Top Specialty Journal

One of the things that my girlfriends and I like to do on Saturdays in summer is to go to garage sales.  There are just so many treasures to be found amidst the junk, and usually we can find a good deal.  It is also very cheap entertainment and lets us catch up.

Today when we went out for our weekly garage sale expedition, we had one goal in mind - to find some wooden toys and jigsaw puzzles for the kids at our church.  The Sunday school coordinator had specifically asked for donations of these items, and we decided that we would do what we could.

The first two hours of going around to various garage sales were met with little luck - we were unable to find any puzzles at all.  We decided to take our treasure hunt to another part of the city in hopes that we would have more luck finding what we were looking for.

We had much more success on the other side of town.  In just one short hour, we were able to buy four box loads of the toys and puzzles that we were asked to find for a measly ten dollars.  Not only was the trip a success, but we had fun doing it.  I wonder what we are going to look for next week.  I just can’t wait.

Technorati Tags: jigsaw puzzles, wooden toys

As freelance writers, there are a lot of business expenses that we can deduct from our gross income at tax time.  This reduces the amount of taxes we have to pay, which is a good thing since the self-employment tax is so darn high!

A lot of freelance writers and other sole proprietors I know are much more liberal than I am about what they deduct, though.  I know writers who will plan business trips — such as a trip to attend a professional conference — to a city where a friend lives, so that they can write off the cost of visiting their friend.

I try to be very careful about making sure I’m only writing off expenses that can be justified, so if I planned a trip like that I’d be careful to only deduct part of the cost, the portion of the trip that is for business purposes.  If you need to save money and want to visit a friend, I suggest seeing if the friend can put you up while you’re there.  If not, you might be able to find a hotel deal online that would make the trip more affordable for you.

I just don’t think it is worthwhile to ever take a business expense that you couldn’t fully justify to the IRS if they audited you.  Sure, the chances of an audit aren’t that high, but is that really something you want to gamble on?

Technorati Tags: business expense, business trips, freelance writers, hotel deal

There are a lot of people who have a seasonal online business. This is great because it allows you to work part-time from home for only a portion of the year. However, you may be discovering that the economic issues caused by the recession are creating a strain on your finances. If so, you may want to expand beyond the seasonal business that you currently operate into one that can earn you an income year round.

The majority of seasonal online businesses are related to the Christmas holidays. A lot of people sell items that are specific to this time of year. Some examples of such items are Christmas ornaments, baked goods or canned goods designed to be Christmas gifts and holiday gift baskets. These items all sell well during a few short months of the year.

If you’re looking to expand beyond the seasonal store then you simply need to figure out a way to create year round products from the products that you already sell. For example, someone who sells holiday gift baskets may start to create gift baskets for other times of the year. Birthday gift baskets and get well gift baskets are sold year round. It should take just a bit of creativity and some new marketing to grow your business in this way.

Technorati Tags: get well gift baskets, holiday gift baskets

How many times have you heard Hollywood success stories where the main character has financed his movie with the use of his credit cards? More than a few times, I assure you. What you never hear, however is the countless stories of those that tried taking this pathway to success and ended up without a penny, homeless and on the street because they had maxed out their credit with no way of paying it all back.

When seeking out fame and fortune, it is important to understand the right and wrong ways to do things. This doesn’t mean one should never take chances or go out on a limb. It does mean that everything should be thought out, and contingencies should be at hand.

One good tool to know about is use of the cash advance. By using advances, it can be possible to take advantage of opportunities today while still planning on making repayments in the near future.

It would only really take one giant success story of a film being financed or massive business success all due to a cash advance for that tool to become more accepted and more readily used. We often malign the things we do not understand. More often than not, though, it has to do with our ignorance rather than with our knowledge.

Technorati Tags: cash advance, credit cards

For the last two years in high school, I have been dreaming of becoming the team captain for the football team.  I have dedicated my time during school to focus on becoming the best player that I could be.  This meant that I missed a lot of other activities since I spent so much time training instead of doing anything else.  But I believed that the dedication would pay off, so I didn’t think that I was really missing anything.

And it did.

In my senior year, my dream came true and I found myself in the position where I was the captain.  It was one of the most amazing moments in my life when they made the announcement as it meant all the hard work that I did was worth it.

I quickly realized though that there was more work involved in being the captain than I had thought.  I wanted to make sure that I did the best job I could, so I found some team software that would help me with all the work I needed to do.

But I know that I will do what it takes to make our team the best - being team captain was the role I was born to be.

Technorati Tags: dedication, team captain, team software

Having worked as an independent travel agent over the past decade, I’ve seen a few changes in how our business operates. Clearly, the Internet has changed the way things are done both for professionals as well as everyday lay persons. One of the most frequent questions I’m still asked is what I recommend in the way of best travel deals.

My response is usually to ask them questions. How much time do you have for your vacation? If they say they’d like to go for an extended travel plan, I am quick to suggest they consider a train trip in Canada. The values are amazing and the vacation never fails to provide for a lifetime of memories.

If I’m asked about beauty and majesty associated with a vacation outing, I’ll often relay my own personal experiences fishing and hiking during a holiday in Lake Louise, Canada. The small village that supports Lake Louise is quaint, lovely and offers tons of activities for visitors year round.

Whether my conversations result in booking of travel for potential clients or just me imparting my experience and knowledge, I always feel good when I can share with new people. Hopefully more folks will consider spending money on vacations in the near future.

Technorati Tags: holiday in Lake Louise Canada, train trip in Canada

As an Internet copywriter, I of course recommend hiring a professional writer to write the copy for your website, rather than trying to do it yourself.  Yes, everybody can write — but can everybody write well enough to make up a customer’s mind for them?  I don’t think so.

But if you won’t take my advice and hire a writer, at the very least follow these guidelines for writing your content yourself.

• Write in short, punchy paragraphs and include lots of lists.  There is nothing more likely to make a potential customer click away from your site than presenting them with a long page of solid text.  Large paragraphs are SCARY to a web surfer.  Therefore to keep their attention, you need to give them short bits of text that they can digest quickly.
• No keyword stuffing!  Keyword stuffing is cramming keywords into your text until it hardly even makes sense, in order to try to improve your search engine rankings.  Even if the search engines don’t catch you doing this and penalize you for it, you are sure to lose customers by making your website appear not worth reading.
• Use keywords that make sense.  No matter how frequently it is searched for, “ADT Phoenix” is an awkward phrase and difficult to work into your copy.  You won’t earn any points with your customers for sounding uneducated, and in any case you need more than hits on your site — you also need sales.
• Provide lots of good content that your customers will find useful.  The way to generate more traffic to your site, and therefore more sales, is to make your site useful enough that people who come to it keep reading, and hopefully even come back.  Articles and a blog are great ways to do this.  So, for instance, you might provide an article on your website as to why you recommend ADT Security over other brands.

A good website is vital to your business, because it is often the biggest factor in a customer’s decision to buy from you, rather than someone else.  You are best off hiring an experienced content writer, but if you can’t or won’t, by following these tips you should at least be able to write web pages that won’t embarrass you!

Technorati Tags: ADT Phoenix, ADT Security, good content

So, I’ve been having a lot of trouble lately.  I’ve been a diabetic for a while, but I’ve only recently gone on insulin, and it’s made me gain an insane amount of weight.  The extra weight, in turn, means that my natural insulin (and the insulin I’m injecting) is less effective, so I need to take more, which (you guessed it) in turn makes me gain more weight.  I just feel like I’m at the end of my rope, and to make matters worse, I’m in a bad position for my health.  I’m trying to look into alternative therapies, but I’m having trouble finding some.  Although I did hear that human growth hormone supplements can actually help manage blood sugar and insulin levels, my doctor hasn’t recommended that for me.  Should I approach my doctor about it?  Is it possible that this is one of the HGH side effects? 

Someone tried explaining it to me, something about how it increases muscle mass and so makes your blood sugar more effective, but I didn’t completely understand it.  Also, I’m over 18, so I don’t know if HGH is only effective when you’re younger or not.  I guess it wouldn’t be, because otherwise baseball players wouldn’t want it, right?  I think I should probably ask my doctor about it.

Technorati Tags: Diabetic, hgh side effects

My husband and I are looking at adopting a puppy.  Our family pet died a few months ago and we think we are ready to open our home once again to a dog.  The thing is we aren’t sure what breed to go with. We’ve always had larger dogs, but now that we are getting older, we want a breed that is a bit smaller and easier to handle. I also love the idea of having our dog up on the couch and there still being room for the two of us! I’d love a teacup poodle but my husband doesn’t want a dog quite that small. I think going that small would be too much of a change for him.

We’ve done some research and have narrowed it down to two breeds: Boston terrier and Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Both seem like great dogs and we are completely torn.  My husband is leaning more towards the Boston terrier, but I just think Corgis are adorable. Does anyone have any experience with either breed?  Some information from someone who has dealt first hand with both or either breeds would be very helpful.  Reading up on the dogs was very helpful, but I’d love to hear from someone who has owned them.

Technorati Tags: Boston terrier, Pembroke Welsh Corgi

My roommates and I all got the same university diploma frame when we graduated from college last year.  They were girls that I had lived with for four years and we had gone through a lot together.  It was really easy to find a diploma frame that we all liked.  As roommates, I guess we had all close to the same styles, too.  It was a lot of fun to shop for the frames.  It is amazing to me how many different university diploma frames there were to choose from.  We really enjoyed shopping and deciding which frames would house our diplomas after we graduated.

The frames were really pretty.  We got a frame that had a separate place for the picture that we took with each other on Graduation Day.  We also got matching mattes for the diploma and picture.  It made sense to match our university colors of crimson and gold.  I know that each of us will be going our separate ways, some of us are going on to graduate school, one is getting married and another is going into the Peace Corps.   The different paths will never stop us from being friends.

Technorati Tags: Peace Corps, university diploma frame, university diploma frames