How To Plan For Kitchen Remodeling

Kitchen remodeling is one of the most desirable home improvement projects for many homeowners. A new kitchen increases the value of your home and makes your life easier. The first step to your new kitchen is to set a budget. Decide how much money you are willing to spend. This will help drive your other decisions. Be sure to leave a cushion in your budget for additional, unexpected expenses.

When determining your budget, consider how long you intend to stay in your home. If you are planning to sell in the next year or so, you may want to spend less money. Decide which features you must have in your new kitchen. You can cut corners in other areas by substituting less expensive materials for the counter tops, flooring or cabinet doors.

Research Kitchen Trends

Before you start planning your remodeling project, do some research on the current trends and designs being used in kitchens. Look for information on the internet or in home decorating magazines. Visit your local home improvement center for more ideas. Start a file for pictures of kitchens you love, furniture, appliances, fabric swatches or anything else you find interesting. This will help when you are ready to start purchasing items for your new room.

Options in Kitchen Remodeling

Cabinets are an expensive item in any remodeling project. They often take up half of the overall budget for the room. If you can’t afford the cost of brand new cabinets, there are cheaper alternatives. Consider cabinet refacing rather than replacing the entire cabinet. In refacing, the doors are replaced and exterior wood areas are covered. This is much less expensive since you are using the same cabinets. An even cheaper alternative is to paint your existing cabinets and buy new hardware.

If you must have new cabinets, consider adding some extra features. Features such as tilt out drawers, pull out garbage cans or a lazy Susan inside a corner cabinet are great space savers and make the room more functional. The doors can be either solid wood, clear glass or stained glass. Shop around to find out what is available before making a purchase.

You can save money on flooring and countertops as well. Substitute vinyl flooring in place of more expensive ceramic tile to save money. If you can install ceramic tiles yourself, you can have them for about the price you would pay a contractor to install vinyl flooring.

Countertops vary widely in price depending on the material that is used. Counters that are more durable are also more expensive. You may want this if you want to be able to cut food directly on the counter. For most people, this is an easy way to cut the overall cost of your kitchen. You can find less expensive material that gives the look of marble, butcher’s block or other expensive materials.

Once you have decided what you want, consider how much of the job you can do yourself. Contractors can eat up a large portion of your budget. The more you can do, the more you will save in the overall cost of the room. Use the savings for great new furniture.

How to Set up and Track Facebook Ads

I’ve been using Facebook Ads for a little less than a year now. And contrary to my initial thoughts and most of the posts I’ve read about them, they have worked out pretty good for me and my clients. Just to be clear, it has nowhere near the scale or robustness of Google Adwords, but it does provide some opportunities Adwords does not. So with that said, I figured I’d write a quick rundown of how Facebook ads work, how to set them up and what tracking and optimization features they offer.

The place to start your Facebook campaign research is Facebook Lexicon Keyword Tool. It allows you to see the trends for different words and phrases on Facebook Walls. The data is calculated by counting the number of occurrences or posts for every keyword (ex: “vampires”) across profiles, groups and events on Walls every day. All personal information is removed so there is no way to track data back to a specific person. You can use Lexicon to identify new trending keywords or topics to target with your Facebook campaign.

Setting up a Facebook campaign is fairly cut and dry once you understand the key elements that make up Facebook Ads (Ads & Creative, Targeting, Bids & Budgets, Analytics & Optimization). Although each part of the campaign is important, I cannot stress enough how important it is to test targeting segments, creative and landing pages. If you don’t test, your campaign is pretty much doomed from the get go. So test, test, test.

At the moment Facebook is offering multiple marketing platforms: Facebook Pages, Facebook Applications, Facebook Connect, Facebook Events, Traditional Facebook Ads, Facebook Social Ads or Engagement Ads. I am only going into Facebook Ads and a little into Facebook Social Ads on this post.

Ads and Creative

Facebook Ads accepts 2 types of ads, a Facebook Ad and a Social Ad. The Facebook Ad is a straight forward branded ad, linking to either an external site, a Facebook application or a Facebook Page.

A Social Ad is also a fully branded ad, but it ties in social interactions performed by user’s friends with a brand. Facebook then uses that action as the headline of the creative for the Social Ad and displays it in their Mini Feed. (See Example Below)

Here are the 3 types of Social Ads explained by Jeremiah Owyang much better than I can.

1) Comment Style Ad: Members can now leave comments on these advertisements, much like wall posts. Brands that are focused on entertainment, new product rollouts, autos and apparel are well suited. The ad can show up to 4 comments per object, and the activity spreads to the users newsfeed.

2) Virtual Gifts Style Ad: Brands can now create virtual items that users can share, spread to each other. This wildly popular behavior within applications and Facebook is suitable for consumer products, entertainment, and some media.

3) Fan Style Ad: A play off the Facebook pages, users with a persona affinity for a product (like Apple) can become a fan, triggering a notification to their network, and could then tie on social ads. Will work great for established brands, like guitar hero, passion products, luxury products, or any brand with a rabid customer base.

For smaller to midsized companies without a large enough existing brand following, I suggest staying with the standard Facebook ads in the beginning. You can start by using Facebook ads to build up a larger share of voice and transition over to Social Ads once you have grown your number of followers on your Facebook Page. You can decrease the amount of time this takes substantially by incorporating Facebook Connect on your sites, to encourage and make it very easy for your visitors that are Facebook users to connect with your Facebook Page and share content with their Facebook friends. When executed properly the exponential effect is huge! In fact you can also kick start your efforts by design a Facebook Ads campaigns specifically targeted to generate brand awareness and grow your company Facebook Page fans via ads and Facebook connect.

Once you can develop a good number of Fans on the company Facebook Page, you can begin using Social actions on a much larger scale. “Social actions” are the “Golden Egg” of Facebook Ads. Once you get Social Actions going, your likelihood of your message going viral increases dramatically. Your ads will begin appearing on the Walls and Mini Feeds of your Fans Friends. The more Fans you have, the farther your message travels within the Facebook network. The more users interact with your Facebook Page and Ads, the more you come out on their friends Walls. It’s that simple.

Don’t go overboard when developing the creative. Use simple and clear copy with a attention grabbing titles. That doesn’t mean to write an irrelevant or false title like a lot of the Facebook Ads I’ve seen, just one that sticks out. Your titles are limited to 25 characters and 135 characters for the body. So don’t try and cram every service or product you offer on the ad, leave some content for your landing pages. Create multiple versions of each ad with different images if possible so you can do some A/B tests. Always use an image on your ads. The images should be 110 x 80 pixels and less than 5 megabytes. If the image is larger or smaller than 110 x 80 Facebook will resize it automatically, so don’t stress it too much! They do not accept animated or flash images.

Example Social Ad

Example Standard Facebook Ad:

Complete list of the Facebook Ad creative and landing page guidelines

Targeting

Facebook has fairly robust targeting options compared to Adwords. They allow you to target by State, City, Gender, Age, Keywords, Workplaces, Relationship and Sexual Persuasion. According to Facebook, there are 33,849,820 targetable persons in its network. 14,350,900 Men and 18,548,300 Women in the US.

Facebook determines geo targeting via user IP, NOT their geographic network on Facebook. A very useful feature is the ability to target by specific workplaces or universities. Although you can target to High School students via the age targeting, you CANNOT through school networks. When setting up targeting make sure to only select areas serviceable by your business. When selecting keywords to target use Facebook lexicon to see estimates and find keywords. Step out of the box and try and identify new relevant keywords.

Bidding and Budgets

Facebook allows you to set daily budgets at the campaign level, starting with a minimum of $5 per campaign or 2X your Minimum CPC/CPM. The current minimum CPC is $0.01 and the minimum CPM is $0.15. But don’t expect to start with a $5 campaign at $.01 CPC, it won’t work! I started my first tests with $250, I suggest you start with at least that much. I say this because with less than that, I doubt you will be able to gather enough actionable data to make educated decisions on creative, landing page optimization and testing.

Facebook assigns an internal Daily Spend limit of $250 when you start off, which they increase over time depending on your daily spend and after 5 successful payments. Budgets and prices are going to vary based on your targeting options, but don’t be fooled, there are A LOT of impressions on Facebook, so plan accordingly. Make sure you set your targeting right, set the daily budget at what you want to spend, and test from there.

For the most part, I would suggest going with CPC model on Facebook. Why you ask? For several reasons: #1 CPM based bidding is dead #2 and more importantly both on my campaigns and other Facebook Ad case Studies I’ve read CPM ended up costing more because of the very low CTR% on Facebook.

Analytics and Optimization

Once your campaign is set up and running you’re ready to start collecting data. For this, Facebook has Facebook Insights. If you are using a link to an external site you can tag the link and gather data with Google Analytics or any other analytics program. But for this post, I will be focusing on the metrics available via the Facebook Insights.

There are 3 main reports I use. Responder Demographics provides the aggregate age, gender and geographic location of the users who have clicked on your Facebook Ad. Responder Profiles provides psychographic information of these same users, which is aggregated from user profiles and shows common interests, favorite TV shows, movies, books and music. This is a great report to identify new targets by finding new keywords, locations and interests of the users clicking on your Facebook Ad.

The Advertising Performance report provides an exportable version of the metrics you see in the interface: impressions, clicks and click-through rates, data by unique user and performance data specific to your ads that contained social actions, if you’re using Facebook Social Ads (see definitions below). In addition, you can also summarize your report by Account, Campaign or Ad .

The Account level report aggregates data across all campaigns, ads and targets, while the Campaign Reports breaks these statistics down to the campaign level, and the Ad reports break them down further to the individual ad level, etc, etc.

Within the Facebook Ads system, there are 2 types of promotion of ads, Organic and Paid. Organic promotion refers to News Feed stories generated based on social actions taken by users on your Facebook Page or Facebook App. There is a huge opportunity here to make it go viral, by testing actions and headlines and identify the ones with best distribution rates. Paid promotion refers to Social Ads created specifically to promote traffic to a Facebook Page.

Facebook Insight Metrics Defined

Date: The date on which the activity reported in the row of the report took place. Please note that monthly reports will be dated on the first of each month and weekly reports will be dated on the Sunday that marks the beginning of the week.

Ad/Campaign Name: The name of the ad/campaign reported in the row.

Ad/Campaign ID: The unique ID number of the ad/campaign reported in the row.

Total Impressions: The total number of times the ad referenced was shown has been shown on the site.

Total Clicks: The total number of clicks on the ads tracked by that row in the report.

Total CTR: CTR stands for click through rate. The CTR for an ad is calculated as the number of clicks the ad received divided by the number of impressions (times the ad was shown on the site) in the given time period.

Total Average CPC (US$): The average cost per click in US dollars for the given row.

Total Average CPM (US$): The average cost per thousand impressions in US dollars for the given row.

Total Spent (US$): The total cost in US dollars for the given row.

Unique Impressions: The number of people who viewed the ad(s) tracked by the given row of the report.

Unique Clicks: The number of people who clicked on the ad(s) tracked by the given row of the report.

Unique CTR: The unique click through rate. The unique CTR is calculated as the number of unique clicks the ad(s) received divided by the number of unique ad impressions.

Total Social Impressions: The total number of views (impressions) for ads with social actions attached to them for the given row. Not all ads have social actions attached to them.

Total Social Clicks: The number of clicks on ads with social actions attached to them for the given row. Not all ads have social actions attached to them.

Total Social CTR: The click through rate for ads with social actions attached to them. It is calculated as the number of “social clicks” divided by the total number of “social impressions”.

Unique Social Impressions: The number of people who viewed ads with social actions attached to them for the given row of the report.

Unique Social Clicks: The number of people who clicked on ads with social actions attached to them for the given row.

Unique Social CTR: The unique click through rate for ads with social actions attached to them. It is calculated as the number of “unique social clicks” divided by the number of “unique social impressions”.

BlackBerry Storm 9500 versus iPhone 3G

The BlackBerry Storm 9500 is, indeed, causing quite a storm, as more details emerge about its capabilities. This full touchscreen phone is very much consumer-focused, but with its solid business foundations intact. How does it stand up to the iPhone 3G?

Look & Feel

Both devices are almost completely touchscreen based, with the Storm having a few more buttons along the bottom edge, and the typical "BlackBerry" logo branding at the top of the screen near the earpiece.

The BlackBerry is definitely more curvy top and bottom, and measures 112.5mm (H) x 62.2mm (W) x 13.95mm (D) -- not much different to the iPhone 3G's 115.5 (H) x 62.1 (W) x 12.3mm (D).

The Storm is a touch heavier at 155g versus 133g.

Screen

The BlackBerry Storm features a high-resolution 360 x 480 touchscreen, which gives it a 4:3 aspect ratio akin to older TVs, versus the iPhone 3G's 320 x 480 touchscreen which is a 3:2 ratio. Not much to choose between the two, though.

Both screens feature light-sensing technology which can be used to set the optimum brightness for the display.

Keyboard

The Storm offers several virtual keyboard options, including standard QWERTY in landscape mode and SureType in portrait mode (see picture).

The iPhone offers several keypads (QWERTY, numeric, symbols) in both landscape and portrait modes.

Camera

The BlackBerry Storm features a modest 3.2 megapixel camera, still beating the iPhone's two megapixel affair. Additionally, it supports video recording out of the box. The specifications don't say whether it has autofocus and flash capability, but regardless of that, the Storm just beats the iPhone.

Multimedia

Both handsets can play a wide variety of audio formats, with the Storm pipping the iPhone with WMA and WMA ProPlus, and video formats, the Storm able to handle WMV files. If those types of media are important (more likely for PC users) then the Storm edges ahead.

Navigation

The Storm uses BlackBerry Maps and offers Touch Screen Navigation. The iPhone features Google Maps and navigation. You decide which handset wins based on your navigational needs and preferences. My hunch is that the Storm edges it until Google updates Maps on the iPhone.

Communications

Both units handle 3G where available, but only the iPhone feature Wi-Fi connectivity. There's also GPS and Bluetooth, with the Storm's Bluetooth implementation is better than the iPhone's.

The Storm can be used as a tethered modem providing that the network operator allows it. At present, the iPhone can only be used this way with a bit of hacking.

Web Browsing

Both units feature web browsers, though as far as I'm aware exact information about the Storm's software isn't yet public. Various forums have suggested it's based on "WebKit", which is what Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome (among others) are based on.

Could the Storm have an iPhone-esque browser?

Operating System

The Storm appears to be running BlackBerry OS 4.7, whereas the iPhone runs OS X.

Storage

The Storm features 1GB of internal memory, 128MB of Flash memory, and support for microSD expansion cards up to 16GB.

Applications

The Storm may well make use of a new "BlackBerry Application Centre", in similar vein to the iPhone App Store and Google's Android Market.

That's not confirmed yet, but based on rumours spotted over the weekend.

Business Credentials

The BlackBerry is almost the de facto standard for business users, and as such features strong compatibility and security with popular corporate systems.

The iPhone is still very much a work in progress, depending on individual business needs, and while some companies are adopting the iPhone, particularly after the software upgrade to version two, it still lags when it comes to being supported by standard systems.

Though the Storm is being portrayed as a much more consumer-friendly device, its business credentials still stand.

Pricing & Networks

It seems that the Storm will be available on a 24 month contract, exclusively with Vodafone, for a minimum £35 per month (not sure if the handset is free or not).

You know the drill with the iPhone 3G by now - various price points and 18-month contracts from £30pm, or PAYG, on O2.

Conclusion

RIM has definitely pushed some consumer buttons with its latest offering, and gone all out touchscreen (I can't think of a major phone manufacturer that doesn't have some touchscreen goodness happening on at least one of their handsets).

Whether it's a direct attack on the iPhone is another matter. With the likes of Samsung's Omnia and the G1 around, there's plenty of competition in this area of the market.

It's not the prettiest phone around, but looks like it will do the job. It wins on overall connectivity, though the network tie-in is even worse than the iPhone's.

Vodafone versus O2? You decide, not that you get much choice if you want to use one of the phones.

For me, it's still iPhone all the way. What do you reckon?

Do It Yourself Website

If you are just starting out in your new business and you decide that a website could be a valuable addition to this business how do you go about getting one up and running? You have two basic options really. Do it yourself or employ an individual or company to do it for you. Which option you take depends upon your own confidence in acquiring the skills necessary and the amount of funds you can divert to hiring in a company. If you have sufficient funds then hire in a company as this will enable you to devout all your time to developing your core business. If you don’t then you will have to do it yourself. So how do you go about it?

You will require no or little knowledge of HTML as you can purchase a whole package from a web hosting company which should include some form of website developing software and your domain name plus the hosting of your website. Give some thought to your domain name. It should be easy for people to type in and remember. Not too long, succinct and preferably no hyphens. So you have chosen your domain name and your hosting service now you must develop your site. Again give some thought to this. How many pages you are likely to produce, how many links you will need. What sort of information is going on each page. If you are completely new to this then I would suggest that using your site editor software you produce a first draft and publish it. You can always modify everything later as you go along. This will give you your first website which you can then submit to the search engines albeit not exactly what you want or one that is going to attract visitors.

Now you need to do quite a lot of research on the internet as to how to make your site visitor friendly and search engine friendly. Here you will discover the importance of good content, changing content, appropriate keywords, backward links, article writing and good copy on the website. Taking this information on board will enable you to restructure and rewrite your site over a period of time, probably many times. However all the time this learning process is going on your site is actually published on the Web so is likely to start being trawled by search engines and getting indexed even if it doesn’t sky rocket through the rankings. The most important thing to do from the outset is to write good content that will be of interest to your visitors. If it holds the attention of your visitors and gets them to contact you then it will likely be of equal interest to the search engines. Do not produce a site that is written with the search engines in mind. It is your visitors who are important and by following a few simple rules that are published all over the Web your site can become very attractive to visitors and to search engines also. Keep the site textually based, there is no point in having very flashy graphics as these are not noticed by the search engines and often annoy visitors who want to get at the information they are after as quickly as possible and not have to wait for some animated introduction to finish before they can enter the actual site.

Having put into practice all the advice that is out there you should have put together a pleasing and appealing website that visitors and search engines like. Each day or week you add more content and develop more links and you will gradually climb up the rankings. The last piece of advice I would give is start writing and submitting articles. One or two a week would be excellent over a year or two. Once your articles start being published you will see an immediate leap in the number of links back to your site and a subsequent rise in the rankings if your content is also good. Aim to produce over time several hundred articles if possible. The more you write the more links back to your site you will develop and the more visitors you will get as well as boost your rankings in the search engines.

How To Choose A Good Web Host ?

Choosing a web host is never easy. There are just so many unknowns when it comes to finding a host. It's hardly ever possible to walk into a web host's office, look around, meet the owners, and get a feel for whether or not you'd like to do business with these people.

It's important, though, that you bend over backwards to establish whether your prospective web host is a credible provider - or a fly by night artist.

The webmaster industry is awash with horror stories about signing up with a web hosting company, only to find out later that this 'business' is run by a 14 year old who lives at home.

For the most part, you'll make your decision using whatever information you can find online.

Start out with the website of the web host you are considering.

Is it professionally designed and written? Typo's and spelling errors may signal that this is a company ran by kids or amateurs.

Is the website easy to use? Is it designed with a view towards helping people? Are help materials available online? This should give you a flavor for whether the company is client oriented.

Where is the company located? Is there an address? Can you email them?

Look at the Terms of Service. Does your prospective web host clearly spell out what may be expected of them and what is expected of you? Every deal is different, but both parties should clearly know what the deal is.

Next, do a search for the company on Google. Are you finding any negative statements? Try different searching techniques, like typing the company name followed by the word "scam", or by the words "poor support".

Now, try emailing their customer support department. Do you get a fast reply? What about their sales department? Do they answer inquiries quickly? Let's face it...if they won't pay any attention to you when they're trying to get your business, how much more will you be neglected after you sign up?

If you follow these simple suggestions, your chances of signing up with an excellent web host increase substantially.

9 Ways to Make Money On-line

Are you making money hand over fist with your website? If you are then you don’t need to bother reading this article because it is not for you. If you are like most of us your website sales are slow and unpredictable and you need to think of new ways to make money online without taking more time and effort. All of your time should be dedicated to producing your product, right? Well, here are just a few ways to make a little bit or a lot of money online without any effort.

1. Affiliates
Sign up to become an affiliate for other businesses that are on the net. I only sign up with the companies that I honestly would recommend to anyone. All that you have to do is refer your customers to these sites. Once one of my referrals makes a purchase, I receive a small payment. With some of the affiliate programs the fee is quite large.


2. Google Ads
I was not too sure about this one but I signed up and I am now convinced. The first week that I had Google ads on my website I made $.18 and the next week I made $6.45! Wow! Big boost. If I keep this up, I just may be able to pay for my web host by the end of the month!

3. Google Search
Works close to the same way as the ads. People use your search tool, make a purchase and then you are compensated.

4. Amazon
Another great tool that will trickle in a few dollars here and there, all for 10 minutes of your time putting a little code into your website and Amazon does the rest.

5. Selling Ad Space
You could sell ad space if you have a site that has high traffic.

6. Selling Subscriptions to Your Newsletter
If you have a newsletter that has high demand information, you could charge for your newsletter.

7. Selling Ad Space in Your Newsletter
Sell ad space in in your newsletter. Same drill as with ad space on your website. Just put a box on your newsletter with a note inside it that says "Your Banner Could Go Here" Then have a page that tells how many subscriber that you have, how often your newsletter goes out and what type of content it usually contains plus the price per ad.

8. Selling E-Books
Do you know something about your craft or hobby that you know people would pay to learn as well? Then sell it in an e-book. What a great way to make a little extra money. You take the time to write a good quality e-book then just fill the orders. You could even set it up so that once the e-book order has been processed and paid for, it goes out automatically using an auto responder without you even having to lift a finger, except to go to the bank to collect your money.

9. Consulting - Offer your services
Do you sell wedding supplies and know all of the best suppliers around? Do a little research and offer your services as a wedding coordinator. Offer your assistance to the people that want to plan their own wedding, but need a little bit of help.

Remember, you wont get rich with just one of these programs, but you just may make a tidy little sum every month with a combination of all of them.

How to Choose a LCD Monitor

No matter how powerful or excellent your computer configuration is, your computer won't let you smile if you had a poor monitor, since monitors are your window into the computer - everything that happens in your software and applications happens via the monitor. It is hence very important to choose a good monitor to go along with your PC.

Traditionally, CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors have been used for desktop computers. However, LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) monitors are now more and more popular. It's easy to see why: LCD monitors are affordable now, easier on the eyes, and they're slim/portable and of high quality plus laptops also use LCD screens.

Before you buy a LCD monitor, you will need to know the following things:

1. Your Budget
Of course, this is the very first thing you will need to consider, and once the budget is fixed, you narrowed your choices, and you may focus on a few models.

2. Your Requirements
If you're a graphics professional, you may prefer a CRT monitor because they are said to show more realistic colors. However, the latest high-end LCDs can also give equal color quality (Well, of course, you’ll have to pay much more for this than for a regular LCD monitor ).

If you are a demanding gamer, you may need a comparatively larger screen LCD monitor with a better response time, you won’t like the tails of the mouse, will you?

If you just want a computer for on-line surfing or occasional gaming, a LCD is a good choice because the various pixels that you find on a LCD will have nicely defined edges. This gives sharp and focus letters on the screen better than a CRT monitor does. However, a high-end LCD in this case is definitely unnecessary since you will never have a chance to make use of its advantages.

3. Resolution
If you have a computer with a video card that supports a resolution of 1680 x 1050, while you bought a large LCD monitor with a 1920 x 1200 resolution, then you won’t have the pictures/videos fully displayed on the monitor, or the pictures will look much less clear or sharp.

Besides the 3 points above, there are also many other things need your attention:

Panel Size: In an LCD monitor, the panel size reflects the viewable area you can use. Again, the measurement is made diagonally from one corner of the screen to the opposite corner. LCD panel sizes now range from 15 inches up to 23 inches or even larger.

Defective (dead/stuck) pixels: A LCD panel display may have certain defective pixels (red/dead…). But this can be identified by turning the desktop background into a whole black.

Viewing Angle: One problem specific to LCD monitors is the fact that you cannot see what is displayed if you move off to the side of the monitor too much. A greater viewing angle is therefore typically better - especially if you need to show presentations to others on the LCD screen very often.

If you do not want to bother yourself with those technical details, there is also another good way to choose a LCD monitor: to read reviews and ratings, for example, consult product reviews in computer magazines or on the Internet. Many different companies put monitors through rigorous testing and really can help you to buy wisely. A good site to consult about monitors is http://www.epinions.com/cmhd-Monitors-All, you may also find many customer reviews from resellers’ websites, for example, Newegg.com.

How to Take Care of your Health During Winter Periods

Protecting your health in the wintertime isn’t as hard as it sounds, here are some tips for preventing typical problems during the coldest time of the year.

Immune System

Prevention is really the key to not getting sick. Older folks, children and those with depressed immune systems may want to consider getting a flu shot, which can protect you from getting the flu. You can also improve your immune system by eating right and taking the proper vitamins and minerals for your age and body type. Even a multivitamin is better than nothing, but consider supplementing with Vitamin C and Zinc, both proven to boost the immune system.

Skin

Your skin can often take a beating during the winter months. Inside your home or workplace, you’ll be subjected to dry heat from electric, gas, oil or wood fire heating elements. Also, you may take longer and certainly hotter baths or showers. Outside your home you’ll be subjected to dry, windy, wet or cold weather. Moving inside and outside from dry heat to dry cold can wreak havoc on your skin, making it dry, itchy, red, flaky and irritated. The skin on your face is especially susceptible to this problem. Use moisturizers and moisturizing lotions daily to keep your skin healthy and hydrated. You can also use a humidifier to add some much needed moisture back to the air in your home or workplace. Don’t forget to protect your skin from the glare of the sun or ravages of the wind by covering up all parts of your body by wearing gloves, a scarf, ear muffs and a hat when you go out. Remember to cleanse your face everyday with a gentle soap and lukewarm water. You may also wish to add a bath oil product to your baths to moisturize the skin on your entire body. The skin on your hands will also be very susceptible to drying and irritation, remedy this by applying a hand cream after each time you wash your hands.

Lips

Your lips are one of the hardest hit areas of your body during cold weather, especially during very dry and cold weather. Your lips may be chapped, dry and peel much more easily. Keep a moisturizing, protecting lip balm with you and apply it daily or as needed to keep your lips moist and supple and to avoid painful cracking.

Eyes

While in some areas of the country, the sun may not shine nearly as much as during the rest of the year, it’s still important to take care of your eyes during cold weather. Use sunglasses when needed, as the sun during the wintertime can shine UV rays that are even stronger than during the summer. Also, use eye drops as needed to prevent and relieve dry eyes due to the dry heat that may be present indoors. When snow is on the ground and/or the sun is shining, this is the most important time to protect your eyes from the sun’s wintertime UV rays with a good pair of sunglasses or goggles.

Fitness

When exercising, shoveling snow or working outside in cold weather, take extra care to avoid overexertion. Overexertion during cold weather can put an extra strain on your heart. When you need to exercise, consider instead working out in your home or at a gym. It’s very important to keep up your fitness routine throughout the year, including winter.

Creating "Stand-out" Sales and Marketing Literature

Gang run printing can be the most economical way to print most of your company's advertising, sales and marketing literature. By using gang run printing you can combine your job with other similar jobs and share the cost of make ready and the press run. You only pay for the space on the press you use. Many online printers offer gang run services with reasonable turn around times and prices. This is a great way to save money if the size and quantity of your job meet the printers run requirements.

One important point to be aware of is that your ability to create advertising, sales and marketing literature that is unique and different is limited. Your odds of getting noticed are somewhat diminished when you look like everybody else. If you want your cards, brochure, flyers and books to stand out, you need to add a Wow Factor. Something extra that separates you from the crowd. Some ways to do this are by choosing a printer that includes heavy paper stocks and additional finishes to your printed order. That's the minimum requirement.

Thanks to the latest state of the art printing technology, it is now possible to go way beyond plain vanilla and use some really wonderful "Wow Factor" special effect techniques to your next gang run print job. Spot UV Coating: Adds a high gloss coating only to selected areas you want to stand out. This is a great option for giving your printed piece the "WOW FACTOR"! Spot UV highlights and focus attention to a selected area by creating a visual stimulus. It enhances the value and give the impression of importance and quality to the finished piece.

Metallic Silver Ink: This special ink actually has microscopic flakes of aluminum embedded in the ink to create a metallic silver effect. It creates a very unique and exciting look to distinguish you from your competition. Silver can be used in type, background or boarders. It's sure to get you noticed.

Colored Metallics: This is an incredible new process that actually allows you to create a metallic effect to hundreds of standard colors. It is sure to give you a truly unique and exciting look.

These special techniques are only available from a very few online printing services. They truly raise the bar on what is available at reasonable costs that most companies can afford. In the coming difficult business time, this could be a solution to standing out and getting noticed. The important thing to always be aware of the fact that it does not matter how hard you work, it is how smart you work. No matter what you offer if it goes unnoticed, you've spent a lot of money and wasted much of your time. The most important consideration is not the cost but the return on investment (ROI). By using Wow Factor custom effects, you are on your way to achieving this goal.

How to show-hide sidebar widget

How to make so, that the part of contents would show on the main page and disappeared on associate pages. For example on this blog the section BLOGS is visible only on the main page.

For this You should do the following:

• Open Template -> Edit HTML tab
  
• Set checkbox Expand Widget Templates
• Find bigining of fragment that you are going to hide in the HTML. In this example that is: <b:widget id='HTML1' locked='false' title='Blogs' type='HTML'>
• Inser after <b:includable id='main'> the next code:<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'> and </b:if> before </b:includable></b:widget>
• Save template

All code for this example: <b:widget id='HTML1' locked='false' title='Blogs' type='HTML'>
<b:includable id='main'>

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>

<h2 class='title'></h2>

<div class='widget-content'>

<data:content/>

</div>

<b:include name='quickedit'/>

</b:if>

</b:includable>

</b:widget>

There is no necessity more to edit html code at desire to change contents of this widget.

Few steps to Advertise Your Online Business for Free

If you recently decided to start an online business, you’re probably wondering how to advertise it. If you’re a cheapskate like me, you’re probably wondering how you can advertise it for free and still get good results. If this is the case, this is the perfect article for you.

You don’t have to pay one cent to successfully advertise an online business.

As odd as this may seem, my most successful online businesses didn’t get any paid advertising, where as my less successful online businesses did get paid advertising. I’m not sure if this was supposed to be an omen or something, but I found it to be rather peculiar.

The point here is simply that you don’t need to buy advertising in order to have a successful online business. Would it help to buy it? Typically, yes it would. Do you need to buy it? Probably not, unless you’re planning on launching something of a rather high magnitude.

Here are some ways to advertise your online business for free:

1. Automatic link lists, also known as topsites.

Topsites were the first real way that I generated traffic for my online businesses back when I started out. The reason for this is that you get traffic basically instantly. All you have to do is sign up, put your special link code on your website, click on it to send in a vote, and next thing you know you will be listed (as long as there isn’t too much competition). There are plenty of topsites where you will only need one vote to show up on the first or second page, and instantly start receiving traffic. You can start your own topsite and/or find topsites at www.top-site-list.com and a gazillion other places on the web.

2. Link exchanges.

Exchanging links with other quality websites related to yours is a great way to increase traffic, make friends, and increase your pagerank. Just send an email or fill out a provided form to a webmaster you are interested in trading links with, put his link up, and see what happens. Every link you have up on another site will send you more visitors, and further legitimize your website. If you are interested in exchanging links with this blog please click here.

3. Search engines.

Search engines are probably the best way to score a lot of traffic. However, to successfully get a lot of visitors from a search engine for your specific topic is anything but easy. You will have to optimize your site for search engines with the correct meta tags to stand a good chance. Pick as many different and specialized relevant keywords and phrases as you possibly can. As far as I can tell, the more different and ridiculously specific keywords/phrases you have, the more traffic you will get. The reason for this is that the more general terms are fought for tooth and nail by tons of websites. The more specific terms/phrases aren’t fought over much, and can be more easily won over. However, each one of the more specific terms/phrases will not give as much traffic as a more general term/phrase would. To make up for this you need to come up with a ton of the more specific ones.

If you haven’t already submitted your website to the biggest search engine, Google, and you aren’t listed yet (you might want to check first), you can do it here: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

4. Directories

Directories are a great way to easily gain exposure and pagerank. However, they typically don’t provide as much traffic as the other options. There is one directory that may be the exception to the “not as much traffic” rule, and that one is www.dmoz.org. However, getting listed there may not be easy. Dmoz.org (aka The Open Directory Project) is a highly respected hand picked directory of websites. The data is so well respected that Google and many other search engines use it in their results. A listing at Dmoz.org is like a listing in multiple search engines with an extra hint of respect tagged on. Believe me, you most definitely want this. The directory is a non profit volunteer run organization, so there won’t be any paying for listings. You have to earn a listing with quality content and a noticeable website. Good luck.

5. Forums

Using forums to generate traffic is quite nice in the sense that you can join forums on specific topics and know there are a bunch of active users that could very well become active users/visitors for your website. All you need to do is put a link to your website in your signature and post away. Every post you make will have a link to your website. To demonstrate a more extreme version of doing this, if you make a post on every thread of a forum for a year then anytime someone searches for something on the forum they will probably come to a thread with your link on it. I haven’t actually done this “posting on every thread for a year” thing, but the more I think about it if you were to do it on a really big forum it could generate ridiculous traffic. Make sure, however, that your posts aren’t blatant spam. Try to make yours posts as useful and on topic as possible. One extremely popular forum is www.offtopic.com.

6. Social bookmarking websites.

If your business involves any kind of daily updates that include unique content, you can probably use social bookmarking websites to promote it as well. Here is a short list of some good ones for you to join: Digg, Netscape, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Del.icio.us, and Newsvine. Just submit your new content to these websites every day and you will increase your traffic as well as your pagerank. You will also find yourself coming across a lot of interesting material that may take up quite a bit of your time if you get too engrossed in it, so be careful

How to Speed Up Windows XP Shutdown

Windows takes long to Shutdown when third party or Microsoft applications have not properly unload from memory when exiting. Windows will keep trying to completely close them until finally decides that it can't and should shutdown. Even if you find the application causing the problem it may be impossible to do anything about it.

To fix this problem Microsoft released the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service

After the installation open up your services list (Click start, then run and type services.msc, click OK), you should see one new service :

This free utility automatically cleans up user profiles reclaiming resources as soon as a task is finished and prevents you from wait when shutting down Windows XP.

Running the .cmd file contained will force Windows XP to shutdown in few seconds.

You may also need a fast user Log-off or a fast Restart.

How to Speed Up Firefox Page Rendering

Mozilla applications render web pages incrementally - they display what's been received of a page before the entire page has been downloaded. Since the start of a web page normally doesn't have much useful information to display, Mozilla applications will wait a short interval before first rendering a page: by default, Firefox doesn't try to render a web page for 250 milliseconds while it's waiting for data.

If you use about:config to add the Integer preference nglayout.initialpaint.delay, and set the value to 0, Firefox immediately starts to display the page, even without complete data (lower values will make a page initially display more quickly, but will make the page take longer to finish rendering. Higher values will have the opposite effect).

How to correctly throw punches to generate the most power.

How to correctly throw punches to generate the most power.

8 Steps to Take When You Feel Like Giving Up

Taking the easy road is nice for a while, but for talented, motivated people it isn’t enough. To find satisfaction you’ll need to set ambitious goals, solve challenging problems, and develop strengths you may not know you have.

Although the hard road is more fulfilling, it isn’t all champagne and victory laps. There will be times when you feel beaten and depressed — times when quitting looks like the best option. There is no formula for dealing with hard times, but these 8 steps will help you understand your predicament and determine the best course of action.

1. Take a Break
One reason we get down ourselves is fatigue. When you’re tired everything is harder. Working your tail off for extended periods will wear you down if you aren’t careful. You’ll also get bored. Fatigue and boredom combine to cause burnout — one of the biggest reasons people quit. When faced with burnout, the best thing to do is take a break. Cut yourself off completely. Do absolutely nothing for a day or two. What’s the worst that could happen? By allowing yourself to recover you’ll be more productive in the long run.

2. Step Back
Sometimes we get so absorbed in our own sphere that we develop a distorted picture of reality. When you feel like giving up, there’s a good chance that a) things aren’t nearly as bad as they seem, and b) there’s a simple solution that you’re overlooking. When things seem bleak, distance yourself from the situation to gain an accurate perspective. What would someone without any emotional involvement do? Asking this question will help you make optimal decisions.

3. Do Your Research
The only constant in the universe is change, but when you’re plugging away with your head down it’s easy not to notice. People often make decisions based on outdated assumptions made months, or even years earlier. To develop a course of action, you’ll need to know where you stand. Stop to evaluate your position.

* What do you have?
* What do you want?
* How has the market adjusted?
* What opportunities still exist?
* What new opportunities have arisen?

By taking stock of the current situation, you’ll discover if your urge to quit is a passing whim or the correct decision.

4. Consult an Expert
When your knowledge base is insufficient you should seek an expert opinion. This doesn’t mean you have to make contact with a world class expert, anyone who knows more than you will be able to help. Think of friends, family, and business associates. Have any of them been in your position before? The web can also be a great resource, just be careful who you trust. Check out relevant forums or email a reputable blogger. I’m consistently impressed with the effort people expend to help total strangers.

5. Re-evaluate Your Strategy
Once you’re well informed, apply that knowledge to revamping your strategy. If you feel like giving up, you might be doing something wrong. This is the time to pour over your efforts and determine what works.

* What actions have lead to the greatest benefit?
* What mistakes have been made?
* What can be improved?

By answering these questions you’ll fine tune your strategy. The urge to give up is a blessing when it leads to analysis and constructive adjustments.

6. Change Course
Knowing what’s wrong and how you can fix it is a relief. Unlike an invisible monster hovering over you, an exposed problem can be directly assaulted. Once you’ve determined a change needs to be made, implement it full force. Don’t hesitate or dwell on past mistakes. Trust your own judgment and deal with new issues as they arise.

7. Push Through the Dip
In some cases you might feel like giving up even though you’re doing all the right things. This is called “the dip” — the plateau that separates the average from the best in the world. Knowing what to do when you hit the dip is so important, Seth Godin wrote a book on it. In you’ve hit the dip and you can honestly say that going forward is the best decision, lower your shoulder and plow ahead until you reach the other side. It might not be pleasant but the rewards are tremendous. If you make it.

8. Quit
We don’t have thoughts and emotions for nothing. Sometimes quitting is the best decision. Maybe you didn’t know what you were getting into. Maybe your priorities have changed. Maybe you’d be better doing something else. If you know deep down that quitting is the right move, do it. Don’t hesitate because of previously invested effort. That’s a sunk cost. If you ignore your better judgment and continue you’ll waste more time and energy.

Original source of the article can be found at http://www.pickthebrain.com

Basic Ways to Exponentially Improve Your Productivity

Paul J. Meyer says, “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” This cannot be any truer. To be successful in your career (or anything for that matter), your productivity must shine.

Don’t limit yourself. If you want to get things done in the least amount of time with the best results you need to follow these steps.

1. Turn off your TV.
Besides being a brainwashing tool, TV eats away four hours a day from time you could spend doing more productive things. Four hours a day? That’s ten years spent watching TV if you plan on living past seventy five.

2. Checklists.
No brainer here. Make a checklist of things you need to get done, then go bullet by bullet. So simple yet so effective.

3. Harder things come first.
If you built yourself a to-do list (which you should), tackle your hard tasks first, don’t save them for last. If you finish them you have nothing to worry about as your tasks will only get easier. This will set a great outlook for the rest of the day and keep your mentality afloat.

4. Consolidate.
Take a look at your checklist and see if you can put somethings together. If you’re going out for errands, try to do them all at once, if you’re calling clients, schedule a period to do them all in one stint.

5. Early to sleep, early to rise.
Getting up at 6AM is a drag I’ll admit. However you’ll be surprised how much more you can get done as opposed to waking up at 2PM. Grab a coffee and go. Of course if you’re waking up earlier, you’re going to need more sleeping hours so going to bed a couple of hours earlier is a must.

6. Say “No”.
Carefully strategize your options and your goals (as well as your tasks). Say no to things that are outside those bounds that are not helping you meet your goals. Keep focused on the important tasks at hand.

7. Start now.
Stop holding off! You’re big projects will just get even bigger with time on their side. Dive in and take a chance, build or demolish your goals brick by brick.

8. Leave time for non-urgent (but necessary) activities.
Schedule time during your day when you work only on non-urgent yet necessary activities like e-mails, phone calls, paying bills, etc.

9. Each day is different, respect that.
What I like to do is prioritize my days differently. Friday is more relaxed so I can focus more on my general & fun projects while Mondays I focus on organizing and planning for the week ahead of me. Wednesdays I use as a marker to see how far I am and the type of progress I need to be showing.

10. Get a ‘The Office’ calendar.
The Office Calendar will at least remind you that it could be a lot worse ;-). Write down all your important meetings and to-do’s, stuff that you can’t fit on post-it notes.

11. Sticky notes wall.
I used to categorize all my tasks onto sticky notes. One sticky note per task. I then put them on the wall of my office as a big collage and when I finished one, I’d ‘X’ it out. This was a great way for me to visually see the progress I was making however it ended up taking up too much space.

12. Reward yourself.
Keep yourself motivated by setting rewards for completing big tasks. This could be anything from a movie ticket to a football game or a gift of some kind. This way you’ll have more push rather then just the obvious monetary gains.

13. Take breaks.
Another no-brainer. Give yourself time to relax and let your thoughts drift. If you’re workhorsing for twelve hours a day with no breaks, eventually you will go insane. Take the time to sit back and look at everything your doing to get some fresh perspective on it.

14. Do your shopping online.
Why run to the story when a diligent UPS or FedEx worker can carry it to your door? You’d also be surprised on how much you can save by shopping online. Here are some great store links:

http://amazon.com
http://half.com
http://overstock.com
http://bestbuy.com
http://newegg.com

15. Automatic bill pay.
Most banks offer this, take advantage of it! You’ll save that extra 1-2 hours paying your bills, spend it doing something more productive.

16. Direct deposits.
Most employers offer this now. Save that trip to the bank, having to wait in line to cash your check. Get it directly deposited every other Friday. Let your employers do the work.

17. The Pareto Principle.
Recently read up on a ‘improve your personal finance’ book and it covered the Pareto Principle. It basically states the 80-20 rule, which is that 80% of the value of a task comes from 20% of the effort. Focus the bulk of your energy on that critical 20%, and don’t spend too much time on the non-critical 80%. For more about the Pareto Principle, click here.

18. Review yourself at the end of the day.
Before you go home from work, sit down and run through your checklist. Be proud of the things you accomplished and focus on the things you left to be done. Sit back and re-organize your new objectives.

19. Make your workspace comfortable.
Use a chair that is ergonomic and conforms to your back. Be sure to get up and stretch every hour or so and make sure that you are working in good lighting.

20. Keep your software and hardware running smooth.
How are you going to get things done with tons of spywar and adaware on your computer? Make sure to keep your hardware and software and check and be security conscious. Want some good anti-adware and spyware tools? Check these out:

SpyBot
Ad-Aware

21. Use computer short-cuts.
Take the time to check out what the common keyboard shortcuts are. Stop using your mouse to copy and paste, use Ctrl+C, and CTRL+V! Here is a link to Common Windows XP Computer Shortcuts.

22. Set deadlines, use alarms.
My T-Mobile Dash calendar is overflowing with alarms, to-do lists and other things to keep track of my ideas, goals and tasks. Use alarms and deadline notifications to help you keep yourself in check.

23. Enjoy your meals.
Yep, you heard me right. Take the time out to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner properly with the necessary time to de-stress yourself from the common difficulties of a normal everyday life. Get back to reality and cool off. Food is crucial, if you are well fed and feeling good, you’ll be able to get a lot more done once you resume your work.

24. If you’re using FireFox, use these tools to improve your productivity.
LifeHack recently published this great article: Top 10 FireFox Extensions to Improve Your Productivity. Definitely a worthwhile read.

25. Coffee/caffeine.
Another no-brainer but it works. Without my coffee in the AM I can hardly keep away. Coffee keeps me focused and alive for the majority of the day (and it tastes good :)).
Two more for the road…

26. Break things up.
Kind of touched on this already but its worth noting again. Break things up. Those major daunting tasks will seem a lot easier when their smashed into bits and pieces.

27. Team up and stay focused.
Having someone either on your back or helping you will make you push yourself harder. However, don’t let this get in the way of the work - cut out the procrastination.

Original source of these tips can be found at http://cashbulge.com

Tips to improve your bowling game

In the process of learning how to bowl, people often overlook key elements such as arm swing, lower body leverage and other things that you would think that wouldn't be needed when it comes to the game of bowling. Leaving any of the tips that I listed below out of your game at the lanes will hinder you from bowling at your maximum potential. It's not hard at all, just applying a few of the tips at a time will change your game drastically. So apply each, one step at a time and you'll get the full effect when you step on the lanes next time.

I am going to give you some bowling tips that you can use to improve your game drastically, go ahead and give them a try.

Tip 1 - Keep that arm swing loose

Remember first and foremost, keep your grip relaxed in the ball. To avoid the muscled arm swing don't squeeze your fingers or thumb. To avoid this it's best to head down to a pro shop and get a ball fitted and drilled correctly so you can have a relaxed thumb. Like I said, you don't want to have to squeeze the ball because your thumb doesn't fit.

Tip 2 - Use your lower body leverage It is absolutely necessary that you bend your knees in bowling. Make sure to bend your knee to get lower to the lane on the last step.

Tip 3 - Finish close to the foul line

The closer you are to the foul line the less energy you will have to use. When you're all the way up to the foul line, you'll want to have the ball a short distance over the foul line, which will result in the ball making contact with the lane further down and it'll preserve energy so you can knock down all the pins. The further you are from the foul line the more energy you will have to use.

Tip 4 - Relax your thumb and come through with the ball

If you over lift, or turn the ball during the release it will cause muscling or misdirection of your arm swing. So remember relax your thumb and release the ball with the free arm swing, finish close to the foul line and make sure you have good lower body leverage.

Tip 5 - Bowling technique is all in the mind!

Visualize the lanes in your mind, define your good shots and do them until they're near perfection.

Tip 6 - The drop off method

Instead of pushing the ball away, hold the ball up at the shoulder level then take a small step but do not move the ball just let it drop down into the swing on the second step.

Tip 7 - Come up with your own style

Whatever you think helps you make your bowling game better and gets you high scores, then by all means use it. Apply the bowling techniques that work for you.

Tip 8 - Watch how the pros do it

Turn to ESPN and watch the PBA games. Study the styles and bowling techniques of the pros and use them.

How to stop Smoking

When you decide to stop smoking the most difficult part is to resist the urges. It doesn’t matter that each craving lasts only 3-5 minutes. It’s still the whole 5 minutes to battle with your willpower! These 7 tips will help you to resist the urge to smoke one urge at a time.

1. Remind Yourself Why You Quit

Every time you experience a craving remind yourself why you quit. It’s the excellent idea to take a blank index card and list all the reasons why you decided to quit smoking. List as many as you can, the more the better. If necessary, take the second index card. Carry them with you all the time. Every time you feel the urge to smoke take the index card and slowly read all your reasons why you decided to stop. After you finish reading your urge will pass! (If not, read them one more time or come up with more reasons.)

2. Reward Yourself.

Make it a habit to reward yourself at the end of each nonsmoking week. Think of something you want (it doesn’t have to be something expensive, a nice home made meal or hot bath will work). Take the index card and write down what would you give yourself at the end of the week. When the urge comes take a look at the index card with your reward. Isn’t it worth coping for 3 minutes? :)

3. Be prepared for your urges!

Get yourself prepared for the urge to smoke in advance. In most cases something triggers the craving (certain feelings, people, or places). You have to know what triggers the urge.

Lets do a really quick exercise. Take a blank piece of paper and divide it into 2 columns. On the one side list your triggers (like “stuck in traffic”, “drinking morning coffee”, “arguing with colleague”…) and in the second column write down the alternative course of action.

For example, instead of smoking while drinking your morning coffee you could read a newspaper. Instead of smoking after the hot argument with your colleague you can take a walk around a block or write down everything you think about this person, then tier this piece of paper in shreds and throw it away. Don’t be lazy, write it down! This exercise really works!

4. Call your friend.

This method works great. Call someone who can support you, who can talk with you for a couple of minutes. You can call your nonsmoking friend, or someone who’s trying to quit smoking too.

5. Distract yourself with a quick task.

Think of a small task you have to do, something what would take you 5-10 minutes. Make a call, send a fax, make yourself a cup of coffee, water the plant in your office. Anything! Your task is to distract yourself until the urge will pass. (Hint: Try to find activity that makes smoking impossible!)

6. Drink a Glass of Water.

Take a glass of water and drink it with a straw. First of all having something in your mouth to chew on will help, second it will take you a couple of minutes to drink the whole glass and the urge will pass. Plus, don’t forget that you’re supposed to drink 8 glasses of water every day!

7. Power Tip.

That’s the disgusting one, but it often works. Print a small picture of smoker’s lungs (you can find one here: http://www.quitsmokinghelp.net/smokers_lungs.html) and put it somewhere in your wallet. I know the view is not pretty, but something like this can stop you dead on your track from lighting up. Take a look! Really! THIS could be your lungs! You love yourself, and you respect your body. Why harm yourself?

Original source of these tips can be found at http://healthynoise.com

Tips to Find Good Ideas

There is a secret to finding good ideas. There is a process and frame of mind to have that will result in you having an explosion of ideas to pursue further.

Ideas are the starting point for all great things. For me the idea of having a nice passive income is driving me to more ideas of how to do it. But finding ideas that solve the question of how can be difficult. Here are my tips for getting answers to those vital questions.

1. Open your mind - Consciously take notice of those little things that sometimes pass you by.
2. Make notes - Even if you do notice something cool, the next day you may have already forgotten about it. Write them down so you can review it later.
3. Ask Questions - Where did it come from? How was it made? Who was involved in it’s creation? Dig into things to find answers.
4. Expose yourself to randomness - Be around lots of other people and their ideas. Try reading RSS feeds, walking in crowds, listening to conversations and reading books you might not otherwise read.
5. Find ways to Connect - Take two or more things that you’ve written down and put them together to create something new.
6. Take time - Don’t rely on your subconscious to suddenly light up with the best new idea ever; it will probably never happen. Set a deadline and the number of ideas you need. Work on it.
7. It doesn’t have to be New - Most good ideas are not new. Opening a McDonald’s isn’t a very original idea, but it might be a good one. If your idea is to sell something new that people never knew they needed you’re in for an uphill battle. Old, well understood ideas are the easiest to sell (if they don’t sell themselves).
8. Test - You have an idea… But is it any good? Test it out by getting other people’s honest opinion, search online for similar things, see if you can attract people to your idea by posting about it online.

Ideas are easy to come by, good ones are a bit more rare. Remember a good idea is worthless without the follow through to act on it.

Original Article can be found at http://www.halotis.com

How Can You Find Freelance Writing Jobs?

Do you think that there is a big sign that reads, “Freelance Writing Jobs, Apply Within”? There just is not. In fact, you may have a hard time finding writing jobs of any type advertised in any employment magazine or newspaper either. So, how do you find freelance writing jobs?

Let us talk about this for a moment and see if we can't find an idea or two that will work for you.

1. Begin at the beginning. Get the education you need to have. Learn what there is to know about the field in which you are looking for job vacancies. Having knowledge itself can open doors. This can help with step two as well.

2. When you do have that knowledge, do not forget to look towards the teachers you got it from for help in finding a niche to work in. They may have more resources than you realize.

3. Create a portfolio. Even if you never have any published work, you can still write, right? Write to fill your portfolio. Then, when a prospective employment opportunity arises, you’ll have something to provide in the way of samples.

4. Look online. Vast amounts of freelance writing jobs are offered there. If the work can be submitted online, why not look worldwide? Try doing a websearch for "freelance writing jobs".

5. Keeping striving to meet the needs of your clients 100%. When you make them happy, they will come back with other jobs for you. And, they will provide you with testimonials and referrals as well.

All of these things can work for you when you allow them to. You need to provide yourself with all the tools you need. Most importantly, this is writing. You must be able to meet your client’s needs and therefore will need to present your talents in the right light each time. When you are looking for freelance writing jobs you’ll find them across the world when you look in the right places.