Jane says…..

While a zoo definitely has it’s place in animal watching, it doesn’t compare to seeing animals in their own natural habitat. After a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park, this felt especially true for me. A traffic jam caused by young buffalo calves and their mothers crossing the road is an experience not to be missed. It made me wonder about other places that would be conducive to viewing wildlife in a natural setting. From my research I have come up with a list of some of the best places to visit if viewing animals in nature is your objective.

In the United States, national parks are the best place to start. For viewing sea animals, the best places include the Channel Islands off the coast of California. The islands are surrounded by sea lions, seals, gray whales and humpback whales. There are also numerous tide pools that house creatures such as sea urchins and anemones. Another area great for water animals is Glacier Bay in Alaska. Humpback whales and sea lions are in abundance off shore and on land bears and moose are often times available for viewing. For a different spin on water creatures, visit the Florida Everglades, the last remaining everglades on the planet. There you will see crocodiles and alligators co-exists along with turtles, dear, manatees and bobcats. The everglades contain large viewing towers that are devoted especially to wildlife watching or you can be a bit more daring and take a canoe ride in croc-infested waters.

Other national parks that make the list for best wildlife viewing are Denali National Park in Alaska, Glacier National park in Montana, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Denali, Glacier and Rocky Mountain offer animals such as dall sheep, grizzlies, caribou, wolves, mountain goats, elk, dear, bighorn sheep and marmots. Theodore Roosevelt is a less well known park and therefore offers great viewing of bison, wild horses, deer and elk without all the crowds.

Outside of the US, there are more exotic animals available for viewing at places such as Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica, the Komodo Islands in Indonesia, Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo, Polar Bear Observation in Canada, and of course a Kenyan Safari.

The Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica is a brilliant rain forest that contains over 100,000 acres of land and 5,000 acres of marine habitat. The park is home to 116 species of amphibians and reptiles, 139 species of mammals and more than 400 species of birds. There are no roads into the park, only hiking trails. Unless you are an avid hiker and have excellent map-reading skills, a guide is recommended. In addition to the trails, there are also viewing platforms built atop massive ajo trees.

The Komodo Islands in Indonesia house the world’s largest population of Komodo dragons. These animals can grow to be over 300 pounds and up to nine feet in length. These islands are now an Indonesian national park and permits and tour guides are required, but they make the experience much more user-friendly (Komodo dragons aren’t in petting zoos for a reason). In addition to land tours, you can also take a sea kayak around the park and see coral reefs, fish, dolphins, whales and sea turtles.

Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo is one of the last places to see orangutans in their own natural habitat. Through an elaborate network of hiking trails, you can see the orangutans up close, swinging from branch to branch, suckling their young, or building nests to sleep. There are also orangutans in captivity which can be viewed. They are being rehabilitated before being returned to the wild. There are other jungle species as well that can be viewed in the orangutan jungle, including clouded leopards, civets, Malaysian sun bears, deer, numerous species of birds, and butterflies.

Nowhere can you see polar bears so up-close and personal as you can in Churchill, Manitoba. When Hudson Bay freezes, between October and November, this town is overrun with polar bears as they travel their migration path. In early winter, they even stop to dine on the region’s seal population. For more up close views, you can take a tundra buggy (a converted school bus) into the migratory packs for a quick day-trip. For longer exposure, there are tundra lodges that provide all day exposure to the bears in their native environment.

One of the most famous places to view wildlife is Kenya, and what better way to see it than on a safari. Safari’s can take you through the likes of Masai Mara National Park, Amboseli Game Reserve and Mt. Kilimanjaro to view lions, leopards, cheetahs, wildebeests, zebras, flamingos, black rhinos, giraffes and elephants. Safari’s range from less expensive options starting around $500.00 for an 8 day excursion to very luxurious safaris costing up to $9,000. Either way, you get to see what you like most…animals.

While a zoo definitely has it’s place in animal watching, it doesn’t compare to seeing animals in their own natural habitat. After a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park, this felt especially true for me. A traffic jam caused by young buffalo calves and their mothers crossing the road is an experience not to be missed. It made me wonder about other places that would be conducive to viewing wildlife in a natural setting. From my research I have come up with a list of some of the best places to visit if viewing animals in nature is your objective.

In the United States, national parks are the best place to start. For viewing sea animals, the best places include the Channel Islands off the coast of California. The islands are surrounded by sea lions, seals, gray whales and humpback whales. There are also numerous tide pools that house creatures such as sea urchins and anemones. Another area great for water animals is Glacier Bay in Alaska. Humpback whales and sea lions are in abundance off shore and on land bears and moose are often times available for viewing. For a different spin on water creatures, visit the Florida Everglades, the last remaining everglades on the planet. There you will see crocodiles and alligators co-exists along with turtles, dear, manatees and bobcats. The everglades contain large viewing towers that are devoted especially to wildlife watching or you can be a bit more daring and take a canoe ride in croc-infested waters.

Other national parks that make the list for best wildlife viewing are Denali National Park in Alaska, Glacier National park in Montana, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Denali, Glacier and Rocky Mountain offer animals such as dall sheep, grizzlies, caribou, wolves, mountain goats, elk, dear, bighorn sheep and marmots. Theodore Roosevelt is a less well known park and therefore offers great viewing of bison, wild horses, deer and elk without all the crowds.

Outside of the US, there are more exotic animals available for viewing at places such as Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica, the Komodo Islands in Indonesia, Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo, Polar Bear Observation in Canada, and of course a Kenyan Safari.

The Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica is a brilliant rain forest that contains over 100,000 acres of land and 5,000 acres of marine habitat. The park is home to 116 species of amphibians and reptiles, 139 species of mammals and more than 400 species of birds. There are no roads into the park, only hiking trails. Unless you are an avid hiker and have excellent map-reading skills, a guide is recommended. In addition to the trails, there are also viewing platforms built atop massive ajo trees.

The Komodo Islands in Indonesia house the world’s largest population of Komodo dragons. These animals can grow to be over 300 pounds and up to nine feet in length. These islands are now an Indonesian national park and permits and tour guides are required, but they make the experience much more user-friendly (Komodo dragons aren’t in petting zoos for a reason). In addition to land tours, you can also take a sea kayak around the park and see coral reefs, fish, dolphins, whales and sea turtles.

Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo is one of the last places to see orangutans in their own natural habitat. Through an elaborate network of hiking trails, you can see the orangutans up close, swinging from branch to branch, suckling their young, or building nests to sleep. There are also orangutans in captivity which can be viewed. They are being rehabilitated before being returned to the wild. There are other jungle species as well that can be viewed in the orangutan jungle, including clouded leopards, civets, Malaysian sun bears, deer, numerous species of birds, and butterflies.

Nowhere can you see polar bears so up-close and personal as you can in Churchill, Manitoba. When Hudson Bay freezes, between October and November, this town is overrun with polar bears as they travel their migration path. In early winter, they even stop to dine on the region’s seal population. For more up close views, you can take a tundra buggy (a converted school bus) into the migratory packs for a quick day-trip. For longer exposure, there are tundra lodges that provide all day exposure to the bears in their native environment.

One of the most famous places to view wildlife is Kenya, and what better way to see it than on a safari. Safari’s can take you through the likes of Masai Mara National Park, Amboseli Game Reserve and Mt. Kilimanjaro to view lions, leopards, cheetahs, wildebeests, zebras, flamingos, black rhinos, giraffes and elephants. Safari’s range from less expensive options starting around $500.00 for an 8 day excursion to very luxurious safaris costing up to $9,000. Either way, you get to see what you like most…animals.

Emma Snow has always adored wild animals. Emma provides content for Wildlife Animals http://www.wildlife-animals.com and Riding Stable http://www.riding-stable.com.

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Every successful online marketer says this is the bar-none, top-of-the-list, number one way to guaranteed success for any online venture.

What Is it?

Any marketer knows that nothing beats word of mouth advertising. It is simply the most powerful and cost effective advertising ever known. Even before the days of the Internet. Word of mouth advertising got every business where it is today.

Many entrepreneurs never have and never will spend money on advertising. Their entire business comes from people telling other people about their product or service.Could you imagine never spending money on advertising, but always having a steady stream of customers on your door step begging for your product or service.

This word of mout is what we call viral marketing.

However, word of mouth does not come easily.There is one catch to running a business only on word of mouth advertising. You must be selling an outstanding product or service. If you sell crap, the only word of mouth advertising you’ll have is negative.

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression before. A satisfied customer will tell three people about your product or service, an unsatisfied customer will tell ten.

If your customers aren’t happy you’ll have to work ten times harder and spend more money on advertising to sell your product.

There are two ways you can benefit from positive word of mouth. These are:

1. It’s free advertising. This is self explanatory. The less you have to spend on advertising, the more money you can put in your pocket and back into your business.

2. People are endorsing your product or service. Having someone endorse your product puts you at a greater advantage. When someone tells their friend about the positive experience they’ve had with your product, there is instant trust. People trust their friends. If a friend says your product is it, they’ll instantly trust you. Trust is a huge barrier to break down when it come to selling anything, online or off.

The one way I have found to work well with positive word of mouth is list building.List building by refering like ten people from your own effort and then these ten will go on to build your list up to a big size.

To give you an idea of how powerful word of mouth advertising can be in helping you to build your list, take a look below. Your list can grow exponentially without you ever even having to lift a finger again.This is a whole new way to LEVERAGE your efforts into a MEGALIST of monstrous proportions!

Let’s say you enroll SEVEN people from your paid advertising or any other form of advertising Seven is still pretty conservative for a completely FREE program… And let’s say each of those 7 also told 7 people and enrolled them And each of those also enrolled 7 people and so on

That would look like this:

YOU
1×7 Members =7
7×7 Members =49
49×7 Members =343
343 x7 Members =2,401
2,401×7 Members =16,807

TOTAL: 19,607 Members

That is 19,607 subscribers you get to mail to! And you only referred seven subscribers yourself!

Want to run the example with 10 referrals each? (That’d be a whopping 111,110 subscribers!) Or 20? I

won’t even do the math on that one, because frankly, you wouldn’t believe the numbers!

You get the idea. More and more people just keep learning about your business all through friends and associates. And it’s all free advertising!

If you think the above numbers are a bit of an overstatement think again. Go to http://Google.com right now and do a search on Autoresponder Magic. Autoresponder Magic is an eBook that was written by Yanik Siler several years ago. More than 80,000 web sites advertise his Ebook on their sites right now for

FREE!

When Yanik started out several years ago he didn’t even know what an Ebook was. Today he has more traffic coming to his site in a day than most web sites do in a life time.

That is how powerful viral marketing is. Do not skimpon using it. You can set up your viral marketing system to build your list by using ebooks, writing free articles and others.

Visit Lubowa.M.Planet viral Internet marketing websites.For Marketing Visit: http://www.conqueryourniche.com/forum/planetlubs For List Building visit: http://www.most-important-marketing-tools.com/marketing.html For 127 marketing software visit: http://www.most-important-marketing-tools.com

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Your Web site needs to do more than make your company look good. It has to support your overall business operations - customer service, sales and marketing and collaboration. Whether you’re planning an intranet or Internet site, don’t start before you check your strategy against this comprehensive checklist.

The following checklist and the associated answers will facilitate the analysis process ofr designing and building the website that allows your company to turn the corner.

GENERAL

1. Where did you hear about us?

2. Do you have a domain name? If not, do you have ideas on one? If so, what is it?

3. What is your company name? Do you want to use the entire name on the site, logo, and graphics?

4. Do you have special features in mind like ECommerce shopping cart, BLOG, RSS, Forms with emails, EZine, Newsletter signup, autoresponders, advertising landing/call-to-action pages, etc.?

MARKETING

5. Who is your intended audience? Are they regional, industry specific, company size specific, etc.?

6. Do you intend to provide a call to action - make a sale, call in to your office, fill out a form, etc?

7. Describe your ideal client and the specific attributes that we’ll be targeting in the website.

8. What are your website expectations, main emphasis and primary goals - increased sales, increased leads, etc.? Please prioritize.

9. What separates your company from your competition and what do you expect will draw clients to the website?

10. How do you plan to market the website?

11. What company properties do you want to emphasize on the website? Please prioritize.

IDENTITY

12. Do you already have a logo and other graphics to be used? If not, do you want to have one created?

13. Have you identified a tagline? That would be something like “Just do it”, “Reach out and touch someone”, etc. Here is some information on the subject http://advertising.about.com/od/copywriting/a/guesttagline.htm.

14. What keywords do you want to be found by in the search engines?

LAYOUT

15. Please provide a list of websites that you like and don’t like. Why do you or do you not like these sites?

16. Please provide a list of competitors websites.

17. Do you have ideas of the colors to be used, and colors you don’t like? Please provide example sites.

18. Do you have an intended website screen size - 1024×768, 800×600, or stretch to the entire width of the screen?

19. If the site isn’t the entire width of the screen do you have a preference for left or center alignment?

20. Do you have a horizontal or left-side vertical preference for the main navigation?

21. Please provide the main pages you need in the website.

22. Have you created the copy text for any of your pages?

23. Do you have existing business cards or other printed material we need to match?

24. Are you leaning towards custom drawn artwork or photographs?

POST-CONTRACT

25. Once we start designing the website we’ll need the following (Note that this information will be kept in strict confidence):

a. FTP access information - username and password

b. Hosting company and their tech support phone number

Michael A. Cordova is the President of 21st Century Technologies, Inc. Contact him at:

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You produce and service widgets. You are good at what you do. You understand widgets inside and out. You learn everything you possibly can about widgets! You want everyone to know that you know what you are doing and can help them choose the best widget for their needs.

It is one thing to talk to people you know, but in this day of mass media, you may never meet many of your potential clients. Clients are out there, searching for someone like you. How do you find them and tell them about your business. A web site!!

Of course. Everyone talks about doing business on the web. You think about it, and think about it and think about it again. You know widgets. You just don’t know web pages. You know that a web page needs to have something called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. You know your web site needs to be seen by lots of people. What keywords do you need to mention in your web site? Do you know what key words people use when they want to search for your product? Maybe you wouldn’t recognize HTML code if it mugged you in broad daylight. Maybe you would, but if you knew enough about creating a web page, you would probably be in business doing web pages.

NewMediaDenver.com, specializing in Web Site Promotion in Denver, knows their business the way you know your widgets. They have been around for over ten years! Not only have they learned how to create and develop web pages, they have learned how to create and develop web sites that will do the most advertising for YOUR advertising dollar. They know about keywords. They know how to discover what keywords need to be mentioned in your web site in order to get people to check it out.  They understand the ins and outs of Denver SEO.

New Media Denver knows you know your business. They know you aren’t all that great with web sites. If you did, you would have created one already. Maybe you did and discovered no one ever saw it. Web Site Promotion in Denver can help you revitalize or create a web site that is attractive, easy to find and easy to navigate. They will help you decide exactly what web site works best for you. They have been in business for ten years. They have worked with large companies and they have worked with small companies. They have a 97% approval rating over those ten years from the companies who hired them. Statistics can be misleading, but this is one statistic that is difficult to challenge. Obviously, somebody likes what they do.

Check them out. Tell them what you would like. Tell them that you have no idea what you want, if that is the case. Tell them about your ideas. Tell them you tried creating a web site that no one noticed. They will talk to you and give you some options. They are there to help you. You will be in the driver’s seat and you, too, may join that 97% group. That would mean that your web site will be working for you and that’s what you want, isn’t it?

This article was written by Sytsma Morris-Reeves. Mr. Morris-Reeves runs NewMediaDenver,an Internet technology company located in downtown Denver, Colorado (http://www.NewMediaDenver.com). Mr.Morris-Reeves is a highly respected Denver SEO Expert since 10 years, and he constantly develops and stays current with all the latest SEO and Link Building Techniques.

Blog advertising, building, internet, promotion, technology

1-Money Generates Money

There is no FREE lunch out there. If some one tells you that you do not need any money to make a profit, you better think twice. Any business is an investment, any investment cost money. Any business needs advertising, any advertising cost money. Advertisements generate leads, leads produce money. There are ways to promote the business without putting any advertising budget but it takes time. Time is MONEY. Any businesses out there need to have advertising budget to attract customers. There is no different in Internet MLM business.

2- Hard Work Generates Money

Internet marketing is not about overnight success. It is a real business that needs substantial degree of hard work to become successful. Anyone who has a job know that in order to get the pay check, you have to put in certain amount of time. The concept is the same in Internet MLM. The only difference is you are actually building your own business instead of building people’s business. That is the reason why the pay check is fixed on your pay job while the pay check has huge variability on your Internet MLM business.

3- Knowledge Generates Money

Everyone gets pay for their knowledge. You, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Pierre Omidyar, Sam Walton and Warren Buffet get paid because of the knowledge. What is the different between you, Bill Gates and those billionaires? You probably know the answer by now. The point that I really want to make here is challenge you to learn more in order to earn more. Please refer to the post “Blueprinting in Internet MLM” to get more ideas of what knowledge can bring you.

4- Quality Content Generates Money

It is all about quality in any business. If your business can provide quality to customer, the greater the return, right? There is no difference in Internet MLM business as well. We have to find company that can provide great quality or value to customer, once customers see those benefits (quality), they will in turn join the program and hence generate income for you. Is that simple! This is the reason why I love GDI (http://freedom.ws/soxloo) and Success University (http://lloo1.successuniversity.com) because both of them provide great values to me.

5- Internet Generates Money

There are about 6.5 billion people on the planet and about 1.1 billion of them use internet (Source from www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm) and the growth of internet user is growing exponentially over time. Imagine if you can share a piece of this pie, what is the return? That is the reason why we need to generate traffic into your website. Any traffic that visits you has a potential to generate income to you. 4 money generators that we discussed earlier lead to this. Prepare some budget, work hard to learn about the business and create quality content to attract traffic to your site.

A positive altitude causes a chain reaction of positive outcomes. It is a catalyst… a spark that creates extraordinary results!

Lickhau Loo is an Expert Internet Marketer. You can learn How to Make up to $2,000 a week wihout risking a penny in 3 easy steps http://www.unlimitedwealth.ws mailto: lloo@unlimitedwealth.ws

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The humdrum existence of going to the office day after day doing the usual 8 to 5 shift is a trying task for those who have lived all their lives doing so. This is why the convenience of doing work at home under amazingly flexible working hours is a dazzling prospect to them. Doing work at home that is as fulfilling as having a career working for a computer on the 19th floor of a skyscraper is already a possibility in these modern times. This is because the jungle-like network that is the Internet has given birth to a business that has given some people practically new lives doing nothing but so.

This particular business allows people to work at home under flexible working hours. There is no boss to scream around putting pressure on everyone about the deadline at hand. There is no clutter of messy paperwork that needs to be completed the soonest possible time. Conveniences such as these are experienced by those who are into affiliate marketing, the newest way to earn money without having to go through all sorts of routine found in regular employment.

Those who have been in the business long enough can attest to the fact that it is a lucrative business indeed, one that can actually give people things that they could not possibly possess or experience under ordinary circumstances.

The business called affiliate marketing involves an affiliate’s promotion of a merchant’s website. Here the website owned by the affiliate is made to advertise and market the website of the merchant through the affiliate program that they run. Whenever someone clicks on the merchant’s website promoted by the one owned by the affiliate, the affiliate is given a commission. This is in recognition of his effort in helping the merchant make a sale.

The system involved in affiliate marketing seems easy, but it also takes a lot of diligence and perseverance for one to be able to penetrate it thoroughly. Those who want to get into this type of business should possess the necessary skills to be able tread through the industry with confidence and self-assurance. Still, other factors are needed by one to be able to really break in. Knowledge about the business at hand is very important as it dictates the actions that are to be done by people who are into it.

The leading figure in affiliate marketing is the super affiliate. He or she is basically an e-mail marketer who collects large databases of e-mail addresses through newsletters. Super affiliates are also those who know the business even better than affiliate managers as a result of their knowledge about the affiliate marketing industry inside out. Those who want to be super affiliates should know that becoming a super affiliate is not easy, because it takes a lot to be able to master the marketing craft.

Becoming a super affiliate means having one’s own website and auto responder. These tools will help a lot in one’s facilitation of the business. Building one’s own list is another. Creating a loyal customer base and taking care of it is one secret that successful super affiliates have. Making good customer relations is also important if one wants to be a super affiliate to reckon with.

Continuing to market to the people on one’s list is another must if one wants to succeed as a super affiliate. Sending out quality content in lieu of ads is an advantage as products are marketed better whenever enough information is given about them.

Building traffic to one’s own site is also one of the most essential points in the affiliate marketing business. Making one’s affiliate links his own business will allow him to build a strong relationship with his customers, enabling him to market to them over and over again.

The most important thing one should remember if he wants to become a super affiliate is to treat affiliate marketing as a business first and foremost. If he is capable of doing this, then he will never have to go back to the humdrum existence of working the 8-5 shift. A career as a super affiliate in the business, which will change his life forever, could possibly take that unexciting job’s place.

Clarence Binayu is the founder and Webmaster for http://www.virtual-guides.com. Here you can find FREE information on many subjects including business, automobile, travel, vacation, affiliate marketing, advertising, internet, sports, entertainment, technology, communication, fashion, home improvement, culture, education, society, science, politics, fitness and health. http://www.virtual-guides.com provides you with helpful guidance, tips and news update, from basic to the latest skills, knowledge and information, about these subjects.

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Hollywood loves the stock market. The chaos of the stock exchange floor, the tension of boiler room day-trading, devious power brokers making back room deals; it all makes for great drama. Then you have the true-to-life stock market stories in the news: insider trading, big money IPOs, the dot com bust. All of it is enough to make you steer clear of the market for good and travel down a safer investment path. But don’t be frightened, history shows that long-term, there’s no better place to put your money to watch it grow. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Stocks 101

Simply put, when you purchase stock in a company, you become part-owner of that company. Along with other shareholders, you all combine as investors in the business, and therefore reap its rewards, or suffer its losses. Stocks are most commonly divided into separate categories depending on the size and type of the company (e.g., mid-cap, small-cap, energy, tech, etc.).

While speculation can drive stock prices in the short term, it’s long-term company earnings that determine a stocks gains or losses. Speaking of short term, that’s when stocks are extremely volatile. Over a span of just a few months or years, stocks can climb to astronomic heights or drop to pitiful lows. But, since 1926, the average stock has returned over 10 percent per year. That’s better than any other investment vehicle out there, and that’s why stocks are your best bet for long-term investment.

Picking Stocks

Before you dive head-first into the market, there are a few things you should know about picking stocks. First, the market’s performance as a whole is not necessarily a reflection of its individual stocks. Good stocks can keep growing even in a down market, while bad stocks have the frustrating tendency to drop or remain stagnant in a strong market.

Also, remember that history is not indicative of a stock’s future performance. Even solid stocks can slip from time to time. Remember that stock prices are based on a company’s earnings outlook, not its past performance. If the future looks bright for a company, a $100 dollar stock is probably a good buy. If earnings look less than promising, even a $5 stock can be a waste. Finally, investors determine a stock’s value by measuring a handful of primary criteria, most notably cash flow, earnings, and revenue.

“Diversify”

It’s the rallying cry of all smart investors. When compiling an investment portfolio of stocks, it’s smart to own shares in companies from several different industries. Consider it a “hedge bet”. When one part of the economy experiences a downturn, you’ll have other stocks in your portfolio to put your faith in.

When building your portfolio, the safest bet is to pick from financially strong businesses with earnings growth above the average. Surprisingly, that limits the lot to choose from, as only around 200 stocks today fit that bill. A solid portfolio features somewhere in the ballpark of 20 stocks selected from seven or more industries. A general rule of thumb is to invest in stocks with an above-average rate of growth and reasonable valuations.

Buy and Hold

Day trading is a great way to lose your nest egg, but quick. As we noted before, stocks over the short term are highly volatile. Sure, brokers today are offering cheap trades, but beware. There are a ton of hidden fees and taxes involved with day trading, not to mention the amount of attention required by you to monitor the blow-by-blow proceedings of the market. Our recommendation: buy and hold. A ten percent return over the long term is nothing to sneer at.

Joseph Kenny writes for the Loans Store which offers more information on home loans, secured loans and other loan topics available on site.

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Hopefully you know all the basic methods of what works and what doesn’t. Link farms are bad, reciprocal linking has lost it’s value, and worthless links from non relevant sites do you no good at all. IIf you haven’t heard all that before, go to Google and search for “link building 101″ and read the Search Engine Watch article.

After you know the basics, you’ll realize that you’ll never gain any inbound links in significant numbers unless you have something of value to offer. Do you have articles? Can you educate your consumer? If not, then what else can you put on your website that will attract inbound links? what other “gimmick” or usflul reason is there for someone to point their web visitors your way?

If you’re a contractor, how about assembling a resource center for your potential clients? Where exactly should they file their building permits and how? where should they go to compain about a bad contractor? Got links, phone numbers and addresses for all of the city and state offices they could possibly need? Who has the best prices in town (or shortest waits for service) on lumber and other home supplies? Make a good one, promote it on Craigs list and in forums, and local sites will mention and link to you.

If you’re a real estate or mortgage broker, then mortgage calculators and easy home locators have long been tools that any decent site should have, but what if you’re in a more unique business? It just requires some thought…perhaps a survey of existing customers would help. look at competing websites and see what they’re doing. Don’t steal their ideas… do something better!

What other tools can help your clients more easily find what they’re looking for? Another resource center perhaps, for new home owners? A downloadable change of address kit, or information about all of the utility and service companies for your city or town?

A bookeeper might have developed their own spread sheet for calculating their customers profit and loss for a business. A carpet store might have a square footage calculator that saves to one list for all the different rooms in your home. A plumber might have tips about what drains go where in your home, and pictures of what @#$%! fittings go with what parts . (that’s something I could have used recently).

To become a top search result for any subject, you have to become the foremost authority on that subject. Be creative, give people something of value, and when they like it, you’ll get something in return…inbound links.

Scott Hendison - Editor, SearchCommander.Com

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“How do I soundproof my garage, basement, or a bedroom in my single family house or condo so my 4 piece rock band can practice and record and not bother the neighbors?” If I had a dollar for every time I was asked this question, I would be in the Bahamas right now, instead of writing this article. Many factors need to be considered prior to beginning your studio or practice room-soundproofing project. Some of the questions you should be asking yourself are: What type of amplification will the band be using, are the drums going to be acoustic and miked or are they digital. Are you going to be recording live late at night or are we going to be doing “line in” recording only? These questions and many more need to be considered before the actual construction begins. If live recording and rehearsal are the plan, then maximum soundproofing will be needed. The most effective way to soundproof a garage, basement, or bedroom is to actually construct a room within a room (go to http://www.auralex.com) and download the free booklet “Acoustics 101″, this is a wonderful resource for the home studio builder. Their ideas are solid and applicable to any studio-soundproofing project. The room within a room concept utilizes the sealed dead air space that is captured between the inner walls and the outer walls to help greatly with the soundproofing endeavor. It is probably easiest to frame the walls on the floor and then tilt them up into place thus making dry walling the outside of the walls much easier. It is also highly recommended that another ceiling be joisted out for the room within a room, however, this is often times not possible due to space constraints. In this case, the existing ceiling and ceiling joists may be used as the ultimate ceiling for the studio, provided that it is adequately soundproofed with materials such as the mass loaded vinyl or a combination of closed cell foam mat and MLV. I will elaborate on these materials, as we get further into this article. Once the walls are framed out and the right amount of “Dead air space” is determined, then it is time to install the soundproofing. The first order of business is to consider what needs to be done to the wall cavities prior to installing a barrier and finally the wallboard. I like to line the inside cavities with a closed cell vinyl nitrile foam mat such as American Mat. This mat (generally 1/4″ thickness) is adhered to the inside cavity walls as well as the studs and joists using a contact cement to adhere the mat. Keep in mind that the American Mat is used to line the cavities only, not to fill the cavity. If thermal insulation is needed, use products such as rock wool, mineral wool, cut wool fibers, or my favorite, Roxul. Roxul is a great thermal rock wool based batt type insulation that has great soundproofing qualities. If thermal insulation is a requirement for the practice room or studio, then Roxul is the way to go.

Now we come to a crossroads, it is time to determine if decoupling the walls using resilient channels or American Sound clips is a necessity. De coupling is used when impact transmission or low frequency noise is a factor. Impact would come primarily from the drums (acoustic type) or the bass amplifier. However, if the band is using Marshall high powered amps (50 watt amps with 4 X 12 cabinets for example) along with miked acoustic drums and an Ampeg bass system, then decoupling will most likely be necessary. These methods and procedures will be explained in later articles. If decoupling were determined to be unnecessary, then the next step would be to find a good barrier material such as American mass loaded vinyl (which is a high grade mass loaded vinyl barrier). This barrier could be stapled directly to the studwork on a wall assembly or directly to the joists. This is a method that is used if cost or space constraints are factors. If the barrier material is to be stapled directly to the stud or joist framing then it is best that the seams be over lapped, caulked (using OSI acoustical caulking compound) and then taped with either a lead tape or a heavy-duty PVC seam tape. Once the Mass Loaded vinyl (MLV) is installed and sealed, it is time to install the final layer of drywall. I always recommend using 5/8″ drywall as the final layer because of its mass and its sound blocking abilities. . It is always advisable to butter the edges of the last layer of drywall with acoustical caulk. You want to grab every STC (sound transmission class) point you can when trying to make your new studio as soundproof as possible. Finally you will tape mud and paint your final layer of drywall. Now you have a great soundproof home recording studio. We will discuss acoustical treatments for your studio in subsequent articles, but for now you are well on your way to having a professional grade-recording studio in your home.

Robert W. Orther

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As a consultant involved in small business consulting, your clients may sometimes ask you why they need the more powerful or larger network you are recommending. Many may say their networks work great … most of the time.

Selling Small Business Consulting Clients Fear

When clients question your recommendations or are in denial about their needs, you will often have to sell fear. Talk to the small business consulting client about another customer that trusted his own PC-savvy bookkeeper so much that she was able to steal $50K from the company by covering her trails because no one else was paying attention to the network or its activities. Only the most naïve clients will trust every employee and person that has access to the building.

Security In Small Business Consulting

In real life, small business owners don’t typically think about security until an emergency arises. It’s your responsibility as a small business consulting expert to inform your prospects and clients about the importance of addressing security issues. Ask them to think about sensitive files including credit card numbers, social security numbers, trade secrets, payroll information and annual employee evaluations.

Client Needs

Small business consulting clients often are not thinking big enough when they question your recommendations for a different network. This is the point at which you should take the client through a thorough initial consultation, needs analysis, IT audit and site evaluation.

Often a small business owner will just ask for file sharing or e-mail, but if you delve deeper, you will discover the client needs more sophisticated technological elements.

If small business consulting clients say they don’t need better data security, you need to dig deeper. Find out where they store sensitive information and figure out how to design systems that will work with their particular needs.

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