Online Fun and Business

Work, meetings, deadlines, appointments, telephone calls,
shopping, taking the dogs out etc. - all these are things most
people have to accomplish daily. Most of the times, on the
waiting list there are other things like: family, friends and
even ourselves. Sometimes we discover too late that the points
mentioned on the waiting lists are, in fact, the most important
and, unfortunately, sometimes, we don’t realize this at all, so
find ourselves wondering for what reason we are so unhappy.

There are different books and seminars that help us find out
what the best option for managing our time is. All these sources
are against enemies and they intend to offer you the best
solutions to eliminate it for good, or at least to reduce it
drastically.

All this people know that time is more than money - time means,
first of all, life and, more than that, it means our lives. That
is way we have the obligation not to surrender in stressful
situations and to go fighting for the joy of living. Let’s not
forget also that deficient management of time can produce
tremendous health problems, both at the physical and mental
level.

But there is good news! Time can be domesticated - we can make
it, in certain manner, obey us. First step in implementing this
process is to identify the elements that robe your time.
Normally, they are divided into two groups:

- The external factors (unexpected phone calls, very long phone
conversations, unplanned visits, the policy of open doors, not
sufficiently trained personnel, frequent meetings, interruptions
caused by colleagues, friends and family etc.)

- The internal factors - related strictly to our own persons
(priorities and objectives that change, the lack of a daily
working plan, lack of self imposed deadlines, the tendency to
take care of too many things at the same time, disorder,
lateness in resolving the conflicts, incapacity of saying no,
lack of decision, tiredness).

By reading the above enumeration, you probably pictured recalled
all the similar situations that you went through. Now, all you
have to do is to find a way to defeat and eliminate them, so
that you can be the mater of your own time again. Here are three
possible ways in which you can do that:

- Get used to write everything down. It is useful, especially if
you have a bad memory. Otherwise you might fail to remember to
go to important meetings, to make important phone calls, to
answer messages you promised you would answer. You can also
write down great ideas and inspirations that occur to you in the
most unexpected moments.

- Make a list of priorities. It takes you very little time to
draw it and you can even do it while you’re having your morning
coffee. Write down, the things you need to do that day, in the
order of their importance and urgency.

- Learn to say no. One big mistake that a lot of us make is that
we put other people’s problems in front of ours. Nevertheless,
by helping them in a bad moment for us, we give rise to
frustration, stress and we find ourselves unable to respect
previous engagements.

All these advices are also present in Jean-Louis
Servan-Schreiber’s book New art of time against stress and they
invite us to meditate that more than a weapon against stress,
time management is also a philosophy of life.

The first step to financial success lies in knowing your financial situation at any given time. There is an anecdote attributed to John D. Rockefeller–that as a child he was given a monthly allowance from his parents, but upon stipulation that he had to save 10% of it, give away 10% to charity, and account for the rest of it. While his parents required that he record down to the penny where he spent it–you can be a bit more lenient on yourself!

Track your spending for 1-2 full months

Use a program like Quicken to keep track of all your personal finances. I recommend the latest version of Quicken or a similar financial program if you already own one. You should start out by entering in your present-day personal checking account, savings, investments, and cash situation.

To complete this step, you will also need a cheap plastic filing container or something similar. You can purchase these for about $15 at Office Depot, etc. As you make payments, keep track of all the receipts you receive, the checks you write, and any other monetary transactions you make. Like I mentioned earlier, you don’t need to be exact when it comes to cash–just try to be, as much as you can tolerate.

At some later time, at your leisure, enter all this transaction data into Quicken. As you do so, put the purchasing receipts into the file folder under the appropriate Category. Make separate labels for each of the file folders– I suggest some of the following:

1. Personal

2. Household

3. Charitable

4. Books & Education

5. Dining Out

6. Business Expenses

7. Taxes

8. Misc.

You can also add your own categories or remove some as appropriate. At this point, you may be wondering why you have to do all this. For the moment, just trust me that it will be beneficial to you (I will explain it later on). Also, it takes a grand total of about 10-15 minutes per week to do what I just described. The next section, Budgeting, will take a little longer. But budgeting also requires that you need to at least perform the first step mentioned above, that is, keeping track of what you currently spend.

Planning your Budget

I can already hear what you are going to say–oh no, not a budget! I don’t like them either, because they tend to reign in my emotional spending or “I gotta have it” mentality. The truth is, you are the master of your financial destiny (not to sound corny, but its true for the most part). If you want to buy that fancy knickknack with the wireless PDA attachment downloader, then by all means, get it. But if it doesn’t serve your needs in the long run, then you will have wasted $X dollars to serve your fleeting emotional desires. Besides, you will notice after tracking your budget for several months where the real money is flowing. You might buy a fancy computer toy only occasionally, at $200+ dollars, but eating out at lunch everyday + dinner with the girlfriend at fancy restaurants all the time is leaving you broke. How about going to bars? I like to drink, but a beer at a bar or nightclub can range from $4-$10. It’s probably even more if you live in areas like San Francisco or New York.

Anyway, the point of planning your budget is just to get a better grasp on directing the flow of your money. I’m not saying that you should totally change your lifestyle or even change it at all–but if you are complaining about not having enough then there are certain things you should do, mainly spend less. It will be described later the benefits of saving & investing your money (which you probably already know anecdotally, but perhaps do not have extensive experience personally).

Good Luck!

About The Author

Shanti Braford

Editor/Publisher

The Long-Term Value Letter

http://www.ltvinvest.com/

Many internet marketers have heard about the traffic that article marketing can bring to a website. Yet, when they try it themselves, they find the results less than rewarding. With article marketing becoming more and more well-known as a FREE (or very cheap) way to quickly gain lots of inbound links to a website, the value of it cannot be over-emphasized.

However, as this trend grows, so does the population of articles that are available. With the inherent competition, article distributors and newsletter editors, are becoming more selective toward the articles they accept. Since they are in the driver’s seat, the sensible thing to do is find out what it is they need, as well as the most efficient way to offer that to them.

Below are 9 tips that include everything from offline preparation, to Byline Do’s & Don’t’s. Each is designed to make the process as efficient and painless as possible. Included in the byline is a link to a current list of approximately 100 submission sites and recommended submission services.

1. LIKE A GOOD SCOUT, BE PREPARED
There are several items each distributor will need regarding each article submission. Preparing these beforehand, as part of the writing process, will make the submission session flow smoothly. The list below includes everything needed to submit an article:

– Title. Like the name of a website, a Title is, was, and shall always be the articles first advertisement. This is true for editors and distributions as much as those who will eventually read it. Though there are many articles devoted to this subject alone, the most important thing to remember is: short and to the point. The faster people can understand what the article is about, the faster they can decide if they’re interested. And never, never use a deceptive Title. Though it may gain some attention, in the long run, the editors will mostly remember being disappointed by you.

– Synopsis or Abstract. This is a short description of the article, which is usually only one or two sentences long. Many distributors even have a byte or character limit for it. Respect that limit. If your synopsis exceeds it, the system will probably just cut off the last few words. The synopsis is used by the distributor to promote the article on their article listings. It is the short “blurb” that explains a little more of the article.

– Key words. Like the keywords for a website, these keywords must be relevant to the subject. For example, the keywords used for this article were: business writing, article marketing, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, article submission, newsletter distribution. They all relate in some meaningful way to the overall subject. There needn’t be more than four or five phrases. These will be used, not only within the database searches, but with major seach engines, too.

– Body. Most distributors also have a limit on the amount of characters/bytes for this, but are usually generous with this amount. Respect that amount. If your article exceeds these limits, edit it appropriately.

–Byline. This is the little box at the bottom of the page that is “About The Author”. The reason it’s called a “byline” is because this is who the article is “by”, i.e., who wrote it. Keep this short, too, but be sure to include any background that is pertinent to the subject and could deem you an “expert”, as well as your profession and a link to your site is needed. Again, there are limitations on these, which vary according to the distributor. Generally, if it’s brief (like mine, below), no one will object.

Once all of these items are written and edited the article is ready for submission. It’s also a good idea, before beginning to make a short template that includes all these items, then save it as something like, “basic_article.txt”. But–

2. THE RIGHT “PROCESS”
Everyone has their own favorite word processing program. And most are fine to use with submission sites. Word is so completely ubiquitious, most sites assume writers will use this. However, while the distributors do accept these platforms, that doesn’t mean they can accept all the formatting included with them.

Generally speaking, formatting should be kept to a bare minimum. I use silly old Notepad (yeah, that little WP accessory that’s available in every copy of Windows). It forces me to forget about formatting. Since an article must be adaptable to many different types of formatting, keeping ITS formatting plain allows a larger amount of distributors to accept it. The last thing one should expect is for the distributor to have to take the time to re-format an article. That is not part of their job. It’s part of the writer’s.

Also, if using Notepad while writing an article, turn the Word Wrap feature “ON”. But while submitting it, turn it “OFF”. This simple step can save hours of re-formatting for each submission site and is another good reason to use Notepad. Always remember: coding-BAD.

3. DITTO WITH HTML
Though most email now accepts HTML coding and many even include it automatically, this does not mean that the programs used in article distribution are included in that equation. This is another excellent reason to use something like Notepad, since there is a minimum of unseen or invisible coding. Any type of coding may transfer poorly and cause an article to look more like a cyptogram than legible writing. Remember: Coding-BAD. No Coding-GOOD. A few distributors will not even allow such common characters as quotation marks or asterisks. One good substitute for this is CAPITALIZED words, which also work well to replace a bold or italisized word.

Up to this point, the tips have been about the preparation process. The following refer to the actual submission process.

4. THE GOOD GUYS VS. THE BAD GUYS
Especially for the ambitious writer who is always doing Google searches for new article sites, it should be noted that not ALL submission sites are reputable. For some reason, some people begrudge even a simple byline as payment for providing valuable content and will “overlook” several key essentials. Any reputable site (and most of them ARE) will offer three services to the author: a byline segment, the ability to preview the finished article as well as edit the article AFTER it has been submitted. For those who don’t, for whatever reasons, a writer may include a top byline within the Title, as well as the bottom byline within the body of the article. But ONLY for those that do not provide a place for them. Otherwise, you articles will come out looking silly — and may be passed over — for having doubled this content.

5. PICs OF YOU
Some submission sites ask for a photograph of the author. Though many people shy away from cameras, this is an additional security measure against plagarism, especially if the photo is included with each article. So consider keeping a relatively recent photo on file on your computer. Most that do ask for this require that the photo be a relatively small file, so keep it simple.

6. AFFILIATE MARKETING OR BIZ OPPS?
Choosing the right category during the submission process is another key ingredient to success. Most newsletter editors only skim through the categories pertinent to their area of interest. If a submission site has no relevant categories, skip it and go on.

7. EMAIL INCLUDED?
Until recently, including a professional email address in the byline would be advised. However, with the increase of email address security issues, this is becoming less common. If using an email address at all, use one that is not directly associated with a privately owned website.

8. ORGANIZATION EQUALS EFFICIENCY
The first, crueling session of article submission (with the emphasis on “mission”) can be daunting to a budding enewsletter author. However, if the time is spent wisely, it can be an investment that will pay for itself with each subsequent article.

When submitting to sites, create a folder in the “Favorites” or “Bookmarks” portion of your browser. For each successful submission, remember to add the link for that site to your folder. Also, edit each one, putting the username for that site and password in the link so that, when clicked on it, it also has this information available. And, to save steps later, be sure the link goes to the sign-in page (for those requiring membership) or directly to the submission site (for those without). Once this system is in place, and the article includes all necessary items, the whole process should only take a short time.

9. BYLINE DO’S AND DON’T’s
DO: Adjust your byline according to the article and promotion. For instance, though my main work is now internet marketing, I’ve also worked extensively as a crafter. If I decided to write an article about crafting, I would revise it to include that information. Otherwise I leave it out. Also, since I represent several different companies, I choose the company most closely related to the subject. Turning that thinking around, one could also write articles that would specifically promote different sites.

DON’T: If A submission site does not allow HTML in the byline, do NOT USE it. Type the URL in its entirety. Some sites simply don’t have the technology to support HTML. There are also several free services that will provide short urls or URL scramblers, if there is any concern about security.

DON’T: include more URLs than allowed. Some sites do not specifically state a limit, but most do not want to more than two or three.

DO: As an added security measure against plagarism, always put your initials right at the end of the article, as I do, below. This is an old offline writing habit, which was typically used in newspaper work to identify to the typesetter which articles belonged to which authors. Online, it prevents the plagarist from copy/pasting the text without being detected.

Finally, and above all, respect whatever rules or requirements each submission site has, for your own sake as well as theirs. Remember, as more and more people learn the value of article marketing, competition will continue to increase. So, as you submit regularly to sites and they come to count on you for good, professionally submitted content, they will appreciate you and your efforts.–mo

Marige O’Brien works as a writer, web designer and Internet Marketer.
Visit her Website, Tracker Mo’s Den for her latest recommendations and a list of over 100 current article submission sites. Other articles by Marige can be found
on her blog, Tracker Mo’s Finds.

Can This Dog Be Saved? A Perspective On Bad Dog Behavior

You love your dog and you feel committed to keeping him in your life, but sometimes you wonder how much more you stand. You feel as if you’ve tried everything and your at your wit’s end.

If this describes your current relationship with your dog, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that there may still be hope to turn things around. The bad news is you may not be the one who can do it.

There really are no ‘bad dogs’. However, there are dogs who have been abused, dogs with physical illnesses and ‘psychiatric’ problems, mistrained dogs and dogs that simply aren’t a match for their current owners. Knowing which kind of dog you have on your hands is crucial for determining your next course of action.

First, ask yourself if there’s any chance you might be part of the problem. Did you educate yourself on dog training methods? Did you take your dog to professionally run training classes? Are you one-hundred-percent sure you know how to handle your dog’s breed and temperament?

If not, then there’s a good chance the relationship can be saved by doing your part to understand your dog’s needs.

Read more about Bad Dog Behavior

Day Trading is a continuous activity worked up over several years to achieve targeted results, unless you have a successful day trading system in place. Market professionals agree volatility definitely is a plus for the day-trader. A very simple formula for stock market success is to risk less than 3% of your total account value on a single trade.

Day trading soon becomes more of an addiction than passion for many investors. If you want to day trade, you will have to be in front of your computer watching stock movements. Top day traders have a proven day trading system.

Day traders will hold a stock until it goes up to about five or six cents and then start selling. A day trader normally does not have overnight holdings as there are many other opportunities and a stock that takes hours to move is not worth holding. Successful day trading requires proper profit targets adjusted for few hours of trading time that is available each day.

The advantages of day trading as a job are numerous. If you want to indulge in this activity,you should also be prepared to suffer occasional losses.

There are no miracle solutions for wealth building in day trading. By definition, day-trading means you exit at the end of the day, so your profits must at least cover commissions and slippage. Does day-trading offer advantages above and beyond position trading?

A lot of effort is required in day trading, foremost being continuous watch on trading terminals. Day trading is essentially an investment strategy of online stock trading using a small amount of funds.

Investors and traders around the world are looking to the Forex market as a new speculation opportunity. Day trading demands access to some of the most complex financial services and instruments in the marketplace.

Top day traders normally liquidate holdings into good news and buy on bad news. A core feature of a trading system is Money Management. As a ballpark figure, a day trader should ensure cash flow which is sufficient to buy at least 1000 shares of any given stock on any particular day.

Individuals should not attempt to day trade unless you have a proper understanding of market fundamentals.

Find out more here - day trading etf’s and best intra day trading techniques for forex.

118 118 Directory Enquiries is currently the principal directory enquiries service in britain and one of the nicest as well.

If you review around how much 118.com has accomplished since it was 1 st announced one should find that all this is a lot. More than fifty percent of the public opt to use the business offering over any other. All this illustrates that the firm are believed in and that the directory firm gives you a product which works somewhat well and the the British customers use in a day to day basis. Although you associate the directory business with just suppliers of business and British market telephone numbers, you will see that 118118 now present farther more than this. You may rely on 118 to supply you with train times for both arrivals & departures, this is for the huge bulk of train journeys up & down the Britain, 118 118 will of course be capable to tell you cinema time schedules & films for any movie theatre yourself require, one will have the option to discuss the film times with 118 or 118 should steer one would right to the cinema you want to speak to. Really a ton of public only connect the 118118 services with the phone however it has currently went out somewhat further than this. Ring 118 118 for access to the UK consumers choice of Directory Enquiries Service, and get the information you need.

118 118 additionally offers a text messaging offering, all this supplies the directory enquiry firm British customers to achieve access to the most current rugby league scores from around all the big sport leagues, bar quiz support where you yourself can text msg and ask the firm a question and they should MMS you back with the right answer, lottery numbers can be text msg to your telephone as well. Although this txt service is not an inexpensive service if one are desperate & in real need of any information then the 118 text messaging service is going to be wonderfully valuable to you.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is one of the most cost effective (and just plain effective) ways to get laser-targeted traffic to your website. For just pennies per click you can have your offer placed in front of only those people who are truly interested in what you have to offer.

There is a problem with PPC however. Return On Investment (ROI) can be quite low if your ad campaigns aren’t designed properly. In a nutshell, you need to make sure that enough people who click on your ad make a purchase to allow you to end up with a healthy overall profit!

Here are a few tips for maximizing the effectiveness of your PPC ad campaigns:

1 - Write clear and concise ad copy that tells the potential customers EXACTLY what they will find after the link is clicked. Since you have to pay cash for each and every click, you want to limit the clicks to those people who are truly interested in what you’re offering!

2 - Be creative with the keywords but be precise in the ad copy. While you want the ad copy to be very precise in describing your offer, you want as many people as possible to see the ad in the first place.

Using several variations of the wording in your key phrases and synonyms for your keywords you can ensure that your ad will be displayed for a wide variety of search terms. Then your laser-targeted ad copy will “weed out” those who just aren’t interested in your particular offer.

3 - Link the ad to the EXACT landing page of the offer described in the ad, NEVER to your home page. If your prospects have to search for a link to the offer, they simply won’t do it in most cases. The web is all about instant gratification, and the “back button” is used extensively when people click on a link only to find something that wasn’t described in the ad.

4 - Test, test, and then test some more! The key to maximizing the ROI of any ad campaign is testing, and PPC is no different. Set up test campaigns using various keywords/phrases and different ad copy. Analyze the results after a few days, and then drop the ads that perform poorly and expand the ones that do well.

5 - Experiment with the bid prices for your keywords. For example, you might well find that a bid of $0.35 results in almost as many clicks (and customers) as a bid of $0.55! This means you save 20 cents on each and every click! Remember, your ad doesn’t have to be displayed in the top position for it to be effective.

About The Author

Rick Rouse is the owner of RLROUSE Directory & Informational Resources, one of the fastest growing Directories on the web. Visit http://www.rlrouse.com and submit your URL!

Dog training can actually be an enjoyable task rather than the painful chore most would view it as. It is important that every dog owner attempting dog training understand that it will take some time. Successful dog training does not occur overnight but rather requires a lot of patience. But, with the right information and a great attitude, your dog really could be one of the most well-trained dogs in the neighborhood. Wouldn’t it be great if you could brag about how great your dog is as opposed to complain about him or her?

Every dog owner desires a dog that listens to their commands and is well behaved, but most want this to happen with no investment of time and effort. Interestingly, many seem to expect that their dog will automatically heed to their every command as if it is a natural instinct. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and whipping their behinds with the daily newspaper will only lead to the next day’s paper used the same way.

It is important to understand that having a well trained dog requires that you do some research to find some accurate information on useful tips to help you through the dog training process. Without a little preparation beforehand, successful dog training will probably not happen.

Rather than dreading this experience, view it as a time for you and your dog to bond. Both of you can begin to trust each other more and create a new bond you would not have otherwise. Dog training can be a time when you will spend a lot of time with your dog. Really, one reason for some of the behavior problems a dog owner may experience is because the dog is lonely and wants attention.

Be sure you praise your dog when he or she does something that deserves some rewarding, regardless of how small it may be. It is psychological, actually. The more praise you give for good behavior, the more likely they will be to keep up that same behavior.

Also, have fun with your dog. Try playing catch with a ball, a game every dog enjoys. This is some great one-on-one time with you and your dog giving him or her the attention needed to help alleviate some of the behavior problems caused by lack of attention. During this time, you could start to apply some of the dog training techniques without your dog realizing what you are doing. This is always a great bonus. Soon, both you and your dog will be happier overall thanks to a little extra time, attention and dog training techniques!

Discover helpful tips about Dog Training and Dog Health Problems.

Need A Scrapbook Journaling Idea?

Try using song lyrics in your next layout.

Song lyrics can be a great source of title and page inspiration
for a scraper.

Music and songs play an important part in our lives. Hearing a
song again can evoke a lot of emotion, bringing back fond
memories of special times, special people and special places.

Of course, different songs mean different things to different
people - but you can use songs to ‘tap’ into those memories to
create unique, and highly personal scrapbook pages.

How do you use lyrics on your pages?

Well, here’s a scrapbook journaling idea for you to try using a
wedding layout as an example.

If the bride and groom have their own ’special song’ then you
use that to add a personal touch. If not don’t worry find
another suitable song instead, there are lots of song lyric web
sites on the internet that you can browse.

Pick a section from your chosen song for example, the first
verse of “A Groovy Kind of Love” by Phil Collins and journal the
lyrics around the edges of your page.

Then embellish your border with some appropriate wedding
stickers, die-cuts or punches. Tie it all neatly together, by
using the title of the chosen song as the accent title for your
layout.

What about a friendship page? You could use some of the lyrics
from “You’ve Got a Friend” by Carole King, maybe decorate your
border with musical notes.

Doing a page about someone’s birthday? You could journal the
words from “Happy Birthday” and embellish the border with cakes,
candles or other birthday memorabilia.

Don’t limit yourself to just a section of a song, use all of it
if you want to.

Write or print out the complete song lyrics onto some nice paper
and add it to your page. If you don’t have the room left on your
album page make a pocket envelope to put your song sheet into.

You can apply this scrapbook journaling idea to any kind of page
theme, not just the ones listed here as examples.

There have been tens of thousands of songs published over the
years covering all sorts of subjects - the possibilities for the
resourceful scraper are endless.

Just make sure that the song title or lyric you are going to use
is suitable for the theme of your layout and you’ll soon add a
quick, simple and memorable piece of journaling to your page.

Pet grooming can be performed by the owner or by someone who has perfected the craft through learning it. If you like to do things on your own there are several safety tips you might want to keep in mind. Your pet is special to you and you will want to keep your pet safe and calm during the pet grooming experience. Unsafe practices can cause pain and injury resulting in emotional stress to your animal and bring down the level of trust the pet may have with you. Here are some tips that will ensure a safe and enjoyable pet grooming experience.

1. Most pets do not like this, but the excess hair that forms in the ears must be clipped. Excess hair can cause more moisture resulting in ear infections or providing a breeding ground for ear mites. These types of afflictions can cause your pet a great deal of discomfort. Infections force the animals to scratch and shake their head. Mites can actually cause the animal to do damage to their inner canal as they stick their nails inside trying to scratch. Dogs with rather large ears are known to have a predisposition for ear problems and the shaking of their ears back in forth can rupture blood vessels. Pet groomers who are trained properly, have specialized equipment to remove ear hair. The noise of the clippers may scare the pet, so stroke him with the other hand and offer soothing words to calm them.

2. Another novice mistake is to shave the animal all the way. Pet grooming experts will do this at the request of the owner, but it is ill advised if the animal is an outside pet. The coat shields the pet from the cold and also from the sun. Both elements can cause serious skin damage to your pet which could lead to expensive veterinarian bills. The lack of hair on the body can cause rashes. The hair in some breeds secrete essential oils that protect and lubricate the skin. Some breeds like Labradors have double coats that serve different functions for the animals safety. Try to shave mats in such a way that you are able to work them out with a brush.

If you use a clipper, brush the hair backwards against the grain and then move your clippers with the grain. Pet grooming experts may use a variety of length of clipper combs that can be used in variance with the length and thickness of the coat. If your pet groomer is a novice and uses home hair clipper systems. You should experiment first in one unnoticeable area before using it everywhere. When shaving the underbelly, beware the nipples.

Home pet grooming is an affordable method to keep your pet healthy and happy, but it can cause injury so bad that only professional pet grooming can fix the owners mistake.

Learn more - pet grooming salons and animal kingdom pet grooming.