So you’re searching for a brand spanking new flat screen LCD TV and do not know which place to start first. Un-astounding with the perplexing selection of products available on the market; LCD, plasma, flat screen, HD, Freeview etc. A convenient online resource for fighting your way through all of the baffling jargon is the John Lewis buyers guide - this unprejudiced webpage will help guide you through the technical speak and help you best decide on the TV that’s appropriate for you. It’s vital not to forget the add ons as well! Finally selecting the best TV stand and cabinet, which will help complement your lounge and quite obviously hold your great new Panasonic Viera television is certainly an often over looked element.

Your follow up inquiry will probably be at which web-site to shop online for your great new flat screen LCD TV? There are a hell of a lot of web sites on the internet purporting to offer the best deals on plasma televisions, but how do you decide who you can really count on? With John Lewis you may make a purchase in total confidence, and here’s why; Completely free national deliveries on every last one of your orders - no need to worry about that ‘fantastic price’ you think you’ve found suddenly not looking very good as soon as you account for the extra cost of postage. And if you require any item in a rush, next day delivery service is certainly 3 for nearly all products. Yet another super thing is, if for any reason you’re not entirely happy with your great new Panasonic TV then returns are absolutely free. But saving the very best till the end - they offer a free five year guarantee for every single one of their TVs, which is a feature you would lay out a massive premium for at most other sites.

With a television in mind you should now be all set to scan through the huge range of plasma screen TVs on offer on the John Lewis web-site. Their site is extraordinarily painless to navigate and making your way to the right category and product will require very little effort at all. So why not give John Lewis a try for your shiny new LCD flat screen TV… Happy shopping!

Just starting out, you can start with a simple informational site, which is all most need initially, and build up to a fuller site (e-commerce and/or interactive) when you can afford it.

Your goal should be to get an online presence. Remember, most surfers are looking for information. Dancing cartoons, streaming video and other interactive features are, in the great majority of cases, unnecessary.

Naming Your Site: Selecting and Registering a Domain Name

The first step in getting a web site is to select and register your domain name. Even if you can’t afford a web site right now, it is a good idea to register your name. This can be done for under $10.00 a year (eg, namecheap.com).

Choosing a Web Designer / Web Design Company

Choosing a web designer will depend greatly onthe type of site you are having built. Prices are all over the place. Many designers/firms have a dollar minimum that you must spend in order to work with them.

Ball park figure: If you are having a simple informational site built, I suggest spending no more than $500. Learn how to update it yourself to save ongoing maintenance charges.

An even cheaper option is to do it yourself. There is plenty of easy-to-learn software (eg, FrontPage) that make it easy to build a site. Also, many companies (Yahoo, Microsoft BCentral, AOL, etc.) have templates that make it simple to drag and drop text and create a site. Rates begin at around $19.95/month.

Web Hosting Costs

Fees range from free to hundreds of dollars per month. As a guideline, the average cost for hosting a personal web site is $10-$25/month. Business sites with higher traffic are in the $45-$75/month range.

There are excellent deals to be found on web hosting (eg, peoplehost.com), so shop around. Usually, if you prepay for a year or more, you will be given a discount. I recommend this because once you get a site, it is highly unlikely that you will ever discontinue it, unless you change careers altogether.

About Free Web Hosting Companies

I do not advise the use of free web hosting companies. This is your professional online presence and you get what you pay for. More often than not, free host companies have limitations such as space, email specifications, domain name use, et cetera, that won’t allow you to operate as a professional site.

How Much Should You Pay A Content Developer

This depends so heavily on the type of content your site requires that it’s almost impossible to answer. Freelance writer and editor rates range from a low of $25 an hour up to $250 an hour, or more. Most are in the $50 to $100 per hour range. Shop around.

As an editorial professional, I’m assuming that you will provide your own content. However if you have neither the time, desire, or skill, you will definitely want to spend the money for a professional.

Finally Tally

If you choose to go with a web designer and are simply having a 2-3 page informational site built, pay no more than $500. This is assuming that you write your own content and do not have custom work done, such as logo/graphic design.

Cheapest Option: Do it yourself. A template site, or buying a software (eg, FrontPage) and doing it yourself, with hosting fees should top out at about $300/year.

The beauty of buying software and doing it yourself is that after you purchase the software, you only have to incur the hosting and domain name fees on a yearly basis. These can be under $50/year making your site really economical as time passes.

See you online!

Parts of this article were excerpted from How to Get Your Small Biz on the Web Quickly & Affordably, available for immediate download.

May be reprinted with inclusion of the following: Yuwanda Black is an entrepreneur, author, speaker and syndicated small business columnist whose focus is controlling your destiny through small business ownership. Her most recent e-books, How to Really Make a Living as an Editorial Freelancer and Advice from Successful Freelancers: How They Built Their Careers & How You Can Too! are available for immediate download at http://www.InkwellEditorial.com/bizguides.html Visit her on the web at http://www.EntrepreDoer.biz for a complete list of how-to, small business books and articles.

columnist@EntrepreDoer.biz

]]> http://www.traversalists.info/archives/2008/11/30/the-cost-of-a-web-site/feed/ http://www.traversalists.info/archives/2008/11/29/natural-cure-for-asthma/ http://www.traversalists.info/archives/2008/11/29/natural-cure-for-asthma/#comments Sun, 30 Nov 2008 02:41:17 +0000 admin http://www.traversalists.info/archives/2008/11/29/natural-cure-for-asthma/ If you experience sudden bouts of breathlessness, you are suffering from asthma. When some dust, smoke or the scent of any odd flower or perfume will get you whizzing, coughing and gasping, you are suffering from asthma. These are just some of the allergens that can irritate your nasal passage. Other irritants are exercise, pollution or smog, a sudden change in weather, cold or any infection of the airways.

Though asthma attack can be scary, there is no need to panic. Besides following doctor’s medications, there are certain tips that you can follow to prevent asthma. First, it is important for you to guard yourself against dust mite allergies and hay fever. Take the following steps:

* Go for yoga: Performing simple yogic breathing where you exhale for twice as long as you inhale can prevent against future asthma attacks. This technique has been proven to be very effective. The effect of this breathing is similar to that obtained by the use of a corticosteroid inhaler. To do this breathing, close your eyes, inhale and then exhale naturally. Pause without holding your breath for one or two seconds before the next inhalation. This will allow the exhalation to complete naturally. Do not try to breathe deeply or slowly. But if there is a need to breathe deeply, you can do so till you can come back to breathing exercise.

* Avoid sleeping on full stomach: Sleeping while your stomach is full can aggravate your asthma. Asthma is caused by stomach reflux, which occurs when stomach acid goes back into esophagus. This causes the stomach contents to regurgitate into your mouth and then drip down into the airways when you are lying down or sleeping. Avoid heavy snacks and take an antacid to reduce your stomach’s acidity. Theophylline medications can also aggravate the asthma by increasing the stomach’s reflux. If you are on this medication and are experiencing stomach reflux problem, consult your doctor to reduce the dosage.

* Note your food sensitivity: Eating or smelling certain foods can trigger an asthma attack in some people. Foods like milk, eggs, seafood and nuts are the main culprits.

* Eat plenty of fish: Eskimos rarely suffer from asthma. Hence, some researchers conclude that eating plenty of fish may prevent asthma. The fishes more likely to have an impact on asthma are omega-3 rich fish like sardines, mackerels and herring.

* Take multiple vitamins: Taking a good vitamin/mineral supplement and having a diet rich in fruits and vegetables might help; since some nutrients have been shown to prevent asthma. People who take vitamin C and zinc are less likely to suffer more than the others. Increase your intake of citrus fruits, broccoli and peppers for vitamin C and beef, crab and oysters for zinc.

* Get relief from caffeine: Coffee has been shown to help people with asthma. It has the same effect as theophylline. A cup of a regular strong black coffee will have beneficial effect on asthma. But do not use caffeine as a substitute for or along with other medications and must be always used in case of emergency. When you do not have medications, you can have 2 cups of regular strong black coffee for instant relief. You can get relief, albeit slower, with hot cocoa or milk chocolate.

Because you might want to write an article with
words, so here are some rules about it:

1. Parts of Speech Add Zest!

Parts of speech include things like nouns, pronouns,
verbs, and proverbs. They can really spice up your
articles, so sprinkle them throughout your articles.

2. Don’t Forget the Headline!

Without the headline, your article will just look
like a big lump of words. Or like a bunch of smaller
lumps if you use paragraphs. Try to choose a
headline that tells the reader something about the
article, like what it’s about.

3. Know Something About Your Subject!

If you are not very smart about the subject of your
article, ask someone to read it who is or else it
could be really bad.

4. Sentence Length!

Readers get distracted by different sentence
lengths. It’s not important how long your sentences
are as long as they are all the same. When you are
done writing an article, go back and take some words
out of the long sentences and put them in the short
ones. This will make your readers more absorptive.

5. Include Some Knowledge!

For instance, if your subject is How To Make More
Sales, you should actually include some information
about that subject so your readers will benefit and
buy something from you, hopefully something that
doesn’t suck.

6. Don’t Use Words You Don’t Know!

One of the most horipulating things you can do to a
reader is use words semaphorically. If you’re not
sure what a word means, just ejaculate it for
another one.

7. Use Action!

Don’t write limply. Let your reader feel the wind in
their hair with explosive, action-packed verbs, of
which I can’t think of any right now.

8. Exclamations Get Attention!

HEY!!!!

See?

9. Involve the Reader!

Don’t just talk AT your reader, try to get them
involved in a dialog even though you can’t. Still,
it’s a really good thing to do. One way to achieve
this is by asking questions.

Wouldn’t you agree?

10. End On A High Note!

Try to say something really good right at the end so
readers are left with a good feeling about you and
want to buy something from you, hopefully something
that doesn’t suck.

And don’t forget to wrap up by reminding the reader
what everything you just said was, like that it’s
good to write good because it can benefit you!

About the Author

Jed McKendrick isn’t a real idiot, he just plays one
on the internet. Please visit and buy WebPosition
Gold, which doesn’t suck. http://www.Omni-Comm.com

These days in all organisations presentations, video is commonly used. By employing video production services it is feasible to present the crucial message to a lot of different possible buyers to help persuade them. Online Video production at the present is employed for numerous different purposes; however, numerous short format videos & awareness associated productions are usually made in order to accomplish particular business goals.

Audio video presentations are presently in vogue and as a consequence are used in nearly any brand of business activity. Creative firms by & large interact with a certain brand of client or a company that are wanting to produce an online corporate video, a presentation or a series of video clips. The entire job of video production is typically carried out by a number of freelancers; nonetheless there are a select number of good online specialist video production agencies around at the moment.

The participation of music composers, cameraman & script writers can also be very typical when creating online video productions. Furthermore, advertising firms and public relations agencies have recently become involved with many aspects of online video production & publishing. Vidify can work effectively to deliver white-label online video production and publishing solutions.

I call it Promise-crafting.

Why Promise-Crafting is Such a Key Copywriting Skill

Promises are at the heart of what makes copywriting work.

– A promise is what you use to get attention in your headline
– A promise is what you develop in the lead
– Promises are the key parts of your body copy and the source of subheads
– A promise is the foundation of your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
– Your offer and order form and Post Scripts restate your promises.

Prospects ultimately act on sales copy because they desire to gain or avoid what the promises offer. Promises spark and build the desire that ultimately motivates them to buy.

How Do You Craft a Promise?

A promise starts from, but is not the same as, a benefit. Here’s an example…

You’re selling a cat collar that stretches so it will, if snagged, let the cat slip out without being trapped.
The feature is the stretchiness.
The benefit is that the cat can release himself if the collar is snagged.
But the promise is:

YOUR CAT WILL NEVER CHOKE, SUFFER AND DIE WITH THIS COLLAR
WHEN THEY GET TRAPPED OR SNAGGED BY A BRANCH, NAIL, OR OTHER DANGER

Start with the Benefit

To craft a Promise you enlarge a benefit. You explore what effect it would have in the real world when applied. You think about it in a setting and a situation. Then you empathetically probe the emotions of the prospect to see how they (you-in-their-shoes) feel about that effect.

When you write the promise, out of your exploration, you select the most dramatic effect. You describe it using the emotional appeal you’ve uncovered with your probing. You direct it specifically at your target reader’s experience.

Here’s another example.

Product: Internet Marketing Course
Feature: Produced on DVD’s
Benefit: Lets you learn to make money online more easily, by viewing DVD’s rather than reading

Here are some of the promises you could craft from this benefit:

LEARN TO MAKE MILLIONS FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR EASY CHAIR

-Or-
YOU’RE WORKING TOO HARD. STOP! LEARN TO MAKE MILLIONS THE EASY WAY!

-Or-
ALL YOU HAVE TO KNOW TO START MAKING MILLIONS IS HOW TO WATCH TV. HOW MUCH EASIER COULD IT BE?!!!

-Or, one that works to overcome credibility issues by making it a question instead of a statement:
CAN YOU REALLY QUIT YOUR JOB, MAKE MILLIONS, AND RETIRE RICH BY WATCHING TV?

Now you try. Craft promises for copywriting course above.

START PROMISE-CRAFTING TO MAKE THE WRITING PROCESS EASIER

Note that you’ll almost always find multiple promises when you start to explore. Use the strongest where it has the greatest impact - the headline and lead. Don’t throw away the others, though. They can become the basis for body copy.

Next time you write copy, use Promise-Crafting to help you develop the heart of your appeal. Extend a benefit and explore its effects. Give it a setting and a situation. Probe the emotions of the prospect to see how you-in-their-shoes feel about that effect. Then put it all together. Craft an emotion-charged, desire-fanning promise statement that will suck the cash right out of their wallet.

I PROMISE you it works.

Let me know how it goes.
Ronald A Murphy is a Copywriter and Graphic Designer specializing in Direct Response and Internet Marketing. Murphy writes and designs sales letters, direct mail packages, inserts, web sales pages, direct email, newsletters for marketing, Internet articles, white papers, and other sales focused materials. He provides expertise to clients serving financial, business, technology, health, opportunity and fundraising markets.

For more information on copywriting and marketing, visit his site at RAMurphy.com. There you can subscribe to his newsletter, R A Murphy’s Copywriting and Design Tips. You can also read Murphy’s Blog on Copywriting and Design for Internet and Direct marketing at RonaldAMurphy.com.

New York Code Orange Jaisini new art series

The creativity of Jaisini is not designed to be preaching or too critical. Paul Jaisini reached his level of mastership to know exactly that life is worth living to look in the future having no regrets about the past.

In the aftermath of sept 11 there was a motto for New Yorkers to go on living and conducting business as usual in order to fight the very concept of terrorism, fear. And being cosmopolitan as Londoners or people of world greatest cities New Yorkers prove to be hard to scare.

The spirit of a great city is reflected in the cutting edge works of Jaisini. There is a given subject and a special atmosphere but to Jaisini it would not fulfil his artistic ambition to simply record the rubble and destruction.

Every picture dedicated to NYC in code orange is a mini scenario for a performance with different characters, roles, subtexts and screenplays. Every character in Jaisini’s visual rendition of NYC in code orange is usually a typical New Yorker conducting daily life and encountering an unusual situation as viewed by the art director who came up with his own vision of what life could be like in a city that is no longer troubled.

To create such visual scenarios technically, Jaisini had to work with photos as he would with oil paintings or watercolors i.e. manually and without any automatic options, as this would reduce the degree of realism he aimed to achieve through the control of light and pictorial depth.

Perhaps what has been created in the New York series is a glimpse of what New York streets could look like in a futuristic utopia with perpetually developing scenarios of human life.

Jaisini shows that unlimited potential exists in a snap shot of contemporary life. That is why Jaisini’s art works are highly demanded and anticipated.

Yustas Kotz Gottlieb Text Copyright New York 2003

All rights reserved

http://jaisini.artbabyart.net/

Art of Paul Jaisini by Yustas Kotz-Gottlieb

http://jaisini.artbabyart.net/about.html

Who is Artist Paul Jaisini

Yustas Kotz-Gottlieb lives in NYC, NY. His work has appeared in various publications in New York, the US and international and he is an internationally renowned writer who recieved countless awards for his talent, as well as being listed in Who’s Who in American Art and Literature.

gttlieb@aol.com

]]> http://www.traversalists.info/archives/2008/11/25/new-york-code-orange-jaisini-new-art-series/feed/ http://www.traversalists.info/archives/2008/11/25/money/ http://www.traversalists.info/archives/2008/11/25/money/#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:23:05 +0000 admin http://www.traversalists.info/archives/2008/11/25/money/ Money
By
Kenneth J. McCormick
webmaster
Http://aboutfacts.net

Money is a strange thing when you really think about it. Today most money is paper and has no value of its own. The value that is given to money is by agreement. In other words, a country prints a bill and everyone agrees the value is that which is stated on its face. I am not talking about the value of money in relation to other money in the world because we all know that changes constantly. As a matter of fact some people have profited greatly from exchanging currency at the right time and taking advantage of shifts in its value with other currencies.

In this country one of the colonies’ most famous figures made the plates for the first Continental Currency in 1775, he was Paul Revere. You could redeem these bills for Spanish-milled dollars. That guy Paul Revere seemed to get involved with everything, didn’t he? But the funny thing was that after this, when we became a country we didn’t print paper money for a long time, preferring to use coinage instead. The first official paper money wasn’t printed until 1861. The US government had charted hundreds of banks to print their own money causing confusion and easy counterfeiting. Can you imagine that over 7000 different bills were circulating? I am sure that many places might not even know if a bill was legal tender or not when they saw it. But when the government did print paper money they may have went too far. They even printed three cent notes, 5 cent notes, 10 cent notes, 25 cent notes and 50 cent notes. Today the US bill is a mixture of micro text, hidden threads, secret inks and hard to get paper. This hopefully, is meant to cut down on counterfeiting.

India is a country when strange money has been used including stones, paper, shells and pearls. In the fifth century it was noted that Cowrie shells were being used as currency in some areas. What is even more strange, is the fact that this custom continued for so long. It lasted into the 18 century. A Cowrie shell was worth almost 4,100 rupees at the time. This was not the only strange money used. Bitter Almond was also used as currency along with cattle. The tail of a cow was used in place of a coin. I wonder if anyone ever asked “can I borrow a few Cowries till payday?”. Leather had also been used as currency but didn’t last long. Even sheet metal was made into coins.

In early Quebec, the French Colony had to wait for shipments of coins from France. This was a problem because the trip was a long and dangerous one and these coins may not arrive at all. This came to a head in 1685 when the French Colonies ran out of currency. The head of government in the French Colonies was the Intendant. He issued promissory notes and used his personal credit to back them. The notes were written on playing cards that had been cut into quarters. Each quarter contained the seal of the Treasurer and the signature of the Governor and the Intendant. It was thought that this would be a stop gap measure until more currency arrived from France. If a merchant refused to accept this money he would be fined. When coinage ran out a year later the playing card money was circulated again. This angered the French King who ordered it all withdrawn. When final redemption took place way more playing card money was presented for redemption than was officially created. There was not enough cash to redeem it all and it lost credibility. Even with all this, the playing card money was issued again right up to 1706 when a promise was made not to issue more but it remained in circulation right up to 1728.

In pre Christian Ireland Slaves and Cattle served as currency along with Celtic Ring money. The money was in the shape of a ring and could be either twisted or flat. It could be made from either solid gold or be gold plated. Ring money dates back to about 200 B.C. The gold plating was set over copper. One of he interesting points here is no one seems to know how value was set for the gold plated rings, but it seems that it was not created to fool people.

A system of tokens was discovered which were made from clay and dated back to about 7,000 B.C. It is theory right now, but it seems that these clay tokens may have been used as currency. It could even be that the shape and size of the token represented what you could buy with it. For Example the symbol for bread was a small right facing triangle in Sumerian and a token like that has been found. Some tokens seem to have stood for numbers and went as high as 36,000.

Did ancient man have a system with currency? It could be. Ancient man may have been more advanced than we suspect right now. We have only highlighted a few different types of strange money but you can see that strange things have been used as currency over the years. The next thing might be SMART CURRENCY. Can you imagine talking currency or currency that can change its value? Well I guess we will just have to wait and see what the future holds.

Copyright © 2004 by About Facts Net and its licensors. All rights reserved.

This article may be republished if left unchanged and all links are intact.

About the author:

Ken is the webmaster of About Facts Net, a free, interesting Internet magazine that is suitable for the entire family. Many of the articles are accompanied by photos, video and/or audio. Http://aboutfacts.net

“But I’ve only been on the Internet 3 months! How can I write an article?” That was my reaction back in 1999 when I began my online career and heard that writing articles was the key to bringing targeted visitors to my website.

But I went ahead anyway and wrote my first article. I soon discovered that writing articles is the quickest way to build your reputation as an expert in the world of online marketing.

So don’t wait for someone else’s permission - start writing articles and grab your space in the limelight.

Here are some other mental blocks and how to deal with them:

• “I don’t where to start”. Start anywhere - it doesn’t matter where. Putting words on paper is like planting a seed in your subconscious. Your mind will go to work on it while you’re busy doing other things: while you’re driving, while you’re sleeping, while you’re doing the dishes. Suddenly, out of nowhere, will come the next idea. That’s the power of the subconscious and the power of putting words on paper.

• “I don’t know how to finish”. Again, it doesn’t matter. Just write and the conclusion will come to you of it’s own accord.

• “It’s just an idea”. This is another mental trap - the fear of turning ideas into reality. Look around you and realize that every skyscraper, every ocean-going liner, and every symphony was once “just an idea”.

• “I’ll do it tomorrow”. Tomorrow never arrives. Give yourself a deadline. Imagine that your article must be finished within the next 12 hours - you’ll be surprised how much you get done!

• “My article will be a flop”. This is a big one - fear of failure. It’s much safer to never try. But remember, with every article you write you are one step closer to developing your own unique style, your “voice”. In that sense, you can never fail.

• “I can’t get it right”. Some times you simply can’t find the right words. Turn off your inner critic and just write. When you have something down on paper, you have something to work with. But you can’t work with something that remains an idea in your head.

• “I can’t sort out my ideas”. The easiest way to organize your article ideas is to use a technique that mirrors the way the mind works. This technique is called Mind Mapping. We are taught in school to use lists to organize our ideas. But lists are linear and the mind doesn’t think in a linear fashion. You can find out more about Mind Mapping at: http://www.mind-map.com/

  Good luck with your articles! And remember - writing teaches writing.

  (c) 2003 by Michael Southon

  Michael Southon has been wriitng for the internet for over 3 years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this simple technique to dramatically increase traffic and sales: http://www.ezine-writer.com/

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