Monday, February 16, 2009

Dream Vacation

For working people there is nothing more relieving than enjoying your holiday. Each year they will choose to go to their dream destination all over the world to recharge their batteries. It is always a good choice of having a vacation once in a while because it can clear your weary mind and prepare you for work after your holiday is over. Prepare your vacation wisely otherwise you will be disappointed and not to mention wasting your money for nothing. So if you are going on a holiday and need to book and prepare your accommodation, there is a good news for you. Book your dream vacations with Breeze.com.

Booking your hotels or getting your accommodations for you is really easy with Breeze.com. Breeze.com offers you an all inclusive vacation thus you don't have to worry about getting the best rooms, eating the finest meals or enjoying the most comfortable entertainment. All of this things are prepared for you if you book your vacation with Breeze.com. Choose your destination anywhere in the world, Breeze.com will be there for you. Caribbean vacations are probably the most preferred by people so Breeze.com will provide you with the best Caribbean hotels available. This way you can just leave your wallet behind because everything will be taken care for you. You won't need any money as tipping is never permitted. So what are you waiting for, check the site right away and enjoy your dream vacation.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Guaranteed Extra Cash Online

by: Peter V. Ruble

For college students and other people who feel burned out trying to balance paying the bills and living at the same time, ads like these can prove to be irresistible. Many of them make perfect sense and easily hook you based on good concepts. Unfortunately, many times the product or service does not match the brilliance of a great idea for making money from home or through the Internet. As I’ve learned myself, the further you go down this road, the more excited you get. You basically get hooked, and if you aren’t careful, you will end up working hard and falling further into debt than you can imagine. Much like gambling, the lure of easy money and independence can make just about anyone fall prey to work at home scams that feed off your dreams to get to your wallet so they can go on to the next victim.

Hopefully, you will never fall victim to these scam artists. However, the fact of the matter is that these scammers would not be wasting their time if they were not making any money. And as long as people continue to get mixed up in this business, these scammers are going to stick around to trick more and more people.

The best way to keep a scammer’s claws away from your credit card is to do thorough research on each opportunity that you are considering. This means doing much more than simply reading a bit about it online. In my personal experience, I have been taken by companies who were savvy enough to pollute the Internet with staged testimonials, guarantees, questionable references to big name endorsements, and even appearances in the Better Business Bureau.

A colleague of mine who invested in vending machine placement services even went so far as to physically go to the manufacturing plant to tour the warehouse as well as contact the Better Business Bureau of that state. What he received, in return, were twenty malfunctioning candy machines with a list of local businesses who had apparently agreed to receive them. Not only did none of these businesses know what he was talking about, many of them were hostile when he showed up to place them.

What you want to do is check message boards such as the ASK section of Yahoo.com. Another simple method of weeding out the scams from the genuine opportunities is to go to a search engine and simply type in the company name followed by the word “scam”. If you do this, and you are barraged by an endless list of complaints, you my friend have found a nugget of gold in a sea of mud.

In terms of the Better Business Bureau, it is best to contact them directly to ask about any complaints, and also find out how long a company has been listed. The Better Business Bureau operates state by state. They will be able to tell you if they have any complaints on file. If they do, you will want to avoid the opportunity at all costs. But if it appears that a company is doing business the right way, you can continue your own research.

Being in the Business Bureau is not necessarily that hard to accomplish. Many scammers can use their money and connections to set up a front to initially qualify for the Better Business Bureau just long enough for them to collect their cash from unsuspecting victims, close shop, create a new identity and start again.

Before you decide to do anything, attempt to get in touch with the company that you are interested in. Can you get a human being on the phone? Do they have an actually physical address? How long does it take them to respond to your e-mails, if at all? If you cannot even talk to the company before you start, there is not chance that they will be around when you really need them. I once made quite a bit of money selling vacation vouchers on auction sites. The marketing plan was sound, and the money saving vouchers was a hit. Only problem was, I could never get in touch with their customer service department to handle my customer inquiries and complaints once I realized that the promises that existed in writing on the vouchers were misleading at best. This proved to be such a problem that it took me over a year to recover from the negative publicity on my auction site.

Of course, there are legitimate home based businesses out there. With the Internet and all the low cost, web producing tools available, there seems to be a renaissance in entrepreneurship. Basically, just find a product or service you can market online, and do your research. Sell on EBay if you don’t want to build your own website. You can have a website their and all search engine marketing is already done by EBay. The Small Business Association has an office in downtown Tacoma and contains invaluable information on their website http://www.sba.com. Since small business is the backbone of our country economically, sources such as these are eager to help you create a plan with realistic expectations.

However, like anything else worthwhile, you have to do your homework and work hard at it. The problem is that too many people make you think you can practically go online and make money just clicking on a mouse. You want to steer clear of any business that asks to you to pay for their “Top Secret” e-book that will teach you how to make an automated income.”

Think about it, if you are in dire need of cash, can you imagine any other situation in which you would not only work for free, but pay for the privilege to work. There are no magic formals or secrets worth paying for. All of the information in these e-books can be found for free through your own research if you have common internet skills.

If you don’t want to work hard and just make a few easy extra bucks without donating your blood or volunteering to be a guinea pig, it is possible to make some good extra money filling out online surveys or through mystery shopping. There are real opportunities out there which require no fee to get started. Not only that, several of them will even give you a $5 bonus just for signing up. If a company such as this is legitimate, they would be making lots of money through the success of its members. Companies that require that $49.97 start up fee only make money through the fee and only want to teach you how to get other people to do the same. The products are all useless lists and general information that anyone with a functioning mind could figure out on their own, or get for free by doing their own research.

In 12 years of trying to make a living on the Internet, the following are the best companies I have ever encountered for making a few extra bucks filling out surveys, playing games and mystery shopping. They probably won’t pay the rent, but if you’re interested in making an extra $400 or $500 a month or eating out at nice restaurants and going to movies for free, you may want to check these out:

Mystery Shopping Providers Association: ." target=new>http://www.mysteryshop.org/shoppers/">.

This site contains all the information you will ever need on starting up as a mystery shopper. It is also a portal for the best sites to go to for mystery shopping jobs online, and they don’t require that you invest a penny.

InboxDollars.com. (you can sign up for free and get $5 just for signing up. You can make a few hundred dollars in one day, theoretically, if you are willing to use a credit card to sign up for free or paid trials. Just make sure you have the patience to fill out the long surveys and keep detailed records so you can remember to cancel your free trials before you get charged. Also, you can fill out surveys to make a dollar or two which are completely free. I’ve made about $400 with this site.

http://www..sendearnings.com.(almost identical to InboxDollars.com)

http://www.treasuretrooper.com. (a lot of free surveys and cool games).

http://www.tiktikcash.com. By far the best of the survey sites. The free surveys are tremendous. You can make a dollar or two in one minute. This site has the shortest, most painless surveys. I made over thirty bucks in less than after signing up.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Ceramics and Pottery

I remembered when I was a little child and still in primary school, there was this one subject that I loved the most. It was handicraft. The teacher taught us many crafting activities such as sculpting and pottery. As a child it was a very amazing and entertaining experience as you were able to play and at the same time learn something useful. I personally loved sculpting because you can shape the clay to anything that you want. It was really unforgettable experience for me. Speaking about sculpting or pottery there is one name that you can trust, AMACO/Brent.

AMACO/Brent is a community which is consisted of teachers and artists. This community is intended to be a place where creative people with the same interests in sculpting or pottery to gather and share their knowledge. Whether you are a kid who loves to play with clay or glaze chalk, an artist who dreams of making a success, then this is the right place for you to be. AMACO/Brent also produces many amazing products such as liquid glazes and non-toxic glazes. All products which are provided on the site are labelled as non-toxic or cautions required. These labels are your guarantee because they are evaluated by independent toxicologist and comply to ASTM D-4236/LHAMA (the safe labelling standard for art materials). So if anyone is in need of a good products of clay or pottery, he or she should check this site.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Ezines For Purely Personal Pleasure

by: Scott Lindsay

Everyone has a passion for something. This can be a hobby or sport, but it can also be a subject.

I’ve talked about ezines as a way to develop marketing potential for an online business, but ezines don’t have to be specifically developed for business.

Virtually every successful business owner has something besides their business they are passionate about. In many cases they are as knowledgeable about this ‘other’ topic as they are about their business. You can bet these entrepreneurs find themselves more interested in this something else than business when they are away from the office.

Why not develop an ezine that deals specifically with your ‘away from business’ interest.

Maybe it’s trading cards or model railroading. Perhaps your interest is interior decorating or crafting handbags for friends. Some may be fully immersed in fishing or sculpting. The possibilities go one far longer than I have space to write.

If you believe the idea frivolous you need to know that you can develop an AdSense or other PPC account to place ads on your site that will help to offset any expenses associated with the development of your online ezine.

Content for the ezine can be taken from free article directories, personal writings or even submissions from those who subscribe to the ezine and have similar interests.

Work to locate those individuals who may be able to take on a column or a guest slot. It could be that someone is gifted in editing and layout and could provide their time on a volunteer basis to make the ezine work.

The idea is to facilitate a web presence for something you believe in. The truth is you could extend the idea even further and create an ezine related to a cause you really believe strongly in. In most cases you will receive the blessing of the organization and they would likely have key contacts to assist you with content development.

Many people consider this a very self-absorbed society, but when you take the time to create an ezine specifically related to a passion either in personal interest or public assistance you can help show others by example that giving back on a personal level is a powerful thing.

You can help promote the ezine through blog entries and forum posts. You can take the message to your social media page and you can also create a special page on your primary business site that allows visitors the opportunity to visit your personal interest ezine.

For too long we have been willing to sacrifice time with family and personal interests in order to earn some extra dollars. The point is if money is your goal in life you will never have enough time to satisfy your need to enjoy life.

Developing an ezine that mirrors a personal interest will likely encourage you to make time for that interest by reorganizing your priorities.

Define your interests and see if there may be a way to creatively pass along your enthusiasm through the use of an ezine.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

TFS Pricing

If you have had any experiences in programming surely you have heard about Visual Studio.NET. It is a framework which is consisted of three programming languages: C++, C# and VB.NET. Microsoft which is the developer of the product has declared it as the new era in programming. You can build a program using any languages of your choice and still can communicate with other program built using different language within the same framework. It has been quite a success for them since the introduction of the framework.

Building a software with many different programmers could be a real problem. Integrating different modules at anytime might cause a real mess and waste a lot of time. Not to mention if you hire programmers from all over the world providing them with a place to share their work could be a huge obstacle. But now with the help of Phase2 international and its Microsoft Team Foundation Server, you can overcome all of these problems. By using their service you can manage your Visual Studio resources to a success. Use their team foundation server hosting to host all of your resources and share them among your programmers. First of all you should check their team foundation server pricing to choose the best product that is suitable for your project. Check out the site now and choose the team foundation server price which is perfect for you and your organization.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Secret Search Engine Optimization Strategies

How to Turn Keywords into Conversions
by: Derek Gehl

Are you focusing your search engine optimization efforts on getting tons of traffic from the search engines?

If you answered yes, then I am about to tell you something completely different from other Internet Marketers.

Forget about getting tons of traffic from the search engines. Get LESS traffic that converts MORE!

The Secret to Turning Keywords into Conversions is to Keep Your Keywords Focused

For example, if your site sells an all-natural remedy for acid stomach problems...

You start to do your keyword research and you discover that the keyword phrase "natural remedies" has 288 daily searches. But it has over 2,000,000 sites competing for it.

While the phrase, "acid reflux natural remedies" has 67 daily searches with just over 11,000 competing sites.

Do you want to spend all your time and effort trying to optimize your website for the first keyword phrase?

You may get more searches, but you'll never know how many of those searchers want to buy your stomach acid remedy. Not to mention the HUGE number of competitors the keyword has!

Or would you go for the second term, which only has 67 people searching for it -- knowing those 67 people are looking for EXACTLY what you offer? And, it has a MUCH lower competition number to boot!

Obviously, the second term is better!

Sure, you might get less traffic -- but the visitors you DO get will be MUCH more likely to buy your product.

Why You Will Make More Money with Less Traffic That Converts More

People search the Internet to find a solution to a problem and not necessarily to buy something. So what problems will they solve by coming to your website?

Think of a keyword as a "problem statement" that someone would type into the search engines.

When you can match your keywords to the exact problems they're trying to solve. You'll attract the BEST visitors to your site so you can focus all your optimization efforts on them!

Here are some more keyword research tips that will help you turn keywords into conversions…

Top Search Engine Optimization Tips for Finding Highly Focused Keywords That Will Bring the Absolute Best Buyers to Your Website:

Check your server logs. See what keyword phrases people are actually using to find your site. If there's something relevant that you've overlooked, build a page focused on that keyword phrase.

Also look for keywords that are causing people to leave right away because they're not finding what they're looking for. Ditch those keywords immediately.

Look for "intention." Say you sell cross-country ski equipment. People can come to your website looking for different things.

For instance:
They're looking to buy a specific product
They're looking for product reviews
They want information on how to get started in cross-country skiing
They want used or discount equipment
They want to know what kind of equipment will be best for them
They want to know what's new and hot in cross-country ski equipment

Same products -- far different intentions!

If you optimize a page (or pages) for each different problem people are trying to solve, you'll give them what they're looking for…

That means they'll stay on your site longer -- and you'll have a better chance of getting them into the sales process.

Check out your competition. What keywords are your competitors optimizing for, and on what pages?

You can spy on them by going to their websites and looking at their code!

In your web browser, just go to View on the main menu and click on Source or Page Source to "look under the hood" of any competitor's site. Then you can see what they're doing right and what you could do better.

Find your best keywords with pay-per-click advertising. This is the fastest way to find out just how well different keywords perform.

Pay-per-click lets you run ads based on two or three different keywords at the same time. This enables you can track which ones convert best. Make sure the ads click through to pages that relate directly to the keywords.

Focus your SEO efforts on the specific keywords that describe EXACTLY what problem each page solves. Don't be tempted by more general keywords with higher traffic numbers. They'll never send you the traffic you want.

Follow these search engine optimization tips and you will turn keywords into conversions.