If you’ve always thought it would be too costly and difficult to make your dreams come true with a Hawaii vacation, you’ll be delighted to discover that’s just not so. A minimum of effort is all it requires to find a low-cost tropical vacation package where all the arrangements have been taken care of for you.

One may shop for certain destinations like a Maui travel package for those most attracted to Maui’s unbelievable seashores, or decide from several Kauai travel packages if you’re looking for a quiet getaway, or go for the diverse options offered by Big Island travel packages. If you’re unable to decide, most vacation packages offer options to stay at more than one island during your Hawaii vacation.

One of the best ways to experience a Hawaii vacation is aboard a cruise ship. Hawaiian cruise ships travel throughout the Hawaiian Island chain, and you frequently can find an excellent deal. If you have a flexible schedule, you may well be able to take advantage of a cancellation deal which can cut your costs in half or more.

There are a variety of different Hawaii cruise vacations available. These range from cruises specifically made for romantic couples to more family oriented voyages. Seniors, students, veterans - almost any group can find a cruise tailor-made to fit them. It’s easy to find Hawaii cruise deals online or through a professional travel agent.

In some cases, a Hawaii vacation package can incorporate a rental property rather than a stay at a resort or hotel chain. This can save you some money compared to the more traditional hotel accommodations, so if you don’t mind a bit of cleanup at the end of your vacation, it can make a lot of sense. It will also offer you more privacy as well.

Finding a fabulous Hawaii vacation is usually not the hard part, but picking from the many choices may be! Going online will help find a great number of packages, and consulting a travel agent will open more possibilities. A wise travel planner will check both sources to find the best deal of all. Check with cruise ship websites for special deals as well. Whether you do it yourself or use the services of a professional, a Hawaiian vacation is within reach and will be a trip to paradise!

Insurance is a business, and reminiscent of every other trade it desires to create revenue. Financial losses through an unwarranted quantity of insurance claims are mostly shifted to the customer in the package of higher insurance quotes. If the insurance provider had a tremendously profitable year, they could decrease estimates to bring extra customers and augment the quantity of customers they cover. For this reason, insurance premiums differ greatly from one insurance business to another.

When comparing estimates, you ought to always provide the exact identical information on your quote for a true apple to apple comparison. For instance on the question, what is your travel time to and from your employment? If you write 70 miles for one company and 20 miles to a different provider, that could make all the difference in the world on the prices you receive. The less often you use your vehicle, the less the insurance should be.

If you are shopping for an instant car insurance quote, chances are that you do not have time to sit and kill time for the insurance company to take all your details and then hang around once more for them to phone you back with a rate and coverage comparison. You’re probably cringing at the concept of requiring to do this so often, so that you can get the best car insurance that provides you with the coverage you have been searching for. This is the case for most people, as they usually wait until their car insurance policy is nearly up for renewal prior to deciding to shop around for new rates.

Make it painless to obtain the best car insurance quotes with online insurance comparisons so that you do not require to sit down with several insurance agents and review the intricacies of your policies.

It would seem that the days of widespread use of tanning beds might soon be over with the recent announcement of the World Health Organization’s cancer research department that such devices can cause cancer. With this declaration, tanning beds have essentially been catapulted to the category of substances and factors that are known cancer risks. While there is still a flourishing trade in new and used tanning beds, the reclassification of such devices from being “likely” to cause cancer to “can definitely” cause cancer warrants some serious rethinking. The reason for all this fuss is that the statistical evidence that tanning beds can cause cancer can no longer be denied.

While all these developments are reason enough to be concerned for everyone who uses and continues to use tanning beds, it is young female adults in particular who should pay attention. Whether through a commercial tanning salon or their own home tanning beds, this demographic has registered an alarming increase in the number of skin cancer cases over the past few years.

Strangely enough, a lot of people still view tanning as a healthy pursuit, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that such activities cause serious damage to the skin. The question that this now brings up is why tanning beds pose such a health risk.

Scientists have known for a while that ultraviolet radiation of the A, B, and C varieties–that is UVA, UVB, and UVC, respectively–can cause lab animals to develop skin cancer. This evidence flies in the face of certain manufacturer’s claims that some models of home tanning beds are safe to use because they emit mostly UVA radiation and not the “bad” UVB. This is either misinformation or downright deception on their part, since UVA is just as dangerous as the other forms of ultraviolet radiation. Simply put, using either new or used tanning beds puts you at risk for skin cancer just as regular overexposure to the sun.

In people up to 30 years old, there has been a huge increase in the number of skin cancer cases, which is undoubtedly due to the popularity of new and used tanning beds. The increase in the number of melanoma cases in young women is even more alarming, with almost 3 times as many from this group getting skin cancer from the early 70s to 2004.

As if this isn’t bad enough, thicker and more potentially fatal melanoma lesions characterize many of today’s skin cancer cases. And scientists are beginning to turn their attention to the widespread use of home tanning beds as the likely culprit.

While a few experts remain hesitant to directly blame the use of tanning beds as the primary cause in the increase in skin cancer cases, the proof is almost irrefutable. While the decision as to whether or not to keep going to tanning salons or buying used tanning beds remain the user’s, it would appear that the use of these devices may be coming to an end.

At Fat Loss for Idiots you learn that there are many people who are becoming more health conscious and are eating right and working out on a regular basis. However, they are still finding it difficult to get rid of those typical problem areas of the body that tend to store fat, such as around the stomach area or in the hip and thigh region.This can be very frustrating to persons who are following all of the weight loss and health information on the market, but are still not seeing results happening, or at least not very quickly, in those particular areas.

Solutions

One solution that researchers have come up with are fat burners, which are normally pills that people will take before meals so that it boosts their metabolism and helps the body to burn fat more quickly as well as preventing new fat from being established. The use of these pills can help individuals to see results much more quickly than traditional methods, which is encouraging, making people more likely to continue their healthy eating and workout habits. Check out some of these at Fat Loss for Idiots.

There are different types of fat burners on the market today, some of which are mainly synthetic while others use organic, herbal means of producing the fat burning process.One ingredient that nearly all of these fat burner pills utilize is caffeine, since it helps to boost the metabolism and increase energy in those who take it. This can cause some uncomfortable side effects for some people who take them since their bodies are not used to that amount of caffeine at a time it causes them to feel shaky and not able to think clearly.Although this can be factual in some cases, after taking them for a week or two the side effects tend to wane as the body begins to adjust to the additional caffeine and the individual feels more energetic during the day as he takes the fat burners throughout the day, usually before meals.

One fat burner on the market today is green tea fat burners which use the natural qualities of green tea to help boost metabolism and also stop the addition of new fat while helping to break down existing fat more quickly and you can find many more resources about Green Tea at Fat Loss for Idiots.Green tea can be found in a diversity of different forms, from dried tea leaves which can be brewed into hot or cold tea, green tea extract which is made from the leaves and buds, green tea powder or pills with green tea in them.

Disclaimer: Always consult your doctor before taking any medical advice.

With all of the many details to remember and the countless decisions to make involved with planning a wedding it’s no wonder buying wedding cake toppers are usually at the end of very long to-do lists. And, although couples of yesterday were limited by small, plastic figurines for their bridesmaid gifts to adorn the tops of their wedding cakes, today there are a mind boggling number of choices available for brides and grooms to choose from.

After the main aspects of the big event have been taken care of such as reserving the location of the ceremony and reception, choosing the wedding dress and bridal party attire, the flowers and decorations, the food and cake, entertainment, and the invitations, finding just the right wedding cake topper is the finishing touch.

Remember that much like you and your new spouse, your wedding cake or bridal party gifts will be photographed quite a bit throughout the course of the day, so you will definitely want to choose a topper that complements your cake perfectly.

If you haven’t yet seen all of the different choices of wedding cake toppers available today you may think it might not be difficult to find one you like best. First you’ll want to keep in mind the size of your wedding cake, particularly the top tier or wherever you plan on displaying the topper, before starting to narrow down your choices.

Will the cake be elaborately decorated or have a more understated design? Do you and your fiancé have any special hobbies or unique interests you could incorporate into the wedding via the cake topper? Or, perhaps you’d like an edible topper, which, of course, can either be consumed or preserved with the top portion of the cake.

Some couples are forgoing the traditional bride and groom figurines and using cake toppers made from their initials. Monogrammed toppers and groomsmen gifts can be found with beautiful details and made from things like crystals, glass, gold, or plain plastics.

If your wedding is seasonal themed or taking place during a certain time of year that you’ll incorporate into the decorations, you might want to consider having a cake topper to match.

You probably recognize others smiles when you see them, because if you’re not, you almost certainly wouldn’t have dropped into this page. Just about everyone wants to know what makes a smile look so good, and why some folks just have a tendency to have the white teeth that you have been searching for. A teeth whitening pen might just be the answer.

Folks have always wanted to achieve whiter teeth. Actually, today tons of teeth whitening kits are sold everyday to consumers looking for a better smile. With so many people becoming busier with their schedules and with less and less money and time, visiting a dentist for pro whitening becomes rather inconvenient. Thus a teeth whitening pen was invented to help people with little time and/or money to get a healthier looking smile

A teeth whitening pen is used for dental bleaching. The majority of these pens contain 12-35% of carbamide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide as its bleaching agents. Some of it contains liquid form bleach that you can paint on your teeth to achieve the result. Others contain a gel put on on your teeth rather than the liquid form.

To use the gel version, you need to rotate the bottom part of the tooth whitening pen. This drips tiny amounts of the gel onto your brush.

This should only take you about 10 to 15 seconds, and after drying it up for about two mins, you are done and ready to go.

It might also aid a teeth whitening pen to function if a person quits smoking cigs and tobacco, or avoids drinking coffee, tea, and citrus juices.

These whitening pens for your teeth really are quite amazing with what they can do for your smile.

There comes a time in our lives when we may need to find 24 hour a day care for ourselves or a loved one. Finding the right care facility is of high importance. We have all heard the stories of nursing home negligence, abuse, and neglect.

Checklist for finding the right Nursing Home
When you are looking for a nursing home, it is a good idea to have a “what to look for” list handy. You would not try to buy a car without kicking the tires, would you? Our list below might help you think of things you should check into when looking for a nursing home.

 

 

• Get a list of the nursing home facilities in your area.

 

 

• Ask people you trust about facilities they recommend. You can start with friends, family, church members, or other organizations in your community.

 

 

• Consider if any special care is required? (for conditions such as diabetes, Alzheimer, or other conditions)

 

 

• Contact the facilities on your list and ask questions such as: How many current residents do they have? How many openings they have? Is there a waiting list? If so, what is the average wait? How much does it cost? And, what does this price buy you?

 

 

• Now go check out each facility on your short list. Does it look clean and inviting? Does the food look/smell good? Do the residents look happy? What activities do they have for the residents? Do you see staff members busy helping residents or just standing around? Does the facility smell clean?

 

 

• While you are at the facility, talk with the director and ask “How long he/she has been there?” With permission, talk with some residents and see if they are comfortable.

 

 

• For your final facility candidates, revisit them unannounced at a different time of day/night and on a different day of the week. Check the same types of things you did on your first visit.

 

 

Our website can help you with this endeavor. Our free nursing home locator will help you locate a facility near you. Our site provides information such as fire and safety inspection violations and residents’ complaints about each facility. Our facility detail listings has an individual comment section where you can share your thoughts and ask questions too.

You can find our free nursing home locater at Nursing Homes by State. To get more information about any facility, use the “Free Information” request form on the facility’s detail listing page.

We hope you find this resource a valuable tool for helping you find the right facility to meet your needs. For more information about aging and aging related issues, check out our website at: www.ConcerningAging.com.

Body Building Tips

After years of competing, working or just riding with you, the time comes when your horse starts to slow down. Since they age 1 year to our every 3 years, aging occurs in your horse’s life much faster than in your own.

Your horse is counting on you to take care of him in his senior years as you did in the earlier ones. Senior horses have different needs than they did even 5 years earlier. By knowing these needs you can prevent problems and give your horse the retirement he deserves.

Unless there is a medical reason it is good for your horse to stay active. Although he might not be working, exercise is essential to keep limber, make use of their lungs and other body parts as well as having the joy of experiencing the world around them. Turning him out will also keep the weight gain low and his spirits high.

They aren’t able to do as well with extreme temperature changes. It is important to be sensitive to the conditions that your horse is in at this stage of their lives. It’s always a good idea to keep a blanket handy in the colder days especially if you live in a higher elevation or where there are cold seasons. In the same way be sure to provide at least one or two shady spots where your horse can escape from the direct sun.

Your horse’s body will go through various changes as your horse ages. This includes his stomach and digestive system. Feeding your horse accordingly will make him more comfortable and provide what he needs at this stage of his life. There are some great supplements in the market that make up for deficiencies in nutrient absorption of senior horses. A favorite is TAHITIAN NONI® Equine Essentials^TM. One of the things that it does is promotes proper feed digestion and nutrient absorption. Another great feature is it supports the equine immune system with superior antioxidant activity.

Have you ever noticed that many senior horses get moody and stress easier? My favorite feature of TAHITIAN NONI® Equine Essentials^TM is that it contains adaptogens to help relieve stress. They are much calmer and relaxed. TAHITIAN NONI® Equine Essentials Flex^TM was formulated with horses who suffer from joint problems. It supports joint function but also includes MSM, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate as well as the Omega 3 and 6 oils found in the TAHITIAN NONI® Equine Essentials^TM. It has given many a horse a new lease on life. In Australia this product is know as Tahitian Noni™ Equine Formula™.

If you take care of your horse and give it love and support it needs, your horse has the potential of living into his thirties and even forties.

As indicated at the bottom of all our web pages, these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and these products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please visit our website for details.

Introduction

When I decided I needed a website for my business I had no idea of the planning involved. Like most people, I thought web design meant deciding on the graphics and the look of the pages and then by some magic it would all happen.I simply hadn’t had any exposure to the planning and build process which I now know to be extensive!

I have a friend who is in the business of SEO web design and website development so I approached him for a quote. As a complete novice who is computer literate up to a point, I was amazed at the depth of initial questioning required to find out exactly what I wanted to achieve.I realise now it is akin to building a house or other huge project where it is all in the preparation.

I had no idea about the various elements and the structure of the site and I found it mind blowing when I learnt about the amount of work involved. So I thought other people would be interested to know more about this complicated process particularly if you consider yourself a non computer person and have to get a website built. I have asked my SEO friend to supply the technical information for this article.

Stages in the Process 

Target Audience

Before building a website there are important questions to consider. I was asked who would be my potential audience. Who are my customers likely to be? Would they be children, businesses, home owners, sales people, parents or teenagers and so on? If you are not clear on your target audience then you are not going to be able to set the tone of the site correctly so this is a very important consideration.

The Objective of the Website

Then I was asked, what was the purpose of my website? Did I want to sell products on line or use it to market my business and get more leads for potential customers? Maybe I would want to use the site as an online brochure to showcase my services. Another possibility was to use the website to foster a community so that I was in contact with other like-minded people, with chat rooms, online discussions and being supported by advertising on the site.

I hadn’t quite realised the scope of a website but as I was asked these questions it became clear that a lot of careful planning went into the preparation before building a website. I realised it is like any project, the majority of the work is in the preparation, a bit like decorating really!

Creating a Site Map

The importance of creating a site map is to get it clear in your mind of all the pages you will have on your website so you can prepare the content for each page and begin to design the flow through the website, such as when a user adds a product to their basket, then enters their delivery and billing address and makes the credit card payment in the correct order.

Creating the sitemap at the beginning of the process will be a great help with SEO and writing of the website copy.

The aim is to make the site as user friendly as possible so that there are no barriers to getting into the website or making a purchase. For that reason often user name and passwords are set for the customer so that they are not put off making a purchase by having to register.

For a non e-commerce site things are simpler with a contact form which allows you to receive enquiries by email without publishing your email address on the website, thus avoiding spam.Web forms can also validate the information before you receive it, so ensuring that the phone number provided does not contain words, and that the email address is in the correct format, for example. These things may sound very technical to us lay-folk but I assure you everything has to be decided in advance before starting on the construction of the site. This avoids delays later, and it is best if your developers can complete the work in a single sitting, rather than having to keep putting it down and revisiting it.

Your Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is often quite a problem because every name you initially come up with will almost certainly have been taken. Domain names ending in .com are by far the most popular and internationally recognised; the snag is that it’s very popularity means that the majority of the shorter names have probably already been registered. Purchasing an existing .com domain name from its registered user can be fraught with problems and the best way to do this is through an escrow process monitored by a third party. However, you can usually think of some domain name that is available, which is much less time consuming than trying to purchase a previously registered domain name from its existing owner, most of the time just contacting them, and getting a reply is a challenge.

So looking at names with endings such as .net; .org .co.uk or .info may be able to provide you with the domain name you would like to have. When choosing your domain name it is very important to include one or more of your keywords if possible as this can apparently help with search engine rankings. So although the name of your business is the obvious choice for a domain name, it is not necessarily the only option.

Copy

The next stage is preparing the content. This is not the design of your website - just the words and visuals you want to have one each of the pages. A good idea before writing the copy is to have created your site map and decided on your SEO keywords, see below sections.

Having gathered all the previous information you will need to decide what imagery you want to use within the website content. As we all know, a picture speaks a thousand words and remains in people’s memory far longer than just words.

For each image you should also have a caption, as the caption of an image is the next ‘most read’ words on the page after the page title. Images and their captions need to be clickable. When you click on a picture it should take you to the next stage of the process such as the sale page or placing an enquiry if your website is for lead generation. All images should also have alternative text or alt tags. Alt tags will display the hover text when you position your mouse over the picture, but also they are used by screen readers to assist visually impaired users know what the image is about. See the section below on Accessibility and Compliance.

Website Design

Finally we come to the design of your website.

My friend at the web design company says design is one of the most difficult stages of the website process because everybody has their own tastes.

There are a number of ways to approach web design but ultimately you need to create a design brief for the designer(s) to work from. Look at other websites and your competitor’s websites to find out what you like or dislike. The design brief should give reference to the logo, any existing brand guidelines or schemes and fonts and colour schemes, and should also detail which pages of the website that the designer is being tasked with creating visuals for. See the Sitemap section below.

The very best results will be achieved by using a graphic designer, and beware - not all graphic designers are the same. A graphic designer who designs specifically for print is working in a different discipline than a graphic designer who designs for screen and specifically the web. So choose your designer carefully, look at other work that person has done and determine whether or not you like their style.

If you are working in the big time and budget allows, use multiple graphic designers who have all been given the same design brief and request three concept designs from each designer. If the client themselves also do a graphic design, even if it’s a back of the envelope scribble, you will then have 10 concept designs. The next step is to get them all together and select the preferred elements from each design. Then give the work to the preferred graphic designer to work up as the final artwork.

The artwork should be finalised and agreed on by everybody before construction of the site begins. Otherwise it can lead to costly and time consuming changes and frustration for both the developer and the client.

Navigation

Another important consideration when building a website is how you want your navigation to work. You can have links within the content of your website, in the text, so there are not just links from the menu. You will need to decide whether the links will open into a new window, retaining your original page open or just change the page to the one clicked on. Next time you go online, you will realise how much thought has gone into the way in which a website works.

Production

Finally the preparation has been done and the site is ready to be constructed. Now for the more technical stuff! You will need to have decided which programming language to use to build the website. There are two main types for developing a website, one is Unix based, and the other is Windows based. Each one has pros and cons. If you are starting from scratch then it probably won’t matter, so you can go with the preference of your professional doing the work. My website is built on the Unix platform (apparently!) which is the same as many of the more well known websites such as Ebay, Facebook, Google and Amazon. Also your website hosting must be compatible with the development language with which your website is built.

Work In Progress

The best way to build a website and be able to monitor work in progress is on the web server where the site is ultimately going to live. This way, those involved in reviewing the work can see work in progress and provide feedback throughout the development process.

Launching Your New Website

The moment of excitement comes when your site finally is published to the internet and you see the results of all the thought that has gone into the whole process.

I was over the moon to see my demolition website go live.

As soon as the site has gone live there is no substitute for real world testing though, so ask as many of your friends and colleagues to view the website from their own offices and give you their thoughts.

Accessibility and Compliance

The website has to meet the current standards for website coding and doing so insures that disabled users, such as the visually impaired, can still access the entire website if they are using a Braille web browser. To date there has only be one case of an organisation being charged for having an in-accessible website which was the site for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, make sure you are not the second case and get it clear in your mind what this entails and be sure you and your web designer agree the same thing. Accessibility and Compliance are confusingly similar and have different levels, each having potential implications on designs and technology components, and build costs. It is also a good idea to also discuss conformance moving forward, particularly if you have a web content management system, because and accessible of compliant site may become un-accessible after six months of being edited by you if you do not add or edit the website content in an accessible manner.

Unforeseen Items

There are always things that arise in any project which you suddenly realise you have forgotten, so no matter how well the web developer prepares and asks the right questions, there is bound to be a last minute change of mind or addition to the site. The main aim is to minimise the number of glitches that might arise because they aren’t calculated in at the start and they could cause extra costs and delays on the date of the web site going live.As a general rule it is always a good idea to get he site live to the original plans and then look at an update after it has gone live, unless it is a very small deviation from the initial plans.

Reporting and Monitoring

Once your website is up and running, you might like to know how many people visit your website and from that number how many actually buy the products or place an enquiry. From these statistics you can work out the ratio of visits to sales and gradually make changes to improve the ratios. There are some reliable statistics packages such as Google Analytics or Web-Stat.com which allow you to collect and review website visitor data in near real time. All you need to do this is to have a small block of code inserted into each web page on your site.

Another useful service that Web-stat.com provides is to monitor the website and warn you by email or text message if the site is not reachable.

Marketing

Once the website is live there are lots of things you can do to market your product or service. The first step is to submit it to the search engines and at the same time write articles, and press releases. Getting links to the site from forums, blogs and other social networking spaces are other options. For more on this subject ask your agency about SEO, remember that’s search engine optimisation.

How to be Found on the Web

One of the first questions I was asked was, ‘Do you want it to be found by Google the main search engine?’ If I did then there was a whole process of establishing Keywords. So finding the best keywords are vital if you want to be found in Google. He says there are two main types of keywords. The first is the trophy, or generic, keyword for the industry which in my industry is simply ‘demolition’. The second kind of keyword is the long tail keyword. These are not searched for as frequently but if you can get a match then they are much more likely to convert into customers. A good example of this in my industry is ‘factory demolition company Derby’. So it is very important to do a lot of research on keywords to find both those that are the most popular and the most specific. Generally most users only look at the first page of results so you will want to get your website promoted so as to get on this page for your chosen keywords.

Conclusion

Wheww. What an amazing amount of work! I hadn’t realised when I started the process of getting a website up and running, how complicated it all is and how many factors you have to consider before even designing the website. The word web design is really a misnomer, as people often think it’s just about the graphic design on the home page, and the branding of the product. Unless you are a computer whizz, most people have no idea how much goes into designing and building a website and the systems that support the work you want it to do. I hope that this article gives you an understanding and insight into the whole process of website development from start to finish.

The Internet presents the business opportunity of a lifetime, but few it seems, have the ability to get started making money online. If you simply look at online commerce the same way as any other type of business, you can see that it is really not that complicated; no more so than running a traditional brick and mortar store in a physical location.

Selling dropship merchandise started way back before the Internet. The old companies that used this method in the catalog mail-order business are still around. This is a testament to the effectiveness of this technique. It works like this: you sell a product, but don’t really have it on hand in your warehouse. Your supplier warehouses and ships the items for you. You only pay for items when they sell. You won’t get stuck with a bunch of items that do not sell.

One easy way to get started is to acquire a dropship list from a respected product sourcing service. What is this, you ask? It’s simply a service that puts you in contact with vendors and distributors who agree to drop-ship their merchandise.

Beware of companies that offer to sell you a ‘huge’ variety of products for drop shipping. These types of operations are middlemen that don’t give you very good pricing. You’ll find you won’t be price competitive with other stores, and there will be hundreds of others selling the same items.

A good dropship website list directory can point you to reputable ‘real’ drop ship companies that actually make and distribute their products. Many vendors these days will dropship - and the directory sites can put you in contact with these firms. If you don’t get direct phone contacts and addresses, you are likely dealing with a middleman, and not a true drop ship provider.

To sell dropship products on the Internet, just get a hold of one of the many fine product sourcing lists that are available. Make sure your list provides you with names and addresses of many firms; you want to deal direct, not with a middle-man. Sign up with your vendor and then start promoting products, either on your own web site, eBay or free web sites like Squidoo. Once you see how easy and effective this method is, you’ll wonder why you waited so long to get started.