or repair shops. In affluent countries those days are gone taking with them the watch repairer, the radio (and tv) repair man, the cobbler etc etc. Even replacing the battery in an electric wrist watch is often virtually impossible.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Many authorities around the world are now trying to put the brakes on this trend and even trying to reverse it. They are asking for products to be designed to allow repair and parts replacement. In some areas - take Europe for&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZWJvb2tuZC5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Stop Herpes Now Naturally And Keep Herpes From Coming Back For Good. No More Outbreaks, Ever!" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/z/za/zacden/391209_4113.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Stop Herpes Now Naturally And Keep Herpes From Coming Back For Good. No More Outbreaks, Ever!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; example - they are introducing legislation that will force companies to take back (or at least take responsibility for) goods at the end of their life. &lt;p&gt;I am firmly of the opinion that, as this sentiment takes hold - and surely it will, we will be slowly warped back to the old days of repair shops and an increasing trade in spare parts. I am also convinced that this mini revolution is nearly upon us.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So have a walk down your local high street or shopping centre because it may look a little different in coming years with cobblers, watch menders and tv repair shops making a come back.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Of course, there have been some companies that bucked the throw away trend. Insect-o-Cutor have always provided spare parts for their fly killer machines. An Insectocutor fly killer can often go many years without needing any special servicing (they are guaranteed for 5 years in any case). If, however, they do need a spare part, then these are readily available from Arkay Hygiene at www.eeeee.co.uk. This availability is partly explains why it is common to see Insect-o-Cutor products working after 20 or even 30 years.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaW50ZXJ2aWV3LmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Killer Job Interview Answers! - 87 answer scripts and 100s of techniques to GET YOU HIRED." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/a/al/alexiares/379956_7378.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Killer Job Interview Answers! - 87 answer scripts and 100s of techniques to GET YOU HIRED.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; In fact some Insect-o-Cutor fly killers from the 1960's are still around and doing and excellent job. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.eeeee.co.uk/store/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=24" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;Replacement parts&lt;/a&gt; for Insectocutor fly killers - such as the &lt;a href="http://www.eeeee.co.uk/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=74" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;lamp cover for the F1 Fly Killer Model&lt;/a&gt; - can be purchased at &lt;a href="http://www.eeeee.co.uk" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.eeeee.co.uk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div class="mytitle"&gt;Aptitude Tests Reveal &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZnV0dXJlYm9vay5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Career tests to define your career path from Futureproofyourcareer including career quiz's" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/z/ze/zela/285174_4787.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Career tests to define your career path from Futureproofyourcareer including career quiz's&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; the Difference Between Your Aptitude &amp;amp; Ability&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Aptitude tests measure your skills, abilities, values, interests and personality in order to help you determine which careers you might be best suited for and eliminate those that you are not.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;center&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aptitude tests are some of the most important tools to anyone considering a career change.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/center&gt; &lt;p&gt;Job satisfaction for individuals depends on several different factors. An increasing number of people now do not cite money as the most important factor in picking a career. Other factors of importance are if they like their workplace, if they enjoy the work they do, and if their work receives acknowledgment and acclaim&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Types of Aptitude Tests&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Free Tests&lt;/b&gt; &lt;b&gt;Employers and the Career Aptitude Test&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;More and more employers are also beginning to utilize aptitude tests in order to screen applicants because they also realize that the best candidate for their opening is the person who not only has the required experience but also complementing interests and aptitudes.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Many major companies have realized the importance of assessing candidates.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuNHdlYmVib29rcy5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Police officer and Law Enforcement Job Testing Tips" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/a/al/alexiares/379956_7378.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Police officer and Law Enforcement Job Testing Tips&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Do not be surprised if you end up taking one of these tests during your job interview. The tests help the employers figure out if candidates will be able to fit into the work environment at their company and if their personality traits are in collusion with the company�½(tm)s values and work code. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aptitude and Ability&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So, what is the difference between aptitude and ability? They sound alike, but are vastly different...&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;An individual may have acquired the necessary experience in order to have an ability to complete a task, but not an aptitude for it. Aptitude refers to possessing more of a natural talent for a task, even if that talent is not yet fully developed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Why Take an Aptitude Test?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Aptitude tests are beneficial for a number of reasons...&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Benefit #1&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Aptitude tests can actually highlight areas of potential talent, in some cases, aptitudes the individual was not even aware of.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Benefit #2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The results of the tests will not only help you set up a career plan, but also help you in your job search. You will be able to build a better resume and ace your interviews if you can clearly identify your skills, strengths and weaknesses.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Benefit #3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubGFuZWxpc2EuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Pharmaceutical Sales Interviews - Pharmaceutical sales positions are by far the most sought after jobs for people seeking a career in sales" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/z/ze/zela/285174_4787.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Pharmaceutical Sales Interviews - Pharmaceutical sales positions are by far the most sought after jo...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; They are also fantastic for assisting individuals who are considering making a career change but due to current responsibilities want to insure they are moving in the right direction before taking a risk. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Benefit #4&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A career aptitude test can also assist persons who are considering either starting college or adults who are returning to college. Tuition is far too costly to play trial and error with. It's much better to go into the classroom armed with the knowledge that you possess both the interest and the aptitude to succeed in your chosen career field.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Life is far too precious to spend it in a career you thought would be a perfect fit...&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;... for you only to discover that there are aspects of it that make you miserable. Aptitude tests can help you eliminate the jobs you would be least suited for and discover those careers that are a perfect match for both your interests and your aptitudes.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Identifying and understanding your particular career strengths can also assist you in fine tuning the resumes you utilize in your job search. This is important because research has shown that individuals who work in careers that complement their both their interests, abilities and work values are much more likely to be successful and satisfied.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article courtesy of &lt;a href="http://www.top-career-resumes.com/" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;Top Career Resumes&lt;/a&gt;, where you can get the answers you need about writing winning resumes, cover letters and more. The author, Roger Clark (BSc) has over 25 years experience in career development &amp;amp; recruitment at a senior level through top management positions he has held with major international companies.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.top-career-resumes.com/site-map.html" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;Career Articles&lt;/a&gt; - Advice on resumes, career planning, goal / objective setting &amp;amp; aptitude testing.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://outgoinghaydn.blogspot.com/2005/10/basic-tarot-for-beginners-how-to.html"&gt; Basic Tarot for Beginners&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sharingsea.blogspot.com/2005/10/stocks-oil-and-bonds-publicity-tips-on.html"&gt; Stocks, Oil, and Bonds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://intelligentgymnastics.blogspot.com/2005/10/functional-foods-what-they-are-and-how.html"&gt; Functional Foods: What They Are And How They Work&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://knowledgeablefromreasons.blogspot.com/2005/10/are-you-dissing-public-relations-how.html"&gt; Are You Dissing Public Relations&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sensitiveelm.blogspot.com/2005/10/cleaning-out-your-closet-eye-exams.html"&gt; Cleaning Out Your Closet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://straightforwardholly.blogspot.com/2005/10/top-10-ways-to-start-business-for-less.html"&gt; Top 10 Ways to Start a Business For Less Than $500&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://knowledgeableshadowknight.blogspot.com/2005/10/cliff-kuhn-mds-fun-commandments-unlock.html"&gt; Cliff Kuhn M.D.'s Fun Commandments Unlock Humor's Amazingly Powerful Natural Medicine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/07/17/sulfurs-ii-in-30-g-up-to-n/"&gt;Sulfurs II in-30 g up to n...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://matureforjoiner.blogspot.com/"&gt;Mature For Joiner&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://imaginativeaboutcanada.blogspot.com/"&gt;Imaginative About Canada&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112986149647921740?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112986149647921740/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112986149647921740' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112986149647921740'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112986149647921740'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/throwing-away-throw-away-culture.html' title='Throwing Away the Throw-Away Culture. Aptitude Tests Reveal the Difference Between Your Aptitude &amp; Ability.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112981848774886863</id><published>2005-10-20T07:28:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-20T07:28:07.773-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Unique Ideas for Girlfriend Get Togethers. Making PC to Phone VoIP Calls over Dial-Up Internet Connections.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubW50bmhpZ2guaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Catch Your Cheating Spouse -- How To Find Out If Your Husband, Wife, Girlfriend, or Boyfriend are cheating on you or lying." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/e/eg/eggo/379422_3708.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Catch Your Cheating Spouse -- How To Find Out If Your Husband, Wife, Girlfriend, or Boyfriend are ch...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Women create friendship opportunities. We suggest get togethers, shopping excursions, road trips, and coffee dates. We remember birthdays and anniversaries and make sure to stay connected. We call each other on the phone for no reason and meet for coffee, lunch, gossip and/or tears.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Being a woman and a mother is not about sacrifice its about investing in others as well as yourself. Striking the perfect balance between these two involves a little or a lot of fun. And who better to share fun times with than our girlfriends...let's face it ladies, girlfriends need girlfriends. The below suggestions are designed to provide ideas to create unique memories for you and your best gal pals. In planning how to celebrate, put your heads together, and don't forget your camera!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Plan a girls' night out:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Does this really need an explanation? In a nutshell, girls' night out is a tradition reinvented by generation upon generation of ladies looking to let their hair down, escape from their ordinary lives and get together for drinks and appetizers to gossip about everything: relationships, fashion tips, boyfriends/husbands, or even the unfortunate couple at the table next to them. This excursion can also be girls night in, i.e. staying at one girlfriend's house sipping wine, watching movies, snacking on junkfood. What more could a group of girlfriends need?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Start a monthly club:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;No this is not an opportunity to discuss your period! Having a monthly club is the result of organizing a dedicated group of women to meet monthly for girl talk and gossip. Whether is be high school friends, college friends, mothers in the hood, meet with them once a month at someone's home, at a bar or restaurant for silly, rejuvenating fun!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Go on a weekend getaway:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So it may take some advance planning and babysitting arrangements. It will be worth it Mama! Does someone own a summer home that you know? Can you find an affordable hotel? Pack some food, drinks, even games and get started on your roadtrip escape. Or be spontaneous... destination unknown. Pick up your best friend and head north, south, east, west. Who cares...getting their will be more than half the fun!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Be newbies:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Try something new to you and your friends. A camping and kayaking trip, a guided hike, a cooking class, wine tasting, even sushi. Sharing a new experience with close friends is just one more way of breaking out of you comfort zone and building incredible memories. You may even pick up a new hobby in the process.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Pick a reason to celebrate:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Is someone coming to town, did a relationship just end, does one of the girls need a pick-me-up? Are you dying to try out the new karaoke joint and show off your new leather boots or did you just find out it's Brad Pitt's birthday (December 18)? Celebrate it! Be cute and send Girls Night Out Invitations or call around last minute and see who's up for a night out. Since we were little girls we loved to play dress up so make the night extra special and tell the girls to wear their funkiest or their flirtiest.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About The Author&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Sandra is mother of 3 and co-founder of &lt;a href="http://www.million-dollar-mama.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.million-dollar-mama.com&lt;/a&gt; a website devoted to helping mothers rediscover their favorite hobbies like travel, fitness and girls night out.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:sandy@million-dollar-mama.com" style="color: black;"&gt;sandy@million-dollar-mama.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuc3B5d2FyZXJlbS5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Spyware and Adware Remover, FREE Scan!" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/s/sl/slonecker/388661_5841.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Spyware and Adware Remover, FREE Scan!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;There's a lot of hype these days surrounding Internet-based voice communications (VoIP) replacing traditional telephone service. Most of this revolves around companies such as Vonage who coin themselves as the &amp;amp;Broadband Phone Company'. So what about those of us who don't have a broadband connection? Just because you don't have high speed Internet, doesn't mean that you can't save a fortune by using VoIP for your long-distance calls. Whilst a broadband connection will usually result&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuc2FuZGVyc29uLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Boost your Internet Connection Speed- PC Modem Tweaks" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/m/mm/mmagallan/390536_9650.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Boost your Internet Connection Speed- PC Modem Tweaks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; in more consistent VoIP call quality, comparable results can be achieved using a dial-up connection provided some simple guidelines are followed. &lt;p&gt;&lt;big&gt;&lt;b&gt;Shop Around&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/big&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Not all VoIP service providers support dial-up users. Companies such as Vonage bill themselves as alternatives to traditional telephone service and shy away from the dial-up community (who are tied to those &amp;amp;traditional' networks to access the Internet). Furthermore, some service providers only support dial-up above a certain speed (e.g., 56Kbp). Two companies whose VoIP softphone applications work well over low speed connections include Callserve and Go2Call.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;big&gt;&lt;b&gt;&amp;amp;Free-up' your System Resources&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/big&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In order to ensure the highest call quality, close programs that are running in the &amp;amp;background'. For Windows users, these applications can be seen in the taskbar at the bottom right of your screen. &amp;amp;Right-click' the icons and close those programs that aren't critical to system security (e.g., don't close anti-virus software, firewall applications and the like).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you're using Windows XP with user switching enabled, log off all users except the one that will be used to make the call. This will prevent the other user identities from running software and/or using your bandwidth while you're making calls.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;big&gt;&lt;b&gt;&amp;amp;Free Up' your Internet Connection&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/big&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Given the limited data capacity of dial-up connections, it's important that you devote as much of your bandwidth as possible to the VoIP softphone application. To achieve maximum call quality, don't do anything that uses your bandwidth whilst making calls.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuYmJsYXN0ZXIuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="! Broadcast Blaster - IP Sender, IP Advertising, IP Messenger, ip multicast, Broadcast, Windows Messaging Net Send, Includes country ip address, bulk email Instant Message Software, Increase Website Traffic&amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;gt;" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/r/ri/ringworld/370946_3604.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; ! Broadcast Blaster - IP Sender, IP Advertising, IP Messenger, ip multicast, Broadcast, Windows Mes...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; This includes instant messaging, checking email, using a webcam, browsing the internet, downloading, etc. In Windows, you can look at the two little computers in the bottom right of your taskbar to see whether your connection is being used prior to calling (the little computers illuminate when data is being uploaded and/or downloaded). &lt;p&gt;&lt;big&gt;&lt;b&gt;Scan your System for Viruses, Spyware, Adware and Malware&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/big&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Some of these malicious programs can hijack your browser, tie up your internet connection and slow down your system (not to mention seriously invade your privacy!). I recommend AdAware for free scanning and removal of Spyware/Adware. Once you've checked and cleansed your system of these nasty programs, your virus definition files should be updated to minimize the chances of re-infection.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;big&gt;&lt;b&gt;Use a Headset with an Integrated Boom Microphone&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/big&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Last but not least, using a headset with a boom microphone should eliminate those annoying voice echoes often associated with PC to Phone calls. Echoes are caused by your microphone detecting the voice coming from your computer speakers and re-transmitting that voice signal back to the person you're talking to. By using a headset, the voice signals are limited in volume (due to the headset being directly adjacent to your ears) and thus the chances of your microphone &amp;amp;re-transmitting' those voice signals is greatly reduced.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;So there you have it. A Lack of high speed Internet needn't mean a lack of PC to Phone VoIP capability.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Nathan Smith&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Nathan is the owner of &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.netphonedirectory.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;netphonedirectory.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; which deals specifically with PC to Phone and PC to PC VoIP. The site includes a comprehensive directory of PC to Phone service providers as well as information on VoIP and what you need to make inexpensive long-distance telephone calls using your computer&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://finebeuchat.blogspot.com/2005/09/christmas-victory-menopause-and.html"&gt; The Christmas Victory&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://crazydemolition.blogspot.com/2005/10/little-hoochie-mammas-sales-carpenter.html"&gt; Little Hoochie Mammas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://enthusiasticproduction.blogspot.com/2005/10/preventing-cancer-with-green-tea-open.html"&gt; Preventing Cancer with Green Tea?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://productivethailand.blogspot.com/2005/10/afraid-to-leave-house-find-house.html"&gt; Afraid to Leave the House? Find a House Sitter!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://lovingmoney.blogspot.com/2005/10/chapter-one-fsbo-russ-miles.html"&gt; Chapter One FSBO the Russ Miles thriller/mystery novel&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://determinedtheroofer.blogspot.com/2005/10/screening-trucks-and-containers-coming.html"&gt; Screening Trucks and Containers Coming Into Our Country&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://capablegreen.blogspot.com/2005/10/am-i-really-stroller-monger-what-to.html"&gt; Am I Really A Stroller-Monger?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/08/18/after-a-victory-over-france-in-war-1870/"&gt; After a victory over France in war 1870-1871gg...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://joyfulansun.blogspot.com/"&gt;Joyful An Sun&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://determinedfrance.blogspot.com/"&gt;Determined France&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112981848774886863?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112981848774886863/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112981848774886863' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112981848774886863'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112981848774886863'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/unique-ideas-for-girlfriend-get.html' title='Unique Ideas for Girlfriend Get Togethers. Making PC to Phone VoIP Calls over Dial-Up Internet Connections.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112975386385774528</id><published>2005-10-19T13:31:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-19T13:31:03.893-07:00</updated><title type='text'>The Road to Better Results. Protein: Common or Missing Link?.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZG9vcndheWp0LmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Search Engine Optimization Wizard and meta tag creator" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/s/sl/slonecker/388846_9106.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Search Engine Optimization Wizard and meta tag creator&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;A lot has changed in the way sites are optimized for search engines since last year. For one thing, Google is not the only search engine worth looking into anymore; Yahoo has definitely managed to take away some of Google's oomph over the past twelve months. Another important change is that the intelligence of the search engine spiders and algorithms has increased dramatically. So without further ado, I will present you with a standard search engine optimizing process.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Keyword Research&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Nothing can be done until you know what your target phrases are. Keyword research must be done to find out what people are actually typing into the search engines. For example, do they type in "medical insurance" or "health insurance" more often? Is it worth targeting the keyword "dental insurance"? What do your competitors think its clients type?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Keyword research usually begins by asking the client what they think are good keywords and by looking at your competitor's Meta tags and text. You then have to brainstorm to find new and related keywords that were not previously thought of. The use of Wordtracker, Overture, and Google AdWords' estimates is indispensable. If you use the "KEI" offered at Wordtracker, don't fall into the trap of giving it too much worth. It is a good tool to help discover keywords that have not been exploited by the competition, but the really important number is the amount of traffic each keyword generates. Finally, create a chart to determine the relationship between keywords used. For example, there is no point promoting dental insurance if your site does not offer it.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Texts&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The next step is to write the text. Hire a specialized writer to put the text together. Ideally someone who has been trained in Internet writing, Internet marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO), or get advice from professional SEOs, marketing experts, and usability experts. Work with the client to get a feel for what is needed for the site. Then use all these skill to put together the delicate balance needed between selling to people, selling to search engines, and making the text interesting/useful to read.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Domain Selection&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Once the text is written, come up with a catchy domain name for the site. Try to include part of the keyword in the domain, and to think ahead so that the domain can be expanded into the title. Our site &lt;a href="http://www.gloriousbahamas.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;www.gloriousbahamas.com&lt;/a&gt; is a good example of a domain with a keyword in it that is catchy and clearly stated. The keyword for that site is "Bahamas real estate", so having part of the keyword in the domain will help in the long run.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Title and Meta Tags&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;From the domain name, you can then create a title with the full main keyword in it (such as Glorious Bahamas Real Estate). The title is the most important text on the site. The Meta tags include the description tag, and the keyword tag. The description is what the searchers will see in many search engine results, so it must have the keywords in it and, more importantly, it must sell the site. Write a description that is objective, not subjective. Zeal has some good advice for titles and especially description writing at &lt;a href="http://zeal.com/guidelines/style/site_titledesc/" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://zeal.com/guidelines/style/site_titledesc/&lt;/a&gt;. The keyword tag is done just in case some engines still use it (though very few still do), so don't pull your hair out over it. Just list 10-15 keyphrases and try not to repeat any single word more than three times.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;New Content&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Now we come to the meat of today's search engine optimization. So far, we have not discussed anything new or original. It is the same strategies that have been used since I first got into the business of SEO in 1998. Today, with smarter engines, a site needs to be something that is cared about. A site has to grow, develop, and expand as if it were someone's baby. Gone are the days when you could build a site, get good listings, and then forget about it as it brought in the traffic and the dough. Take care of your site by adding useful content to it on a regular basis, and then the site will gradually grow from a few pages to dozens of pages. Not only will this make the site seem more alive - radiating with the healthy glow of a developing child - but it has the added benefit of increasing the amount of content the site contains, and thus increasing the amount of keywords found within it. For example with &lt;a href="http://www.canada-health-insurance.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;www.canada-health-insurance.com&lt;/a&gt; we add pages with more details about dental coverage or pages with details about government coverage for each province. Every month there are new pages, so that every time the spider comes back to visit, it spends more time at the site reading new content. This is one half of the key to getting good listings in the search engine results pages (SERP).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Link Campaigns&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The second half of the key is getting good sites to link to your site. Going after web sites with related content, sites with good authority in your web site's field, and sites that are "popular" are the priority. Getting only reciprocal links is not the goal, getting the aforementioned sites to link to you because you have good, valuable content is the goal. Sites that do reciprocal linking usually have hundreds of links on their link pages and these will add very little value to your site. Don't waste your time with reciprocal linking. Only link to a site if doing so will increase the value of your site in the eyes of your clients.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A link campaign is a lot of work, and it involves a lot of frustration and rejection. You have to approach bigger sites and sell the value that linking to your site will bring them. For every 20 sites you approach, you will be lucky to get one to link to you. You have to be persistent, consistent, and determined.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Conclusions&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Optimizing a site is no longer something you can do and then forget about. For a site to succeed in the search engines today, it has to constantly be changing and growing either in content or in links, and ideally in both. It has to appear that the site is the life and soul of its creator, and that somebody cares enough about it to pay attention to it. Because after all, if the creator doesn't care, why should the search engines?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About The Author&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. (&lt;a href="http://www.redcarpetweb.com/" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.redcarpetweb.com/&lt;/a&gt;). He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field. Contact: &lt;a href="mailto:shawn@redcarpetweb.com" style="color: black;"&gt;shawn@redcarpetweb.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:shawn@redcarpetweb.com" style="color: black;"&gt;shawn@redcarpetweb.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuY2FzaHBsdXMuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Trivia Promotions" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/e/eu/eurok/280362_9878.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Trivia Promotions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Most of us equate the word diet with calorie reduction. This is understandable, since most diet marketing is relentlessly focused on offering consumers low-calorie options.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, this way of thinking is categorically wrong. The simple fact that any nutritionist will verify is that everyone is on a diet. Even those who do not wish, or do not need, to lose weight are on a diet, as are those who are increasing their weight. Dieting has nothing to do with calorie reduction, and everything to do with calories choices. The foods you &amp;amp;choose' to eat determine the type of diet you are on.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Indeed, to the digestive system and the intestines, a candy bar and a stalk of celery are neither seen as junk food nor diet food. They are both seen as simply food. The candy bar leads to a rapid glycemic reaction and the production of fat cells. The celery does not. Still, the body does not label one as junk and the other as diet food. In fact, everything that the body ingests, it tries to use in the best way that it can.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUua2lwcHB1YmNvLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="How To Lose All The Weight You Want, and Keep It Off with this Physician's No-starving, Drug-free Weight-Loss Diet System: No Prescription Needed." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/b/br/brainloc/367986_5402.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; How To Lose All The Weight You Want, and Keep It Off with this Physician's No-starving, Drug-free We...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; However, outside the neutral intelligent internal body systems, the term diet persists in our often rather misguided external world of advertising, marketing, and diet plans. As such, we can group diets into two categories: deliberate and accidental. &lt;p&gt;Deliberate diets are designed with specific requirements, such as those engineered to lose weight, to gain weight, and to maintain weight. Deliberate diets are typically what people refer to when they use the catchall term &amp;amp;diet'. This is in contrast to the other kind of diet that is called the &amp;amp;accidental diet'. Accidental diets have no requirements, and march to a simple chant: eat whatever, whenever, and the body will take care of itself.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;However, despite the fact that there are two terms for diets - deliberate and accidental - there is a denominator that unifies them both: protein. All diets, even those that are accidental, require protein.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Protein, and the amino acids that comprise protein, are essential for life itself. Every system within the body depends, directly or indirectly, on protein. In fact, because protein regulates hormones, some cases of depression or anxiety are actually instigated and perpetuated by either a lack of protein, or the body's inability to fortify its neurological system with this critical macronutrient.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Yet for those on a diet -- and that includes everyone -- the importance of protein is more pragmatic. Many deliberate diets such as the Atkins(tm) diet and the South Beach Diet(tm) restrict carbohydrates, while other restrict fats. That leaves protein. Protein is the common link between all nutritionally-sound diets. But is it also the missing link? Or, is protein readily accessible and readily present in the foods we eat?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Oddly, most American meals and snacks are protein deficient. Indeed, complete protein is absent from 6 of the top 10 foods eaten in the US, and absent from all 10 of the most popular snacks (see chart at end of article). This shortage of protein in the American diet refers both to the absolute amount of protein, which is recommended to be a minimum of 50 grams per day, and the kind of protein as well. The healthiest protein is a "complete protein", which includes all 19 amino acids. However, even people who are ingesting 50 grams of protein may not be eating complete protein. As such, these people are sometimes unwittingly suffering from some form of protein malnourishment, and experience symptoms that include drowsiness, digestive problems, emotional disorders, and other adverse physiological effects.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So to achieve a balanced diet -- regardless of the diet regimen - an appropriate level of complete protein must be present in each meal. This, of course, is easier said than done for most time-starved people. Regrettably, these people are more than time-starved; they are oftentimes macronutrient starved, as well.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Pennsylvania-based Protica Research has developed a protein beverage to meet the protein needs of busy consumers, dieters, diabetics, students and others. Profect�½ is an advanced beverage that supplies 25 grams of protein in less than 3 fluid ounces. It is packaged in an unbreakable test-tube-shaped vial and can be consumed in 2 or 3 seconds. Akin to a multivitamin, Profect can be taken immediately before a snack or a meal to fortify it with 50% of the US RDI of protein and the complete spectrum of water-soluble vitamins.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Profect can turn an otherwise "empty-calorie" snack into a complete meal. Its macronutrient and micronutrient profile fills the nutritional void found in most meals and snacks. It does this by combining with the carbohydrates and fats generally present in most foods and thereby completing the &amp;amp;nutritional trifecta' required by the body for nourishment.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Of course, this is just the first step. A truly healthy diet must also understand how to properly eat the other members of the macronutrient kingdom, including fats and carbohydrates. Actually, since so many diets revolve around the fluctuation of carbohydrates and fats, it is essential to understand how to properly consume these two sources of body fuel in order to achieve optimal health. Yet which fats and which carbohydrates reign supreme? Which ones add weight, and which ones actually help the body's metabolism function more effectively? The answers to these questions will be eye opening to most dieters, and they will form the dieting cornerstone for many consumers. You will find the answers in the second part of this two-part article entitled &amp;amp;The Macronutrient Balancing Act'. If you do not have a link to the next article, you can find &amp;amp;The Macronutrient Balancing Act' on Protica's web site at protica.com/publications&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Top 10 Most Popular Foods in the US Source: http://tigerx.com/trivia/foods.htm&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1) Fresh Produce &amp;amp; Processed Vegetables&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;2) Milk &amp;amp; Cream&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;3) Flour, Bread &amp;amp; Cereal Products&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;4) Meat, Poultry &amp;amp; Fish&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;5) Sugar &amp;amp; Other Sweeteners&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;6) Fruit&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;7) Potatoes&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;8) Oils &amp;amp; Fats&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;9) Eggs&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;10) Ice Cream &amp;amp; Frozen Yogurt&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Top 10 Most Popular Snacks in the US Source: http://tigerx.com/trivia/snacks.htm&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1) Chocolate Bars&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;2) Potato Chips &amp;amp; Pretzels&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;3) Cookies&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;4) Non-Chocolate Bars&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;5) Gum&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;6) Filled Crackers&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;7) Nuts&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;8) Mints&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;9) Granola Bars&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;10) Crackers&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;ABOUT PROTICA&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Founded in 2001, Protica, Inc. is a nutritional research firm with offices in Lafayette Hill and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Protica manufactures capsulized foods, including Profect, a compact, hypoallergenic, ready-to-drink protein beverage containing zero carbohydrates and zero fat. Information on Protica is available at http://www.protica.com&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You can also learn about Profect at http://www.profect.com&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Copyright - Protica Research - &lt;a href="http://www.protica.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.protica.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://patientanswers.blogspot.com/2005/09/keeping-your-own-money-not-handing-it.html"&gt; Keeping Your Own Money - NOT Handing It Over To The Taxman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://diligentleibniz.blogspot.com/2005/09/time-management-mastery-hp-psc-1210.html"&gt; Time Management Mastery&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sensitiveslovenia.blogspot.com/2005/10/wise-cash-flow-management-for.html"&gt; Wise Cash Flow Management for Solopreneurs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://dependablegreat.blogspot.com/2005/10/heads-i-win-tails-you-lose-harmonic.html"&gt; Heads I Win, Tails You Lose&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://thoughtfulanhiking.blogspot.com/2005/10/exercise-and-low-carb-diets-make-poor.html"&gt; Exercise and Low Carb Diet's Make Poor Partners&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://friendlysoft.blogspot.com/2005/10/important-car-seat-statistics-living.html"&gt; Important Car Seat Statistics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://happymechanic.blogspot.com/2005/10/home-travel-agent-will-i-be-able-to.html"&gt; Home Travel Agent: Will I Be Able To Live On My Home-based Travel Agent Salary?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/07/24/but-also-as-remarkable-portraitist/"&gt; But also as remarkable portraitist...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bossynofilmmaker.blogspot.com/"&gt;Bossy No Filmmaker&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://happywithsnow.blogspot.com/"&gt;Happy With Snow&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112975386385774528?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112975386385774528/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112975386385774528' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112975386385774528'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112975386385774528'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/road-to-better-results-protein-common.html' title='The Road to Better Results. Protein: Common or Missing Link?.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112971078566093751</id><published>2005-10-19T01:33:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-19T01:33:05.683-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Different Types of Eye Disorders. The Best PR Has to Offer Managers.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;p&gt;The&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuNDJwb3dlci5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="One-Eyed Jack's Power-Blackjack System! Revolutionary Blackjack Card Counting System. Casino Money Management Plus." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/s/se/sebaig/388003_6163.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; One-Eyed Jack's Power-Blackjack System! Revolutionary Blackjack Card Counting System. Casino Money M...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; need for prescription eyeglasses could come from many different eye conditions. The most common eye disorders are Farsightedness, Nearsightedness and Presbyopia. &lt;p&gt;Nearsightedness, otherwise known as Myopia, is the most common eye disorder. It occurs when light focuses in front of the retina rather than focusing on the retina. The symptoms for Myopia are blurred vision on objects that are in the distance. Squinting the eye will actually make the object clearer. Vision can be corrected with prescription eyeglasses with either a bifocal or trifocal lens.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Farsightedness, or Hyperopia, is just the opposite of Myopia. The light focuses behind the retina instead of in front of the retina. One common symptom of Hyperopia is headaches or the eyes will become tired from reading. It is difficult to see objects that are within close range. In children, the most common symptom is crossed eyes. Again this eye disorder, too, can be corrected by wearing prescription eyeglasses.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Presbyopia is another type of eye condition that can be corrected with prescription eyeglasses. This disorder is where the eye's lens cannot focus. This usually happens to everyone in his or her late forties. The symptoms for Presbyopia are that a person finds himself or herself holding reading material farther away to enable reading. Also, eye fatigue is a common symptom.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The importance of getting regular eye exams to check for these eye conditions can't be overstated. Left untreated, all of these conditions will only worsen.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In a routine eye exam the optometrist will also do a glaucoma test. Glaucoma is the build up of fluid on the eye that results in pressure on the retina. It is irreversible if left untreated, and can cause total loss of sight. This is one eye disorder that cannot be treated by wearing prescription eyeglasses. However, this condition rarely has symptoms, therefore stressing the importance of routine eye exams.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tim Gorman is a successful webmaster and publisher of&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuc2FmZXR5bmV0LmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Free Prescription Medicine at Medicine For Free - Home" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/d/da/dannystock/389913_2741.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Free Prescription Medicine at Medicine For Free - Home&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Vision-Doctor.com an online website that offers discounts on contact lenses, sunglasses, free information on LASIK eye surgery procedures and &lt;a href="http://www.vision-doctor.com/Discount-Eyeglasses.html" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;discount prescription eyeglasses&lt;/a&gt; that you can view in the privacy of your own home. &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaG90c3VydmV5LmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Your Opinion Matters - Get Paid To Work At Home by Premier Companies Offering Guaranteed Jobs Makeing Money To take Surveys Online" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/t/ts/tsk/300247_7100.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Your Opinion Matters - Get Paid To Work At Home by Premier Companies Offering Guaranteed Jobs Makein...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;How cool is this? You're a business, non-profit or association manager. You decide to get serious about your public relations and shift the spotlight away from communications tactics. You implement an action blueprint that (1), helps you persuade your key external stakeholders to your way of thinking. And then (2), helps move them to take actions that lead to your success as a department, division or subsidiary manager.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It comes into sharper focus when that public relations blueprint helps deliver target audience behaviors like new waves of prospects buzzing around, more qualified calls about strategic alliances, a jump up in repeat purchases, a boost in the number of engineering consultants specifying your products or services, and even increased membership applications and contributions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;What is that blueprint, anyway? Try this: People act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As I've said many times in the past about that fundamental premise of public relations, it shines the PR spotlight directly on those outside groups of people with a large say about how successful a manager is going to be - namely, it targets his or her most important external audiences.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But you need the PR folks assigned to your unit to buy into the program and shift their priorities from communications tactics to a workable, comprehensive plan like this one designed to deliver those key, outside audience behaviors.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Behaviors, by the way, that obviously help or hinder a manager in achieving his or her operating objectives.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The real work for you as the department, division or subsidiary manager starts by listing all your key external audiences in priority order so that you initially focus your resources on that number one audience.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Next step is answering the question, what do members of that audience think about your organization? Short of spending big money on professional survey counsel, you and your PR team can/should/must interact with those members by asking questions such as "What, if anything, do you think about us? Have you ever dealt with our people? Were you pleased with the experience? Have you heard other comments about our organization?"&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;At each step in this perception monitoring drill, you and your team must watch carefully for negatives like false assumptions, rumors, misconceptions and inaccurate statements. In other words, negativities that might turn into target audience behaviors that could really damage your operation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The monitoring data you collect is the stuff of your public relations goal. For example, stifle the rumor, straighten out the misconception, turn around the false assumption, or make that inaccuracy accurate.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;However, managers know that achieving any goal demands the right supporting strategy to show you how to reach it. Considering the workload, you'll be glad to know that opinion/ perception matters allow just three strategy choices: create perception where there isn't any, change existing perception, or reinforce it. But be alert to the need to select a strategy that directly complements your public relations goal.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The real burden of this PR problem solving sequence rests with the actual message you use to communicate your corrective facts to your target audience. This is where the public relations heavy lifting takes aim at altering individual perception among your target audience population.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;First and foremost, your message must be clear, persuasive and carefully factual if it is to nudge perception/opinion in your direction and lead directly to those behaviors you desire. And it will do so only if your message is both believable and compelling. Which suggests that it be vetted prior to release by a variety of individuals to insure that it measures up to these standards.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You're in luck because you will benefit from a long list of communications tactics to help carry your message to the eyes and ears of members of your target audience. The list includes tactics like speeches, special events, media interviews and newsletters as well as press releases, customer briefings, facility tours, emails and quite a few others. Only caution here is, research each tactic carefully to be certain it has a record of reaching people just like those who make up your target audience.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Fortunately, things can always be accelerated by adding more high- impact communications tactics, increasing their frequencies and fine-tuning your message.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Answering the opening question, using a public relations blueprint of this nature can be extremely "cool." Especially when you, as a unit manager for a business, non-profit or association, take these steps to help persuade your key outside stakeholders to your way of thinking, then help move them to take actions that lead to your managerial success.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In my view, that IS the best PR has to offer managers.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About The Author&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding &amp;amp; Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. &lt;a href="mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net&lt;/a&gt; Visit: &lt;a href="http://www.prcommentary.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.prcommentary.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://prettylocksmith.blogspot.com/2005/10/power-of-leader-within-keys-to-martial.html"&gt; The Power of the Leader Within - The Keys to Martial Arts Life Mastery, Key#1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://impatientsigns.blogspot.com/2005/10/relationship-advice-5-sure-fire-ways.html"&gt; Relationship Advice - 5 Sure Fire Ways to Mess Things Up&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://adventurouswhitehead.blogspot.com/2005/10/when-your-bills-are-piling-up-here-are.html"&gt; When Your Bills Are Piling Up Here Are 6 Different Ways to Consolidate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://prettyvocalist.blogspot.com/2005/10/keep-publicity-machine-rolling-with.html"&gt; Keep The Publicity Machine Rolling with Reprints&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://outspokenheisenberg.blogspot.com/2005/10/origami-secrets-revealed-spiders-big.html"&gt; Origami Secrets Revealed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://givingfields.blogspot.com/2005/10/do-i-really-need-to-follow-recipe.html"&gt; Do I Really Need to Follow a Recipe?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://outspokensorcerer.blogspot.com/2005/10/sleep-strategies-how-to-get-good.html"&gt; Sleep Strategies: How To Get A Good Nights Sleep And Be More Productive&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://independentgarlic.blogspot.com/2005/10/gambling-establishments-negatively.html"&gt; Gambling Establishments Negatively Affect More Then Just The Compulsive Gambler&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://confidentrunning.blogspot.com/2005/10/freshman-15-or-20-or-25-how-to-make.html"&gt; The Freshman 15, or 20, or 25&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/07/31/psychology-ikonopisi/"&gt;Psychology ikonopisi...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112971078566093751?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112971078566093751/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112971078566093751' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112971078566093751'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112971078566093751'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/different-types-of-eye-disorders-best.html' title='Different Types of Eye Disorders. The Best PR Has to Offer Managers.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112967165193844970</id><published>2005-10-18T14:40:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-18T14:40:51.960-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Buy Now And Really Pay Later!. Tuning the Music Therapist.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuMTIyODY2LmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Money4OnlineSurveys.com - Get Paid to Shop, Eat and Take Surveys!" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/g/gr/groovbird/367197_4058.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Money4OnlineSurveys.com - Get Paid to Shop, Eat and Take Surveys!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;With UK personal debt breaking through the �½1 Trillion mark last year, it's safe to say a large number of the UK population is in debt. This comes in the form of outstanding car finance, bank overdrafts, credit card bills and many other factors. More and more people are turning to loans to group all their debt and reduce the amount being paid out every month. But with the UK loans market booming and new brokers popping up every day, it's hard to tell which will help or which will simply be a hindrance.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Gone are the days when you waited patiently and saved vigorously for that new car, wedding, holiday until you could buy it outright. The immoral phrase "buy now, pay later" is a motto for millions. Yet while in some instances this can help, the majority leave you dealing with debt. Many can handle it, but many cant. And the loan brokers have cottoned on!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Grouping all your debt together with one loan, reducing your monthly payouts seems like a great idea. Attractive plans such as "pay nothing for five months" and "a free DVD player with every application" softens the blow further. But whilst the benefits are clearly and loudly stated, the problems that could arise are not.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You can be penalized for paying back early. Once you've referred your debt to a loan, in most instances, you have to pay back the set amount per month agreed, for the entirety of your loan durations. A few brokers allow early payment, but these are few and far between.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You risk losing your home. If you've secured your loan on your house and do not pay it back, there's a strong chance you could lose your house. Even if you've not secured the loan on your house, the courts have the power to get the money back somehow and that can often mean your humble abode.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;These are some things you should always check when taking a loan out.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUucGFpZDRzaG9wLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Get Paid For Shopping" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/g/gr/groovbird/367197_4058.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Get Paid For Shopping&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Remember it pays to shop around and it most certainly pays to do some checks on the broker you are doing business with. Are they well known? Are they established? Where did you find them? Follow these guidelines and you'll be a step closer to finding a good debt-grouping loan. But the bottom line is, when it comes to taking out a loan, research, research, and research! &lt;p&gt;Frazer Lavender is co-founder of UK-dedicated loans information portal &lt;a href="http://DesperateLoans.co.uk" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://DesperateLoans.co.uk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;p&gt;Music so strongly evokes emotional responses that it is being more frequently employed in the context of psychotherapy as a powerful healing modality.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaGVhbG11c2ljLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt=" Healing Music Enterprises from Dr. Alice H. Cash - Using the Power of Music for Healing" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/d/da/dartvader/389072_1777.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Healing Music Enterprises from Dr. Alice H. Cash - Using the Power of Music for Healing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; As a novice in this field I inquired at a recent conference on music therapy as to how this tool effects healing in clients with emotional disorders. &lt;p&gt;Conceptually, it is my understanding that the music therapist often employs musical improvisation to communicate with the unconscious aspects of the patient's psyche. The therapist may set out to convey an empathic or supportive intention with the use of a musical language that communicates at an emotional rather than verbal level. The intention of the therapist may be completely informed by what she/he "thinks" the patient needs for his/her healing i.e. a unidirectional healing intention. Alternately, it may be more dynamically informed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the latter case, the therapist's intention is informed dynamically through her/his empathic attunement to the patient's emotional state as the musical dialogue unfolds. In such a case the emotional quality of the music may evolve as the therapist and patient interact through the musical medium.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ideally in a genuine healing situation it is expected that the therapist will evoke in the patient an emotional state that brings with it greater internal harmony associated with such feelings as relaxation, peace, joyfulness, contentment, and a sense of light heartedness. This feeling of harmony, from an energy psychology paradigm, is associated with an ordered and sustaining bio-field of energy that supports both structure and function of the body at all levels.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Metaphorically, the therapist could be seen to be helping the patient "tune" him/her self to an optimal bio-energetic field of frequencies that then spontaneously effect healing. To say that the therapist is directly doing the healing would be difficult to justify as the therapist couldn't possibly know how to direct the multitude of biochemical reactions necessary for healing to occur. She/he however may be facilitating the re-establishment of a healing bio-energetic field within and around the patient that itself orchestrates the biochemical re-organization.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If we extend the use of this metaphor, the therapist could be considered as a tuning device, similar to that required to tune a musical instrument. Hence we can speak of the therapist as the tuner for the patient's bio-energy field.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It becomes obvious then that if a tuning device is itself out of tune the musical instrument to be tuned will be out of key, no matter how well the musician's technique.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the same way, if the music therapist who is helping to facilitate a realignment of the patient's bio-energy field is "out of tune" this will not only limit the healing process but could also potentially be harmful for the patient. It becomes imperative then that the music therapist, apart from being a skilled musician, also undergoes an internal bio-energetic realignment or retuning.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;What will the therapist use as a tuning device however? In order to answer this question we must reflect on what it means to be in tune. As we alluded to earlier, when the patient is in harmony he/she feels relaxed, peaceful, joyful, contented, and lighthearted. We also notice that in such a state, stress is reduced and physical and emotional resilience is enhanced. This is clearly a state in which healing is optimally supported and might therefore be accepted as a state of optimal tuning of the bio-energetic field.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, music alone cannot effect such an optimal state of tuning. If it could we wouldn't need the presence of the music therapist in the therapeutic situation. Hence, in the same way the music therapist cannot rely on music alone for the realignment of their own bio-energetic field. We are therefore left with a slight conundrum. In order to address this it becomes necessary to ask: where does the internal source of harmony that is represented by the feeling state mentioned above, originate within an individual.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We note that his feeling state of harmony can be rapidly evoked when one actively appreciates something they like about themselves. Through the action of self appreciation one can spontaneously begin to feel joyful, relaxed, peaceful, contented and lighthearted, among other feelings. These feelings are also felt most intensely over the region of the person's heart.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Since it is the person themselves that is actively doing the appreciating the feelings of appreciation are clearly emerging from that person's Self. As the feelings of appreciation are most intensely felt over the heart region, then it follows that that person's experience of themselves originates in the heart region. Ironically, most individuals however tend to "think" of themselves as originating in the mind or brain. In other words they think they are somewhere where they are not. Their heart, i.e. their Self, is left forgotten and abandoned.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The mind and the beliefs that flow through it become the organizing bio-energy field that then tries to sustain the body in its daily functioning. However, because the mind is not the Self it does not have the necessary information to adequately sustain the physical/emotional body. This is obvious because none of us is capable of consciously knowing how to orchestrate the multitude of biochemical processes in our bodies. In most cases we are not even aware of what they are.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As a result the individual does not feel in a state of harmony i.e. they feel stressed. It is only when the heart is re-instated as the center of that individual that harmony is re-established.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The re-instatement of the heart as the center of a person however is not easily accomplished. The reason for this is that there are many beliefs in the mind/brain that lead the individual to fear or mistrust the heart's motives or capability in supporting the individual. Ironically such beliefs then keep the person in a state of disharmony.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The extent to which a music therapist, or any therapist for that matter, is ruled by such beliefs renders her/him unable to effect a true state of internal harmony and optimal tuning in the patient. Such beliefs are often deeply conditioned in the therapist, held at an unconscious level and effectively convey a disharmony in the music that they produce in the therapeutic situation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;By clearing these conditioned beliefs it is possible for the therapist to tune themselves to their own inner harmony thereby allowing them to improvise a form of "pure musical harmony" in the therapeutic setting that helps the patient optimally tune into their own internal harmony. The permanent clearing of such conditioning from one's bio-energetic field has recently become possible through a new tool called the Mind Resonance Process(tm) developed within the last several years.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Nick Arrizza M.D. is an Energy Psychiatrist and Researcher who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the developer of the Mind Resonance Process(tm) (MRP), Author of "Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation" (Found at &lt;a href="http://www.telecoaching4u.com/ebook.htm" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.telecoaching4u.com/ebook.htm&lt;/a&gt;), and a Speaker. He has trained therapists and the public in the use of MRP. He holds international teleconferences on emotional, physical and spiritual healing.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://adventurousquarter.blogspot.com/2005/09/psychology-of-weight-loss-getting-to.html"&gt; The Psychology of Weight Loss - Getting to the Roots of the Matter!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://genuinedowns.blogspot.com/2005/09/why-do-pretty-girls-cry-arent-small.html"&gt; Why Do Pretty Girls CRY?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://stubbornbrowser.blogspot.com/2005/09/worship-leader-is-spiritual-leader-ms.html"&gt; A Worship Leader is a Spiritual Leader&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://seriousalloys.blogspot.com/2005/09/tired-of-tweezing-better-way-to-more.html"&gt; Tired Of Tweezing? A Better Way To A More Beautiful You&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://anxiousselenium.blogspot.com/2005/10/1-mistake-most-blogs-do-search-engine.html"&gt; #1 Mistake Most Blogs Do&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://epicurianbeach.blogspot.com/2005/10/most-parents-are-not-idiots-or.html"&gt; Most Parents Are Not Idiots or Negligent - So Why Do We Need Compulsory-Attendance Laws?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://honesticeland.blogspot.com/2005/10/never-ending-quest-for-home-business.html"&gt; The Never-Ending Quest for Home Business Success&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://thoughtfulfire.blogspot.com/2005/10/you-cannot-hide-from-public-record.html"&gt; You Cannot Hide From the Public Record Search Engines&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://drivenatechnician.blogspot.com/2005/10/prison-wives-forgotten-women-in-our.html"&gt; Prison Wives: The Forgotten Women In Our Society&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/08/03/serov-by-then-was-still-young-enough/"&gt; Serov by then was still young enough artist...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112967165193844970?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112967165193844970/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112967165193844970' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112967165193844970'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112967165193844970'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/buy-now-and-really-pay-later-tuning.html' title='Buy Now And Really Pay Later!. Tuning the Music Therapist.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112962499192100716</id><published>2005-10-18T01:43:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-18T01:43:11.940-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Computer Training and Overcoming Computer Anxiety. 7 Reasons Why Using CSS is a Must.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuY3RtYW51YWwuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Computer training manual, computer training courseware, &amp;amp;amp; computer lesson plans." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/l/la/lazydog/381310_8669.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Computer training manual, computer training courseware, &amp;amp; computer lesson plans.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;I once heard someone say that a human's first meeting with a computer often resembles early, awkward sex. You're not sure what to do with your hands and you don't know how to ask for what you want. That comparison may seem a little extreme, but any new interaction brings with it a certain amount of anxiety, fear, and possibly even hostility. Getting to know a computer, no matter how "user-friendly" it or its software may be, is no different from any other new encounter.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Create a relaxed learning atmosphere. A quiet environment with no traffic, comfortable chairs, and no direct light shining on the computer screen creates a feeling of safety and security. In any learning task, the inherent internal pressure to perform remains, but it can be alleviated somewhat by environmental comfort. When the computer seems more approachable or less threatening, the learner can absorb far more material in a shorter period of time.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Provide a verbal and written outline of your purpose and method. A road map makes a journey more comfortable. Letting trainees know what they are going to do, how they are going to do it, and what your goals for their learning may take time, but it sets the stage and better prepares the learners. Any perceived secrets or surprises start to dissipate when this preparation is provided.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Copyright &lt;a href="http://www.aeschwartz.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;AE Schwartz &amp;amp; Associates&lt;/a&gt; All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: &lt;a href="http://www.ReadySetPresent.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;ReadySetPresent&lt;/a&gt; and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: &lt;a href="http://www.TrainingConsortium.com/" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;TrainingConsortium&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;CEO, A.E. Schwartz &amp;amp; Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;p&gt;CSS is a new option for website designers that have been using HTML and tables for most of their web designing careers. Of course, it is a huge change and requires learning a new language and skill, however most people are saying CSS is worth it and it will give you more control, options, and is easier to edit. Consider the following  7 reasons why using CSS is a must and see if it convinces you to change your method of web design.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Reason #1 Present Data Logically&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When you use CSS in the layout of your website you can present your data in a logical way and CSS can then manage how the information appears. This is significantly easier than other methods and is one reason why CSS is a must.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Reason #2 More Options&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;With CSS you have more options for changing the location of information on your screen. This is important for a variety of reasons, especially if you anticipate the need to change columns or links at some time.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Reason #3 Complements HTML&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Another reason CSS is a must is because it complements HTML. HTML and CSS alone both have weaknesses, but when used together your website design will be significantly stronger.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Reason #4 Editing&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You can edit your website design if you need to for whatever reason without that much hassle if you are using CSS. All you do is go in and edit the definition. This is a lot easer than searching and replacing of years past.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Reason #5 Faster&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When you use CSS your pages not only load faster but they also can be scrolled quicker than ever before. This is a huge deal to most web surfers as well as webmasters because speed is a huge implication in whether someone stays on your page or moves on. CSS increases speed, and as a result is a tool you must learn how to use.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Reason #6 Print&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When you use CSS you&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaG9tZWJvdW5kLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Coloring Books to Print: Download, Print and Bind Little Story Books" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/m/mr/mrsmas/361109_2337.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; can also include a printer friendly version of the website that makes it easier to print and can eliminate color, images, and other things that do not print easily. &lt;p&gt;Reason #7 Control&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you have been working with tables for layouts you are probably tired of the guessing that goes on. However, with CSS you have more control and can issues commands and know exactly where the result will appear, rather than guessing. This is in itself makes CSS a must have.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Now that you have some information on CSS, you are probably interested in knowing more details about how it works and above all how you can learn to use CSS. Fortunately, there is tons of information available online that will provide you with the answers to your many questions on CSS and how it can help you.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Michael Turner shows you exactly how to &lt;a href="http://www.powertraffictactics.com/" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;increase web site traffic&lt;/a&gt; in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it today at &lt;a href="http://www.powertraffictactics.com/" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.powertraffictactics.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://overwhelmingseemercury.blogspot.com/2005/10/stop-putting-life-off-until-you-lose.html"&gt; Stop Putting Life Off Until You Lose Some Weight&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://truthfuldating.blogspot.com/2005/10/understanding-sleep-for-healthier.html"&gt; Understanding Sleep for Healthier Living and Getting the Job Done&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://impatienttechnician.blogspot.com/2005/10/holding-successful-garage-sale.html"&gt; Holding a Successful Garage Sale&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://generousseesite.blogspot.com/2005/10/keyword-articles-use-magical-keywords.html"&gt; Keyword Articles: Use Magical Keywords in Your Articles and Get Lots of Traffic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://relaxedmanganese.blogspot.com/2005/10/top-10-business-plan-myths-of-solo.html"&gt; Top 10 Business Plan Myths of Solo Entrepreneurs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://verbalpicasso.blogspot.com/2005/10/emergency-telephone-numbers-will.html"&gt; Emergency Telephone Numbers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://energeticsherwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/diabetes-and-depression-can-hypnosis.html"&gt; Diabetes and Depression: Can Hypnosis Help?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://perseveringfordirectories.blogspot.com/2005/10/affiliate-programs-why-they-work-and.html"&gt; Affiliate Programs: Why They Work and Why They Don't!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://persistantmagic.blogspot.com/2005/10/finding-great-cologne-for-men-how-to.html"&gt; Finding a Great Cologne For Men&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/06/22/as-than-could-regret-akulina-seven/"&gt; As than could regret Akulina seven children So it has turned out...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112962499192100716?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112962499192100716/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112962499192100716' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112962499192100716'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112962499192100716'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/computer-training-and-overcoming.html' title='Computer Training and Overcoming Computer Anxiety. 7 Reasons Why Using CSS is a Must.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112942065675569249</id><published>2005-10-15T16:57:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-15T16:57:36.806-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Getting The Most From Your Candles. The Fabulous New Caribbean Princess Ship.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;p&gt;I love burning&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaHJsMTAuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Stop Burning Time and Money In Your Candle Business" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/b/br/briercrest/388657_1928.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Stop Burning Time and Money In Your Candle Business&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; candles and have them all around the house. Long ones, short ones, fat ones, thin ones, in a plethora of colours. I burn them in the evening when I'm relaxing; I burn them at mealtimes; and I burn them in the bathroom when I'm pampering myself. Any excuse to light a candle really. &lt;p&gt;But candles don't always fit the holder, and sometimes they burn down too far and the wax gets stuck! It's at times like this that candles aren't quite as much fun!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Here are some candle burning tips I've picked up through the years:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1. Cold candles will burn more slowly. Wrap them in foil or cling-film to prevent the wicks from absorbing moisture then pop them in the fridge for an hour.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;2. When burning pillar candles, let them burn long enough each time to create a pool of wax that almost covers the diameter of the candle.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaHJsMTAuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Stop Burning Time and Money In Your Candle Business" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/m/ma/marneandri/390468_8029.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; This will ensure that the candle burns evenly each time you light it. If it doesn't create a large enough pool you'll end up with a tunnel through the candle and eventually it will either melt through one side or you'll simply not be able to get down far enough to light it. And even if you did, it would give off very little light. &lt;p&gt;3. Never stand a lit candle in a wind draught as they'll create a larger, more irregular flame and your candle will burn unevenly.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;4. Never expose candles to sunlight or indoor spotlights. They will fade the colour and if left for too long, the candles will bend.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;5. If your candle is too narrow to fit snugly into the holder, wrap cooking foil or tissue paper around the bottom of the candle to make the base thicker. Don't worry, the tissue paper won't burn even if you do allow the candle to burn right down into the holder as the melted wax will soak the paper. Having said that, it's never a good idea to allow candles to burn right down; they should be extinguished when they're about 2 inches over the holder.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;6. If you've allowed the candle&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuMWNhbmRsZS5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Candle Stick Charting - Investment Chart Reading" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/w/wi/windcat/388761_8358.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Candle Stick Charting - Investment Chart Reading&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; to burn right down and the wax is stuck in the holder, put the holder into the freezer for a couple of hours and the wax should be considerably easier to dig out. &lt;p&gt;7. If you like votive candles, try buying the type that have metal cases as these are easier to remove from holders after use. If you only have the uncovered type, pour some water into the holder before lighting the candle. Once extinguished and the wax hardened, it should be easier to pop it out of the container.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;8. Spilled wax should always be allowed to solidify before being removed. Once hard, cover the area with brown paper and gently press with a warm iron. The wax will be absorbed into the paper.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;9. Extinguish candles by pushing the wick into the liquid wax (don't use your fingers - a used matchstick is a good tool for this). Leave it for about a minute then re-center the wick. Using this technique both eliminates smoking from the extinguished wick and covers the wick with a layer of wax making re-lighting easier.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About The Author&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Sharon grew up in East London but moved to Norway at the age of 19, returning to England in 1998. She now lives in Cheshire with her partner and two of her three children. Besides writing, she is currently studying Social Science with The Open University, runs a web site where women in the UK can meet other women for platonic friendship (&lt;a href="http://www.friendsyourway.co.uk" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;www.friendsyourway.co.uk&lt;/a&gt;), potters in her garden, knits and reads everything she comes over.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:s.jacobsen@friendsyourway.co.uk" style="color: black;"&gt;s.jacobsen@friendsyourway.co.uk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;p&gt;The magnificent Caribbean Princess ship is the new queen of the Princess fleet. Her innovative design takes the Princess "Personal Choice Cruising" theme to a new level.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubWtwdWJsaWNhdC5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Cruise ship jobs cruise ship employment cruise line jobs" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/t/tf/tfl42/389416_7424.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Cruise ship jobs cruise ship employment cruise line jobs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; With nearly 900 staterooms having balconies, the Caribbean Princess offers more than any other ship cruising the Caribbean year round. Accommodating 3,100 passengers, this incredible ship has an entire deck of mini-suites! At 113,000 gross tons, the 952 foot long Caribbean Princess carries Bermudan registration. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Dining Caribbean Princess Style!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The amenities aboard Caribbean Princess are astonishing and dining options are no exception. There are no less than twelve eating options plus room service! The traditional dining option is in the Island Dining Room. For anytime dining check out the Coral Dining room or the Palm Dining Room. Specialty restaurants include Sabatini's Italian Trattoria and the Sterling Steakhouse. For casual eating and snacking, there are the Horizon Court 24-hour dining, Caf�½' Caribe, Wine and Caviar Bar, Patisserie, Prego Pizzeria, Trident Hamburger Grill, and the Ice Cream Bar.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Caribbean Princess Entertainment!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For entertainment, the Caribbean Princess offers two theatres - the Princess Theatre and Club Fusion. Check out movies on deck and under the stars at the Movies Under the Stars outdoor theatre. The Skywalker's Nightclub offers entertainment 16 decks above the sea!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUudGd3ZWJvZnBoZi5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; The Great Unknown, The Great Explorers - The Great Web of Percy Harrison Fawcett&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; The Explorer's Lounge offers nightclub-style performances. And the Grand Casino offers Caribbean Princess cruisers added action and excitement. The Joker's lounge, Crooner's Bar and Churchill's lounge provide Caribbean Princess passenger's room to meet and greet fellow cruisers or an intimate spot for two to get re-acquainted. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Pools Caribbean Princess style!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This Princess ship has five fabulous pool options! Both the Calypso Reef and Pool and the Neptune's Reef and pool offer two spas along with the pools. The Terrace Pool and the Lotus Pool have lots of lounging space as do all of the pools. The Pirate's View Spa and Splash Pool round out the Caribbean Princess pools.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Caribbean Princes Sports!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A ship as fabulous as this would be expected to offer great sports facilities, and this ship will not let you down. The renowned Lotus Spa, gym and fitness area has what you need to stay fit, feel great, and wind down. There is a swim-against-the-current lap pool on board. A nine-hole putting course and two virtual golf simulators will keep your links skills highly tuned. The Caribbean Princess also provides the "mandatory" paddle tennis and jogging track facilities.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Other Caribbean Princess Activities!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Caribbean Princess has a collection of world class art with gallery and auctions. The Princess Internet Caf�½ allows passengers to keep in touch or to surf the high-tech web.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubG9yaW55Yy5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="You Can Be a Nurse: Nursing Programs, Scholarships, and Tuition Reimbursement Programs" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/s/st/stocker/345645_2980.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; You Can Be a Nurse: Nursing Programs, Scholarships, and Tuition Reimbursement Programs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Princess offers a ScholarShip@Sea program for cruisers. The Library and Writing Room offer a quiet place to enjoy and reflect while on board Caribbean Princess as does the Hearts and Minds Wedding Chapel. Of course, there is always duty-free shopping. Princess looks after kids and teens with The Fun Zone, Off Limits and the Splash Pool. &lt;p&gt;This fantastic ship has something to offer for anyone planning a Caribbean vacation. This is a five star floating resort hotel with options at various ports of call throughout the Caribbean. What more could your fun-in-the-sun vacation require?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Brian A Schmidt is the author and web publisher of a1-discount cruises. This site is your #1 source for cruise information, discounts and deals! For more interesting articles about cruise ships, cruise lines, great cruise deals and other cruise related topics check out &lt;a href="http://www.a1-discount-cruises.com/articles.htm" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.a1-discount-cruises.com/articles&lt;/a&gt; to reach our article map. Visit &lt;a href="http://www.a1-discount-cruises.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.a1-discount-cruises.com&lt;/a&gt; where you can book your fabulous discount cruise on-line. Then all you need to do is &lt;u&gt;get excited!&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://curiouswebsite.blogspot.com/2005/09/alone-in-kitchen-stirring-up.html"&gt; Alone In the Kitchen: Stirring Up Mindfulness&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://lovingboating.blogspot.com/2005/09/will-googles-gmail-spell-trouble-for.html"&gt; Will Google's Gmail spell trouble for Email Marketing.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://fastidiouschestnut.blogspot.com/2005/10/what-not-to-do-understanding-911-and.html"&gt; What Not To Do...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://joyfuldepartment.blogspot.com/2005/10/got-rhythm-7-questions-to-ask-yourself.html"&gt; Got Rhythm?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://energetichonesty.blogspot.com/2005/10/benefits-of-alternative-medicine.html"&gt; Benefits of Alternative Medicine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sensitivemountains.blogspot.com/2005/10/why-learn-languages-acne-treatments.html"&gt; Why Learn Languages?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://seriouscurie.blogspot.com/2005/10/shopping-systematically-for-internet.html"&gt; Shopping Systematically for an Internet Home Based Business&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://wonderfulaboutsycamore.blogspot.com/2005/10/free-tips-to-increase-self-esteem-low.html"&gt; Free Tips To Increase Self-Esteem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sensitiveoak.blogspot.com/2005/10/time-management-made-easy-at-last.html"&gt; Time Management Made Easy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/06/33/as-a-whole-the-far-east-policy-of/"&gt; As a whole the Far East policy of tsarism during 60 80 gg...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112942065675569249?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112942065675569249/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112942065675569249' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112942065675569249'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112942065675569249'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/getting-most-from-your-candles.html' title='Getting The Most From Your Candles. The Fabulous New Caribbean Princess Ship.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112925377586732692</id><published>2005-10-13T18:36:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-13T18:36:15.890-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Don't Discount Offline Business Opportunities. Keep Things In Order With A Written Home Decorating Plan.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZ29vZ2xlZWFybi5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Start Earning Money 15 minutes from now - Google Cash Machine!" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/v/ve/verzerk/375034_7581.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Start Earning Money 15 minutes from now - Google Cash Machine!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;So many people automatically think of Internet businesses first now days. Why? Because they're relatively cheap and quick to set up. What many don't seem to realize though, is that are still some golden opportunities in the offline world too. One such business can be started for less than $50, and can start earning you cash from the first day.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So, what is this business? Vending machines. Now before you shrug this off as being too expensive, let's look at a few facts.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1. Not all vending machines are big and expensive. The first image that comes to mind with the term "vending machine" is a large cola or snack machine. But that's not the only type there is.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As a matter of fact, smaller vending machines are more common... they're just not often thought of as a vending machine.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Think about your local grocery or discount store for a moment. Besides the cola machines, can you think of other vending machines that might be in place? If you're a parent, you might have already guessed: bubble gum, candy, and trinket machines.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;They're small yes, but they draw cash and a lot of customers. They usually sell themselves. Kids can't resist them, and even my grown adult husband has been known to put money into them for himself occasionally too.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;2. Small vending machines open more opportunities for you. Due to the size of these smaller machines, they can be placed in many more places than a cola or snack machine can. Just a small list of examples includes:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Grocery stores&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Discount stores&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Department stores&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Convenience stores&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Specialty shops&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Barber or Beauty shops&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Indoor swap meets/flea markets&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Doctor or dentist offices&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Pharmacies&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;And even government buildings such as the DMV, City Hall, or the local social services office.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;3. Placing small vending machines like this is not difficult. In fact, it can be made much easier by simply offering the storeowner or manager a percentage of money earned.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;4. You can specialize in a business like this. One specialty that comes to mind is to place your vending machines in health related establishments - health food stores, vitamin shops, doctor or dentist offices, etc.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Then, instead of putting regular candy into your machines, you could offer sugar-free treats instead. With the raging epidemic of diabetes and obesity in the U.S. right now, couldn't you imagine how popular a sugar-free vending machine might be? Especially with doctors and health related establishments?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You could also offer mixed nuts, granola bites, or any other combination of healthier snack alternatives.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;5. You can grow this business as slowly or quickly as you'd like. Small vending machines can be purchased for less than $50, and most of the small snack or "gum" machines are less than $100. By starting with one inexpensive machine and a decent location, you can make up your investment in just a few short weeks... or less!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you re-invested your earnings by purchasing just one new machine each month, you'd have 12 by the end of the year. And they'd be fully paid for too! So everything earned is yours to keep.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So, whether you want a little additional income each week, part-time supplemental income, or full-time business income - take a look at vending machines. Once they're in place, there's very little work on your part... but an ongoing stream of income for you to enjoy.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;To get you started today, here's a great resource for finding inexpensive vending machines online. I think they might actually be the cheapest vending machine source I've ever seen: &lt;a href="http://www.vansvending.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;Vans Vending&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About The Author&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Written by Kathy Burns-Milyard, a professional copywriter for vansvending.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://vansvending.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;vansvending.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:info@vansvending.com" style="color: black;"&gt;info@vansvending.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubnRlcmRldi5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Calm Your Fussy Baby, A how to book for mothers and fathers to INSTANTLY calm their fussy baby." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/1/s/c/co/coolmilo/65205_6078.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Calm Your Fussy Baby, A how to book for mothers and fathers to INSTANTLY calm their fussy baby.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Begin your written plan by choosing one room to start with. This helps keep you and your budget focused on the project. Which not only guarantees it's completion, it's going to save you money. Why? Remember impulse buying, well it's less likely to occur if you've planned and written down items specifically for that one room.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Think about it this way; You go to the grocery store without a list, what happens? Everything looks good, so you end up buying extra things you do not need and probably forget a few essential items.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tip: A large notebook or blank writing journal will help make this process easier. This will come in handy for jotting down ideas, measurements, color choices, keeping track of purchases even drawing out a layout of your room. Also, if your purchasing any large items furniture, lighting, carpet etc. this is a good place to keep track of stores that carry things you've seen and the prices.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Now that you have chosen the room, the next step is to think about how the room is used. Sound like a strange thought, well not really. This will determine the direction your decorating goes in.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For Example: Lets say your looking to make changes in your living room. Is this the main area used for entertaining, family gatherings or watching TV and movies? Do you have children with friends hanging out at your home. How about pets, are they normally in here with you?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Sound like home, if so than practical, less fussy is the direction to go. There are endless ways to make your room function well and still have great style.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A few ideas might include:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1) Durable easy clean fabrics, like removable, washable slipcovers&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;2) Baskets or plastic stacking crates are perfect for remotes,&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;3) DVD'S, CD's and games. This makes for easy pick up at the end of the day, or when company suddenly shows up.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;4) Possibly fewer pieces in the room, giving you more floor space.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tip: Look for pieces that will serve double duty. Many ottomans today have build in storage, do you get extra seating plus some place to stash things quick.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;5) Large floor pillows for TV or movie watching (kids, for some reason love laying on the floor).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;6) If space permits, a table and chairs for playing games, doing craft or homework projects.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;7) Washable latex paint for easy clean up.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The final step is to be realistic about your list of changes. Choose things that fit comfortably into your current budget, overtime more things can be done.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUud2Vyc2F2ZXJzLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Savvy Saving for Busy Women" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/1/s/a/aj/ajcrowley/15084_7650.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Savvy Saving for Busy Women&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; So for right now, just remember, simple savvy changes can make a big difference &lt;p&gt;This article is shareware. Give this article away for free on your site, or include it as part of any paid package as long as the entire article is left intact including this notice. Copyright © 2005 Bonnie Carrier&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Bonnie P. Carrier is the creator of Savvy Home Decorating &amp;amp; Savvy Outdoor Decorating. She is the mother to two grown daughters and a very spoiled 4yr old Blue Merle Sheltie named Toby. Stop by both site for indoor and outdoor decorating ideas. &lt;a href="http://www.savvy-home-decorating.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.savvy-home-decorating.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.savvyhomedecorating.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.savvyhomedecorating.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://impatientathene.blogspot.com/2005/09/abundant-life-let-seeds-grow.html"&gt; The Abundant Life!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://punctualwhite.blogspot.com/2005/10/3-website-positioning-tactics.html"&gt; 3 Website Positioning Tactics Guaranteed to Boost Your Traffic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://positiveaboutconcrete.blogspot.com/2005/10/removing-rigid-contact-lenses.html"&gt; Removing Rigid Contact Lenses&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://organizediceland.blogspot.com/2005/10/honda-super-cub-and-50cc-honda-cub.html"&gt; Honda Super Cub and 50cc Honda Cub - The Volkswagen Beetle of Motorcycles!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://independenthebe.blogspot.com/2005/10/top-seven-ways-to-promote-your-ezine.html"&gt; Top Seven Ways to Promote your Ezine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://enthusiasticsupercluster.blogspot.com/2005/10/bachelor-party-guide-for-best-man-top.html"&gt; The Bachelor Party: A Guide For The Best Man&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://friendlysound.blogspot.com/2005/10/using-traffic-exchange-programs-part-2.html"&gt; Using Traffic Exchange Programs Part 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://nicemerchant.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-logic-puzzles-can-help-you-become.html"&gt; How Logic Puzzles Can Help You Become a Better Problem Solver&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://caringtheearthquakes.blogspot.com/2005/10/water-and-good-hydration-money.html"&gt; Water And Good Hydration&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/07/07/in-moscow-in-the-central-aircraft/"&gt; In Moscow in the central aircraft-repair workshops within war besides set of others such important w...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112925377586732692?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112925377586732692/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112925377586732692' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112925377586732692'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112925377586732692'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/dont-discount-offline-business.html' title='Don&apos;t Discount Offline Business Opportunities. Keep Things In Order With A Written Home Decorating Plan.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112891069168058673</id><published>2005-10-09T19:18:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-09T19:18:11.700-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Do You Have Dead Pixels?. Dog Hygiene Basics.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuYWJjYm9va3NieS5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="My Book of State History Homeschool Unit Study Notebook" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/a/al/alpha/374976_6186.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; My Book of State History Homeschool Unit Study Notebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Take a good look at your notebook computer screen. Do you find some tiny dark spots? You could have dead pixels. One of the most expensive parts of your notebook computer is the LCD screen.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;LCD's are highly sensitive and any amount of pressure, touching or handling may damage it. As such, dead pixels aren't an uncommon thing. Apparently, some degree of dead pixels is to be expected. Still if you have a lot of them, it would be classified as a defective screen. So, how do you determine if you have dead pixels?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Before we go there, make sure it's not just dust. Clean your screen first. The best way to do that is to use a soft cotton cloth - no rags or paper towel as they can scratch your screen easily. Moisten the cloth with plain old water and wipe the screen gently.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Side note: I've also tried maintaining my screen dust free with a Swiffer Duster. These are inexpensive, very soft and they pick up the dirt not just re-distribute it. It has worked well. Of course, this will not take care of smudges or dried on dirt. So you'll still have to use the cotton cloth and water combo sometimes.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Once you've cleaned it, you can run a quick check with a free software called Dead Pixel Buddy. It's basically a very simple file that will rotate your screen through all the basic colors. This way you can tell if a pixel on your screen is not displaying properly. One tip, you might want to get a help of a friend. Two sets of eyes are better than one especially since pixels tend to be miniscule.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You can also do a low tech way by changing your desktop's background color to black, white, red, green blue and yellow, checking the screen each time you change the colors. This is of course not fool proof especially if you have tons of icons on your desktop but it's a good 'backup' check if you don't have Internet access to download the file or whatever the case may be.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you do find dead pixels, don't panic yet, as mentioned earlier, a small amount of dead pixels could be inevitable but if you have a lot of them and your notebook computer is still under warranty, this may be a good time to call up the manufacturer and ask for assistance.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Related Resources:&lt;br/&gt; 5 Days To A Healthier Notebook Computer&lt;br/&gt; http://www.notebook-computer-infocenter.com/5days-to-a-healthier-notebook.html&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Dead Pixel Buddy&lt;br/&gt; http://www.laptopshowcase.co.uk/downloads.php?id=1&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Lynn Chan helps new owners learn proper notebook care and use. Take care of your investment, find out how at &lt;a href="http://www.notebook-computer-infocenter.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.notebook-computer-infocenter.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;p&gt;Giving your dog a bath is important, but not as critical as most people seem to believe. If your dog is healthy, he really doesn't need to be bathed more that once every few months, but most of us put them in the tub or under the hose more often to get rid of that doggie smell and look shinier. Although most dogs do not enjoy getting a bath, it is a good bonding experience. They will appreciate the contact and attention they get from their owner.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This is also an excellent time to do some other required "maintenance" tasks that we often forget about, such as ear cleaning, brushing their teeth, and checking for fleas and ticks. It is much easier to do all these things at once since most dogs don't enjoy sitting through these activities for very long.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Let's go into further detail about these maintenance tasks to make sure your dog stays healthy and happy for a long time.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;To clean your dog's ears, check your local pet store for special solutions designed specifically for this purpose. It is common for dogs to attract ear mites, which are small insects that live in the waxy secretions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubm9hbGxlcmd5MS5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Allergy Free In 5 Days - Get rid of your allergies with a natural treatment for dust mites, hay feve...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; As time goes by, the mite gets larger and you will start to notice a dirty black substance in your dog's ear. Take a q-tip, dip it in the ear cleaning solution, and gently swab the entire ear. Your dog might squirm, but hold him down, because it won't take long. And when you're done, he'll have clean ears and be much less likely to get earaches or infections. &lt;p&gt;One of the most overlooked maintenance tasks is brushing your dog's teeth. Many dog owners only do this once or twice per year. Can you imagine how gross your mouth would feel if you didn't brush for six months? Your dog feels the same way. It's never too late to start doing this. You will need a special toothbrush and toothpaste designed for dogs. These are easily found in any pet store for under ten dollars. Be certain to brush the back teeth, and use small circular motions like your dentist used to tell you to do. This task will be easier than the ear cleaning, because the dog toothpaste is made to taste good. Your dog should enjoy the treat.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The last thing to check for is fleas and ticks. Ticks are nasty little bugs that dig themselves into your dog's skin and live by sucking their blood. Be especially careful if you live near wooded areas where ticks are most common. However, no matter where you live, check for ticks often, because they carry several harmful diseases.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUucmlja3lhbGxlbi5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Ricky Allen's Joint Ventures" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/j/je/jeepcd6/349053_5137.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Ricky Allen's Joint Ventures&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Ticks are the transport method of Lyme Disease, which will slowly destroy your dog's joints and suck out all his energy. Many dogs with Lyme Disease are in such pain that they need to be put down. So check often! Pay special attention to the most common hiding areas, which are under the collar or along the underbelly. If you find one, simply pull it off with tweezers. &lt;p&gt;Fleas aren't as potentially harmful as ticks, but they are much more of a nuisance. If you don't catch them quickly enough, your other pets can catch them, your kids can catch them, and you might have to get your home fumigated. You can find them under the fur, in the same places where ticks hang out. If you see little things that look like specks of pepper, those are flea droppings. The actual flea will be dark in color and about the size of a grain of rice. If you do find one, call your local vet's office and ask about flea treatments.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Eric Shannon is a freelance author who also publishes the &lt;a href="http://www.bedsfordoggies.com/newsletter.php" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;Dog Lovers Report&lt;/a&gt;, which is a biweekly newsletter with a very large readership. He also runs Beds For Doggies, which carries a large selection of &lt;a href="http://www.bedsfordoggies.com/" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;Dog Beds&lt;/a&gt;, Dog Couches, and Dog Furniture.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sexypan.blogspot.com/2005/09/information-about-adverse-credit.html"&gt; Information About Adverse Credit Homeowner Loans&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://practicaldating.blogspot.com/2005/09/college-football-betting-point-spreads.html"&gt; College Football Betting - Point Spreads&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://organizedolive.blogspot.com/2005/09/how-to-lose-weight-food-for-thought.html"&gt; How to Lose Weight: Food for Thought&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://knowledgeabletiler.blogspot.com/2005/09/residual-income-myth-developing.html"&gt; Residual Income, a Myth?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://knowledgeablehorse.blogspot.com/2005/10/tracking-your-way-to-top-what-to-wear.html"&gt; Tracking Your Way to the Top!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://enjoyablerugby.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-not-to-sell-your-car-7-deadly-sins.html"&gt; How Not to Sell Your Car -- The 7 Deadly Sins&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://prettygiant.blogspot.com/2005/10/exercise-and-quitting-smoking-am-i.html"&gt; Exercise and Quitting Smoking&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://enthusiasticchapel.blogspot.com/2005/10/handling-weather-emergencies-part-2.html"&gt; Handling Weather Emergencies: Part 2; Home Security, Evacuation, and Emergency Kits&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://respectfulsystems.blogspot.com/2005/10/speeding-myths-and-facts-how-book-is.html"&gt; Speeding Myths and Facts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/09/22/smaller-or-black-people-of-novgorod/"&gt; Smaller or black people of Novgorod were exposed to any requisitions from the best people...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112891069168058673?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112891069168058673/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112891069168058673' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112891069168058673'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112891069168058673'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/do-you-have-dead-pixels-dog-hygiene.html' title='Do You Have Dead Pixels?. Dog Hygiene Basics.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112872620669016749</id><published>2005-10-07T16:03:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-07T16:03:26.720-07:00</updated><title type='text'>12 Tips to Network Your Way to Success. Possible Acne Messages.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubGlsamV0ZXIuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Absolute Best Guerilla Marketing Strategies Ever Unveiled!" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/j/je/jeinny/355303_8042.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Absolute Best Guerilla Marketing Strategies Ever Unveiled!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Lots of people network but few reap the rewards of zeroing in on their potential when it comes to networking. Here are some tips to help fill the gap between where you are now and where you can be.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1- Be Generous- Give without expectations and you will be surprised at how it returns to you. It may not come from the same source but a new client, referral, or opportunity will show up because of your efforts.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;2- Be Consistent- As in marketing, the more consistent your networking efforts the more productive they become. Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerilla Marketing stated, "I hate to admit this, but mediocre marketing with commitment works better than brilliant marketing without commitment."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;3- Know &amp;amp; Clarify WIIFT- When creating your introduction clarify who your target market is and "what's in it for them". Sell benefits. Verizon sells wireless phone service but sells it when you believe they never stop working to fill your phone service needs. "Can you hear me now?"&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;4- Get Involved- Getting involved puts you in a consistent position of visibility.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;5- Be a Powerful Resource &amp;amp; Advocate for Others- Expand your network and be an advocate for others. Use your networking resources to hook up people you know with others. What goes around comes around.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;6- Learn the Needs of Others then Help Fill Those Needs- Can your business fill their needs? Who do you know who can? Either way you have a win/win situation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;7- Build the Know- Like- Trust Factor- Building relationships is more important than collecting lots of leads. Think quality vs. quantity. Connect deeper vs. on the surface.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;8- It's More Important to Receive Business Cards than Hand Them Out- This puts you in a position to be able to follow up.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;9- Consistently Follow- Up- It's not enough to have a network. Follow up and continue developing your relationships and network. Have a good reason to follow up or ask "how can I help you?"&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;10- Develop Advocates- Build relationships with Centers of Influence who connect with your ideal client or customer. Offer incentives for referrals or provide great benefits.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;11- Be Curious- The 6 Degrees of Separation Theory states that we are only 6 people away from finding out anything we need to know. Be curious and you will be surprised at what people, resources, and information are at your finger tips.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;12- Develop You- You can grow your business as big as you can grow yourself. Start there!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;To shift into action choose one tip to focus on for a week and see what new results come your way. Then try on another and so on. Before you know it your networking efforts will be paving your way to success. Starting Now!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Copyright 2004 © Beth A. Tabak, All rights reserved.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About The Author&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Beth Tabak is a Business &amp;amp; Life Coach, columnist, speaker, and owner of Starting Now. For free resources,&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZGVuc2FuLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Solve your sleep problems tonight with effective sleep solutions" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/s/sl/slonecker/351181_5328.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Solve your sleep problems tonight with effective sleep solutions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; assessments, articles, classes, and ezines to help you solve your problems while upgrading your life and business visit &lt;a href="http://www.startingnowcoaching.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;www.startingnowcoaching.com&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:startingnow@houston.rr.com" style="color: black;"&gt;startingnow@houston.rr.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;p&gt;There are over ten forms of acne a person can experience, from chloracne to acne mechanica. Just as acne can take on varied forms, there are a variety of reasons why one may have acne.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Acne formations act as messengers from the body, suggesting beneficial changes to your lifestyle and areas of your life to which you should pay more attention. You know when you have found an acne message because using the information from the message actually improves your health and deepens you level of self-awareness.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Below is a sampling of the some of the needs or unresolved issues that may be exposed by an Acne Message.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Needed diet alteration&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Poor level of self-love&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Reduction in over the counter medications&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Internal detoxification&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Need for more exercise&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Move to a different relationship or end a current one&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Need for more personal challenges&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Poor stress management&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Uncontrolled emotions&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Social anxiety&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Boredom&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Un-addressed personal fears&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Unmeet goals&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Unexpressed Feelings&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Bodily neglect&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Unadjusted to new settings&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Contact with new environments&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Poor understanding of cleansing agents&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Misuse of hair care products&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Excess hormones in foods&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Weak organs&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Extreme sensitivity to criticism&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Acne is not a superficial condition. It strikes deep into the heart and psyche of everyone suffering with this disease.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubGlsamV0ZXIuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Absolute Best Guerilla Marketing Strategies Ever Unveiled!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Once your acne trigger(s) is unveiled and dealt with, you, your health and self-esteem reap all the benefits. &lt;p&gt;Health author and Noixia campaigner Naweko San-Joyz lovingly writes from her home in San Diego. Her works include "Acne Messages: Crack the code of your zits and say goodbye to acne" (ISBN: 0974912204) and the upcoming work "Skinny Fat Chicks, Why we're still not getting this dieting thing" (ISBN: 0974912212) for release in June of 2005.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For useful acne self-help articles visit &lt;a href="http://www.Noixia.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.Noixia.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://optimisticwetlands.blogspot.com/2005/09/bob-dragon-slayer-book-review-seeding.html"&gt; Bob the Dragon Slayer - Book Review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://yummystart.blogspot.com/2005/10/your-site-is-all-direct-marketing.html"&gt; Your Site is all Direct Marketing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://determinedgrasslands.blogspot.com/2005/10/symbolism-behind-anchor-tattoo-and.html"&gt; The Symbolism Behind an Anchor Tattoo and Anchor Tattoo Design&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://practicalregiomontanus.blogspot.com/2005/10/strange-days-mostly-nights-of-guns-n.html"&gt; The Strange Days (mostly nights) of Guns N' Roses&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://evilyew.blogspot.com/2005/10/greed-and-selfishness-knowing.html"&gt; Greed and Selfishness: Knowing The Difference And Loving Yourself!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://dependableaustralia.blogspot.com/2005/10/web-accessibility-basics-28-reasons.html"&gt; Web Accessibility: The Basics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://trustworthymagic.blogspot.com/2005/10/case-against-traditional-piano-lessons.html"&gt; The Case Against "Traditional" Piano Lessons&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://lovingharbor.blogspot.com/2005/10/mastering-your-money-art-of-home.html"&gt; Mastering Your Money&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://gentlepan.blogspot.com/2005/10/tips-for-keeping-your-cool-before-your.html"&gt; Tips For Keeping Your Cool Before Your Presentation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/10/02/nestor-ivanovich-mahno-was-born-on/"&gt; Nestor Ivanovich Mahno was born on Ekaterinoslavshchine...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112872620669016749?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112872620669016749/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112872620669016749' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112872620669016749'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112872620669016749'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/12-tips-to-network-your-way-to-success.html' title='12 Tips to Network Your Way to Success. Possible Acne Messages.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112855294402932404</id><published>2005-10-05T15:55:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-05T15:55:44.050-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Getting Free Viral Traffic Using Automated Visitor Referral Systems. The Secrets To Successful Radio Advertising.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuYW11c2l2ZS5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; [SiteGadgets.com] Free CGI Hosting, Free Scripts, CGI, Perl, and more!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Would you like to get unlimited viral traffic to your site, for free?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It sounds too good to be true, of course. Many companies will promise to do this for you. The catch - you have to put a banner ad, text link or popup on your page. This is not a good deal as it will increase your traffic by only 1% to 2% on each level. Furthermore, it involves the hassle of an affiliate programme.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;However, it is possible for you to get free viral traffic to your site using the visitors you have. All you have to do is make it easy for them to tell their friends about your site. (Note that this tactic may not work if your site is a boring one and your visitors have no intention of telling their friends about your site.) Normally, it is too much trouble to shoot off an email. Therefore, if you want news of your site to spread rapidly by word of mouth, you must make it easy for your visitors to refer their friends to your site. The easiest way to do this is using a form. All they need to do is fill in their name, email, and the emails of a few friends, then hit the button. A quick email will be shot off to their friends with a link to your site. To have this kind of form, all you need is a HTML editor to make the form and a script to process the mailing.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The easy part is making the form. However, having a script to process the mailing is far harder. This will definitely create plenty of problems for you, unless you find a free service which will provide the mailing script. Also, it would be nice if that service could throw in a free form-building tool.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There is no shortage of such services; but most of them cleverly include a banner ad as part of the form built for you. Having seen many such services, I have made one which DOES NOT force you to put an unwanted ad on your page!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Enter TechnoSoft21 ViralTraffic, the all-new free service which provides a form-builder and a form processing script to anyone who needs it. All you need to do is head to the site, fill out a form which generates the code for you, then copy and paste the code into your own website. When you view your site, you will see that it DOES NOT have a banner ad or any other ad on it! You will be ready to get the tidal wave of traffic to your site! To get started, just go to &lt;a href="http://www.technosoft21.com/viraltraffic/" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.technosoft21.com/viraltraffic/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;P.S. If for some reason or another you don't want to use TechnoSoft21 ViralTraffic, you will probably have to construct your own form processing script in FrontPage WebBots, PHP, CGI, Perl, C, AppleScript, Python or another language. (TechnoSoft21 ViralTraffic is powered by PHP scripts.) It's tough work, but it's fun. If you're game enough... go for it!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About The Author&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Benjamin Choi is the CEO and founder of TechnoSoft21 software and web systems (&lt;a href="http://www.technosoft21.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.technosoft21.com&lt;/a&gt;). He is an active web developer, software programmer and site promoter.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:contact@technosoft21.com" style="color: black;"&gt;contact@technosoft21.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ask some businesses about radio advertising and they'll tell you it's the greatest investment they ever made while others will tell you it was a complete waste of time and money. So why does radio work for some and not for others? What's the secret to successful radio advertising?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Know this: Radio can&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubm9jb3N0LmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Free Advertising System: How To NEVER Pay For Advertising Again!" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/b/bp/bplol/336184_5251.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Free Advertising System: How To NEVER Pay For Advertising Again!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; be a major player in your advertising mix if you know how to do it and I'm about to give you the secrets to successful radio advertising so read on. &lt;p&gt;First, write down a detailed description of who your core customers are. You can do this by looking at prior sales or just by knowing your products and services. Are they women in their 30's and 40's who have a good disposable income? Are they men in their early 20's who are into sports and cars? Figure out who your target customer base is and then you'll be one step closer to figuring out how to reach them.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Second, give a listen to the radio stations in your market besides the ones you usually listen to. Remember, just because you listen to a certain station every morning doesn't mean your potential customers do. Most stations have a pretty definitive type of music or format they follow which gives them their listening base. You don't have to be a media buyer to know that certain stations will be right for your targeted consumer while others will be way off the chart. For example, if your customer base is women in their 30's and 40's, then you can rule out formats such as rap and sports, right? If you live in a major market like Atlanta or Chicago there may be as many as 30 to 40 stations on the radio dial so you'll have plenty to choose from. If you live in a smaller market you'll have less stations to choose from but you'll still have a good selection.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Third, figure out your budget. How can you do this if you know nothing about radio costs? One way is to contact an advertising agency who places radio on a regular basis. Most likely they'll have the pulse on the market you're in and if not, can gather enough information to help you decide how much you'll need to spend to make radio effective. If you're hesitant to call an ad agency right away, the next best thing to do is call two or three of the stations you've chosen yourself. Ask to speak to the sales manager and let them know you're trying to gather information for a radio buy. Most likely they will assign you an account executive to work up a plan. Keep in mind that a good advertising agency may be able to negotiate for better rates and added incentives due to their relationship with the stations and their experience but at the very least, this will give you a good starting point . Don't be overly concerned if you discover that you cannot afford the top stations in the market. There are usually several stations in each market that share listeners and formats and their costs will vary greatly. The rates you receive will be based on many factors including the time of day you want to advertise, how soon you want to be on the air, and the "avails" or inventory the stations have at the time you want to advertise. "Drive time" is the term used by radio to mean just that: the times listeners spend driving in their cars listening. Typically this is 6am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm. These are the coveted listener day parts for most stations and they can be very expensive. But do you need to buy these times? Again, by defining your target customer, you can determine the best times to reach them. There are also spots known as "broad rotators" that can be equally as effective and less expensive because you allow the station to place them over a longer period of the day for example, 6am to midnight.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Fourth, and I feel this is equally if not the most important aspect of radio advertising: the message. While some stations brag about playing thirty minutes to an hour of uninterrupted music, this can be bad for you as an advertiser because it also means that your radio commercial or spot will be slammed with six or more other spots at one time in order to get all their advertisers on the air. I don't know about you, but if I endure three or four spots in a row and the fifth one doesn't catch my ear, I'm punching the button. Therefore your spot has to be clever. It has to make the listener want to hear your message. Remember that the spot they hear may be the first time they learn about your business so it needs to catch them right away. I have found that humor, when done well, can be very effective. It's always amazed me how some companies will devote so much time and money into making sure their radio buy is right but devote so little time to the message itself. Sure, they're on the airwaves alot, but are the listeners paying attention? Without an effective ear-grabbing ad, it's money down the drain. That's why it would be wise to let a professional write and produce your spot. The radio stations may even volunteer to do this for you for free but remember, you get what you pay for.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The final piece of advice I will give you is this: repetition, repetition, repetition. It doesn't matter how clever your ad is or how well you placed the buy if you do not have the budget to stay on the air consistently so make sure when putting together your budget you think long term. Consumers are bombarded with so many messages every day including television, the internet, billboards, mailers, matchbook covers, even some grocery store floors and elevators now carry advertising, unless you stay in their ears on a regular basis, they will forget about you.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Utilize these basic rules and soon when someone asks you if your radio is effective you can reply, "Yes it's been wonderful!" because you've learned the secret to making radio advertising work.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hal Eisenberg is an award winning copywriter, voice over talent and producer, as well as owner of The Eisenberg Agency, a full service advertising agency specializing in creative ads that get results. Visit his web site at &lt;a href="http://www.eisenbergagency.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.eisenbergagency.com&lt;/a&gt;. Contact Hal at &lt;a href="mailto:halacious@eisenbergagency.com" style="color: black;"&gt;halacious@eisenbergagency.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://conscientiouspaladin.blogspot.com/2005/09/victim-or-victor-choose-your-attitude.html"&gt; Victim or Victor? Choose Your Attitude&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://understandingolive.blogspot.com/2005/09/buy-with-confidence-at-online-mexican.html"&gt; Buy with confidence at Online Mexican Pharmacy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://generousmythology.blogspot.com/2005/09/raw-feed-are-you-joking-local-vs.html"&gt; Raw Feed? Are You Joking?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sexyyugoslavia.blogspot.com/2005/09/whats-all-this-hype-about-links-get.html"&gt; What's All This Hype About Links?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://hardworkingskateboarding.blogspot.com/2005/10/small-business-opportunities-magazine.html"&gt; Small Business Opportunities Magazine Business&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://adventurousnosherwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/7-key-ingredients-for-rock-solid.html"&gt; 7 Key Ingredients for Rock Solid Website Hosting&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://lovinganthemis.blogspot.com/2005/10/acne-program-step-3-relieve-your.html"&gt; Acne Program- Step 3: Relieve Your Constipation with a Three Day Mini-Juice Fast&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://intelligentthisbaseball.blogspot.com/2005/10/hook-your-direct-mail-sales-letter.html"&gt; Hook Your Direct Mail Sales Letter Readers With Good Transition Sentences&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://carefulhobbies.blogspot.com/2005/10/dead-man-walking-beating-new-google.html"&gt; Dead Man Walking&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://historyaid.com/2005/06/06/the-fourth-crusade/"&gt;The fourth crusade...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112855294402932404?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112855294402932404/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112855294402932404' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112855294402932404'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112855294402932404'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/getting-free-viral-traffic-using.html' title='Getting Free Viral Traffic Using Automated Visitor Referral Systems. The Secrets To Successful Radio Advertising.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112838411238165975</id><published>2005-10-03T17:01:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-03T17:01:52.400-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Tattoos; Not Just for Drunken Sailors. Candle Holders Add Flair To Your Home Decor!.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUub3NoYWJhc2ljcy5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; OSHA Basics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tattoos are not new. They have been around longer then recorded history. It just seems I have been noticing them a lot more lately. I don't know if that was because I started to take an interest or there are a lot more people getting them.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Before I decided to get my tattoo, I did some home work. I don't come from a background of drunken sailors, so my only thoughts were those dark and dingy, back alley shops you see on late night TV. As most of you reading this can guess, I was wrong. There are clean and reputable tattoo shops even in my town. Some of these tattoo shop are even open during the day light.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I did a lot of internet searching and have learned a lot about tattoos and tattoo shops. Mostly I learned not to prejudge. But some of the things I learned I thought would be worth passing on to my kids and to whoever is deciding to get a tattoo.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tattoos can put you at risk for contacting many diseases, such as HIV, Hepatitis and even tuberculosis. Tattoos can bring on skin infections such as impetigo, dermatitis and possibly an allergic reaction to the tattoo pigment. To minimize the risk you really need to follow a couple of common sense rules when seeking out a tattoo shop.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Stop by a tattoo shop and look and see if they are using single service equipment. Make sure all needles and tubes are individually packaged, dated, sealed. The person who tattoos should use guidelines created by OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for the handling of body fluids. And of course, the person doing the tattoo should be wearing gloves.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After you get your tattoo, don't pick or tug on the area of the tattoo. Clean with soap and water not with alcohol. Tattoos are sensitive to sun; use SPF 30 or greater to protect them. Also, use antibiotic cream for several days. The body considers tattoos as an open wound.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I hope anybody considering a tattoo or who has a tattoo and is getting another will just take a few precautions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Remember friends don't let friend's get a tattoo while under the influence of alcohol or after just meeting Mr. or Ms. Right.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Authored by Richard Amburn &lt;a href="http://www.body-art-online.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.body-art-online.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tips on Tattoos &lt;a href="http://www.body-art-online.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.body-art-online.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div class="mytitle"&gt;Candle &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaHJsMTAuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Stop Burning Time and Money In Your Candle Business" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/n/ns/nsoup/374882_7488.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Stop Burning Time and Money In Your Candle Business&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Holders Add Flair To Your Home Decor!&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Candle holders are an essential accessory for candles. The first candle holders, made of clay, date back as far as fourth century BC Egypt.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Of course, today we have a wide variety of candle holders to choose from. They are a colorful addition to home d�½cor.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You can find candle holders for any variety of candles, including: tapered, pillar, votive, floating, tealites, birthday, etc.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Candle holders are available to match any style of d�½cor. There are candle holders made from glass, pewter, brass - even some molded out of bamboo or coconut.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Choose decorative plate candle holders on which to set your pillars. Candle holders shaped like small lamps with shades add soft light to any room. There are also many beautiful glass cup candle holders to hold your votive candles.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For your floating candles, choose one of the many fancy bowls as your candle holder. You can even have a ready-made candle holder by choosing a candle in a jar with a decorative lid.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So, add a little flair to your home with some beautiful and scentsational candles and candle holders.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About The Author&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Wendy Yeager, Publisher&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.wenmarcorp.com/candles-go2" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.wenmarcorp.com/candles-go2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Publish in Whole&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:mjy222@hotmail.com" style="color: black;"&gt;mjy222@hotmail.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://enjoyablerugby.blogspot.com/2005/09/automobile-credit-report-sony-psp.html"&gt; Automobile Credit Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://energeticdirectories.blogspot.com/2005/09/contract-management-software-solution.html"&gt; Contract Management Software: the Solution to the Problem of Coordination&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://athleticpauli.blogspot.com/2005/09/functions-and-benefits-water-softener.html"&gt; The Functions and Benefits Water Softener Salt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://outgoingdacor.blogspot.com/2005/09/online-business-success-give-it-to-me.html"&gt; Online Business Success - Give It To Me Short And Sweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://loyalhephaistos.blogspot.com/2005/09/antique-delft-and-very-collectible.html"&gt; Antique Delft and Very Collectible Tiles and Ceramics: Beginners Start Here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://funpyre.blogspot.com/2005/09/why-we-have-so-many-problem-people-at.html"&gt; Why We Have So Many Problem People at Work&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://nicecottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/09/7-secrets-to-explode-your-ebook-sales.html"&gt; "7 Secrets to Explode your eBook Sales!" Part 6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://outgoingpoplar.blogspot.com/2005/09/starting-out-full-time-or-part-time.html"&gt; Starting Out Full Time Or Part Time?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://hardworkingleibniz.blogspot.com/2005/09/how-to-attract-clients-in-residential.html"&gt; How to Attract Clients in Residential Real Estate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sharingares.blogspot.com/2005/10/10-simple-tips-for-attaining-wealth.html"&gt; 10 Simple Tips For Attaining Wealth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112838411238165975?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112838411238165975/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112838411238165975' title='13 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112838411238165975'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112838411238165975'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/tattoos-not-just-for-drunken-sailors.html' title='Tattoos; Not Just for Drunken Sailors. Candle Holders Add Flair To Your Home Decor!.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>13</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112820385113552252</id><published>2005-10-01T14:57:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-10-01T14:57:31.163-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Should You Sell Your Home Yourself?. Does the Arranged Marriage Work?.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div class="mytitle"&gt;Should &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaG9tZWJvb2suaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="How to save a fortune when buying or selling a home." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/t/th/themedusa/374723_3374.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; How to save a fortune when buying or selling a home.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; You Sell Your Home Yourself?&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Are you thinking about selling your home? Would you like to sell it by yourself instead of hiring a real estate agent? If so it would be beneficial to review the pros and cons of selling your home by yourself before hanging out the sign.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;PROS&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Selling your home without an agent means More Money. If that's not an incentive, what is? By selling it yourself you save the fees or commissions (thousands of dollars) that you would have to pay an agent.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You are able to decide the times for open houses and showings as well as where you want to advertise. Because you are only selling one home - unlike an agent who is working with many buyers and sellers ? you will always be focused on the selling of your home. You will have more interest in the sale than a real estate agent who may be looking for bigger commissions elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;CONS&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Real estate agents are paid good money for a reason.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuaG9tZWJvb2suaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="How to save a fortune when buying or selling a home." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/c/cr/croco/356559_3794.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Selling a home takes a lot of time and energy. Open houses, dealing with potential buyers, closing sales and dealing with the legal issues are familiar turf for these people and their experience can impact the sale. &lt;p&gt;Be realistic about what you are willing to do. Will you drop everything to make a showing? Are you able to &amp;amp;close the deal' and ask for an offer? It is not everyone who can take on such a big project or can handle the tension of dealing with buyers.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;However, if the challenge excites you and if you are ready for hard work and willing to learn then it is not impossible for you to manage alone. With a little know-how and a lot of energy, you can sell your home without the help of a real estate agent and reap the rewards!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Where do you begin?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Start with evaluating your home. How much can you ask? What work needs to be done? How do you decide how much your house is worth without asking too much and scaring buyers off or too little and not making what you should?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;How Do You Evaluate Your Home?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Choosing the right price for your home is crucial to making a sale. You risk everything if your price is too far off the current market. You don't want to discourage buyers because you are pricing too high and you don't want to throw away equity because of a low asking price.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Preparing Your Home for the Market&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Now it's time to look as objectively at your own home as you did to other peoples' homes.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZWFnbGVyb2FkLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Make Your Next Home a Resort" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/t/th/themedusa/374723_3374.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Make Your Next Home a Resort&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; Your prospective buyers will be scrutinizing your home; has it been taken care of or neglected? Will there be expensive repairs or are they hiding something? Taking the time to clean up and make repairs will repay you with confident buyers anxious to make an offer on a home that has been properly taken care of. &lt;p&gt;How to Advertise Your Home&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Don't worry. You've already done the hard work. Your research has been conducted, your home has been cleaned and prepared and you have all the vital information necessary to offer prospective buyers. Now you need to get the word out!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;How to Show and Sell Your Home&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You've done your research. You've priced your home, cleaned and freshened it up. Your sign is hung out and you've worked hard on creating an intriguing ad. You told everyone you know that you're selling your home. Now you wait for the phone to ring. How do you handle calls from buyers? What do you ask? How do you get them to come visit?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legal Issues&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Selling and buying homes requires legal paperwork. Writing contracts to sell your home is tricky business and you do need a lawyer to help you. Find one by asking for recommendations from family or friends or by looking for one in the phone book. Ask for a consultation before deciding.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This article is excerpted from our new ebook "For Sale By Owner".&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZWJvb2tmb3Jtcy5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Legal Forms" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/a/ab/abdone/313065_1044.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Legal Forms&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; To download your copy, visit &lt;a href="http://ebooks.sagedot.com/fsbo.html" style="color: black;" target="_blank"&gt;ebooks.sagedot.com/fsbo.html&lt;/a&gt; The ebook includes a seller checklist and sample legal forms. &lt;p&gt;Tim Robinson is the publisher of "For Sale By Owner".&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuYW50aXNjYW0uaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="ANTI-SCAM GUIDE for men seeking a Russian wife" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/m/ma/macduncan/371767_2449.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; ANTI-SCAM GUIDE for men seeking a Russian wife&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;You marry someone your parents arranged for you! How do you marry someone you don't know? Can it really work?" the American woman asked. She taught me editing and international reporting at the J school in Bangalore.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Ms.Susan Postlewaite, I'm addressing this to you.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; The arranged marriages in India have evolved over the years and come in many shades. At one end of the spectrum we have marriages where parents force their decision, sometimes through tactical emotional pressure, without bothering to ask their children's opinion. At the other end, we have the liberal ones where the family is used merely as a networking resource for dating. In recent years Indian matchmaking has gone high-tech, and a number of marital websites have sprouted across the internet like Shaadi.com, Rishta.com, JeevanSaathi.com, IndianMatrimonials.com, BharatMatrimony.com and IndianDating.com.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Your question now. Yes, the arranged marriage can work. And the success rates? Quite high.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; No, I won't base the conclusion on the lower divorce rates in India.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Because they do not tell the entire story - the story of increasing violence against&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUucHJvcG9zYWxzLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="101 Marriage Proposal Stories" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/c/ca/ca19991231/342486_5508.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; 101 Marriage Proposal Stories&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; women - educated and uneducated - who stick it out in a loveless marriage and brave the cruelties for the sake of children, having nowhere to go in a society which accepts the male domination as a natural order of things. Besides there are minefields specific to many Indian marriages, such as how to live in joint families and manage the expectations of not only the spouse, but the in-laws as well.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Instead I would focus on the proof-of-concept of arranged marriages and its dynamics in the present day India where the new breed of MBA-educated women are no longer prepared to be docile wives, yet they give the green signal to their parents to look for a potential partner.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; In most progressive families the parents decide who gets through the initial vetting, but the final decision is the couple's. Some parents make material demands in the spousal search for their children who might consider such factors irrelevant and robbing the mystery and allure of the marriage. But many parents are cool - "I'm happy if you are happy" - so they do their bit, and the time-strapped children are happy to be relieved of the tedium. One is not allowed to take the time it takes to get to know someone, but has to decide on a deadline. The couple get married based on practical reasons, and work on building affection later. They look beyond trivial issues and get to know one another at first on a practical level alone - like education, career, and attitude - and try not to be too judgemental.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; So now, why does that work? &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuZ2VvdHJhdnJjLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Culture Briefings are your guides to foreign cultures, customs and traditions" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/j/je/jeinny/342808_4583.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Culture Briefings are your guides to foreign cultures, customs and traditions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; May be it is culture, tradition or whatever; once you're married, the society puts pressure to keep it working. One doesn't jump out the first available exit point at the sign of a firework. Everybody, including the family and friends, works at dousing the fire.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; In the movie &lt;i&gt;Fiddler on the Roof&lt;/i&gt;,based on the life in the early twentieth century in the Russian village of Anatevka, Tevye, the milkman, asks his wife Golde if she loved him. And she replies&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Do I love you?&lt;br/&gt; For twenty-five years I've washed your clothes&lt;br/&gt; Cooked your meals, cleaned your house&lt;br/&gt; Given you children, milked the cow&lt;br/&gt; After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; But Tevye insists; and Golde says, "I suppose I do" and together they sing&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; It doesn't change a thing&lt;br/&gt; But even so&lt;br/&gt; After twenty-five years&lt;br/&gt; It's nice to know&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; So they didn't call it love; but nevertheless love followed years of committed companionship as automatically as a shadow.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Dr Howard J. Markman, from the University of Denver, and co-author of &lt;i&gt;Fighting For Your Marriage&lt;/i&gt; believes that the western culture puts a premium on the capriciousness of love.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Markman says that most marriages fail because we enter relationships with poor communication skills and unrealistic expectations. &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUubXdlYmIuaG9wLmNsaWNrYmFuay5uZXQ=" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="500 Lovemaking Tips &amp;amp;amp; Secrets: Increase passion and intimacy through great sex" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/d/do/donners/334820_3265.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; 500 Lovemaking Tips &amp;amp; Secrets: Increase passion and intimacy through great sex&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; There's a science to staying in love; at the heart of love is intimacy and friendship, not passion and drama. Too many people believe in the myth that passion provides us with the fuel to get through life together.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Robert Epstein, who is editor-in-chief of &lt;i&gt;Psychology Today&lt;/i&gt; and a research professor at the California School of Professional Psychology, declares that love is anything but blind. He believes that instead of simply waiting for Mr. or Mrs. Right to come into our lives, we can "make a conscious, serious and sustained effort" to trust, communicate, resolve mutual conflicts, and love somebody with whom we share some attraction and a basic compatibility.&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; That's arranged marriage for you, Susan. &lt;p&gt;Uma Shankari is a Bangalore-based freelance writer, passionate about writing on development issues.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://talkativebeech.blogspot.com/2005/09/ten-steps-to-building-good-credit.html"&gt; Ten Steps To Building A Good Credit History&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://stubbornbarcelona.blogspot.com/2005/09/learn-to-assert-yourself-find.html"&gt; Learn to Assert Yourself&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sensitivemountains.blogspot.com/2005/09/regional-cuisines-of-chinese-cooking.html"&gt; The Regional Cuisines of Chinese Cooking (Part 4 of 4)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://thoroughmuseum.blogspot.com/2005/09/setting-prices-pricing-your-consulting.html"&gt; Setting Prices - Pricing Your Consulting Services&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://bossybeech.blogspot.com/2005/09/why-do-they-buy-free-search-engine.html"&gt; Why Do They Buy?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://epicurianbeech.blogspot.com/2005/09/looking-for-new-hair-styles-or.html"&gt; Looking for New Hair Styles or a Completely Different Look?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://pessimisticfencing.blogspot.com/2005/09/diets-diets-dietsdo-they-work-healthy.html"&gt; Diets, Diets, Diets...Do They Work?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://genuinegypsy.blogspot.com/2005/09/first-web-hosting-experience-what-is.html"&gt; First Web Hosting Experience&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://sinceremartial.blogspot.com/2005/09/build-credibility-with-expertise.html"&gt; Build Credibility with Expertise&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://nicesystems.blogspot.com/2005/09/believe-in-yourself-joint-pain-relief.html"&gt; Believe in Yourself!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112820385113552252?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112820385113552252/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112820385113552252' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112820385113552252'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112820385113552252'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/should-you-sell-your-home-yourself.html' title='Should You Sell Your Home Yourself?. Does the Arranged Marriage Work?.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112802464325535996</id><published>2005-09-29T13:10:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-09-29T13:10:43.263-07:00</updated><title type='text'>How Do You Make A Website?. Negotiate Like a P.R.O..</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUuNjY2NjY2LmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Michael Webb's Relationship ebook collection" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/t/th/thisismike/349450_8552.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Michael Webb's Relationship ebook collection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;No, that's not the real question. The real question is "How in the Heck Do You Make a Website???"&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You do not have to buy software. You do not have to invest $300 in a special online program, either. You can do this for free.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;My websites were created for free and I did them myself. I knew almost nothing about making a website. I did not use any store-bought programs whatsoever. (Actually, I did buy "Front Page." I never got around to figuring it out. My daughter zipped out a website on "Front Page" in minutes. But kids these days can do that sort of thing. Not me!)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A friend of mine mentioned that his websites are free. That is how I found out about this avenue for getting on the web. And now I'm going to tell you the BIG SECRET - and this company is not going to give me any commission for doing so, but that's all right. I'll tell you what I wish someone had told me before I spent two hundred bucks on "Front Page" - which, by the way, I do hope to learn one day, but right now I have a business to run, like you!!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The big secret is tripod.com. Now there may be plenty of other similar places out there, but if you're like me, you've never heard of any of them. In the very short time I have been working on my websites with Tripod, I have grown to LOVE this way of making a website. It is so fast and easy, and it's such a pleasure to make a quick change when I see the need. I click a few things, and it's automatically and instantly changed on the Worldwide Web!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;That's a big difference from two years ago when I did manage to make a very basic web page with the beginner's program that came with my computer. The process of "uploading" the page to the internet was a lot more involved. I had to be very sure I did exactly the right thing - on the right file - in the right index. Not so with Tripod - it's all automatically done for you with the click of your mouse.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When I came back into the internet business world just recently, I knew I needed more of a website than just the "one-page wonder" I'd come up with last time. And I had no idea how I was going to do that. But Tripod has come to my rescue. Now I seem to be hooked!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;At first, it was slow going to get the hang of making a Tripod website. I wasn't so sure I liked the selection of designs that they had to choose from, either. But I found that I could customize many designs so that they would look entirely original. And after I made the first website, which took me quite a few hours, it was very easy to make the second one. And as I continued to work with Tripod, it soon became a snap to do anything I wanted to do.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For example, once a page (or a website) is the way you want, you can simply copy it, and this makes working on another one almost effortless.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I also found out that I can make as many websites as I want on just one Tripod account. I am doing exactly that as I gain ideas for new websites.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Before I found Tripod, I had purchased several domain names. I can use these domain names with my Tripod websites, so that you cannot tell that my website is a Tripod site (well, now, for you at least, my secret's out...).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I have only one complaint about Tripod: when I emailed the technical support, I always seemed to receive form letters or partial form letters, some of which did not seem to address my questions. At one point, that got me very frustrated. I responded with an email with lots of emphatic, ALL-CAPS pleas for the answers to my questions!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I got back yet another form answer...kept searching...and so far I have figured out all the answers to my questions on my own.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So all in all, I'm happy with my websites...not too bad for someone who knows nothing about HTML (technical website language). What I love most of all is the amount of control I have over the finished product.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you're looking for answers on how in the heck to make a website, give Tripod a try, as I did. Once you give it a little time, it's actually fun to work with. Try working with it for free until you get your website the way you want it. Then you can consider paying the small fee - $4.95 per month - to have your website run without any ads. I think it's an incredible bargain, and I'm absolutely thrilled to have found this solution to making a website.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Let me know if this advice has proven helpful for you! And check out my websites to see examples of what your tripod.com website can look like. Mine are fairly plain, but there are loads of options available. Enjoy the process of making your own website!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Sarah Tanner is a writer about relationships and charm. Visit her website, &lt;a href="http://www.howtohavecharm.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.howtohavecharm.com&lt;/a&gt;, and sign up there for her unique emails about charm and relationships. You will receive free ebooks on relationships and self-improvement with each email! You are welcome to reprint this article if you include this resource box with all links unchanged.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;p&gt;Whether you're negotiating a peace settlement in a war-torn country or a peace settlement in an argument-ravaged relationship, strong preparation is the key to success.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The following three steps will help you establish the three keys to your preparation - why you are involved in the negotiation, how you intend to conduct the negotiation, and what are the specific outcomes you are hoping to agree upon.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1. Purpose&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Knowing why you are engaged in a negotiation&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUucnlib2V1ay5ob3AuY2xpY2tiYW5rLm5ldA==" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Sample Job Interview Questions Employer Salary Negotiation Tip" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/t/tv/tvvoodoo/330140_6118.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Sample Job Interview Questions Employer Salary Negotiation Tip&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; may seem obvious in some situations (to buy a lamp, to stop a fight, etc.), but more complex negotiations generally have more complex purposes. &lt;p&gt;Ask yourself:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;-Why am I negotiating?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;-What are the potential benefits?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;-What do I ultimately hope to achieve?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;2. Result/Relationship Balance&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A "transaction" is high result/low relationship - we get what we want, and the other person is incidental to the exchange. Buying a used car is generally a "transaction".&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"Relationship-builders" are meetings, calls, and exchanges of value where developing the relationship between the two parties is far more important than the actual tangible "result" outcome. Early meetings in any project are usually "relationship-builders" - what gets done is far less important than connections being made.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A true "Deal" is where there is a high emphasis on both getting what you want and enhancing your relationship for the future - this "win/win" thinking takes more time and effort, but is essential in any sort of long-term agreement. Successful political (and marital!) negotiations are always predicated on achieving this balance.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Give yourself the following test:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you had 20 points to distribute between creating the Result you want and enhancing the Relationship, how would you do it?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Example (Result/Relationship):&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;15/5 - Transaction&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;5/15 - Relationship builder&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;10/10 - Deal&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;3. Outcomes and Options&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When it comes to negotiation, having a clear outcome, goal, or target in mind has been shown to be one of the primary determinants in how things come out.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ask yourself the following questions:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;-What specifically do I want?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;-What specifically do I think they want?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;-What are some plausible options that will get us both what we want?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Bonus Tip: If you're using this to prepare for an important negotiation, take some extra time to answer the questions AS IF you were the other person in the negotiation. You will be pleasantly surprised at the insights you gain from this process.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Have fun, learn heaps, and the next time you negotiate, do it like a P.R.O.!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Michael Neill is a licensed Master Trainer&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 200px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://tietie.ru/redir.php?aHR0cDovL2JvbWJvemUua2F6ZWVpbmNiLmhvcC5jbGlja2JhbmsubmV0" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Advice and Vital Information Center for life, relationships and happiness" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/h/hr/hrotgers/363981_5073.jpg" width="180"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Advice and Vital Information Center for life, relationships and happiness&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; of NLP and has written over 450 articles on in the areas of business success, money, relationships, health, happiness, well-being, and spirituality. His weekly coaching column is reprinted in newspapers and magazines throughout the world, and can be found online at &lt;a href="http://www.geniuscatalyst.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.geniuscatalyst.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://lovingjapan.blogspot.com/2005/09/top-10-ideas-to-revive-fizzling.html"&gt; Top 10 Ideas to Revive a Fizzling Relationship&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://helpfulaphrodite.blogspot.com/2005/09/property-investing-secrets-4-how-to.html"&gt; Property Investing Secrets 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://diligentdrywall.blogspot.com/2005/09/keyboard-cleaning-aerodynamic-changes.html"&gt; Keyboard Cleaning&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://possessivesoccer.blogspot.com/2005/09/your-voice-print-independent-research.html"&gt; Your Voice Print&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://caringcinemas.blogspot.com/2005/09/how-to-live-life-of-no-problems-garden.html"&gt; How To Live A Life Of No Problems&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112802464325535996?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112802464325535996/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112802464325535996' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112802464325535996'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112802464325535996'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/09/how-do-you-make-website-negotiate-like.html' title='How Do You Make A Website?. Negotiate Like a P.R.O..'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112783762519078664</id><published>2005-09-27T09:13:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-09-27T09:13:45.216-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Importance of Keywords - Wrong Keywords Means No Traffic!. Look Back, Look Forward and Learn.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;div style="width: 150px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://bomboze.wtmagic.hop.clickbank.net" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Wordtracker magic - How To Instantly Mine Pure Gold From Wordtracker's Database&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;If your new to the internet marketing world, you might not understand how vitally important choosing the right keywords for your website is. Most people who put up a website (designers included) don't realize that the right keywords on your website will improve your search engine rankability.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When a person goes to a search engine like Google or others, they type in a word or phrase that they want information on. This is what we call a keyword. For instance if the person was looking to buy a new golf club, he might type in 'golf clubs' or 'golf shop' or another variation. So if you were a golf store you would want to have those and other related keywords within your site.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 150px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-left: 10px; float: right;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://bomboze.ezseo.hop.clickbank.net" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Nichefinder Review - keyword research tool" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/1/s/c/co/cookai/194996_1805.jpg" width="120"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Nichefinder Review - keyword research tool&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; So what if you understand the importance of keywords but don't do any keyword research? Instead you simply think about your product or service and come up with keywords that you think people will search for? At first this might sound like a good idea but in reality you risk losing many potential customers. &lt;p&gt;What do you think happens if you pick a bunch of words or phrases that people aren't actually searching for? Or you don't think of all the hundreds of other keywords that relate to your product or service and therefore lose potential clients?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You might have the best of intentions when thinking of your own keywords, but it's better to do a thorough keyword search before beginning any website project.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There are a few different places that you can perform these keyword searches.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1. Wordtracker is a great online tool found at www.wordtracker.com You can sign up for a free trial to test it out. This is the most thorough keyword research tool that I have found. You can easily find several thousand related keywords in one search. I created a free ebook that you can download that will help walk you through all the steps of doing an in depth keyword research with Wordtracker. You can download it at http://www.westmarketing-design.com/wordtracker.pdf&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;2. Overture is actually a paid per click advertising center, but they do offer a keyword search tool if you can find it.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;They like to move it around a lot so it doesn't get too abused. As of this article you can find it by going to www.overture.com then clicking on 'advertiser center' in the top right corner. Then under the tools table on the right click on 'keyword selector tool'.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This tool is similar to the one at wordtracker but does not give you as in depth a search nor as many options. It is still good though to use different resources so that your making sure to get all the related keywords you possibly can.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;3. Teoma is an often overlooked place to also gather keywords. It is actually a search engine of its own, but has a cool little feature that can help you choose more keywords.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When you type in a word or phrase to search it also gives you two sections on the right hand side that can help you out.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The first is 'refine' which shows related keywords to your search that you might also want to search on. These are extra keywords. You can keep clicking on the keywords in this section with each new page offering more related searches.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The second section is called 'resources' which provides websites that have gatheres links on your specific search topic. This is great to see what kind of competition you got going and check out what works and what doesn't.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So there you go, three ways to conduct a really thorough keyword research.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Leah West&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.westmarketing-design.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.westmarketing-design.com&lt;/a&gt; Providing complete search engine optimized website design and internet marketing services for your small business success.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 150px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://bomboze.toyguide.hop.clickbank.net" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Baby Development Milestones: The Secrets of Best Babies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Our calendars are full, and our to-do lists are long. We live in a world that seems to bring more information, expectations and options to us each day and all of these things tend to accelerate the pace of our lives.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There was a time, not that long ago that a trip across the United States. would take a couple of days by train. While this was much faster than previously available transportation, it is still quite leisurely compared to the 4-5 hour flight that we can now take.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In those seemingly slower times we surmise that we would have had time to stop and think. Today we argue our time is limited and too valuable to stop and just think. There is too much to do. It is precisely because of all of the tasks, stimulus and diversions that it is important that we stop.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Just stop and think.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Maybe you can't or don't want to do this every day. Even so, there are a variety of times in our professional and personal lives when we will especially benefit from looking at the past to help us prepare to be more successful in the future.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As leaders and professionals, the times might include:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� At the end of a project&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� Before the start of a new project&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� After a team or organizational milestone has been reached&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� At the start of a New Year&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� When a team is formed&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� When team membership has changed&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As individuals the times for doing this include:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� At the start of a new job&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� At the time of a major life change&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� After reaching a major goal or milestone (turning 30, finishing your college degree, etc.)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� At the start of a New Year&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� At the start of a new calendar quarter&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;All of these are excellent times to count our lessons, capitalize on our experience and gauge our wisdom. In other words - these are times to capture what we have learned so that we can capitalize on that learning as we move into our future.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;How?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Take the time to both look back and look forward from your current situation. One of the best ways to do that is with questions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Before beginning, find a quiet comfortable place to sit down with a pad of paper or your journal. This is not a task best suited for typing at your computer. There is something about physically writing your responses to these questions that is valuable.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Remember that what you write is for your eyes only - which means it may have doodles, drawings, arrows, phrases, and incomplete sentences - whatever. This is not meant to be literature; rather it is a place and a process for you to capture your thoughts so that you can use those insights.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Here then are 12 questions that you can use to help you with this important task.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� What is the most valuable thing I learned?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� Who did I learn the most from?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� What was the most fun?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� What did I accomplish?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� What would I have done differently (or would I do differently, knowing what I know now)?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� What are the three most significant events?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� How did I most contribute to those around me?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� What do I feel best about?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� What am I grateful for?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� How will these lessons benefit me or change my approach in the future?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� Who do I most want to learn from now?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;�€� What are my goals?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Don't get overwhelmed by the number or nature of these questions. They are guidelines. You may not be able to complete all of your writing in one sitting - that is ok too. What is important is that you take advantage of the opportunity to learn from your experience.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The process can be used with a project or work team, board or others. The questions can be slightly modified and the process now likely involves flipchart paper rather than a journal, but the reasons for doing it are just as compelling and the results just as valuable.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Kevin Eikenberry is Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (&lt;a href="http://KevinEikenberry.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://KevinEikenberry.com&lt;/a&gt;), a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. To receive your free special report on "Unleashing Your Potential" go to &lt;a href="http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/index.asp" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/index.asp&lt;/a&gt; or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;small&gt;&lt;b&gt;OTHER INTERESTING POSTS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://gorgeouswriters.blogspot.com/2005/09/design-psychology-beds-and-emotional.html"&gt; Design Psychology: Beds and Emotional Well-Being&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://independentcopernicus.blogspot.com/2005/09/types-of-home-equity-loans-seasoning.html"&gt; Types of Home Equity Loans&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://gentlepan.blogspot.com/2005/09/safely-get-your-free-full-movie.html"&gt; Safely Get Your Free Full Movie Download&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://lovingcedar.blogspot.com/2005/09/how-useful-is-dream-dictionary-really.html"&gt; How Useful is a Dream Dictionary Really?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;a href="http://understandinghard.blogspot.com/2005/09/respiratory-help-is-available-for.html"&gt; Respiratory Help Is Available For Seniors With COPD&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/small&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112783762519078664?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112783762519078664/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112783762519078664' title='4 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112783762519078664'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112783762519078664'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/09/importance-of-keywords-wrong-keywords.html' title='Importance of Keywords - Wrong Keywords Means No Traffic!. Look Back, Look Forward and Learn.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17104394.post-112766147713366046</id><published>2005-09-25T08:17:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-09-25T08:17:57.143-07:00</updated><title type='text'>What Is A FICO Score?. Designer Handbags -- How Do You Know When Your Addicted?.</title><content type='html'>&lt;div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt; &lt;p&gt;Your FICO score or credit score as it's commonly called is a very important calculation that can control whether or not you are eligible to receive credit and if eligible the terms you can receive credit under. Failure to understand the impact this score can have on you future purchasing power and lifestyle can be disastrous. This article will break down all the information you need to know regarding your FICO score.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style="width: 150px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://bomboze.lomist.hop.clickbank.net" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Learn How To Save Time and Money When Paying Bills. Improve FICO, credit rating and increase your financial savings." border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/m/mu/munibren/373288_4927.jpg" width="120"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Learn How To Save Time and Money When Paying Bills. Improve FICO, credit rating and increase your fi...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; As I mentioned above the FICO score is a numerical score that is based on your financial history as collected in your credit report. Creditors can use this number to evaluate whether or not you are able to pay a loan back on time. The higher the score the more likely you are to pay off a loan on time and the less of a credit risk you pose. &lt;p&gt;The FICO or credit score ranges are broken down as follows:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;720-850 - This represent the best score range&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;700-719 - Able to obtain favorable financing terms&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;675-699- This is still a decent score range&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;620-674 - May have trouble obtaining favorable credit terms&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;560-619 - May have trouble obtaining credit&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;500-559 - Time to improve your score&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Your credit score is broken down into 5 distinct categories each with their own importance based on a percentile. The 5 categories and the percentage they represent I relation to your credit score are as follows:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Payment History - 35%&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Amounts Owed - 30%&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Length of Credit History - 15%&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;New Credit - 10%&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Types of Credit Used - 10%&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Your payment history contains information on credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts and any mortgages you may have had. It also details any past due accounts and the amount owed on hem. You will also find bankruptcy information as well as other adverse information in regards to your credit history. This is why it warrants a 35% piece of the pie.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Your amount owed is generally speaking the amount owed on any accounts you currently have and number of accounts with balances. Note that it has a large impact (30%) on your credit score. The length of your credit history details when accounts were opened and the last activity on those accounts. New credit shows the number of recently opened accounts by the type of account and number of account inquiries. Finally the type of credit used is a snapshot of what types of financing you have held.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Other information that is included in your credit report but has no bearing on your FICO score includes your race, age, where you live and your sex and employment information. Although the FICO score doesn't use these factors the employment information may be used by other companies and creditors to help in their decision making process.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There are three major credit-reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion that have your credit information on hand. Each of these credit bureaus maintains their information separately, which can cause the financial data to be slightly different among the three of them. Most experts agree that in order to get the best snapshot of your financial history and credit worthiness it is a good idea to request a report from each of the reporting agencies. It is also highly recommended that you actually review your credit report once a year in order to identify and correct any errors before they cause any future potential problems when you apply for credit. Recent changes in the laws no allow for consumers to request 1 free credit report each year in order to look for any such errors.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Here is the contact information for each of the three reporting credit bureaus:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Equifax: (800) 685-1111, www.equifax.com&lt;br/&gt; Experian: (888) 397-3742, www.experian.com&lt;br/&gt; TransUnion: (800) 888-4213, www.transunion.com&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As you can see your FICO Score is a very important number that represents your financial trustworthiness in the eyes of creditors. Failure to properly monitor it could cause you future headaches when it comes time to apply for any form of credit.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Debt-Relief-Solutions.com. He provides more debt relief, consolidation and &lt;a href="http://www.debt-relief-solutions.com/credit-repair.html" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;credit repair information&lt;/a&gt; that you can research in your pajamas on his website.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br clear="all"/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; &lt;div style="width: 150px; overflow-x: hidden; padding: 10px; background: #f3f3f3; border: 1px solid #d3d3d3; text-align: center; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"&gt; &lt;a href="http://bomboze.searchhits.hop.clickbank.net" style="color: #444444; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Verdana;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;img alt="Christmas ebooks recipes, crafts,kids activities, and xmas stories" border="0" src="http://static.sxc.hu/pic/2/s/t/t0/t0rus/371096_2443.jpg" width="120"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; &lt;br/&gt; Christmas ebooks recipes, crafts,kids activities, and xmas stories&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;You love designer handbags. You collect them, lust after them and treat them better than your nearest and dearest.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Your credit cards twitch and flinch when the latest fashion magazines arrive in the post, small wimpering sounds carrying to you gently from your purse.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You convince yourself that you can give them up anytime, no problem.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"It's not a problem" you tell your friends "I can control it".&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Then you catch yourself signing your husband up for an evening job without his knowledge, visions of the latest Hyanuki creation shimmering in front of your eyes as you fill out his application form.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Are you an addict? Is your habit becoming dangerous? Will it all end in tears?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Well, if any of the following symptoms are familiar to you -- maybe you should consider cutting down for a while to a lesser brand!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1) You hear the phrases "huffing", "shluffing" and "blopping" and know what they mean. Even worse, you can remember the last time you did any of them.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;2) The UPS / FEDEX delivery men know you by your first name and say "Hi" to you in the street.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;3) Your husband is convinced you're having an affair with the delivery guy as he's always at your house!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;4) The "box" room has been renamed your "dressing room" and you're trying to work out which wall to knock down to make it bigger so that you can fit in the new closets you'll need for all your bags.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;5) Your husband is telling you how badly damaged the cards are and how you'll both have to economise. All you hear is "Of course you can get another handbag darling. You go choose what you want and I'll arrange to sell a kidney!"&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;6) You have to find new places to hide your latest purchases so that you don't have to answer any difficult questions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;7) When you get asked about a new bag you lie through your teeth, claiming you've had it for years and have only just got it out of the cupboard.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;8) You start arguments on purpose with your husband / boyfriend / whatever just so as to have an excuse to buy yourself a new handbag -- to cheer yourself up as you felt so low!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;9) You know exactly how much, as a percentage, your weekly grocery bill is as money you can't spend on a new handbag.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;10) If anyone asks what you'd like as a birthday or xmas pressie, you're able to hand out a list of your desired bags that you'd like to&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;be "surprised" with. The list is categorized by 17 different headings and is cross indexed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;11) The manager of your local boutique phones you to advise that they are holding a training session for new staff and can they please borrow some of your bags for the session.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;12) They then phone back again and ask if you'd be prepared to give the training session instead.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;13) Fashion magazines phone you to ask what you think the newest trend or design will be for the new season.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;14) Your collection is so big -- you have to use a card index to find the bag you need right now!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;15) You walk past a field of cows and spend the next thirty minutes working out in your head how many bags and trim the herd would be good for.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If any of these strike you just a little too close for comfort -- maybe you should consider cutting down a bit?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Just don't try going cold turkey -- it hurts like hell!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Copyright:: Rufus Steele 2005&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Rufus Steele is the author and creator of the &lt;a href="http://www.1st-4-louis-vuitton.com" style="color: black;" target="_new"&gt;Louis Vuitton Handbags&lt;/a&gt; website, a site dedicated to all things Louis Vuitton&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Article Source: &lt;a href="http://ezinearticles.com" style="color: black;"&gt;http://EzineArticles.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17104394-112766147713366046?l=motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/feeds/112766147713366046/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17104394&amp;postID=112766147713366046' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112766147713366046'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17104394/posts/default/112766147713366046'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://motivatedcottonwood.blogspot.com/2005/09/what-is-fico-score-designer-handbags.html' title='What Is A FICO Score?. Designer Handbags -- How Do You Know When Your Addicted?.'/><author><name>motivatedcottonwood</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11183790289173750269</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry></feed>
