5 top things that set off my BS Alarm
5 top things that set off my BS Alarm by Rick HendershotThe web is overflowing with scams. Thousands and thousands of otherwise normal people are looking for ways to make big money by doing NOTHING. Still, we have faith that there are some legitimate opportunities on the web. But how do you tell the scams from the real things?Here are five things that set off my BS Alarm.Number 1 BS Alarm Tripper"You can make thousands of dollars a week, almost immediately." There are thousands and thousands...
All Real Estate Agents Are Not Created Equal
**Important things to look for in a Real Estate Agent**
When selling your home, one of the most important services your real estate agent can perform is helping you set the listing price. Most people approach a sale thinking they have a pretty good idea of what their home should sell for. But the fact is, until you do some serious calculations based on current market trends, sale prices in your area, and what other similar homes have recently sold for, there is no way you can possibly know...
Boston To Host Sustainable Energy Trade Show
Linknet News Daily Digest - December 22, 2005 - The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) will hold its 31st annual Building Energy Conference and Trade Show at Bostons Seaport World Trade Center on March 7-9, 2006.
The conference will feature more than 150 speakers dealing with topics ranging from photovoltaics, utility scale renewable energy, biofuels, urban design, building design, industrial design, green buildings and green products.
The show is expected to draw 2,000...
Cancun Beach Being Restored At A Record Pace
When Hurricane Wilma swept through Cancun last October the mighty winds stripped away 8 miles of some of the most beautiful sandy beach in the world. Everyone from Mexican President Vincente Fox down to the local residents knew that the beach had to be restored or Cancun's future was in serious danger.
Within weeks the Mexican government pledged $21 million to restore the beach. Now they have made good on that promise, and a massive barge being run by a Belgian firm is working day and night...
Castles Along The Rhine
The Rhine River is one of Germany's most popular tourist attractions. This famous river has been at the heart of German history for centuries, dating back to at least Roman times. In fact the river marked the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire.
Julius Caesar himself conquered the areas of Europe to the south and west of the Rhine, and the Germanic tribes retained control of the lands to the north of the river.
When the Roman Empire collapsed in about 400 AD the Germans flooded across the...
Chess - Its Origins And Development
Chess is one of the world's great board games. For centuries chess players around the world have been mesmerized by its challenges, and its great masters have been revered as superstars of a different order -- superstars with brains.
** Origins and background of chess
Like many of our popular board games, such as checkers (draughts) and backgammon, chess originated sometime in the first millenium AD, somewhere along the Silk Road that ran between Europe, Egypt, India and the Orient. Most...
Choosing A Web Hosting Company
It used to be that choosing a web hosting company for your small business web site was a difficult and confusing exercise. Thankfully, those days are long gone. Today you can do an online search for web hosting companies and be presented with a fantastic selection of cheap hosting packages, all of them offering a wide range of features.
Choosing among all the alternatives still takes a bit of research. Many people focus on impressive technical specs -- available bandwidth, storage capacity,...
Commercial Real Estate To Make Solid Gains In 2006
In its most recent report released Jan 24, The National Association of Realtors anticipates "solid" gains in the US commercial real estate sector.
David Lereah, NAR's chief economist said "Even with a lot of new construction around the country, we are seeing healthy levels of commercial real estate space being purchased, rented and occupied.
As a result, vacancies are declining across the board - this is improving the fundamentals for commercial real estate sectors into the foreseeable...
Congress Taking A Fresh Look At Online Sales Taxes
Linknet Internet News Digest - December 22, 2005 - According to a 1992, U.S. Supreme Court ruling, states can only require sellers that have a physical presence or "nexus" in the same state as the consumer to collect sales taxes. The Supreme Court also ruled that while buyers essentially owe the tax on purchases, the mishmash of taxing jurisdictions is too complex and burdensome for online retailers to charge and try to collect sales taxes.
Imposing a tax requirement would have a serious...
Credit Bureaus Adopt New Credit Scoring System
The three major consumer credit bureaus in the U.S. have recently created a new credit scoring system that will give financial institutions a more consistent evaluation of the credit worthiness of applicants.
The three agencies -- Equifax, Experian and Transunion -- have introduced the new system called "VantageScore". The new scoring system will be used immediately for reporting to banks, lenders, and credit card companies, and will be available to consumers later in the year.
This means...
Drugs For Treating Aids May Prevent People From Catching Aids
In one of the most promising developments in more than 20 years, scientists claim that drugs used to control HIV/AIDS in patients may also be effective in preventing the disease in the first place.
The drugs in question are tenofovir (Viread) and emtricitabine, or FTC (Emtriva), sold in combination as Truvada by Gilead Sciences Inc. Gilead is the California company best known for inventing Tamiflu.
Previous research has been aimed at finding a vaccine against HIV/AIDS, with the intention of...
Florida Real Estate - If You Sold Last Year Your Timing Was Perfect
Some areas of Southwest Florida have seen steady price decreases over the first two months of 2006. This was after a real estate price run up that lasted more than two years.
Now real estate agents are seeing more hesitant buyers. Homes are staying on the market longer and prices are falling in some cases in order to encourage buyers to make offers.
In the Cape Coral area, for instance, one of the hottest markets in Southwest Florida in 2005, there has been a lot of new home construction....
Florida Real Estate Outlook For 2006
**Central Florida Real Estate led by hot commercial sector
Throughout 2005, commercial developers and real estate investors in the Orlando area have seen the same kind of impressive price increases as home owners across Florida. One of the hottest segments of the market is the sale of apartments. Two of the Orlando area's largest apartment brokerages have done more than $2 billion in sales this year. It is expected that 20,000 apartments have changed hands and will be sold as condos in...
Fund Raising With Vinyl Banners
If you are part of a community group, service club, school class, sports team, or parks and rec committee, consider selling vinyl banner "spots" at your baseball or soccer field, in your local arena, or even in your school gym.
Banners are perfect for this because they can be printed in full colour with striking graphics, they are weather resistant. They also come with grommets or pole pockets so you can easily attach them to a fence or hang them on a wall.
A typical softball field has a...
Go The Extra Mile When Selling Your Home
So you've decided to sell your home, and now you are wondering how much time, effort and money you should spend sprucing it up to make it more attractive, sell faster, and get a higher price.
One important question is this: "If I spend money redecorating or renovating a specific part of my house, how likely am I to get that money back in a higher sale price?"
Or here is another slightly different way of putting this question: "Where will my efforts have the biggest impact in helping me to...
Hybrid Cars - Technology Of The Future Or Passing Fad?
Hybrid cars have been getting a lot of buzz the last three or four years, and now with the soaring cost of oil and gasoline, hybrids are expected to get hotter than ever. Here are some Questions and Answers about hybrids.
1. What is a hybrid car?
A vehicle is a hybrid when it combines two or more sources of power. Hybrid cars almost always have a gasoline engine and an auxiliary electric motor system that runs off rechargeable batteries.
We normally assume that the point of hybridization is...
Interest Rate Hikes Send Mixed Signals To Real Estate Investors
December 20, 2005 - Successive interest rate increases by the Fed have left everyone wondering what is going to happen next with Real Estate. Will the boom continue or is this the beginning of a gradual slow down?
As Jim Jubak, writing in Jubaks Journal, points out, the effect of steady increases will have a much broader impact than just on those who have adjustable-rate mortgages or are locked in because of bad credit ratings. He reports that many large mortgage companies are now selling...
Is The House Flipping Hype For Real?
House flipping is hot -- to the point where more than one successful reality TV show has been created to feed the appetite of up and coming house flippers. But does the reality of house flipping measure up to the hype?
House flipping TV shows have met with huge success because they speak to many homeowners' aspirations to make it big in one of the few areas they have some control over. "Buy it cheap, fix it up, and then resell it for a large profit", sounds like something anyone who can "work...
Lap-Band Surgery Is A Promising Treatment For Obesity
Even with the tremendous emphasis on diet, fitness, and nutrition in our society, the problem of obesity is increasing throughout the western world.
According to most experts, the cause of obesity is quite simple. A person gains weight when he or she consumes more calories than they burn. This involves both diet and level of physical activity, because it is primarily physical activity that burns off calories that are taken in through food.
Recent statistics for various countries around the...
Linknet Radio is "On the Air"
Linknet Radio is "On the Air" by Rick Hendershotby Rick Hendershot,originally published in e_Marketing -- the BlogAfter much preperation and experimentation, I finally got Linknet Radio up and running a couple of weeks ago. This is my much anticipated Flash Alternative for Online Media. It uses a very simple implementation of the Wimpy Player -- the one you can see at Power Linking with Linknet and Business Blogs) using the Wimpy "playlist" capabilities. I know there are alternative players...
Make Your Business Card Your Best Salesman
Make Your Business Card Your Best Salesman by Rick HendershotOne of the most important building blocks of a good marketing plan is your business card. It is far and away the most likely item to find its way into the hands of your most important business contacts. And it is the one thing that is likely to remain when all your other marketing materials are long gone.In other words, your business card is much more than just a piece of paper with your name, address and phone number printed on...
Mesothelioma - Cancer That Strikes 40 Years Later
Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer in which malignant (cancerous) cells are found in the mesothelium, a protective sac that covers most of the body's internal organs. Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles.
In his article called "Knee Deep in Asbestos", freelance writer Phil Jones relates how when he was a teenager he worked for a brief time in an asbestos mine in the Yukon. One of the features of daily life was the constant presence...
Mesothelioma - Suing For Compensation
Most asbestos lawsuits have been filed by people who have worked in environments where they have been exposed to asbestos, and who subsequently developed an asbestos-related illness such as asbestosis or mesothelioma. The purpose of asbestos lawsuits is to recover financial damages from the employer responsible for maintaining the safety of the workplace, or from some other company that was negligent in manufacturing or in recommending a hazardous material.
Financial damages usually include...
Organic Baby Food A Big Hit In Scotland
**50% of Scottish Babies fed Organic Baby Food
According to the Scotsman, more than half of Scottish children under two are now fed an exclusively organic diet. In fact, organic baby food accounted for 43% of total baby food sales in 2004. That represented sales of more than 63 million GBP in 2004.
A survey of 805 mothers and pregnant women conducted by the polling company BMRB found that four out of five mothers chose organic food for weaning their young children off of milk (between 6...
Record Numbers Set To Travel This Holiday
Linknet Travel News Digest - December 21, 2005 - Travel may be expensive this time of year, but the AAA is still predicting this will be a record year for travel in the U.S.
The organization estimates that 63.5 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more from home for either Christmas or New Years. This is up 1.7 percent from last year. Approximately 81 percent will travel by automobile.
Travel plans are aided this year by the calendar. With both Christmas and New Year's Day falling on...
San Diego Rich In History, Things To See And Do
Linknet Places - December 30, 2005
**Follow the Founders' Trail to relive the early history of San Diego
The Founders' Trail consists of seven historic sites in the San Diego area where you can learn about the early history of the area.
The earliest inhabitants of the San Diego area were Native Americans. Mission Trails Regional Park includes 3000 acres of countryside preserved much as it was when the Kumeyaay people hunted and harvested here hundreds of years ago.
The Cabrillo National...
Steel Buildings Are Perfect For Most Commercial Buildings
There are several kinds of commercial building construction commonly used in North America. So why would someone building a commercial warehouse, retail space, warehousing, a church, school, farm, or municipal structure choose a steel building?
The simple answer is that steel buildings offer a cost effective, flexible, low maintenance and energy efficient structure that can be designed to fit almost any situation.
Steel is the least expensive material of all the available methods of...
Term Life Insurance - Save Money The Smart Way
Term life insurance is the easiest type of life insurance to understand. To put it simply, the insured person pays a minimal premium per thousand dollars of coverage on an annual, semi annual, quarterly or monthly basis. If he or she dies within the term of the policy, the life insurance company will pay the beneficiary the face value of the policy.
**Distinctive Features of Term Life Insurance
To better understand some of the distinctive features of term life insurance, consider the...
The Problem with the Affiliate System
The Problem with the Affiliate System by Rick HendershotI've recently been reminded that product reviews and recommendations from "affiliates" are completely unreliable and untrustworthy.Anybody who has dabbled in web marketing knows that a prime source of revenue for web marketers is selling "affiliate" products. If you don't have your own product and many of us do not then all you have to do is get your web visitors to click thru to "gurus" like Jim Daniels, Cory Rudl, or Ken Evoy, and...
The Top 5 Uses Of Vinyl Banners
It used to be that vinyl banners were only useful as short term replacements for more "professional" looking signs. But the advent of digital printing has meant that vinyl banners can be printed in full color. And they are very inexpensive compared to the alternatives. This means that vinyl banners have a wide range of uses. Here are some of the most popular.
1. Banner Signs - Outdoor Banners
Banner Signs are often used in the place of more rigid signage. Because they are outdoor banners,...
Trade Show Graphics - The Inside Scoop
Display graphics are graphic images used for illustration or "display" purposes. Display Graphics are usually printed on paper, vinyl or fabric using a "large format" printing device. Normally display graphics are over-sized graphics printed on paper or some other material, and then mounted or hung on a graphic display unit of some sort in a conspicuous place.
One-off display graphics are used in vinyl banners, trade show displays, or as backdrops for a convention, press conference, or...
Vinyl Banner Design Tips
Vinyl banner design is about as easy as it gets for the non-professional graphic designer. Generally speaking, a vinyl banner is easy to design, and anybody with a little bit of graphic design experience can do it.
Even if you have no experience, your supplier can point you in the right direction, or even design your banner for a small charge.
Here are some things to watch for when designing a vinyl banner...
1. Use a software that handles CMYK full color output. There are at least three...
Wealthy Americans Confident Real Estate Boom Will Last
Linknet Real Estate News Digest - December 22, 2005 - In spite of worrying signs that the real estate market is slowing down, a survey of wealthy Americans indicates most remain confident property values will continue to appreciate.
In a survey conducted by The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., 65% of those surveyed said they expect to see double-digit increases in value over the next five years. Almost 1 in 3 (31%) think they will see an increase of 20% or more.
According to Nicholas...
What's So Great About Popup Displays
PopUp Displays are currently the most common form of low priced trade show and event display. A Popup Display is not a trade show "booth" as much as it is a backdrop or background wall for your display area.
A popup display normally has only two main components, with two or three other optional accessories. The most substantial part of a popup display is the folding frame which is normally made of either fibreglass or aluminum tubes. The frame serves as a skeleton that you cover with display...
Why Hybrid Car Drivers Need Thick Skin
Buying a hybrid car is more than a calculated decision to save fuel. It is a statement about "saving the planet".
Even if the chances are pretty slim that hybrid technology will actually make much difference, it gives hybrid owners the right to feel superior. After all, they care about the planet. And the rest of the world obviously doesn't.
But if you're one of those hybrid owners you'd better be ready to lose some friends. Here's why...
1. You're Driving Way Too Slow
In theory at least,...
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