Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential. Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool. 1. Blogging is simple. The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging. No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product. If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise. 2. Blogging is authentic. In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims. However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product. 3. Blogging is free. Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up. Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business. 4. Blogging builds credibility. As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site. 5. Blogging builds your market. Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts. Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is. But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base. Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging: -By using your e-mail. Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site. Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site. If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site. -By using subscription. An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite. Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address. Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer. -By understanding your readers. Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences. Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared. In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview. -By joining a blog network – A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. Clearly, more bloggers are better than one. -By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site. Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

According to a survey of German executives by the influential Ifo think tank, German business confidence rose in January 2003 for the first time in eight months - albeit imperceptibly, from 87.3 to 87.4. A poll conducted by ZEW, another brain trust, confirmed these findings. On past form, though, this confidence level heralds a contraction of 5-6 percent in industrial production. This is consistent with other dismal figures: negligible growth, stiflingly high real interest rates imposed by the European Central Bank, an export-discouraging strong euro and a disheartening surge in unemployment to more than 10 percent. German woes are compounded by a global recession, the evaporation of entire industries (such as telecoms) and a sharp, universal decline in investments. The main victims are the Mittelstand - the 1.3-3.2 (depending on the definition) million mostly family-owned German small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Of every 1000 German businesses, 997 are Mittelstand by one liberal definition. The real figure is closer to one third. Strict criteria reduce it to one in thirty firms. These differences of opinion reflect the fuzziness of the concept which has more to do with the style of ownership and management and with a unique historic-cultural background than with objective, economic yardsticks. The Mittelstanders form the backbone and trusty barometer of the German economy. They engage close to 22 million workers and apprentices as well as well over 3 million "self employed" (owner-employees) - 70 percent of Germany's total active workforce. More than two fifths of all commercial turnover in the country are generated by them as well as half the value added and one third of all exports. The investment requirements of Mittelstand firms total $20 billion annually. But access to capital is narrowing. Tottering local banks are risk averse, the capital markets are lethargic, private investors are scared and scarce. The Basle 2 capital adequacy requirements will considerably increase the cost of bank loans to risky borrowers, as are most Mittelstand firms. According to a survey by Kreditanstalt fьr Wiederaufbau, the German state-owned development bank, one third of all companies found access to bank credits restricted in 2002. In the 12 months to March 2002, German banks approved 7 percent fewer new credits. Listed banks reduced lending by a debilitating one sixth. According to The Economist, lending to Handwerk (craft) companies declined by half between 1993-2003. Public sector savings banks, hitherto the main source of Mittelstand financing, are hobbled by an increasingly intrusive European Commission. The Neuer Markt, touted as Germany's answer to NASDAQ, slumped by staggering 96 percent and was merged out of existence. The family is not what it used to be. Less than 40 percent of Mittelstand businesses are handed down the generations nowadays. Many are forced to introduce pesky outside investors and directors, or hired management. The banks are far more inquisitive than they used to be. A traditional long-term, epochal, business horizon gives ground to a quasi-American focus on the tyranny of the bottom line. Capital spending, product development and job security all suffer. Founders are often to blame, unable as most are to calmly contemplate their own death, or retirement and prepare a plan for orderly succession. It is at these junctions of regime change that most business failures occur, according to Sir Adrian Cadbury, author of "Family Firms and their Governance". According to Creditreform, quoted by The Economist, a record 37,700 companies went under in 2002. The Financial Times puts the figure at 45,000. And 2003 witness another bumper crop. The figures, according to the Institut fьr Mittelstandsforschung in Bonn, are even more harrowing. In 2001, 386,000 startups were liquidated and 455,000 formed to yield 69,000 new firms. New startup formation is at a low ebb. In 1991, net creations amounted to 223,000, in 1995 - 121,000, in 1998 - 100,000. The picture is especially grim in the east. About 129,000 net new startups sprouted there in 1991. But the dilapidated east succeeded to spawn only 6000 a decade later with its bloated and venal construction sector all but wiped out. Again, 2002 was only marginally better. Half-hearted measures declared by the fragile coalition government on January 6, 2003 - grandiosely titled the "Mittelstand Offensive" - are unlikely to reverse the tide of red ink. Less red tape, more generous financial support, simplified accounting and a fusion of the country's cumbersome development banks will do little to help the flood ravaged east, for instance, where crumbling domestic demand cripples local entrepreneurship. Eastern businessmen sorely lack management experience and skills. Their networks of customers and suppliers are thin on the ground. Most of them are single-product outfits. Successes are few and far between and usually involve foreign equity-holders. Luckily, the labor market in the east is more flexible than its ossified and bureaucracy-laden western counterpart. Hourly labor costs - wages plus inanely vertiginous and generous social benefits - are also substantially lower in the eastern Lander. An arthritic and worker-friendly regulatory framework and a pro-big business tax regime have, indeed, burdened the Mittelstand. Still, if anything, Germany's labor market has been liberalized under Chancellor Schroeder's governments and tax rates went down across the board. One must look elsewhere for the causes of the inexorable deterioration of the country's SMEs. It is remarkable that the decline of the Mittelstand coincides with an unprecedented surge in small to medium scale entrepreneurship in both developed and developing countries. It would seem that Germany simply spectacularly pioneered what has become, decades later, an economic fad. Indeed, it is Germany's overwhelming success - its post-war industrial miracle - that harbored the seeds of its decline and fall. Sated, rich people make bad risk-taking entrepreneurs. Germany's unification was its last attempt at rejuvenation. It failed because the west chose to smother the east with an unrealistically priced Deutschmark, a tangle of rules and regulations, an artificial construction bubble and a forced liquidation of its industrial base. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, goes German folk wisdom. On the surface, everything functions impeccably: German infrastructure is gleaming, its healthcare efficient, its environment pure, its welfare unsurpassed. Why tinker with success? - wonders the average citizen of this regional economic powerhouse. Only lately did a few brave souls admit that the miracle has been consumed and that Germany, unreformed, may be facing a Japanese decade. Germany's second attempt at revitalization is unfolding outside its borders. The enlargement of the European Union to incorporate countries in central and east Europe is largely a German project. Cheap labor, abundant raw materials, hungry, growing consumer markets in the new members - promise to resuscitate the German industrial sector. Big German firms have taken note of this repossessed hinterland and moved decisively - but not so the Mittelstand. Preoccupied by their multidimensional crisis, they failed to colonize the east. Battered by cost pressures, better-informed customers, aggressive international competition, dizzying and costly technological changes, spiraling needs for investment in R&D, vocational training and marketing - the Mittelstand companies are punch-drunk and more xenophobic and self-destructively "independent" than ever. One would be hard pressed to find a substantial Mittelstand representation in the German drive to diversify abroad either by establishing a presence in major export markets, or by sourcing from cheaper countries. As the Center for Advanced Studies at Cardiff University notes, Mittelstanders rarely out-source to key suppliers, maintain open-book accounting, engage in simultaneous engineering, sign long-term contracts, or reduce the number of direct suppliers as part of implementing a lean production strategy. Many SMEs function as family employment agencies rather than as properly governed businesses. From hubs of innovation and early adoption of bleeding edge technologies - the Mittelstanders have lately become the bastion of paralytic conservatism. Most of them support self-interested liberalization and deregulation. But few would know what to do with these poisoned chalices, having become far less competitive than they used to be in the 1970s. So, is the Mittelstand sector doomed? Not according to a report published in 2001 by the Institute for Development and Peace at the Gerhard-Mercator University in Duisburg. The authors believe that, despite all the shortcomings of the Mittelstand business model, it could serve as a blueprint for the countries of Latin America and other developing regions. The Mittelstand have survived largely intact wars and devastation, division and unification. There is no reason why they should not outlive this second round of globalization - they did marvelously in the first round, a century ago. But the government must recognize the Mittelstand's contribution to the economy and reward these struggling firms with a tax, financing and regulatory environment conducive to job creation, innovation, ownership continuity and exports. The reason for hope is that Germany is finally waking up. Universities offer courses in family-orientated management. Offline and online exchanges - such as EuroLink - connect German SMEs to willing private equity investors, strategic partners and fund managers. Small business service centers and one stop shops proliferate. An army of consulting and trading firms proffer everything from management skills to networks of contacts. Others peddler seminars, Web design and Internet literacy syllabi. Software companies like SAP, IBM and Sybase maintain special small business departments. Think tanks and scholarly institutes devote increasing resources to the SME phenomenon. There is even an Oscar award for Mittelstand excellence. Initiatives spring in the most unlikely places. DG Bank teamed up with the German daily "Die Zeit" to "promote small businesses who have innovative ideas". Mittelstand trade fairs (for instance in Nuremberg last year) are well-attended. Venture capitalists, portfolio managers and headhunters monitor developments closely. The Business Angels Network of Germany (BOUND) is a group of individual investors who also contribute time and management know-how to fledgling technology startups. Lobbying and advocacy groups, specialty publications, public relations firms - all cater to the needs of German SMEs. It looks less like a funeral than a resurrection.

One of the most difficult you can take in life is an eye surgery. There are many options, Lasek surgery or even Lasik surgery, so today I want to explain you about the differences of this type of prodedures Laser eye surgery prices can depend a lot on the location of the eye care center where the surgery is being performed. As with all products and services, this variation has a lot to do with the idea of supply and demand. To be safe you need to find xperienced leading surgeons, safe sophisticated equipment and the highest standards. Patients who are not qualified for the Lasik surgery may qualify for Lasek surgery. This type of surgery is done by cutting the outer layer of the cornea. Patients who are unable to cooperate or follow commands, including patients with dementia, nystagmus, deafness or inability to communicate because of language, do better under a regional block with IV sedation. Patients with these risk factors are more likely to experience complications with traditional LASIK surgery. This procedure allows a surgeon to use a fine tool (trephine) instead of the microkeratome to cut the corneal flap needed to perform laser surgery. Laser refractive surgery was made possible through the development of the excimer laser. This laser produces a beam of light that is capable of vaporizing thin layers of the cornea, effectively sculpting it into a more appropriate curvature for the eye. Laser treatment is then programmed to each tiny part of the corneal surface so that every area of the cornea gets the optimised dosage. Contrast sensitivity in low lighting levels is increased and the risk of developing night time halos and glare is greatly decreased. Lasers need to be recalibrated during the surgery day to ensure accurate treatments. We recalibrate our laser between each eye of each patient to ensure the most accurate results. Laser surgery can open this membrane, helping to clear vision without an operation. This laser procedure is called a capsulotomy. Lasek, for example, is used mostly for people with thin corneas since LASIK requires more corneal tissue to be successful. PRK is often preferred for patients who may be susceptible to dry eyes since dry eyes are more often a complication of LASIK. LASEK has significantly more short-term side effects than LASIK, not least of which is wearing a contact lens for 4 days - I hate contact lenses at the best of times! I really couldn’t use a computer or watch television for those 4 days, and even going to the super market gave me a massive headache. LASEK is similar to LASIK eye surgery and might be an option if you aren't eligible for LASIK. During a LASEK procedure, a much thinner layer ? Cataract surgery and clear lens extraction for high myopia or hyperopia are also offered in a hospital setting. Cataract patients now have an option to see at both near and far distances after cataract surgery! Individuals suffering from cataracts previously had only a mono-focal lens implant option after surgery. Cataracts can only be removed through surgery. No medications or eye drops will make cataracts disappear. Cataracts account for more than half the cases of blindness in thw wolrd. So as you can see many eye surgeries are perfectly safe and you need to consider all the options to go for the safest one

Term life insurance is a life insurance product that pays out a cash lump sum upon death of the insurance policyholder or at the point that the insurance policyholder is diagnosed as terminally ill. But, despite it being a low cost term life product - insurance cover can be acquired from as little as Ј5-Ј10 per month - surprisingly few of us have term life insurance in place. For people with a mortgage and family to support, not having a term life insurance policy exposes them to a large financial risk. This risk becomes apparent when you consider how the mortgage and household bills would be paid if the main income producer were to die or to become terminally ill. The end result could be that loved ones who are left behind find their home is repossessed because they cannot keep up the mortgage repayments. Some people prepare for such an eventuality by taking out a mortgage life insurance policy. This is all well and good for covering off the remainder of the mortgage loan, but where will the money come from to pay the gas & electricity bill and the council tax bill every month, let alone the money needed to cover the policyholder's funeral expenses? It is at this point that a term life insurance policy becomes very useful indeed. If you don't have a term life insurance policy in place, here are some sobering reasons why you should consider taking out a term life policy now… • CANCER - One in three people will develop cancer at some point in their lives. Research into cancer is of course ongoing, and one day some cancers may be curable. In the meantime a term life policy offers income protection for loved ones left behind in the event of terminal cancer diagnosis and death from cancer. • HEART DISEASE - Heart and circulatory disease accounts for more than 35% of all deaths in the UK each year. The number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease is on a falling trend, but the number of people becoming morbidly obese is increasing, and so may reverse this trend in the near future. Term life policies can be configured to pay out if cause of death is heart-related. • MRSA (SUPERBUG) - The death rate from the MRSA superbug has doubled in the last 4 years. MRSA is a bacterial infection that is resistant to antibiotics. It commonly causes death in people with weak immune systems, and so easily spreads amongst the sick & old in hospital wards. Many life insurance policies pay out if the cause of death is MRSA related. • AVIAN FLU (BIRD FLU) - Recent comments by the Society of General Microbiology in the UK sparked controversy when they estimated that 2 million people in the UK could die from a highly infectious strain of mutated Avian Flu. If you are worried about Avian Flu check with the life insurance agent to see if their term life policy covers such an eventuality.

: As BSF Sensex danced furiously, many questions were raised as to what are the safe and less volatile options for investments. Questions were also asked whether the real estate market, which has witnessed potential jump in past couple of years, would undergo some kind of correction. Some of the large-cap real estate stocks such as Mahindra Gesco and Ansal Properties fell by almost 50 percent from their peak levels. Other stocks like Unitech and Lok Housing did not fall much – since they hit the filter on 5 percent movement. Some industry players feel that there are pocket of tier 2 and tier 3 cities in north India, which have seen massive escalation of price over the last six to twelve months, which may not be sustainable in the long run. Whether the stock market meltdown triggers a correction in these markets remains to be seen. On the whole, rising real estate prices may take a breather in certain areas but there will be no holding them back. Consultancy firm Cushman&Wakefield study says Urban India alone requires 12 million housing units with scope for 400 townships in 5 years across 30-35 cities, each with five lakh population. Prices of homes in India hqave on average tripled in the last two years and will probably expand fourfold in the next three to four years. In fact, Real Estate benefits in either case – whether the sensex booms or tumbles. The profits booked in scripts are invested in real estate as a safe investment and when the stock tumble, investments are diverted to real estate market to square off losses. This article is sponsored by: indiarealestateblog

The annual percentage rate can seem like calculus to most people. It’s some arcane and hard to understand method to help credit card companies know how much money to charge you every month for interest. The problem is—that makes the annual percentage rate, or APR, very important if you use your credit card. So it’s just as important for you to have some understanding, even if just basic, of how the annual percentage rate is calculated. First, you should get the definition of the annual percentage rate. It’s actually pretty simple if you look at the APR from this way. By definition, the annual percentage rate is the yearly rate of interest that the credit card charges you, including any fees and costs paid to acquire that loan. The credit card companies figure out this loan in a pretty straightforward way, believe it or not. They take the average compound interest rate of the term of your loan. That way, you can compare one credit card debt, or loan, to another. The annual percentage rate for a credit card company, in this respect, is just the same as the annual percentage rate that you’d be paying for a mortgage, for instance. But with a mortgage, the details are different. For instance, with a mortgage, the APR includes the interest rate of a mortgage taking into mind not only the interest, but the mortgage insurance, and certain closing costs and even points paid at the time of closing. Credit card companies, like mortgage companies and other lenders, are required by law to always let you know what your annual percentage rate is. That way, when you’re shopping for credit cards, you can compare them by the annual percentage rates. If you plan to carry debt on your card, or roll it over from one card to the next, you can then know basically how much you could save month to month, credit card to credit card. With credit cards, of course, there are even more things to consider when comparing one to another. Besides the annual percentage rate, you should look at a card’s payment schedule—how much grace period do they give you to pay off a purchase, and what’s the penalty if you fail to make a payment on time, or miss one altogether? Also, you should look at each card’s rewards programs. What is the ratio between purchases and reward points, or cash back? Is it 1 point for $1? Do you get 1 percent cash back, or 5 percent? All of these factors, as well as annual percentage rate, should be taken into account.

There are a multitude of different lender types in the housing market and before refinancing or borrowing it pays to know who's who. Each option has it's pluses and minuses it comes down to choosing the person or institution that suits your needs and who you feel comfortable with. Here's a brief intro: Mortgage Brokers Mortgage brokers are responsible for introducing borrowers to lenders - they act as an intermediary offering prospective borrowers information on various lending institutions and their products. With the various types of lending institutions available, not to mention the vast array of products on offer, the borrower has various options and choices. The task of the mortgage broker is to determine the most suitable loan for the borrower. While the broking service is often free, a small fee may be charged, and the broker will generally receive commission from the lender they recommend. Mortgage Managers Mortgage managers are lending specialists who arrange funding for home and investment loans. Unlike banks, building societies and credit unions, mortgage managers do not have a base of customer deposits with which to fund their loans instead they source their funds via a process known as securitisation. This is a process whereby assets with an income stream are pooled and converted into saleable securities. The mortgage managers job is to set up the loan and perform a liaison role with all parties involved, namely originators, trustees, credit assessors and borrowers. They provide the customer service role and are there to manage your loan throughout its term. Credit Unions A credit union is a cooperative that is owned and controlled by the people who use its services. Each member is both a customer and a shareholder in the credit union. Deposits from members are used to fund loans to other members, with the credit union business structure facilitating the process. Credit unions serve people who share a mutual interest, such as where they work, live, or go to church. Credit unions are non profit organisations, and because there are no external shareholders there is no pressure to earn profits at the expense of customers. Like banks, they offer a wide variety of banking facilities such as loans, deposits and financial planning. Credit unions main function is to serve members needs rather than make a profit. They therefore put a great deal of emphasis on customer service and meeting the needs of members. Building Societies Building societies operate in the same manner as banks and obtain their funding primarily through customer deposits. As with credit unions, customers are members. In a sense they own the society, which is why they are often referred to as mutual societies. Banks In Australia banks are regulated by the Reserve Bank. Banks are the original lending institutions and for the most part they source their funds through customers term deposits and savings deposits via their branch networks. Customers are paid interest on deposited funds and these funds are then available to lend to borrowers. In turn, these borrowers pay interest to the bank on the sum lent. The margin between interest paid on deposits and interest received from loans provides banks with their major source of revenue. A downside of Banks is that Banks generally have a large network of branches supported by many staff members involved in the day to day operation of taking deposits and lending funds. Much of the banks profits are swallowed up in the maintenance of their branch structures, whereas various other types of lenders don't have such hefty overheads.

The question we should be asking is, by banning online gambling are we going to make things better or worse? The answer to that question is simple, banning legalized and regulated online gambling in any form, just makes another way for organized crime to get a hold of peoples money, and then no one but the criminals win. If you want to keep a child from seeing an R rated movie you do not ban the movie from the theaters do you? No that would be silly you just make sure that people are doing there best to check and verify that no one under 18 gets into see the movie. By banning the movie chances are greater that someone will get a bootleg copy and show it to every kid in the town. So if you want to keep a child from gambling online then all the online casinos should be regulated and monitored, not banned. The same goes for terrorists. If you believe terrorist groups are exploiting an unregulated and unmonitored industry such as the online gambling industry, then by regulating it you can see where the money is going and make sure it is not going to fund international terrorist attacks. All that is accomplished by banning it is that the criminals get a stronger grip on the industry. The ban on online gambling is much like the war on drugs. If marijuana was legalized in the USA crimes related to it would almost go away completely, because it would be sold in stores and it would be controlled, another advantage would be that people would no longer be going to jail for marijuana related charges, this means thousands of less people getting arrested and going to jail every year, which would save us tax money that could be better spent. By making online gambling in the USA a legalized form of adult entertainment it would also bring in an estimated 1.2 billion dollars in taxes to the American government. This money could be used for schools, police and universal healthcare for all Americans. This is how you improve society, not by telling people what to do. It is human nature to want what we can not have so the more laws you put in place to stop people from doing something the better the chances are that people are going to do it. People are just as likely to become addicted to gambling at a regulated casino as an unregulated one, but the difference is that in a regulated casino they will not extend you the amount of credit that will get you into trouble in an illegal casino. And in a regulated casino they will have information on how to get help if you have a gambling problem. In an illegal casino they will not have this type of information, they want you to continue to gamble till you have nothing left, and then they will let you fall and find someone to take your place. In the long run society can only prosper if we educate people on the dangers of gambling both online and in a casino, and not from banning an industry that employs thousands of people in countries all over the world. No one gains anything from just telling people they can not do something that they are going to do anyway. It is about time the government learned this and stopped making the same mistakes year after year.

Americans leaving the nation’s big cities in search of cheaper homes The Census Bureau measured domestic migration - people moving within the United States - and discovered that nearly every large metropolitan area had more people move out than move in from 2000 to 2004. The report provides the number of people moving into and out of each state, and the 25 largest metropolitan areas. The states that lost an important part of their residents are California, New York and Illinois, while those that attracted the most new residents are Arizona, Florida and Nevada. Many Americans are moving from large metropolitan areas to bordering counties for cheaper homes and more space. Among the 25 largest metropolitan areas, 18 had more people move out than move in from 2000 to 2004. Domestic moves have a great impact on the biggest metropolitan areas - New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The New York area alone had a loss of 211,000 residents during the 4 year interval. Westerners are moving inland. North-Easterners are moving West or South. And just about everywhere, people are escaping to the outer suburbs, also known as exurbs. William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution explains that this is “a middle class flight, a flight for housing affordability. It's not just white middle class, it's blacks and hispanics, too.” Housing prices are soaring in the metropolitan areas, even as the population shrinks. This is because of the smaller, wealthier households that replace larger families in many big metropolitan areas and continually bid up prices. In response to that, middle class people are forced to move out to the exurbs in search of more affordable homes. High housing costs on both coasts drove more Americans to cheaper cities nearby. One big winner is the inland Riverside, Calif., area. It continued to attract residents from the Southern California coast from 2000 to 2004, experts say. The area has total gain of 81,000 people a year from 2000 to 2004 and has become the 13th largest metropolitan area in the United States. It’s a short drive to several mountain ranges, and it’s within driving distance of the beach. Locally, it is known as the Inland Empire. Homes in Riverside had a median price of 374,200 in 2005. That's not cheap, but it's certainly less expensive than $529,000, the median price of homes in Los Angeles. “In Riverside you’re able to obtain a very large home for a much lower price than elsewhere along the beaches and coastlines of Southern California”, says Cindy Roth, president of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce. Other areas that attracted a lot of new residents are Phoenix, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth. They have relatively inexpensive homes, and that's the most important reason for many middle class Americans to move in such areas.

The desire to overcome anxiety and panic attacks permanently is only natural considering the debilitating effects these issues can have on your life. It should be understood that while the process of overcoming these attacks does require time and dedication, it is possible to overcome anxiety and attacks permanently without the use of prescription medications. If you are interested in how to overcome these attacks once and for all, read on for more tips. Understanding the connection between anxiety and panic attacks is one of the first steps in learning how to overcome them permanently. While panic attacks can occur from completely out of the blue, in some cases they do occur as a result of anxiety. Furthermore, the fear and anxiety of experiencing another panic attack once you have experienced even one can lead to debilitating effects that profoundly affect the rest of your life. It is not uncommon for an individual to only experience one panic attack but be so consumed by the fear of having another that they develop other conditions, such as agoraphobia. It is also important to understand that panic and anxiety attacks can actually be linked to your body’s rather natural response to danger. Whenever your body feels threatened it is natural for the pulse to become elevated and for other physical symptoms to arise. Regardless of whether the fear is real or only perceived, your body is likely to respond in the same manner-with a heightened sense of anxiety. These symptoms leave us with two choices-to either stay and face the fear or flee from it. Considering the overwhelming physical symptoms, most choose the latter option. Learning how to overcome anxiety and panic attacks permanently therefore involves learning how to prepare for the feelings associated with panic and anxiety attacks and conquer them. One way to handle this is through ongoing therapy which can help you to address the fears which may result in panic and anxiety attacks. No matter what you are afraid of, whether it is a real situation or something that you perceive to be of danger, it is important to understand that you can unlearn the behaviors that have produced panic and anxiety attacks in the past. Coping skills like relaxation techniques and imagery skills can help you learn how to overcome anxiety and panic attacks permanently over time. Learning how to overcome these issues may also involve actually unlearning anxious habits that have developed over the years. The brain must actually learn how to forget the anxious behavior it has practiced over time and replace that behavior with actions that are not anxious in order for this to work. Quite naturally, this will require time, but it is possible and it does work. No matter which techniques you utilize in order to overcome anxiety and panic attacks, please be aware that you must dedicate time and effort to the process. In many cases this may mean practicing those techniques on a daily basis in order for them to be successful. Despite the effort and time required, the payoff is definitely worth it. Over time you can learn how to overcome anxiety and panic attacks permanently and take back control of your life.

June 29, 2006 It was an early day today, I got up at 4:30 am, and my husband dropped me off at 5:45 am at Toronto’s historic Union Station. Several buses of young students were already unloading their luggage and ready to enter the train station. At about 6 am the Via Rail counters were opening up and since I had a first class ticket (called Via 1), I was directed to Via’s Panorama Lounge, a special section with comfortable armchairs, free newspapers and soft drinks. This was my first time on a Canadian train and I was very excited about experiencing train travel and not having to fight my way through traffic driving to Montreal. Via 1 passengers received their own special priority boarding announcements and off we went to the first coach behind the locomotive. I made myself comfortable in the seats and stretched my legs. The seats recline very far back so a tired traveler will have a chance to get a good rest. Shortly after I was joined by a gentleman, a businessman from Edmonton who had some appointments in Toronto and was now heading to Montreal for other business duties. Ray kept me entertained with his family stories and humorous tales of growing up in Montreal and time passed quickly as we started rolling through the suburbs of Toronto. We stopped at the Guildwood Station and then headed off into the green farmlands of Ontario farm. My ticket also included meal service and in a short while we received breakfast, starting with a fruit plate. For our main breakfast dish we had a choice between a Ranchman's Breakfast (a Cheddar cheese omelette and grilled beef steak served with mini rцsti potatoes, sautйed mushrooms and cherry tomato), the second choice were buttermilk pancakes filled with apple cinnamon and cranberry compote served with Canadian back bacon and Quebec maple syrup. Giving in to my sweet tooth I opted for the pancakes. Mid-morning I got a bit tired and apologized to Ray and said I had to sit back, relax and close my eyes a little since I had had such an early morning. We both fell asleep for a while and Ray was soon entertaining us the whole compartment with a very talented lumberjack impression. I think he cut down an entire old growth forest in the hour and a half during our last stretch to Montreal. When he woke up just outside of Dorion, he told me he never has a problem falling asleep in a train or a plane, and believeme, I could certainly attest to that. But all in all, I really enjoyed the ride, especially once we started rolling into the suburbs of Montreal. We passed through some of the old industrial areas, some still in their original state, and some beautifully renovated and refunctioned as condos. Montreal, a historic shipping and railroad centre, is one of the cradles of the industrial revolution in Canada and its industrial history includes tanneries, wordworking factories, breweries, shoemaking, textile milles, tobacco and rubber factories, all on display during our train ride through the southern outskirts of downtown Montreal. Downtown Montreal and its skyscrapers came into view and I was excited to embark on my explorations of this exciting city. Just about 5 hours after we had left Toronto our Via Rail train rolled into the subterranean Gare Central (Central Railway Station), dating back to 1938, at 12 noon. I caught a taxi and was astounded at the congestion in the street in mid-day. The taxi driver himself commented on how busy the city was today. It seemed everyone was getting ready to do their last errands before the long weekend. I arrived at the Holiday Inn Downtown, located at 90 Viger Street and realized that I was in a perfect location, right in the heart of Montreal’s Chinatown. I was literally only 5 minutes away from Montreal’s biggest and most impressive church: the Basilica of Notre Dame, Montreal’s City Hall was about 7 minutes away and right across the street is the Place d’Armes subway station. I could not have had a more convenient location. Finding a hotel room on this Canada Day long weekend, which incidentially coincides with the July 4 long weekend in the United States is certainly a precarious proposition, and I was very fortunate that the Holiday Inn Downtown had a room available for me. I dropped my luggage with the concierge since the room was not ready yet and I was ready for my first real adventure in Montreal: a personally guided driving tour through the centre of the city which would give me a great lay of the land. For the entire article including photos please visit travelandtransitions/stories_photos/montreal_arrival. htm

The Tucson area is a serene desert playground surrounded by four mountain ranges that offers all kinds of recreational possibilities. For instance, hiking to a desert canyon waterfall, riding a horse on a mountain trail, or spending the day boating and fishing. Snow skiing? Yes, skiing is available on Mount Lemmon, just an hour away, in the pine-covered Santa Catalina mountain range. Mt. Lemon is home to the country’s southernmost ski resort. Maybe snow skiing is not your style. Perhaps you would like to challenge your game on one of Tucson's more than 39 exceptional golf courses. Tennis your game? We have a multitude of tennis courts too. Did you know Tucson is the second best cycling city in the nation according to Bicycling magazine in 2006. Many tucsonans and other cyclists from all over the world compete annually in the El Tour de Tucson, one of the country’s largest cycling events. Tucson also has it share of spectator sports as well. The city is home to spring training for the Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Arizona Diamondbacks’ AAA team, the Tucson Sidewinders, provides for a great family summer evening at Tucson Electric Park. In September '06, the Sidewinders earned their first Pacific Coast League Championship title. Also, only days later, they became the 2006 AAA Champions defeating the International League Toledo MudHens. For college fans, the University of Arizona, a member of the prestigious Pac-10 Conference, has teams in all major men’s and women’s NCAA sports. Men’s basketball and women’s softball have been recent national champions. For many years, Tucson has already been home to two professional tour events, the Chrysler Classic PGA Tournament and the PING/Welch’s Championship LPGA event. Starting in February 2007, Tucson will host the Accenture Match Play championship. Sixty-four of the world’s top-ranked golfers will compete, on the breathtaking Gallery at Dove Mountain golf course in Marana, and take aim at the $7.5 million purse. Gates Pass - West TucsonOther great events include NASCAR, horse and greyhound races, and the annual Fiesta de los Vaqueros, the largest mid-winter rodeo in the U. S. Tucson has a lot to offer all outdoors enthusiasts. After a long day of activity, you can still relax and enjoy one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world.

Let’s try this hypothetical scenario. Supposing you’re in this position: 1. You don’t have a single cent in your account. 2. You don’t have enough marketing skills to catapult a digital product to the height of prominence. 3. You don’t have a mailing list composed of hundreds, if not thousands, of potential customers. 4. You don’t have any money – at all – to fund the creation and promotion of a digital product online. 5. You don’t have the brand name that commands credibility and immediately increases consumer confidence. Should you give up on internet marketing? Should you walk away from the potentials of making tons of cash online? The uninitiated will say, any of the scenarios above – and more so all of them combined – would be enough to make you surrender the dream of making it big online. But what do these people know? Their imaginations are limited. Their fears are doing all the talking. You shouldn’t be one of them. You shouldn’t lose hope. All you need is an IDEA. Yes, an IDEA. Just one great idea can lead you to an online goldmine, and potentially, a windfall of profits that could come your way. How can this be done when you don’t have the resources, financial or otherwise, to see your idea into actuality? Have you heard about joint ventures (JV), dear friend? Joint ventures are partnerships between online marketers who will pull their resources together for the success of one project. For example, they could promote one product in all of their mailing lists for maximum exposure. Or they could chip in their own products for one mega-package to increase its value and its salability. They could promote this in their respective mailing lists with a system that would allow the members of each list to subscribe in the mailing list of the other members. The effects of this could be long term. Joint venture partners usually employ some sort of profit sharing scheme which they will agree on beforehand, so that each partner would know how much his share of the pie will be. Joint ventures are encouraging options for any online businessman for the following reasons: • They could trim down the expenses since they will be pooling their resources together. • They could minimize the losses, if ever, since a lot of them would bear the same. • They could promote the project to a wider audience through their combined number of subscribers. • Less renowned personalities can piggyback on the credible names of their more popular partners. This is great for branding purposes and for winning consumer confidence. • Much can be learned from one another, especially from the more experienced partners. So, given the scenarios in the first part of this article, where could you fit in with a joint venture? Well, if you have a great idea, you could become a JV broker. JV brokering is one of the few online opportunities that would help you garner a lot of profit without having to invest a single cent… for as long as you have the right connections. If you have befriended established online marketers, or if you know how to contact them the right way, then JV brokering may be the option perfect for you. All you need, as we have mentioned earlier, is an idea. It may be your own idea, or someone else’s idea and you’d want to help him make it a reality. With this idea, you could create a proposal. This proposal is what you will present to the prospective JV partners you’d want to pool together. If you proposal is viable and profitable, then there is no reason why your prospects would say no. How will you get paid? You could be paid directly based on a rate you have stated beforehand, or you could be paid via the profit sharing scheme that the partners would decide on. Either way, you’ll get a piece of a pie. Not bad for someone who only started with plan, right? NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-

Perfumes come in what seems like a never ending option of fragrances and aromas. For people with allergies (such as seasonal or allergic reactions to dust or asthmatic symptoms) wearing perfume can be a struggle. People with allergies still like to make a statement and explore perfumes and fragrances, however it can be challenging to find one that doesn’t trigger a reaction. A few basic hints can help someone who is looking for perfume but not the breathing and reactive symptoms that accompany it can make the world of scent statements more manageable. For starters, light is always better than heavy. Whether you are talking about the scent itself or the application process, a light aroma has less likelihood of setting off an allergic reaction. A light application of a mild scent is easier for people to tolerate than anything else and can free an individual from a scentless existence. When shopping for a fragrance, bring a trusted friend with you. Explain what you are looking for and have them do most of the sniffing in an attempt to find the light aromas that are less likely to set you off. Once you experience an allergic reaction the shopping experience will come to an end since it will be impossible for you to tell whether any other scents give you the same reaction. Avoid musky scents and floral aromas, as these tend to have a high concentration of allergy triggers. Softer oriental or woody scents carry the least likely reactive triggers. These can be difficult to determine if you are standing in an aisle with rows of scents such as you will find at a discount store. Wherever you choose to do your searching for the right perfume for you, make sure you choose a place that has a staffed counter so you can explain what you are looking for while minimizing exposure to other basic allergens. Ask permission to step a few feet from the counter so that you are not in the direct line of fire from other harsher scents that someone else is considering. Try to plan the perfume shopping trip on a low allergy trigger day. If you live in a heavy smog environment, or a high pollen area, your available days may be limited. These are the days you probably wouldn’t be able to wear any perfume anyway. Walking into the store with allergy symptoms is not a solid platform for trying to find a perfume you can tolerate. Try out a few colognes. Sometimes the different water alcohol base level in cologne makes it easier for an individual to tolerate the aroma. Perfumes have a higher concentration of oils, and their scent is stronger because of this. There are plenty of feminine scented colognes to choose from. Again, ask a staffed counter individual for assistance.

Creating and sending a promotional email letter that receives the maximum response rate is at the heart of any successful online business. But what is a “responsive email”? How do you compose it? There are a few principles a responsive email letter is based on. If you follow them, you’ll never be at disadvantage: The Subject line. The subject line is a presentation of your message. I would even say that it is the subject line determines whether the recipient will open your message or not. If you send a commercial letter, your main purpose is to have the recipient open your message. So, the subject line must to intrigue and rouse the people’s curiosity. Put some “tease” in your subject but do not reveal what your message is about completely. Teases should speak to the offer that the recipient is going to find inside the letter – but not too much – make them open it to find out for sure. A good tease may sound like: “Discover the new technique how to…”, or “The amazing inside secrets…”, or “Download the new improved version of… ” etc. The salutation. Yes, a personalized message beginning with “Dear John,” is better. It looks more professional and makes a feel that you care about every prospect individually. A personalized message helps build credibility in relationship between you and your prospects. That’s why on your opt-in form you should ask your subscribers to provide their first name together with the email address. The message body. We’ll examine two aspects here: content – what your message is about and presentation – in what manner you present the information. Message content. This is where people often get confused. What to tell to the readers so they would want to buy from you? Tell them about the benefits of your product. Remember that people don’t care about you personally or your organization, they do want to know how they can benefit from your offer, how your offer can solve their problems or make their lives easier. That’s what they need. A great idea that always works for your is a free bonus or special offer. You should give them something for free in addition to their purchase. Typical offers may include: • Special Reports - you are simply promising them an instant access to some free content after their purchase. • Software Trials - if you are developing and promoting your own software programs, you could promise a free trial of the new version of your software, or an other software in the form of a download. • Discounts - you can offer discounts on particular goods when they become available, and the only way to gain access to these discounts is by purchasing your product. • Email mini-course - you can also offer people an email mini-course that will teach them something specific about their market, and will then allow you continue communicating with them in the future. • E-books – if you sell an e-book, you could offer it for free to your subscribers who purchase your product. • Tips and News – similar to the email mini-course. You are just promising to send them regular emails with useful content that helps make their lives easier. Always end the body of the letter with clear instructions what action you want the reader to take. There must not be any ambiguity. The reader must exactly know what you want him to do now. But don’t stop there. Add a “P. S.” and “P. P.S.” that persuade the reader to buy from you, repeat the offer and call-to-action. Text presentation. You may have a lot to say about your product benefits and your offer. But the trick is to say it in a way that is easy to read, and clearly lays out the main aspects. People are busy and they don’t have much time to spend on one email. Keep in mind that people don’t read the message, they scan it. So, you have to structure your letter in a manner that all important information grabs the reader’s attention. Don’t write in long sentences. Separate the text in paragraphs with 4-5 sentences in each paragraph. Use bullets to represent your offer benefits. Use underlining, bold and italics as ways to call attention to important elements but do it wisely. The closing. It should always be done by the most senior person in your organization – preferably someone with a title. This is about credibility. You should always remember that you can create several email messages and test one email approach versus another. Simply divide your list in two groups, and send the version A to one half, and the version B to the other. Then compare the results. What version is more responsive and what is not. You can then use the more successful version of you email letter for future communication with your prospects. Take care of these aspects and your email marketing efforts will be rewarded!