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Archive for November, 2007

Home Improvement Ideas Gone Awry

For every great home improvement idea there are several bad ones, lurking in the corners next to vinyl siding and Dutch doors. But, of course, bad home improvement is not an objective term: one man’s bad home improvement idea is another man’s great home improvement idea. Still, there are some ideas that most people will agree should never see the light of day, and definitely never be let inside the house.

Too Much of Anything: Floral patterns, pirate themes, farm scenery. Too much of anything - regardless of what it entails - is just flat out too much. If your (Read more)

The Long Good Friday!

Last night I watched an old film from the early 80’s about London gangsters.

Bob Hoskins at his best, along with a cast which actually included some real London villains of not notoriety.

Still a good film but today I think it held some troubling lessons. The film was about being a big fish in a little pond. A school yard bully, and of course the big world always creeps in. The gang boss runs London and all the old 60’s crime bosses, a left over from the Krays and the Richardsons. But as he tries to become even bigger he hits a new phenomena: the IRA.

Now we (Read more)

Small Business Multi Tasking - Managing the Stress

Estimates put the number of small businesses (companies with less than 500 employees) in the United States at about 20 million. A recent report from the State of Oklahoma estimates the number of small businesses with two employees or less at nearly 300,000. It would be a fair guess that half of the small businesses in the country or about 10 million, have less than 10 employees.

It would also be a fair guess that almost all of the managers of these small businesses must engage in multi tasking every day. In this author’s view there are only two types of multi-tasking: enjoyable (Read more)

Cameron?

The fact that the Tories have elected a new leader will not turn their fates around.

Tony got in my stealing their cloths, and there are few policies in use by the Labour government now, that were not in place in John Major’s day.

In fact the only difference is that VAT is wider now than before. You are taxed at 17.5% at the start of a service, and taxed the same again at the end. By the time the product comes to the consumer it has been taxed so many times it no longer makes sense.

But apart from that crazy system, things are no better.

I can remember back (Read more)

Marketing Your Carpet Cleaning Service In Newspapers

When I tell most cleaners I’ve received HUGE returns from newspaper ads, they look at me funny and say, “Really?” Yes, really. I’ve had some newspaper ads get over a 15 times return.

I started running ads in my local paper when I was just getting started and had zero sales coming in. I made a deal with my newspaper for a trial program, and started running ads that cost about $600 for six-inch ads to be run three times per week in my local paper that goes out to about 75,000 people. A six-column inch newspaper ad is about six inches wide and two inches (Read more)

How Minisites & Niche Marketing Work Flawlessly

Niche marketing and minisites are the perfect partner for producing results for targeted visitors to your product and/or service. Let’s explain this process and see what I mean by perfect partners that work flawlessly together.

1. niche marketing is usually the input of your advertising efforts. That input comes in the way of articles and article submissions, ezine ads, Pay-per-click advertising & (Read more)

Five Hundred Million Dollars Pledged To Fight Childhood Obesity Nationally, Including Texas

The New York Times reported, in an April 2007 article, that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation plans to spend more than $500 million over the next five years to reverse the increase in childhood obesity nationally, including Texas. It is one of the largest public health initiatives ever tried by a private philanthropy.

“This is an epidemic that is going to cost the country in terms of morbidity and mortality and economically,” said Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, the foundation’s president and chief executive. “The younger generation is going to live sicker and die (Read more)

Getting to Sleep Quick - 6 Tips

Many people have problems falling asleep at night, often because their minds keep running at full-speed even though they feel physically tired. I used to have problems falling asleep at night, but now I’m out within minutes - maybe even seconds - of the light going out. Here are six techniques that have helped me get to that point:

1) Keep a regular sleep schedule. This gets your mind and body into a routine. My light goes out somewhere between 9:45 and 10:15 pm almost every night. I know that may seem ridiculously early to some of you, but up here in northern New (Read more)

Factors Affecting Forex Trading

Forex Currency Trading is affected by several factors which are mostly external to an individual. Most important of these are GDP, trade reports, unemployment and interest reports.

One beauty of FX trading is that there is no lag in the dissemination of information across the globe. It is released simultaneously and becomes available to everyone equally online or offline.

This is unlike online stock trading where one remains ignorant for a considerable period of time about the news affecting the volatility of a stock.

Most of the times in the stock market, an investor (Read more)

Habits for Eliminating Paper Clutter

Why do we have so much paper? People have been talking for years about the “paper-less society”. When will it actually happen? Here are some observations about paper and our habits surrounding paper to help get it under control.

Well, I am not sure that we will ever be able to achieve a “paper-less society.” In my previous role as a Project Manager for Software Implementations, I heard that term quite often. However, I have never experienced it myself or even witnessed this phenomenon. Why? Among the many reasons are: that we, as humans, prefer to read (Read more)