Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Sandy Brewer
Every day newspapers and TV tell us that companies are laying off folks or simply closing their door. Frightening. Stable companies that have to cut back or simply cannot afford to stay open for business.
And, much to everyone's dismay, the number seems to be climbing higher for unemployment. Of course, no one knows when this will improve. And the down side is it may not show any improvement for at least a year or more.
I, unfortunately are one of those people. After working for a nation wide company for 7 years I was told doors were closing mid October due to business and economic reasons. And there are many more out there like myself.
Due to this distressing situation, it makes perfect sense to start a home based business. Home Businesses are a 427 Billion Dollar a year industry. When I read that I could not believe it. This large number is mostly due to the internet.
Online businesses are open 24/7. Once setup, they keep running even when you are no at home. Take a vacation, go shopping, watch a movie, whatever and your business keeps running.
The benefits for working from home are endless. You take yourself out of the rat race scenario. Save your car from every day wear and tear. You choose your own hours There is no schedule when you have your own home business.
Your new home business can be run part-time. Keep your current job and work on it when you can fit it in.
Some home businesses require very little capital to get started. Again, that depends on what your new home business is. If it is an internet business, you already have your PC and internet connection, why not put them to work??
If you have been laid off, like me, you now finally have time to devote to really research and see what you want to do. There are so many opportunities for someone to consider. I have seen websites showing you how to do digital photography as a home business, setup a day care center, make gift baskets, and countless others. The sky's the limit for finding something you are passionate about and turning that passion into something profitable.
Your new home business does not have to be anything huge. Maybe you will become an affiliate for a vendor. Simply speaking, an affiliate sells someone else's products. There are many vendors you can become an affiliate for. Probably the largest is Clickbank.
E-Commerce is a really popular field. When you do a search just for the words "E-Commerce" you can see for yourself the unlimited opportunities that are available. When I did a search for "E-Commerce" I found a site where someone can sell their own items, like homemade clothing and build an online store. Again, the possibilities are endless.
Downloadable E-Books are very popular right now. These electronic books offer information in many categories. You can setup an online store where you sell Ebooks in many areas. How to remove adware, spyware from your computer. How to setup a website. How to earn multiple streams of income. How to earn money taking pictures with your digital camera. How to start an import-export business. Just to name a few of many possibilities.
One of the reasons E-Books are so popular is the buyer has access to the product immediately.
No one knows the future of the economy. When you have your own home business, you cannot get laid off!
You can turn your unexpected and unwanted layoff into something positive. You are free to explore and have fun finding a profitable way to make money. And NOT dependent on an employer.
About the Author:
Sandy Brewer is an a cat lover and an avid gardener. She lives in New Mexico, and is currently unemployed. This has allowed her the time to research the idea of working for her self. Her website provides lots of programs and information to get started being your own boss. http://www.homebizunlimited.com/
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Watch Out for Pumpkins
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Leonard Porcano
When I was about 5 years old, I grew a pumpkin. My mother was planting a garden, and I wanted to grow something too. I wanted to grow a pumpkin. Being both lazy and stubborn as a five year old, I decided that the best place to grow my pumpkin was in the loose gravel at the side of our driveway, I scooped out some gravel and poured the contents of my packet of pumpkin seeds into the hole, and then covered it with the gravel. I watered the gravel covered seeds with our garden hose, and went back to playing with my matchbox cars.
Each day, I dutifully checked on my pumpkin seeds to see how they were progressing. After a few weeks, some vines and leaves started to grow from the gravel. It was at this point that I started to realize I had a real knack for gardening. All the advice I had received with regards to where to plant and the kind of soil which was needed were clearly wrong.
One morning a few weeks later when I went to check on my plants, I spotted some orange between the leaves. As I pushed the leaves aside, I discovered a large pumpkin. It was a marvelous pumpkin, big and orange and perfect. I don't know how I had missed it up until this point. I dragged the pumpkin up to the house, where my mother was incredibly impressed. I did not rub it in too badly that I was right about where to plant my seeds, and that she was not.
Despite this incredible early success with gardening, I did not follow up with it at all over the next 16 years. I was now in my early twenties and married. I was a newlywed and my wife, Marie, was working on planting a garden. She was complaining that she was having trouble getting the plants to grow. Me being a gracious husband, and remembering my early gardening successes, I offered my help with the garden. When questioned about what qualified me to offer advice, I quickly offered up my story about the pumpkin. It was a story I had told a number of times, and one I was quite proud of. Well, Marie's response was not quite what I expected. Rather than jump at the chance to have a real green thumb help, she started to laugh. What's more, the more I assured her that I had indeed grown my pumpkin, the harder she laughed. I was not going to let this go, so I insisted that we would verify my story with my family that weekend. After all, they had all seen my pumpkin and even helped carve it into a jack o lantern.
The weekend came, and I could not wait to prove to my new bride that I had in fact grown this pumpkin. I ran the scenario through my head a number of times. I would of course be gracious when she would be forced to apologize for questioning me, my story, and my gardening skills. We had scarcely entered my mother's house when I brought up the story for her to confirm in front of Marie. My mother looked at my sister, and my sister back at my mother. Then my sister started laughing. I sensed that something was not right, when my mother dropped the bombshell on me.
You see, the vines and leaves which I dutifully watered and nurtured were simply weeds, which my mother did not have the heart to pull. As the weeds grew up, and I kept watering my mother began to feel bad that I would never get a pumpkin out of them. So one evening, she stopped at the market and picked up a pumpkin. While I was safely tucked into bed, she carefully placed the pumpkin between the weeds I had been watering. It was the next day, I discovered my accomplishment.
Now I do believe that every story and every experience has a silver lining. You can take something positive from everything if you look hard enough. In this case though, it would be another 10 years before I found the silver. I was having a hard time with someone I worked with. This person had some really backwards views about people different than him. It did not matter what kind of evidence or logic I provided, this guy was not letting go of these backwards views he had. It was obvious that he was wrong, but nothing I could say or do would break through to him. It was during one conversation with this guy, that it hit me. These backwards views he had been carrying since childhood, these views were his pumpkin. He was not holding a different opinion than me, he was holding a different reality. There was no way I would ever convince him that he had a faulty reality, so I stopped trying. And in accepting that his reality and mine were different, I was able to find a place where we were able to get along.
In fact our minds are incapable of experiencing a truly objective reality. Each of us has a concept of reality shaped by our experiences.
The first lesson I took from this is that we are responsible for our own pumpkins. Each of us has to take responsibility for reconciling our reality or our world view with those around us. You can not take it upon yourself to clear up somebody else's pumpkin, you can only take care of your own.
The second lesson is that everyone has pumpkins. We all have places within our reality that don't match up with those around us. Places where, good or bad, we experience the world differently. It is important to realize this and to be aware of these differences.
And finally, everyone includes you. So the next time you find yourself in a disagreement with someone realize that the thing that is coming between you may be a pumpkin, and what is more it may even be a pumpkin that you have been carrying and not them.
About the Author:
Leonard Porcano currently manages Novisi.com, a web development company. You can find Leonard's blog at Inspirinet.com. He loves to sail, and has raced sailboats and even spent a summer teaching sailing to the blind.
Copyright © 2009 Leonard Porcano
When I was about 5 years old, I grew a pumpkin. My mother was planting a garden, and I wanted to grow something too. I wanted to grow a pumpkin. Being both lazy and stubborn as a five year old, I decided that the best place to grow my pumpkin was in the loose gravel at the side of our driveway, I scooped out some gravel and poured the contents of my packet of pumpkin seeds into the hole, and then covered it with the gravel. I watered the gravel covered seeds with our garden hose, and went back to playing with my matchbox cars.
Each day, I dutifully checked on my pumpkin seeds to see how they were progressing. After a few weeks, some vines and leaves started to grow from the gravel. It was at this point that I started to realize I had a real knack for gardening. All the advice I had received with regards to where to plant and the kind of soil which was needed were clearly wrong.
One morning a few weeks later when I went to check on my plants, I spotted some orange between the leaves. As I pushed the leaves aside, I discovered a large pumpkin. It was a marvelous pumpkin, big and orange and perfect. I don't know how I had missed it up until this point. I dragged the pumpkin up to the house, where my mother was incredibly impressed. I did not rub it in too badly that I was right about where to plant my seeds, and that she was not.
Despite this incredible early success with gardening, I did not follow up with it at all over the next 16 years. I was now in my early twenties and married. I was a newlywed and my wife, Marie, was working on planting a garden. She was complaining that she was having trouble getting the plants to grow. Me being a gracious husband, and remembering my early gardening successes, I offered my help with the garden. When questioned about what qualified me to offer advice, I quickly offered up my story about the pumpkin. It was a story I had told a number of times, and one I was quite proud of. Well, Marie's response was not quite what I expected. Rather than jump at the chance to have a real green thumb help, she started to laugh. What's more, the more I assured her that I had indeed grown my pumpkin, the harder she laughed. I was not going to let this go, so I insisted that we would verify my story with my family that weekend. After all, they had all seen my pumpkin and even helped carve it into a jack o lantern.
The weekend came, and I could not wait to prove to my new bride that I had in fact grown this pumpkin. I ran the scenario through my head a number of times. I would of course be gracious when she would be forced to apologize for questioning me, my story, and my gardening skills. We had scarcely entered my mother's house when I brought up the story for her to confirm in front of Marie. My mother looked at my sister, and my sister back at my mother. Then my sister started laughing. I sensed that something was not right, when my mother dropped the bombshell on me.
You see, the vines and leaves which I dutifully watered and nurtured were simply weeds, which my mother did not have the heart to pull. As the weeds grew up, and I kept watering my mother began to feel bad that I would never get a pumpkin out of them. So one evening, she stopped at the market and picked up a pumpkin. While I was safely tucked into bed, she carefully placed the pumpkin between the weeds I had been watering. It was the next day, I discovered my accomplishment.
Now I do believe that every story and every experience has a silver lining. You can take something positive from everything if you look hard enough. In this case though, it would be another 10 years before I found the silver. I was having a hard time with someone I worked with. This person had some really backwards views about people different than him. It did not matter what kind of evidence or logic I provided, this guy was not letting go of these backwards views he had. It was obvious that he was wrong, but nothing I could say or do would break through to him. It was during one conversation with this guy, that it hit me. These backwards views he had been carrying since childhood, these views were his pumpkin. He was not holding a different opinion than me, he was holding a different reality. There was no way I would ever convince him that he had a faulty reality, so I stopped trying. And in accepting that his reality and mine were different, I was able to find a place where we were able to get along.
In fact our minds are incapable of experiencing a truly objective reality. Each of us has a concept of reality shaped by our experiences.
The first lesson I took from this is that we are responsible for our own pumpkins. Each of us has to take responsibility for reconciling our reality or our world view with those around us. You can not take it upon yourself to clear up somebody else's pumpkin, you can only take care of your own.
The second lesson is that everyone has pumpkins. We all have places within our reality that don't match up with those around us. Places where, good or bad, we experience the world differently. It is important to realize this and to be aware of these differences.
And finally, everyone includes you. So the next time you find yourself in a disagreement with someone realize that the thing that is coming between you may be a pumpkin, and what is more it may even be a pumpkin that you have been carrying and not them.
About the Author:
Leonard Porcano currently manages Novisi.com, a web development company. You can find Leonard's blog at Inspirinet.com. He loves to sail, and has raced sailboats and even spent a summer teaching sailing to the blind.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Buying Cheaper Expired Domains - Some Tips and Techniques
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu
Laying hands on revenue generating expired domains could be a hard task and a tough exercise. Owning revenue domains could either break or make someone who is just planning to expand his or her business. Expired domains are extremely interesting and absorbing for their perceived abilities in providing an ongoing stream of income. Cheap expired domains should be your ultimate priority. Cheaper expired domains with an ability to fetch you handsome profits should be your business goal.
Most of us tend to buy expired domains that boast of sufficient traffic and inbound links. However, not all domains are equal in their ability to earn you good income; some of them may even be very bad and ordinary. Buying a cheaper and cost effective expired domain requires considerable amount of skills and knowledge like:
a) An ability to look at the cheaper domains much before others actually do.
b) A keen sense of expectancy to spot an expired domain that is not only cheaper, but also commercially viable.
More often, cheaper expired domains are very poor in their quality, brandability and commercial viability. Furthermore, such domains are usually non-generic with a lengthy name that is too difficult to remember and pronounce. Hyphenated domains interspersed with alphabets and numbers are the most commonly available expired domain names. These domains may be dead cheaper to buy, but they do not provide any real-time value to the customer.
Fortunately, buying a cheap expired domain is very easy considering the average value of such domains varies from $10 to about $50. So, how do you make money by selling such cheap expired domains? In essence, buying and selling cheaper domains involve disposing off the domain immediately soon after their purchase. If you want to make money out of these domains, the only alternative is to buy a number of such domains and sell them immediately within a day for small profit; creating a big volume will help you in making some amount of profit.
If you are proficient in Internet Technology related subjects, you can try out converting a cheap expired domain name into an entity that is capable of creating maximum profit. To create profits from cheaper domain names, one needs to focus more on the traffic and inbound links part of the domain. More number of traffic and links mean better and commercially feasible domains that can attract customers like a bee. Experienced expire domain traders ensure that they buy plenty of cheap expired domains and convert them into paying mini-sites.
Cheaper expired domains could act as tiny profit centers, when you change their scope by using better internet technologies, like setting up a useful web site and later promoting the web site for instant traffic. It is also possible to employ these micro web sites as potential money-spinners, by signing up for useful services like domain parking and PPC campaigns. Cheaper expired domains could act as tools in providing an opportunity to earn small amount of income.
About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.
Copyright © 2009 John Khu
Laying hands on revenue generating expired domains could be a hard task and a tough exercise. Owning revenue domains could either break or make someone who is just planning to expand his or her business. Expired domains are extremely interesting and absorbing for their perceived abilities in providing an ongoing stream of income. Cheap expired domains should be your ultimate priority. Cheaper expired domains with an ability to fetch you handsome profits should be your business goal.
Most of us tend to buy expired domains that boast of sufficient traffic and inbound links. However, not all domains are equal in their ability to earn you good income; some of them may even be very bad and ordinary. Buying a cheaper and cost effective expired domain requires considerable amount of skills and knowledge like:
a) An ability to look at the cheaper domains much before others actually do.
b) A keen sense of expectancy to spot an expired domain that is not only cheaper, but also commercially viable.
More often, cheaper expired domains are very poor in their quality, brandability and commercial viability. Furthermore, such domains are usually non-generic with a lengthy name that is too difficult to remember and pronounce. Hyphenated domains interspersed with alphabets and numbers are the most commonly available expired domain names. These domains may be dead cheaper to buy, but they do not provide any real-time value to the customer.
Fortunately, buying a cheap expired domain is very easy considering the average value of such domains varies from $10 to about $50. So, how do you make money by selling such cheap expired domains? In essence, buying and selling cheaper domains involve disposing off the domain immediately soon after their purchase. If you want to make money out of these domains, the only alternative is to buy a number of such domains and sell them immediately within a day for small profit; creating a big volume will help you in making some amount of profit.
If you are proficient in Internet Technology related subjects, you can try out converting a cheap expired domain name into an entity that is capable of creating maximum profit. To create profits from cheaper domain names, one needs to focus more on the traffic and inbound links part of the domain. More number of traffic and links mean better and commercially feasible domains that can attract customers like a bee. Experienced expire domain traders ensure that they buy plenty of cheap expired domains and convert them into paying mini-sites.
Cheaper expired domains could act as tiny profit centers, when you change their scope by using better internet technologies, like setting up a useful web site and later promoting the web site for instant traffic. It is also possible to employ these micro web sites as potential money-spinners, by signing up for useful services like domain parking and PPC campaigns. Cheaper expired domains could act as tools in providing an opportunity to earn small amount of income.
About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Link Bait: Attracting Links To Your Website
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008-2009 Trey Pennewell
You know it is funny in a way. Webmasters have learned that the most important thing that they can do to improve the traffic to their website and to attract attention from the search engines is to build links to their website.
But when it comes time to actually start building links to one's website, people typically pick out the hardest way to accomplish the task and then they get to work.
Working Hard
People have been told about various ways to build links to one's website, and they go through the process of picking out the method that they would prefer to use. It is kind of ironic that most people pick the method that they believe will be the easiest and least expensive to achieve, and when all is said and done, they will have picked out the hardest, least effective method of building links.
For example, most newcomers to online business choose:
Reciprocal links;
Directory submissions.
With Reciprocal Links, people buy a software package that helps them to search out websites that are supposedly "related" to theirs and then they send an email to the person who owns that website, proclaiming the benefits of trading links and asking for the link.
With directory submissions, webmasters can get software that is supposed to help with the process, but it takes hours just to submit one's website to a few dozen directories. Fortunately, there are service providers who also provide submissions to web directories. Regardless of how you get links submitted to web directories, you generally have to pray that those web directories are approving submissions, since most owners have abandoned their directories.
Beyond the time required setting up links in this fashion, and the frustration of getting very few links for the amount of time spent, the worst part of the equation is that the search engines tend to ignore links gained through these methods, and few humans find and follow those links.
Internet newcomers using these methods frequently spend a lot of time trying to promote their websites, and in the end, they have accomplished nothing more than wasting a lot of their limited time and energy.
Working Smart
What if I could show you a better way? Would you be intrigued enough by my methods to try them for yourself?
My point in sharing this with you is not to annoy you, but to help you get better results in much less time.
When we launch new websites, we ignore reciprocal links and web directories altogether. We consider both to be a complete waste of time, effort and money.
Let me put this into perspective for you by giving you a real life example.
On November 18th, 2008, we bought and built a new niche domain: http://www.shoppingtraveldeals.com/blog/
Today is December 27th, so this site has only been active for just under six weeks.
We purchased the domain on the 18th, had it set up with content on the 19th, and then on the 20th, we started promoting this website. We released our first and second reprint articles, promoting this site on the 20th of November. We released our third article on the 24th and the fourth on the 25th. Then we released our fifth article promoting the website on December 15th.
We also set up bookmarks for the main page of the website in Stumbleupon, Digg and Propeller.
In the 39 days since we bought this domain, our website has seen 520 unique visitors. The site received 86 visitors in November and 434 so far in December.
Now here is where it gets interesting.
We have received traffic from 66 unique web pages, and we have received click-through traffic from Google and Windows Live, with 86% of our search traffic coming from Google.
On our search engine traffic, we have received traffic on 171 unique keyword phrases. In order to better understand this search engine traffic, we ran the top 25 search terms through Google to see where our website ranked in the search results, and this is what we came up with:
Two #1 listings;
Ten listings that were ranked from #2 to #4;
Ten listings that were ranked from #5 to #10;
Two listings on page two of Google's search results (#11 to #20);
One listing on page three of Google's results (#21 to #30).
We built this website with the express intent of earning affiliate commissions in the travel industry. The prognosis is good, as we have already started earning money from this website, and in terms of our current earnings, we expect to be in the black against our initial investment into this website, within about three months.
More About Reprint Articles
The concept of the reprint article is to write an article and give it to other webmasters to use in their websites and newsletters, in exchange for a link back to your website.
Those articles that seek to teach something of value typically get published more frequently than those articles geared to sell a product or service. It is our fervent belief that the Author's resource box - the paragraph that follows the article - is the only place where a writer should try to sell his or her wares. The goal of the resource box is to get a reader to your website, and your website is where the real selling should take place.
Reprint articles offer good value to the people who use them wisely. But the online marketer must first be willing to invest the required time or money to have appropriate articles written and/or distributed.
While it is true that I work for an article distribution company, it is important to note that our guiding principle is that each article distribution company will reach a different and unique audience. As such, we always use our own service to distribute articles and occasionally we use our competitors' article distribution companies as well.
We distribute ALL of our own articles through our own company, because we know that our service does provide real value. But for some articles, we do go to some of our competitors to increase our reach and to reach new audiences.
We actually learned to do this from some of our more successful customers, who suggest that there are certain publishers that only we can reach, while my competitors also have certain publishers that only they are able to reach. As a result, many of our customers use two or three article distribution companies, and we do too.
Working Smarter
While reprint articles is a tool that we consistently utilize to build links and to grow traffic to our websites, there remains a more long-term, yet more valuable approach to building links for our websites.
Link Bait is an idea where you create a resource that people find so useful that they feel compelled to link to it from their own websites.
Look at it this way. With reprint articles, we have to write the article, and then distribute it through the sources we choose to use to get it into circulation. All told, we will invest several hours into writing, and then we will invest another hour to distribute the article.
All told, we will have spent four to five hours to write and distribute this article. In turn, we will receive dozens or hundreds of links from related web pages (the links are from "related web pages", because we designed the article content to look like what we are trying to promote). Writing and distributing articles typically creates a great return of value for our businesses.
But consider this. Last week, we created a resource page on one of our websites (http://www.techcentralpublishing.com/more-article-directories.php). This page is a list of the +1200 article directories we know to exist on the Internet. We were not the first website to offer such a list, but we may be the first to give the Internet community an easy method to add new sites and to flag bad sites, automatically from the page where the list is displayed.
If you are able to create a page such as this that people find extremely useful, then people are more inclined to link to your page, without you even asking them to do so. The beauty about building pages like this on the Internet is that all you have to do is to let people know it is there, and then the links will roll in steadily.
One Link Bait page we built on May 1st, 2004 has been used by the public more than 38,000 times according to its built-in counter. And according to a Yahoo search, it has more than 10,000 inbound links from third-party websites.
We built the page (http://www.thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl) in a day, wrote one article to let people know it was there, and then we left the page alone for more than four-and-a-half years.
Do you see how it is much easier to build one link bait, notify the world, and then to let people link to your web page for you? The time invested in our Text To Hyperlink Converter was less than 12 hours, yet it has attracted +10,000 links with almost no promotion on our part. And this article will generate +100 links in exchange for five hours of our time.
In Conclusion
We are working smart when we write and distribute articles to promote a website. The Shopping Travel Deals site attests to the value of reprint articles to build links and traffic to a new website quickly.
But we are working smarter, when we invest the additional time to build a link bait web page that people will appreciate and link to for us, without any additional effort on our part.
About the Author:
Trey Pennewell is part of http://www.thephantomwriters.com support staff. In the quest to bring more effective Internet promotion tools to their customers, The Phantom Writers is proud to announce that in conjunction with professional video editors and voice-over personalities, they now offer professional Video Creation Services. It has been made possible for online marketers to easily convert their promotional articles to Video Articles. Explore the unlimited possibilities of Video Marketing at: http://thephantomwriters.com/video-article-marketing.html
Copyright © 2008-2009 Trey Pennewell
You know it is funny in a way. Webmasters have learned that the most important thing that they can do to improve the traffic to their website and to attract attention from the search engines is to build links to their website.
But when it comes time to actually start building links to one's website, people typically pick out the hardest way to accomplish the task and then they get to work.
Working Hard
People have been told about various ways to build links to one's website, and they go through the process of picking out the method that they would prefer to use. It is kind of ironic that most people pick the method that they believe will be the easiest and least expensive to achieve, and when all is said and done, they will have picked out the hardest, least effective method of building links.
For example, most newcomers to online business choose:
With Reciprocal Links, people buy a software package that helps them to search out websites that are supposedly "related" to theirs and then they send an email to the person who owns that website, proclaiming the benefits of trading links and asking for the link.
With directory submissions, webmasters can get software that is supposed to help with the process, but it takes hours just to submit one's website to a few dozen directories. Fortunately, there are service providers who also provide submissions to web directories. Regardless of how you get links submitted to web directories, you generally have to pray that those web directories are approving submissions, since most owners have abandoned their directories.
Beyond the time required setting up links in this fashion, and the frustration of getting very few links for the amount of time spent, the worst part of the equation is that the search engines tend to ignore links gained through these methods, and few humans find and follow those links.
Internet newcomers using these methods frequently spend a lot of time trying to promote their websites, and in the end, they have accomplished nothing more than wasting a lot of their limited time and energy.
Working Smart
What if I could show you a better way? Would you be intrigued enough by my methods to try them for yourself?
My point in sharing this with you is not to annoy you, but to help you get better results in much less time.
When we launch new websites, we ignore reciprocal links and web directories altogether. We consider both to be a complete waste of time, effort and money.
Let me put this into perspective for you by giving you a real life example.
On November 18th, 2008, we bought and built a new niche domain: http://www.shoppingtraveldeals.com/blog/
Today is December 27th, so this site has only been active for just under six weeks.
We purchased the domain on the 18th, had it set up with content on the 19th, and then on the 20th, we started promoting this website. We released our first and second reprint articles, promoting this site on the 20th of November. We released our third article on the 24th and the fourth on the 25th. Then we released our fifth article promoting the website on December 15th.
We also set up bookmarks for the main page of the website in Stumbleupon, Digg and Propeller.
In the 39 days since we bought this domain, our website has seen 520 unique visitors. The site received 86 visitors in November and 434 so far in December.
Now here is where it gets interesting.
We have received traffic from 66 unique web pages, and we have received click-through traffic from Google and Windows Live, with 86% of our search traffic coming from Google.
On our search engine traffic, we have received traffic on 171 unique keyword phrases. In order to better understand this search engine traffic, we ran the top 25 search terms through Google to see where our website ranked in the search results, and this is what we came up with:
We built this website with the express intent of earning affiliate commissions in the travel industry. The prognosis is good, as we have already started earning money from this website, and in terms of our current earnings, we expect to be in the black against our initial investment into this website, within about three months.
More About Reprint Articles
The concept of the reprint article is to write an article and give it to other webmasters to use in their websites and newsletters, in exchange for a link back to your website.
Those articles that seek to teach something of value typically get published more frequently than those articles geared to sell a product or service. It is our fervent belief that the Author's resource box - the paragraph that follows the article - is the only place where a writer should try to sell his or her wares. The goal of the resource box is to get a reader to your website, and your website is where the real selling should take place.
Reprint articles offer good value to the people who use them wisely. But the online marketer must first be willing to invest the required time or money to have appropriate articles written and/or distributed.
While it is true that I work for an article distribution company, it is important to note that our guiding principle is that each article distribution company will reach a different and unique audience. As such, we always use our own service to distribute articles and occasionally we use our competitors' article distribution companies as well.
We distribute ALL of our own articles through our own company, because we know that our service does provide real value. But for some articles, we do go to some of our competitors to increase our reach and to reach new audiences.
We actually learned to do this from some of our more successful customers, who suggest that there are certain publishers that only we can reach, while my competitors also have certain publishers that only they are able to reach. As a result, many of our customers use two or three article distribution companies, and we do too.
Working Smarter
While reprint articles is a tool that we consistently utilize to build links and to grow traffic to our websites, there remains a more long-term, yet more valuable approach to building links for our websites.
Link Bait is an idea where you create a resource that people find so useful that they feel compelled to link to it from their own websites.
Look at it this way. With reprint articles, we have to write the article, and then distribute it through the sources we choose to use to get it into circulation. All told, we will invest several hours into writing, and then we will invest another hour to distribute the article.
All told, we will have spent four to five hours to write and distribute this article. In turn, we will receive dozens or hundreds of links from related web pages (the links are from "related web pages", because we designed the article content to look like what we are trying to promote). Writing and distributing articles typically creates a great return of value for our businesses.
But consider this. Last week, we created a resource page on one of our websites (http://www.techcentralpublishing.com/more-article-directories.php). This page is a list of the +1200 article directories we know to exist on the Internet. We were not the first website to offer such a list, but we may be the first to give the Internet community an easy method to add new sites and to flag bad sites, automatically from the page where the list is displayed.
If you are able to create a page such as this that people find extremely useful, then people are more inclined to link to your page, without you even asking them to do so. The beauty about building pages like this on the Internet is that all you have to do is to let people know it is there, and then the links will roll in steadily.
One Link Bait page we built on May 1st, 2004 has been used by the public more than 38,000 times according to its built-in counter. And according to a Yahoo search, it has more than 10,000 inbound links from third-party websites.
We built the page (http://www.thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl) in a day, wrote one article to let people know it was there, and then we left the page alone for more than four-and-a-half years.
Do you see how it is much easier to build one link bait, notify the world, and then to let people link to your web page for you? The time invested in our Text To Hyperlink Converter was less than 12 hours, yet it has attracted +10,000 links with almost no promotion on our part. And this article will generate +100 links in exchange for five hours of our time.
In Conclusion
We are working smart when we write and distribute articles to promote a website. The Shopping Travel Deals site attests to the value of reprint articles to build links and traffic to a new website quickly.
But we are working smarter, when we invest the additional time to build a link bait web page that people will appreciate and link to for us, without any additional effort on our part.
About the Author:
Trey Pennewell is part of http://www.thephantomwriters.com support staff. In the quest to bring more effective Internet promotion tools to their customers, The Phantom Writers is proud to announce that in conjunction with professional video editors and voice-over personalities, they now offer professional Video Creation Services. It has been made possible for online marketers to easily convert their promotional articles to Video Articles. Explore the unlimited possibilities of Video Marketing at: http://thephantomwriters.com/video-article-marketing.html
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Seaside Romance in Barcelona, Spain
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2006-2009 Vasrue.com, All Rights Reserved Written by: Clinton Douglas IV
Nestled along the majestic, tranquil Mediterranean coast lies the romantic Spanish city known for its ancient culture and awe-inspiring historic architecture. The capital of Catalonia, Barcelona has mild, comfortable winters and dry, smoldering summers. The best time to vacation, weather-wise, is during the Spring and Fall, March through June or September through January. So now is the ideal time to experience its splendor.
Visit this romantic city with your paramour this Fall and absorb as much of its arts and culture as possible. Barcelona blends the ancient with the modern, offering a unique and eclectic experience. Beginning in the Gothic Quarter, its quaint, narrow streets captivate visitors with magnificent Gothic architecture, peaceful squares and fragmented remains of what were once the Roman walls surrounding the city.
The elaborate Barcelona Cathedral is one of the most impressive structures you'll behold, with its striking peaks and pointed rooftops piercing the skyline in its characteristic, Gothic tradition. A tour of the passionate Barcelona arts and culture would not be complete without a visit to local medieval palaces like La Pia Almoina and Casa dels Canonges, or the nearby Palau Reial Mayor and Chapel of Santa Agata. Say 'I love you' again and again amidst halls and surroundings which have watched generation after generation, era after era, pass before their eyes.
Being seaside, Barcelona offers a unique marine feel, with former dockyards turned Museums and ancient, medieval port facilities. Watch the sunset in her eyes before you settle in for a late dinner and cocktail. The Barceloneta is the city's fishermen's quarter adjacent to the beach. Just a short stroll or subway ride away, you can lie near the waves and escape into delicious dining facilities serving an array of seafood, black rice and Catalan dishes. While menus are in Spanish, waiters are friendly and accommodating to tourists. Other urban sections of interest include Ciutat Vella, the city's old town and Eixample, the city's Modernist quarter.
Top off your romantic get-away with a stroll through the city's unique shopping conveniences. Barcelona's wealth of commerce includes quaint street markets and craft shops as well as prestigious stores near Eixample's passeig de Gracia and the Rambia de Catalunya. Discover the elegance and exclusivity of the world's finest jewelers, specialized book stores and internationally acclaimed designer fashion.
Throughout the city, residents and tourists dine on Mediterranean cuisine, sip fine wine and eat scrumptious deserts. Enjoy seasonal produce which changes daily to rice with pigeon and wild mushrooms. Plus, don't forget the superb selection of cigars, served at many local dining establishments.
If you visit soon, you can use the Barcelona Card, which offers discounts on common tourist attractions including entertainment, restaurants and museums. Each card is valid for one to five days. The Articket is a similar pass focusing on Barcelona's most popular museums and cultural centers.
Get away, escape the stress of everyday life and explore the romance and adventure along the coast of Spain in magnificent Barcelona. For more travel articles, visit Vasrue.com, today!
About the Author:
Clinton Douglas, IV (http://www.vasrue.com/) is the Travel Guru. His South Bend Indiana real estate business has given him the resources he needs to be able to travel to his heart's content. If you are looking to buy a home in northern Indiana, please visit Absolute Homes Sellers to review Clinton's home inventory. When Clinton travels, he likes to shop for B&B or Vacation Rentals online.
Copyright © 2006-2009 Vasrue.com, All Rights Reserved Written by: Clinton Douglas IV
Nestled along the majestic, tranquil Mediterranean coast lies the romantic Spanish city known for its ancient culture and awe-inspiring historic architecture. The capital of Catalonia, Barcelona has mild, comfortable winters and dry, smoldering summers. The best time to vacation, weather-wise, is during the Spring and Fall, March through June or September through January. So now is the ideal time to experience its splendor.
Visit this romantic city with your paramour this Fall and absorb as much of its arts and culture as possible. Barcelona blends the ancient with the modern, offering a unique and eclectic experience. Beginning in the Gothic Quarter, its quaint, narrow streets captivate visitors with magnificent Gothic architecture, peaceful squares and fragmented remains of what were once the Roman walls surrounding the city.
The elaborate Barcelona Cathedral is one of the most impressive structures you'll behold, with its striking peaks and pointed rooftops piercing the skyline in its characteristic, Gothic tradition. A tour of the passionate Barcelona arts and culture would not be complete without a visit to local medieval palaces like La Pia Almoina and Casa dels Canonges, or the nearby Palau Reial Mayor and Chapel of Santa Agata. Say 'I love you' again and again amidst halls and surroundings which have watched generation after generation, era after era, pass before their eyes.
Being seaside, Barcelona offers a unique marine feel, with former dockyards turned Museums and ancient, medieval port facilities. Watch the sunset in her eyes before you settle in for a late dinner and cocktail. The Barceloneta is the city's fishermen's quarter adjacent to the beach. Just a short stroll or subway ride away, you can lie near the waves and escape into delicious dining facilities serving an array of seafood, black rice and Catalan dishes. While menus are in Spanish, waiters are friendly and accommodating to tourists. Other urban sections of interest include Ciutat Vella, the city's old town and Eixample, the city's Modernist quarter.
Top off your romantic get-away with a stroll through the city's unique shopping conveniences. Barcelona's wealth of commerce includes quaint street markets and craft shops as well as prestigious stores near Eixample's passeig de Gracia and the Rambia de Catalunya. Discover the elegance and exclusivity of the world's finest jewelers, specialized book stores and internationally acclaimed designer fashion.
Throughout the city, residents and tourists dine on Mediterranean cuisine, sip fine wine and eat scrumptious deserts. Enjoy seasonal produce which changes daily to rice with pigeon and wild mushrooms. Plus, don't forget the superb selection of cigars, served at many local dining establishments.
If you visit soon, you can use the Barcelona Card, which offers discounts on common tourist attractions including entertainment, restaurants and museums. Each card is valid for one to five days. The Articket is a similar pass focusing on Barcelona's most popular museums and cultural centers.
Get away, escape the stress of everyday life and explore the romance and adventure along the coast of Spain in magnificent Barcelona. For more travel articles, visit Vasrue.com, today!
About the Author:
Clinton Douglas, IV (http://www.vasrue.com/) is the Travel Guru. His South Bend Indiana real estate business has given him the resources he needs to be able to travel to his heart's content. If you are looking to buy a home in northern Indiana, please visit Absolute Homes Sellers to review Clinton's home inventory. When Clinton travels, he likes to shop for B&B or Vacation Rentals online.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Charlotte, North Carolina: Natural Beauty Nearly Year Around
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008-2009 Chuck Saddler
The largest city in North Carolina, Charlotte is the largest metropolitan city on the eastern seaboard between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Jacksonville, Florida. Nicknamed the Queen City, Charlotte has a population of nearly 675,000 people. The greater Charlotte metropolitan area has an estimated population of 1,675,495 and its wider thirteen-county labor market region or "combined statistical area" has an estimated population of 2,491,650.
National Recognition As A Great Place To Live And Visit
In 2008, Charlotte, NC received recognition from three nationally recognized sources, based on factors including employment opportunities, crime rates, and housing affordability. First, the website Relocate-America.com named Charlotte as the "Best Place to Live in America". Second, CNNmoney.com ranked Charlotte as #8 of the 100 "Best Places to Live" in the United States. And third, Forbes named Charlotte as the third most undervalued real estate markets in the U.S. Simply put, according to the experts, Charlotte North Carolina is one of the most affordable and attractive places to live in the United States.
This kind of recognition also bodes well for the traveling public. Lower real estate prices always tend to ensure lower retail prices as well. Low crime is also a very attractive trait for any location looking to attract tourism dollars.
Prevention Magazine also named Charlotte as the best "Walking City" in North Carolina (4th in the nation in 2007), and Self Magazine named it one of its "Five Cities with Big Outdoor Appeal". The natural beauty of the Charlotte area is legendary, and its beauty adds to the quality of life value that the Queen City delivers residents and visitors.
Lower real estate prices, a lower cost of living, low crime rates, and the high quality of life were all contributing factors to the underlying economy of the Queen City. Both Bank of America and Wachovia have located their company headquarters in Charlotte. Other major brands, including Lowe's, are headquartered in the greater Charlotte metropolitan area.
Charlotte Has Escaped The Worst Of The Recession Pains
While the rest of the country struggles under the weight of the current recession, fueled by high foreclosure rates and hard-to-acquire bank financing, Charlotte is not feeling the same pain. There are four strong pockets around the country that seem to have escaped the credit crunch - Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and a few localities in California. These four areas have escaped the credit crunch it seems, because the lenders in those areas did not succumb to the temptation to offer the NINJA loans (No income, no job, no assets) that led to the high loan default rates felt in the rest of the country.
In fact, as the Big Three automakers have been hurt tremendously by the banking industry's inability or unwillingness to loan money for car loans. As I write this, the Big Three automakers - Ford, GM and Chrysler - are in Washington, D.C. with hats in hand, trying to get a taxpayer funded bailout from lawmakers.
Banks in other parts of the country have so many bad loans on their books that they are holding tight to their purse strings, but in these four pockets of prosperity, banks are still eager to loan money. Even in my Oklahoma hometown, local banks are advertising daily that they are STILL loaning money for new cars, encouraging people to come and borrow.
With undervalued real estate, a strong corporate employment base, and available credit, Charlotte's economy continues to expand, while the rest of the country is in recession. If you are looking to move to a city with lots of employers hiring, Charlotte is one of the strongest cities in the country right now in the employment sector.
For the traveler, the strong local economy means that tourist attractions may not be starving for money, in the same way attractions elsewhere might be, but that also means that the places you desire to visit will more likely be open for business, with adequate enough staff to treat you the way you want to be treated on vacation.
For those who like to shop, there are seven shopping malls in the Charlotte metro area.
The Sporting Life
While not a major metropolitan area with numerous professional ball clubs, Charlotte is not a slacker either.
Charlotte has a NFL football team - the Carolina Panthers, and a NBA basketball team - the Charlotte Bobcats.
Charlotte also has an indoor football league team - the Carolina Speed. The Eagles is the name of its mens and ladies soccer teams. Its ice hockey team is the Charlotte Checkers. Its International League baseball team is the Charlotte Knights. Charlotte even has a rugby team and a ladies flat track roller derby squad.
Golf is played nearly year-round in the area, due to the areas' mild autumn and spring seasons. With nearly 20 golf courses in the area, there is plenty of choice and diversity for the golfer to test his or her skills.
If you are a NASCAR fan, you may already realize that the Lowe's Motor Speedway is located just 21 miles to the northeast in Concord, NC. This race track features nearly non-stop events, including NASCAR's All-Star race and the Coca-Cola 600, concerts and other special events. Also featured at the speedway is the occasional opportunity to drive around the track or attend racing school.
Transportation On The Ground
The Queen City is rightfully proud of its transportation network, which includes the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS). CATS operates light rail transit, historical trolleys, express shuttles, and bus service throughout Charlotte and its immediate suburbs.
The Interstate Highway system feeds into Charlotte through I-85 and I-77. I-485, which is slated to be Charlotte's external loop, remains under construction, but when it is completed, it will stretch for 67 miles around Charlotte, connecting its many suburbs. The I-277 loop freeway encircles Charlotte's downtown. Charlotte's mid-loop is Route 4, which links major roads in a loop between I-277 and I-485.
Charlotte/Douglas International Airport is the 30th busiest airport in the world, bringing visitors from around the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe.
Even Amtrak brings visitors into the Charlotte area from distant U.S. cities. Be advised, if you arrive by Amtrak train, you will be safe as long as you are in the train station itself. But it is strongly recommended that you should arrange for transportation to your hotel. It is recommended that you not try to walk to your destination from the train station, as the neighborhood surrounding the train station is not very safe.
Museums
Numerous museums and historic sites can be found throughout Charlotte, especially in and near the Uptown district. In the works is a new "museum district", which will be found on the southern edge of the district. Also under development, the NASCAR Hall of Fame is being constructed near the Convention Center.
Currently operating museums include:
The Mint Museum of Art - Its permanent collection is short on real substance, but it regularly hosts high-quality traveling exhibits from around the world. Its primary objects are American art and ceramics, colonial/pre-colonial art, costumes and other decorative art from many countries.
Discovery Place is one of the nation's most acclaimed children's museums, featuring natural science and technology exhibits.
Levine Museum of the New South - Southern culture and history.
James K Polk Historic Site - Tours and information about the home of U.S. President James K. Polk.
Carolinas Aviation Museum (near the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport) - Offers historic and restored airplanes, air shows and a research library (by appointment only). It is recommended that if you should want to meet the people working on restoring the airplanes, one should visit on a Tuesday or Thursday. Since 9-11, it is hard to find an airport anywhere in the country where you can get close enough to the airport to view takeoffs and landings, but Charlotte remains one of the best airports in the country to see planes taking off and landing, with a good view.
Schiele Museum of Natural History - Includes a planetarium, an aviary, and many special events and exhibits. This museum is located 24 miles to the west in Gastonia.
Other Charlotte Area Attractions
Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden - Located just 15 miles to the west in Belmont, the natural beauty and serenity of the gardens make it a favorite destination for romantic day trips and family outings. Guided tours are offered.
The Reed Gold Mine is located 25 miles to the northeast of Charlotte in the town of Cabarrus, NC, which is just five miles further than Lowe's Motor Speedway located in Concord, NC. The Reed Gold mine was the first gold mine built in the United States, and today, visitors can pan for gold at the mine. This attraction is very kid-friendly, educational, and lots of fun for children and adults. Depending on traffic, this location can be up to a 45-minute drive from Charlotte proper.
The Paramount Carowinds Theme Park is 13 miles south of Charlotte at the South Carolina state line. Carowinds is a large theme park with its focus on movies and the movie industry. The park features many roller coasters, including Top Gun, The Hurler, and the beloved Thunder Road. The park also features of large variety of other rides and entertainment. Locals generally recommend that you eat before going to the park - because the concessions are pretty expensive, and to bring plenty of sunscreen.
An hour to the northeast of Charlotte is Asheboro, NC, which is home to the North Carolina Zoo.
Located an hour to the west near Asheville, the Chimney Rock Park is recognized around the world as a prime tourism spot in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains in the Appalachian chain. Chimney Rock is one of the region's most visited parks, featuring a wealth of unusual rock formations and waterfalls.
A Great Place To Visit And Live
Charlotte, North Carolina is an ideal place to visit, even if you want to stay for a while.
The natural beauty of this region makes it a favorite destination for people looking for a nice family vacation. And as is so often the case, people who visit the area are drawn back to it again and again, sometimes to stay for good.
If you are looking to move into an area that has great natural beauty, a rich and diverse cultural experience, and holds great hope for a prosperous tomorrow, then you really should consider the Charlotte area for yourself.
Note: This article in its original format, with attraction links intact, can be found at the author's website: http://www.americantravelideas.com/blog/2008/12/charlotte-north-carolina/
About the Author:
As a writer for http://www.AmericanTravelIdeas.com/blog/ Chuck Saddler shares detailed travel information about American cities and attractions, providing links to important online resources. American Travel Ideas is also now accepting "city travel guide" submissions from the public: http://www.americantravelideas.com/blog/submit-your-citys-story/ If you are looking for Charlotte homes, let Charlotte's Exclusive Buyer Agents help you find a home in Charlotte, North Carolina.
--
Read a travel article by Clinton.
Copyright © 2008-2009 Chuck Saddler
The largest city in North Carolina, Charlotte is the largest metropolitan city on the eastern seaboard between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Jacksonville, Florida. Nicknamed the Queen City, Charlotte has a population of nearly 675,000 people. The greater Charlotte metropolitan area has an estimated population of 1,675,495 and its wider thirteen-county labor market region or "combined statistical area" has an estimated population of 2,491,650.
National Recognition As A Great Place To Live And Visit
In 2008, Charlotte, NC received recognition from three nationally recognized sources, based on factors including employment opportunities, crime rates, and housing affordability. First, the website Relocate-America.com named Charlotte as the "Best Place to Live in America". Second, CNNmoney.com ranked Charlotte as #8 of the 100 "Best Places to Live" in the United States. And third, Forbes named Charlotte as the third most undervalued real estate markets in the U.S. Simply put, according to the experts, Charlotte North Carolina is one of the most affordable and attractive places to live in the United States.
This kind of recognition also bodes well for the traveling public. Lower real estate prices always tend to ensure lower retail prices as well. Low crime is also a very attractive trait for any location looking to attract tourism dollars.
Prevention Magazine also named Charlotte as the best "Walking City" in North Carolina (4th in the nation in 2007), and Self Magazine named it one of its "Five Cities with Big Outdoor Appeal". The natural beauty of the Charlotte area is legendary, and its beauty adds to the quality of life value that the Queen City delivers residents and visitors.
Lower real estate prices, a lower cost of living, low crime rates, and the high quality of life were all contributing factors to the underlying economy of the Queen City. Both Bank of America and Wachovia have located their company headquarters in Charlotte. Other major brands, including Lowe's, are headquartered in the greater Charlotte metropolitan area.
Charlotte Has Escaped The Worst Of The Recession Pains
While the rest of the country struggles under the weight of the current recession, fueled by high foreclosure rates and hard-to-acquire bank financing, Charlotte is not feeling the same pain. There are four strong pockets around the country that seem to have escaped the credit crunch - Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and a few localities in California. These four areas have escaped the credit crunch it seems, because the lenders in those areas did not succumb to the temptation to offer the NINJA loans (No income, no job, no assets) that led to the high loan default rates felt in the rest of the country.
In fact, as the Big Three automakers have been hurt tremendously by the banking industry's inability or unwillingness to loan money for car loans. As I write this, the Big Three automakers - Ford, GM and Chrysler - are in Washington, D.C. with hats in hand, trying to get a taxpayer funded bailout from lawmakers.
Banks in other parts of the country have so many bad loans on their books that they are holding tight to their purse strings, but in these four pockets of prosperity, banks are still eager to loan money. Even in my Oklahoma hometown, local banks are advertising daily that they are STILL loaning money for new cars, encouraging people to come and borrow.
With undervalued real estate, a strong corporate employment base, and available credit, Charlotte's economy continues to expand, while the rest of the country is in recession. If you are looking to move to a city with lots of employers hiring, Charlotte is one of the strongest cities in the country right now in the employment sector.
For the traveler, the strong local economy means that tourist attractions may not be starving for money, in the same way attractions elsewhere might be, but that also means that the places you desire to visit will more likely be open for business, with adequate enough staff to treat you the way you want to be treated on vacation.
For those who like to shop, there are seven shopping malls in the Charlotte metro area.
The Sporting Life
While not a major metropolitan area with numerous professional ball clubs, Charlotte is not a slacker either.
Charlotte has a NFL football team - the Carolina Panthers, and a NBA basketball team - the Charlotte Bobcats.
Charlotte also has an indoor football league team - the Carolina Speed. The Eagles is the name of its mens and ladies soccer teams. Its ice hockey team is the Charlotte Checkers. Its International League baseball team is the Charlotte Knights. Charlotte even has a rugby team and a ladies flat track roller derby squad.
Golf is played nearly year-round in the area, due to the areas' mild autumn and spring seasons. With nearly 20 golf courses in the area, there is plenty of choice and diversity for the golfer to test his or her skills.
If you are a NASCAR fan, you may already realize that the Lowe's Motor Speedway is located just 21 miles to the northeast in Concord, NC. This race track features nearly non-stop events, including NASCAR's All-Star race and the Coca-Cola 600, concerts and other special events. Also featured at the speedway is the occasional opportunity to drive around the track or attend racing school.
Transportation On The Ground
The Queen City is rightfully proud of its transportation network, which includes the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS). CATS operates light rail transit, historical trolleys, express shuttles, and bus service throughout Charlotte and its immediate suburbs.
The Interstate Highway system feeds into Charlotte through I-85 and I-77. I-485, which is slated to be Charlotte's external loop, remains under construction, but when it is completed, it will stretch for 67 miles around Charlotte, connecting its many suburbs. The I-277 loop freeway encircles Charlotte's downtown. Charlotte's mid-loop is Route 4, which links major roads in a loop between I-277 and I-485.
Charlotte/Douglas International Airport is the 30th busiest airport in the world, bringing visitors from around the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe.
Even Amtrak brings visitors into the Charlotte area from distant U.S. cities. Be advised, if you arrive by Amtrak train, you will be safe as long as you are in the train station itself. But it is strongly recommended that you should arrange for transportation to your hotel. It is recommended that you not try to walk to your destination from the train station, as the neighborhood surrounding the train station is not very safe.
Museums
Numerous museums and historic sites can be found throughout Charlotte, especially in and near the Uptown district. In the works is a new "museum district", which will be found on the southern edge of the district. Also under development, the NASCAR Hall of Fame is being constructed near the Convention Center.
Currently operating museums include:
Other Charlotte Area Attractions
A Great Place To Visit And Live
Charlotte, North Carolina is an ideal place to visit, even if you want to stay for a while.
The natural beauty of this region makes it a favorite destination for people looking for a nice family vacation. And as is so often the case, people who visit the area are drawn back to it again and again, sometimes to stay for good.
If you are looking to move into an area that has great natural beauty, a rich and diverse cultural experience, and holds great hope for a prosperous tomorrow, then you really should consider the Charlotte area for yourself.
Note: This article in its original format, with attraction links intact, can be found at the author's website: http://www.americantravelideas.com/blog/2008/12/charlotte-north-carolina/
About the Author:
As a writer for http://www.AmericanTravelIdeas.com/blog/ Chuck Saddler shares detailed travel information about American cities and attractions, providing links to important online resources. American Travel Ideas is also now accepting "city travel guide" submissions from the public: http://www.americantravelideas.com/blog/submit-your-citys-story/ If you are looking for Charlotte homes, let Charlotte's Exclusive Buyer Agents help you find a home in Charlotte, North Carolina.
--
Read a travel article by Clinton.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Travel Industry Management: Scam Alert
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008-2009 Jon Minion
If you've been around the internet for any period of time, you're well aware of the scams arriving by email informing you of the vast sums of money you have won. Or, if you help the Nigerian Princess move money out of her country, you can have a cut of it.
These scams have permeated the web so much that they have a name: 419 scams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud). 419 is the Nigerian Criminal Code that deals with fraud. Most (but not all) of these scams originate from Nigeria.
If you read the Wikipedia entry linked earlier, you should take away two points:
1. These scams have been around a long time. The originated in the early 80's and were run via letters, faxes, telex.
2. These scams come in ALL shapes and sizes. If a scammer can come up with a way to scam someone, they will try it over the Internet.
While there are countless variations of the 419 scam, I want to explain the version I've seen that targets vacation rental owners. Read on to make sure you don't fall victim to a scam.
Imagine you make a booking for someone who pays you via a cashiers check. They accidentally overpay and when they find out, they ask you to send a refund via Western Union. Guess what? You've just been scammed!
As it turns out, the cashiers check is fake and it often takes your bank weeks to determine that it is fake. By then, the scammer has their money via Western Union, and you are left with nothing from the cashier's check except possibly a fee from your bank and a lesson learned. Good times.
Don't worry - it's pretty easy to protect yourself. You just need to know how these scams work so you know what to look out for.
These scams work like this:
1. The "renter" pays you money (rent)
2. The "renter" ask for some amount of money back. The reasons are endless: Accidental overpayment, medical emergency, they want to cancel the booking.
If they've paid by check, money order, or cashiers check, you simply need to ask your bank to make sure it's cleared and is not a fake before you issue the refund. If the "renter" asks for a refund via Western Union or other wire service, it's a scam.
If you end up in this position, do not refund any money until the bank confirms the check isn't fake. The renter will play on your emotions, telling you they need the money for medical bills or something horrible. Unfortunately, you cannot trust them.
These scams are so common now and so hard to prosecute, that the scammer will likely never be arrested for what they have done. However, if you find a scammer trying to scam you by booking your vacation home, please do the following:
Cease communications with the scammer
Notify the FBI here (http://www.ic3.gov/)
Notify the vacation rental listing website they used to contact you. That will allow the website to contact other owners that also were contacted by the same individual.
Notify the scammers email provider. This can usually be done by sending an email to "abuse@" and then putting the domain name for the email provider. For example, abuse@gmail.com or abuse@yahoo.com. The provider will usually shut down that email address which may help other owners.
Author's note: This article is derived from the one posted here: http://www.vacationrentalsindustry.com/blog/vacation-rental-scams
About the Author:
Jon Minion helps the owners of vacation homes get their vacation rentals found by travelers looking for travel accommodations at: http://www.findvacationrentals.com/
Jon also offers marketing advice to vacation rental owners at: http://www.vacationrentalsindustry.com/blog/
Copyright © 2008-2009 Jon Minion
If you've been around the internet for any period of time, you're well aware of the scams arriving by email informing you of the vast sums of money you have won. Or, if you help the Nigerian Princess move money out of her country, you can have a cut of it.
These scams have permeated the web so much that they have a name: 419 scams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud). 419 is the Nigerian Criminal Code that deals with fraud. Most (but not all) of these scams originate from Nigeria.
If you read the Wikipedia entry linked earlier, you should take away two points:
1. These scams have been around a long time. The originated in the early 80's and were run via letters, faxes, telex.
2. These scams come in ALL shapes and sizes. If a scammer can come up with a way to scam someone, they will try it over the Internet.
While there are countless variations of the 419 scam, I want to explain the version I've seen that targets vacation rental owners. Read on to make sure you don't fall victim to a scam.
Imagine you make a booking for someone who pays you via a cashiers check. They accidentally overpay and when they find out, they ask you to send a refund via Western Union. Guess what? You've just been scammed!
As it turns out, the cashiers check is fake and it often takes your bank weeks to determine that it is fake. By then, the scammer has their money via Western Union, and you are left with nothing from the cashier's check except possibly a fee from your bank and a lesson learned. Good times.
Don't worry - it's pretty easy to protect yourself. You just need to know how these scams work so you know what to look out for.
These scams work like this:
1. The "renter" pays you money (rent)
2. The "renter" ask for some amount of money back. The reasons are endless: Accidental overpayment, medical emergency, they want to cancel the booking.
If they've paid by check, money order, or cashiers check, you simply need to ask your bank to make sure it's cleared and is not a fake before you issue the refund. If the "renter" asks for a refund via Western Union or other wire service, it's a scam.
If you end up in this position, do not refund any money until the bank confirms the check isn't fake. The renter will play on your emotions, telling you they need the money for medical bills or something horrible. Unfortunately, you cannot trust them.
These scams are so common now and so hard to prosecute, that the scammer will likely never be arrested for what they have done. However, if you find a scammer trying to scam you by booking your vacation home, please do the following:
Author's note: This article is derived from the one posted here: http://www.vacationrentalsindustry.com/blog/vacation-rental-scams
About the Author:
Jon Minion helps the owners of vacation homes get their vacation rentals found by travelers looking for travel accommodations at: http://www.findvacationrentals.com/
Jon also offers marketing advice to vacation rental owners at: http://www.vacationrentalsindustry.com/blog/
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