Choice - At your Fingertips

A good night sleep makes you happier and healthier

2008-05-08T05:22:00.000-07:00

Why Sleeping is (Almost) More Important Than Breathing

I used to pull all-nighters back in college, forcing myself to stay awake to cram for an exam or finish a paper on art history, my major. I did it because I thought it would help me get ahead, but in the end it always set me back—I wound up tired, cranky and unproductive the next day.

Even though I've grown up (and wisened up) since then, I still have trouble convincing myself to crawl into bed at night: I keep a running tally of all the things I haven't crossed off my to-do list—reading manuscripts, prepping for a TV appearance, even laundry! And I'm always tempted to stay up just a bit longer to get everything done before morning.

So what stops me from burning the midnight oil? Not only has personal experience proved that I'll be more stressed (not to mention less chipper) when I'm sleep-deprived, but studies suggest that not getting adequate zzz's can increase your risk for heart disease and depression, and even cause weight gain (ever found yourself heading to the fridge or the vending machine when you're tired? I have!).

Try these tips to help relax before you hit the sack:

Unplug
Avoid having long conversations on your cell phone before bed: Researchers at Wayne State University in Detroit found that people who were exposed to the slight radiation that emanates from cell phones took longer to fall asleep and spent less time in the deep stages of slumber.

Make Your Bedroom a Haven
Draw the blinds and turn on a fan or a soothing CD of nature noises to block out distracting sounds. Swapping ordinary bedroom bulbs for yellow ones (GE makes a 25-watt version sold at drugstores) can help you feel more tranquil as you're getting ready to nod off. Consider treating yourself to a cozy new comforter or putting flowers on your nightstand so that being in your bedroom—and sleeping!—becomes something you look forward to.

Say Thanks
Once you're under the covers, take two minutes to reflect on the things you're grateful for. Studies show that practicing grateful thinking makes people more optimistic. And going to sleep with happy thoughts will help you sleep more soundly.

Article Source: Lucy Danziger (www.self.com)

Finding happiness through Chinese astrology

2008-05-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

Chinese Astrology - Is Happiness Measured On A Weighing Scale?

Our purpose in life is to seek happiness. This is the ultimate aim of all people. No matter what our goals, dreams or visions, they all lead to the same destination – happiness! We may seek more money, better career, good health, pleasurable time, meaningful relationship and other finer things in life. All these aspirations come with a price.

In Chinese astrology or Ba Zi, the price can come in the form of destruction, clash, harm or punishment between the metaphysical elements in our natal chart. The question is "Are we prepared to pay the price and sacrifice a part of ourselves in order to attain happiness?" Some of us are lucky to be born with a sliver spoon and live a gilded life but most of us have to make ends meet by sheer hard work. Whether we were born rich or started life at a disadvantaged, happiness is not delivered to us on a silver platter. We need to look for it. Finding happiness and keeping it is a real challenge as our journey through life is full of twist and turns. The road ahead can be rocky, long and winding. There are times when we meet with obstacles, stumble and fall, hurt ourselves and lost our directions along the way. The journey of life can inflict extreme physical, mental and psychological pain on us and it can be so unbearable that we begin to question whether the end justifies itself. In Chinese astrology or Ba Zi, the pain that we endured is reflected by the 7 Killings star which bring extreme stress and pressure.

Not everybody is created equal. At least it is not in the physical, mental and psychological dimensions. Different people have different threshold of pain or comfort zone. Some are weak and some are strong. Some are risk takers and some are risk averse. Most of us are in between. We just need to look for a comfortable level where pain and pleasure is at an optimum balance. Imagine a weighing scale with two pans and a balance where pleasure and pain weigh equally. Any excess on either side will tip the balance. The trick is to maintain a comfortable balance with neither too much pleasure nor pain. This is what we should do to maintain a comfortable balance in our lives. Our lives are like a weighing scale on which happiness is weighed between pleasure and pain. Our goal in life is therefore to seek an optimum balance within our own comfort zone. This is happiness created out of keeping a comfortable balance in our lives.

"So are we able to pay for the price of happiness?"

We only pay for what we can afford because the price of happiness is relative. It defers from people to people. Some may pay a little to enjoy its value whereas some may pay more for the same return. A poor man can be as happy as a rich man within one’s own comfort zone. In other words, happiness is status blind! It is using what we are born with, living within our means and hopefully, happiness will "see" us.

In Chinese Astrology, a person is born with innate characteristics and abilities that are elemental in nature. The elements are metaphysically represented by wood, fire, earth, metal and water. These elements are believed to be cosmic energies that radiate from the stars in the constellations and that they give birth to all living things on earth. We are infused with the energies of the five elements based on the configuration of the stars at the precise hour of our birth. Whether we are destined to live a life full of pleasure or pain depends on the elemental equilibrium in our natal chart. The secret to happiness is keeping a comfortable balance of the elements within us. This is the essence of Chinese astrology!

Article Source: Alvin Yap (ArticleBiz.com)
http://www.proactive-qi.com

Here's the top 10 habits of home business

2008-05-04T08:11:00.000-07:00

Top Ten Home Business Habits

Home based businesses are fantastic. There are numerous advantages to having a home business: Time flexibility, no commuting to the daily 9 to 5 job, unlimited income potential and tax advantages just to name a few. However, there are many bad habits that you will need to avoid when you are working for yourself. They are listed as follows:

The Top Ten Bad Home Based Business Habits:

1. No Focus-You must prioritize your work. Do not let yourself get caught up in unnecessary tasks that will get in the way of the most important tasks.

2. Discipline-Staying on a regular schedule and getting some sleep as well.

3. Eat Healthy-It's very easy to consume a lot of junk food when snacking.

4. Drinking-Consume plenty of water and don't drink too much alcohol.

5. Dress For The Part-Get dressed for work even if you are working from the home office. Dress for success.

6. The Media-Too much negative news can have an impact on your well being-especially Television.

7. Surfing the Internet-This is relative to focus and can waste a lot of hours looking for unnecessary stuff or information.

8. Unproductive Phone Use-Limit your use of the phone for training, contacting, follow up or presenting.

9. All Work And No Play-It is crucial to keep a healthy balance between family and work.

10. Never Stop Learning-Too often we fall into the lazy trap. Never settle and try each and everyday to make what you are doing better. In other words, growth!

Your home business should not be left up to a game of chance. You must have a strong focus on your goals in addition to keeping a great balance between your family and the amount of scheduled time for your work. One must consider these factors if you are serious about a home business. For those who work at home, they have a strong, healthy balance and have much more success than those that are 100% all work all the time. In the words of Mr. Miagi, "Must Maintain Balance". You will find yourself being a much more pleasant person when you have that balance between work and time with the family. I know I am. Balance equals happiness.

All the Best!

Article Source: Sean Hagon (ArticleBiz.com)
http://ownyourlifeonline.com/

A dog behaves based on what it eats?

2008-05-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

Dog's Behavior Is Related To Dog Nutrition

Good nutrition is the most essential foundation for your dog's wellbeing. Basically everything related to your dog's behavior boils down to what you feed him. If you'd like to have an obedient, well-behaved friend to keep you company for the next several years, it would be best to pay close attention to what he takes in.

Nutrition affects your dog's health and longevity. It is essential that you give him an appropriate balance of proteins, fats, complex carbohydrates and the proper trace amounts of nutrients and minerals. These are necessary for their proper growth, repair, and the maintenance of a sound immune system.

Nutrition is an intricate and crucial aspect of your dog's capacity to think clearly, cope with stress readily, and keep a cooler disposition. If your dog is unnaturally irritable or lethargic, it might be due to an unbalanced diet.

Thinking consumes a lot of energy. Dogs that are involved in training programs exert tremendous amounts of mental energy. This is needed so that they can focus on the tasks presented to them. If your dog is not given proper nutrition, they can become sluggish, tense, or hyperactive when asked to do the simplest of tasks.

Dogs with improper nutrition cannot focus very well. They tend to lose concentration quickly and they have the tendency to get confused quite easily. Improperly nourished dogs find it hard to understand simple tasks, even though it is something that you ask him to do constantly. This confusion can easily be covered up by aggression.

When teaching dogs, the first thing I check is the dog's nutrition. I work from the inside out. Training becomes useless if the essential source of bad conduct is not adjusted.

Overexcited, distracted and unrestrained dogs are frequently fed foods that are rich in high levels of cereal compounds such as: corn, wheat and corn meal.

Aggressive dogs are usually fed foods that contain higher levels of incomplete protein which normally generate too much energy. These types of proteins are often incomplete chains and they do not give the proper building and repair needed for a healthy dog's body. They are also notoriously hard to digest.

Timid or stressed out dogs are not able to digest their foods very well. Most dogs with this behavior suffer from intestinal complications like diarrhea. Their coats are often dry, brittle and they often shed heavily.

A good way to test the foods that you give to your dog is by soaking it in water for about half an hour. If the food puffs up in size and becomes spongy then it is most likely made out of cereal.

If you observe your dog's stool is soft and loose and if you can categorize him to be gassy then it is most likely the result of improper digestion.

Giving your dog a balanced and healthy diet will do a lot in keeping him happy. It will not only contribute to their health and longevity but it will also make him a good member of our society.

Article Source: Finley Zhang (ArticleBiz.com)
http://www.YummyHealthyDogFood.com

Tips on keeping your marriage hot

2008-04-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

Marriage Tips That Will Keep Your Relationship Rockin’

My husband and I are high school sweethearts. We have been together for fifteen years, now. He and I got married when we were only twenty and twenty-one years old. I am now thirty-one and he’s thirty-two. We’re working on eleven blissful years of marriage.

It has been an amazing experience to love the same person for nearly half of my life! We started dating when I was fifteen, and he was sixteen. When I tell that story, other women think that I’m lucky. They’re intrigued that when I speak about my husband that I do so with a twinkle in my eye.

And everyone always wonders how we’ve managed to stay so deeply and wonderfully in love with one another. The answer is simple: we still do the things we did when we first started dating one another!

My husband still calls me on the phone while I am at work just to see how my day is going. Even though he works from home, he still gets up each morning and drives me thirty miles, just so I can ride in the H.O.V. (high occupancy vehicle) lane and not have to deal with traffic. That means he has to take the same route coming to get me in the evenings.

When he drops me off in the mornings, when I get to my desk, my message waiting light is usually flashing alerting me that someone has left a message. As you can imagine, at least one of them is from my husband saying that he loves me and hopes I have a great day! He calls the night before when I’m not in the same room with him, or as I’m coming up the elevator to get to my office.

So, it should come as no surprise to people why I love my husband so much. It’s because he also loves me!

Marriage is full of compromises and making things fun. It takes an effort from both parties to make it successful.

Here are a few things that will keep your marriage relationship as hot as it was in the beginning.

Make time for one another. Have at least one day a week set aside for you and your spouse, and don’t let anything take that time away from the two of you.

Communicate with your wife or husband. Talking has opened up so many new doors of opportunity in our relationship. A "Good morning." goes a long way. Good communication is key to making any relationship last, so talk…and then talk some more!

Compromise is also another key to a successful marriage. There is a lot of give and take. Just make sure the giving and taking is equally distributed, and you are sure to have a happy bond with your mate.

Lastly, have fun! Run around the house and act wild and crazy, especially if you have children. Laughing really is good medicine! Stop taking yourselves and your spouses so seriously! Your marriage will keep the fire it had in those earlier years, if you do!

Article Source: Nicole Calhoun (ArticleBiz.com)
http://www.fulltimefamily.com

Which zodiac sign is most compatible with you?

2008-04-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

Zodiac Signs and Horoscopes: Who am I compatible with?

Love and compatibility with another is something that we all strive for. It is something that is talked about in every social circle and in every walk of life. This notion of love and compatibility is always a hot topic when discussing your “sign” with someone. One of the main reasons for a person to read their horoscope is to find out about their past, present and future love life. So it’s only natural for us to wonder which zodiac signs are compatible with one another. So who are you compatible with?

Aries – is most compatible with Leo & Sagittarius, compatible with Aquarius & Gemini and opposite from Libra.

Taurus – is most compatible with Capricorn & Virgo, compatible with Cancer & Pisces and opposite from Scorpio.

Gemini – is most compatible with Aquarius & Libra, compatible with Aries & Leo and opposite from Sagittarius

Cancer – is most compatible with Pisces & Scorpio, compatible with Taurus & Virgo and opposite from Capricorn

Leo – is most compatible with Aries & Sagittarius, compatible with Gemini & Libra and opposite from Aquarius

Virgo – is most compatible with Capricorn & Taurus, compatible with Cancer & Scorpio and opposite from Pisces

Libra – is most compatible with Aquarius and Gemini, compatible with Leo & Sagittarius and opposite from Aries

Scorpio – is most compatible with Cancer & Pisces, compatible with Capricorn & Virgo and opposite from Taurus

Sagittarius – is most compatible with Aries & Leo, compatible with Aquarius & Libra and opposite from Gemini

Capricorn – is most compatible with Taurus & Virgo, compatible with Pisces & Scorpio and opposite from Cancer

Aquarius – is most compatible with Gemini & Libra, compatible with Aries & Sagittarius and opposite from Leo

Pisces – is most compatible with Cancer & Scorpio, compatible with Capricorn & Taurus and opposite from Virgo

(please note that this is only a suggestion as to the traditional compatibility traits of certain ‘signs’. This should not be followed as a make or break rule to follow in your love life as there are many factors that come into play when in a true relationship. These suggestions should be taken as such, as mere suggestions.)

Article Source: John Kim (ArticleBiz.com)
http://www.horoscopehaven.com

Things to check before submitting website URL

2008-04-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

What To Know Before You Submit Your Website URL

Submitting your website to the major search engines should be done very carefully. Never allow a URL submission service to submit your site to thousands of search engines, simply because thousands of search engines do not exist. There are only about 500 search engines, and only around 200 are credible and actually receive traffic. URL submission services that offer this type of submission are to be avoided. The most efficient method to use when submitting your website for inclusion is to do it yourself or to hire an expert to do it manually.

Before you begin to submit your website ensure that your web pages are thoroughly and properly designed using quality keywords, and most importantly your site must contain original, relevant content. Do not submit websites that are incomplete. Be sure to provide updated information about your website, keywords, etc. A simple submission to each search engine does not guarantee that your site would be immediately listed or that the ranking will be high. One important factor to remember is to include a site map which makes the crawling simple for the web robots.

An established website, already indexed by the major search engines, should not need to be submitted again. This can sometimes be conceived by the search engines as spamming. New websites with no established backlinks should be submitted only to the major search engines, and given some time to allow for indexing, should not be re-submitted unless your site is not indexed. If for some reason your site is not listed within a reasonable amount of time, a focus as to why your site is not indexed should be implemented.

If your website is not indexed within a few weeks after making the submission, there is usually a reason for this. It could be as simple as a "no follow" robots tag within the source code of your web page or not enough content on the web page. To ensure the search engines will index your website create web pages that contain relevant, quality content with 400 or more words on each page. This should be content which contains the main theme of your website. There other many other factors which could cause a website not to be indexed, such as broken links, duplicate content or repeditive submissions.

FFA pages, safelists and classified sites should not be submitted to and should be avioded at all costs. Never type in your URL anywhere offering a submission to a list of ad sites or any type of so called safelist. There are reasons search engines consider these types of pages unimportant, and usually penalizes sites listed on this type of a webpage. Services offering to submit monthly should also be avioded. Do not let your URL fall into the wrong hands, your website could end up not being indexed or even blacklisted if submitted to the incorrect or corrupt areas of the web.

Article Source: James Day (ArticleBiz.com)
http://www.submit-site.org

Things you ought to know about trading

2007-06-11T01:15:00.000-07:00

What Nobody Told You About Trading

What nobody told you about trading is that there is a very subtle mental and emotional trap that lures people into trading and then into doing things that they wouldn't do anywhere else in their lives. Along with the trap, there are several critical aspects of successful trading that simply aren't shared with new traders - you're left to figure them out on your own, and lose your money in the process. This combination is very powerful and makes very smart and astute people susceptible to a variety of mistakes that create losses, confusion, frustration and heartache.

The # 1 mistake you're led to make is under-estimating what it truly takes to be successful in trading. Not intentionally, mind you.

It's not as easy as you were initially led to believe and there was no one at the door giving you the whole scoop. No one handing out complete guides, no required reading. No one holding your hand and letting you know all of the pitfalls and traps, all of the many (40 at my last count) ways there are to lose money in trading. No one showing you all the truly "must-know" things to be successful.

Once you get in and start placing trades, it takes no time at all and you're getting hammered with all the emotions that are part of the game.

There's a lot to learn and trying to learn all by yourself while you're caught up in the emotional storm makes for circumstances where the odds of you making costly mistakes is high and your chances of success are pretty slim.

Long term trading is about protecting yourself and your capital, and having a blueprint to follow to build a profitable long term trading business of your own.

You need a guide to show you step-by-step how to keep your emotions in check, avoid the pitfalls and losses, how to go about your trading in a comfortable and smart manner, plus how to structure your trading business so that you can look forward to actually being here a year from now and making money at it, consistently and by plan.

Trying to sift through all the books, articles and advertisements regarding trading, to locate the missing pieces to the puzzle usually takes traders quite a while, sometimes years. Often it takes longer than they have money for – meaning that they have blown out their account before they find them all.

Again, placing trades is easy. Making money trading, on a consistent basis over time however, presents a formidable challenge that most are not properly prepared for. The result is frustration with the inability to reproduce the success already established in other endeavors, self-doubt and regret. This is truly regretable because it doesn't have to be that way.

Understand that you probably entered trading very unaware of all that you were in for. If you'll protect yourself and focus on survival, that's step one. It is also extremely worth your while to invest the time in self development and putting together a long term plan to insure that you'll make it through the learning curve.

Getting help and seeking out good resources to shorten the time frame is strongly suggested, as the learn-as-you-go and self-taught routes are extremely costly. Find a guide to show you the pitfalls and the steps to take to protect yourself so that you can realize the personal and financial benefits you sought when you first entered trading.

Article Source: Brian McAboy (ArticleBiz.com)
http://www.insideouttrading.com/more.html

The relationship between gardening and being happy

2007-06-11T00:54:00.000-07:00

What Gardening Can Teach Us About Happiness

It is said Gardening is one of the best ways to be happy, what can gardening teach us about the art of being happy?

Be Patient

For a seed to germinate, sprout and flower can take several months. As gardener's we do not expect instant success. In modern life we often expect and desire things as soon as possible, and when they feel to materialise, we feel miserable. We often lack the patience for things to arrive at the due time. However, if like a gardener, we can cultivate patience we will be able remain cheerful at all times.

Happiness in life I need.
But alas, without patience,
My happiness remains always
A far cry.

- Sri Chinmoy

Value the Journey not just the Goal.

A gardener enjoys the whole process of gardening, from planting seeds to watching the plant grow and flower. If a gardener only got joy when plants flowered, he would miss out on a whole aspect of gardening. In life we should not just aim for results or achievements; we can get happiness from our participation and preparation. Happiness comes not through being dependent on outer success and receiving things; happiness is dependent on our attitude to whatever we are doing.

Everything has its season.

Sometimes we want to capture a moment of happiness. We think that happiness is something to be treasured and held onto.When our happiness is dependent upon this kind of attachment, we are doomed to experience frustration and disappointment. Nothing in the world is permanent, everything comes and goes. However, this does not mean we cannot remain happy. In autumn a gardener does not become despondent because plants die back. He knows that this is what is expected; he also knows that next year will bring new life and new growth, possibly better than the previous year. The great spiritual teachings teach us to retain an attitude of detachment at fluctuations of the world.

For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born,
and a time to die;
a time to plant,
and a time to pluck up what is planted;

Ecclesiastes 3:1-18; NRS

From Winter Comes Spring

At times life may feel like a barren desert, but no matter how bad life may seem it will not remain like this forever. Sometimes dark periods come and it is hard to see a way through; however, all periods of darkness are temporary. To get through these periods of unhappiness, we can let go of negative thoughts and concentrate only on positive thoughts. We should not contemplate on the present fallow period but look forward to the brighter future.

Tolerance

The qualities of trees and plants are self giving, patience and beauty. No matter how people treat a tree, it continues to offer its shade. When offering its qualities of shade and patience a tree doesn't judge.

How to achieve happiness?
Not by giving, not by talking,
But by being.

- Sri Chinmoy

Similarly, if we avoid judging others we will benefit from much greater happiness. When we judge others we bring in the critical mind, it is hard to cultivate happiness when the critical mind dominates.

Article Source: Tejvan Pettinger (EzineArticles.com)

Tejvan became interested in meditation and eastern mysticism whilst studying at University. After studying various spiritual traditions he became a meditation student of Sri Chinmoy. Tejvan now offers meditation classes on behalf of the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Oxford. Other articles on self improvement at: Sri Chinmoy Inspiration

Things to make sure in preparing your resume/C.V.

2007-05-16T00:33:00.000-07:00

How to Present Your Resume

One of the most important things you must consider when writing your resume or curriculum vitae is the design and layout.

Typeface

The first thing to consider is your choice of typeface. You want your resume to stand out, not compete with wedding or funeral announcements. Our advice is that you stick to a simple, clean typeface like Arial, Times Roman, or Helvetica. They are our choice because of their simplicity of design and clarity. Another trap to avoid is combining different typeface styles (like Times Roman and Helvetica). Each of these typefaces offers a variety of light, italic, and bold that can be used to produce an attractive visual effect.

Length

Debate among the "experts" continues as to whether resumes must be limited to a single page. Our take on this reverts to common sense:

- If your work experience is limited, i.e., you are a recent graduate or have only held one or two jobs, there is probably no reason for your resume to exceed a single page.

- If you can reasonably limit your resume to one page, do so.

- If you have held a number of positions and cannot describe your accomplishments and responsibilities on one page, then two pages are certainly acceptable. However, you do not need to provide detailed descriptions of jobs that date back more than eight or ten years, unless they add something significant to your experience and qualifications. Be sure to emphasize your most recent experience.

- Attachments, such as additional pages of publications (for writers, researchers, and academics), are appropriate.

- Exception: Consulting resumes are expected to include all relevant experience, even if they extend to multiple pages.

Layout

When you design your resume, bear in mind that open spaces make it easier to read. Avoid cramming your page(s) with heavy masses of print.

Paper

Standard office stationery is the safe choice of paper on which to print your resume and cover letter, although a quality paper stock may improve the overall effect. Slightly off-white papers is acceptable, but beware of using pastels or darker colors, which look unprofessional.

Print as many originals of your resume as you need on attractive, letter-quality paper. Never send photocopies of your resume to a potential employer. They're okay for friends or employment agencies, but not the employer with whom you want to win an interview.

Another point is that the resume you mail may be photocopied by a personnel department, and subsequently passed along to other members of their firm. Copies made from copies can lose readability. In an emergency, some professionally maintained office photocopiers may do a good job, but we think it's better to avoid such emergencies by always having "perfect" copies of your resume on hand.

Accuracy

A final word: Proofread your resume at every step in the process. Get a knowledgeable friend or colleague to help. Mistakes on resumes are embarrassing, unacceptable, and potentially disastrous. No matter how much you may pay to have your resume created, you're the one who loses if it isn't right. So be meticulous and don't settle for less than the very best.

Article Source: J.E. Burke (EzineArticles.com)
Dr. J.E. Burke is an educator, writer and entrepreneur involved in various business enterprises via Burke Publications. Please visit http://burkepublications.com and http://writer.burkepublications.com

Great tips on helping you to choose the right puppy

2007-05-16T00:22:00.000-07:00

Buy the perfect puppy, how to choose the right breed

The Perfect Puppy For You

Ready for that addition to your family? Trying to determine what kind of puppy to get is almost as important as deciding whether to get a puppy in the first place. There are over 150 different breeds of dogs and each breed has its own unique temperament, appearance, activity level as well as set of needs. A lot of research should be conducted before determining which breed of dog is right for you and your family. Below are some guidelines one should use before getting that seemingly perfect puppy.

Temperament Remember that this dog will be with you for its entire lifetime, so make sure the puppy you choose has the personality you can live with. Do you have an active lifestyle or a docile one? You need to choose a dog that fits your lifestyle. Are you very patient? Can you handle a strong willed dog? Do you want a dog that is friendly to everyone he meets, or one that is allegiant to family but reserved towards strangers? Does the dog need a lot of constant attention to prevent it from becoming bored and destructive, or do you want a dog that is content to be left alone for periods of time during the day when you are not home?

Size Every little puppy is adorable, but people forget that they grow quickly and some of them grow a lot. You need to find out how large and heavy that cute little puppy will become before you decide to bring him home. Oftentimes people forget this and soon they have this very large animal living with them in their constricted domicile. Don’t forget that large dogs require a lot more food and space then your yard or living room can handle. Bear in mind also that little dogs still need a lot of room to run around in and burn off all that energy.

Coat/Grooming Needs For a healthy and clean dog, constant grooming is a must. Remember most dogs will shed so you will constantly be cleaning up after it. Some dogs shed for a few weeks, some shed year round. Very few shed only a little bit. Long coated dogs are definitely very nice to look at, but require a lot of maintenance to stay that way. Short coated dogs are much easier to care for, and may still shed, but will require protection from cold wet weather. Dogs with fancy trims will need professional grooming. You have to decide how much hair you can put up with and how much time and energy you can afford to decide the right breed of dog for you.

Puppy or Adult The obvious advantage of getting a dog as a puppy, other then for it is so irresistibly cute, is that you can raise and train it personally from the beginning. You can help train and mold the dog’s socialization every step of the way as it grows. Of course the major disadvantage is that training the puppy requires a great deal of time and patience. If you have a busy lifestyle, bear in mind that puppies cannot be left alone more then a few hours at a time. They require constant attention, plenty of trips outdoors, frequent meals, and lot of interaction with people. Adult dogs are ideal for people who want a dog with fewer needs. Also mature dogs tend to be calmer and are already house trained and know basic obedience.

Puppies for sale, dog breeders resources and information
Article Source: George Chen (articlebiz.com)

Stretching tips for building flexibility

2007-05-16T00:13:00.000-07:00

Stretch to Prevent Back Problems, Falls or Pulled Muscles

Three-time Olympian and coach Pat Connolly gave me these tips for building flexibility to help you prevent falls, pulled muscles and back problems. Head-to-toe strength and flexibility help you achieve and maintain good balance.

A muscle should be strong through its whole range of motion. Learning to relax that muscle helps it stretch and increase its range. When ever you stretch one muscle its opposing muscle contracts. For example, when you make a fist and curl your hand up to your shoulder, your bicep ( in front of your upper arm) is contracting and your tricep (in the back of your upper arm) is stretching. So when you stretch a muscle, be sure to loosen or shake it gently after each stretch. Start with these stretches.

Head and Neck

1. Sit tall in the chair, hands rest relaxed on your lap. Take a deep breath and slowly exhale letting your shoulders drop and completely relax. Repeat 3 times.
2. While holding your head up straight, place the palm of either hand on your forehead, then as you curl your chin down to your chest give gentle resistance with your hand against your forehead so the front muscles in your neck have to work a little harder to get your chin down. Repeat 10 times.
3.Place your hand on the back of your head while your head is hanging forward, chin close to your chest. Then resist your head with gentle pressure from your hand as you roll your head back as far as it will comfortably go. Repeat 10 times.
4. Shrug your shoulders, then relax. Hold your arms out on each side at shoulder level and then make slow backward circles squeezing your shoulder blades together each time your shoulders go back. Repeat 10 times. These exercises can be done anytime you feel tense or have a headache. You'll be surprised at the relief after just a few minutes.

Arms

1. Let your arms dangle by your side while standing with your feet about a foot apart. Shake your hands for 5-10 seconds, then swing your arms up over your head and down keeping them relaxed, not stiff. Repeat 10 times on each arm.
2. Lift your right arm with your elbow pointing up and your hand hanging behind your head. With your left hand grab your elbow and gently push back, stretching the back of your upper arm. Hold for about 10 seconds, then reverse arms.

Torso

1. Sitting in the chair, spread your legs apart, fold your arms in front, bend over as far as you can between your legs and gently bounce to the left, middle and right. Repeat 5 times.
2. Place your left foot on your right knee. With your right hand gently press your left knee toward the floor until you feel the stretch in your hip and buttocks. Repeat 5 times, then reverse legs.
3. Lie on your back on the floor. Bend both knees and sit up or curl up as far as you can, and hold for a few seconds. Repeat as many times as you can up to 20. After you do this, lie flat with your knees slightly bent and gently shake your stomach muscles with your hands.

Buttocks and Legs

1. Stand up and shake each leg gently, slightly in front, and let each foot dangle for about 5-10 seconds. This helps to get the blood flowing. Test the flexibility of the backs of your legs: Bend over while keeping your knees straight (locked) and see how close to the floor you can reach with your hands. Make a mental note or use a ruler or marker. Then, after shaking each leg to get it relaxed, squat down, as if sitting on a low chair. Place both hands on your legs just above your knees, palm down with your fingers on the inside of your thighs. Now push your hands down on your legs as hard as you can and count to ten, slowly. Then stand up, shake your legs, and then re-test to see if you can get closer to the floor. You should see an improvement.

2. Leg swings: Hold on to the back of the chair with both hands and gently swing your left leg back and forth across the front of you 10 times, then repeat with your right leg. Keep your swinging leg relaxed and your support leg straight. Then hold on with just your right hand, swing your left leg front and back 10 times. Repeat with opposite leg.

3. Calf stretches: Hold the back of the chair with both hands. Put your right foot forward and slightly bend your right knee while your left leg is straight back, then try to stretch your heel down to the floor. Hold the stretch for a count of 15 and then, most importantly, gently tap your left toes back on the floor so that you loosen the calf muscle you just stretched. Repeat with the other leg.

4. Butt firmers: With both hands on the chair back, point your right leg back keeping your knee straight and raise your right foot about 6 inches off the floor by squeezing your right butt. Repeat 10 times, then do your left side.

Feet

1. Using chair for balance, stand on one foot and come up on your toes and down 20 times. Repeat with other foot. Shake out after each set.
2. Sit on the chair and make big circles with your left foot, first pointing and then flexing. Repeat with the other foot.
3. Hold your legs out straight in front of you, point your toes as hard as you can and count to 5, then pull them back as far as you can and count to 5. Repeat 10 times.

Article Source: Gabe Mirkin M.D. (bn23.com)

Advice on how to rear a puppy

2007-03-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

Raising A Puppy

Raising a puppy can be a very rewarding experience but it can also be a lot of hard work. This is something that a lot of people don't take into consideration when getting a new dog. Puppies much like human infants, need almost constant care and attention especially in the earlier stages. Puppies love to use their mouths to explore objects around them. Smelling and tasting are the primary ways a puppy will learn about new things. If that 'new thing' is an electric cable or something small that could lodge in its throat your puppy could be in trouble. It's very easy for a puppy to get into trouble if it is not constantly supervised.

Another problem that can occur when raising and training a puppy is what could be termed as the 'cuteness factor'. Puppies by their very nature can be adorable. This seems all well and good on the surface but can cause problems when it comes to teaching your new puppy the dos and don'ts. If your puppy has done something that you consider could form into a bad habit and should be discouraged, it can be very difficult reprimanding the puppy even if that may only involve raising your voice. Many people find it difficult when two big round eyes are looking up at you from a sad puppy face. Sometimes it's a lot easier to forgive the puppy without taking it to task. The only problem here is, that if you do this too many times, your puppy will be forming bad habits at a very young age. These will become much worse and harder to handle when your dog reaches maturity. They are best nipped in the bud early, no matter how difficult it is.

It is essential that your puppy has room to roam. This does not mean that they have a free run of your home. You should allocate an area that the puppy will have plenty of space to stretch its legs and investigate things whilst still under your supervision. Also try and keep the puppy in areas where other members of the family spend a lot of time. This will help with the bonding process and also keep familiar family smells around your puppy all the time. Doorways and of course the tops of stair ways, should be closed off using baby gates or if you do not have any try a piece of wood made to fit or any other improvised method. The idea is to contain the puppy within a particular area, reducing its chances of straying into trouble. Keep some of the puppies' favorite toys in the same area, as well as a bowl of water for refreshment. In addition, an opened out newspaper on the floor will provide somewhere for the puppy to relieve itself in an emergency without ruining your carpet.

Dogs are naturally hierarchical pack animals. What this means is that their importance within the pack is ordered by a set hierarchy. The dominant member is at the top of the pack and subsequent submissive members below. The first thing that you can teach your puppy, is that your are the 'top dog' or primary dominant member. If you do not assert this dominance early on, the puppy may try to adopt this role through instinctive behavior. This is obviously undesirable if your dog tries to rule your home.

The easiest way to assert your dominance is not through being aggressive or overtly loud but through being consistently firm with bad behavior and giving praise (and the odd treat) for good behavior. If your dog is particularly badly behaved then a firm verbal reprimand should do the trick, seldom should physical violence be used. When your puppy exhibits good behavior such as sitting when asked or ceasing to bark when asked, then a lot of praise will reinforce this behavior.

Making yourself the dominant member will mean that your puppy will look to you for approval and guidance, making rearing your puppy that much easier. Your puppy will soon be looking up to you as 'top dog'.

Rearing a puppy can be a great experience. There will be no better satisfaction than when your dog grows to maturity as a well rounded member of the family whom you can feel proud of when people comment on what a lovely dog you have.

Article By Andrew Strachan. Find lots more information about different dog breeds and types of dogs at http://www.types-of-dogs.com. Lots of help and advice too.

Article Source: Andrew Strachan (ArticleBiz.com)

Stress balls to relieve tension and stress

2007-03-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

Reduce Your Stress With Stress Balls

Of all the methods of stress elimination used, the most popular methods is through good old stress balls. The simple act of squeezing something in your hand can help you ease a few of your concerns, release some built-up tension, and make you feel like you are at least doing something rather than brooding upon everything that has you down. Fortunately, stress balls are easy to find and they can be very effective for some quick relief.

The most common stress balls are the beanbag type that can be picked up at job fairs and industry gatherings. They are very effective, they provide enough resistance to make you feel good and they give off a relieving noise that tells you that something is happening. Sure it is just some sort of filler grating against itself, but darn it, it's something! And when you are stressed, the simple feeling of doing something, anything is its own reward. Plus, you are getting a little bit of a workout for your hands and even this form of exercise can give you some benefits.

As well, there are some liquid filled stress balls that can be very good for relieving your worries. They usually do not give as much resistance as the beanbag type, but they do still provide you with something that will give your hands a workout. This can be a good thing if you tend to squeeze the stress ball a lot, simply because your hands will not get tired as quickly. As well, they tend to squeeze out much more than the beanbag type, so they give you a bit more of a feeling of doing something. However, they also tend to make a serious mess if you happen to break them, since the contents cannot be vacuumed up. But, if you are going to be spending a lot of time squeezing the stress ball, this might just suit your fancy.

However, not all stress balls are the squeezable kind. There are also Chinese stress balls that are made out of very hard materials that are not meant for squeezing. Rather, they come in pairs so that you can roll them around in your hand in order to relieve stress. Also, these stress balls sometimes come with some sort of noisemaker inside that provides a soothing sound other than the noise of the balls banging and rubbing against each other. However, this form of stress ball is usually not very good to use at work, since they do tend to make some noise. But, if you are sitting at home and you want to relieve a little tension, they can be very soothing.

When using stress balls, it is best to treat them as a form of meditation. That is, you concentrate on the stress balls so that you are not worrying about anything else. Feel them in your hand and notice the weight. When you are either squeezing them or rolling them around in your hand, notice how they feel in your palm and in your fingers. Concentrate on putting your concerns into your hand, then putting them into the stress balls, as though they are absorbing all that stress and taking it away. By placing all your thoughts into your stress balls, you can push away all those concerns and worries and put them into an inanimate object that does not notice the stress. Then, once you are done, you should feel as though a burden has been lifted and your mind is cleared.

However, you should also be careful with stress balls, as the squeezable kind can break. Yes, it takes a lot of effort, time and strength to break them, but it can be done. Thus, if you notice any leaks in your stress ball, or you notice that weak spots are starting to appear, you should throw it out and get a new one. After all, the stress of cleaning up some sort of fluid or vaccuuming up a large quantity of small, grainy material can stress you out too. Thus, do not squeeze a stress ball over a computer keyboard. If it does break, you will have a lot of problems that you would much rather avoid -- such as the need to run out and buy and new keyboard.

Used properly, stress balls can have a very beneficial effect on your mind and body. Though the only workout you are getting from them is in your hands, it is at least something. And those people who have to type constantly could also get a nice break from pecking at a keyboard and, by exercising their hands in a different way, will be able to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. So see what is out there, see what you like, and let some stress balls take away those petty concerns for you.

LowerYourStress.com: for everything to do with stress. Get a free ebook to help with your stress levels: http://www.loweryourstress.com/stress-book.html

Article Source: Trevor Dumbleton (ArticleBiz.com)

Earn money from photography

2007-03-17T23:23:00.000-07:00

Money From Your Camera

People pay money for pictures. Why shouldn’t it be your pictures? There are many ways to earn money from a camera, some requiring more skill than others, but with all of them the golden rule is “give the customer what he or she wants”. In other words, take the pictures people want to buy, not just what takes your fancy.

When choosing which markets to go for you need to take two things into account, your own level of expertise and the camera equipment you own. A small digital camera will do for some jobs but there are situations where only film or large digital files of 12Mb plus will do.

Wedding Photography.
This is the first thing many people think of but don’t even consider wedding photography unless you are a really competent photographer and have at least two good cameras so that you have a back-up to hand. I carry two film-based SLR cameras plus an 8Mp digital camera. Consider buying medium format if you are likely to do many weddings so that you can provide larger prints if required.

There are three approaches to wedding photography – formal, informal and “arty”. Most couples want a set of formal portraits as the core of their wedding pictures. Agree the groups required beforehand with your customers. Explain that you will need plenty of time. Shepherding people is time-consuming. There’s always someone who goes missing when you need them. If possible, visit the venue beforehand to find the best locations. Work out where the sun will be and how you are going to fit in large groups. Look for banks or steps to arrange them on. If you have them looking up at you make sure they are not squinting into the sun.

Ask what other shots are required. Remember the cake, and perhaps the rings. Arty shots are up to you and your creativity. Get the main group portraiture out of the way first so that you have time to be creative. Most commercial photographers leave the informal shots to the guests but it’s worth grabbing any extra shots you can. One favourite of mine was a shot of the bridesmaids climbing on a gazebo!

Magazines and other publications.
Publishers vary considerably in their requirements. You won’t get a look-in unless you provide the right kind of pictures in the right way. Being based in the UK I joined the Bureau of Freelance Photographers to keep abreast of what editor’s are looking for. Pictures must be sharp and well-composed. Include both landscape (horizontal) and portrait (upright) shots in any submission unless told otherwise. Cover shots may need some uncluttered space for the title and other text and generally require high quality originals. Study your chosen publications first to see what they use and how they use it.

You can get more sales if you can write good copy as well. A ready-made illustrated feature which fits the magazine’s requirements is a boon to any busy editor. Some editors will not accept unsolicited submissions so you may need to contact them first with your idea.

Greetings cards and postcards.
For a while the greetings card market turned away from photography and towards graphic or artistic design, but in recent years the photograph has made a comeback. Quite a lot of monochrome is used and also natural subjects. Florals, people, animals and landscapes are all popular again now.

Postcards are not the most lucrative market but there is the advantage that you can easily get your own produced and take them to local shops and tourist spots.

Stock libraries and agencies.
Most stock libraries now work with digital files online but there are some areas where film is still preferred. A quick search should on the Web will throw up dozens of online photo agencies. Take a look at something like Alamy.com to get an idea of what’s involved. Submissions have to be exactly as specified by the agency. Make sure you understand what rights you are selling. Don’t sell your copyright to a picture unless you are getting a very high sum for it. Rights are normally sold for single use or for licensed use which should be specified. Royalty-free images can be used by the purchaser again and again.

“Citizen” Photography.
The news media have caught on to the value of asking members of the public to send them shots taken on their phones or digital cameras. Quality is less important than newsworthiness. A citizen photographer is no substitute for an experienced journalist but it’s just a matter of someone being in the right place at the right time. If you find something newsworthy unfolding in front of you get the shots then decide where to send them afterwards, but never ever put yourself or others at risk and never hamper the work of the police or emergency services.

For more on earning money from your camera visit http://www.good-ideas.biz/release/photolanding.htm

Linda Cooke worked in education for many years but has always sidelined as a freelance writer and photographer. In recent years she ventured onto the internet with Good Ideas Publishing. Main websites are http://www.good-ideas.biz http://www.internet-income-ideas.com http://www.learn-the-easy-way.com

Article Source: Linda Cooke (EzineArticles.com)

Laughter as a medicine for stress

2007-03-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

How To Use Humor And Laughter As A Coping Mechanism For Stress!

Humor and Laughter should be used as coping mechanisms for stress, though it seems to only be used as an outlet for the emotion produced by humor or happiness. Do we laugh because we are happy, or are we happy because we laugh? Many times a humorous speaker can help us to see the light in the darkness situations. Both of these are probably true, but we only exercise the former. Laughter is a fascinating phenomenon that works like a medicine. Although most drugs affect everyone differently, laughter is always the same. It exercises your entire body causing you to feel relaxed and pain free. And this is where a professional humorous speaker can help you improve your next meeting or event. The fact that laughter and humorous speaking is good for one's health should be quite evident. So why not laugh? When one laughs, it is like taking a drug, yet there is no such thing as an overdose or, "laughter toxicity," as humorous speaker, Dr. Madan Kataria says. Maybe we can now say "A laugh a day keeps the doctor away." Dr. Kataria is a world authority on laughter and humorous speaking

There's no doubt that laughter feels good, and that a humorous speaker can help, but is there real neurophysiology behind it and what can you do about it? In a paper being presented in an American Physiological Society session at Experimental Biology 2006, humorous speaker, Lee S. Berk of Loma Linda University, reports that not only is there real science and psychophysiology, but just the anticipation of the "mirthful laughter" provided by humorous speakers involved in watching your favorite funny movie has some very surprising and significant neuroendocrine/hormone effects.

According to Humorous Speaker Berk: "The blood drawn from experimental subjects just before they watched the video had 27% more beta-endorphins and 87% more human growth hormone, compared to blood from the control group, which didn't anticipate the watching of a humorous video. Between blood pulls, the control group stayed in a waiting room and could choose from a wide variety of magazines," he explained. *Paper presentation: "Beta-Endorphin and HGH increase are associated with both the anticipation and experience of mirthful laughter, through humorous speakers" 12:30 p.m. - 3 p.m. Sunday April 2, APS Behavioral neuroscience & drug abuse Section abstract 233.18/board #C706. Research was by humorous speaker, Lee S. Berk, Department of Health Promotion and Education, School of Public Health and Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Loma Linda University; humorous speaker, Stanley A. Tan, Oakcrest Health Research Institute, Yucaipa; and humorous speaker, James Westengard, Dept. of Pathology, School of Medicine; Berk is associated with all three institutions and humorous speakers. HGH, endorphin difference is long-lasting; setting the baseline and environment is key Berk said that the strong difference between the two groups in terms of human growth hormone (HGH) and beta-endorphin blood levels was maintained from just prior to the beginning of video watching, throughout the hour of viewing and afterwards, also.

Most laughter has nothing to do with jokes, concludes researcher and humorous speaker, Prof. Robert Provine. For years he has studied laughter, humorous speaking and humorous speakers and what provokes it. Some of Provine's conclusions: * Less than 20% of laughter was in response to anything resembling a joke * People and humorous speakers are 30 times more likely to laugh in groups than alone (hence, TV's laugh tracks) * Female humorous speakers laugh more than male humorous speakers, except when they are listening to a woman * The talker chuckles nearly 50% more than his/her listener does. If you follow these tried and true steps to laugh more, you will see that you are managing your stress better through the use of humor and humorous speakers. http://www.dougdvorak.com

Article source: Doug Dvorak (GoArticles.com)

About the Author
Doug Dvorak is the CEO of DMG Inc., a worldwide organization that assists clients with productivity training, corporate humor and workshops, as well as other aspects of sales and marketing management. Mr. Dvorak's clients are characterized as Fortune 1000 companies, small to medium businesses, civic organizations and service businesses. http://www.dougdvorak.com

Understanding the true value of building links

2007-03-10T07:11:00.000-08:00

The Real Value Of Link Building

The biggest misconception of link building is that it is solely intended to increase your rank within the search engines. The majority of us who use this train of thought would then proceed to get as many links for their site from any sources available, without understanding the real value behind carrying out this time consuming project. Not only do you obtain a large number of irrelevant links that will not benefit you, but you have wasted precious time and missed out on a lot of targeted traffic.

So what is the true value of link building? First and foremost, it should be intended to generate quality traffic for your business. If you keep this thought in mind when carrying out your assignment, then you are most certainly going to obtain relevant links along the way that will help to boost your exposure within the search engines, making it a win / win situation.

A good example would be this article. Once it is submitted to several article directories, people who are searching for information on link building will most likely read this information posted. At the bottom is a link to my site which is based on offering search engine marketing services and link building campaigns. If a reader was interested in finding out more, there is a high chance that they will follow through on my link and read up about my services. In this case, not only have I generated a quality lead, but I have also attained a relevant link from the article directory. If twenty people read my article each day and ten people where to click through to my website, then you can obviously see that the link building has done its job in attracting targeted visitors. However, if I was to write up an article on the latest mobile phones and provided a link to my website, then there is a very high chance that a reader will not follow through on the link. A search engine works in the same respect. Just like a human visitor, why should it read up on marketing services if it's currently reading an article on mobile phones? From this a search engine can see that the link was placed for the sole purpose of link building and has no genuine relationship. As a result, no targeted traffic will come through to my site and the link will not benefit me in any way. At the end of the day it all boils down to the quality of the link. Another good example is: if you were to have two restaurants to choose from and two different people recommending which one to eat at, you are most likely to take the advice of the person who has more authority on the subject of restaurants. In a similar manner, a search engine will follow and count the relevance of a link based on where the link to you is coming from and if there is a common factor between the sites.

The key to developing good linking strategies that will help your site's performance in the search engines is to ask yourself the following: will my link entice someone to click on it, which in turn generates quality traffic? Answering "yes" and using this methodology when carrying out your task will attract visitors interested in what you have to offer as well as collect you valuable links.

Every now again there are new methods on how to develop a successful link building campaign. At the same time, new loop holes are being found on how to exploit these methods. Eventually it will come to a point where these loop holes cease to exist. So to avoid getting caught up in the confusion, working toward a campaign that is totally focused on generating quality traffic is the best way to ensure that you are not wasting your time and hard earned dollars with attaining pointless links.

Article source: GoArticles.com

About the Author
David Touri works for SEO Sydney providing search engine marketing services. His current projects include CargoWise, the world's largest Logistics Software provider.

Traditional diets won't help

2007-03-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

Diets Don't Work

Whilst the diet industry would like you to believe that you can shed weight purchasing their products it is unlikely that you will achieve any long-term benefits from the majority of diets and weight loss products on the market. Sustainable weight loss is best achieved by creating a negative energy balance – that is burn more calories than you consume.

The problem with traditional diets is that they often advocate eating fewer calories than those needed by the body to sustain its basic functions. If you consume fewer calories than this Basal Metabolic Rate the body will enter starvation mode and cling on to fat stores in an attempt to preserve life. If blood sugar levels drop as a result if inadequate nutrition, particularly for those on low carbohydrate diets, such as the Atkins diet, the body will create its own glucose for energy by scavenging amino acids from lean muscle tissue. This self-cannibalisation results in less lean muscle which consequently reduces the metabolic rate. In effect this means fat gain will happen even easier in the future.

A reasonable approach to sustainable fat loss has a number of elements. Energy out has to be greater than energy in. Rather than reducing your calories to amounts lower than Basal Metabolic Rate, additional calories should be burnt through exercise (incidental exercise such as walking to work and taking the stairs, or using the cardiovascular equipment in a gym).

Metabolic rate can be raised by increasing lean muscle tissue through resistance training (each additional pound of lean muscle burns approximately fifty calories per day at rest). Weight training also burns between 240 and 400 calories for a typical session.

Nutritionally, a balanced diet comprised of approximately 55-60% carbohydrate, 30% fat and 10% protein is recommended for health. There will be some variations depending on desired outcomes and exercise programmes. Carbohydrates should be from wholegrain, wholemeal sources and of low-medium GI (glycaemic index). Avoid simple sugars as these will spike blood sugar levels causing insulin production which will store the sugars as fat.

A useful aid to ensuring you eat enough to lose weight is the keeping of a food diary in which you record times, amounts and types of food eaten. For optimal results a programme of exercise involving both cardiovascular and resistance training is recommended. The anatomical adaptations that take place through a progressive exercise programme increase the ability of the body to metabolise fat as fuel whilst raising the metabolic rate and burning additional calories.

Article source: BN23.com

Happiness lies in how we balance our lives

2007-03-04T00:34:00.000-08:00

Keeping Your Life In Balance

We all want to be happy in life, to be calm, confident and relaxed. We all want to be in complete control of every aspect of your life. Just as a car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster when the wheels are in perfect alignment, every individual performs better when his or her thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals and values are in alignment.

Nature demands balance in all things. You see balance all around you, from the most distant stars in the universe down to the individual cells of your body. Each of your billions of cells contain hundreds of chemicals, each of which is carefully regulated and kept in balance by your autonomic nervous system to ensure health and longevity.

Balance is the norm your life. Your body has natural bias toward health and energy. It’s built to last for a hundred years and to perform smoothly and efficiently for most of that time. It’s only improper maintenance and incorrect operation that, in most cases, cause your body to get out of balance and lead to disease and pain, rather than relaxation and pleasure.

Emotionally, you also have a natural tendency toward happiness and enjoyment. In fact you have an inner voice that automatically tells you when you’re doing the things that are just right for your unique personality and temperament. This inner voice or intuition is manifested in your level of peace of mind.

Whenever you feel at peace with yourself and the world around you, it means that you’re doing the very things that you’re meant to do and that your inner and outer worlds are properly balanced and in alignment with each other.

The normal, natural and healthy state of being in life is that of happiness, experiencing joy in laughter in most of what you do. How often you laugh at what is going on around you is a good measure how in balance your life actually is. The degree to which you have a positive mental attitude toward yourself and the normal ups and downs of life is also a good measure of your mental health.

People who are pessimistic and negative, and who only see the dark side of things that happen to them, are often found to be suffering from some form of mental illness. If a person is negative too long, that negativity becomes a habit pattern of thought and action, and he or she tends to see the whole world through lenses tinged with negativity and unhappiness.

There are two major areas of balance that you need to be concerned with on a daily basis. They are the physical and the emotional.

You need to adjust your behaviors in such a way that you can enjoy high levels of physical health and energy most of the time. I’m sure you’ve heard this saying many times before, “You can have all the money in the world, but it means nothing if you don’t have your health.”

You need to guard your health like a sacred object. From the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to be at night, you need to think about the things you can do to assure that you live a long and healthy life, free from the diseases and debilitating illnesses that are causing health-care outlays in the United States to be the highest in the world.

Medical studies almost uniformly identify seven ways to help ensure good physical and mental health throughout your life.

1. Eat regularly but lightly. Cut down on your intake of fat, sugar and salt, while adding more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean sources of protein to your diet.

2. Don’t snack between meals because the introduction of new food interrupts the ongoing digestive process and leads to drowsiness and improper food digestion.

3. Don’t smoke because it has been found to cause more illnesses alone than all the other environmental or hereditary factors put together.

4. Consume alcohol moderately or not at all. Studies show that if you do drink alcohol it is best not to have more than one or two drinks per day.

5. Get seven to eight hours of sleep every night. Not getting the proper rest at night causes your immune system to break down and makes you susceptible to a variety of illnesses, including colds, flu, and even pneumonia.

6. Exercise on a regular basis. Even moderate daily exercise daily can help you to feel better, digest better, sleep better and be a happier and more positive person.

7. Practice deep breathing every day. This helps to improve your digestion, increase the amount of oxygen going through your brain, and enable you to relax into a constant state of being alert and ready.

Deep breathing causes you to relax and makes you feel more confident and more in control of yourself and the situation. It brings your inner world into better alignment with what is going on around you.

Whenever you face a stressful situation in your external world, you can better prepare yourself to deal with it by taking a few moments to breathe deeply before you say or do anything. When you prepare yourself in this way, your words and actions will be far better considered and more effective than they would if you had just reacted when the situation came up. You will feel more in balance.

You can achieve a greater sense of balance by, first of all, determining your values in each area regarding your health, your relationships, and your work. Next, you examine your behaviors and identify the things that you’re doing and saying that are not consistent with bringing your behaviors into alignment with your innermost convictions and eliminate them. Once you do this, you’ll start to feel happier and healthier.

Just as a car with perfectly aligned and balanced wheels runs more smoothly down the highway, you also will run more smoothly down the highway of life when you take the time and make the effort to bring everything that you do and say into balance and alignment.

Copyright©2007 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and success coaching programs. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in career coach training. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many businesses around the world, on the subjects of leadership, achievement, goals, strategic business planning, and marketing. Joe is the author of three books, Starting Your Own Business, Finding Your Purpose In Life, and The Guerrilla Marketing Workbook.

Article Source: Joe Love (EzineArticles.com)

Between having a home business and getting rich quickly

2007-03-04T00:29:00.000-08:00

Do You Really Want A Home Business, Or Do You Simply Want To Get Rich Quickly?

This is a question that must be answered by anyone interested in making extra money or having their own business, whether that business be run out of their home or elsewhere. In my experience many people are actually interested in making money quickly with some sort of "opportunity" rather than having their own business. They are two entirely different things, and in actuality one of them isn't even real. I suppose you can guess which one isn't even real, but just in case you can't it's the idea of getting rich quickly doesn't exist. As a matter of fact it's a complete fallacy!

That's right, getting rich quickly isn't a reality (without engaging in something illegal that is). The funny thing about this little fact is that all of the weasels out there selling the next big "opportunity" claim exactly the opposite. These hype masters make their living convincing you that you can make money by doing almost nothing, and some will even claim that they will do most of the work for you. Honestly, when you really think about this, does it even sound like something that would be possible? They will do the work and you will make the money? Rubbish, getting rich or making money does not happen by you doing nothing.

If you are interested in getting rich quickly, I hope I've dissuaded you. If you're actually interested in having a home business, there are opportunities out there, just don't get into anything for the promise of getting rich quickly. The one piece of advise I have as someone who tried much of the crap floating around the home bases business toilet bowl, is the fact that your home based business must be based around something that you feel passionate about. If you're doing anything simply for the money you will eventually fail. You must have passion for your business.

The bottom line is that you need to answer the question posed by this article and proceed from there, because if you're chasing after something that doesn't exist you might as well not waste your time. If you're looking for a business of any kind to make you rich quickly you would be much better off looking for the pot of gold at the end of the next rainbow that you see.

Trevor Kugler - Co-founder of JRWfishing.com Trevor has more than 15 years of business experience and 25 years of fishing experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country - Montana.
Start Catching more fish Today!!!! - http://www.jrwfishing.com/starterkit.asp
http://www.jrwfishing.com/signup.html - Sign Up For The Best FREE Fishing Ezine on the web and get $10 for your trouble.
http://www.lulu.com/tkugler - Fishing Tips & Techniques For Pennies!!!!!!
Article Source: Trevor Kugler (EzineArticles.com)

Ways to impart financial skills to your kids

2007-02-24T08:07:00.000-08:00

5 Strategies to Teach Your Children About Saving Money

Teaching your children financial skills is critical for their future. 80% of parents believe that their children are being taught personal money matters in school, yet 90% of high school students and 87% of college students say that whatever they know about money they learn from their parents. Among parents with children 5 and older, only 26% feel well enough prepared to teach their kids about personal finances. Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy measured 12th graders' knowledge of personal finance basics and found that only 10% of high school graduates could satisfactorily answer questions about personal finance.

Not sure where to start in talking to you kids about money? You're not alone. But, much like teaching your kids to look both ways before crossing the street, managing money, is a parental responsibility that safeguards kids' future. Good habits start early in life and the savings habit brings lifelong benefits. Kids are interested in money and they can learn by example and by doing. Sharing how and why your family is saving emphasizes the importance of this positive, lifelong habit.

Engage your children using some of these simple, fun suggestions and help them learn the value of money:

1. Explain to your kids what money is all about. You can start doing this once you see that your kids are already able to learn how to count. The earlier you can teach a child or teenager about money, including earning money, saving money, and spending money responsibility, the better prepared they will be to manage their own money.

2. Talk to your child about the family budget. Allow them to ask questions about household finances and how you manage the household budget. Reinforce the learning process by budgeting for a family outing or a purchase.

3. Encourage children to start saving by opening a savings account for them. If they are younger, you can still make savings “real” to them by having them build their savings in a piggy bank or clear jar. You can motivate them to allot a portion of their allowance to their savings. If you have multiple children, one way to keep them motivated is by giving a prize to whoever earned the highest amount in their savings.

4. Explaining the value of spending money can also be done at home. You can assign some household chores and pay a small amount once they were able to do it. This will help them realize that money is not earned easily and should be spent wisely.

5. Show your children how an ATM machine works. While many children know that money doesn't grow on trees, they may think it comes out of a wall. Help your kids understand that you must put money in the bank before you can take it out.

When you discuss money with kids, you help them develop a sense of limits. You're teaching kids that the family has to make choices about how it can spend money. There's only so much money to go around — if you spend it on some things, you won't have it to spend on others. Teaching your children about saving money doesn’t have to be a difficult task. Remember to be patient and consistent, and your children will be able to learn this critical skill in an easy and fun way.

Article Source: Barbara House (EzineArticles.com)

Barbara House is the founder of Really Busy People - a website dedicated to providing current news, informative articles, time-saving products & services to simplify your hectic, busy lifestyle. Please visit Really Busy People for more articles on parenting and finances.

Key elements in effective human relationship

2007-02-24T07:58:00.000-08:00

How To Improve Your Interpersonal Relationships

Very few of us never have contact with the outside world or other people, and as a result, there is a relationship that is created whenever we interact with someone else. As time goes on, that relationship can remain stagnant, or as in the case of a love or dating relationship, that relationship can grow and flourish. But the real key to any meaningful relationship is effective communication between two people. That statement is every bit as true for interpersonal relationships as it is for business relationships, and also for the marital relationship between a husband and wife.

Effective communications cannot be stressed enough, especially in a marriage relationship. In today’s world where both husband and wife are holding down at least full time if not part time jobs, things happen during the course of a normal day. But it is only at the end of the day when two people are relaxing that effective communications can take place. It doesn’t matter how mundane, since even in mundane conversation you can learn a lot about another person, understanding what is important to them, what irritates them, and things they find enjoyable.

Suppose your partner is depressed about something, whether financial stress, job pressures, or anything else. How much time do you give to your partner to improve the mood? If your answer is “none or not much”, you are running the risk of your relationship starting to deteriorate. The breakdown of a relationship does not happen overnight, but it is all these “missed opportunities” to show care, understanding, and support that all add up over time.

Respect is a key ingredient of any relationship. If you do not feel you can trust someone, your communications with them will be brief or nonexistent. There is no real relationship there. That type of relationship may be fine for the checkout clerk at the grocery store, but how many people have that kind of relationship with their spouse? The real answer to that question will probably scare you, but you have control over that and the fate of that relationship, even your marital relationship, rests squarely in your hands.

Trust is another key element of any relationship, which goes hand in hand with respect. You need to feel you can trust the person you are communicating with. If you don’t have a level of trust with that person, even your spouse, then your communications will reflect that lack of trust. You won’t elaborate on things you say, you won’t go into details, and you will subconsciously leave out information that may leave you vulnerable to a future rebuttal or even attack from the other person.

Many times, especially in a marriage relationship, the three key elements of a relationship (communication, trust and respect) slowly start to erode over time. It is typically not a conscious thing, but it can happen if both spouses are not aware that they need to keep all levels of these elements at peak values consistently. So what happens as these components start to degrade? That relationship can develop into an abusive relationship. This is particularly difficult in a marriage relationship – when the checkout clerk at the grocery store abuses you, you can report them to their management or you can just decide to shop somewhere else. But in a marriage relationship, it is not nearly as clear-cut at that, nor nearly as simple. The marriage equivalent of “shopping somewhere else” is divorce, which although being a very drastic step, is sometimes the best solution for both parties when the respect, the trust, and the communications have degraded to the point where both parties are unwilling to put in enough time and effort that will be required to rebuild those elements.

Take care of your relationships and understand how you can improve them on a regular basis, and those relationships can grow and flourish over time, where you can gain comfort during the dark times and share your joys in the good times.

Article Source: Jon Arnold (ArticleBiz.com)

Jon is a computer engineer who maintains web sites on a variety of topics based on his knowledge and experience. You can read more about Relationship Advice at his web site at Relationship Advice.

Commercial advertising and the opposite sex

2007-02-21T18:01:00.000-08:00

The Media Has Lied To You About What The Opposite Sex Is Attracted To

Every day it's a constant barrage of noise. All of us, apparently, have to make some big changes-and now---or else you'll never get a date again. All for 3 easy payments of $49.95.

Oh, come on. Are we really this gullible?

Lately I've been paying attention to media, especially advertising, and realizing more than ever how we are getting played. Think about it. Virtually everything communicated to us in the commercial media is designed to sell a product, further a cause, etc. Extraordinarily often, this plays upon our feelings of worthiness to attract "hotties". Right?

One of my favorite recent commercials is the one where the guy and girl make eye contact while on stopped streetcars headed in opposite directions. Quickly the guy springs up to get off his ride and hopefully catch the other one so he can meet the woman. Unsuccessful...he is dejected when both streetcars leave, only to find that the woman had done the same thing (!) There they are standing across from each other, and it's presumably ‘on'. What a great commercial, and what a picture perfect example of a "romantic moment". Except for one curious thing...it's for a pair of guys pants. How in the world did the pants help him in the all-important quest to attract the girl? He was looking out a streetcar window!

Where this conversation gets more personal is when it involves things we are perceived to have to change in order to get someone to be attracted to us at all. For guys, the easy target has historically been baldness, although nowadays penis size seems to be gaining momentum (that doesn't sound quite right…but you know what I mean). The latter is another whole topic, so let's talk about what it's like for bald guys. Bald guys have been generally trained by media to be horrified of going bald. Bald guys are remembered as ridiculed in sitcoms and in movies. Bald guys are told no women are interested in a guy without hair, and that they should spend all the money it takes to change it.

Now, I happen to have plenty of hair on my head, so I'm an unbiased opinion here. Judging from informal conversations with numerous women, and from what I've seen on online profiles, I think far fewer women are turned off by a receding hairline-or even flat-out baldness-than these commercials would like for us to believe. You can even go to www.hotornot.com and see the kind of objective ratings guys get for yourself. The numbers don't lie. The website is not called www.hotorbald.com (check the link-nope).

The ladies are fed even more crazy stuff. I saw a mascara ad several years ago where the waiter made a Freudian slip and asked the lady if she wanted something or other to go with her "lashes". What a wakeup call that was to watch. Do you think us guys are really going around paying that much attention to your lashes? We may indirectly notice how long lashes positively affect a woman's attractiveness, but really--I assure you--we aren't obsessing over her eyelashes.

Better example: fashion. Most of us guys, again not a general statement but far more than you are led to believe, really think a woman looks as great in a sweatshirt, sweatpants and ankle sox as she did in that Carolina Herrera gown last night. Really. Believe it. In fact, the "girl next door" thing in general rules with many, many guys.

Don't we all appreciate someone real? This goes for plastic surgery, also. Informal surveys of my male friends show that we really don't all go for a large breast size. It's true. Believe that also. I can count on both hands the number of guys I know who appreciate women with surgically altered bust lines. How many times have you seen someone who has had a facelift, and immediately thought he or she would have been better off leaving it alone?

And the clincher? News flash: Despite everything you've heard, seen, and have had played before your eyes...(are you sitting down for this?)...A LOT of guys don't prefer skinny women. In fact, some of us out here don't even have a direct preference when it comes to the subject matter of this paragraph or the preceding one. Now, extremism is one thing, and if someone is affected as such s/he should get that handled for health and lifestyle reasons. But for the most part, who a woman is-overall-is going to affect the level of attraction for a guy.

And this thought process appears to apply to both men and women. I've heard lots of women talk about a guy with some "meat on his bones" instead of washboard abs (can't have both). And guess what? Likewise, plenty of guys like curvier women. More guys may think this way than actually will admit publicly, also-likely because of what the media has taught us is attractive. Do we all have "bad taste"? That's subjective-as it should be.

Further, an interesting story was done that showed that men will predictably be attracted to a 7/10 ratio between waist and hips, which also happens to be a good scientific quotient for indicating female fertility, it seems. OK, so why don't all women know this? Because you can't do anything about it. You can't "spot reduce". There are no products to sell, so the media has no interest in telling you this sort of thing.

But you have the ability to lose weight generally-if you want to. And you can put on make up, and hair "products" and different clothes. Darn skippy. And you hear about that all the time. Why? Because there's money in making people feel insecure. And once the ball is rolling, it's a financial bonanza. It's this way in part because of the basic message, and in larger part, I've come to believe, because one can never do enough. In all actuality it doesn't necessarily get attraction to happen. In fact, the cumulative effect can actually backfire, causing less attraction because of the perceived plasticism or, worse, the insecurity.

Article Source: Scot McKay (ArticleBiz.com)

Internet marketing through social bookmarking

2007-02-21T17:57:00.000-08:00

Social Bookmarking and the Online Home Based Business Opportunity

Those of us who have been in Internet Marketing for awhile know the value of link popularity for an online home based business opportunity webpage. It is the webpage with the most relevant links that usually does the best and gets the coveted #1 spot in the search engines. There are many ways to develop the number of links necessary to beat your competition. Many of these are yet to be discovered. There is one very powerful idea that has come to the forefront that may be just as important as the stalwart blog and ping. It is called Social Bookmarking.

The mechanism of social bookmarking for any online home based business opportunity is a simple one. It involves submission of multiple blog posts, articles, webpages, and even links to forum posts if that is what is desired. It is much like submitting an artile to an article directory. It is much, much simpler. The accumulation of outgoing links from a Social Bookmark account profile is where the PR (Priority Ranking) is developed over time. Of course the posts are relevant to the web pages they point to. They act just like a link page, accept you never have to go out and look for the link partners, and you do not need to reciprocate. They are just like articles, one way links.

Popular Social Bookmarking Sites include:

30daytags BlinkBits BlogHop BlogLot BlogMarks BlogMemes BlogPulse BmAccess browsr Fark CiteULike clipclip clipmarks Complore Connectedy Connotea de.lirio.us del.icio.us digg diigo fantacular Feedmarker Feed Me Links Furl Gibeo GoKoDo Google Notebook IceRocket Kaboodle linkaGoGo linkfilter.net linkroll Listible Lookmarks ma.gnolia Netvouz Newsvine openBM RawSugar reddit Rojo Rollyo Scuttle Shadows Simpy Sitetagger Smarking Spurl StumbleUpon taghop TailRank Ticklr unalog Yahoo My Web 2.0 yoonoo

As multiple groups of pages accumulate for your account as a result of your consistant contributions, more of these accumulated pages are created that link directly to your web pages.
Then they get discovered by others. This is the social aspect of Social Bookmarking. Take digg.com for example. You perform the initial post, put in some comments, and, not in the case of Digg but in the case of other sites, put in some keyword tags. What you have is a very large collection of news items and articles all rolled into one large site. It is kind of like having a thousand or more article directories in one.

In comes the surfer, like me, looking for content, and he/she finds it. He/She wants to include it in there own personal collection because of relevance, and add it to their bookmark collection. It does not take PR away from your webpages, it feeds PR to your webpages, and lots of it.

So now, not only do I have the post in my own profile page, it now occurs in someone elses, and it points from their profile list of social bookmark posts directly to my webpage. This can occur thousands of times in a Social Bookmarking Site. When it does, there is a great deal of power generated back to your webpages. The number of links increase as a result of the effort of others, PR increases, and so does SE placement. Can it get any simpler to promote any online home based business opportunity?

Article Source: Leonard Bartholomew (ArticleBiz.com)

Leonard Bartholomew, B.S. Computer Science. Find all of the elements of the best home based business on the internet.

Cool office love kiss flash game - try it

2007-02-17T18:38:00.000-08:00

Two weeks back, I posted some flash games from Milwaukee's best light. Here's one interesting flash game from a Japanese site. Its called Office Love Kiss.

Its all in Japanese but the game is simple. Click on the link above and when the page loads, find the Start button on the bottom right. The aim is to continue kissing without being caught by the boss. Click once on the girl's face and the couple will kiss while the boss is on the phone. When the kiss hits 35 times, the kisses speeds up. Don't let the boss catch you! Have fun :)

Do you feel confident of yourself?

2007-02-16T02:16:00.000-08:00

Confidence Building Secrets of True Winners

We all need some confidence building from time to time. Part of feeling confident has a lot to do with how we feel about ourselves. Feeling like we can accomplish things we set out to do is important to feeling confident.

Remember that we all have talents and gifts. Whether we feel confident in these skills is very much part of thinking like a winner. Here is an easy way you can train yourself to think like a winner.

Make yourself a ‘to do’ list. Before you start complaining that you’ve tried that already in the past and it didn’t work, let’s go over the rules for this list. This is a list to make you feel like a winner.

It is your job to help yourself to feel as much like a winner as possible by making a list that is fun and easy to get done. I mean super easy. Ridiculously easy, even.

Here’s a sample list:

1. Get out of bed. 2. Brush my teeth and comb my hair. 3. Get dressed. 4. Eat something. 5. Eat something else. 6. Walk to a car, bus or another room. 7. Smile. 8. Answer the phone. But only if it rings. 9. Put socks on...

Are you getting the idea? This isn’t your average ‘to do’ list. This is a sort of self-conditioning list. Seeing all those check marks or seeing everything crossed off your list will make you feel like you’ve had a productive day. You’ll gain confidence in your abilities to get things done.

If you practice this fun list making, you’ll come to think of yourself as a winner. If you forget to write the list one morning, write a ‘done’ list at the end of the day. Just list ‘got out of bed’, etc. and mark them off.

As silly as this confidence building list making may seem, bear in mind that the subconscious doesn’t care about what is real or imagined. All it will see is a list that has been checked off every day. Eventually, you’ll notice yourself feeling more confident. You can then start adding real tasks to your list and doing them with the same ‘feel good’ attitude you had when you made your practice lists.

Don’t add too many, to start. Camouflage the real items you want to accomplish with your stand-by easy ones. The reason you don’t want to do a complete shift in list writing is that feeling good is an important element of confidence building.

Just look at someone you know to be confident. Are they down in the mouth or smiling? Allow yourself the joy of having fun with life. You’ll feel like a winner!

Article Source: Peter Murphy (ArticleBiz.com)

Great tips to help you avoid scam

2007-02-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

How to Avoid Scams !!!

Your How to Guide to Avoid Frauds & Scams

Tips to avoid scams:

• Beware of False Claims: Have you noticed that the company is making claims which sound too good to be true? Just stop there! Don’t blindly believe in the attractive matter put up by the company. We all want to earn “instantly” but don’t forget that nothing is life comes for FREE! Take your decisions smartly.

• Keep an eye on Contact info: Do check that whether the company has their contact info details on their website. A legal company will surely have their contact info details on their webpage, easily noticeable. Checking the age of Domain name of company’s website can help you to know how old is company and their website. http://www.allwhois.com

• Moral business values: There are certain guidelines posted by the “The Direct Marketing Association” in order to carry certain guidelines for moral business practices. Here are some points of those guidelines:

Terms of the offer

Advance consent marketing

special offers and claims

marketing to children

sweepstakes sites

fulfillment of orders

collecting personal information and data on your website

online marketing

telephone marketing

fund-raising

laws, codes, and regulations

• Service Oriented: Legitimate business would surely offer some type of goods or services for any fees they charge. A company that claims you can make money by recruiting new members is an illegal pyramid scheme. If the company charges a fee, they must offer some type of service or product.

• Easily Accessible: Always contract locally with people whom you can meet in person - Just Follow this instruction and you will avoid 80-90% of the scam attempts anywhere.

• Beware while disclosing info: Never Wire Funds via Western Union, Money gram or any other wire service - anyone who asks you to do so is a cheater.

• Financial Info: Never give out your financial information i.e. your bank account number, credit card number, social security number, eBay/Papal info, etc.

• Avoid Shipping: Avoid the deals involving shipping or escrow services and also keep in mind that a “scammer” will only guarantee you about the transaction.

Free Samples: This type of scam mostly exist while dealing in B2B Trading. The importer might ask you to ship first a sample piece and falsely would state he would order a bulk quantity later. The best way to handle this situation is to ask him to pay at least 85-90 % of the cost of products. While dealing in bulk quantities use service from banks ie: Letter of Credit. Very common scam is while trading from Nigeria who falsely states that they have a Performa Invoice ready for a bulk enquiry but the payment would be made via cheque. Be Ready to Get Scammed here !!!

Background Verification : If you want more ethical report you can also take help of reputed background verification companies’ to help you.

Article Source: Karl Max (ArticleBiz.com)

Increase your blog links and web traffic via Z-list meme

2007-02-13T01:38:00.000-08:00

I have just learnt about this idea. Dosh Dosh has this great tip for increasing large amounts of your blog links and web traffic.

Mack Collier from The Viral Garden started ‘The Z List‘ in December 2006 as a response towards Technorati’s method of assigning authority based on the number links pointing to a blog. The Z list is a blog meme, which sees bloggers creating and sharing a list of many links to blogs in a single post. Participants joining the Z list meme will have to copy and paste a list of blogs, while including any new blogs on the list that they feel should get the exposure they deserve.

Here are the benefits of joining the Z-list meme?

You’ll get a lot of fresh incoming links and traffic
You’ll get a much higher Technorati ranking (ironic but true)
You’ll get new readers and potential RSS subscribers
You’ll most likely increase your blog’s Google Page Rank

To participate in the Meme you need to:

Create a new post on your blog
Copy and Paste the entire list of blog links below.
Add any blogs that you want to include near the top of the list (please add this blog site to your list)
Include the blog where you first got the list from, on the list in your post
Do not include your own blog links on the list in your post
Make sure that all links point to each blog’s homepage
Publish the Post

My additions

[ Please add my blog URL Choice - At your Fingertips here ]
Ruminate this site
Evolution...not just a theory anymore
Travel And Vacation On Blog
Through the Lenses
A Free and Decent Blog Host
What is Brand?
http://asyuu.asablo.jp/blog/
Employment Law Colorado
Current World news
World Blog Collection
Girls Swimsuits
Asia Inspection Community
Business Garden
Dipping into the Blogpond
The Best Guides to eCommerce with Favor
SEO Blog
Energy Blog
Dosh Dosh
Daily Blog Tips
Forged Euphoria
Above Popular
Deepak
Gangster Sonny

The original Z-list from Dosh Dosh

Connected Internet
Blog-Op
Mike's Money Making Mission
Time to Budget
Can I Make Big Money Online
Blogtrepreneur
Flee the Cube
Blogging Secret
Blogging to Fame
Million Dollar Experiment heads Down Under
Quest to make money on the internet
Kumiko's Cash Quest
Calico Monkey
Internet Bazaar
Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Pow! Right Between The Eyes!
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Working at Home on the Internet
MapleLeaf 2.0
Two Hat Marketing
darrenbarefoot.com
The Emerging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Drew's Marketing Minute
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
NewsPaperGrl
The Copywriting Maven
Hee-Haw Marketing
Scott Burkett's Pothole on the Infobahn
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Branding & Marketing
Popcorn n Roses
On Influence & Automation
Bullshitobserver
Servant of Chaos
converstations
eSoup
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
Perspective
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Bob Sutton
｡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Community Guy
Social Media on the fly

Search engine is now paying you to search!

2007-02-12T04:57:00.000-08:00

Thats right. Search engine is now paying you to search. No, you don't have to search some specific words or products. Search like you normally would and while doing that, get paid. Its not Google, by the way.

Most of us are aware of Adsense, Text Link Ads, PayPerPost, Blogsvertise, Link Worth etc. Some requires you to put ads or banners on your site while others ask you to spend time writing some product/ad reviews. This one doesn't require you to do anything except searching - which is already part of our net surfing life.

So, there is a new search engine in town called "SlashMySearch". It "slashes" through junks and find you the most relevant results. Results are filtered from Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite, the Google search engine, their databases and several other sources. They also track what results are visited the most and refine their database with that information.

Its easy. All you have to do is register here and make your homepage in your browser point to SlashMySearch site and when you are done with that, just use the search engine to do your searches like what you have been doing until now. But, there's more to it.

Refer it to your family and friends and earn more when they sign up. Look at the image below and that's how you can earn.

The fun part is you can easily earn up to $180 per month just doing what you have been doing normally - search! If you spread the news, then you earn more through referrals. You may think its MLM. Its not because you are not paying a cent. Its 100% free of charge.

In addition, you won't get spam mails, the program is open to all nationalities, there is no catch, no pop-ups and there is nothing to download to install on your pc. Your activities are tracked automatically, and you will get your check/paypal/e-gold when you make $50.

Oh and when you do your searches and visiting the results, they will be loaded into a frame with tools at the top to help you easily return to the search results. You can try different search terms or close the frame and surf the result in a full window. When you type a certain keyword in the search box, a short list of keywords suggestion will appear helping you to refine your search.
And if you are using Internet Explorer, those results are initially loaded with a restricted security setting better shielding you from spyware, adware, trojans, viruses, popups and other javascript actions.

After you sign up, you can check an array of marketing tools and marketing guide in your account page to help you earn more. There is also a new member forum for members to get peer support.

Isn't this cool? So far I have seen no loop-holes in this. Its great. After all, what do you have to lose? Its FREE and you can opt out anytime you want.

So do both of us a favor: Reap the benefits by signing up for SlashMySearch right now! Its 100% free. If you use this link to sign up, I automatically get credit for referring you and helping to build SlashMySearch.

Thank you for reading.

Earn money by setting SlashMySearch.com as your homepage. Earn even more money by using SlashMySearch.com as your primary search engine, the more you search the more you make, its that simple!

A guide on doing keyword research for SEO

2007-02-11T20:02:00.000-08:00

This is a long article explaining in detail about doing keyword research for SEO. An important piece for web publishers.

How to do Keyword Research for Search Engine Optimization

There are many ways to do Keyword Research but the fundamentals of how it is done is pretty much the same even if every SEO professional has their own way of doing it when looking at the very specific details. The methods discussed here may not be the best, but through SEO experimentation, this is what has worked best for me and my clients. For the purposes of discussion, when I refer to the word keyword, this may not necessarily referring to 1 word alone but to many keywords, or sometimes called a keyphrase. But if I refer to keyword alone, it may mean a group of words or a keyphrase.

The raw keyword list to start your keyword research

I simply list down the product or service I am optimizing for and come up with a good list of synonyms and related words for the keyword. Just to come up with a random keyword for example purposes, let's say the client sells cars. I will come up with the synonyms:

Car
Auto
Automobile
Vehicle
Toyota (Brand)
Celica (Model)

And may also come up with related words like:

Drive

It will be up to you if you think the word is related or not. I am sure you can come up with a very long list, but don't make it that long. It has to be something you think people may type in when searching to buy your car. You can add in more word that you think other people might add when searching for a product or service to buy.

Buy a car
Car buying
Car store
Automobile shop
Toyota dealer

If you are doing SEO to market a physical store, might as well add in the geographic location of your shop. For example purposes only, let's say the car store is in a place called Gotham City, Metropolis. Then I will considered adding in these words in my keyword research. But if you are selling something small that is shipped online and you are targeting to sell nationwide or even internationally, you may opt not to pay much attention to adding the location in the keyword research.

Coming up with synonyms and related word, there are many tools you can use. Sometimes all these tools can be overwhelming just to come up with synonyms and related words. If you are on a tight budget, and want to use something for free, Google alone can help you with that. Do a related keyword search using the tilde ( ~ ) operator. Like search: ~cars or use the Adwords Keywords Tool.

Checking current search volume for your targeted keywords

After coming up with your raw keyword list, how often do you think these keywords are searched? What are the actual variations of these keywords that were searched by other people? You have several tools you can use to guide you in knowing these data. Here are a few of the tools available:

Adwords Keywords Tool - You can determine the highly searched keywords here and also keywords that companies are paying a lot for.
Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool - This will give you the number of searches for a keyword on Yahoo for the previous month. I will get the relevant keywords listed and the search number on overture and place them on another column of the spreadsheet.
Wordtracker - One advantage of Wordtracker over just relying on Overture is Overture cannot seem to see the difference between plural and singular words. Aside from that, the keyword order in Wordtracker does not seem to matter on many occasions. Like New Cars and Cars New will be the same on Overture, but not on Wordtracker. Wordtracker is not a free tool, but it is not that expensive either. They have a free trial and if ever you just need to use it for a small campaign, you can subscribe to the service for a single day and you can do so much research in 1 day.
Keyword Discovery - Now one major advantage to use Keyword Discovery over all of the above is the data they have up to 12 month of past data.

All this data, you can tabulate on a spreadsheet, having 1 column for each taking note of the search volume. If you have a physical location, a store you are promoting, then this is where I try the keywords with the location in it. For our example, I would do: cars gotham metropolis.

All these tools are good but do not treat them like they are the absolute truth. Please note the following:

To get a good comparison of results, take note of the unit of time you have on the data. If it is per month or per year and keep units the same by doing some conversions.
Some keywords will be present in all Google, Overture, Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery. Prioritize the keywords that appear in all of them and give less priority to those that are only in one of the keyword research tools.
Looking at all tools gives you the big picture, but the results of all the tools above can give you varied results. By experience, most of the time the highest result is on Overture, next is Wordtracker and the smallest values are on Keyword Discovery. Please note that all these depend on the sources. Overture is from Yahoo, Wordtracker is from Dogpile and Metacrawler. Keyword Discovery is from a large number of various engines. Also a common trend I see is for brand name search, the highest will appear on Overture, and my guess is it's caused by the client themselves that keep searching for themselves.

Check how much competition do you have for your targeted keywords

Now that you have several keywords gathered using the tools above, how much competition do you have for every keyword? Searching for the keywords on Google, Yahoo and MSN will give you a total number of search results. Now if you see 1,000,000 or more keywords, does that mean you are competing against 1,000,000 websites for the number 1 spot? These search engines are pretty powerful and do remember that they will search every website within their database where all occurrences of each keyword are on a webpage will be part of the results. So all the total results may be the number of websites you have to outrank but not every one may really be targeting the keywords you are targeting too. Now in all of the results listed, how many are actually from a competitor that is optimizing their website and how many are just there because their site has the words you were targeting?

Since part of SEO is placing keywords in the URL, like in domains, subdomains or folder names. In the title tags and in anchor text in internal links and external linking. You can pretty much search on these using several search commands like, intitle, inurl and inanchor. For our example, we can search:

intitle:"cars gotham metropolis"

Notice that I placed the keywords in quotes since most people search:

intitle:cars gotham metropolis

This will search for the keywords but it is only requiring the word cars in the title tag. Searching:

intitle:cars intitle:gotham intitle:metropolis

Will give you results that have all 3 words in the title tag. But having them in quotes, will look for the exact same phrase in the title tag. Thus you get to narrow down the results to really how many websites are trying to compete for your same keyword.

Which keywords do you target from your researched keyword list

Let's say you have this situation: Keyword option 1 was searched 1,000 times the previous month but has 100,000 in competition actually targeting the same keywords. While keyword option 2 was searched less at 500 times a the previous month but has 900 in competition targeting the same keywords. Even if option 1 was searched more the previous month, it might be more wise to concentrate on option 2 since you have such a low amount of competition and getting higher in the SERPs will be a lot more easier.

For keyword optimization, you want the highly searched but low search competition. Many people observe this ratio in the KEI or Keyword Effective Index. This is basically the number of times a keyword is searched over the number of competition. If you wish to multiply this by 100 to get it in terms of a percent, you may do so. Everyone may have their own formula for it.

How I would personally do it is I start with keywords that were found in all these four: Google, Overture, Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery as my priority keywords. I will give less priority for keywords that only appear in one or two of them. Add the times they were searched in all 4 and divided by the total competition on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

(Overture + Wordtracker + Keyword Discovery) / (Intitle results on Google, Yahoo and MSN) * 100 = KEI

Some SEO professionals may have a different KEI formula but there is really no correct formula. As long as you get a value where you can gauge what keywords are highly searched but with low competition. The highest KEI value will be the main keywords to target.

Now let's say you got the top 50 keywords based on KEI, do you target all of them on all of your pages?

How many keywords to target per page

Several SEO's may have different beliefs on this, but based on SEO experiment experience, I target only 2 to 3 keywords per page and focus on those alone. Then the rest of your keywords can be targeted on other pages of your website. Spread them out where you select the most appropriate page where they will be focused on. Targeting too many keywords on a single page just brings dilution of the true meaning of the page.

How long of a tail should a long tail be?

So what is this long tail? You hear it in SEO, you hear it in PPC, although they may not exactly be used in the exact same way. Here are the general stuff first:

The lesser the keywords, the more general it is, the more competition you have, that harder it is to rank high in the search engines. But these terms would also probably have a high searched volume.
The more keywords you have, the more specific the search term is, the lesser competition you will have, the easier it gets to rank higher in the search engines. This would probably have a lesser searched volume.

Now general known behavior about online buyers:

People that search general terms are usually people doing some research about a particular topic. Some may be buyers as well and as they get tons of results, they might narrow down their search by being more specific.
People that search specific multiple keyword terms really know what they are looking for or may have already narrowed down their search into something more specific to really find what they wanted to buy. Usually the specific term searcher has more potential to buy than the general term searcher.

Hitting two birds with one stone by using the long tail.

With a list of keywords gathered based on you research using the tools above, many keywords with high KEI could be targeted all at the same time in some cases. Let's say in our case, we came up with these keywords:

1. cars
2. cars for sale
3. car buying
4. buying cars in gotham city
5. buying cars
6. cars for sale in gotham city metropolis
7. car buying in gotham

In this case, we can target number 6, the long tail "cars for sale in gotham city metropolis" and at the same time you get to target number 1 and 2 as well since they are part of number 6. Number 7, "Car buying in gotham" will target number 1 and 3. Number 4 "Buying cars in gotham city" will target number 1 and 5.

To sum it all up, keyword research is:

1. Coming up with your raw keyword list.
2. Check the KEI using tools to check the past search volume over the number of competition.
3. Get the long tails and group together with short general terms that can be targeted at the same time.
4. Assign about 2 to 3 keywords to a single page to focus on and distribute among pages and give instructions to your SEO writer.

The rest of the SEO will be on writing content and building the site with the proper code which are all part of onpage SEO. When the whole site is launched, offpage SEO will follow.

Article source: Benj Arriola (ArticleBiz.com)

5 top tips on search engine optimization and positioning

2007-02-11T04:40:00.000-08:00

This one is pretty long but its worth the read.

SEO and Positioning Tips – Rank High and Fast

SEO and positioning your website to rank top spots in the search engines require some careful planning. Just like setting up a business or going to war, it requires strategizing for optimal results. Diving straight into the internet without any clear game plan is time-wasting, dangerous and more often than not, a futile attempt to rank any website for maximum targeted traffic. Let’s dwell a little deeper into some useful SEO and positioning tips to get your web pages indexed and ranking faster.

1. SEO and Positioning Tip 1 – Determine Your Objective

What is your objective in optimizing your website? Is it for maximum general traffic or targeted niche traffic? Once again, webmasters are unable to get this part clear. Many think that driving as much traffic as possible to their websites is the way to go. Unfortunately, this is a big pitfall. A web site may attract loads of traffic but yet don’t perform as well as another with little traffic but making more sales. Know what your objective is, to sell more products or to get more people to visit your website. If you are building an interest-based website or hobby website, perhaps getting maximum general traffic is the right solution for you.

2. SEO and Positioning Tip 2 – Plan Your Keywords Right

This is applicable for all websites that intend to tap into free organic traffic. By that, I mean SEO and positioning high in search engines for specific keywords. One clue for you before you compile your keyword list is to understand that search engines rank individual web pages, not websites. The systematic way to do it is to first look at your objective of SEO and positioning. If you are targeting a niche market, for example SEO tools, target the niche keyword SEO tools for your home page, and drill into this main keyword for related keywords such as SEO Elite, effective SEO tools, etc to target for each internal web page.

Don’t make the mistake like many webmasters do in targeting one main keyword for the entire website. The smart approach to SEO and positioning is to target a list of low competition, moderate demand keywords and rank well for them. This would potentially drive more targeted traffic, than to blindly hit at one main keyword.

3. SEO and Positioning Tip 3 – Simple Well-Thought On-page Optimization

Use your keywords in the meta-tags, web page title, sub-headers and web content. Make your web content unique. A keyword density of 1-3% and word count of more than 400 words is ideal for on-page optimization. Create a sitemap page to make search engines spiders love your web pages. This helps in indexing the internal pages fast.

4. SEO and Positioning Tip 4 – Effective Off-page Optimization Techniques

Building link popularity of a website is far more crucial than any other factors for SEO and positioning for top search engine ranking. But pay attention to who your link partners are. Trade links with websites in a similar niche, and high Google PR if possible. Links from authority websites such as educational or government websites, ie domain names with .edu or .gov extensions are valuable. Buying links from link partners is perfectly fine if you can verify the quality of the websites. Search engines nowadays can be quite demanding and look for quality more than quantity of links.

5. SEO and Positioning Tip 5 – Using Search Engine Optimization Tools

Webmasters used to do everything traditionally from on-page optimization to off-page optimization such as emailing fellow webmasters to exchange links. Technology and software development has made it much easier for SEO and positioning websites using search engine optimization tools. These smart tools are designed to automate all manual tasks necessary to grab a top search engine ranking for a website fast. Almost every webmaster has one or two of these in their arsenal as they are big time and money savers.

Feel free to drop by at my blog to read more about search engine optimization tools and grab a free ebook worth more than $97 packed with detailed SEO tips and techniques to help your SEO efforts.

Article source: Davion Wong (ArticleBiz.com)

Competition between Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network

2007-02-11T00:42:00.000-08:00

Contextual Advertising - Google AdSense vs YPN

Ever since Google AdSense opened up possibility to earn money as a web publisher, contextual advertising has assumed significance. Until a few years ago, banner ads were more favored. Google Adsense wasn't around, and often odds were against small businesses to place ads and get noticed. Over time, banner ads became less preferable mainly because web viewers increasingly considered them as major distractions.

Overture and Google took in the scent quite early and started experimenting with text ads based on contextual advertising. Initially the emphasis was on showing text ads in search results when a search term coincided with the keyword chosen by the ads. AdWords took shape early 2002, and though Overture was already an old hand when AdWords started, the latter galloped ahead in no time.

Google AdSense is a late entrant, followed only recently by Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN). After YPN debuted, there is no stopping the comparison between the two. For an average web publisher today and in coming days, it will be like 'the more, the better'. In this article, we will closely look at contextual advertising and how the competition between YPN and Google AdSense affects web publishers.

Contextual advertising - what it means?

Contextual advertising refers to those ads that are relevant to the content of a webpage in which they appear. For example, if a viewer visits a site about paintings, and the site shows contextual advertising like Google AdSense, the viewer will see ads related to paintings, such as watercolor works, art gallery and so on. Contextual advertising is dynamic, so if a viewer refreshes a webpage, a completely new set of ads appears.

Google AdSense on the cue

After overwhelming success of AdWords in relatively short time, Google AdSense came to be launched in early 2003, a program that is all about contextual advertising. To be true, eZula must retain credit of having first launched contextual advertising program way back in 2001. But it is Google AdSense which popularized the concept rapidly.

What is good about Google AdSense is that it allows web publishers of any size to display its contextual advertising and earn money.

In comes Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN)

Although belated, Yahoo launched YPN to take on Google AdSense in August last year in the field of contextual advertising. Though yet to be out of beta and still meant for US sites, YPN does appear as a whiff of fresh air in the sense that users will now have another option other than the ubiquitous Google AdSense. As of now, there is less variety in YPN compared to Google AdSense. However, YPN is said to be paying far more than Google AdSense for each click generated, which is one reason why YPN publishers are happy with its contextual advertising.

YPN versus Google AdSense

It is early days to compare between the two, especially since YPN is yet to debut internationally. Going through user experience, the most important point that crops up is YPN's generous EPC as said above. Google AdSense is more superior in ad targeting which means more click-through-rate (CTR). Ad links are shown in Google AdSense, not so in YPN. On the other hand, while YPN displays link title to show the full ad text, Google AdSense does not.

In addition to text ads, Google AdSense also allows image ads in the same format as text displays. There is however no way to know from ad statistics as to how image ads perform vis-à-vis text ads. Though necessarily contextual advertising, image ads still are a throwback to old days of banner ads. YPN does not show image ads.

Summing up, there is no doubt that contextual advertising is here to stay. As YPN evolves further, the choice between it and Google AdSense can be expected to narrow down. For the moment, if you are not located in US, yet interested to make an earning through contextual advertising, the answer is Google AdSense.

Article by Josh - admin@hostingfrenzy.com
Josh is the webmaster of www.hostingfrenzy.com

Can stretching exercises help you grow taller?

2007-02-09T21:29:00.000-08:00

Grow Taller Through Stretching Exercises

High-intensity anaerobic exercise such as our grow taller stretching exercises, swimming, and cycling are shown by medical researchers to force the body into producing significant quantities of human growth hormone.

Exercise-induced growth hormone (EIG) is well recognized physiologically, and is caused from acid-base balance, catecholamines, nitric oxide, and lactate. Of these, the main causes of human growth hormone secretion appear to be nitric oxide and lactate. Both of which are produced by resistance training.

Your goal during stretching is to apply resistance-training stretches that will yield high amounts of human growth hormone secretion. Human growth hormone will thicken the cartilage, increase bone density, and make you grow taller. This is why we cannot emphasize enough the importance of the intensity you need to apply with each and every stretch to grow taller.

This means that you have to exercise for a minimum of 10 minutes with great intensity to increase your odds of growing taller. The intensity you build must be enough to lactate into your muscles for height increase. This lactate will activate growth hormone secretion even after exercise, during normal rest periods for longer than 24-hours! Your body literally becomes a growth hormone manufacturing machine to increase the possibility of any height increase!

No other method, supplement, or technique can possibly yield better height increase results than stretching exercises. All you need is to perform our stretching exercises correctly and you will grow taller.

Visit http://www.growtallernow.com for more info that will help you grow taller by increasing your height naturally!

Article Source: Cher Sern Lim (EzineArticles.com)

Personal Core Values

2007-02-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

Each of us has our own set of values. These are what determine which aspects of life we regard as important or beneficial. Our values help determine our tastes, our way of life, our entertainment, our social, political and religious interactions. Each of us holds many values and these values are liable to change as we grow, reach different stages of life or have different experiences or influences in life. Some of the values we hold may be ‘superficial’, transitory or fitting solely the moment in which we find ourselves. Other values are more fixed and may stay with us through our life; these are our ‘core values’.

Our values come from a range of sources. Our parents are a key influence upon our values as we grow as children. So, too, is any church or religious background we experience. Our society, our neighbours, friends and colleagues, too, can have an influence upon our values. So, too, can our teachers and our schooling.

Often, school can be a place of conflict for it is there that we experience other values perhaps for the first time. Some of the values we experience in school can be in conflict with or contradict the values of our parents. As we go through high school, we start to experience values in ourselves and our peers that conflict both with school and our parents. Conflicting and unfixed values can be a major problem for adolescent and teenage years.

As we grow in years and experience, our values become more fixed, especially a set of 6 to 10 ‘core’ values. It is these core values that determine what is really important to us as an individual. The surprising thing is that if you ask most people what their values are, many would not be able to give you an answer.

A good many people are leading lives unconnected with their core values. This can lead to a life of unhappiness, discontent and lack of fulfilment. Sometimes it can lead to conflict. Often the person does not know why their life seems unhappy, unfulfilled and sometimes full of conflict. Often, the cause is that the life they are living is not in accordance with their personal values.

For some people a conflict can arise within them because they are trying to live a life according to the values of a company, an organisation, a religious or political organisation, the values of their friends or colleagues or partner, rather than living a life according to their own core values. In doing this, the values of the other people or organisations are being met but the person’s own values are being left unfulfilled.

This is not to say that a person is always wrong to seek to support and fulfil the values of other people or organisations. However, leaving your own values unfulfilled can lead to frustration and unhappiness. A key issue in this, though, is that the person may believe they are doing the right thing by working to the values of others and yet still feel a sense of frustration and unfulfilment; -the reason being that they may be unaware of their own values or, maybe, feel guilty of their own values where they conflict with the values of others. So, if you feel your life is unfulfilled, unhappy, or maybe has too much conflict, then it could be that you are leading a life that does not accord with your core values. The question is; do you know your own personal core values?

Hiring a personal life coach can certainly help you to discover your personal values but for those who want to start the discovery for themselves, try answering the following question;

What, in life, is important to you?

Don’t think about your answers (yes, there’s likely to be more than one thing that’s important to you), at least don’t think about them at first. Just write down whatever comes into your head, no matter how strange, amusing or worrying they may seem. These first answers are probably your ‘gut’ or ‘intuitive’ answers; sometimes these are closer to the truth than answers that you ‘think’ about. Next, think about what is important in life for you. Take some time to consider your answers before writing them down in a word or short phrase. Don’t worry if the some of the same answers appear in your first list; - just write them down again.

Now you have two lists. Take a look at them; is there anything there that surprises you or anything that worries you? Sometimes people can be quite surprised by what they write down and occasionally they may write down something that shocks them or they feel guilty about.

Quite common words that people put on their list of values include ; ‘money’, ‘success’, ‘family’, ‘wife/husband/partner’, ‘growth’, ‘power’. If you find one, or more, of these words on your list, ask yourself another question;

What does (the word) mean for me?

So you may ask, ‘what does money mean for me’. To which the answer could be; money means security, or money means success, or money means freedom, or money means being able to provide for my family.

By answering the second question you can help uncover the real or underlying value for you. So for you, money is not the real value, it is ‘security’ or ‘being successful’ or ‘being independent’ or ‘being able to provide for my family’ that is the real value.

So, by doing these simple exercises, you are beginning to discover your personal core values. The next exercise is to ask your self ‘how do my life, my work and my relationships help fulfil my personal values?’ If you find that they do not help you fulfil your personal values then perhaps you should consider changing your life. To do that; get a life coach.

Article Source: Douglas Woods (EzineArticles.com)

The Art of Self Hypnosis

2007-02-09T21:16:00.000-08:00

If you've heard anything about the term “positive affirmations”, you probably know the benefit of practicing self hypnosis. Those who practice self hypnosis have the ability to reprogram their subconscious mind to achieve certain things in life such as gaining self confidence, losing weight, stop smoking, and anything else for self improvement.

There are four steps to successful self hypnosis: relaxing, deepening your subconscious, giving your subconscious suggestions, and termination of the session.

Relaxation: Try to physically relax your body and your mind will follow. Using your mind, travel from your feet, up your legs, to your back and neck, relaxing muscles as you think about each area of your body. Take your time doing this; relaxation is the key to performing hypnosis correctly. Normally, the first time you do this will take the longest. After you've done this a few times, relaxation should start to come naturally.

Deepening: In your mind, begin to count down from 100. Count in a slow and relaxed way, and imagine yourself falling deeper and deeper into a hypnotic state with each number. Do not “watch” for hypnosis to kick in, “watching” for it will only make it NOT happen. You've heard the saying – a watched pot never boils. As with the relaxation step, this will take more time the first few sessions.

Suggestions: Once you are in the hypnotic state, you can start thinking your suggestions that you've worked out ahead of time. These are positive suggestions that will help you to gain your goals. Some people will think “I no longer crave cigarettes” or “I will eat more vegetables in my diet” or “I am a confident person”. The goal is to reprogram your subconscious mind to accept these new ideas and to act upon them during conscious hours.

Termination: After you've completed your suggestions, it is time to terminate your self hypnosis session. If you're doing this before bedtime, feel free to fall asleep, but if you're in the middle of the day, it's a good idea to count yourself up. Think to yourself, “On the count of five, I will be refreshed, fully awake, and in a wonderful mood.” Then, count to five and open your eyes.

Using self-hypnosis takes time and practice; be patient, don't force it, and benefit from practicing it. Your mind is a powerful tool to achieving what you want in life; program it correctly, and you'll live a more fulfilled life!

For more information, visit Live-Ur-Dreams.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=AJ_Stamp

Diversify kid's food for nutritional value

2007-02-08T01:55:00.000-08:00

Kid Friendly Dinner Ideas

Undoubtedly, if you took a survey and asked kids what was their favorite meal, they would say Mac and Cheese or chicken nuggets and fries. There are certainly more options in preparing dinner for kids. Let’s review some kid friendly dinner ideas.

Pasta is a great idea for kids! Serving spaghetti can be fun and nutritious at the same time. If you wish to jazz it up, instead of tomato sauce, you can serve spaghetti with broccoli flowerets instead; or chicken strips.

High on the list is pizza; homemade that is. In this way, you can utilize nutritious toppings, and it’s easy on the pocketbook as well.

If you are going to serve Mac and cheese, make it from scratch. Mac and Cheese in a box is very high in sodium; add different cheeses to make it more interesting and delicious.

What kid doesn’t love chicken nuggets! Instead of fast food joints, prepare chicken nuggets at home. It is very easy and nutritious as well. Instead of French fries, substitute a baked potato.

Soup is a wonderful staple for kids. Lentils are a favorite; add carrots and celery, and you are fulfilling most of the dietary requirements. How about grilled cheese accompanied by a dish of soup? Choose to prepare homemade tortillas, using ingredients which are healthy and satisfying.

Whatever you choose to prepare, ensure that you serve vegetables with every meal. Spinach, broccoli, string beans, carrots; these are all very high in nutritional value. While most kids push vegetables off to the side of the plate, think of interesting ways in which to serve. For example: add cheese on top of cooked broccoli and microwave it. It is quite delicious.

Coming up with various ways to prepare dinner for kids can encourage them to eat foods which they would thumb their nose at! Variety is the spice of life. Your family will enjoy any of the aforementioned meals, but more to the point, so will your kids.

Article Source: Mila Sidman Alice Seba (EzineArticles.com)

Which one to buy - Plasma or LCD TV?

2007-02-08T01:52:00.000-08:00

Plasma TV Verses LCD TV

When shopping for a new TV it's important to determine which technology is best suited for your needs. In the world of flat panel televisions, you'll have to choose between a plasma television and an LCD. Obviously, the technologies behind these units are quite different. Plasma televisions use gases like xenon and argon to create their pictures. LCDs use a layer of electrically responsive crystals that can be altered to vary the spectrum of light shining through at various locations on the screen. How will you know which technology to choose? Here are some observations that may help you decide.

Both LCDs and newer plasma televisions have comparable life spans. The LCD is purported to last several years longer, but both units will last for decades. Also, the picture quality with both of these units is about the same. Some LCDs provide a more crisp resolution, but on the whole there is little difference. Finally, newer generations of plasma televisions have reduced power consumptions comparable to that of LCDs. This previous advantage was corrected from the power vacuum first-generation plasma units.

LCDs don't have to worry about phosphors and aren't at risk for burn-in. This difference is being corrected with each new generation of plasma television. LCDs are also lighter and thinner than comparably sized plasma televisions. This is very useful if space if a premium in your home, though the size difference is only a matter of an inch or two in depth. LCDs are also considered much less fragile than their plasma counterparts. These are apparent advantages in favor of an LCD television, but do these differences really affect you, the viewer? A thinner television doesn't always have a superior picture. In fact, plasma displays are usually brighter and more vibrant. Also, how often do you carry your plasma television around? Does its weight and durability really affect your decision? In the average home, a television remains in the same spot for years, if not forever.

The factors that should affect your purchase relate more to the picture. Plasma displays have a greater viewing angle and don't lose as much contrast as you move away. A plasma can be viewed clearly from almost any location in a room, thanks to their 160 degree viewing angle. Also, as you look at larger model televisions (over 40 inches, for example) you'll see that plasma screens are cheaper and maintain a thin profile. LCDs are still being refined in their larger models. There are functional considerations to be made as well. Will you be using your plasma screen as a primary display for your personal computer? If so, you'd profit from an LCD panel that would display a detailed computer images more crisply, and with no risk of burn-in.

LCDs have many uses where they are a superior display choice. Different functions and locations may lead you to purchase an LCD. However, if you're just looking for a television, then plasma is your best bet. Plasma televisions have a list of advantages over LCDs when it comes to true picture quality, brightness, and color. LCDs have their niche uses, but a plasma is a superior choice in television.

Article source: Jakob Culver (bn23.com)

Express your feeling on Valentine's Day

2007-02-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

Tips for a Perfect Valentine's Day

Every year at 14th February all across the world we’re celebrating Valentine's Days in the name of love and romance. Many flowers and romantic gifts are exchanged between loved ones showing each other their feelings.

Love is a special feeling and so it must be expressed in an extraordinary way. Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to express your feeling and to propose your loved one. Everyone knows that the perfect proposal is convoyed by the perfect gifts. Valentine's Day gifts are most important to express your heartfelt feelings and to make your day memorable in its way.

Receiving a Valentine's Day gift is a magical experience. It makes people smile, happy. The person that offers a gift in this special day wants to show that he cares about the other.

With Valentine's Day not too far off, it's never too soon to start thinking about making special plans for your loved ones. Whether it is a special gift, romantic date, or even a poem you wrote.

On Valentine's Day it is very important to show your love to your partner and make her feel special. Here are some ideas which might help you.

If you want to have a romantic day you should start by cooking a favorite meal, a dinner for two. The color, flavor and smell food play an important part in a successful romantic meal.

Valentine dinners should be special. Choose your sweetie's favorite foods and surprise her with a wonderful romantic meal and a special table set for two. Use your most delicate china and crystal. A few candles, a small bowl of fresh flowers, some heart shape cookies, and a bottle of wine or champagne will complete the atmosphere.

On Valentine’s Day decorations speak the heart for you! So all you have to do this Valentine's Day is to make the ambiance irresistibly romantic and set the decorations warm, snug and lovely. Valentine’s Day decorations can be done with flowers, ribbons, candies or just with paper and cloth.

No matter which way you do it, the decorations for Valentine’s Day should just be perfect and help set the stage for a memorable celebration. The first thing that should be kept in mind before laying your hands on Valentine's Day decorations is that red or shades of red is the color to go for. So make sure you have lots of red, crimson or pink around.

If you want to spend this day at home, you can sprinkle rose petals around the house. Place heart-shape candles around your home to create the right mood.

Buy her flowers. Most preferred in this day are roses, especially the red ones. Red roses can mean a lot of things, they say, everything from courage to respect, but around this time of year they mean one thing - sincere love. Other times of the year, a single red rose will do the trick, but play it safe with a dozen at Valentine's Day.

Hide love letters - write a bunch of love letters and stash them in places your mate typically looks.

I love you is a powerful phrase and saying I love you is a big step in any relationship. Learn the right time to say I love you and give yourself the best chance of hearing "I love you too!"

As a gift you can take her a perfume or even lingerie. But if you take her only lingerie she will think that the only think you want from her is sex. In that case don't forget about flowers or sweets for you sweetheart.

Jewelry is always a favorite for woman. You can take her some diamonds, earrings, or just buy a heart-shaped locket and put a picture of yourself in it. Personalize the locket with your loved one’s initials so she’ll have something to wear that’s hers alone.

Wherever you choose to spend this beautiful day with your partner remember to make her feel special, to create that magical atmosphere, a day that she'll never forget.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Article Source: Ovi Dogar (ArticleBiz.com)

Make your wedding guest book creative and unique

2007-02-06T19:25:00.000-08:00

5 Ideas for a Unique Wedding Guest Book

If you are planning for a wedding in the near future one that that is often forgotten but is very important is the wedding guest book. This is vitally important to the wedding because it is one of the most important treasured memories that you will keep tucked away for a long time to come. It is a record of all the guests that have attended the wedding and there is no better way to remember a wonderful wedding then going through the wedding guest book and reading all the thoughtful comments that were left by guests.

Since this will become such a treasured memory you will want to pick a unique wedding guest book that you will enjoy pulling out. You will find some of the most popular but also most unique ideas for a wedding guest book in the article below.

Themed Wedding Guest book - Often the first choice for most people is to tie the theme of the wedding in with the guest book. Since this is the first things that guests to the wedding will see it can be your first chance to plant the theme of the wedding in your guests minds. So this is not very shocking but if you have a fairy tale theme wedding with knights in shinning armor and a beautiful white horse etc. Then you will want to pick a wedding guest book that follows along with this magical fair tale theme.

Wedding Guest Book Platter - For a very unique guest book you can use a specially made ceramic platter or plate. These are very fun alternatives that are very easy to display after the wedding in your home. There are many companies online that make these they are easy to find. However, they make for a unique wedding guest book that your guests are sure to remember.

Photo Wedding Guest Book - These unique wedding guest books used to be done with Polaroid photos. In fact they still can be, however with digital cameras and small portable digital camera printers this can easily be modernized and updated. This is a very easy yet unique guest book that can create many fun memories of the wedding in a very visual way. Simply take a picture of the Bride and Groom with a digital camera. Print the photo and glue insert it into either a photo album or a regular guest book. They should then put a little message in the guest book to their guests. Something like "Thanks for coming to our wedding, it is a big special day for us and we hope you will enjoy it also." Then leave this out with a Polaroid or digital camera and enough film to ensure that everyone get a few chances to take pictures. As guests come in they can take their picture and place it into the guest book with a little message.

Puzzle Guest Book- Yet another fun and very unique guest book idea. You can do this by taking a favorite picture of the couple before the big day and turning this into a large puzzle. There are many places online that can easily turn a photo into a large puzzle. Then assemble the puzzle

Monogrammed Wedding Guest Book- This can add a touch of class to your wedding guest book. Have a custom made wedding guest book that has the monogram of the Bride and Groom.

These are just a few of the many ideas that you can use to make a creative and unique wedding guest book. The ideas are really endless and you can go for something simple to something unique and unusual. It is all up to you and your wedding theme.

Article Source: Sam Smith (ArticleBiz.com)

What's the best 5 bodybuilding supplements?

2007-02-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

The Five Best Body Building Supplements: These Will Help You Grow Massive Muscles

If you are into bodybuilding and have been training for almost any amount of time then you know that supplementation is important. A proper supplementation routine coupled with hard workouts and rest periods is the only way to successfully pack on pounds of rock hard muscle. There are no two ways about it you have to workout, you have to supplement your nutrition and you have to rest. If you miss any of these three crucial steps in the triangle of body building you will eventually give up, burn out, and get injured.

However, with the advancements in science that we have today and the drive of marketing to make a quick buck it can be very difficult to tell one supplement apart from another. If you have gone into a supplement shop like GNC recently then you know there are thousands of products all in slick packages and with expensive price tags. However, you don’t have to end up confused and many of the more expensive products are no different then the cheaper less commercial ones.

Supplement Number 1: Protein

Protein is the number one most important building block in muscle. Without enough protein your body can not recover as quickly and can not build muscle. That is why it is the number one supplement and often the top on the list for any serious body builder. There are some different types or sources of protein. All of them come in a powder form and which one you choose is really up to you.
- Whey – This is the highest quality and most frequently used protein supplement.
- Casein – intake of this helps in fast recovery of bodily injury
- Soy – this type of protein includes all vital elements of amino acid.
- Egg (white part) – this is an important protein which is dairy-free.

Supplement Number 2: MRP or Meal Replacement Products

This category of supplements includes any type of meal replacement. There are two standards forms that a meal replacement comes in either a bar or a drink. Which one you choose is really up to personal preference and you will want to try out a few different products to find one you can stomach. Typically these include a large amount of protein coupled with very little to no fats or carbohydrates. This helps aid your body in rebuilding muscle by provide extra protein.

Supplement Number 3: Creatine

Creatine is a natural supplement that helps provide your cells with more energy and is great for giving short bursts of strength in your workout routine. This will help give you an edge when you are actually in the gym and lifting as it give you just a little bit more power to lift heavier and harder.

“Creatine monohydrate” is the most utilized bodybuilding supplement under the creatine category.

Supplement Number 4: Maltodextrin

Maltodextrin essential is a complex carb which when used will help an individual recover and restore the depleted resources of carbs int heir body after a really tough workout. It will speed up your recovery time and get you back in the gym quicker. Even though this is a complex carbohydrate it is designed to break down easily and quickly in your body. It is often found in post workout drinks.

Supplement Number 5: Glutamine

If you want to gain quality rock hard muscle mass then glutamine is well- known to do just that. It helps replenish old unwanted amino acids that have been broken down during the workout with new fresh aminos to aid in recovery. You can purchase glutamine as an instant-soluble powder.

These five supplements hit on the most popular and should be the basis of a good workout and supplementation routine. Of course there is no substitute for a good hard and regular workout. By taking these supplements you will not grow quick while sitting on the coach. However with these supplements you will definitely recover faster and be able to workout harder which will lead to building great quantities of muscle.

Article Source: Chris Ryerson (EzineArticles.com)

Are you a member of a social network website?

2007-02-04T23:22:00.000-08:00

Social Network Website

Social network websites have really picked up the pace. Building up community and increasing friends have become a hobby to say the least. Making friends on Internet is a very old thing now. We still remember back in 2000 we used to chat in yahoo and make friends. Though the chatting was primarily done with people we don’t know. The community-based websites have changed the things. Now we do chat at social network websites, but we get more known friends rather than unknown. We still make friends with people who we don’t know, but searching friends on Internet, and making friend on Internet has never been the same before.

There are so many popular social network websites today. It’s really up the user to choose his favorite social network website. So what are the features that we really look into, when we search these kind of websites. Primary feature is the make friends or add friends feature. This feature involves the email facility where we send emails to our friends and relatives and invite them on our social network website. Secondly it’s the search friend’s facility, which also makes a lot of difference. There should be a forum where people can speak there hearts open. Sending messages and chatting are other features which makes a social network website a success. As a user we look for these features and if we find these features in a site, we simply start using it.

Life on Internet changes daily. There were times when simply uploading photos and making galleries was one of the greatest feature that a website could have provided. Now it’s different and every website has these features. So galleries have become a common feature these days. Now the latest feature is the blog. Blogs have undoubtedly made a very big importance on Internet. So a social network website should also have a blogging feature. It’s too much for an asking if you demand blogging from a social network website. This fact was very true, but now we have discovered that a lot of these social network community based websites gives this blogging feature. You can simply edit, delete or do what every you like which blogging. Blogs or public diaries are a great feature to have. So if you are planning to join a social network website, than sure look for blogging as a feature.

Many social network websites have additional features. These makes everyone happy, some contest sort of thing. Friends list and increasing the number on the list is one such contest. Though there is no leaderboard where all the names are listed who have the most. Anyways these features will become common with the time.

For those of you who don’t know anything about social network websites, simply join a social network website and you will know the importance of it. At least you will give yourself and your friends a good time, and your time will not be a waste. Enjoy.

http://www.friendscyberclub.com

Article Source: Uttoran Sen (EzineArticles.com)

Useful tips on writing articles for money

2007-02-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

Found this interesting tips by Jason who actually made money by writing just one article for the net.

Article Writing 101

I Made $1683.04 From Writing ONE Article

Yeah, $1683.04. One article. Here’s how:

You can’t just sit down and write an article that makes money. Most articles don’t ever make it past the directories they’re submitted to. Why? They don’t get reprinted because they are horribly written, or they’re advertorials, or flat-out spam. But there are a few - a select few - that make it to the big leagues. And those make money. Lets start by talking about how to write a good article.

How You SHOULD Start

Don’t just start writing. Start by thinking about your audience. Think about their wants, not their needs - people are much more likely to make a decision based on their wants, and put off their needs. Focus on their feelings, and accelerate them. Take advantage of them. How? Be your audience, take some time to step into their shoes, and feel what they feel. Now, what would you respond to? Take that, and run with it.

Put Your Plan Together And Write Your Outline

Still don’t start writing your article. Start by writing down those wants and feelings you thought about, in outline form. Go ahead and write them on paper, in Notepad, in Word, wherever you want to. Feel free to add to your list if you think of other good ideas.

Now Start Writing

Take your outline and turn it into paragraphs. Make sure you write in a conversational style - your readers hate to be lectured as much as you do - but make sure that you use proper grammar as much as possible. When you’re done writing, save your article and get away from it for a while.

Proofread, Proofread, And Proofread Again

I can’t stress this part enough. You MUST proofread your articles at least 2-3 times. And while you’re reading, try to think like the reader again. This will help you use the language that will be the most effective, and it will help ensure that your writing style isn’t confusing. If you’re not good at proofreading, or grammar in general, find someone who is, and have them do it for you. A poorly written article probably won’t make you a cent.

Now, Where Do You Submit It?

Easy - everywhere. You want to submit your article to as many places/people as possible. Find every article directory available and submit your article to them. Yes, this takes time, but it’s worth it. Why? Because you never know where a publisher will find your article. Submitting by hand can get very tedious and time consuming, though, so make sure you allot time to do it. Or, if you’re willing to trade a little bit of money for your time, consider using a submission service. I personally use http://www.article-marketer.com/, because they submit to over 30,000 publishers, sites and directories. I’m not even going to try to figure out how much time that would take me to do by hand, but I know the small price tag I pay to have my articles submitted is well worth it.

And How Will This Make You Money?

I’m getting to that… Hold your pants on. Now that you know how to write and submit a great article, you can move on to how to profit from them. There are a few things to consider here -

Topic - You can’t write an article about how to make great spit wads and expect to make any money from it. Why? Well, not many people really care enough about how to make great spit wads to spend money on them.
Reason - You have to have a reason for the article. You can’t just write an overview of a program and expect it to be published,
let alone sell anything for you. Your readers have to see a value in reading further, or they’ll leave. This means you have to give them great content, preferably something they haven’t heard before.
Trust - If your readers are going to do ANYTHING for you, you have to give them something first. You can’t write an article and
only include stuff that’s common knowledge. Give them value, and they’ll repay you for it.
Means - Once you’ve picked a great topic, given your readers a reason to read it, and established trust by telling them things they didn’t know before, they’ll be primed to make you a profit, so give them a way to do it.
Now It’s Time For The Juicy Stuff

The article that made me $1600 had all of those things, and my means of profit was through a very subtle affiliate link in the middle of the article. I didn’t hype it up, I didn’t point it out, I simply mentioned it once and went on with the article. Looking back, I probably could have mentioned it subtly again at the end of the article and made more sales, but hindsight is always 20/20. I do need to say that most article directories and publishers won’t reprint an article with an obvious affiliate link in it, so you have to disguise it. I purchased a domain name and had it forwarded to my affiliate hoplink (it is a Clickbank product), and when you type in my domain, it redirects so quickly, you can’t even tell there is a redirect. Check it out; it’s http://www.getseoelite.com/ - sly, eh? It just looks like I’m referring the reader to a great product, as opposed to including the link because I’m trying to make money.

Don’t Forget The Good Ol’ Resource Box

Affiliate links aren’t the only way to profit, you can also include a link in your resource box (aka About the Author area) back to your site, and direct people to where they can get more information about the article topic. You can direct them to another affiliate site, a name squeeze page, or just about anywhere you want. This is a great way to get a number of backlinks for your site, as well.

Jackpot!

SiteProNews.com picked up my article about 15 days after I had it submitted, and they sent it to their subscriber list of 500,000 people. I’m not sure how many people read it or how many followed the affiliate link, but do I know that in 2 days I racked up about 20 sales of SEO Elite and the link in my resource box almost tripled my traffic, as well.

Want To Write Your Own Article Now?

I feel like I should say something about how my results are probably not typical, and not everyone will be able to make $1700 off of one article. But I’ll also add that if you find that right topic, and produce a great article, you may be able to blow my $1700 out of the water, and I hope you do! Just remember these things:

Don’t just start writing, think about your reader first
Proofread
Use an article submission site like http://www.article-marketer.com/, it will prove invaluable in the time and effort it saves
In case you wanted to see it, the article that made me $1683.04 can be found here:
http://www.content-articles.com/article.aspx?i=24
(You thought I was going to leave you hanging, didn’t you?)

Article source: Jason DeVelvis

The importance of blogs and links

2007-02-04T00:24:00.000-08:00

Blog Posts And Links Last Forever: What It Means To You

Blogs and links are very closely related to each other. It is the almost natural ability of blogs to rapidly link to one another that has caused these web logs (as they were first called) to quickly rise in prominence to what they are today. As you read this virtually all the growth on the World Wide Web is being driven by blogs.

The other key advantage that links and blogs enjoy is that they both last virtually forever once they are up and running on the web. This is a huge advantage and it is important for every webmaster and blog owner to fully understand the full implications of this.

For starters it means that once your blog or link is up and running, it will continue to generate traffic for you, slaving away on your behalf for many years to come. What’s more, links and blog posts that contain links hardly require any maintenance once they are up and running.

Only those who at one time have had to deal with the endless headaches of offline marketing and referral tools like sales persons or newspaper ads will begin to appreciate the huge plus that links and blogs bring to any online business using them as marketing channels. They will quickly understand the fact that most offline tools usually come with endless complications and a constant need for attention, repeated investment, and endless supervision and maintenance.

The facts are that apart from not requiring most of these things, blogs and links will last for many years on the World Wide Web giving a webmaster continuous service and an endless flow of valuable leads and traffic. This in itself makes them big winners.

Links have an added advantage over blogs. And that is the fact that they can be purchased which means that you can acquire a large number within a short time. You pay once and keep them forever working for you and your site.

Increase Sales to YOUR online business by driving targeted interested visitors to your site who have read your related article. Professionally Written Article distributed to OVER 300+ of the most popular article sites with our exclusive Article Marketing Service adds a boost to your website traffic! Interesting, informative, professionally written content articles also helps improve your search engine ranking in addition to the targeted traffic and high quality permanent web links that you need!

Article Source: Terry Detty (ArticleBiz.com)

Flash games from Milwaukee's Best Light

2007-02-03T07:27:00.000-08:00

Imagine yourself sitting next to a sexy lady wearing a low cut. You can't help yourself taking a peek or two at her bust. But can you peek at her bust for a full minute without getting caught? If you would like to give it a try, check out one of Milwaukee's Best Light games called "Busted" at: http://www.milbestlight.com/swf/game/game1.swf.

If you are bored surfing around doing nothing and want some fun playing simple online games, you might just find this interesting. A note - its not real life and you need to be over 21 years old to get in. The games run on macromedia flash.

There are also other games like Don't Dance, Grins & Needles, Don't be a Tear Jerk and Crush It. Check them out via the links below:
http://www.milbestlight.com/home.aspx
http://www.milbestlight.com/actlikeaman1.aspx

They are nothing spectacular, rather simple games but a sure way to kill some time. Its pretty fun, so do take a look.

And if you find yourself into flash games, you will find a whole lot more free at Arcade101.

The new Windows Vista - should you upgrade?

2007-02-02T18:09:00.000-08:00

Vista's New Look

There's no question that the Vista shell is a massive change from Windows XP. Vista's Aero interface takes advantage of modern 3D graphics accelerators to provide features such as translucent "glass" window frames, subtle animations, scalable icons, and live previews of documents and windows. The Alt-Tab interface for switching between applications is much more informative than in Windows XP, and pressing Windows-Tab triggers the new "Flip 3-D" view.

Personally, I find Aero effects subtle and compelling. But for those who disagree, Vista allows plenty of control; you can even switch to a classic theme that eliminates the effects entirely.

Although there are UI changes throughout the Windows shell, they're most evident in three places: the Start menu, Windows Explorer, and pervasive search functionality.

Inside the Start menu, XP's menus of cascading programs are replaced by tree-view-like menus that expand in place, a navigation mechanism I find much more natural. But the real beauty of the Vista Start menu is its built-in search box. Start typing and Vista will use its full-text search capabilities to show you all the applications, documents, favorite links, and e-mails that match. You can even type in the name of a directory and press Enter to launch Windows Explorer in that folder. Whenever I switch back to an XP machine, I miss Vista's new Start menu more than any other feature.

You can find these new search capabilities throughout Vista; they are part of Microsoft's strategy to help users cope with file bloat and information overload. Incremental search appears in places such as Windows Media Player, Windows Explorer, Windows Mail, and even the Control Panel. Vista also offers a more sophisticated advanced search, which lets you specify parameters such as file types and modification dates, but it no longer supports the complex Boolean (AND/OR) queries that were available in some beta releases.

In Windows Explorer, "live icons" show scalable thumbnails of document contents, making it much easier to differentiate between files by sight. Expand a folder icon and you'll see thumbnails of actual files inside the folder. You can augment many types of files with metadata, such as author name, ratings, or tags, and then sort or filter on this information when you're browsing. Explorer also lets you navigate using address-bar breadcrumbs—those clickable folder-hierarchy indicators in the address bar. This takes some getting used to, but with experience I found it a more flexible navigation tool than XP's traditional directory-tree control.

These Explorer changes also appear in standard Windows file dialogs, even in apps that aren't designed specifically for Vista. The common file dialog shell adds many other nifty improvements. For example, before overwriting a file, it doesn't simply ask you to confirm the operation; it shows you details, including a thumbnail preview, for both the original and new file. Sharing files with other users is easier and safer in Vista than in XP, too.

There's been a lot of buzz about Vista's Sidebar, a transparent pane that docks at the side of the screen and lets you drop in various "gadgets" such as a clock, calendar, and notepad. (You can also tear these objects off the Sidebar and drop them onto the desktop.) Although it works well, I find I, myself, rarely use the Sidebar. It's a personal preference—even on a dual-display system, I prefer to save the pixels for the task I'm actively working on.

The new Help system is also an improvement over XP's. It integrates the latest online help information automatically, contains more links that actually perform tasks (rather than just telling you how to), and includes a demo capability that plays videos to walk you through various tasks visually. But I did encounter one problem: If Windows Media Player is busy doing something else (importing music, for instance), the demos will silently fail to launch.

Article source: www.pcmag.com. For a full review on Windows Vista, check it out here.

Securing our homes from break-ins

2007-02-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

Good Home Security Habits

All too many burglaries occur simply because the burglars profit from the home owners’ lack of attention to security details and their inability to stick with a couple of common sense home security habits. If you manage to form these habits and stick with them, a home security system won’t be something you’ll rely on, but something that’s complementary to your own protective measures. I set up a punctual list of good home security habits that are bound to be useful to undertake at some point, It’s obviously hard to follow each and every one of them, but try as many as possible and try forming them into habits rather than taking them as extra chores you need to go through for your home’s security.

· Form the habit of using your peephole before opening up to anyone. In addition you could use a door chain to keep potential aggressors or “checkout burglars” (burglars that knock on your door with trivial reasons and check your home for valuable stuff)

· Form the habit of closing and checking all your doors and windows when you leave home. Even upper story windows can pose a potential home security threat as clever and agile burglars will find a way to get to them.

· Form the habit of setting up and checking your home security system and alarms before going to bed. A lot of houses get burgled, despite having home security systems installed, simply because their owners forgot to turn them on.

· Form the habit of getting constant software updates and maintenance for your home security system. This can improve its performance and you will avoid any problems caused by component breakdowns.

· Form the habit of trimming your yard bushes, shrubs and trees if you have any. They can act as potential cover for burglars that try to get in your house and trees that are close to the house can even be used as ladders to get to upper story windows or roof access points, therefore they are a serious home security risk.

· Form the habit of locking up your tools in the storage shed if you worked with them during the day, instead of simply laying them around the yard. Ladders left lying around the yard can be used by burglars to gain access to upper story windows and roof access points and tools left there can be used to smash or force windows and doors open.

· Form the habit of being on a constant watch out for suspicious persons around your house. A person that checks out your house one day might just be waiting for someone, but a person that constantly does this might be a burglar checking out your work hours and your house security measures and he might be planning an attack on your home.

If you can get these habits up and running, security shouldn’t be a problem anymore, especially if you combine them with a quality home security system. Not only will these habits make a burglar less likely to mark your home as a target but they will also inform him that you’re putting an effort in your own home’s security, which will also make him move on to find a different target.

Planned Home Security Gives The Peace Of Mind You Deserve.

Fraser Wheaton is the founder and publisher of The Home Security Reports website.
http://www.HomeSecurityReports.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fraser_Wheaton

10 advice on making long-term relationships work

2007-02-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

Ten Secrets

What turns a new relationship into a long-term relationship? How do you keep the new relationship energy flowing? How do you break the short-term relationship syndrome?

After years of matchmaking, counseling, and being active in the San Francisco Bay Area lesbian community, I have gathered quite a bit of information on what it takes to making long-term relationships work. Here is a quick list of 10 things you can do to turn that budding romance into the relationship of your dreams:

1 – State your intentions up front. Let your partner know that you are committed to making the relationship work and that you are in it for the long haul. Stating your intentions at the beginning of the relationship can prevent mishaps down the road. And be truthful in those intentions, saying you want a long-term relationship when you are more interested in a fling is lying.

2 – Power of Romance. Remember the power of romance. You don't have to buy long stem roses and French champagne every night, even the small simple things so a long way. Stop and pick some wildflowers along the road, send a text kiss to her cell phone in the middle of the day just to say I'm thinking of you , make her feel like a priority in your life. If you day is frantically busy, remember to take 10 seconds to let her know she is the sunshine of your day. It's really not that hard.

3 – 80/20 Rule: Listen more than Talk. Take time to listen to your partner. Don't dismiss their feelings or concerns as invalid or not as important as yours. Try to listen 80% of the time and talk 20%. It's not all about you, it is all about us.

4 – Stay Attractive: Maintain Your Health/Appearance/Hygiene. If she is with you, there was something about you that was attractive to her. Keep it that way. Stay healthy. If you were working out before the relationship, continue to do so once you are together. If you dressed funky and hip before you started dating, continue being a fashion plate in the relationship. And continue to maintain your personal hygiene. Nobody wants to date someone who doesn't shower or wash their hair as often as they used to just because now they feel they don't have because they are in a relationship. It is important now more than ever.

5 – Get Over Your Past. Try to avoid bringing your baggage into a new relationship. Everyone has experiences from past relationships; it is how you deal with them that makes a difference in your future. Leave the toxic experiences behind. If you truly can't, then see Tip #6.

6 – Have a Good Therapist, Work on Yourself, Consider Couples Therapy. Check out the lay of the land. If you or your partner are carrying around leftover baggage then consider seeing a therapist. It isn't a sign of weakness, but more evidence that you are serious about making things work. If there are deal-breakers in the relationship, talk them over with a therapist. Some of them might be able to be worked out. It is always better to seek counseling at the slightest inkling of a problem than past the point of no return.

7 – Compatibility and Alignment: Attraction is a wonderful thing, but sometimes two people just aren't meant to be together long-term. Find out how compatible you are before you make long-term plans. Align your spiritual beliefs, political views, plans for children, etc. BEFORE you commit. Do your lesbian types align? (butch, femme, etc.)

8 – Make Your Relationship a Priority. Make time for your partner. Make time for your relationship. Keep it front and center so it truly becomes a priority and not an after-thought. Nobody wants to feel like second fiddle whether it is to your job, your family or your friends. Make your woman feel like she is the most precious thing in the world to you, because she is!

9 – Share Your Hobbies: Spend time together. Sure everyone needs their alone time too, but strike a balance and keep the fun alive. Take a class together, go dancing, check out Outdoor Adventures for Women. There are various avenues for lesbian couples in the San Francisco Bay Area, take advantage of them.

10 – Share Alone Time: Make sure you make time to be alone together, away from family and friends. Make time for vacations, consider a Lesbian Cruise or weekend getaways to Napa, Big Sur, Tahoe, Palm Springs, etc.

Article source: Susan Adams (ArticleBiz.com)

Useful guides for driving up traffic to your site

2007-02-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

Below is a list of interesting links from Copyblogger that you might find helpful in attracting links and increasing traffic to your site/blog.

101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006 SEO Book

101 Web Marketing Ideas and Tips SEOpedia

25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog Online Marketing Blog

10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic SEOMoz

8 Reasons Why Lists Are Good for Getting Traffic to Your Blog Problogger

7 Ways to Get to the Top of the del.ico.us Popular Page Problogger

3 Ways to Immediately Increase Search Engine Traffic Performancing

How to Get Traffic For Your Blog Seth Godin

The Art of Linkbaiting Performancing

The Art of Blog SEO Black Hat

What is Linkbaiting? Modern Life is Rubbish

SEO Advice: Linkbait and Linkbaiting Matt Cutts of Google

Problogger Link Baiting Series Problogger

Secrets to Beating the Sandbox 2.0 Revealed Link Building Blog

What Makes a Site Link-Worthy? Eric Ward

Using Digg to Attract Hits Slate

Using Digg and Netscape to Get Traffic Pronet Advertising

Social Bookmarking for Traffic SiteProNews

The Sandbox and Delicious Graywolf’s SEO Blog

Unleashing the IdeaVirus Seth Godin

Viral Copy Copyblogger

Building Traffic to Build Your Fan Club Copyblogger

Trust Rank and Your Domain Link Building Blog

Generating Buzz With Link Baiting and Viral Campaigns Search Engine Watch

Linkbaiting for Fun & Profit Search Engine Journal

Link Building Guide Jim Westergren

Link Baiting & Effective Link Building Search Engine Journal

Link Baiting and Viral Search Success Search Engine Roundtable

How Much is Link Bait Worth? Cartoon Barry

Link Baiting (How Nick Wilson Created SEO Even Seth Godin Could Love) Stuntdubl

Link Baiting Case Study from Search Engine Journal Search Engine Journal

Link Bait SEO Book

The 8 Free Things Every Site Should Do Seth Godin at Squidoo

Building Traffic With Article Marketing Copyblogger

Link Building Blog Text Link Ads

Link Building Wiki Text Link Brokers

Advanced Link Building Tactics SEOMoz

Traditional herbal remedies as medicine

2007-02-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

Herbal Remedies - Can They Cure What Ails You?

You've probably heard about herbal remedies before and how they can treat a variety of health problems with fewer side effects than conventional medicines. Like many, you might have thought they seemed too good to be true or you've simply passed them off as quackery or voodoo medicine. While all of that is perfectly understandable, if you invest some time to learn about these natural alternatives, you'll be surprised to learn how effective, affordable and beneficial herbal remedies can be to your health.

So now that you're interested in herbal remedies, what are they and how do they work? Quite simply, herbal remedies are the original and most traditional form of medicine, with thousands of years of practice backing up their claims. Using ingredients found in nature, particularly from plants and from some animal life, herbal remedies are effective in treating a number of common ailments and promoting the overall health of the body. And as with conventional medicine, there are multiple uses for each specific herb and so many applications that entire books have been written to describe and teach the cures made possible through herbal remedies.

Plants are the primary source of herbal remedies because many of them contain chemical properties that are beneficial to the body's health. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that even commercial pharmaceutical offerings often list plant products among the ingredients in their drugs. One example is saponin, a chemical compound that’s often used to treat heart conditions and is believed to have some cancer fighting properties. Known for its detergent, or cleansing characteristics, this herb like many others can be toxic if misused. Tannins, another plant compound, can help slow the bleeding of wounds and some types also possess strong antimicrobial properties. As with saponin, tannins can also be harmful if not administered properly.

Once you have discussed your needs with an herbal expert or your doctor, you'll want to decide how to take your chosen herbal remedy. Herbal remedies are often administered as teas and tinctures. Although most people are familiar with herbal tea, some may not be aware that a tincture is actually a concentrated liquid extract of an herb. It is also possible to eat many kinds of herbs fresh from the garden, either alone or as part of a meal. Some herbs can be processed to use as compresses, creams, poultices, salves, and essential oils. Herbal remedies are increasingly popular these days and are commonly found in commercial stores in capsule or tablet form for greater convenience.

What exactly should you expect to gain by using an herbal remedy? Known to boost overall health and immunity, herbal remedies can treat a wide variety of chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, digestive problems, memory problems, cardiovascular disease, and acute conditions such as skin problems and colds. However, if you’re already taking medication, discuss your herbal remedy treatment options with your doctor, as some herbal remedies have been known to interact negatively or decrease the effectiveness of some prescription drugs. Also, just because herbs are natural, they’re not necessarily safe, especially in large doses. For best results, meet first with a trained herbalist or naturopathic doctor.

Article source: C Lynn Beebe (articlebiz.com)

Dream home from auction

2007-02-02T06:03:00.001-08:00

Getting Your Dream Home From Real Estate Auctions-Things You Should Remember

Bank foreclosed properties are now widely available for sale and these real estate properties cost less than purchasing a brand new home or purchasing a home from a real estate agent or broker. These properties are available through auctions sponsored by the bank.

The auction will be announced on newspapers and on the internet so you have to expect a bit of competition for acquiring the property. You have to consider the fact that public auction will be comprised of different people who wants to own a real estate property. Because of this, you should be prepared when you go to an auction.

Normally, the auction will start off at a starting bid. It is important that you should participate in the bid in the earliest possible time. If the bid gets any higher, you should stop making bids and wait for the right moment to bid again.

You have to consider that bank auctions have no refund after the sale has been done. This is why it is important that you should choose the particular property you want. It is also important that you should know all about the property before you participate in the auction by taking a closer look at the property inside and out. By doing this, you will know about certain maintenance issues that need attention and you will also have an idea on what the home will be like if you want to remodel it.

You should consider that although real estate properties are quite cheap, the homes are usually used and there are certain renovations needed for it. You have to know how to estimate the cost. If you don't, you can consider bringing a professional along to analyze the home and give you an accurate estimate on how much it can cost you to renovate or remodel the home.

There are different payment methods that you can choose from after the sale has been made. Be sure that you take a closer look at the options before you choose which payment method you want. It will mean the difference between saving money and spending a lot more than you should in a real estate property.

Bank foreclosed real estate auctions are great if you want to have a home for you and your family at a very affordable price. You should only consider that you know which home you want to have and also know about the current market price of each home in order to save money on it.

These are the things you should remember when you are considering getting a home from bank foreclosed real estate auctions.

To search for real estate auctions, please visit http://www.real-estate-foreclosed-home.info

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Albert_Lee