Summer is a welcome treat, especially if you live anywhere that gets a lot snow over the winter! So when summer arrives, getting the pool open and ready is probably your highest priority, and your family and friends are likely already lined up with their swimsuits on!

Starting your pool up for the season

When starting up the pool for the first time in the season, you’ll need to drain any water in the pool along with any antifreeze you used to keep the equipment free of ice. Then you can refill it, adding the chemicals necessary to continue keeping it clean for the summer.

Keeping your pool clean throughout the season

Throughout the swimming season you should be brushing the sides of your pool to loosen debris that collects there, you should be reversing your pumping system to help clean out any build up, and you should be vacuuming the water and skimming the surface. This will keep your pool in tip top shape through out the season and it will make your pool an enjoyable place to be near.

Preparing your pool for winter

As winter approaches, and after everyone reluctantly takes that one final swim, you need to prepare it to sit dormant for the few months that you won’t be able to use it. Drain the water below the freezing line, drain the water out of the plumbing, and filling the pump and pipes with antifreeze. Finally, cover it for the winter. And, if you get a lot of snow where you live, be sure to mark out where your pool is in case snow builds up and hides your pool, which creates a potential hazard that someone could fall in.

Working on your pool can be a lot of work, but the time and expense involved in maintaining it is much less than the cost associated with repairing it if it does fall into disrepair. And, the squeals of delight from the children as they show off to their friends will make the few moments of work in the spring and autumn not seem so bad.

bio = Jeff Lakie is the founder of http://www.swimming-pool-covers.info and http://www.swimming-pool-designs.info websites providing information on Pools

Popularity: 4% [?]

We certainly don’t live in a world that waits for us to save up our money before we can pay for something. It used to be that way, but not any more. Costs are have risen higher than income in many cases, making loans and credit a necessary part of life. If you find that you need a loan, a secured loan is a way to increase the amount that you can borrow and often enable you to borrow it at a better rate.

What is a secured loan?

An unsecured loan is a loan of money that is simply leant to you based on your credit rating or on your word. If you were to default this loan, you would be expected to pay it and your name would probably be submitted to a collections agency to make the collection or you might be taken to small claims court. However, that is all the lender can do.

If you need to borrow a greater amount of money or want to borrow money at a better rate, borrowing against some kind of equity is the way to go. Perhaps the equity is your home, or some other kind of possession, like valuables, stocks, or your car.

How is it better than an unsecured loan?

Borrowing against this equity tells the lending agency that if you cannot make your payments, they can take your equity as an alternative form of payment.

Lending agencies like this because it means that they have some security on the money you owe, in case you default on your payments. At the same though, coming to you to take your home away from you is difficult to do for them, since they are bankers and not realtors. They may be more willing to renegotiate payment terms if that is what you need to do.

So, rather than spend an arm and a leg on unsecured loans, if you need to borrow money, consider getting a secured loan. You’ll get the chance to borrow more money, at a lower rate, and with the possibility of better payment terms.

bio = Jeff Lakie is the founder of http://www.cheap-loan-uk.info and http://www.home-loan-uk.info websites providing information on Secured Loans

Popularity: 3% [?]

Civilizations throughout the ages have known that certain foods have qualities that can help to create health for people. And depriving people of certain foods would mean allowing them to succumb to disease. For example, in the age of the sail, scurvy was kept away with lemons and limes.

It has only been in the past hundred years that people have come to understand that food contains nutrients and those nutrients are necessary for life. Some of those nutrients, but not all have been labeled as “vitamins.” Part of the word, “vita” is the same root as “vital” which means life.

There are 13 vitamins, but there have not always been. Vitamin A, C, D, E, and K plus the 8 B vitamins make up the roster of vitamins today. Other nutrients, formerly considered to be vitamins, have been reclassified by scientists as they develop an understanding of the things that make our body work.

While the best way to get these vitamins is through our diets, sometimes it is not always possible. Eating a balanced diet is difficult these days, because our lives are very busy. An alternative is to use vitamin supplements to help us get all the vitamins we need to survive in healthy, disease-free bodies.

The human body can exist for quite some time without vitamins, but it does need all of them in order to properly function free of disease. If you’re concerned that your diet is not helping you maintain an intake of all of these vitamins, you should consider finding a multi-vitamin supplement to help you. Taking a regular dosage will help ensure that you are getting enough vitamins and your body will get rid of any of the vitamins you don’t need any more of.

If you do have vitamins in your house, keep them stored in a cool, dry place and keep them away from children. Even though vitamins are necessary for life, children need to be careful not to have too many; especially vitamins that contain iron.

Eating a balanced diet should be an important part of a healthy lifestyle plan. If your life cannot always include a balanced diet, you may want to consider getting a vitamin supplement to make sure you are getting everything your body needs.
bio =
Jeff Lakie is the founder of http://www.my-vitamins.info and http://www.my-creatine.info websites providing information on Vitamins

Popularity: 3% [?]

Being apologetic doesn’t come easily for me. Unfortunately, being inconsiderate and self-centered does. So I realized long ago that my marital survival would depend on two things: 1) learning to apologize and 2) becoming less selfish and more considerate.

It was easier to start with apologies. Over time I got better and better at learning how to apologize. I was amazed at the effect.

First, it was the basic mumbling of, “I’m sorry.” Those two words were remarkable in healing bruised feelings. It was as if I had a license to do what I wanted– as long as I looked sincere and said, “I’m sorry.” It was like having a “Get out of jail free” Monopoly card.

When my apology failed to produce the desired results, I spruced it up. I would put my apology in a tuxedo, and my wife would be so grateful that I would get another reprieve.

Given my personality, I had lots of opportunity to practice making apologies. Ultimately I created a formula. It’s for the bigger offenses or for smaller offenses that you have repeated so often they’ve created a lot of tension with your spouse.

Five Step Formula For a Really Good Apology

1. Describe your offense. This is necessary so your partner knows exactly what you’re apologizing for.
2. Describe what you think is the effect on your partner. This display of empathy is comforting to the other person.
3. Describe why you did what you did. This reassures your spouse that you’re on top of the problem and reduces their need to nag you about it.
4. Describe why you’re interested in changing the offensive behavior. This demonstrates an understanding of the big picture that as couple you’re a team.
5. Describe a self imposed penalty for not changing. This one is the clincher. Think of an appropriate penalty for your offensive behavior, and tell it to your spouse. Tell them that if you don’t change you will impose the penalty on yourself. This reassures them that you mean business.

I encourage people to write their apology. Writing it out first or writing it and then giving it to your mate has several advantages:

1. You can collect and refine your thoughts. It is very difficult to think through an apology on the fly, especially if your angry partner is on the offensive.
2. You will be heard all the way through. Nobody will interrupt and start yelling at a spouse when they are reading an apology.
3. You avoid the hostile questions that often interrupt you when you start speaking the apology. These negative questions have the nasty effect of derailing your good intentions and then you just have another argument which demands another apology.
4. You avoid the raised eyebrows and squinting eyes during the apology which just derail you again. (See the last sentence in number 3.)
5. It looks like you have given this some serious thought (which might even be true).
6. You don’t have to sleep on the couch tonight.

Putting It All Together

1. Honey, I’ve been thinking about your comments that I don’t follow through consistently when I say I’ll do something. I apologize for that.
2. Being inconsistent means you can never be sure whether I will follow through or not. I imagine it keeps you on edge and wondering if you should “remind” me or not. If you don’t speak up you run the risk that I won’t follow through and then it is too late to take corrective action. If you do speak up, you run the risk of coming across like a nag.
3. I hate to admit it, but when I agree to something, sometimes it’s just to get you off my back. I think, “well, I’ll do it if I get time.” But if it’s something I really don’t want to do, often I simply don’t make the time. I’m also unreliable when my priorities collide with yours–and my priorities too often prevail. This means I really haven’t thought much about us being a true team where we can each count on the other to follow through.
4. I actually have some interest in improving my reliability. I would feel more aligned with my higher intentions about being a good partner, and we could probably have more fun together.
5. Finally, I want you to get off my back as a policeman to make sure I follow through. Both of us will feel better about that. So when I don’t follow through or give you a timely warning (stuff does happen) then I will work on cleaning the garage the following weekend for at least two hours every time I blow it.

My book, “Tell Me No Lies,” includes some helpful insights about apologies. For more information or to order, visit The Couples Institute.

May all your apologies be little ones.
bio = Peter Pearson, Ph.D., and his wife Dr. Ellyn Bader, are founders of The Couples Institute in Menlo Park, CA. Since 1984, they have helped people create extraordinary relationships. Authors, speakers, and therapists, they have been featured on over 50 radio and TV programs including “The Today Show” and “CBS Early Morning News.” For more information and to subscribe to their free monthly newsletter, “Love that Lasts,” visit The Couples Institute.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Everyone has something they’d like to change in their partner. Here is a 7-step process to create a change in your partner. The key to the success of this process is that it makes your partner want to change, instead of feeling coerced.

1. MAKE A LIST of the top three behaviors your partner does that annoy you. For example, leaves messes around house, pouts, doesn’t do their share of household tasks. Then select the one problem that has the best chance of your partner responding to your discomfort. You’ll increase your chances for success dramatically by focusing on one problem at a time. Let’s go for a big one here and say the problem is that your partner is not involved in household chores.

2. DESCRIBE THE PROBLEM in clear detail. This includes what your partner does and your reaction to the problem. For example: “Honey, there is a problem I need to discuss with you. When you come home from work and start reading the mail, change your clothes, or turn on the news without looking around and noticing the kids are cranky, squalling for dinner, and I’m really busy making dinner, I see you as a blind and insensitive clod.”

3. DESCRIBE YOUR REACTION to the problem. “When you act so oblivious, I think you care much more about responding to your own needs first and foremost, and you pitch in only when it is convenient for you. I feel angry, alone, and resentful. When I feel that way I end up being chilly to you and withdrawing any affection. I don’t like how I react but that is what I have been doing.”

Here is the “formula” for describing the problem.
A) You have specified the behavior of “not being involved in household chores” by giving specific examples.
B) You have given your reaction to it by stating: “when you do (the behavior) I think_____ (you’re inconsiderate…) and feel _____ (angry, alone, resentful), and then I do _____ (withhold affection). It is important to let your partner know what your complete response is to the behavior that is a problem. Especially let them know what you do when you think and feel the way you do. This really informs your partner of the consequence to them when they do the undesired behavior. Include in your reaction the meaning of the problem for you. For example, lack of involvement in household tasks represents not being loved, respected, or valued.

4. BE EMPATHETIC. Tell your partner why you think it would be hard for them to change the undesired behavior. This lets them know you see the problem from both perspectives and that you have an appreciation for what you’re asking them to change. For example, “Honey, I think pitching in when you get home would be difficult because you feel depleted and want some time to yourself in order to regenerate. I think pitching in at the level I want is a lot to ask of you.”

5. DESCRIBE HOW YOU WILL HELP. Because you’re not just going to make a request and then hope for the best, the next step is to describe what you will do to help your partner make the change you want. For example, “Honey, your pitching in when you get home is so important to me that I will do _____________ .” (Fill in here what you think will be a high motivator for your partner to make the requested change.)

6. ASK IF THEY ARE WILLING to make the change you’re requesting. Are you willing to get involved in household chores? They may agree to all or part or none of your request. They might say “no” to you but would be more willing to consider the change if you offered a different motivator or inducement to change. Then you can decide if it is worth your efforts.

7. FIND OUT WHY. Regardless of whether they are willing to change or not, ask why. Knowing why they are willing to change will help you understand what motivates them. You’ll be able to encourage them more effectively along the way. If they don’t want to change, finding out why not will help you determine how to move forward. In that case you still have two more options. One, you can ask if this is a temporary or more permanent position. If it seems there will be no change for now, let them know the consequences-how you think, feel and act-and then drop it for now. The second option is to go to the second problem on your list and repeat the sequence described above.

Of course the biggest improvements in a couples’ relationship come when both people change and grow. But there are often things you’d like your partner to change, and this format helps you do it in a way that supports both of you. If you’d like more help, consider attending “Coming from your Heart” at The Couples Institute. Here you will learn lots of practical, innovative strategies for relationship improvement. For information or to register visit The Couples Institute.
bio = Dr. Ellyn Bader, and her husband Peter Pearson, Ph.D., are founders of The Couples Institute in Menlo Park, CA. Since 1984, they have helped people create extraordinary relationships. Authors, speakers, and therapists, they have been featured on over 50 radio and TV programs including “The Today Show” and “CBS Early Morning News.” For more information and to subscribe to their free monthly newsletter, “Love that Lasts,” visit The Couples Institute.

Popularity: 16% [?]

When is the best time to buy real estate? When buying real estate for investment, smart money does not buy at, or near, the top of the market. Smart money buys real estate at, or near, the bottom of the market.

Historically, real estate often runs in cycles of approximately 7-10 years. Real estate often goes up (sometimes dramatically) for several years, tops out, goes down for several years, hits bottom and then starts going up again, beginning another 7-10 year cycle. It’s a bell curve (shaped like a hill). And, when you are considering investing in real estate, you can simply figure out where you are on that 7-10 year bell curve and that can tell you in what direction real estate values are likely to go, and for how long.

note: this is the average historical method and does not take into account prolonged or dramatic upward or downward swings (bubbles or crashes).

If you are investing in real estate for a relatively short term gain (such as 3-7 years) and you buy at or near the top you could see the value of your real estate go down and you would historically have to wait approximately 7-10 years to see it regain its value and/or establish new highs. If, on the other hand, you are buying real estate to hold it for a long period of time (such as 20 years or more) you need not generally be overly concerned with these up and down 7-10 year cycles.

And when it comes to highly volatile New York or California real estate all normal timing and logic goes out the window!

For real estate investment timing:

1. try to buy at the low end of the current 7-10 year cycle

2. try to sell at the high end of the 7-10 year cycle

3. if you are in the wrong part of the current 7-10 year cycle, and can wait, a little patience can pay off handsomely

4. real estate is not a highly liquid investment; getting in and getting out takes t-i-m-e

5. in a real estate bubble or crash it’s better to be safe than sorry

6. New York and California real estate often does not conform to the typical cycle (and thus may defy timing as well as logic!)

bio = Alan Korber is a real estate investor with over 25 years of professional experience who wisely diversifies into other investments. He is also the creator and publisher of the Korber Strategy, a simple and successful stock market investment strategy which can produce annualized returns of 50%-100%. His website is http://akorber.r8.org

Popularity: 4% [?]

eb Content provider launched launched with great success. This web content provider is now building its roots and providing writing services for a numerous number of web sites.

>From copywriting services, to keyword article writing, articlesandcontent.com promises to make a revolution in the web content providing industry. Hiring only top notch writers, their prices are incomparably competitive. Web marketers are increasingly looking for content for their websites. Original content is a big plus to every site, it not only keeps your visitors satisfied but it also gets you noticed on search engines, by having a good keyword density on your websites textual content.

Articlesandcontent.com provides ghostwriting services and article writing on any topic you chose. Their writers are prominent researchers and they can write about any topic you give them. They also offer an amazingly fast turnaround time and all the article rights are assigned to you the client. Web content writing is a fast growing market and artcilesandcontent.com plans to grow with this market.

The joint owners of this company, John & Emma Thompson, plan to take this company forward in a number of ways. Not happy with being static, John & Emma decided to gather more quality free-lance writers and move to a business to a different level. John says articlesandcontent.com is still a young company but we are very optimistic. We already have some stable clients and are putting all our efforts in marketing our services.

The competition in the \’web content\’ providing industry is healthy but articlesandcontent.com is a family oriented business and their prices are almost ridiculous for the job they do.

They research read and gather useful information so they can assemble a well written, informational article for your web site. Articlesandcontent.com is already planning to become a leader in its field and promises to always keep its ethical values high. In the SEO era, a website needs good and keyword-rich content, if it wants to be noticed.

That is the whole philosophy of ArtciclesandContent.com: You will get noticed with quality original content.

www.articlesandcontent.com
bio = Writer – Coder – Designer

Popularity: 3% [?]

You are welcome to use this article on your website or in your newsletter as long as you reprint it as is, including the contact information at the end. Website URLs must be active links. You are welcome to use this article with an affiliate link, http://www.freeplants.com/resellers.htm

EASY FALL PROPAGATION TECHNIQUES
As a home gardener, fall should be a very special time for you. Fall is the best season of the year for plant propagation, especially for home gardeners who do not have the luxury of intermittent mist. The technique that I am going to describe here can be equally effective for evergreens as well as many deciduous plants.

The old rule of thumb was to start doing hardwood cuttings of evergreens after you have experienced at least two hard freezes. After two hard freezes the plants are completely dormant.

However, based on my experience it is beneficial to start doing your evergreen cuttings earlier than that. So instead of doing “by the book” hardwood cuttings you’re actually working with semi-hardwood cuttings. The down side to starting your cuttings early is that they will have to be watered daily unless you experience rain showers. The up side is that they will start rooting sooner, and therefore are better rooted when you pull them out to transplant them.

To prepare an area in which to root cuttings you must first select a site. An area that is about 50% shaded will work great. Full sun will work, it just requires that you tend to the cuttings more often. Clear all grass or other vegetation from the area that you have selected. The size of the area is up to you. Realistically, you can fit about one cutting per square inch of bed area. You might need a little more area per cutting, it depends on how close you stick the cuttings in the sand.

Once you have an area cleared off all you have to do is build a wooden frame and lay it on the ground in the area that you cleared. Your frame is a simple as four 2 by 4′s or four 2 by 6′s nailed together at each corner. It will be open on the top and open on the bottom. Just lay it on the ground in the cleared area, and fill it with a coarse grade of sand.

This sand should be clean (no mud or weed seed), and much coarser than the sand used in a play box. Visit your local builders supply center and view each sand pile they have. They should have different grades varying from very fine to very coarse. You don’t want either. You want something a little more coarse than their medium grade. But then again it’s not rocket science, so don’t get all worked up trying to find just the right grade. Actually, bagged swimming pool filter sand also works and should be available at discount home centers.

Once your wooden frame is on the ground and filled with sand, you’re ready to start sticking cuttings. Wet the sand the day before you start, that will make it possible for you to make a slit in the sand that won’t fill right in. In this propagation box you can do all kinds of cuttings, but I would start with the evergreens first. Taxus, Junipers, and Arborvitae.

Make the cuttings about 4″ long and remove the needles from the bottom two thirds of the cuttings. Dip them in a rooting compound and stick them in the sand about an inch or so. Most garden centers sell rooting compounds. Just tell them that you are rooting hardwood cuttings of evergreens.

When you make the Arborvitae cuttings you can actually remove large branches from an Arborvitae and just tear them apart and get hundreds of cuttings from one branch. When you tear them apart that leaves a small heel on the bottom of the cutting. Leave this heel on. It represents a wounded area, and the cutting will produce more roots because of this wound.

Once the weather gets colder and you have experienced at least one good hard freeze, the deciduous plants should be dormant and will have dropped their leaves, and you can now propagate them. Just make cuttings about 4″ long, dip them in a rooting compound and stick them in the bed of sand. Not everything will root this way, but a lot of things will, and it takes little effort to find out what will work and what won’t.

This is a short list of just some of the things that root fine this way. Taxus, Juniper, Arborvitae, Japanese Holly, Blue Boy/Girl Holly, Boxwood, Cypress, Forsythia, Rose of Sharon, Sandcherry, Weigela, Red Twig Dogwood, Variegated Euonymus, Cotoneaster, Privet, and Viburnum.

Immediately after sticking the cuttings thoroughly soak the sand to make sure there are no air pockets around the cuttings. Keep the cuttings watered once or twice daily as long as the weather is warm. Once winter sets it you can stop watering, but if you get a warm dry spell, water during that time.

Start watering again in the spring and throughout out the summer. The cuttings should be rooted by late spring and you can cut back on the water, but don’t let them dry out to the point that they burn up.

By fall you can transplant them to a bed and grow them on for a year or two, or you can plant them in their permanent location. This technique takes 12 months, but it is simple and easy.

bio = Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter.ÿ

Popularity: 4% [?]

Many businesses in today’s competitive markets have gained an
edge by using fax broadcasting to get their sales messages to
important customers before the competition does.

In fax broadcasting, volume is the key to success. Once a company
has a successful fax broadcasting program underway, they can
supercharge their sales results by bumping up the volume of their
fax broadcasts. High volume fax broadcasting takes their sales to
a new level, and gets their marketing messages to a much larger
audience.

High Volume Fax Broadcasting Makes Your Message More Cost-
Effective One advantage of high volume fax broadcasting is access
to volume discounts. Fax broadcasting is just like other forms of
marketing communication when it comes to price. The more you do,
the cheaper it is per unit. Fax broadcasting can run a company in
the neighborhood of about 20 cents per fax in some cases, where
the fax recipients number in the thousands. But if that same
company jumps up their fax broadcasting efforts to a new, larger
high-volume fax broadcasting program, targeting hundreds of
thousands, or even millions, the cost per contact can drop
dramatically.

High volume fax broadcasting can sometimes result in a cost per
fax of 3 cents or lower.

With a lower cost per fax, a high volume fax broadcasting
strategy can actually reach a larger audience with the same
dollars that may have been previously spent on multiple fax
transmissions, each with smaller volumes.

Logic would seem to indicate that your budget is better served by
generating smaller fax broadcasts, one at a time. But the reality
is actually the reverse. With the volume discounts available
through high volume fax broadcasting, the goal should be to do
the biggest fax broadcast to the largest audience you can afford
all at one time.

The discounts will mean that your same annual advertising budget
will make it possible to reach a much greater number of customers
with your fax advertisements, compared to the company’s fax
broadcast results prior to instigating a high volume fax
broadcast strategy.

The bottom line for fax advertising is – bigger is better. If
you’ve been a little timed about bumping up the volume of your
fax broadcasts, thinking that you were conserving and stretching
your budget with smaller, repetitive fax broadcasts, guess again.
You need to take your fax advertising to a new level with high
volume fax broadcasting.

Only then will you begin to really stretch your fax advertising
budget dollars. You’ll get the best bang for your buck, and land
your message in the hands of a much larger audience, too.

bio = Chris Bradley is V.P. of 3Cent Fax Broadcast.com, where they help business save money and increase profits with their do it all fax service, where they do all the work and you can concentrate on your business. To learn more about their money and time saving service by clicking here … broadcastfax.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Are you a successful over-achiever? Considerable research has been done about the characteristics that typify the successful business owner. Most experts who have studied the subject tend to agree that the most important single factor is an overpowering need to achieve. In other words, a person’s attitude seems to be the main determinant of success in business, more so than education, intelligence, physical attributes, or having a pleasing personality. The key characteristics that have been found to be part of the makeup of all successful over-achievers are:

1. Powerful need to achieve — which should not be confused with a mere need to exercise power or be liked or admired; the way in which different entrepreneurs “keep score” in assessing their level of achievement varies, and may range from accumulating great wealth to creating a better mouse trap;

2. Perseverance — the characteristic trait of following through on commitments and not abandoning objectives when difficulties are encountered;

3. Positive mental attitude — the self-confidence in one’s abilities that allows a person to remain optimistic in new, unfamiliar and unexpectedly difficult situations;

4. Objectivity — an ability to accurately assess the risks associated with a particular course of action, including a realistic understanding of one’s own capabilities and limitations. This includes being willing and able to abandon an ill-advised project without having ones’ ego get in the way.

5. Foresight — the ability to anticipate developments and be proactive, rather than constantly having to react to problems after they arise;

6. Well-developed personal relations skills — being cheerful and cooperative and able to easily get along with people, but often without being close to employees and associates;

7. Strong communication skills — the ability to communicate well in written form and in making effective oral presentations, either one-on-one or before groups;

8. Resourcefulness — an ability to solve one-of-a-kind problems in unique or creative ways, including the ability to handle problems for which you might not have had previous training or experience to call upon;

9. Technical knowledge — broad and well-rounded technical knowledge and understanding, especially with regard to the nuts-and-bolts physical processes of producing goods and services

10. A respectful attitude towards money — a tendency not to look upon it as an end in itself, but to view it as a means of making things happen and accomplishing business goals, or as a type of objective feedback from the outside world, which lets the entrepreneur know if is on the right track with the business.

So, there you have it…10 successful business traits. If you see yourself in this list, then we will be seeing you at the top!

bio = Michael (Mike) Brassil is author of “The Only Business Start-Up Guide Your Will Ever Need.” Download two chapters — Starting a New Business and The Home Working Revolution — at: http://www.ImpactGuide.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

Everyone has hair on their face. Some women have facial hair that is very fine and can not be seen, while others may have darker hair on their upper lip. Facial hair especially for women can be very embarrassing and they try all kinds of things for unwanted facial hair removal.

The different things you can do include shaving, which is not something most women desire doing on a daily basis, waxing to remove unwanted facial hair, plucking, or even a type of laser surgery.

Waxing and plucking unwanted facial hair can be very time consuming and very painful for many women. Laser surgery or any other type of medical treatment can be very expensive. So, what is the answer for the average woman? That is easy – a facial epilator.

These wonderful new inventions are great for removing unwanted facial hair – usually lasting for 4 to 6 weeks. There are many new designs that are so easy to use, fast, and very effective. You can find several epilators for under $50 that will have you hair free in just minutes.

You can find the perfect epilator for unwanted facial hair removal that will provide you with smooth and silky skin. These epilator use heads that have tweezer discs that gently pull the hair out by the root. This is why you will be hair free for longer periods of time. They are designed to hold the skin in place for easier removal of even the tiniest hairs with pain reduction. The idea is to hold the skin taut for less pain and most epilators will do just that for unwanted facial hair.

You can search online and find many wonderful epilators designed especially for dealing with unwanted facial hair. You will be able to compare and find corded, cordless, compact, perfect design for all the contours and curves of your face, and usually at a bargain.

bio = As a beauty consultant Nicola Kennedy is always evaluating new products. Visit her site at http://www.epilator.info for the Best Resources, Views and Information to help you choose the Best Facial Epilator for you.
Copyright c Epilator.info. All rights reserved. This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and the live links are included intact.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Excerpted from the book “Your Right to Be Beautiful: How to Halt the Train of Aging and Meet the Most Beautiful You” by Tonya Zavasta. The book is available at: http://www.beautifulonraw.com

All of my life, I wanted to be beautiful. In today’s society, it is more acceptable to insist that you are “beautiful on the inside”, unfortunately, those of us on the outside are not seeing your insides. Wanting to be beautiful is now criticized as being shallow. I’m sorry but I would rather be perceived as shallow than hypocritical because I find it impossible to believe than any women is content to be less than she can be.

Personal initiative is a powerful force in achieving goals and attaining wealth. What about beauty? Are we desperately helpless here, or is there a way to bring it under personal control? I believe we have as much leverage in becoming beautiful as we have in accomplishing anything else we set our minds to. But we have not been looking in the right places for beauty.

The most inspiring books about becoming wealthy are written by people who have made it from rags to riches. However, advice on becoming beautiful often comes from those blessed with exceptional beauty to begin with. For a woman born beautiful to teach others how to become beautiful is like a sweepstakes winner teaching people how to earn a fortune through hard work. Is there a means for achieving beauty for those of us who are not big winners in the gene lottery?

Good news! It is biologically possible to look beautiful at any age. If you do not see yourself as beautiful, it is because your beauty is unclaimed. Your body has never been given a chance to reveal how it can look when provided with the best possible nourishment and care.

Some of our physical characteristics we cannot change-they are determined by our lineage, food choices our mothers made during pregnancy, and our environment. Oriental diagnosis has noted that small eyes are caused by consumption of cooked vegetables and animal products during pregnancy and early childhood. Large eyes, on the other hand, are caused by intake of raw vegetables, fruits, and fruit juices. Long eyelashes in a child indicate the intake of substantial amounts of liquids, raw vegetables, and fruits by the pregnant mother.

These things we cannot change. We can change much, however, by the consumption of a raw plant diet as an adult. This diet will make a difference in weight, complexion, and the texture of skin, hair, and nails. All of these traits and more are determined by our daily choices, with food being one of the most important-and one we have full control of.

Our bodies’ natural ability to renew cells means that your body is capable of improving your looks. After all, we were designed to bloom continuously as old cells are replaced by new ones. The raw food diet makes the most of that rejuvenating ability. Rawsome beauty is not manufactured from the outside; it is cultivated from the inside by nutritionally charged food. The body responds with alacrity to an improved diet. As the body strengthens and heals your insides, you will see your beauty starting to surface on your face and re-structuring your body.

The artistic ability of your body will surprise you. It will seem as though a sculptor is chiseling your face and body. Fat deposits will disappear from the right spots. Everything bumpy or lumpy will be smoothed or straightened. Everything dull will be illuminated. The features will be refined until a lovely face surfaces, and the skin will be polished until it glows. By revealing and intensifying what is good, the raw food lifestyle will make the best of whatever goodness you have and will open every avenue for more. This lifestyle bestows upon you an identity of your own and makes you beautiful.

Only the body sustained on raw food demonstrates natural beauty or, shall we say, “rawsome beauty.” The landscape of the body will change. Fat that has accumulated in pockets under the eyes and at the jaw will melt away. The lumpy potato look of one`s face will give way to sleek, smooth contours. Pockets of fat and retained water will disappear. The surface of the skin will become soft and smooth yet firm and supple. Visible pores will diminish. Sallow, yellowish skin will turn into a porcelain-like complexion. The whites of the eyes, once red, will become bright with a bluish tinge.

The body becomes transformed and will unfold from the inside out. While your non-raw-eating peers discover new blemishes, blotches, and moles on a nearly daily basis, you will see your own skin irregularities gradually fade or disappear. Feeding your body raw food will make your eyes, once sunken in bulbous flesh, look larger and rounder by eliminating the surrounding puffiness and by firming the eyelids. Eyebrows that were beginning to form an awning over the eyes will regain their youthful arch. As natural collagen production improves, it will fill in the places where it is needed, as in hollow cheeks. It will not just patch your face, but it will improve every one of your 3,000 square inches of skin.

Raw food eating will clarify and refine your features and bring delicacy to your face. This diet will give the impression of high cheekbones. In fact, it will give the effect of a cheek implant, by providing a subtle contour to the cheek area. The blurred chin-to-neck curve will become sharper and more pronounced. Broad jaws and square jowls will slowly give way to a more desirable oval shape. Sagging cheeks will gradually become tauter and tighter. Incidentally, an oval-shaped face, high cheekbones, thin jaws, and large eyes are universally considered to be the major characteristics of a beautiful face.

As the cleansing is completed, you will see how you were meant to look. You will become satisfied, even fascinated, with your appearance. When you look your very best, you look perfect, in a sense that you are as close to the divine image for yourself as you could ever be. You accept yourself completely. Natural beauty is above conformity; it doesn’t demand to be accepted by the dictates of the beauty norm.

People who have been on the raw food lifestyle for several years begin to have an emerging radiance. The glow is hard to fake because it is basically internal. It comes from an abundance of clear pink, almost transparent, cells that light up the face. Only superior blood circulation can bring this transfiguring glow. Several years on the raw diet will give you a translucent radiance.

There are beautiful people who are not on the diet, but even they have never been as beautiful as they could be because they have not been cleansed of all toxins. Our frustration with our looks is a subconscious reaction to our innate knowledge that we have not achieved our best look. The Rawsome Diet gives us confidence that we look the way we were meant to look when we are at our most beautiful.

The best proof that raw plant eating is optimal for the body is that it makes you beautiful. Slim face, slender waist, and clear skin with smooth coloration-these subtle changes will convince you that the raw plant diet is the best for good health and graceful beauty. No woman knows her true beauty until she cleanses her body completely of all waste.

I like to study each woman’s face. I see not just how she does look, but how much better she could look. What I now see is just how far her looks fall short of her potential. I see her beauty as it would be if her body had been cleansed from all toxins and excesses. On the Rawsome Diet, you will be stunned by how the Master Artist makes the most of your individual features and brings balance to the face. Texture, hues, and shape will be re-arranged into a harmonious whole. Perfection and imperfection will be joined into a unique personal beauty.

But our imagination is limited. The perfect face is an invention of our culture. It shows human preference in particular time and place, and it is severely limited in its variety. While eye bags, puffiness, and sallow skin make faces look similarly unattractive, the variety of beauty versions, supplied by God Himself, is endless.

When your peer group is going through a stage where they think: “I am losing my looks,” you will be finding yours. At 47, I enjoy looking in the mirror, while in my youth and young adult life I detested my reflection. People who have not seen me for years often tell me that they hardly recognize me. Even my mother recently said I looked like a different person.

Adopting the raw food diet actually brings the beauty equation full circle. Finally, beauty is for everyone! We can drop the pretence. Ugly Ducklings of the world, this is your chance! It is forgivable to be born ugly, but there is no more excuse for staying ugly. Healthy foods create healthy organs. Strive to become beautiful on the inside-you will be beautiful on the outside.

“This article may be freely reprinted as long as the entire article and byline are included.”

bio = Tonya Zavasta is the raw food lifestyle expert, the author of the books Beautiful On Raw: UnCooked Creations and Your Right to Be Beautiful: How to Halt the Train of Aging and Meet the Most Beautiful You, named a 2004 Health Book of the Year Award finalist by ForeWord Magazine. In these books Tonya makes a stand as an ambassador for plain looking women in their quest for physical beauty. Firmly believing that the roots of under-performing and under-achieving lie in feeling and looking less than your personal best, she is on a mission: she wants every woman to look and feel beautiful. To learn more about how you can reveal your Rawsome beauty, visit: www.beautifulonraw.com or call 866-STAY-RAW

Popularity: 3% [?]

I know at first glance this sounds obvious, but it may be worth it for you to think about your prices. At least just for a moment.

How did you decide on your current pricing? Did you conduct market research to understand what prospects would pay? Or did you compare yourself to your competitors and base your price on that? Or was it a crapshoot, and random shot in the dark?

These are the ways most people do it, and they are all wrong. Because the price you set for your products and services is more important than you think.

The following few paragraphs are a bit number heavy, but stay with me because this will be really valuable for you to understand.

Let’s say you sell a high margin product – information products and software are two good examples. Your price is $60, and your costs are $10 – that means your gross margin (selling price – your costs) is $50 each time you sell one unit. Let’s say further that your overhead is $5,000 per month. If you sell 100 units you’ll break even, right?

Now you want to sell more, and decide you can take some business from a competitor by lowering your price – temporarily. You lower it to $40 – a 33% price cut, and not uncommon.

Your costs remain $10 and your overhead is still $5,000, only now your gross margin is $30 – 60% of what it was before. And how many units do you need to break even now? 166! That’s 66% more unit sales required to make up for the 33% price cut!

But what if you’re feeling very aggressive and you cut your price in half (also not unheard of) to $30. Now you have to sell 250 units – just to break even! That’s 2-1/2 times as many as before. How easy do you think that’s going to be?

Let’s use a different example – something that has real manufacturing costs. This time, your product sells for $100, and your cost of goods are $50 per unit, for a gross profit of $50. Same $5000 overhead, same number of units to break even. Now imagine you cut your price 20%, to $80, leaving you with $30 of gross margin. You need to sell 66% more units. Ouch!

What if you cut the price to $70. This 30% price cut means you have to sell 2-1/2 times more units – just to stay even.

Let’s go further…

Competition is really heating up and you think that matching them cut for cut is the way to go. The price for this amazing widget of yours is now a bargain basement $60.

(Shucks, that’s only 40% off your original price. Salespeople and business owners do this every day.)

How many units do you need to break even? 500.

Five hundred? That’s five times your original number.

Do you really think you can sell five times what you did before – at least without significantly raising your overhead and your variable cost of sale?

How many times have you done just this in response to competitive pressures?

How many times have you cut prices because you thought it would help you sell more?

What we’ve just done is a simplified version of what’s called margin analysis, and I hope it gives you a glimmer of what can happen when you mis-price.

For the most part, your price cuts don’t automatically enable you to sell 66% more than you did before, and generally – at least not in this universe – you don’t sell 250% more, and never, ever do you sell 500% more with this kind of price cutting.

But there is some good news – and it’s very good.

Let’s look at what happens when you raise your prices.

Remember your high-margin product. It sells for $60 and costs $10 to make.

Through good product positioning and excellent marketing you raise the price to $70. That’s only a 15% increase. Now you only have to sell 83 units to break even, and if you sell the same 100 units, your profits go from $0 to $1000. Nice increase…

And that “hard” product – the one with $50 of costs? Raise the price tag 20% to $120, your margins increase to $70, and now your breakeven drops 71, and you make $2000 if you sell the same number of them.

See how this works?

You can do this same analysis in a bit more sophisticated way, considering your marketing costs, sales or affiliate commissions, travel expenses if you have them, and so on. You can see the actual pricing effect varies quite a bit depending on these details.

If you have a high-leverage, pay-only-for-results affiliate model, a very high gross margin and almost no fixed overhead, you have a lot of price flexibility. You can cut the price 25% and only need to sell 15% more! That’s not too bad at all.

But only in that type of model. If you have a office, some staff, and a physical product – in other words, fixed overhead – lower prices can kill you – and you won’t even see it coming.

And higher prices?

They can make you rich.

By now you are starting to see the tragic effects of mis-pricing on the downside, and the marvelously enriching possibilities of raising your prices.

This only works, of course, when you can also increase your value proposition…

Stay tuned for part 2.

Follow this link at the bottom of the page to get a copy of an excel spreadsheet to play with. Get the spreadsheet, plug in your own numbers. It will really blow your mind. Also, feel free to pass this article or the spreadsheet on to your friends and associates. They will definitely appreciate it.(http://www.paullemberg.com/higher-part1.html)

bio = Paul Lemberg is the President of Quantum Growth Coaching, the world’s only business coaching franchise system built from the ground up to rapidly create more profits and more life for entrepreneurs. (http://www.quantumgrowthcoachingfranchise.com) Paul is also Executive Director of the Stratamax Research Institute, a business coaching and consulting firm specializing in helping entrepreneurial companies quickly increase short term profits for sustainable long term growth.

Popularity: 3% [?]

What is wrong with the world today, we have war torn countries battling it out against each other and the shocking sad part about it all is these people are neighbors. Then we have terrorism where we are forced to suspect everyone or anyone around us. Talk of paranoia. Muggings and murders now make the streets even your home a danger zone.

A force in themselves are the hurricanes christened with names that come and rip states apart and tsunamis that have the power to wipe out islands.
No matter what act of god has been dealt on us, it does not compensate for the heartache suffered by the relatives and loved ones of the thousands who perished.

Families where tragedy struck and where they lost a loved one it must be hard for them to accept and come to terms that god was behind this onslaught as some would see it

So much pain forced upon survivors and bereaved persons to bear when these assaults took place, causing havoc worldwide.

God has his reasons why these devastating tragic occurrences take place. Will we ever find out why he takes such actions. I believe it will always remain a mystery with no answers.

For the loved ones you may have lost to a freak of nature murder or on the battle field, those loved ones now stand proudly along side god in heaven. Will we ever find the real reason behind all the hatred and hurt that is going on in this world, do we really want to know? that is question

God holds his hand up to take the blame but gives us all back the courage to too survive an aftermath, and that is for all to unite.

When disasters strike, you notice how easy relief and aid work becomes with everyone pulling together. People that were once strangers bond with each other. It is sad to say that it takes death to get unison

Put hatred behind us and unite together with or without an aftermath then the world can be a better place.

Now that is what I call a major relief. Smile and the whole world smiles with you

http://www.benidormbeaches.com

Popularity: 6% [?]

What is lichen sclerosis and what does it look like?

Lichen sclerosis (LS) is a skin condition that makes the vulva look white, slightly shiny, and smooth. The skin’s surface becomes thin and delicate so that it tears easily. This can cause bleeding under the skin. In severe cases of lichen sclerosis of the genital area, scarring can occur. This causes the inner lips of the vulva to get smaller. The clitoris can become covered in scar tissue.

What causes lichen sclerosis?

We do not know the exact cause of lichen sclerosis. Scientists have different theories to try to explain the cause. Some scientists think that an overactive immune system may play a role in causing the disease. Some people may also develop lichen sclerosis due to their genes or to changes in hormones. Since lichen sclerosis is not caused by an infection, it cannot be spread and is not contagious.

What are the symptoms of lichen sclerosis?

Symptoms of lichen sclerosis may be different from one person to another and can be mild to severe. Girls and young women who have this disease may experience some or all of the following symptoms in the vulva area:
Mild to severe itching in the vulva area
Skin that appears fragile, pale, and/or white
Bruised skin with broken blood vessels or “blood blisters”
Small tears or fissures in the skin
Scar tissue covering the labia or clitoris
Bleeding or tearing of skin when having bowel movements

How is lichen sclerosis diagnosed?

Lichen sclerosis can be a difficult diagnosis to make. It is not unusual for someone to see more than one doctor before the disease is finally diagnosed. Most of the time, doctors who see many patients with lichen sclerosis can often make the diagnosis just by looking at the skin. However in most cases if you are in the early stages of lichen sclerosis, the doctor may have to do a biopsy (removal and examination of a small sample of affected skin) to identify the cause of your symptoms.

bio =

For more information visit The Sclerosis Info Center

David Chandler

For your FREE Stock Market Trading Mini Course:
“What The Wall Street Hot Shots Won’t Tell You!” go to: The Stock Market Genie

Popularity: 13% [?]

Google has become more than just a search engine as the result of their release of the Google API. Now developers can have seamless access many of Google’s functionality directly from within their applications to retrieve and integrate data which was formerly either unavailable or not readily accessible.

We recently had a client who is a multi-national retailer with both a physical and Internet presence. The client needed a way to acquire certain business intelligence (BI) data from the Internet on a daily basis. After several unsuccessful attempts to create this functionality themselves, they came to us for a solution.

On the surface the requirements seemed to be difficult and it was easy to see why their own IT team had failed to find a solution. They were thinking “inside the box”, however, and hadn’t considered third-party alternatives. The specifications required that the application perform all of these tasks:

Retrieve new product listings on competitor’s web sites.

Retrieve current pricing for all products listed on competitor’s web sites.

Retrieve full text of competitor’s Press Releases and public financial reports.

Track all inbound links pointing to competitor’s web sites from other web sites.

Once the data was acquired it needed to be processed for reporting purposes and then stored in the data warehouse for future access.

After reviewing current web-based data acquisition technology, including “spiders” which crawled the Internet and returned data which then had to be processed through HTML filters, we determined that the Google API and Web Services offered the best solution.

The Google API provides remote access to all of the search engine’s exposed functionality and provides a communication layer which is accessed via the “Simple Object Access Protocol” (SOAP), a web services standard. Since SOAP is an XML-based technology it is easily integrated into legacy web-enabled applications.

The API met all of the requirements of the application in that it:

Provided a methodology for querying the Web using non-HTML interfaces

Enabled us to schedule regular search requests designed to harvest new and updated information on the target subjects.

It provided data in a format which was able to be easily integrated with the client’s legacy systems.

Using the Google API, SOAP and WSDL, our developers were able to define messages that fetched cached pages, searched the Google document index and retrieve the responses without having to filter out HTML or reformat the data. The resulting data was then handed off to the client’s legacy systems for validation, reporting and further processing before reaching the data warehouse.

During the Proof of Concept phase we ran tests where we were able to reliably identify and retrieve updated public relations and investor relations information that exceeded the client’s expectations.

In our next test we retrieved the most currently available product pages which were listed in Google and then ran another query to retrieve the Google “cached page” versions. We ran these two data sets through difference filters and were able to produce accurate price increase and decrease reports as well as identify new products.

For our final test we used the Google API’s ability to access the “link:” feature to rapidly build lists of inbound links.

These limited tests demonstrated that the Google API was capable of producing the BI data that the client requested as well as demonstrating that the data could be returned in a pre-defined format which eliminated the need to apply post retrieval filters.

The client was pleased with the results of our Proof of Concept phase and authorized us to proceed with building the solution. The application is now in daily use and is exceeding the client’s performance expectations by a wide margin.

Any developer who is familiar with coding WSDL will have no problem using the Google API. Using the Google API requires a developer’s key which is available at no charge. Go to http://www.google.com/apis/ for an overview and to register for your own key.

The Google API is destined to change the way that developers retrieve data and it opens a whole new level of data mining that has never been available in the past.
bio = Chris Palau is CEO of a offshore software development company , which offers offshore software development services

Popularity: 4% [?]

Anyone embarking on the journey of yoga will face a series of obstacles, difficulties and detours. You will need to remove all of the following difficulties, noticed by yoga practitioners for a long time, in order to be able to fully benefit from the positive aspects of yoga. Here is a quick look at the nine major obstacles:

1. Vyadhi – This obstacle refers to physical or mental illness. Practicing yoga si even more difficult when you are not in great health. A balanced, healthy life style ensures victory on this obstacle, by preventing any form of sickness.

2. Styana – The second major difficulty related to yoga refers to an advanced state of apathy, which interferes with you willingness to commit to your responsibilities. We neglect and avoid practice by procrastinating and this, in turn, leads to coming up with excuses for not doing our work.

3. Sanshaya – One other major interference in the practice of yoga is related to the issue of doubting the benefits of practicing it. This problem also arises when faith in your own capabilities is low. This leads to a deviation from the original goals, making you more susceptible to outside interference.

4. Pramada – When lack of persistence and will is notices, the 4th yoga obstacle comes in place. Yoga requires a unique approach, as it is a combination of arts and sciences. If you practice yoga without the proper emotional and mental states, you may turn its positive aspects into negative ones.

5. Alasya – A lazy and inert state of mind and body will prevent you from receiving yoga’s full benefits. Most people have a hard time dealing with their own will power, creating the perfect conditions for this obstacle to appear. The road to success is hard most of the times and a strong will power can support your ascent. A passive approach, on the other hand, will almost certainly lead to a slow and ineffective advance.

6. Avirati – Physical objects hold a magnetic attraction to the majority of people. Yoga needs you to let go of these ropes that tie you to the material world and make progress in the realm of the spirit. Removing the weight of physical things is vital while practicing yoga.

7. Bhrantidarshan – Misunderstanding the path you are taking while practicing yoga can lead to disappointment. Avoid this by keeping your hopes in good contact with reality.

8. Alabdha-bhumikatva – We are often victims of our own discouragement. When a failure occurs we fall into a state of self-depreciation and low optimism levels. Failing to reach a step on your road to achieving your ideal can lead to aggravated forms of this obstacle.

9. Anawasthitatwa – Poor yoga practice may also lead to the incapability to reach and hold a higher level of consciousness. This can be frustrating and result in disappointment.

Overcoming these obstacles is possible by helping your mind to focus on single elements a one time. Do not allow any of these obstacles to increase in power, as the others will soon follow. The passing of time and a strong will and commitment is usually very effective in dealing with the 9 yoga obstacles.

bio = Gavin Dye is the author and webmaster at http://www.yoga-supplies-4u.com where you can find out more about the health benefits of Yoga, and information on how to start practising Yoga

Popularity: 3% [?]

Leading Web site design packages have a serious contender called XSitePro, a new software package geared toward the rapidly expanding world of Internet marketing.

XSitePro is a new web site design package that creates entire web sites, not just individual pages, with ease.

Unlike leading web design programs, XSitePro approaches the whole process of site design from an online marketer’s perspective, incorporating easy-to-use features that differentiate XSitePro from other site design software.

“We are confident that XSitePro offers the alternative to Microsoft’s FrontPage and Macromedia’s Dreamweaver that Internet marketers and other web designers are looking for,” says Paul Smithson, president and CEO, of Intellimon Ltd. “Our customers can create professional Web sites in a fraction of the time it would take them using other web design software.”

XSitePro users don’t need to know how to write code to create a professional quality web site. Anyone who has word processing skills can create web pages using the built-in “What you see is what you get” page editor.

Users will also find that XSitePro is a great program for keeping their web sites updated after they have been created. Using the page layout feature it is possible to change the whole style of a site in minutes rather than days. You no longer have to settle with existing designs, or be intimidated by the workload of redesigning your sites.

“It is refreshing to see the product designed from the ground up for marketers,” says Ed Keay-Smith of AdWords Marketing. “I love the built in automation of affiliate and Google AdWords links.I have now chosen to use XSite Pro over FrontPage as my major money making website builder.”

Here are just a few of the great features that this software offers:

-Add Google AdSense ads with just two clicks of the mouse, adding extra income streams with little effort.

-Hide unattractive page urls by creating redirect pages that automatically forward visitors to alternative locations.

-Include navigation menus that automatically update themselves whenever new pages are added.

- Use the 130,000 word built-in spell-checker to guarantee spelling mistakes do not occur on any pages.

-Split long documents into multiple pages that include complete page navigation menus.

-Keep track of all of the essential information regarding web hosting, which means users will never forget any important information such as usernames, passwords, mail server details, etc.

-Export sites into other Web design programs, such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver.

XSitePro also assists users with optimizing their Web sites for the search engines. Users can designate keywords that are automatically added to the meta tags of every new Web site or Web page created. They can also measure if they have used keywords the correct number of times on each page and quickly make corrections so that they maximize the chance of ranking well in search engines.

You don’t need to worry about backing up your data either as the software can back-up all your web site work to a single file in just one mouse click.

In my opinion XSitePro is definitely one of the most exciting software packages to have been released in recent years.

You can find out more XsitePro by visiting their web site at http://www.xsitepro.com

c Michael Jones. This article can be reprinted, used in newsletters or on web pages as long as it is credited to Michael Jones, it appears in its entirety and the resource box below is included.
bio = Michael Jones has been reviewing the latest releases for computer magazines since the early 1980s. His specialties are CAD, web design, and expert systems. Michael can be contacted by email on michael1jones@hotmail.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

How To Determine your customer’s value
By Abe Cherian
Copyright c 2005

This literally can be the most profitable thing you’ll ever
do for your business and that is to understand exploiting
the actual value of your customer. It’s been called the
Marginal Net Worth and the Lifetime Value.

What is the current worth of one of your customers or
prospects? It’s the total profit of an average customer
over the lifetime that they do business with you. That
includes all subsequent sales minus advertising/marketing
and your fulfillment expenses.

Let’s say the average customer brings you $75 per sale.
They re-purchase 3 more times in a year. Their average
order amount is $300. On each $300 reorder, you make $150
gross profit The average life lasts 2 years. Every new
customer is worth $975.

You reach the 975 by adding the $75 initial profit to the 3
other purchases each year of $300. Only $150 is profit, so
$150 times 3 equals $450. If they do that for 2 straight
years, that’s $900 plus the original $75.

If this is our average customer and they’re worth $975 in
profit and it only costs you $30 through your advertising/
marketing expenses to get them, every time you spend $30
you receive $975 back .

You would be foolish not to increase your advertising/
marketing and promotional budget to produce as many of
these $30 cost customers so you would spend $30 over and
over and over again to get $975 back

Theoretically, you could spend $975 to get that customer
because you know they will come back and spend $975 and you
will break-even. Of course, we don’t want to do this.
Remember, this is an average customer. Some will buy more
and some will buy less This is an average number.

Now you “know you can spend up to $975. You could just as
easily be spending 100% of your $75 profit just to get that
first sale because that’s just the first sale’s profit, and
you’ll still end up with $975 over the next 2 years.

If you offered to give that $75 service for free and it
doubles your customers, it “would double your profits over
the next 2 years.

One in 100 business owners think about this You want to
spend everything you can justify to bring in a customer as
long as that customer costs you less than they earn you. If
you can’t afford to spend more than the entire profit from
the first sale, remember you’ll be making money just in a
few months from them. Start out spending what your cash
flow can justify. After a quarter or several months after
their re-order profits come in, then you can step up your
ad budget

bio = Abe Cherian is the founder of Multiple Stream Media,
a company that helps online businesses find new
leads and more customers without spending a fortune.

http://www.multiplestreammktg.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

The last decade has seen many changes, one of them being the amazing involvement of individuals in baseball fantasy leagues as well as other fantasy sports. There are no specific rules for baseball fantasy involvement; however an unspoken rule for you to be successful at baseball fantasy games is for you to have a real appreciation and interest in real baseball. These simple steps will help you start a baseball fantasy league that you will really enjoy playing with the whole season.

Baseball Fantasy Step #1 Calling all Teams
The first baseball fantasy step to creating a league is getting your teams together. This basically means you need to get 8-12 friends together to create teams. Remember, if you have less than 8 teams or more than 12 your season will not be as enjoyable. The suggested 8-12 baseball fantasy teams mean you will be able to have a competitive season.

Baseball Fantasy Step #2 Elections
Every baseball fantasy league needs a commissioner, or someone who is in charge. This person will be responsible for compiling each team’s statistics on a weekly basis and distributing them to all of the players. Be sure you elect a commissioner who is responsible and takes the position seriously.

Baseball Fantasy Step #3 One League or Two
This can be a tough decision, but it must be made. This is the decision of whether or not to use only one league or both the American and National Leagues.

Baseball Fantasy Step #4 The Draft
Acquiring players can be done in many different ways, and the best way for your baseball fantasy league to do this is what works best for all teams. Sometimes a draft works, other times an auction, decide what works best and then stick with it.

Baseball Fantasy Step #5 Rules
Each league has rules so far as statistics and how points are accumulated. Whatever rules apply to your league make sure all teams are aware and follow the rules.

Baseball Fantasy Step #6 Have Fun
Remember to have fun and enjoy your baseball fantasy league. This has been going on for years and millions of Americans really enjoy this activity. Some play for money, some play for trophies, and others simply play to win. Whatever you choose to play for, make sure all teams are in favor.

bio = Jay Moncliff is the founder of http://www.baseballcenter.info a blog focusing on the Baseball, resources and articles. This site provides detailed information on Baseball. For more info on Baseball visit: http://www.baseballcenter.info

Popularity: 9% [?]

Credit cards are there to put you in debt and keep you in debt. When they do it, they have one tool at their disposal that is more effective than all the others. It’s called the minimum payment.

What’s a Minimum Payment?

Your minimum payment is the absolute minimum that you must pay off each month to avoid defaulting on the debt. If you don’t pay your minimum, they’ll come after you – but don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s just fine to only ever pay that much.

Why are Minimums Bad?

They never used to be. Minimum payments used to be set at relatively high percentages, anywhere from 5% to 10%. This meant that you paid more, but your debt would get paid back faster.

Credit card lenders realised, though, that they could set the minimum payments lower, and collect a smaller amount of money each month for a much longer period of time. This would let them tell people that debts on their cards were `affordable’, while they raked in the cash over the long term, thanks to the power of compound interest.

Here’s an Example.

Let’s say you owed $1000 at an interest rate of 12.7% per year (1% per month). Your minimum payment is 5% per month. Remember that your payment goes towards the interest first, and then the debt. In this example, $10 out of the $50 you paid would disappear as interest – but $40 would still go towards paying off the debt, meaning that your debt the next month would be $960.

What happens if you change the minimum payment to only 2%? Well, the difference is enormous. Sure, you’re only paying an `affordable’ $20 – but $10 of it is still going on interest. That means that your $20 has only paid back $10 towards the debt, and you still owe $990!

There are so many people who just look at the interest rates they’re being charged, and don’t understand the terrible difference it can make if you only ever pay the minimum payment. In our example (which is relatively typical), 50% of the payment was going on interest – meaning that paying the minimum gets you an effective 50% interest rate, even though your APR was only 12.7%. For higher interest rates, it only gets worse: there are cards out there where only making the minimum payments will actually cause you to owe more each month, not less!

So What Should You Do?

The answers aren’t fun, but they are true. Firstly, look for a card with a high minimum payment – this is a good way to discipline yourself into paying off the debt faster.

Secondly, always pay more than the minimum if you can afford to. I know it feels like money for nothing, but isn’t it better to pay it now and get it over with, instead of paying it for the rest of your life?

bio = Roger Davis creates websites and articles to help you to save money with credit cards. Please visit http://www.quickcreditcardguide.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

Is there such a thing as painless hair removal?

There are several types of hair removal products and systems that we can purchase today, but the biggest complaint has always been the pain of removing unwanted hair especially in sensitive areas such as under the arms and the bikini line. There are a few painless hair removal systems but most of them are expensive and time consuming.

Shaving is the most popular hair removal system because it is totally painless. It is very easy and does not cost a lot in supplies. But, you will have to shave every other day to keep your skin smooth. Waxing is another method that many women use, but this hair removal system can be very painful. Plucking the unwanted hair is also an alternative, but this take time.

Electrolysis has become popular among some women but it is also a painful experience. Electrolysis requires multiple sessions in order to achieve the desired hair removal results. Several women also use an anesthetic to aid with the pain. Laser hair removal is the most popular for hair removal which is still painful. Some only complain of a heat sensation, while others feel a type of bee sting. Both of these methods are very expensive and time consuming.

The most economical way for a painless hair removal system is by using epilators. Well, let’s say not quite completely painless but better than any of the other options!

Epilators are now designed for a reduction in pain while ridding even your most sensitive areas of unwanted hair. The hair will be removed by tweezer type discs that will pull the hair by the root. This is done very quickly while holding your skin taunt for less pain. This is the fastest and most economic way to rid your body of unwanted hair and is almost painless hair removal.

bio = As a beauty consultant Nicola Kennedy is always evaluating new products. Visit her site at http://www.epilator.info for the Best Resources, Views and Information to help you choose the Best Epilator for you.
Copyright c Epilator.info. All rights reserved. This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and the live links are included intact.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Traditional banking has always been a brick and mortar building where you go to deposit or withdraw money. However, the banking Internet sector has exploded in the past five years. You may not be aware of what banking Internet actually is, and it can be a bit confusing because it has so many names from online banking to PC banking as well as electronic banking and banking online.

With the popularity of the Internet and the power it gives people to take control of their lives, many traditional banks have created banking Internet web pages where customers could transfer money, set up bill payments recurring or otherwise, quickly check items that have cleared, and many other functions that can be accessed 24 hours per day 7 days a week. This banking Internet option has been very popular not only for customers who want to have some control over their account without having to go to the bank but for banks as well whose man hours have been freed up from performing simple tasks like balance inquiries, account transfers, and the like because the customer does it himself with banking Internet.

Banking Internet options also include virtual banks. This is the truest form of banking Internet simply because these banks only exist online. Banking Internet options have become popular because they save customers time and money, which is a very trendy combination. Banking Internet which only exist online means you will have to transfer your money to the new account or else mail a payment via check. Since the whole idea of banking Internet is to make banking as easy as possible, most banking Internet sites will allow you to make a transfer from a brick and mortar bank to the banking Internet site as often as you like with no charge or a small fee.

When you utilize banking Internet options you are able to access your account, move money, pay bills, and any number of things from any computer with Internet access worldwide. This is amazing and makes traveling a lot less stressful as well because with banking Internet you always know where your account stands.

bio = Jay Moncliff is the founder of http://www.become-your-own-banker.com a blog focusing on the Banking, resources and articles. This site provides detailed information on Banking. For more info on Banking visit: http://www.become-your-own-banker.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

If you work from home you don’t need me to remind you that there is a price to pay for this luxury. You may save on rent but you have to work hard to keep a balance. If your work space starts to get mixed up with your living space then in the worst case scenario you can end up unhappy at home and unhappy at work.
Putting the problems with your physical work space to one side, what about your virtual work space, your virtual office?
If you also work online then you will know that sometimes information is stored on paper (hard copy) and sometimes it is stored on your PC and sometimes it is stored on both mediums. But as your business grows, so does the amount of information that you need to store.
What then becomes critical is the organisation of your information. This article aims to highlight just how important it is to be organised when managing your files and folders on your PC.
I can’t give you a script-like formula because every different person will have different methods but the most important thing that applies to everyone is to realise just how important this part of the job is.
If you choose to learn the hard way (as I did) then you will come to a complete dead end, struggle to make money online and you will realise that -

1. You must use consistency when naming folders. Every seperate individual can use different wordings and techniques (as long as you work alone) but you must consistently use them throughout to organise your folders and files on your PC and on your server. This is a good habit which can be used throughout the different areas of your work, such as on your websites.

2. If you don’t know where to start, just remember that the ideal system is based on logic. For example this is a quick example of one of my folders -
Top folder – Work
1st level down – Folder1 – Work in progress, Folder2 – Completed work
2nd level down in folder 1 – Folder 1 – Articles, Folder 2 – eBooks
2nd level down in folder 2 – Folder 1 – Articles, Folder 2 – eBooks

This is just a quick example. You may have many more folders (branches) in the tree and I’ve made it a simple example just to demonstrate the point. You’re probably thinking, “So? That’s obvious” and it’s meant to be. My point is that if you look at your folders you will more than likely find that they have ‘lost the logic’ somewhere along the line. Which leads me nicely to point three……

3. Even the most organised person needs to regularly ‘spring clean’ their folders and sweep away the ‘dust’. It’s a horrible job but it’s got to be done. When your physical office is untidy it is somewhat easier to get around to doing the tidying up. Once you can’t find anything or can hardly open the door then it is easy to decide that it’s time for a tidy up. But it’s not so easy to get around to spring cleaning the PC and the effects of an unruly ‘virtual’ filing system is much more destructive to your ‘work from home’ business.

4. Don’t be scared to create a system that seems to have too many folders. For some reason the human brain is naturally more likely to avoid having too many folders than it is to avoid having unorganised and poorly named folders. But this is back to front.
When you are managing your folders remember that when you get to a point where you are about to split a folder and create two from it, it is always preferable to do this than not. If a little voice in your head says, “Don’t split them, you’ll have too many folders if you carry on like this” – just ignore it and split the folders! This is an example -

You have a folder called widgets which you have created to contain any information that you find/create on widgets. You swipe an article on widgets by someone else plus you write your own article about widgets. You find some text that you want to keep because it teaches you stuff that you need about widgets and you also buy an eBook about widgets.
There are two important things to consider -

1. It is better to create four new folders in the widgets folder than to just throw all four items in the folder. Why? Because it might seem when there is only four items that it doesn’t matter, but you can be sure that in a short while you will have thirty different items in there and the whole thing becomes a mess. So go and create four folders which could be named -
a)other people’s (widget) articles
b)my (widget) articles
c)(widget) swipe file
d)my widget study purchases (for the eBook)

2. Sometimes before you create the new folder system, you may have to make decisions. For example, using the above widget example – after you have dealt with widgets you may go on to do similar studies of a hundred other products. Then you will end up with a hundred different folders, each concerning a different product.
This may be OK, but it may also be better to have all the articles by other people in one folder for all the different products, all the swipe files in one folder etc. The point is again that there is no hard and fast rule except for these two golden rules of folder management -

1. Do allow the time for this organisational task. It is important and it always takes twice as long to go backwards and reorganise it once it descends into chaos.

2. Try to think ahead and design systems that will work at the moment and will more than likely work in the future as your business grows and changes.

Remember – being organised may be boring but it’s possibly the most vital but most undervalued hidden ingredient of every successful online business.
bio = I’m not an internet marketing guru. I’m just an ‘average Joe’ who loves to write . To learn more about Roger Davis please visit my work from home website.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Even during vacations we are still attacked by outside stressful factors which can ruin a very promising vacation. Vacation stress is a rather antagonistic expression but it is real and it can cause serious upset. There are countless reasons to get angry during your vacation: poor services, bad weather, high prices, noisy tourists, annoying insects and the list can go on an on. Yoga offers several methods of reducing the effects of such negative elements in the form of meditation, sakshin, pratyahara and pranayama.

Meditation is also a recommended practice when vacation stress factors become active. Meditation helps you prepare for any potential stressful situations and is invaluable during and after these obstacles are gone. A detached state of consciousness that allows you to get a better understanding of the realities around you is referred to as sakshin. Pratyahara is a state of peace obtained by reducing to a minimum all outside intereferences. The mind gets calm and relaxed, focusing towards the inside of your own body. By using pranayama you are able to calm yourself in almost any difficult situation by regulating your breathing and thus harmonizing the energies in your body.

Being prepared for any stress factors is vital for a successful vacation. Anticipating a potential problem doesn’t mean worrying about it before hand. It means that when the problem does occur you should already have a good understanding of why it happened. You will always get much better results by addressing an issue with a clear and calm head, rather then acting on an impulse.

When a situation occurs try to “step out” of your body and see yourself in that particular setting. Objectivity is hard to reach, especially when it comes to your own self, but it helps to get a neutral perspective on things. Directing an action by the guidelines of an objective mind will prove more successful than jumping in head first into a situation. Concepts like “I couldn’t help myself” should be constantly discouraged from your own vocabulary and thoughts. Take control of your inner self and you will have better control of what’s outside your body in the surrounding world. You should first feel you body’s reaction to an outside element and only react afterwards, when a clear judgment dictates what to do. Breathing techniques are of great help when it comes to relaxing an impulsive spirit and bringing calm to a particular event or situation.

You need to interrupt the actions of your subconscious mind before you are able to take control of a situation. Initial responses are hasty and often very hard to avoid, but it is essential that, through practice, you get a constant feeling of control over your reactions. The first reaction to a negative element can be either that of fighting back or that of fleeing. In any of the two cases a considerable amount of tensions fills you body, and it could be days or weeks before you manage to get over this unfortunate event. A calm and balanced response has chances of eliminating any sort of tension before it even gets a chance to start growing. Remember that most vacations are short and you can’t afford to spend half of your stay in a negative mood. After all, you are there to try to recharge your energy, not to try to waste it on meaningless tensions.

bio = Gavin Dye is the author and webmaster at http://www.yoga-supplies-4u.com where you can find out more about the health benefits of Yoga, and information on how to start practising Yoga

Popularity: 3% [?]

45 year old Judy revealed in an anger management class that she was constantly angry at her husband. When asked why, she revealed that her aged mother lives next door and she always felt conflicted whether to spend time with her husband or her mother after work.

She loved them both, but resented her husband’s becoming demanding and upset when she spent needed time with her mother instead of being with him. Judy revealed that she dealt with the situation by ignoring her husband when he expressed displeasure – with disastrous results. These included constant bickering and tension in the home as well as emotional distance from each other.

How much better the outcome would have been had Judy used basic skills of assertive communication.

What is assertive communication?

It is a way to communicate to your family your rights, feelings and needs- but in a good way. It is a method of letting family members know where you stand on things and what your limits and boundaries are.

Assertive communication allows you to clarify communication and stand up for yourself without making things worse or getting a negative result or response from your loved ones.

Four Steps to Assertive Communication:

Step 1- Send clear messages

Turns out Judy had never clearly told her husband how she felt when he put pressure on her to spend time with him instead of her mother. When she did discuss it, she hemmed, hawed and stammered with almost no eye contact.

As a result her husband was not getting a clear message. To communicate clearly, look at your posture and your facial expressions, as well as your hand and arm movements. Pay special attention to your tone of voice which can say volumes beyond your words.

Step 2 – Learn how to listen

Assertive people have developed their listening skills. While hearing is done with your ears, true listening is done with your heart. To be a better communicator, start by becoming a better listener.

Step 3 – Start the conversation with “I feel” rather than “you should.”

Words have tremendous power to determine how other people experience us, and how they respond to an issue.

For this reason, people with good assertive communication skills focus on the problem behavior (and not the character of the person), stick to the point, don’t use labels, and make “I” statements rather than “you” statements.

Judy tried this with her husband and it worked very well. Here is what she said: “Honey, I love you and want to be with you, but I also need to be with my mother now. Could you get along without me for a hour a night? I’ll try to always be back by 8:30 PM.”

Step 4 – Acknowledge your part in the conflict or issue

Anger is often an escalating process, involving two people who create a negative feeling in each other, sometimes instantly and sometimes over a long period of time.

It is natural to blame another family member entirely for the problem, especially when we are angry or in a defensive mode.

But, once we return to normal, the assertive communicator is able to accept some of the responsibility for the conflict. This acceptance and acknowledgement of your contribution to the problem is an indication of emotional maturity and can create an entirely different atmosphere between conflicting family members.

Try saying the following things to promote communication:

- My reactions were too extreme. I’m sorry. – Even though I still feel I was right about the issue, my reaction wasn’t right and I apologize. – I never thought of things that way. – Let me start again in a different way. – I can see my part in all this.

To Judy’s delight, when she practiced saying some of these things to her husband in a loving way, he began changing too. Almost immediately, he became less demanding, more understanding, and more aligned with her so both of them could better care for her aging mother.

2005 c Dr. Tony Fiore All rights reserved.
bio = Dr. Tony Fiore (www.angercoach.com) is a So. California licensed psychologist, and anger management trainer. His company, The Anger Coach, provides anger and stress management programs, training and products to individuals, couples, and the workplace. Sign up for his free monthly newsletter “Taming The Anger Bee” at www.angercoach.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

Here are my TOP 10 AD Copy Tips……

1. You could add some sub-headlines in your ad
copy. Sub-headlines act just like headlines; they
grab the reader’ s attention. They’ll keep the readers
interested as they continue to read your ad. They
are almost like transitions or copy connectors; the
sub-headlines will interest and carry the reader to the
next part.

2. You could ask your readers questions throughout
the ad copy. They will answer the questions in their
own heads as they read your ad copy. The questions
you ask should persuade the readers into buying.
People have been taught to automatically answer
questions in school, from their parents, from friends
and from authoritative figures.

3. You could highlight keywords throughout your
ad copy. The keywords should be attractive to your
target audience. You could highlight them with color,
underlines, italics, etc. You could also repeat key-
words one after another. For example you could say,
“This is a soft, soft, soft rug.”

4. You could bullet or indent your benefits in your
ad copy. Most people won’t read the whole ad
copy, so make your product’s benefits stand out
and you won’t lose the sales from all the skimmers.
You can also indent other things like your guarantee,
postscripts, testimonials, closing, etc.

5. You could change the size of your text in your
ad copy. You want to make your text large enough
so it’s not hard to read. You also want your headline
and major points to be larger so they will stand out.
You could also use more space in between important
parts of your ad copy to make them stand out.

6. You could raise or lower the price in your ad
copy. A higher price could increase the perceived
value of your product and a lower price could
lessen your product’s value. Either way, you need to
test which price will pull the most orders. Another
idea would be to use an odd number like $19.46
instead of $19.99, $19.95 or $19.97. It makes it
look like there is a specific reason you priced it like
that.

7. You could add proof of results in your ad copy.
You should include testimonials, endorsements and
factual statistics to prove your product’s claims. You
should only publish statements that are believable
and have specific results. For example, here is a
good line from a testimonial, “I increased my sales
by 678%!”

8. You could add special offers in your ad copy.
It’s usually easier to sell the offer than the product.
You could use discounts, free bonuses, volume
sales, etc. For example, you could say, “You’ll get
5 bonuses when you order by Aug 24, 2002!”
Another example, “Buy one, get the second one
half price off.”

9. You should eliminate the hard-to-understand
jargon on your ad copy. Unless your product calls
for technical words, you want your ad to be read
without people pulling out a dictionary. If you need
to use a word your target audience might not under-
stand, define it or use an example to help them
understand it.

10. When you ask someone to sign up to receive a
freebie, don’t ask for really personal information.
This is a fast way to lose a potential prospect. For
example, if you ask them for information they want
to keep personal, they might not want sign up.
Another example, if you ask for too much inform-
ation, they may not have the time or patience to fill
it all out.

With these 10 Tips your AD Copy NOW has the equipment
to conquer the little challenges that you will
encounter and that most marketers with stumble over.
Start implementing these tip to work for you so that
your Online AD Copy will make the sell for you……..

bio = ==============================================
Know the Truth about Online Marketing NOT
the HYPE! Finally the Truth is Told at the
eMarketing TIPs 4 You Blog! No More HYPE….
(c) Randy G. Hutchings – All Rights reserved

http://emarketingtips4u.blogspot.com/

==============================================

Popularity: 8% [?]

Jim, a 42-year old engineer was teaching his eight-year-old son how to fly a radio-controlled airplane. As the airplane was taking off, Jim instructed his son to push the control stick on the radio to the right. He did and the airplane turned to the right.

This was repeated several more times until the airplane turned full circle toward the son, ready to land. “Push the stick to the right,” said Jim. This time, however, the plane turned left. “Push the stick left,” Jim said. Now the plane turned right, as if it suddenly had a mind of its own.

“I’m confused,” said the son. “How do I know which way to push the stick when the plane behaves differently depending on if it’s flying away from me or toward me?”

“It’s simple,” said Jim. “Simply imagine you’re in the plane and push the stick accordingly.” This cured the problem.

What a great lesson in empathy – the ability to experience the world from another perspective, often the perspective of another person.

As an anonymous English author wrote: “To empathize is to see with the eyes of another, to hear with the ears of another, and to feel with the heart of another.”

Why is empathy important? The real world bottom line is that lack of empathy leads to poor communication and a failing to understand others. Lack of empathy leads to all sorts of problems in our world. Nations go to war, people are killed, couples divorce – all for a lack of empathy and understanding.

It is natural to become angry when frustrated or irritated with people who do or say things at variance with our worldview.

To manage anger, it often helps to see our anger as a combination of their behavior and our lack of empathy. While we cannot control other’s thoughts, feelings or behaviors, we most certainly can increase our empathy skills.

To control our anger with increased empathy, three basic skills are required: listening, self-awareness and acceptance.

Empathic listening is a type of listening that goes further than ordinary listening. This type of listening uses another person’s point of view to see the world as others see it. It provides a higher level of understanding of how others feel.

Self-awareness occurs as you better understand your own thoughts and feelings. You are then better able to understand the thoughts and feelings of someone else. The more open we are to our own feelings, the more skilled we become at reading someone else’s feelings, and generally the less angry we feel toward them.

Acceptance, on the other hand, is the ability to see that others have a right to their “ridiculous” feelings. We must allow people to have feelings without telling them how they should feel. W cannot stop others from having feelings.

Empathic people understand that feelings are difficult to control. When we accept others as they are, it simply means that we understand that they are doing the best they can at the time. Remember, if they could do any better, they probably would.

Acceptance of others’ feelings is not easy when people act differently than we do. We all have difficulty with those who are different. By learning the skill of empathy, we will be better able to understand ourselves and others.

Here are five simple rules to be more empathetic.

1. Pay attention to the feelings that others express. Watch for both verbal and nonverbal clues. Try to understand the message behind the words and actions.

2. Place the feelings of other’s ahead of your own. Put aside your own needs and ideas long enough to listen to another’s point of view.

3. Communicate your understanding. Respond or give answers to the messages you receive to show you understand them.

4. Do not interrupt. Let speakers finish what they are saying before you talk.

5. Ask for more information. If you still don’t understand, ask more questions until you fully understand.
2005 c Dr. Tony Fiore All rights reserved.
bio = Dr. Tony Fiore (www.angercoach.com) is a So. California licensed psychologist, and anger management trainer. His company, The Anger Coach, provides anger and stress management programs, training and products to individuals, couples, and the workplace. Sign up for his free monthly newsletter “Taming The Anger Bee” at www.angercoach.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

Even as a child, James was described by teachers and his parents as a happy optimist. As the story goes, one day his parents decided to play a joke on him and test his attitude by requiring him to spend an afternoon cleaning deserted stables at what had been a local racetrack.

Returning after two hours, James’ parents observed him singing while happily shoveling manure. Astounded, they walked closer, only to hear him saying to himself over and over, “There has to be a pony in here somewhere.”

James did naturally what researchers are increasingly discovering: optimistic thinking skills are a powerful antidote to anger partly because the optimist has better resistance to depression when bad events strike, better performance at work, better physical health and better relationships. Who couldn’t admire and love a person with such a great attitude?

But what if you are not naturally optimistic? How can you become an optimist if you now insist on seeing the glass as half-empty instead of half-full?

The good news is that, according to psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman, optimism is a learned mental skill. As a past president of the American Psychological Association, he has plenty of research to back up his theory.

There are four ways to argue with yourself:

At its core, optimism is a style of interpreting events that occur in your world – it is your personal theory or explanation of why both good things and bad things happen to you.

While everyone experiences both set-backs and victories in the normal course of life, optimists – in contrast to pessimists – have a very distinct style of explaining things to themselves.

Said another way, it is your belief about what happens to you that determines your reaction more than the event itself.

The knack of disputing your beliefs is a thought-skill, the mastery of which will morph you into the optimistic style of thinking. There are four ways to do this:

1.) Look at the evidence. According to Dr. Seligman, the most convincing way of disputing a negative belief is to show it is factually incorrect.

Most of the time you will have `reality’ on your side. Your role is that of a detective as you ask, “What is the evidence for my belief?”

For example, is it really true that you never succeed in anything? (Very doubtful. Everybody succeeds some of the time.) That you are the worse parent you know? (Can you remember any success you had as a parent?)

That you are an incurable glutton? (Can you sometimes resist food?) That you are incredibly selfish? (How many times have you been unselfish?)

Using this skill of looking at the evidence, you can defeat pessimism with more accurate perception and recall of what is really true.

2.) Consider alternative causes. Most events in the world have more than one cause. Pessimists latch onto the most insidious; optimists tend more to give themselves a break.

For example, a marital breakup usually has many causes which probably contributed to its downfall. You can blame yourself. You can blame your partner. A more optimistic interpretation is that neither partner failed as an individual; it was the relationship (the combination) that failed.

3.) Put events into perspective. If the facts are not on your side and you cannot honestly see other causes to a negative event, you will need to look at the implications of your beliefs to become an optimistic thinker.

Is the event really as catastrophic as you may be making it in your mind? (Hint: few things are). Usually, the implications or long-term effects of your misfortune aren’t as awful or devastating as you may be seeing them.

4.) Is your belief useful? Even though a belief may, in fact, be true, it may not be useful. Some beliefs cause more grief than they are worth. You may tell yourself you are a failure, for instance. This belief will likely cause you to stop trying.

Instead, substitute a more useful belief like “Just because I failed once doesn’t make me a failure.” Then behave accordingly with your new belief.

By learning to use optimism, you can manage anger and improve your health. These four steps will help you overcome your negative tendencies and have a more optimistic view of life.

2005 c Dr. Tony Fiore All rights reserved.
bio = Dr. Tony Fiore (www.angercoach.com) is a So. California licensed psychologist, and anger management trainer. His company, The Anger Coach, provides anger and stress management programs, training and products to individuals, couples, and the workplace. Sign up for his free monthly newsletter “Taming The Anger Bee” at www.angercoach.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

PH Balance (Potential Hydrogen) and a Healthy body!!
Please read to save your Health!

Do you have any of these illness or symptoms?

Beginning stage of low Ph Balance you may see …..

Acne,Agitation,Bloating,Cold Hands & Feet,Food allergies, Hard to get up in the morning, Lack of Sex drive,Mild Headaches,Panic Attacks,Rapid Panting Breath,Asthma,Cold Sores

Intermediate stage of low Ph Balance range you may see…
Colitis,Depression,Excessive Hair Loss,Fungal,Infections,Hives,Migraine Headaches, Numbness & Tingling,Stuttering,Swelling,Urinary Infection

Advanced stage of low Ph Balance range you may see…

Arthritis,Cancer(AllForms),Crohn’sDisease,Hodgkin’s Disease,Learning Disabled,Leukemia,Lupus,Multiple Sclerosis,Schizophrenia,Tuberculosis

If you do, then you have a low Ph balance in your body which is causing these problems. Read on to see how you can change your PH balance and help you live a longer and healthier life!

What is Ph Balance and why is it important?

pH is the abbreviation for “potential hydrogen”. It is the measure of the acid level in your body fluids. The higher the pH reading, the more alkaline and oxygen rich the fluid is. The lower the pH reading, the more acidic and oxygen deprived the fluid is. The pH range is from 0 to 14, with 7.0 being neutral. Anything above 7.0 is alkaline, anything below 7.0 is considered acidic.

Alkalinity is anabolic (builds up) and acidity is catabolic (tears down). Acid/Base Balance in the Body The pH of blood is under very tight control. The normal range is from 7.35 to 7.45.

Fact: The pH level (acid – alkaline measurement) of our internal fluids affects every cell in our bodies. Extended acid imbalances of any kind can overwhelm your body.

When the pH of the body gets out of balance (too acidic), we may experience low energy, fatigue, excess weight, poor digestion, aches and pains, and even more serious disorders.

How improve your PH Balance in your body?

Your body is like a fish tank, In which your body needs to be at a healthy state to stay healthy.
The pH scale is from 0 – 14
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 healthy 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

The process of restoring pH balance begins with proper diet and nutrition. This includes eating alkalizing foods (vegetables, low sugar fruits, etc.), super hydration (drinking plenty of ionic, structured, alkaline water), and proper supplementation.

When you experience the magic of pH balance, you’ll rediscover vibrant health and energy. A body in balance is full of vitality, and is lean and trim. You’ll find that you have mental clarity, and you’ll even notice that your skin has regained that healthy glow. Simply put, a body in balance functions properly, and operates optimally.

Our bodies are alkaline by design and acid by function. Maintaining alkalinity is essential for life health and vitality. All leading biochemists and medical physiologists have recognized pH or acid/alkaline balance as the most important aspect of a balanced and healthy body. They have long known that the maintenance of an alkaline pH is critical to cellular health.

The quality of drinking water which has surface water as its source is steadily deteriorating because of pollutants and acid rain. Even ground water is becoming acidic.

Food that are alkaline that will help you stay at a alkaline state are as follows….Almonds,Apples,Apricots,Avocado,Bananas,
Beans, dried Beets,Blackberries,Brazil nuts,Broccoli,
Brussels sprouts,Cabbage Carrots,Cauliflower,Celery
Chard,Cherries,sour Chestnuts,Coconut(fresh),Collard greens,Cucumbers,Dates,dried Figs,dried Grapefruit,
Green beans,Green peas,Lemons,Lettuce,Lima beans,
Limes,Millet,Molasses,Mushrooms,Muskmelon,Onions,
Oranges,Parsnips,Peaches,Pears,Pineapple,Potatoes,
Radishes,Raisins,Raspberries,Rutabagas,Sauerkraut,
Soy products,Spinach,Sprouts,Strawberries,Tangerines,
Tomatoes,Watercress,Watermelon

Products that can help increase your Ph Balance to a alkaline state are Coral calcium supplements, dehydrated goat whey mix, Kyo-green powedered drink mix, and there are others; which you can find at a health food store or

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Food that put you in an acid state, which can cause illness are…………….
Acid Ash Foods

Bacon,Barley,Beef,Blueberries,Bread (most),Buckwheat
Butter,Carob,Cheese,Chicken,Codfish,Coffee,Cola,
Corn,Cranberries,Currants,Eggs,Flour products,
Haddock,Ice Cream,Honey,Lamb Lentils,dried
Lobster,Macaroni,Mustard,Oatmeal,Olives,Oysters
Pasta,Peanuts,Peas, dried Pike,Plums,Pork,Rice,Salmon
Sardines,Sausage,Scallops,Shrimp,Squash,winter Sugar,
Sunflower seeds,Tea,Turkey,Walnuts,Wheat,Yogurt

To maintain a healthy Ph Balance, eat the foods that are alkaline based, take supplements, drink clean water. There are Ph balance strips on the market which allow you to test your Ph level too. I hope this information help because I know it has help me to do these things to keep me healthy. http://www.moreinfo247.com/9063400

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