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Hi! My name is Janice Byer and I am the owner of Docu-Type Administrative & Web Design Services (http://www.docutype.net). I am the winner of several prestigious awards (information is on our website) and have a slew of happy customers, as the testimonials on our site will attest to. My services are professional, creative and in demand.

Now, wasn’t that easy? In one small paragraph, I have shamelessly self-promoted my business and it’s success.

I’ll admit it, I am addicted to shameless self-promotion, and why not? Who better to promote myself and my business than me? And, the opportunity to talk about your business should be the root behind every marketing effort you undertake.

Networking utilizes shameless self-promotion almost constantly. After all, when you visit a networking event, why are you there? To promote your business of course! And, when you are at a designated networking event, it is not the time when you should hold back. Be shameless yet professional, and also be considerate of your fellow networkers. They are there for the same reason you are. So, give them the opportunity to shamelessly self-promote themselves.

Networking is the “right time” to shamelessly self-promote. But, there are times when it is not appropriate. There is a time and a place for everything, including promoting your business.

For instance, if you are a member of a news or discussion group, there are generally rules against promoting your business, unless that is what the list is for. So, don’t take advantage of the captive audience or break the rules. That can actually be bad for business.

However, some lists have designated days of the week or month when you can shamelessly tell the world about what you do and what you have to offer. This is the time to show them what you’ve got.

Opportunities arise at various times when it is good to promote yourself and your business. For instance, I was with my daughter at the library yesterday and the woman there asked if I was excited about my daughter going into grade one and the fact that she will be in school all day. This was the perfect opportunity to tell her that I run my own home-based business and what I do.

Also, a few weeks back we had our water supply guy here filling up our well and we talked about his father’s business. Well, I didn’t give up the chance to say, “Does your father have a website? I can design one for him.” Well, the conversation went from there and I ended up giving him several of my business cards.

My husband is also the owner of a small business; a tow truck and storage business. Well, the other day we had a fellow here delivering gravel for our driveway and, as he is always on the road, I asked him if he sees accidents and such. So, my husband gave him some of his cards and it has paid off already. Yesterday this dump truck drive called to tell my husband about an accident that he had just seen.

And, don’t forget your existing clients. Do they know everything that you offer? I have a wonderful steady administrative client that I told a few times about some of the websites I am designing. Well, he was impressed and now we are in talks to design his website. He didn’t know I did website design until I told him. And, this may be true for you as well. Your clients won’t know everything that you can do for them unless you tell them. They may not need any of your secondary services right away, or at all, but they may know someone who does.

My administrative client, which I mentioned above, has now given my name to some of his customers who need help with their office tasks and web design needs.

As I said before, there is a time and a place for shamelessly self-promoting yourself and your business. Be careful not to sound arrogant and don’t be pushy. But, as a small business owner, you are the best person to tell others about what you offer and you should take advantage of situations that will allow you to do so.

About The Author

Janice Byer is a certified Master Virtual Assistant and owner of Docu-Type Administrative & Web Design Services (http://www.docutype.net). See this and other articles on her website.

jbyer@docutype.net

Unlike the time where the time internet was still in infant stage, search functions today are more than a single and straight forward field. One key design feature in incorporating your on-site search function is the degree of how much guidance you would and should provide for your users. This means further enhancing your site search coverage and in-depth level.

To retain your visitors’ interest and improve your site’s stickiness, you can offer a combination of search options targeted to reach your content, as well as to your users. It should also have the ability to be able estimate the user’s level of knowledge or expertise. Depending on the number of options’ feature, guidance provided can come in the form such as “Pull-down Menus”, “Multimedia Buttons”, “Fine Search”, or a further “Narrow Search Feature”.

If your site do provide in depth data, and able to provide further complexity, you could well consider some “Advanced Search” feature and search tips. Nevertheless, it’s OK to leave them out if your site had yet to reach that state. For discussion here, advanced searches can be enhanced to involve any aspect of the search algorithm, including the ability to include or exclude specified word or phrase, language, geographical location or even the dates of the data publication.

However, as we realized, most users don’t even be bother to utilize “Advanced Search” feature; they just simply type and hit “Enter”. Therefore, integrate such feature if the scope of the advanced search is important to your overall site functionality and presentation. If not, then leave it out for the moment.

Maximizing Search Payoff via Results and Relevancy
Then next step would be to examine your search results pages. Taking from the user’s angle, consider the following as to whether your results are achieving the desired goal:
1. Are there an appropriate number of results being presented?
2. Are the main results highly relevant to the search input?
3. Any suggestion for “Anticipated” users’ misspellings?
4. Are the results structured in relevancy order?
5. Are the contents being indicated with further info? E.g. HTML pages, doc file, zip file, or PDF documents?

Like everyone else, you and me as user would a search results page to have these basic elements. We also expect results to relate closely to our interests, and if they don’t, we expect it to be able to quickly perform fine tuning and search further.

One powerful element on results page is the ability to perform cross referencing. Whether it’s a product or service, or simply some information, many “hidden” data may not rank as high for the search keyword, but it may be of interest to the user. Don’t overlook this powerful feature in enhancing your on-site search results.

Null Result and Error Handling
If you did your on-site search-tool functionality properly and programmed your search algorithms as to how users are actually inputting their information, you shouldn’t have any major problem with null results. In fact, there shouldn’t be.

For online business or ecommerce sites, there’s nothing worse than getting “no results found” messages on a site. It simply means “No Business” for the site. It could be even worse if the user knows there should be information to be found. You are simply leaving users to browse elsewhere to find the information, and of course you are losing them and their business potential.

Eliminating “Null” result is best case scenario. But if there is such situation, then allowing a user to recover from the situation is a must on any website that wants to survive in long term. Don’t be panic when your site is having such problem, in most case it is merely the result of inadequate search dictionary or phrase and thesaurus preparation. So, a better developed and covered thesaurus with more cross referencing ability can be of great help.

Meeting and Exceeding Search Expectations
Now we are clear that search results on any site are all about meeting users’ expectation, and presenting it to them. Web users have advanced on their search activities, and they are getting to search very quickly for virtually anything on the internet. When they arrive at your site, they’re expecting to locate the information or data, by performing search on a few words or a phrase.

You can achieve this goal of satisfying your users by feeding them the correct or most relevant results if you do take the effort to analyze what they’re expecting. And you then optimize your development tools to simply fit their needs as they wanted.

That’s the main goal for my site, and I do believe that’s yours too. Keep it up your hard work and you’ll be reaching that stage too…while I’m still learning more.

Get Your Business listed in Biz Network Directory for business leads. Network sites consist Web Resources Search and Business Leads Center are also business platforms.

What do you look for in a European vacation? The romance of a Paris vacation, the buzz of some time in London, England or the relaxation and quiet peace of an alpine valley? The truth is that, with a European vacation package, you can have all of this and more.

Europe is a very diverse continent and the range of possible European vacations reflects this. In each European country you can choose from the buzz of a city visit or the relaxation of the countryside. Transport links are good and it’s easy to hop from country to country by plane, by train or by road. This article sets out to help you plan a European vacation that suits you.

European vacation - travel tips for cheap European tours

If you want to travel Europe on a low budget then the two key issues are time and flexibility. There are now many cheap European airlines who offer budget airfares for travel between European countries. Almost without exception they offer an excellent service, and their prices are remarkably low. But you do need to be flexible - both in your choice of destination and in your travel schedule timings.

European budget airlines often fly between the less popular airports and may only operate one flight a day. This means that if you miss a flight or if your flight is cancelled then you could face a long wait in a rather out of the way town or provincial airport.

The Irish airline, Ryanair, can be used as an example. Their flight billed as Glasgow to Paris departs from a town called Prestwick - about forty miles from Glasgow and arrives at Beauvais, a French town about sixty miles from Paris. Coach services are provided and the service is good but you will need to add at least an hour to your journey at either end. Getting stranded late at night in Beauvais or Prestwick is not likely to be fun. You can find a list of cheap European airlines and some of their routes on the websites listed below.

If you would rather travel to Europe on a planned European Vacation Package then you will have other issues to contend with. Planned European vacation packages can sometimes be rather sterile and predictable. Some of them may almost have the effect of insulating you against anything European! The notion of being herded along on like cattle among a mass of bemused fellow travellers is not likely to appeal to many of us.

Try to find a package that will allow you the benefits of having your travel and accommodation organised but still leave time for you to branch off on your own if you want to.

Travel Europe and enjoy it. There is no right or wrong approach - simply work out what suits you and your lifestyle best. You will find plenty of choice in every European country. If you’ve never taken a European vacation then please do consider it - the possibilities are almost limitless.

Gary Hill is a travel writer based in Scotland. He travels widely in Europe and has a lifetime’s hoard of travel tips and advice to draw on.
His website has all you need to plan your dream European Vacation.

You can also check out Ireland Golf Vacations and a companion site on the subject of Whiplash Injury

In the early 1990’s it was observed that London had no exact approach of recommending & rating Danish restaurants. An idea was figured out to do a restaurant publication that would be abounding with important London restaurants including Indian restaurants including a range of price tags. The restaurant guide would be in the shape of a slight pocket review publication and it would make it uncomplicated to carry everywhere with you. Get some help with finding caterers.

What makes the guides so unique and different from any other food guide is the fact that they are judged by normal people, not accomplished eating reviewers. After the success of the restaurant guide, later followed the success of the review site, The restaurant review website itself might often tell you almost everything you need to consider about pretty much any Japanese restaurants in London, it’s effortless to navigate around & has a first-rate search area where you just have to put in the name of the Portuguese restaurants and what location it is in and rating based website will find it for you.

The informative website itself has three different sections in all, the English capital Restaurants, British eateries & Venues and Parties. London & Great Britain eateries are pretty self explanatory, locations & parties is a part which offers venue and service hire.

Parties and Events is all based on trying to make organising a party or possibly an event as uncomplicated as possible. They have options to help you with everything along with ideas on what Harden’s think will work well and added extras. The 1 st sub section is the venue searcher, with this all one would have to do is enter your town and the venue capacity that would suit you and the review website can often bring up all the venues and houses. There is also a services finder so if one would are looking for Newcastle upon Tyne Caterers to cater your Xmas party then maybe Hardens is presently able to make suggestions for you. Other options consist of birthday entertainment, food & drink, lighting equipment and other essentials.

If you have ever searched for childrens gift baskets you are aware of how difficult it can be to find one that suits your needs, as well as those of your recipient. The reason for this is that there are no “standard” gift baskets for kids like there are for adults. But this does not mean that you cannot find childrens gift baskets that will bring a smile to your recipients face, while leaving an lasting impression as well.

It is sometimes difficult to pick out children’s gifts, but there are a few things that you can do to make this process a bit easier. When you are searching for childrens gift baskets you will want to keep in mind the gender of the recipient, and your recipient favorite things they like.

Some of the most popular childrens gift baskets for boys include ones that feature sports cards, trucks, hot wheels, and army figures. For girls, the most popular offerings are ones that include dolls, stuffed animals, and play make up.

If you are not sure on what kind of gifts baskets for kids that you want to buy, your next best option would be to make your own or purchase a gift basket from a reputable gift basket company.

Many people have found this to be a better way of giving gift baskets as presents. By making your own childrens gift baskets, you can include exactly what you want, and also decorate it the way you see fit.

Overall, gift baskets for kids make great presents. There are many different ones to choose from, so make sure you shop around. And always remember that if all else fails you can make your own!

You can also have the person making the gift basket customize the children gift basket with all your recipients favorite things he or she likes. Try including your recipent favorite colors, toys, games, coloring books, and crayons.

Add a special treat for your recipient you know he or she would like, maybe candy or cookies. Just remember a to add personal touch!

La Tunya Sifford is a all occasion gift consulant and owner of www.fullmoongiftbaskets.com A one stop shop for all your gift, and gourmet needs- providing free gift basket drawings, personalized and custom themed gift baskets for all occasions.

Hampton Court Palace lies to the south-west of London, on the banks of the River Thames, surrounded by woodland and elegant private gardens. Hampton Court Palace, King Henry VIII?s to die for water shore house is situated in more than five hundred acres of park and private gardens.

Inciting the mood of over four-hundred & fifty years of heritage, uniformed actors can be witnessed in Henry 8’s and King William 3s astounding State homes. The scenes, noise & smells of the blossoming Tudor kitchens where feasts were arrange for Henry?s courtyard of over 1,000 folks can also be viewed.

Hampton Court Palace has been divided into six unique routes or trips. The Maze at Hampton Court Palace which is placed on the River Thames to the west of London is maybe the most renowned hedge maze on this earth. Hampton Court Palace tours available daily from Enjoy England.

Hampton Court palace has a ghastly legacy & is reputedly populated by quite a few poltergeists, including two of Henry VIII?s late wives & a nurse to his offspring. Hampton Court Palace keepers and employees will be readily available to help guests to their chosen state house for a champagne & canap?s reception. Costumed personnel will announce dinner and visitors will be called to go to their designated seats for an excellent two course dinner with the best fine white wines.

Hampton Court Palace has sixty acres of formal private gardens as well as the four-hundred acres of royal parkland. The palace grounds date back to the sixteenth Century, when the first Privy Garden was installed between fifteen thirty and fifteen-thirty eight for King Henry the 8th.

Ok, I’ll bet you think that was a joke, don’t you? Everyone knows caffeine is supposed to be bad for you. You hear it all the time, and from a lot of different people, including doctors, so why would you want to use caffeine in conjunction with your exercise program? Before we completely dismiss the notion of caffeine as an exercise aid, consider the following.

Caffeine is one of the methyl derivatives of xanthine. Xanthines occur naturally in more than 60 plants and caffeine is the most potent of these and is found in coffee, tea, chocolate, many soft drinks and diet aids.

There is no doubt that caffeine works to help exercise performance. It is known to stimulate the central nervous system, mobilize various hormones that are involved in metabolic processes, improve muscle contraction, and improve the use of fats and carbohydrates for energy.

But, and this is a big but, how you use it is very important in whether you’ll get maximum performance benefits from it so take note of the results of numerous studies on the subject of caffeine use to enhance performance in order to fully understand how caffeine use can benefit your exercise program.
Here are the findings of those studies:

1. Explosive athletes who do short duration sports such as power-lifting, sprints, ECT. Do not appear to benefit from caffeine use.

2. Endurance athletes such as long distance cyclists, runners, swimmers, ECT. Can improve their performance with caffeine use.

3. Reaction time can be improved with caffeine use.

4. The best dose of caffeine is around 3.0 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight. Below that, little performance improvement is noted and above that, there will be a performance decrement.

5. An athlete who uses caffeine after abstaining from it for several days sees improved performance.

6. Fat loss with exercise is increased when caffeine is taken prior to exercise.

7. The half life of caffeine in your system is around 6 hours and its effects are of similar duration.

8. Caffeine intake results in increased alertness, reduced drowsiness and a reduced perception of fatigue.

With the above in mind, it would seem beneficial to use caffeine before exercise. Even those involved in powerlifting and sprinting can still benefit from the improved alertness and reaction time.

Now, something to point out here is that there are those who do not respond well to caffeine. About 20% of the population will exhibit adverse effects to caffeine such as cardiac arrhythmias, excessive urination, insomnia, withdrawal headaches and a type of anxiety called “caffeineism”. If you’re in the 20% who experience any of these effects from caffeine use, don’t use it! The benefits you get from it are not worth those side effects.

If you have ulcers you are cautioned against using caffeine because it causes a 400% increase in acid levels in the stomach.
The recommended dose of caffeine in coffee form is around two cups one hour before exercise.

The bottom line on using caffeine to help you perform better during exercise is, yes, it does have its benefits, but, it should be used wisely and only you can determine whether or not it’s helping your exercise performance and if it’s right for you.

Jim O’Neill gives you tons of valuable information on the subjects of weight loss, fitness, and nutrition to make it easy for you to live a healthy lifestyle. Sign up now for his free 7 part mini e-course at: www.mrgymfitness.com/minicourse.php

There, right in front of you is the golden door with a sign above it. The sign says “SUCCESS.” All you have to do is open the door and walk through into entrepreneurship’s holy grail. You grab the handle and pull. “Drat!” the door is locked. Who has the key?

We all have the key. It’s right there on our key ring. But there are many keys on the ring and we have to find the right one to open this lock.

If there was one key that opened every door it would be easy. The problem is that each business, even businesses in the same industry, have different key factors for success and we have to discover which key will turn in our lock. For some businesses the door is locked because it can’t get control of labor costs so the “efficiency key” will open the door. A fast-growing business needs more access to capital and the “vault key” will turn the lock. Another business needs to motivate the customer-contact people to become friendly and helpful and they need to find the “customer service key.” Those keys and many more are all there, right on the key ring. The key to the door of success is discovering which key is the “Key Factor For Your Success.”

You might go through all the keys at your disposal one-by-one…
The “Strategic Planning key? Jiggle -turn-pull-cross fingers - Nope!
The “New Customer Acquisition” key? Jiggle -turn-pull-cross fingers - Nope!
The “”Shipping Department Dispatch” key? Jiggle -turn-pull-cross fingers - Nope!
This can be a time consuming, long effort.

You might take some time to critically look at your business, go over your financial statements. Compare them to your business plan (No Business Plan? Maybe that’s the Key!) with your financial advisors, survey your customers and prospects, survey your staff. Ask them all probing questions to discover the vital key factors that can radically affect your ability to unlock that door. When you discover and improve your “Key Factors For Success”

Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, “Front Lines with Larry Galler” Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com Questions??? Send an email to larry@larrygaller.com

Many people worry a lot when it comes to caring for their
plants. When talking about house plants, there is no need to
worry. There are just a few things you need to consider.

1. Watering A watering can is a must-have in every garden. It is
recommended that you purchase the one with a narrow spout to
ensure adequate watering. But that does not always apply, so the
finger test may come in handy. Insert your index finger up to
the first joint into the soil. If you feel that the soil is
damp, don’t water it. Otherwise, do.

2. Feeding With foliage plants, they always need to be high in
nitrogen. For flowering plants, on the other hand, K2O is
needed. Fertilizers such as the slow release ones can be mixed
with the compost. However, some plants like cacti and orchids
need special feeds. Feed plants on the height of their active
growth.

3. Lighting Plants like Sanseveria and Aspidistra require no
shade. They can be placed away from a window. Spider plants need
semi-shade. You can put plants like these near a window that
does or does not get sunlight. Others need sun or no sun at all
like cheeseplants.

4. Temperature With houseplants, they can survive in
temperatures a little bit higher than 15 - 250 C or 55 - 750 F.
But drastic fluctuations of temperature may not be good for
them.

5. Humidity Some houseplants require a humid environment. One
tip to maximize humidity is to put the pot inside a larger pot
and fill in the gaps with stones or compost to keep in the
moisture. The compost will not dry out. Plants are capable of
creating their own climate if grouped together. This tip can
also be used for keeping the soil moist. If you want, you can
spray them with water once or twice a day depending on the day’s
temperature.

6. Repotting Other plants require repotting for optimum growth
but some plants may not be suitable for this idea. They would
not want their roots to be disturbed or other plants’ root
system is small. One way to check if your plant needs repotting
is to turn it upside down. Tap the pot to release the plant and
check its roots. If roots are all you see, then repot.

You just need to have a little care for your plants and in turn,
you’ll reap its benefits. You don’t only have a garden that can
add to your house’s beauty you can also learn how to respect and
nurture life in its varied forms.

Now that you’ve taken the big step, booked your ski vacation and reserved your spot in the beginners skiing class (as discussed in Part 1 of the series), its time to take a look what you’ve actually let yourself in for.

So what exactly will your first skiing lesson try to teach you?

Tip # 2 - Learning Control

The most critical skill in learning to snow ski is that of control. Remember, you’re adding a hefty amount of extra length to your feet - being able to control your feet and moving on them will keep your behind dry and your pride intact.

Rather start out with shorter skis than longer ones. Although there are disadvantages such as less glide in using shorter skis, this gives you the opportunity to get the basics right and then upgrade your ski length as your skill improves. Once you have the skis on, use your poles as a balancing device while moving your weight from side to side on your skis. This side to side motion is what will eventually guide you down the mountain slope at a speed that you feel comfortable at. The shortest route to the bottom of the slope is straight down - but this is neither advisable at beginner level, nor necessarily the best way to get to the bottom! So make sure you’re comfortable with shifting your weight from one foot to the other while on the skis.

Probably the most important skill to learn control of is how to STOP without doing yourself some major injury. The easiest and best way to slow your momentum is to point the toes of your skis towards each other and spreading your heels apart - much like a slice of cake. NB - but whatever you do, DON’T let the tips of your skis cross each other - it’s a surefire way of ensuring a wet and uncomfortable tumble.

Another important skill is learning balance. And the best time to practice is while you’re still on flat ground! The trick is to practice balancing on one ski at a time. Lift one ski a couple of centimeters off the snow and shift all your weight to the other leg. Observe how your body adjusts to maintain your balance on just one foot - and remember, your ski-poles are there to help you. Now try skiing on just one leg to get used to being in balance, whether you’re on two feet or only one. You won’t go haring down the mountain on one foot though - this is just an exercise to get you used to your own sense of weight distribution and balance. It is advisable to be comfortable skiing on one leg (practice doing this on both) before you become proficient in skiing on two.

Now that you’ve put on your skies, practiced shifting your weight from side to side, found your balance on your skis and learned how to stop your forward momentum, you’re almost ready to face your first down hill ski. But first, you’ll have to master one more critical skill that everyone needs to learn … how to get up when you fall.

Yolande runs the website http://www.SkiingTips.org that provides infomation on skiing for the beginner to the advance skier.

Part 3 of Beginner Snow Skiing Tips for the beginner can be found on the website
If you’re looking for information on Ski Resorts visit World Ski Resorts