Saturday, January 26, 2008

Here’s Why You Need To Use Landing Pages


All the products that you want to sell online are ready. You have already signed up with the Google Adsense program or with other affiliate marketing programs and you have already prepared the ad you want to post on your affiliate’s site.

Your mind is now set to being the next most successful online businessman. But is there anything else that you might have forgotten to prepare? Maybe none. But how about your landing pages? Are they all set for your business?

Landing pages are simply web pages where visitors are directed to whenever they click a result in a web search or whenever they click a web ad. For affiliate marketing, landing pages would refer to the web page where you, as a merchant, would want your potential customer to be directed after clicking your ad on your affiliate’s website.

Landing pages are, at most times, nothing really different from other web pages in a particular website, especially if the said website is an e-commerce site. Some online businessmen would even use the homepage of their websites as the landing page for their ads. Are these businessmen making a big mistake? Or should you follow their method in creating landing pages for their ads?

Well, you can always follow what most online retailers do, directing their potential customers to the homepages of their websites. But if you want to achieve something more from your online business, and if you want to earn a lot of profits, you better create a special landing page for your web ads. Why? Here are a few reasons why you need to use landing pages for your web ads. And take note, it would do you a lot better if you create a great landing page than a so-so one.

Reason no. 1: It is the only way you earn conversions in an affiliate marketing program.

There are a variety of affiliate marketing programs today, but most of these programs let the merchant pay the affiliate in a pay per click basis. Basically, all you have to do is sign up with the program and submit your ad. The program owner would then distribute your ad to various affiliates who would then place your ad on their websites. Whenever your ad is clicked, a visitor would be directed to your landing page and you would have to pay the affiliate for his service.

As a merchant, you earn in an affiliate program through conversions’that is whenever a visitor that is directed to your site actually buys a product on your site. Without these conversions, you actually earn nothing from the program. Also, the more visitors that your affiliates have directed to your site, the larger would your expense be. And the only way that you can recover from these expenses is through conversions.

Now, you sure won’t get any conversion if you have posted an ad on your affiliate’s site without an actual landing page for the potential customer to be redirected into. It’s just like advertising a product without actually having a store to sell your product. Your advertisement may be enticing enough to encourage people to purchase a product, but without the landing page, how will they know how to purchase the product

It is therefore important to have landing pages for your ads because it is the only way for you to earn something in an affiliate program. Without landing pages, all you do is spend money paying your affiliates without actually getting anything in return.

Reason no. 2: Other web pages may just not be enough.

Many people make the mistake of making their website’s homepage as the landing page for their ads. The same is true for those who make use of other pages like a "contact us" page or a product page. Homepages are often designed to serve multiple users and contains a lot of links to other pages or to other websites. The same is with the other two pages mentioned. If you want to be successful in an affiliate program, we’re sure that you don’t want your landing page to cater to the needs of various people, most of which may not be really interested with your product.

When choosing a landing page, you must always have the customer directed into that page in mind. Therefore, your landing page must be relevant to the keywords and the contents you placed on your ad. It is also important that the landing page can induce your visitor to take action that is to purchase your product or at least provide leads for potential customers.

Final Word

You probably entered into an affiliate marketing program with these things in mind: to save on advertising expenses and to gain more profit. But if you get into an affiliate marketing program without actually having a landing page, you’ll end up paying too much without getting anything in return.

So if you still don’t have a landing page for your ads, you better start creating one now. And don’t get us wrong; it isn’t enough for you to have just a landing page. It should be a great landing page!

Tips on Making an Effective Sales Presentation


An effective sales presentation can really help you for your marketing of both products and services. Even though you might be nervous about your presentation, believe in yourself. You can have a very effective presentation with a little preparation and little bit of practice. After you are through with the presentation, you will be proud of how well you did. Here are some tips on making an effective sales presentation.

The first thing that you must do is try to relax. Take a few deep breaths before you go into the presentation. Focus on the moment instead of thinking about all the different things you need to say or the aspects that you may have forgotten at the last minute. You will be pleasantly surprised at just how prepared you are for the sales presentation after you begin speaking. If you are nervous, it will show while you are talking to the group. Your palms will sweat and your heart will race. Take a few moments to relax, breathe, and focus on the moment.

Be on time for your presentation. Being late will only cause you to feel frazzled and even more nervous. You cannot take time to relax prior to the presentation if you are late. Allow extra time for traffic. If the sales presentation is in a new location, drive the route the day before to determine how long it will take for driving. Try to drive it at the same time of day that your presentation will be so you will have a better feel for traffic. Allow an additional twenty minutes to get to the presentation. For example, if the route you drove the day prior to the presentation took you thirty minutes, allow yourself fifty minutes the day of the presentation. If there is a traffic accident or other unforeseen problem, you can still be at the presentation on time. Additionally, it will give you time to find a parking place and to walk to the room the presentation is being held.

Get a good night’s rest prior to the sales presentation. Fatigue shows on all of us and will make you appear unprepared for your presentation. Additionally, being tired for a presentation will make it more difficult to remember the order of your talk and highlight the fine details of the presentation. Wind down before bedtime so that you can get a good night’s rest prior to the sales presentation.

Eat a good breakfast the day of the presentation. If the presentation is in the afternoon, eat a hearty lunch. Avoid foods that give you heart burn or gas. It is difficult to give a good sales presentation if your stomach is hungry. If you avoid troublesome foods, you can concentrate on your sales presentation instead of worrying about embarrassing incidents. Regardless of what time of day that the sales presentation is a healthy breakfast will get your day started on the right track and make the entire day flow smoother, including the sales presentation. Following some of these simple tips will help you to give a good sales presentation!

Having Trouble Improving Your Google Ranking?


Google is by far the most important search engine on the net. To rise to the top of their search engine, you need to improve your link popularity and you need to understand how they measure your link popularity (over 50% of all search engine traffic comes from Google, and if you can rise to the top, you will likely rise to the top of all the other search engines as well).

Link popularity is defined as the number of sites that are linking to your site. Some websites have thousands or even millions of sites linking to them, while others might have only a few. The search engines use the number of inbound links your site has as a measure of how important your site is, which translates into your search engine ranking.

The actual number of links to your site is not the only variable used to calculate your link popularity. The search engines also examine the relevance of the links to the subject matter of your site. For example, if a website that sells vitamins has 4,000 inbound links, but the source of most of the links are websites that have nothing to do with vitamins, then the algorithm that search engines use to determine link popularity will take that into account, and the link popularity score will not be very good.

It is possible for a website with a relatively small number of quality inbound links to be ranked higher than a site with a bunch of irrelevant or insignificant links. If I have a website that offers quotes for auto insurance, and I have 800 quality inbound links, then I might receive a much higher search engine ranking than another mortgage site that has 3,000 links that stem from link farms or Free For All (FFA) pages.

If you try to acquire inbound by using link farms or FFA pages, not only will it hurt your search engine ranking, but you might get permanently removed from the search engine listings. Links farms are sites where you can instantly exchange links with all the sites listed in that directory. FFA pages are pointless link directories. The search engines usually discount any links that come from either of these sources.

Now that we understand what link popularity is and how it works, we need to look specifically at how Google measures it. They use a number of variables in their algorithm to calculate your overall link score. The higher your score, the higher you will be ranked in the search listings.

One factor that Google uses in their algorithm, obviously, is the total number of sites linking to you. The more links you have, the higher your score will be. However, their algorithm is a little more complicated than that, and it is possible for a website with fewer links to be ranked higher than a website that has more links.

The reason for this is because Google also measures the quality of your links. If your website is about vitamins, and the site linking to you is a video game site, then that is not considered a quality link. The link still helps your score, but the link would help your score much more if it were from a website whose subject matter is the same as yours.

Also, Google gives a higher score to a link if it comes from a page that has actual content that relates to your keywords. For example, if your site is about jewelry, and another jewelry website has posted a link to your site on their links page, that link is not as valuable as a link to your site coming from a blog or a message board where a lot of information about jewelry is being written or discussed.

Also, they give an even higher score to a link if it contains anchor text that matches one of the keywords that describes your site. For example, if I have a site that sells lawnmowers, and a blog about lawnmowers has posted a link to my site, it helps my score even more if the link text (also known as anchor text) is LAWNMOWERS. To learn more about anchor text, go to a search engine and look up ANCHOR TEXT and you will be able to learn about it.

Another factor used by Google to score your link popularity is the diversity of keywords contained on sites linking to you. For example, if you have a site that sells handbags, and all the links to your site are from other sites that contain nothing but the keyword HANDBAGS, Google considers that to be abnormal. To get a higher score, you need to have links coming from sites that contain a variety of keywords related to handbags, such as BUY HANDBAGS, LEATHER HANDBAGS, etc.

It is difficult to increase your link popularity, but now that you understand how your score is calculated, you can devise a plan to improve your score. You might want to consider posting to forums and blogs that contain information that is related to your site, and when you post, include a link to your site.

Insulation Can Reduce Heating Bills ’For Years’


Getting insulation installed into homes could help consumers reduce their financial burden, according to one industry commentator.

Neil Marshall, chief executive of the National Insulation Association (NIA), reports that as the cold winter months set in now is an "ideal time" for homeowners to get lofts and cavity walls insulated, with a home loan one possible way of funding the expense of such a move. Overall, he claimed that the form of home improvement can set consumers back by about 500 pounds, although there are "plenty of grants and subsidies" available in which to help lower the cost of insulation material. Consequently getting insulation could not only reduce heating bills but in turn may help consumers reduce demands on other areas of their finances such as mortgages and plastic cards.

He said: "We’re now seeing the coming on of the cold weather; we’re really moving into the heavy quarters in terms of energy bills - the heavy period is really October to February - so I would argue that the quicker you get insulation installed, the quicker you can make savings on the bills that are going to be coming through next year."

The NIA executive also pointed to research from the Energy Saving Trust revealing that loft and cavity wall insulation would save consumers about 100 pounds and 90 pounds respectively over the course of a year - and with this totaling 190 pounds it is a sum that may help people make homeowner loan repayments or spend on more luxurious items. Mr Marshall added that if consumers can get the cost of having insulation installed subsidised then they would have recouped their original expenditure in less than three years. In addition, he asserted that as "insulation is there for life" consumers will continually be able to make savings on a "year-on-year" basis.

Despite people being able to purchase insulation at any time of the year - whether through a homeowner loan or other means - the NIA executive suggested that the majority of consumers wait until temperatures drop before carrying out such work. "As soon as the cold weather sets in, people are looking to get it done," Mr Marshall asserted. He added that although getting insulation fitted is basically the same process at any time of the year, getting such work carried out before the cold truly sets in will be of greater benefit to homeowners, both in terms of keeping their property warm and in a financial sense.

Those people taking out a homeowner loan to fund insulation work in an attempt to reduce their heating bills may also wish to use the money from their loan to get their boilers and radiators serviced. A study carried out by uSwitch earlier this year indicated that over 64 million pounds is to be wasted this year through "unnecessary" repair bills as a result of not having sufficient service checks and insurance put in place.

And with the cost of a new main heat exchanger and radiator setting consumers back by an average of 468 pounds and 291 pounds respectively, getting such appliances serviced regularly could help them avoid coming under financial pressure in the future. Research from the company also showed that a third of all boilers break down within the first six years that of being installed.

Online Dating: 5 Things You Must Do When Meeting for the First Time


Many people refuse to even consider online dating. When you ask them why, you get reasons that range from skepticism about the whole process to fear of what they maybe getting into. A lot of people just want to stick with the tried and true traditional dating. They figure the risks will be a lot less than meeting someone they have never seen in person.

While that is a fair point, it seems to neglect the fact that traditional dating also contains a certain amount of risk. For instance even if a good friend sets you up with a blind date, you have no idea of what you maybe walking into. Yet thousands of people every year still go out on blind dates.

Online dating is no different and like the offline world you have to practice caution and common sense when hooking up for the first time.

1. The Meeting Place
No matter how much you two hit it off when you are chatting online, keep in mind you still do not really know each other. Do not kid yourself into believing that meeting at your house or theirs will put both of you at ease and make the date go better. It might but do not take that chance. You can do perfectly well learning about the other person in a public place. In addition, stay away from secluded areas and places with poor lighting. You can always do some reconnaissance work and scope out the meeting place ahead of time. Try to avoid any first date that appears to start a little too late in the evening. If you are jittery bring along a chaperone and encourage your date to do the same.

2. Transportation
If the two of you have your own cars, then use them. Do not offer to pick your date up and vice versa. Do not have a vehicle? Then make arrangements with a friend or a family member (offer to pay for gas). In the event that your people cannot provide transportation, carry money for a cab or just catch the bus. Politely decline if your date does offer a ride. If you two are on the same wavelength they should understand where you are coming from.

3. Non alcoholic
Drinking has long been a part of the social scene. Nothing wrong with that but try your best to avoid it on your first date. If you do drink, keep it to just one (preferably something very mild) and nurse it. It is not that you are on a quest to get drunk; maybe one beverage does not even affect you but it can impair your judgment no matter how miniscule. When you are on this first date, you want and need all of your faculties to be sharp.

4. Tell someone
Do not just walk out of the house without letting your family and friends know where you are going. If you have a cell phone carry it with you. Make sure you check in with them during and after the date; especially afterwards. To check in during the date, just excuse yourself briefly. The key word here is BRIEFLY. Being away too long might make your date a little nervous.

5. Listen to You
Your mind is telling you the evening is going very well but your intuition is ringing like a five alarm fire bell. If it does not feel right to you then cut the date short and leave at once. Do not be embarrassed and you are under no obligation to go into a detailed explanation of why. Just politely make your apologies and go. Trust your intuition and let it play a major role in your decision making process. Better an awkward exit now then a bad situation later.

Dating carries risks when you are meeting someone for the first time. Sure you want to be relaxed and have a great time but you still must practice some safety tips. Meeting someone new can be exhilarating but to keep it on the positive side requires a little common sense and caution on your part.

Understanding the Wellness Industry


The wellness industry is a very rapid, growing market for both wellness information and wellness products. More so than ever, getting into the wellness industry for a residual income is an excellent opportunity to make some additional money.

There are several ways that you can make a residual income in the wellness industry:

A residual income is money earned as a result of having taken an action and then earning money from that action on a continuous basis. For example, if you place advertisements on your blog and earn money from them, it would be residual income. You would have placed the advertisements and then repeatedly earned the money over and over from them.

There are several ways that you can effectively earn an income in the wellness industry:

One way to earn an income in the wellness industry is to create a blog. You can set up advertising accounts where you are an advertising publisher and have the ads on your blog. Every few days, write about health and wellness topics for your readers. The ads will correspond and you can earn a residual income from them simply by writing a paragraph or two every few days. You can write much longer blogs if you like, it is totally up to you.

Another way to earn income in the wellness industry is to join an affiliate program. As an affiliate, you will earn a it based on sales and referrals from a main wellness company. You do not have to worry about stocking products and you would earn a percentage of all the wellness products that sell from your affiliation.

If you enjoy writing, books are wonderful sellers. You can create several informational electronic books that you can then sell on the internet. You can write on various topics in the wellness industry and explain how to do the different topics. People are hungry for information and this type of residual income often does extremely well.

Do you know a great deal about a particular niche of the wellness industry? For very little in start up costs, you can create a members only type of website that provides information in your niche. The initial pages will, of course, have to be free, but provide a special members only area for people in your particular niche of the wellness industry. You can generate a steady stream of residual income from the membership fees.

To be successful at earning a steady stream of income, many people do not limit themselves to one avenue. Instead, they use several niches to create several sources of residual income to have a steady flow that enables them to work with minimum amount of time for a steady flow of money. Pick the types of residual income that appeal the most to you and stay with the wellness industry for the greatest earning potential.

Low Ticket Offering: Business Developing Strategy


One effective business developing strategy is all about the cost of your products or services you offered. It is an important medium to get your win the confidence of your prospect clients- a good deal pumps profit for your business. However, you have to recognize the fact that affordability + quality bring out the best performance for your business strategy game. In other words, you have to (as much as possible) lessen the cost without compromising the product or service quality.

Cost efficient product or services augment your reputation in the market. Meaning, your product or services should perform well even if it costs lower. You have to remember that customer does not want to end up with regrets even if the product they subscribed is given at a lower price.

In electronic or e business marketing strategy, the same idea would apply and (perhaps) much important to apply because you are dealing clients in the global arena. You have to make it sure always that you apply your business strategy game- affordability and quality. Low ticket offering should be considered.

Your primary goal is that to match low priced quality goods or services to prospects. Your demonstration on how your offerings will outdo others in the market can make you to profit in volume because you have gain the confidence of your clients to patronize your product or services.

Once you have established this business development strategy in the market or organization, you may find that your business performance is expanding. Surely, you will encounter some more interaction with more clients paving the way to find more interested with your offering and may want other good or services you can offer. This business strategy game really help you to achieve success in your business.

Providing more goods or services that are in almost the same range of price allows you to elevate your profit. This is referred to lateral selling, sometimes, and this business development strategy, if implemented, provides a real boom for your business ( whether it is on on-line or off-line business).

Simply think this idea, you don’t really need to make your product and services in higher prices or even offer some enhancement which you have already sold to elevate your profit ( of course increase of raw materials is another story), you just need to consider on how to gain your clients’ confidence by having this business developing strategy:affordability + quality.

Always remember also, to succeed in business, all you need to do is provide what your clients really need. If you can target want they want, surely, you’ll achieve development that you’ve been wanting.

Tips on Writing a Good Sales Copy


When you have a product or service to sell, it is important to know how to write a good sales copy. Even if you hire someone to write one for you, you will still need to know the basic elements that you should be looking for in the copy to decide if you should pay the ghost writer or not. There are some handy tips that you can follow to write a good sales copy for not only generating higher volumes of sales, but also to make the entire process easier.

The first important aspect to remember when writing a sales copy is the product or service that you are selling. Do not jumble it with a large number of products and services. More than one focus item will confuse the consumer and even decrease the power of the sales copy. An effective copy is an extremely powerful marketing tool. If you have multiple items or services, select the primary one for the focus of your copy. You can always write multiple ones. If there are complimentary items, it is best to sell them separately from your sales copy to keep the focus on your target product or service.

One aspect that will make your copy stand out from others is to create a specific need for your target product or service. There are lots of people that have the same product or the same service to offer that you are also offering. Creating a specific need for your particular target item in your sales copy will make it much more powerful. The idea is to create a need that your competitors might not have thought about letting consumers know. If however, you cannot think of a unique need, it is still important to have some need listed in your sales copy. For example, if your product is coffee, you can create a need for people to give it as specific types of gifts such as anniversaries, birthdays, and so forth. In fact, if you can create several needs for your target item, your sales copy will be that much more powerful than your competitors.

The next step of your sales copy is to create a benefit from your target item or service. Consumers are more likely to purchase something if they feel it will benefit them. Not only will they need your item, but also will benefit from spending their money on the product. How is the product or service going to help the consumer? Even if the benefit to your consumer is not shopping at traditional stores and having your item shipped to them for free is your only benefit, make certain that you list the benefit in the copy.

The final aspect of a good sales copy is to create a call to action or a sense of urgency. If a consumer feels that they can get your item, product, or service at any time, they are more likely to shop around and even wait to make a purchase. Provide a discount for a limited time or offer a limited number of products for the month. Be specific and state in your sales copy for the consumer to order or purchase now. A sense of urgency followed from a need and benefit will greatly increase the effectiveness of your sales copy.

Are You Really A Real Estate Investor?


There are many questions that you should ask yourself before embarking upon a career of real estate investment. The first and most important question should be whether or not you are truly committed to making real estate work for you. Real Estate is not a business for the lazy or faint of heart. In order to truly turn a profit you must always be ethical but also not give they baby away with the bath water. You at times must be ruthless when dealing with buyers and sellers to ensure you will have a profit when the whole deal is said and done.

The number one reason you must make a serious commitment in order to make real estate work for you is simple. There will be ups and downs throughout your real estate career. The stock market experiences rises and falls on a regular basis. You would not dump all of your stock over one bad day, the same holds true even more so in the realm of real estate investing. Property values in general rise gradually over time. Over the course of ten years, you will statistically see real estate double in value. This means that even if the values in a community tend to regress chances are that they will eventually recover.

The investors that invest with the philosophy of focusing on the slow and steady growth in value are referred to as buy and hold investors. These investors are truly committed to their investment. Some of these investors elect to hold the property as a vacation property. Others, I believe the smarter, opt to earn an income on the property by renting it out to other families or vacationers, this is where you get cash flow along with long term growth.

Those who own rental properties must also be committed to making their investments work for them. True rental properties are not a hands off type of investment. You must keep them maintained in order to remain in demand by tenants. You must also make constant efforts to keep these properties managed and filled along with remaining certain that you are collecting your rent each month. It is important that you ensure the properties are not falling into a state of disrepair or abuse by tenants.

Many investors retain the services of property management agencies in order to handle the day to day operation and the month-to-month details and collections. This is a great idea whether you have just one rental property or a large portfolio of rental properties. What is great about rental property is the fact that if you keep your rental properties in reasonable repair throughout the years they can become liquid assets in time. In other words, they may actually pay for themselves a few times over if you invest for the long-term rather than focusing on the moment.

It is important that you are prepared to make the commitment to profit or profitability that is necessary in order for your venture to be deemed a success no matter what type of real estate investment you intend to have.

Talking About Money Has ’Many Benefits’


Many Britons are unwilling to talk about their finances, new figures show.

In the Let’s Talk About Money study released by the Motley Fool, two-thirds of consumers believe discussions about money, whether concerning personal loans and mortgages or credit cards and savings accounts, are a personal matter and as such should be kept private. Meanwhile, just under a third (30 per cent) state that such talk is "downright rude".

The research also indicated that 13 per cent of people are worried about what others will think about how much wealth they have. In addition, some 16 per cent of respondents state that they are embarrassed with regards to their level of debt, whether this is accrued through store cards, personal loans or other means. The personal finance publication also pointed out that one in three consumers feel uneasy when revealing how much money they earn, as about half of Britons feel that no-one is interested in hearing about their money issues.

However, men appear to be the most confident in terms of discussing money. Just over one in ten (11 per cent) of males are happy to talk about their financial situation, in comparison to four per cent of women. Meanwhile, residents from the south-east of England and the Yorkshire and Humber region are most willing to speak about fiscal matters. On the other hand, those from London are the least prepared to do so as less than half (46 per cent) of people from the capital are happy to discuss loans, savings and other economic matters.

Commenting on the figures, David Kuo, head of personal finance for the Motley Fool, claimed that people should be willing to talk about their fiscal standing as doing so may be able to help them to manage their debts more effectively. He said: "It’s a shame that when it comes to money, Brits are still stuck in the dark ages, too proud to talk about their financial situation which conforms to the typical British stereotype. Talking openly about money, especially with close friends and family, has many benefits. Money matters can often spiral out of control if you don’t seek advice from others."

As a result, the personal finance publication is urging consumers to be open about their finances. Mr Kuo reported that although this does not have to such extremes as "shouting your bank balance from the rooftops", by talking about their monetary situation with those around them people may be able to get help with getting their spending on track, beginning to save money and reducing money owed on loans, store cards and other types of debt.

One way consumers may find they are able to lessen pressure on their finances is by applying for a debt consolidation loan. And such a loan could be advisable for many Britons after a recent study conducted by MoneyExpert reveals that about 2.5 million people are "very concerned" about their financial situation. As a result, chief executive Sean Gardner advised those struggling with their money to "take action now", with a consolidation loan a possible way of getting back on their financial feet.

People ’Need To Think Carefully’ About Finances


Britons’ financial difficulties are set to increase over the course of the coming months, an industry expert has reported.

According to Chris Tapp, director of Credit Action, the series of base rate rises actioned by the Bank of England since August last year has caused many people’s finances to come under more pressure as a result of the subsequent increase in interest rates attached to borrowing products such as personal loans and credit cards. He added that such fiscal difficulties have also been exacerbated "a bit" on the part of financial services providers who are attempting to recoup some of the money lost via bad debt by becoming stricter with lending criteria.

In turn, Mr Tapp reported that with the festive season rapidly approaching, unless consumers begin to take steps to rein in their expenditure now they could find themselves coming under increasing monetary difficulties by the time the new year approaches. This led the director of the financial charity to urge people to draw up a budget, thus allowing them to identify how much money they are bringing in each month and where it is being spent. As a result, people should be able to spot areas where they can reduce their expenditure.

The Credit Action director claimed that as personal loans and other forms of credit become increasingly difficult to access and charge higher rates of interest, more consumers are going to develop problems managing their money. He asserted that as the economy is due to slow down next year a number of Britons are set to face "harder times ahead" and in turn will have to take steps to cut back on their spending.

Mr Tapp said: "We are at a point now where borrowing is much more expensive than it was a few years ago. People need to think very carefully about how they are going to afford Christmas and how they are going to pay for things in the next couple of months. What we are urging people to do is to think now, at the start of November, work out how much they can afford to spend on Christmas and try and stick to that budget."

In addition, the Credit Action director asserted that many Britons develop difficulties in getting their finances back on track in the subsequent months after the festive period. He pointed to statistics from the firm revealing that about one out of five people are still making repayments on their borrowing - whether this is through a cheap personal loan, store card or otherwise - some six months after the festive season is over. And with a tenth of respondents yet to complete such credit payments by the time the following Christmas arrives, such problems could well be causing consumers to not meet other areas of financial demand, for example utility bills, overdrafts, mortgages and transport costs.

For those consumers who are concerned that their financial situation will become unmanageable in the coming months, applying for a debt consolidation loan may well be a useful stepping stone on the road to getting spending back under control. Although the option involves taking out credit again, such a loan could see consumers reduce money owed to creditors into a single low-rate monthly repayment. Taking out a debt consolidation loan could be particularly advisable for those people who are deep in the red. Earlier this year, a study by Callcredit revealed that about three out of four people do not think it is their fault they are struggling with money. Owen Roberts, head of Callcredit Consumer, reported people need to take more "responsibility" for their financial situation and that those experiencing problems should check their credit report for any discrepancies.

How To Improve The Usability of Your Website


No matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.

The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be.

Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.

Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.

Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn’t load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the creme de la creme of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.

Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.

Website templates are very affordable and they save you a lot of effort and time when you want to create a new layout for your website. However, a lot of people make mistakes in the process of choosing and using a web template and end up with something that was unlike the image they had in mind. Here are some guidelines to help you avoid those mistakes.

The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is very popular. If many people use the same template, your website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid, different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear generic just like your next-door neighbours.

To whole point of using a web template is to save time and effort. You just change the title and appropriate details and you’re done. The biggest mistake one makes is to customize the template beyond recognisation. While that may be good in the sense that you’re creating a unique graphic, you’re defying the very purpose of using a web template — saving time and effort.

However, on the opposite side, if a template you purchase is suitable but some changes must be made to suit your site’s theme, then you will have to take some time to make the changes.

For example, you can find a very nice template that suits your hobby site except the original designer has put an image of stamps in the header. You can find images of garden plants and spades to replace the stamps for your gardening hobby site. However, do only make the necessary changes and don’t redesign the whole template.

In some circumstances, some people simply make the wrong choice of templates. This is a very subjective issue but you have to be careful in selecting templates to suit your audience. Do not choose templates just because they are pretty, choose them because they serve your purpose.

Don’t be Ashamed of Keeping Company with Adult Sex Toys and Products


Some people tend to think or believe that dildos and vibrators are erotic forms of sexual expression. That could be true. However some people actually believe that using any of these sex toys and products can turn them or the experience from straight and narrow to something taboo, filthy or pornographic. It really isn’t like that and it doesn’t have to be that way for you. It’s breaking away from just that kind of mentality. It really is okay to get your freak on and experiment with what will pleasure you and your partner or spouse even more.

Sex toys and products are meant to bring that extra pleasure and sensation to your entire sexual experience. The use of sex toys has become so desirable to couples because of just that. Sex toys actually do heighten the whole sexual gratification feeling. Especially the vibrating toys. Although sex therapists recommend discussing the use of adult sex products of any kind first before you decide to spring one on your spouse or partner. You really have to be relaxed and have an open mind to the pleasure you could be experiencing from incorporating toys into your love making. You truly do experience a whole new form of playfulness which actually brings your relationship with your partner or spouse to a whole new level of closeness.

With the demands of our careers, the stress of raising children, it does become difficult to cope with the anxiety of now having to perform like superman in the bedroom. It is a fact that a man climaxes much quicker than a woman. So it takes more work to hang around down their. This is all a natural progression especially as we age.

We tend to take on more than we can handle at times which inevitably leaves you exhausted and your love life not much to talk about. Often you hear of people saying what they do to unwind after a long hard day. They read a book or take a hot bath or just sit and meditate for a while. These are good relaxation techniques. Now add a sex toy to your personal time for a totally relaxing mood altering experience.

It doesn’t have to be that difficult. Sex toys and products will bring pleasure for the man just as much as it will bring pleasure to the female and think of it like this people it does most of the work for you. The benefit of incorporating any kind of sex toy or product into your love making is their stamina and longevity. A dildo or vibrator won’t tire out and become limp. It will remain as large and firm from your first orgasm to your last with of course with some good batteries. All you need to do really is just place the toy on or in the desired spot and let it vibrate away. Playing with a vibrator is all about vibration. Now add penetration and rubbing and you’re sure to hit that happy home run your body mind and soul desires and craves.

Driving Traffic to Your Liquid Zeolite Web Store


It is important to drive traffic to your Zeolite store. After all, if no-one knows that you have a store, it can be a challenge to obtain customers. A strong customer base makes it possible to have a nice residual income from selling liquid Zeolite through a web store. There are several methods that you can use to drive traffic to your web store to help boost the potentials you can make from distributing liquid Zeolite. You will find many other distributors that liquid Zeolite virtually sells itself.

One of the best methods to let everyone know that you have a new store is to include a link to the web store in your emails. After you sign your name, you can copy and paste your web store link into all of your emails. Some emails allow you to put a personal signature and web links in it. The reason for a link in emails is because often emails, such as jokes and useful information, are forwarded to other people. This means that just putting a link in your emails, you will have the potential to literally reach hundreds of people that you might not even know. No-one will feel like you are being overly assertive or selling to them because you are just providing a link.

Another great way to let others know that you own a liquid Zeolite web store is called "back links". A back link is where you go to a different web site and leave a link back to your web site. You can visit other web sites that are on wellness topics as well. There are many useful sites that you can visit where you can leave a link back to your liquid Zeolite web store in their chat forums, comment areas- such as blogs, and even guest books. Just make certain that the information you leave is relevant to the topic of the web site that you are visiting so that you do not end up accidently spam other people.

One way to promote your new liquid Zeolite store is to write several articles about the potential health benefits of liquid Zeolite and use it as a newsletter. In the newsletter, you can always put a link to your liquid Zeolite web store. With a little programming from a web developer, you can have a place on your web store for people to sign up for your newsletter. You will have an instant base of people that want to receive information from you. This is an excellent way to promote your store and to promote your products without people feeling as if you are pushing them to make a purchase.

You can use the same articles that you use for your newsletter in article directories. Using article directories is a way to put a link for your liquid Zeolite web store. This link is then used by anyone that picks up your article as content for their web site. More and more people will learn about your liquid Zeolite web store and soon you will have a strong and steady customer service base.

Former Yuppies ’Struggling With Finances’


The young urban professionals of two decades ago are developing financial difficulties today, a new study has revealed.

According to research conducted by LV=, many of those people who are now aged between 45 and 55 - and were branded as yuppies during the 80s - are struggling to manage their money. The news comes as just under half of these people (45 per cent) admit that they are currently experiencing problems living within their means, which in turn could see them struggling to meet repayments on mortgages, utility bills and loans. In addition, just 15 per cent of consumers claim to have over 500,000 pounds in assets, including their property. Meanwhile, 46 per cent of respondents state they have less than 250,000 pounds in worldly possessions.

The majority (70 per cent) of former yuppies believe that they should have saved more money earlier on in their careers. The study also showed that about a third of consumers state that they would be worried as to how they would cope financially should their income stop unexpectedly. Some 35 per cent of yesterday’s yuppies, meanwhile, feel that they are currently earning less money than the average person within their age bracket.

Overall, a third (34 per cent) of such consumers view paying off debts, whether acquired through home loans or other means, as their main monetary objective. Meanwhile, saving for retirement and making repayments on mortgages account for 54 and 40 per cent of former yuppies’ financial aims respectively.

Commenting on the statistics, Nigel Snell, communications director of LV=, said: "Our research on yuppies has found that yesterday’s privileged minority appears to have become part of today’s anxious majority. Their concerns span not only their own financial and family commitments, but also the wider environmental and social agenda.

"Despite the champagne lifestyle and optimism of the time, our research reveals that many former high flyers have ended up no better off than the average midlife family. They are just as worried about meeting the monthly bills, the cost of bringing up their kids and how they will fund their old age."

Mr Snell added that the upcoming generation of young professionals will not be able to rely on their family for help with money, as their parents are likely to be "equally financially stretched". However, he pointed out that older people can "play a vital role" in encouraging their offspring to develop a good attitude towards savings, loans, debt and other monetary issues in the future.

For those struggling with their finances, no matter what their age is, it is wise to compare loans available to them then take out a low-rate loan as a means of paying numerous creditors quickly could help many consumers to reduce the pressure on their finances. A study carried out by the Alliance Trust Research Centre in September showed that the under-30s and people between the ages of 30 and 49 witnessed the highest increase in inflation costs during August, which in turn could impact their ability to meet demands on their money such as mortgages, utility bills and saving for retirement.

Don’t Let a Disability Hold You Back Work From Home


This is one of my first ventures into article writing and so I thought that I would explain how I got into working from home.I am a widow aged 60 and I nursed my husband through terminal cancer.We had been marrird since 1970 and wasn’t just my husband,he was also my best friend my mentor and my carer.

In 1993 I was diagnosed with an incurable and progressive neurological disease which though it would not kill me would make me more and more incapacitated and the future for me was a wheelchair. However I was referred to the National Hospital for neurology in London and offered pioneering brain surgery which might improve my physical symptoms. I decided to go ahead and had the surgery at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. Unfortunately within a couple of months of my surgery my husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died just under 12 months later,I am proud to say that my daughters and I nursed him at home until the very end.

The stress of my husband’s illness and death meant that the surgery was ineffective and my condition actually got worse. I was under the care of an amazing Neurologist by the name of DR.Nick Fletcher at Walton hospital in Liverpool. Dr. Fletcher tried everything to control my erratic movements and tremors, he regularly injected massive doses of botulinum toxin into my neck and spine to paralyse some of my muscles.

Along with anti-parkinsons drugs this improved things for a few years, until I developed a resistance to the toxin. Luckily for me a second toxin was developed however it was excruciatingly painful and many patients could not tolerate the pain. Bad as it was I managed as I had no alternative until a couple of years ago when DR.Fletcher put my name forward for a new procedure called Deep Brain Stimulation. This entailed some pretty drastic brain surgery to place two rods through the top of my skull deep into the base of my brain and wired under the skin in my head to a battery box in my abdomen.

The idea was that every time my muscles worked to jerk my body about the stimulator would give a small jolt of electricity to paralyse the nerves causing the involuntary movements. This worked well for me, it does not cure the disease but it helps to control the symptoms. The only small downside is that I have to have surgery every twenty months or so to replace the battery and I also have to remain on the anti -parkinsons drugs for life. To me this is a small price to pay to be able to do so much more.

Just when I thought nothing else could go wrong I had a couple more kicks in the teeth. Firstly I had to sell my house as I could not afford the upkeep. I moved to a small village outside Chester and bought myself a small house, unfortunately for me I inherited the neighbour from hell and things got so bad that I had to sell up and practically give the house away, leaving me with no equity to buy another property.

I was however lucky to be allocated a house on the William Ewart Gladstone Estate in North Wales. For those who don’t recognise the name he was a British Prime Minister in the 1800s. He was also a great benefactor to the village that I live in and his family still run and own most of the properties in our village. I am very fortunate to live in a lovely grade two listed house.

Again when I thought that things couldn’t get any worse a couple of years ago I was diagnosed with a facial cancer. Once more I was fortunate as the surgeon who removed it did a fantastic job in getting it all out but even more so in the plastic surgery that she performed, leaving me today with barely a mark to show where the growth was.

As you can appreciate I needed to earn a living and though I was a Registered Nurse with a teaching qualification there was no way I could do a job outside the home and most home based jobs were very labour intensive and paid a pittance.
Luckily for me I came across a guy on the Internet who introduced me to a system which really opened my eyes to the potential of working from home using the Internet. I started off with a free site and then had a much bigger and better site built for myself.

My message to everyone is despite any lack of knowledge or any physical disability you can succeed especially with the help of a structured system and I am living proof of this.

I hope that I haven’t bored everyone to sleep .So my advice is give it a go and see for yourself what you are capable of, you might amaze yourself.Good luck in your venture,remember if you don’t try you will never know how successful you might have been.

Internet Web Site Design Made Easy


Part of the challenge is that internet web site design has the usual demands. These include color, shape, layout, and juxtaposition.

One of the biggest limitations is that while what you see is what you get, what others see might not be the same. How a webpage is rendered depends on the kind of computer the end user has, the browser they use, and the settings that the user has on his or her computer.

One of the biggest mistakes is to choose a font that is not standard. It might look great on your machine but on my machine, it can look really bad. It might even show up as odd characters and not as letters at all. This can be disaster for you because not only can the person not read your message, your web site will look dreadful. One of the best fonts for the internet is Verdana and Georgia. These fonts that are considered optimal for internet readability.

Choosing colors is another challenge and some colors that look great together on paper may not look so good on the internet. Just to see what I mean, take a look at a site on your computer and then take a look at that same site on four other computers. You will likely notice a difference in the colors. This is not so obvious in a workplace situation where the computers are likely similar and the monitors are likely similar. However if you look at your friend’s computer and your brother’s computer and the next door neighbor’s computer, the same page may very well look different on each one.

Coming up with the very basics like font and color scheme are easy compared with the other choices. There are decisions to make about whether to use a premade template, to design your own, to use php, css, or tables. What about fancy effects like flash and video and sound?

If you are totally new to internet web site design, then your first step should be to look at sites that are popular and see what you like about them and what makes them well-liked. You will find that the look of the site and the purpose of the site are usually related. The basic Google page, for instance, is no-frills. People who go there are looking for something else and don’t want to spend time admiring Google. They want a nice simple entry into their search.

Lessons in Options Trading Strategies - The ’Roll’


Rolling is defined in options as moving a position from one strike to another either vertically in the same month, horizontally to another month or some combination thereof.

Other times, you may have to buy your short call back so that you will not lose your stock. Sometimes, you may even want to allow the stock to be called away if you have decided that the stock has reached a level were you want to take your profits and begin to look for another opportunity.

The term ’roll’ means to move your position either out to the next strike or to move your position up or down a strike in the same month. The term ’roll’ means to move.’

Rolling is normally done via time spread and/or vertical spreads. Without getting into the trading of spreads, which is a unique strategy in itself and a topic for future Options University courses, we will talk a little about the roll.

As stated before, the covered call strategy is most effective when executed month in and month out over an extended period of time.

In order to do this, an investor must re-initiate the position every month at the option’s expiration. The re-initiation of the position every month is where the term rolling comes from. However, there may be times when you may want to give yourself a little more upside room for capital appreciation. In those rare
cases, you will not want to ’roll’ the position, because it might be called away if the call you sold is exercised when it becomes ’in the money.’

When an option’s expiration approaches, your short option can either be in-the-money or out-of-the-money. As we discuss the two potential outcomes, let’s first assume that we want to hold onto our stock.

If the option is going to finish out of the money, you would let it expire worthless and then sell the next month’s call. If the option is going to expire in-the-money and you want to keep the stock you will need to buy the short option back and sell the next month’s call.

This trade will consist of two option trades. You will be buying one option and selling another, which is commonly known as a spread and is referred to as a single trade.

So, when you roll out your covered call or buy-write, you do it by doing a spread. The front month option, the one that you happen to be short, will be bought back thus ensuring you keep your stock.

The second month option will be sold short thus re-initiating your covered call strategy. The position that remains is long stock and short calls. As far as the selection process of the spread used for the rolling of the position, there will be some choices.

Of course, there is no choice as to the front month option, you must buy back the option you are short. However, you do have a choice as to the next month option you are going to sell, whether it be near term or farther out in expiration.

This goes back to our earlier conversation about lean. If you are no longer bullish then you would not have bought back your short call and instead allowed it to be exercised and have the stock called away from you. If you choose to roll the position then you must be somewhat bullish on the stock. Your lean will dictate to you which new option to sell.

Canadian Payday Loan : A Smart Move to Solve Cash Problems


Urgent cash is required, especially during hard-hitting times that can only be availed through Canadian payday loan. Need can occur in any form it can be to deal with the hospital bills, phone bills, hotel bills, holiday expenses, home renovations and many more. These emergencies may hit you at times when you do not have any option of getting cash by either friends or relatives nor banks, in case you have bad credit score.

The interest rates charged by Canada payday loan online are higher in comparison to other banks offering loan services. Still individuals prefer it, as it is the only option where you get money in just one day. The best part of such loans is no credit check policy, so no worries for the credit rating you had in the past from previous loan lenders.

Canadian payday loans are short-term loans that are borrowed for 2-3 weeks. This is also a reason behind their no credit check policy. The borrowers are expected to pay back the loan amount within this period. In case they are not able to pay back the loan amount on the due date, then they can renew the loan and get it extended. Although, extension means paying extra fees but if they do not have any cash then they are forced to apply for Canada cash advance payday loan.

No Paper Work Required

There are many loans, which involves lots of paperwork that may consume a lot of your time. But payday loan keeps you away from all such hassles and do not require any paperwork. The complete procedure from applying to payment is done online.

Many times, people think that internet is not a safe place to declare all personal and financial information. Yes, this is true, but when choosing Canada payday loan online, you need not worry about the security. The website has high enabled security feature, which protects sensitive data from being disclosed.

If you have chosen to solve your cash problems through Canadian payday loans, then first do proper research about various loan providers. Choose the one who offers the best services with good interest rates at low fees. When signing in the contract, you need to study properly the terms and conditions, under which you are provided the loan.

If choosing payday loans in Canada, always remember, the longer you maintain the loan, higher will be the fees, and your overall amount to repay will be very much higher than what you originally borrowed. It is recommended to plan well before thinking and applying a Canadian payday loan.

Mailing List For Affiliate Marketers, Anyone?


If you are an affiliate marketer who wants to make a comfortable living from referring your prospects to other people’s product or service for decent commissions, then you must consider building your own mailing list.

Building your mailing list of hungry prospects can be one of the best investments you will ever make, as it is time and effort worth spending on. When you strike on a Joint Venture and have a new product or service to endorse, you can look no further than your own mailing list.

Granted, that most affiliates, as in more than 90 percent of them, are not making money from affiliate programs, but this often results from the same amount of effort focused on least effective methods.

While having your own mailing list is, by a long mile, not the only effective affiliate marketing method, you can make affiliate sales very quickly even in the next few hours after sending a sales message, provided that your mailing list is huge and responsive.

This is often true, because owning your own mailing list for you to endorse products and services to is one of the fastest-producing results, beating other affiliate marketing methods imaginable.

In a nutshell, the affiliate marketer who gets ahead of the pack is the one who owns a huge and responsive mailing list of prospects.

If you would ask this question, "Which one is more important? The mailing list or the product?" Any savvy marketer would answer you, "The mailing list".

Principally, any wise business person puts the importance of hungry demand (and not just any demand) in front of the product. In other words, there is no product if there is no demand! And a mailing list represents the demand or your business if you would like to call it.

If you frequent the Joint Venture forums and membership sites of any kind, you will find that product and service owners need mailing list owners more than the other way round. This is because the mailing list owners have the prospects that the other type of partner is looking for to sell to.

And if you are a mailing list owner, you do not have to necessarily make money from selling your own product. You can sell advertising space or craft a Joint Venture with product owners in return of commissions, recurring or not.

Most of the biggest success web businesses on the Internet today often establish the mailing list (or subscribers) first before the product. One fine example is Friendster.com.

Friendster.com, in the nutshell, is a website that connects friends and potential friends from around the world through a free membership access.

While Friendster.com does not make money from the number of members who join the site, the business makes money from selling advertising space and partnering with other big time merchants and businesses, owing to the established number of members Friendster.com has recruited.

This business is perfect example that demonstrates why every business should establish a need or demand before the product itself, and why you should do the same, whether you run a friends site or not.

The Steady Rise Of Ecommerce


Gone are those traditional methods of business. Now it is the websites that rules the roost. ECommerce is taking its lead these days. ECommerce is more to do with increased sales, profits and a one place all to shop for products or services. ECommerce offers a good boost to any kind of business. By opting for Ecommerce one can expand the market margins and expand it to the global market place. Even a small time business that offers quality and reliable services can easily find themselves equivalent to their competitors by using Ecommerce.

Ecommerce is the art of selling products and services over the internet. Some people explain it in a narrow way as to do financial transactions online but to make it more broader it is to it is to sell things over the net.

Ecommerce evolved with the concept of providers send mails to introduce products and services to the buyer. This concept was roughly the idea behind ecommerce. When companies like Amazon, Yahoo and Netscape came up this idea was more broadly framed to be designed and implemented. This was the birth of internet marketing. The business started to rise up considerably high and people started investing in online marketing. This drew a lot of users to the website. This led to a lot of company investing in online business and reaping lots of money. So more and more companies came up and it was a huge arena of internet companies.

In the early stages the marketing functioned well but after a huge rush of companies online, there were a lot of money transfer among hands. There were money transfer problems, communication problems with their suppliers.

People forgot that online business was like a normal business and did not concentrate on branding strategies and a business plan. Things are becoming different nowadays. More companies try rising up but then there is a whole lot of competition in the industry.

Here are some tips to be followed before you start an online business:
1. Work on advertisement. Linking with other websites is a good idea.
2. Creating Meta Tags is extremely good as search engines can pull out your website if you give the right description of your website.
3. Link yourself with the search engines. By linking with the most popular search engine like Google or yahoo also helps.
4. Naming all the sub links with care and detail is very important. The page you read should be helpful to you to know which location you are at.
5. Location details in your website will help your users to contact you immediately.
6. Newsletters, SMS alerts, updates through email are different marketing tools to your website.
7. Branding is another important thing which would chiefly help your website to gain popularity. By having a good logo design, color and a good page design will make your website stand out from others.
8. By advertising in different websites will also lead many users to your website. This is for brand new companies that are very new to the internet world.
9. Email the queries now and then. Prompt replies will bring you good name.
10. Be elaborate. Make your content crisp and to the point. Do not overdo your content and spoil the look and feel of your website.

Ecommerce is ruling the internet marketing space these days. A careful analysis of the points before starting a company online is very important.

Traumatic Brain Injuries and Sports


Traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when the head strikes or is stuck by an object. The head does not have to experience an external blow for the brain to be injured. Brain damage can occur when the head is pushed strongly against the skull, such as with whiplash.

Concussion is a mild form of TBI from which recovery often occurs without long term effects unless a person experiences multiple concussions. Repeated brain injuries have a cumulative effect resulting in more severe and more prolonged post-concussion symptoms. A very serious and dangerous condition or even death can occur if a second concussion is suffered while symptoms from a previous concussion still persist. This condition is called second-impact syndrome (SIS).

Sports-Related Concussions Causes and Frequency

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 300,000 people experience concussions each year from sports injuries. Most sports-related concussions come from contact sports, especially football, boxing, hockey, and martial arts. Other major causes of a large number of sports-related concussions are falls or collisions in sports such as skiing, bicycling, horseback riding, basketball, and soccer. In soccer an additional risk for concussions is heading the ball.

The most likely population to suffer concussions due to sports activities are males between the ages of 16 and 25. Within this group, the risk is highest at the high school level. About 25 percent of the 300,000 sports-related concussions reported each year are suffered by high school students playing contact sports. At the college level, over one third of football players has suffered a concussion and about 20 percent have had multiple concussions.

Dangers of Multiple Concussions

Second-impact syndrome (SIS), which is a concussion that occurs while the victim is still recovering from and earlier concussion, has resulted in at least 26 deaths in the past 20 years since this condition was first characterized. Most of these victims were in high school.

While most cases of SIS and multiple concussions do not cause death, the neuropsychological brain damage they cause is significant. Many studies have shown that athletes who have suffered multiple concussions are more likely to have prolonged learning difficulties and perform more poorly on neuropsychological tests compared to people who have had one concussion or no concussions. Some the well-documented neuropsychological impairments in athletes who have had multiple concussions are:

* Reduced speed in processing new information

* Problem solving and planning difficulties

* Increased number of headaches

* Concentration difficulties

* Memory impairments

* Behavioral problems

Why Athletes Suffer Multiple Concussions

Factors that contribute to why athletes suffer multiple concussions are related to the ability to accurately assess severity and recovery from symptoms. For example, there are several different scales for rating severity at the time of the concussion but there is general lack of agreement on which to use. There is also lack of agreement on what amount of time should pass before athletes can safely return to sports. This is because there are not any widely accepted guidelines for assessing whether the athlete has recovered.

Preventing Traumatic Brain Injury

Using proper protective equipment can prevent many cases of concussion. Helmets or other appropriate headgear should be used in contact sports, and in sports for which falling or colliding are risks (skiing, horseback riding, bicycling). Custom fitted mouth pieces may also help prevent concussions in contact sports. To be effective, all protective equipment should be properly fitted and used for the purpose in which is was designed.

Although the risk of concussion is inherent in sports participation, decisions as to what sport to participate in can help mitigate the risk of concussion. If you are concerned about a traumatic brain injury sustained while playing a sport, you may wish to contact an experienced TBI lawyer. Your traumatic brain injury attorney can help you assess your potential TBI claim and help you get the compensation you deserve for the devastation incurred in traumatic brain injuries.

Are Alternative Health Practitioners Successfully Using Internet Marketing?


Several months ago, I asked several hundred alternative health practitioners to tell me their most important questions about internet marketing. Two major questions emerged:

1. What exactly is internet marketing and how can it help me?
2. What’s the best way to target people on the internet so that they attend my classes, come in for sessions, and buy my products?

Alternative health practitioners such as Rolfers, Massage Therapists, Hypnotherapists, Accupuncturists, Feldenkrais Practitioners and the like, have business needs that are similar to the needs of other business. They need more clients and steady income. Most are passionate about their work, interested in growing their practices and creating a sustainable business.

However, unlike many traditional businesses, alternative health practitioners are often practicing a modality that people have not heard of, or do not fully understand. Alternaitve health practitioners need to introduce people not only to a new method but to a new way of thinking, being and acting in the world.

Internet Marketing, in many ways, can be like the various alternative modalities themselves: What internet marketing "is" depends on what you want, what you need and what you are willing to do to get it. The first step is to get an idea of what the possibilities are.

Filling your workshops and building a practice

For one of my business partners the internet provides a way to keep his classes and workshops full. He has a large "permission based" email list to which he mails every 4-6 weeks. In every email he gives away a no-cost bonus, such as worksheet or handout that can be put to immediate use by the people on his list. He will often write about useful research findings related to his field. The end-result? People look forward to reading his emails and his seminars and workshops fill-up months in advance. Can you imagine using the same process to fill your practice?

The key here is relationship. Be helpful and aware of your potential clients’ needs and help them whenever you can. They will reward you by trusting you and giving you their business.

Passive Income

Some alternative health practitioners reach a point in their careers where they realize that they want to work less but keep their current income and lifestyle. Is this you? Perhaps you need some time to write a book or want to take a sabbatical and travel the world?

The problem is that you are in the business of trading your time and skill for money. If you do not work, you do not get paid. It would be useful to ask yourself a new question: "How can I keep making income and sustain my business, without having to work everyday?" This is where the idea of "passive income" comes in.

What is passive income? Passive income is money that comes to you automatically every month, regardless of where you are or what you are doing. Downloadable audio, video and ebooks are a few examples of passive income opportunities. You could sell training and educational materials to your clients and have the system set-up so that the sales, delivery and support is done automatically in the background. In other words, when someone buys a product from you, you don’t have to burn a CD, address an envelope, go to the post office or even process a credit card number. The whole process is automated on the internet.

Does Internet marketing sounds complicated or expensive to you?

It can be complicated and it can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. Several years ago you would have needed a web programmer, graphic designer, recording studio and more. Now, all that you need is the right strategy and the ability to use a web browser and email.

For instance, blogs and basic websites can be created for no-cost and don’t require any programming skills. There are ecommerce systems that can be set-up in less than 5 minutes and allow you to upload and sell products online for $5.00 per month. You can collect credit card payments without needing a merchant account. Email collection forms are pre-programmed in many web-based customer contact services (called auto-responders). And if you still feel that you want a website designer or some other help, you can hire one in India for $5 - $10 per hour. Several independent companies will let you post your projects and have people bid on them.

Interested?

Take a deep breath, relax, and begin exploring. Use google to find the web-based businesses of people in your field. See what they are doing. When you are ready, consider joining marketing email lists or forums that interest you. Some marketing email lists will send you a useful message every month and give you no-cost resources for learning how to make money online. And if you don’t like the information, you can always cancel and join another. Remember: You are in control.

Planning Ahead for a Healthy Holiday Season: Ten Easy Tips


This is the time of year when many of us surrender to the notion that we just may pack on a few pounds. We’re super busy, there’s rich and fattening food everywhere we look, and the cold weather forces us to rethink our workouts. But you can maintain your figure (or stay on your diet) and enjoy yourself, too. Here are ten tips to help you plan ahead for a healthy holiday season.

1. Create a holiday menu that is lean on calories but maintains the tradition of the holidays. You’ll want to keep some of the dishes, however rich, that have always been a part of your celebration (otherwise, you may feel deprived). But balance these kinds of dishes with steamed vegetables and raw fruits, without creamy or buttery dips or spreads. Serve at least one variety of fresh vegetables and/or fruits with each meal. And always have a stock of fresh veggies for snacking.

2. Experiment with fresh autumn produce that you may not ordinarily buy, and have it readily available. As we have incorporated more healthy habits into our family celebrations, for example, we are starting to get a taste for the enormous variety of apples and citrus fruits on the market. Have a bowl of fresh clementines on your table for a centerpiece (these are so easy to peel that even small children can help themselves). Or try a dessert of fresh pomegranate.

3. Replace the bowl of mixed nuts with nuts that are still in the shell. You’ll eat far fewer nuts if you have to crack each one. And it’s fun.

4. Serve a green salad (with lowfat dressing) before each evening meal.

5. Experiment with different seasonings. When my food is seasoned with pungent fresh herbs, I find that I eat less.

6. Strive to stay hydrated. Purchase some fresh lemons and limes and add them to an attractive carafe to make your ice water look more appetizing. Make sure to drink plenty of water before, during, and after any big holiday meals.

7. Eat as slowly as you can. Put your fork down between each bite. Think of the meal not as a time to enjoy only the food, but a time to enjoy the rich sights and smells, and to savor each flavor of the season.

8. Excuse proof your workout. Because the holidays coincide with chilly winter weather, our normal exercise routines can take a double hit. The best way to stay on track with your workouts is to make sure to incorporate exercise activities that you genuinely enjoy: A brisk walk with visiting family members, for example, or a new spinning class that can reinvigorate your routine and get you motivated for fitness again.

9. Get enough sleep. This is a busy time of year, but when you get enough shuteye, you’ll be better able to make healthy choices, and you’ll be less likely to crave the quick energy that is delivered via caffeine or a chocolate bar.

10. Think of the holiday season as a time to give everyday gifts to yourself. Enjoy each relationship and holiday party as a time to revel in the season and to enjoy the simple things that are all around you.

International Air Travel Tips And Tricks


You should be able to find several indispensable facts about international air travel in the following paragraphs. If there’s at least one fact you didn’t know before, imagine the difference it might make.

When it comes to air travel, many Americans do not just stay inside the United Sates, many leave the country. In fact, international travel is rapidly increasing in popularity. Many individuals are now taking honeymoons overseas, as well as attending business meetings or scheduling family vacations. If you are planning on being one of those individuals, there are a number of important things that you need to remember. Perhaps, the most important thing that you need to keep in mind is that you will be in another country; another country that may have a whole other set of laws and regulations.

While it is a given that different countries have different laws, many air travelers are unaware that different countries also have different air travel rules. Unfortunately, many believe that the rules enforced in the United States are worldly. It is true that many of the same rules are enforced, all around the world, but there are some differences. For that reason, you will want to take the time to learn those rules. You can easily learn these rules by contacting the United States Embassy or by requesting more information from the international airport that you plan on flying in or out of.

Although it is advised that you and all other foreign air travelers research the laws and air travel rules of another country, particularly the one you will be visiting, not everyone does. Whether you choose not to research these rules or you can’t, you are advised to proceed with caution and use your common sense. This not only includes packing your bags, but how you handle yourself in a foreign airport. Perhaps, when it doubt it is always best the follow the air travel rules enforced in the United States. If you are questioned on your behavior or actions that you took, it is best to state that you were unaware of the rules that were you breaking, if any.

See how much you can learn about international air travel when you take a little time to read a well-researched article? Don’t miss out on the rest of this great information.

As previously mentioned, it is best that you use your common sense, when it comes to preparing for international travel. This begins by having all of the necessary documents, which are needed for international air travel. Even if you are not required to bring it along, you may want to think about carrying your passport with you at all times. In the event that you are detained by airport security or by local officials, this piece of identification could come in handy.

It is also important that you pack your bags the correct way. If you are flying out of the United States, no matter where you are traveling to, you will be required to follow all American air travel rules. This includes the carryon luggage ban of liquids and sharp objects. Since the United States tends to have more air travel rules and security procedures than other countries, you may not have to worry about your luggage violating a ban in another country. However, you should be worried about what you try and bring home with you. The United States has numerous restrictions on items being imported from other countries, including gifts. In most cases, you will find these gifts are not sold in airports, even international ones, but it is still advised that you refrain from purchasing exotic gifts, such as alcohol or live animals.

In addition to the points mentioned above, it is extremely important that your follow any requests given to you by international airport security officials. Unlike in the United States, where you may just receive a warning for your inappropriate behavior or actions, you may be subject to additional consequences. Those additional consequences, which may include being arrested by local authorities, will vary from country to country. Regardless of what the consequences are, it is still advised that you follow any instructions given to you, by international flight crews or by airport security.

By keeping the above mentioned information in mind, you should have nothing to worry about. The truth is that as long as you think before you speak or act, you should be okay, even in an international airport or a foreign country.

Hopefully the sections above have contributed to your understanding of international air travel. Share your new understanding about international air travel with others. They’ll thank you for it.

Patience and Consistency: Key Factors to Training Min Pins


Miniature Pinschers or more affectionately called Min Pins are in actuality very sweet dogs. They possess abundant energy and are known as fearless protectors of their human companions and domiciles. These dogs are fiercely loyal, extremely curious and yes, sometimes quite stubborn. In fact, dog enthusiasts claim that Mini Pinschers are not suitable pets for everyone. Training Min Pins entails two key factors: patience and consistency.

Before training your Min Pins, you have to know some very basic things about this breed. First of all, Mini Pinschers often act like puppies for most of their life. They like to frolic and their energy levels are almost never depleted. They also like wide open spaces and can stay outdoors for long periods of time. Because this breed of dog can become a handful, pet owners often fail to give their pets proper training or instructions. The Mini Pinscher eventually suffers from the "Little Napoleon" syndrome (spoiled or unmanageable,) suffer form obesity and / or both.

Training Min Pins can be tough, and it is said that you as pet owners, must find extra reserves of patience in case you decide to train your dogs by yourselves. Because of their puppy-like attitudes, the Min Pin can become extremely difficult during training. However, holding firm to your resolve may be just the thing to help your pets overcome this seeming "behavioral problems."

One essential element in training your Min Pin is safety. You need to puppy-proof your home. Because this breed of dog is extremely curious, every part of your house will be subjected to your pet’s inquisitive nature. Also, try to remove possible choking hazards like bottle caps, thumb tacks or even nails. Training a Min Pin is advisable when the puppies are still relatively young. Older dogs will definitely be more difficult to handle, and because older dogs are more strong willed, you may spend many days of exhaustive and exasperating training with little progress.

Gentle but firm: in training Min Pins, one must learn the value of patience and consistency. Min Pins do not relate well at all to any form of abuse or neglect. In fact, they get more destructive or even harmful when subjected to cruelty and depravity. By the way, should you decide to train your dogs personally, you may want to visit one or two dog training center first or seek the aid of a professional dog trainer. Min Pins can be too much to handle without proper guidance, so be forewarned.

Some people who are well versed with training Min Pins often claim that the Min Pins will often mis-perform just for amusement sake. So unless you have a great deal of humor and can see how ludicrous the situation is, you might as well find a different breed to train. However, in case you begin your training, make sure that your pet knows that you will be the boss — and not the other way around. Make sure though that training isn’t painful or distressing to your pet. Otherwise, the next time around, you will only have a harder time training your Min Pins.

Holiday Insurance - Having Fun With No Worries


You are packed and ready to go on the vacation of your life. But wait, do uncertainties go on vacation too?

Holiday Cover Gives You Ease Of Mind

If you are planning to go out of the country and take a vacation then you really should get some sort of holiday insurance. You need holiday insurance for obvious reasons. You simply cannot control the things that might happen to you on your trip.

And when you don’t have complete control of what happens, it’s vital to ensure that you have a fall-back position to cover all eventualities. It’s really time to make sure that you are able to compensate for anything that could go wrong. It’s no time to get pessimistic, but it is time to protect yourself.

What Might Upset Your Holiday Then?

What are the possible things that can happen in your trip?

1. You can lose your luggage. What happens to you when the airplane company suddenly misplaces your luggage and it ends up on the other end of the world? You certainly do not want this to happen to you, right? With holiday insurance, you will be compensated if your luggage is lost.

2. You can get sick. When you get sick during your vacation, you are going to feel stressed and you are going to feel ill. If you do not have the resources with you then you are going to feel even worse. Simple travel illness cover can so easily resolve this. With holiday insurance, you will be able to get some sort of funding for any hospitalization you experience.

3. You might lose your money or other possessions. It could, sadly be due to theft or simply that you mislaid it. You don’t want to be stuck on the vacation of a lifetime with nothing to spend, do you. Holiday Insurance will take care of this for you too

Get Yourself A Worry-Free Vacation

If you really want to go on a vacation, you should take a vacation from your worries in life too. In order to take a vacation from your worries in life, you have to make sure that you are covered whilst you are away.

How can you have fun during your vacation if you are constantly worrying about something going wrong, right? With holiday insurance, you will be able to focus on your vacation and have a great life.

Without holiday insurance, you might be constantly be worrying about bad things happening. You should not be doing this on your vacation. You should be having fun and having the time of your life.

It might seem a bit of a waste of money, but if you have holiday insurance, you will be able to have that vacation of a lifetime after all. After you’ve spent all that money buying the holiday, it’s a false economy to save on insurance.

Getting holiday insurance is worth it because you are going to have peace of mind and this peace of mind is exactly what you need when you are taking a break from the workaday world.

Knowing About Greenhouse Gardening


Greenhouse gardening has been an avenue for you to be able to acquire fresh, quality fruits and vegetables. If you want to have one, it is necessary for you to have an enough knowledge needed for you to be able to cultivate plants in a greenhouse gardening. Ii is not just about of setting up your greenhouse structure and then throw some plants in it- you need to have a systematic plan for greenhouse gardening.

Some elements that you need to know about gardening to get the optimum potential out of your greenhouse garden. First, you need to know know the type of greenhouse garden that you want- portable greenhouse, cold house, hobby greenhouse, a large of a mini greenhouse. Second, the greenhouse structure, the construction and its foundation type. Other are, the kind of greenhouse covering which you think best to be used for, the water system, the control for humidity, air and heating circulation system for your greenhouse gardening needs.

We will discuss the Cold greenhouse

You begin by choosing whether the one you want is a cold greenhouse of the heated one. As you may think for cold greenhouse, it is the simplest type of greenhouses, artificial means are not applied in it such that of heat management. Thus, the plants growing is significantly dependent on the temperature outside. During fall, it is not advisable to plant frost sensitive plants because this may require heat. Cold greenhouse does not provide this feature.

A cold house does extend the growing season from that of the outdoors by trapping the heat from the sun during the day. And it provides a cozy respite for you to work away from the elements of wind and rain, it also protects plants from these same elements too. When you install a heater into your cold house it becomes a true greenhouse and it transforms the hobby of gardening into a year-round hobby.

A cold greenhouse does not prolong the growing season by trapping the right temperature during the day. However, you can have your plants right protected by external factors brought by the wind and rain. If you are to install a heater, you would be able to transform your greenhouse garden to a kind that can be used throughout the year.

The baseline temperature needed to grow greenhouse plants for winter season is 45 degree Fahrenheit ( 7.2 degree Celsius) during winter so you have to make sure that you include a budget for this for your gardening during winter. You have to make it sure also, when planning greenhouse construction, make it as near as possible to your house to reduce costs for installation of electrical requirements and digging- and plumbing too. This also provide a quick access that you may need during winter.

Remember to prepare all the necessary requirements for gardening in greenhouse because it is no joke when you commit failure on this.

Find Salespeople that Actually LIKE Your Products & Services


"I don’t want a job hopper–I want someone with a stable work history." I get that a lot, particularly from hiring managers looking for good salespeople.

The phrase "job stability" is defined very differently today than it was 25 years ago. So the question is, as we prepare to enter 2008, what is the new measure of job stability? 10 years at each position? 5 years? 18 months? As a business owner or sales manager, should you just install a revolving door and resign yourself to the fact that you are going to have to be in constant recruiting mode? How long can you realistically expect a salesperson to be productive with your organization before they voluntarily move on or you have to let them go for lack of production?

That depends. It all comes back to how well suited the person is for the job in the first place.

I had this exact discussion today over lunch with Tom, the Vice President of Sales for one of my clients: a technology company that sells value-added products and services to webhosting providers, internet service providers, and cable companies. He had sent me an email earlier this week expressing some concern because the last 2 sales reps he hired, one of whom he recruiting on his own and the other referred by me, did not stay with the company longer than a year. And it turns out that these were not isolated incidents; apparently this has been a recurring theme since he took over the sales department 4 years ago.

"What’s the biggest challenge you’re running into with new salespeople?" I asked.

"The bottom line is they’re either not ramping up the way we expect them to or they’re bailing after 12-18 months as soon as a new opportunity comes along," he said. "We need our reps to hit the ground running. We provide some basic product training when they start, but it’s not like a formalized 6-week ’boot camp’, by any means. We just don’t have the resources to do that–we’re not a huge company. Essentially, we leave it up to the individual to determine those areas where they need training and then they’re responsible for finding the educational resources. The reps that do well with our company are the ones that take the initiative to be successful. The ones that stand around waiting for you to send them to product seminars and complain about the lack of marketing materials and support are the ones that don’t make it."

In the last 15 years or so, a lot of career salespeople have gravitated to the technology industry, not due to their interest in technology, but because there is a lot of money to be made. Within the telecom industry, for example, there are a ton of people in sales roles with limited technical skills that bounce around from company to company every 18-24 months. They’re the $75 - $110k per year player–what I like to call the MLS (Mid-Level Sales rep). The job boards are littered with their resumes. The two reps that recently left Tom’s company are prime examples: one went to work in sales for Louis Vuitton luggage while the other is now managing a golf tour.

Up to this point when considering a candidate for a sales position, Tom’s focus was on their sales experience first and foremost, with their technical aptitude and skill sets a distant second. When we sat down and analyzed the profiles of his top 3 sales reps, all had one thing in common: a strong background (education and/or work experience) and keen interest in technology. 2 of the 3 had never even been in sales prior to taking the position, yet they were all top performers.

"Most of the people you’ve been hiring are just not that interested in your products and services," I told him. "They just see your job as a means to an end and as soon as an opportunity comes along that sounds better where they can make the same money, they leave."

In a perfect world, your sales reps would be totally passionate about your products and services. But at the very least they should have a strong interest in what you sell. This will allow them to speak naturally and confidently when carrying your message to their clients and prospects.

Hiring is not an exact science, particularly when it comes landing great sales reps–it’s trial and error. Study the profiles of your successful salespeople or those working for other companies in your industry. Talk to your competitor’s sales reps and ask them what they like most about the job/company/product lines. Forget about what you think the profile of a successful salesperson should be or what looks good on paper. Duplicate what you already know is working.