How to change your spending habits

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How to Change your Spending Habits

Keep a Log

Log everything that you buy during the day. That means everything. From your morning coffee to lunch and everything in between, you will realize just how much you are wasting. When you log what you purchase throughout the day every day, note what you are buying and how much that costs. Seeing it on paper will make you more aware of your spending habits so you will be more inclined to want to change your spending habits.

Change How You Buy

Instead of buying pre-made items, such as the coffee mentioned above, make your coffee at home. It is far cheaper to buy it that way. Instead of buying single sodas at a convenience store, purchase a 12 pack at a grocery store. You can also join warehouse stores such as Costco to get even bigger savings by purchasing items in bulk. Changing the way you buy items is one of the easiest ways to change your spending habits in order to save money.

Take Classes

Many banks offer classes that will teach you how to handle your finances better. Find one that addresses spending habits and enroll in it. You will learn a lot about how you can change your spending habits to give you a better chance at savings. Take good notes so you can refer back to them and ask a lot of questions so you aren't left scratching your head when it is all over with. These classes are usually free to help bank customers get a better understanding of their money and how to choose wisely when it comes to finances.

 

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GOP Pumps Up Gas Price Attacks

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By Mike Emanuel

As part of a week-long push, some leading Republicans continued blaming President Obama's policies for soaring gas prices.

"They seem determined to undertake policies that actually drive up the price of oil and gasoline because of their hope that we will somehow live in a world where only solar panels and wind turbines are necessary," Texas Sen. John Cornyn told Fox News.

On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu was on the hot seat, when Mississippi Republican Rep. Alan Nunnelee asked if the Department of Energy is actively trying to lower fuel costs.

 

"Is the overall goal to get our price of gasoline down?" Nunnelee asked.

"No, the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy," Chu responded.

At the White House briefing, Fox News asked Press Secretary Jay Carney about Chu's comment.

"I'm not aware of that statement or the characterization that you give it," Carney said.

Chu first irritated many Republicans when he told the Wall Street Journal in 2008: "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe."

The argument being, if Americans are forced to pay $8 or more per gallon, that would encourage the country to wean itself from fossil fuels.

However, that logic leaves Republicans like Sen. John Thune from South Dakota scratching their heads.

"When you are doubling, literally doubling the price per gallon of gasoline, how does that strengthen your economy?" Thune said.

After a White House lunch with the president, House Speaker John Boehner says he raised a familiar energy issue, the Obama administration's decision against approving the controversial Keystone oil pipeline.

"I did press the president on the Keystone pipeline," Boehner told reporters. "He said, 'Well, you're going to get part of it.' I just wish it was the part that would deliver oil out of Canada and North Dakota."

Some Democrats argue one possible answer to this gas price surge is increasing supply by releasing part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

"If it's a strategic reserve, I don't know what is it being used for? We are unlikely to have a nuclear war with the Soviet Union," Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank said.

The U.S.S.R. may be gone, but there is a serious concern about a potential conflict with Iran. If that were to happen, some experts believe fuel prices would likely double in a matter of days.

 

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Drinks to help you sleep

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Whatever we may consume ourselves with during the day — work, school, or even play — can severely interfere with our sleep. We wake up early to get the day rolling and maybe squeeze in a trip to the gym before work or do some last-minute studying before a 9:00 a.m. exam or meeting. Then, we push through the day and often stay up late, whether out on the town with friends or at home finishing up the work of the day. These habits affect our ability to get in the recommend seven to nine hours of sleep needed each night and can take a toll on our physical and mental health.

It is often difficult to wind down and relax before hitting the sack because of the 101 things we all seem to consume ourselves with. To ensure a good night’s sleep, it is important to slow down, stop your mind from racing, and take it easy before bedtime. Still, every now and then we need a little help from an outside player.

Mothers often send their children to bed with a cup of warm milk to help them doze off — this is just one of many drinks that may help induce sleep after a long day. There are also numerous herbs and herbal supplements used to make teas that are said to help promote sleep. And although the National Institute of Health notes that few adverse effects have been reported, be sure to consult a doctor before adding any herbal supplement to your diet.

Here are our top picks for drinks that may help you snooze a little bit easier.

Tart Cherry Juice

A small study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food in June 2010 showed that consuming two 8-ounce servings of tart cherry juice during the day (once in the morning and once two hours before bedtime) resulted in a significant decrease in insomnia. The study was repeated in September 2010 in the Journals of Gerontology with similar results. This may be because cherries contain melatonin, an antioxidant that is known to help regulate our sleep cycle.

Lemon Balm Tea

Lemon balm is a member of the mint family and has a deliciously sweet, lemony taste. Steep lemon balm leaves in boiling water to make your own relaxation tea. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, lemon balm has been used to help promote sleep and reduce anxiety since the Middle Ages.

Warm Milk

This age-old cure for sleeplessness, said to be effective because milk is high in the amino acid tryptophan, reportedly has a calming effect on the brain and helps induce sleep. The effects may be purely psychological, though, as according to a New York Times article published in 2007, there is not enough evidence to prove that tryptophan is what causes sleepiness. Regardless, many people swear by this bedtime ritual.

Decaffeinated Green Tea

Green tea contains the amino acid theanine, which has been shown to help reduce stress and promote a restful sleep. However, the high caffeine level of regular green tea can outweigh these benefits when you are trying to calm down in the evening, so be sure to go for decaffeinated varieties.

Pure Coconut Water

Though coconut water is advertised as an energy-boosting drink, it may also help you sleep better. Coconut water is a good source of potassium and magnesium, which help your muscles relax. It also contains a small amount of B vitamins, which can help lower stress

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Ways to overcome insomnia

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For some people, turning their minds off is too difficult, resulting in many sleepless nights.

About 30 to 40 percent of all adults have suffered from insomnia at some point in their lives – and turning to sleeping pills may seem like the best solution.

However, patient advocate and founder of EmpowHer.com, Michelle King Robson, was once addicted to sleeping pills.  She came on Fox News Health Talk to explain how she kicked the habit.

King Robson started suffering from insomnia in her late thirties.  Initially, she thought it had to do with her crazy work schedule or the stress of taking care of a family – but it turned out to be something else.

“What I learned was that it was really about…my hormones,” King Robson said.  “I was actually going into perimenopause.”

Sleep deprivation made it incredibly hard for King Robson to function.  She took the sleeping pill Ambien for two years but soon became dependent on it.  The drug also had many negative side effects.

“Some people sleep-eat on the drug, some people sleep-drive on the drug,” King Robson said.  “But in my case, I was sleep walking.”

King Robson also experienced tingling in her arms and legs, and she said she would hit “a wall” every day at 4 P.M.  

In order to get off the drug, she finally had to throw all her Ambien away and deny herself access to another prescription.  She now advocates other ways for people to treat their insomnia without resorting to sleeping pills.

“For women in particular – having their hormones checked when they start down that sleepless pattern,” King Robson said.  “Developing some type of ritual, which is what I’ve done now to help me sleep.  So dimming the lights an hour ahead before you go to sleep…also helps with the brain.  And get rid of the devices, the phones next to our bed.”

“You want to do all your own research and try different things that could work for you,” King Robson added.

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5 ways to stop being the perfect mom

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By Julie Revelant

News flash: the perfect mom doesn’t exist. And striving to be one will just leave you feeling exhausted, hopeless and unhappy.

“In so many other areas of our lives, today’s moms are used to being very competent and in control. The problem with motherhood is that it just doesn’t work that way,” according to Dr. Amy Tiemann, author of Mojo Mom:  Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family. “Being a mother is about making peace with chaos,” she said.

Yet between parenting books that tell you what you should do be doing and judgment from other moms—on top of the pressure you put on yourself—how can you let go of your perfectionism? Here are five ways:

1. Prioritize.
“You can’t be firing on all cylinders at all times, it’s just not going to work,” according to Hollee Schwartz Temple, a law professor and co-author of Good Enough is the New Perfect: Finding Happiness and Success in Modern Motherhood. Temple said to decide what goals are important to you, focus your energy on those and leave the rest behind. So if fitting in a workout is a priority for you, but making an elaborate dinner isn’t a big deal, through some ingredients into the crockpot and go for a run.

2. Rid yourself of the guilt.
“If you set yourself up for perfection, you will always feel like you’re failing since that’s an impossible goal,” according to Tiemann. But if you address the reasons why you’re feeling that way, you can deal with the guilt and move forward. So if you feel guilty because you don’t think you’re reading to your kids enough, start by making more time to do so. But if it’s something that’s out of your control like your job, or if your life is different than you thought it would be since becoming a mom, “make a conscious decision to let that go,” she said.

 

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3. Don’t be a career mom.
Being a mom is the most important job you’ll ever have, but that doesn’t mean you have to be on top of your game at all times. Temple said that we are the first generation of mothers to professionalize motherhood; many highly educated, career driven women are applying that same ambition to motherhood. Yet according to a survey Temple and co-author Becky
Beaupre Gillespie conducted for their book, this approach comes at a cost. “They were actually less happy and less successful than moms who took a more relaxed approach,” Temple said.

4. Stop comparing.
It’s easy to fall into a cycle of looking at how you size up to other moms who seem like they have it all together, but the grass isn’t necessarily greener on the other side. What’s more, many times we’re actually comparing our real lives to a fantasy of the perfect mom. “That supermom is really a composite. We’re imaging this woman who can do it all perfectly in every arena, but in real life, there really aren’t too many women like that,” Temple said. So instead of being envious of what every other mom can do, focus on what makes you a great mom, what works for your family and what will you bring you the most happiness.

5. Reframe your thinking.
Striving for perfection can severely affect your ability to achieve a balance between work and family life. In fact, Temple’s research found that perfectionism was the single greatest obstacle to achieving a work/life balance.  Instead of thinking about always trying to keep work and family equal, it’s more manageable to think about each as moving in seasons. So when work is super busy, it’s okay if you’re not able to devote yourself 100 percent to your family. Yet if you’re finding that your seasons never change and work is taking over your life, try to find ways you can achieve more of a balance and ultimately, make you a happier mom.

Why the North Korea nuclear moratorium means next to nothing

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By Christian Whiton

Today is leap day, but you can be forgiven if you mistook it for Groundhog Day—especially the Hollywood version starring the memorable Bill Murray in which the same day repeats itself over and over again.

The Obama administration’s announcement Wednesday that North Korea has agreed to play nice is the same joke that was played on us by the president's two predecessors in the White House. 

 

The inevitable outcome—failure—will also seem oddly familiar.

The State Department announced Tuesday that North Korea agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and nuclear weapons testing. In return, the U.S. has to arrange for food aid and forgo “hostile intent” toward the regime. 

Also on tap are more six-way talks, which include North Korea, its neighbors and the United States.

This may not sound bad on its face. After all, isn’t it good news that North Korea is halting uranium enrichment and returning to negotiations? Unfortunately, not really.

First of all, North Korea has previously agreed to give up its nuclear ambitions in exchange for aid, only to cheat on the deal, renege on the promise and pocket the aid. 

This is what happened under the Agreed Framework negotiated by the Clinton administration. 

This is what happened under six-party talks during the George W. Bush administration. North Korea agreed to denuclearization in 2004 and 2007, among other occasions. And yet somehow the country still tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009.

Second, North Korea’s biggest threat to us is not an unlikely (though not impossible) nuclear or conventional assault on South Korea or Japan. Instead, it is proliferation of WMD know-how and materiel to others. North Korea has a history of doing this even when it is theoretically behaving. 

In early 2007, we supposedly reached a breakthrough with North Korea to end its nuclear program. Yet later that year, Israel was compelled to bomb a nuclear facility in Syria that North Korea helped to build.

Third, even if North Korea complies with its promise, its nuclear program and status continue. Not covered by Wednesday’s suspension is the country’s plutonium program, which was the basis for its two nuclear tests. Also, even if Pyongyang halts uranium enrichment, it can still use any existing uranium for bombs. In fact, it’s easier to field a uranium bomb than a plutonium one, assuming you have the material.

Fourth, our aid will prop up the regime instead of helping average North Koreans. 

The many North Korean defectors and refugees with whom I have spoken over the years have said to a man that average hungry North Koreans never received any of the massive food aid from the last two decades. Instead it gets diverted to the military and the regime elite, or it gets monetized on the black market.

Therein lies Pyongyang’s true motive. 

The destitute North Korean economy needs foreign aid to avoid collapse. North Korea follows a now clear cycle of ostentatiously dangerous conduct followed by a conciliatory gesture that brings its neighbors and the U.S. rushing to the negotiating table, bearing goodies. 

Pyongyang pockets the aid, never delivers the goods, and then restarts the cycle with more bad behavior. 

While this goes on, Pyongyang also lines its pockets with the proceeds from proliferation and illicit activities like counterfeiting pharmaceuticals, knowing that diplomats on both sides of the Pacific will look the other way to keep talks going. 

Like a performing seal, the Obama administration is now being cued back to the table, bearing gifts.

Perhaps the worst part of today’s announcement is the least-noticed part: the agreement that the U.S. does not have “hostile intent” toward North Korea and will proceed “in the spirit of mutual respect for sovereignty and equality.” That is a half-clever way of saying that the Obama administration accepts the legitimacy of the North Korean dictatorship. 

Practically, it means we will do nothing to help North Koreans free themselves from the world’s most repressive government.

This means forgoing the most practical method of improving our national security. Rather than seek the deal of the century from Pyongyang—which we should now know it will never deliver—we should seek a North Korea free of the Kim regime.

Instead of providing aid, we should pressure the regime, cut off its access to money, quarantine it from proliferation, and aid defectors and regime opponents as we did with the formerly captive nations of the Soviet Bloc. 

The regime particularly hates defector radio broadcasts because they challenges the Kim regime’s total control of information, on which it relies to keep power. 

For example, Pyongyang jams and otherwise targets Free NK Radio more than any other broadcast, because it carries inspiring programming by North Koreans who have escaped and who tell the truth about North Korea and the outside world.

Then there's the other pressure point: China. 

Our Washington foreign policy establishment consistently argues that Beijing shares our interest in keeping nuclear weapons out of North Korean hands. But Beijing never seriously pressures Pyongyang to disarm and supports the regime with trade and direct assistance. 

Beijing will only act when it sees North Korean misconduct harm its own security. This will only be clear when we end the drawdown of our Navy and Air Force and put tactical nuclear weapons back on our submarines in the Pacific to offset the emerging North Korean threat.

Of course, taking on our foreign policy establishment and changing our approach to North Korea will not happen with the Obama administration in office. 

Mr. Obama’s attempt to embrace our adversaries, which began with Iran and Russia, has now made its way to the Korean Peninsula. And like his two predecessors in the White House, he will opt for a feel-good disarmament agreement rather than real security.

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Suspect in Florida firefighter's killing owed him $3,000, police say

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A Maine man accused of killing a Florida firefighter owed $3,000 to the victim in what police suspect was a drug dispute gone bad, court records show.

Daniel Porter, 24, is scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday in Belfast, Maine, to face a murder charge. He told police the firefighter, Jerry Perdomo, threatened him and his family during a game of pool, according to an arrest warrant.

Perdomo, a 31-year-old married father of two, disappeared in Maine on Feb. 16. A police investigation began three days later, after a woman described as Perdomo's girlfriend told police in Bangor that she last saw him with a handgun and that he told her he was going to meet someone who owed him money.

Maine State Police said they found Perdomo's body Wednesday after a search with police dogs on property owned by Porter's relatives in woods in rural Newburgh. The Maine medical examiner identified the body as Perdomo's, but investigators did not say how he died. An autopsy will not begin until Friday at the earliest.

Police on Tuesday charged Porter with murdering Perdomo. Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Public Safety Department, said authorities think Perdomo was killed in a drug dispute.

Porter was arrested at a relative's house where crime scene technicians found evidence of blood and what appears to be a piece of skull or bone, sources told Fox News.  There were new carpets on the floor covering an area that tested presumptive positive for blood, sources said..

In addition to being a Florida firefighter and EMT, Perdomo served in combat in Iraq as a Marine. Upon release, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and took prescription pills for neck, back and knee injuries.

A friend of Perdomo's told ABC affiliate WFTV that Perdomo traveled 1,600 miles to Bangor to sell prescription pills, and that he'd mentioned someone named "Daniel" previously. But Perdomo's family says the firefighter had never been involved with drugs, and his wife said she believes he went to Maine to see another woman.

"I love him. He is my only love, he is my only love," Tonya Perdomo said at a news conference Monday.  "I just want to talk to him. I just feel like I need to talk to him. I do."

Porter, 24, was arrested at a home rented by his father in Jackson, a small, rural town in central Maine. 

Perdomo's brother-in-law, Chris Lerch, said relatives are devastated.

"All we know now is we just need to bring Jerry home and heal as a family," Lerch told the Orlando Sentinel from Bangor, where he has been helping distribute fliers seeking clues in Perdomo's disappearance.

Porter had been identified earlier as a person of interest in the case as some of Perdomo's friends put up posters around the Bangor area hoping for his return. Perdomo was a firefighter for Seminole County, Fla.

A car Perdomo had rented was found in the parking lot of a Bangor Wal-Mart. Police also seized a car that had been owned by Porter and was left behind at a dealership in Oakland, about 70 miles south of Bangor, and a new car bought by Porter and his 25-year-old girlfriend, Cheyanne Nowak. The girlfriend was not charged in the case.

"We believe Porter is the one responsible for Perdomo's death," McCausland said.

In an interview Monday, Tonya Perdomo described her husband, the father of two children ages 3 and 10, as a dedicated man who "helped people a lot."

 

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What Can Kill Your Ad Campaign?

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 By Kate Rogers

Over the years, I’ve heard numerous small business owners recite horror stories regarding ad campaigns that flopped.  In many cases, they would place the blame squarely on the medium itself – cable, billboards, mailers, and so on. They would tell me that radio advertising, for instance, was either flawed or simply not the best way to deliver their particular message.  While some ad delivery choices may accommodate certain marketing plans better, I believe the majority of failures are a function of neglecting key marketing principles.

 So before you declare a particular delivery method a dud, look to see if you have any of the five campaign killers lurking around:

Inconsistency
There is no bigger saboteur to your campaign than inconsistency.  If you have an on-again and off-again relationship with marketing, you will slowly eat away at your ad budget and wind up with little to no return on investment. When you’re inconsistent with your communication, you deprive your business of building any real momentum.  It’s like being in stop-and-go traffic— you waste more energy overcoming inertia.  So commit to keep moving – even if it’s at a snail’s pace.

Content Overload
If you randomly opened a dictionary and closed it shortly thereafter, would you be able to remember every word on the page?  For most of us, the answer would be no. Apply the same logic to your ads. If you were to cram a ton of info into your marketing, can you realistically expect your audience to retain anything of value? Your ads will work effortlessly if people can remember them.  So keep your selling points to a minimum.

Identity Crisis
A recent client of ours contracted us to work on their radio campaign while another group was developing their TV commercials. To make things worse, yet another group was tasked with their web development.  Each group appeared to produce great material for this small business, however in the larger scope of things, this business does not have a cohesive strategy. Its personality changes with each medium. In the end, this will only serve to undermine the strength and focus of the brand. Don’t make this mistake. Be sure that your message is consistent across all platforms.

A Failure to Negotiate
When purchasing or placing your ads, negotiate. Never assume that prices are fixed (even if you’re presented with a written price sheet) Always ask for a better deal. If met with resistance, pull back a bit. Most reps are willing to be flexible. In many cases you’ll find that the savings you negotiate can provide for more ad placements – increasing the odds that you will succeed.

Nebulous Deals
Be sure that your offers can be quantified.  For instance things like 20% off, $100 dollar rebate and buy-one-get-one-free, provide the consumer with a clear picture of what they’re getting.  When you resort to language like, “super savings,” “deal of the century,” and “everything must go,” you fail to substantiate why someone should take decisive action upon hearing or seeing your piece.

 

 

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Social Media Tools You Should Be Using

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1. EditFlow
EditFlow is a plugin from open source content management system WordPress that allows you to manage your editorial team seamlessly.

With it, you can get a snapshot of your month-to-month content with the calendar feature. It also offers improved content status beyond WordPress' default draft and pending review. And user groups can help you keep your team of writers organized by department or function.

Who should use it and why: Any business owner who manages a multi-author website should give EditFlow a look. This tool can keep all of the things that are important to a multi-author blog in one spot so management is easy, clean and documented.

2. TweetReach
This tool allows you to see how far your tweets travel. For example, with TweetReach I can search my blog and come up with these results. It breaks down how many people your messages reach and how many tweets it took to reach them. For instance, TweetReach can tell you how many times your tweets have been shared by retweets, replies and other standard tweets.

Who should use it and why: From a social media manager to a small-business owner, basically anybody who is interested in finding out how effective his or her tweets are based upon the number of people they touch should consider using TweetReach. It can also useful from a metric standpoint in terms of justifying the results of your social media campaigns with senior management or partners.

3. ArgyleSocial
This Durham, N.C.-based startup is a social media platform that aims to help marketers connect the business dots with the social media dots. ArgyleSocial offers a single dashboard to monitor Facebook and Twitter that allows you to delegate tasks to your team. It also offers easy reporting on the ROI of your social media efforts.

If you'd like to be an affiliate, you can use ArgyleSocial's white label brand and resell the social media platform to your clients. All of your accounts can be wrapped up into one bill and sent to you to distribute or absorb as an included service.

Who should use it and why: From the social media manager to the one-person business that needs to prove to management, clients or themselves that their social media campaign is paying off.

4. HootSuite for iPad
HootSuite users should be happy with this iPad application. It includes a stationary column in the sidebar that keeps track of all streams being tracked.

Among the other things HootSuite says you can do with this iPad app include checking in using a Foursquare account, scheduling messages to send at a later time, examine click-through statistics, add geo-location coordinates to messages and shorten URLs with a built-in Ow.ly tool.

Who should use it and why: HootSuite for iPad is for heavy iPad users who want to manage their social media content and engagement.

5. TweetLevel
You might be thinking you don't need another Tweet metric tool, but TweetLevel, allows you to specifically search for hashtags, which can lead you to insights on who to follow based upon conversation versus person.

Once you've found someone you'd like to follow, you can use TweetLevel to help measure his or her social influence. You can also evaluate the buzz around a certain topic to determine if it's a trend worth paying attention to. Then take a peek at related phrases around your topic to gauge the true scope of the trending idea.

Who should use it and why: Public relations managers and social media marketing professionals who want to analyze a campaign should give TweetLevel a try. This tool can help you identify the Twitter conversation, where it's going wrong and how to correct that mistake.

6. ReFollow
When it comes to Twitter, numbers might not be as important as the people you follow and who follows you. ReFollow is an application that allows you to lock in those followers that you've connected with and make sure they continue to follow you.

Other features include filtering a search on Twitter to uncover insights, such as what you have in common with certain followers. This can lead you to connecting with someone who maybe you're Twitter conversation has been close to zero, but with a simple direct message to that person you can make a connection and build a business relationship.

Who should use it and why: This can be the perfect tool for the person who wants to grow a list of highly-qualified, like-minded people. Consider using ReFollow if your concern is quality over quantity, which it should be.

7. TwitterSearch
You've probably heard of TwitterSearch but, more than likely, you aren't using it correctly.

New media expert Thomas Baekdal offers a number of little-known tips for using TwitterSearch. For instance, to see what people are saying about your competitors, search with to:competitor or from:competitor. Replace "Competitor" with that company's Twitter handle.

To uncover top trending topics search that topic plus –rt filter:links. For example, "digital marketing-rt filter:links". That code will remove all of the retweets from the search.

Who should use it and why: Anyone who wants to use and search Twitter more effectively should brush up on his or her TwitterSearch skills. And knowing what's trending on Twitter can be a useful way to generate ideas for your business blog. When you see trending topics, you can create a blog post with content relevant to that discussion.

8. Traackr
One simple way to find and follow people who are influential in your space is to use Traackr. It allows you to identify the "authorities" in your industry who can mean the most to your business or your client's.

What's also useful about Traackr is that you can watch how social media leaders are responding and contributing to content you are sharing. An ad agency, for example, can see who it should target to help social media campaigns get off the ground, build its engagement strategies based upon Traackr's unique intelligence and then see results of those campaigns.

Who should use it and why: Traackr can be a useful tool for either advertising agencies or brands that want to build social media campaigns that improve over time and show how they pay off in the end.

9. SocMetrics
The Topical Influencer platform by SocMetrics is a web-based tool that allows you to identify influencers, understand who these people are, interact with them and then monitor your campaign.

The "Competitive Influence" feature allows you to specify brands and drill down for detailed influencers. What's slick about this tool is that you can narrow your search to a long-tail keyword, seeing who is truly influential.

Who should use it and why: Any marketing professional who wants to build an effective social media campaign based upon influencers in a specific industry should give this a look. SocMetrics can help you harness the power of thought leaders, which in turn can help you build your brand and sell more.

10. Social Scope
For BlackBerry users who've longed for an app that combines Twitter and Facebook on one screen, such as TweetDeck for your desktop, consider trying Social Scope.

And on that same screen you'll see a thumbnail image if someone shares something from TwitPic. It also has a built in retweeting feature, hash tag search and will also let you see the entire URL to know where a truncated URL is pointing.

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How to Energize Sales

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1. Reestablish Listening Posts
Smart marketing relies entirely on understanding your customer. You need to know not only who they are and what they buy, but why they buy -- and why they choose to buy from you. Redouble your efforts at dialogue through social media, message boards and blogs. And get direct feedback from customers or clients, or via your front-line salespeople.
2. Announce Special Promotions
Use special incentives to draw customers to short-term promotions. This fall (much like the last), cost-conscious consumers are looking for good prices and great value, and promotions are a winner with most all economic groups. Coupons are increasingly vital, and there is a major rise in the desirability of online coupons.

3. Polish Lead Management
Over the summer, lead tracking and follow up may have become a bit haphazard. Be certain everyone who takes inbound calls asks every new lead where they heard about your company. Make the leads generated by your online, print and broadcast advertising trackable. And where possible follow up all leads within 24 hours. Today's sales are built on trusting relationships that grow from excellent customer service.

4. Focus On Fresh Ideas
Don't rely exclusively on a small team or just your marketing staff to produce fresh ideas. Make innovation everyone's responsibility this fall with brainstorming sessions, company retreats or by giving special recognition to individuals with the smartest suggestions. If your business has few employees, assemble a seasoned advisory board or form an online advisory group made up of members of your target audience to give input in exchange for sales perks.

5. Renew Retention Campaigns
Do you have regular e-mail or direct mail promotions that go out to your entire customer base? This fall, use e-mail to crank up your retention campaign by putting it on a consistent weekly or biweekly schedule. Soon you'll have discovered which incentives and messages work best to retain and upsell current customers and convert prospects, and yield the highest return on investment.

6. Enhance Your Giving
In this era of rising social responsibility, customers and prospects want to know you're a good corporate citizen, and this is a great time to align with a nonprofit. Businesses that rely on local customers benefit from helping community-based causes. You can provide pro bono services or undertake a promotional campaign to raise charitable funds. Just be sure to promote the undertaking via your website and the press. You'll provide help where it's needed most and earn appreciation from customers that leads to sales.

7. Freshen Your Content
When was the last time you updated the content of your website and your family of sales and marketing tools? Since your website is generally the first place prospects go to learn more about your business, it's crucial the site's appearance and themes are current. Imagine someone following a logical path from your website through each step in your sales process, and make sure all materials and messages they encounter flow seamlessly from one to the next. With more shoppers than ever browsing the Web this fall, it's a great way to jumpstart sales.

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Hunger-free way to flatten your belly

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 By Melissa Daly

Your waistline has gone MIA and you’re ready to reclaim it—for health reasons, yes, but also because you want to look better (there, you said it). Happily, this is one area where vanity and wellness align.

"Visceral fat, which surrounds the organs in your midsection, plays a big role in the risk of metabolic conditions like diabetes," says Dr. Claire Wheeler, an instructor at Portland State University’s School of Community Health and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Losing Belly Fat.

And contrary to what a lot of people think, the belly is not a stubborn fat zone.

"Unlike fat in other places, belly fat is earmarked to provide quick energy in the event you need to fight, flee, or endure a famine," Wheeler says. "When you engage in moderate activity (akin to fleeing or fighting) and cut calories (as in a famine), most of the fat you lose first will come from your belly."

It’s ready to come off; now give it a kick-start with these strategies.

Belly busters
Slipping into that waist-cinching pencil skirt (the one pushed to the back of your closet) requires exercising more and making smart food choices so that you’re burning more calories than you’re taking in—no surprise. What is surprising, though, is just how easy it is to make that happen. Try this: Every day, aim to get 30 minutes of exercise, spend no more than six hours sitting down, and keep your calorie count in the 1,500 to 2,000 range.

Also helpful: eating more of the following, which target belly flab in particular.

Fiber
Getting your fill helps keep your stomach sleek, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Compared with people who only cut calories, those who also ate four to seven daily servings of whole grains (such as a slice of whole-wheat bread or half a cup of brown rice) lost significantly more belly fat.

That’s one more reason to be a (healthy) carb lover: "Not only does the fiber in whole grains help flush the digestive tract, leading to a flatter stomach due to less constipation, but it also helps you feel more satisfied," says Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD, the author of The Secret to Skinny.

Dairy
Milk products do a belly good, helping it retain lean muscle and store less fat. Take it from the dieters in a University of Tennessee study who ate 6 ounces of fat-free yogurt with every meal and lost 81 percent more abdominal fat than those who cut calories alone. 

"Increasing calcium suppresses calcitriol, a hormone that promotes fat storage," explains lead author Michael Zemel. Quashing calcitriol also lowers your fat tissue’s production of cortisol, the hormone known to increase visceral fat.

What’s more, a recent Harvard University study makes the case for vitamin D and calcium as weight-loss aids. Researchers gave one group three daily glasses of orange juice containing calcium and vitamin D, while another group drank the same amount of unfortified OJ each day. After four weeks, the vitamin-D-and-calcium group lost nearly 10 times as much belly fat as those who drank regular juice. For that get-slim boost without all the calories in three glasses of OJ, supplement daily with 450 IU of vitamin D and 1,500 milligrams of calcium

 

Fruits and veggies
According to a University of Florida study, people who ate more of their overall diet from plant-based foods were slimmer. "Researchers developed an index—called the phytochemical index, or PI score—that ranks the number of calories consumed from plant-based foods compared with overall daily calorie intake on a scale of zero to 100," says Cynthia Sass, a New York City–based dietitian and author of S.A.S.S. Yourself Slim: Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds, and Lose Inches.

"People of normal weight had PI scores 10.3 points higher, on average, than overweight or obese people," she says. "And even though both groups consumed about the same number of daily calories, those with lower PI scores had larger waist circumferences." 

Healthy fats
Not all fats make you fat. In fact, monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)—found in some nuts and oils—help you stay lean. In a study published in the journal Diabetes Care, insulin-resistant people who ate a diet high in MUFAs avoided the fate of those on a high-carb diet, who saw fat mass shift toward their bellies.

Include plant-based fat—like 2 tablespoons of almond butter or a quarter of an avocado—at each meal, advises Sass. Likewise, adding just under 2 teaspoons of PUFA-rich safflower oil to your diet each day—without even cutting calories—reduces abdominal fat, suggests an Ohio State University study. Linoleic acid—a polyunsaturated, omega-6 fatty acid found in safflower, sunflower, soybean, and corn oils—helps increase the fat-burning hormone adiponectin, says lead author Martha Belury. 

"Use safflower oil in salad dressings or baking—anything in which the oil doesn’t reach the smoking point (as in deep frying)," she suggests. "That breaks it down."

What to avoid
In addition to moving more and eating waist-friendly foods, aim to limit these fat magnets:

Alcohol
Folks who had three-plus drinks in a day—even infrequently—had more visceral fat than those who had the same amount monthly but spaced them out, according to University at Buffalo researchers. Tempted to have more than one drink? Choose light beer, wine spritzers, or diet mixers.

Trans fats
The type of fat in many baked goods and salty snacks may cause belly weight gain even if you’re not consuming excess calories. Skip anything with partially hydrogenated oils, says Wheeler. They can hide out in surprising places (like some bran cereals and low-fat ice creams).

Minor stress
Eating triggers insulin, and stress boosts cortisol. "When elevated, these two hormones work together to store extra calories you consume in the form of belly fat," Dr. Wheeler says. In a study at the University of California–San Francisco, stress eaters showed higher levels of insulin and cortisol—and gained more weight—than those who didn’t eat when anxious. Next time you sit down to eat, take five minutes to relax first. A good place to start: Put away your gadgets. 

 

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FDA issues new warning on Lipitor, Zocor, other statins

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The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday raised safety concerns about the popular class of cholesterol-fighting drugs called statins, warning that patients taking the drugs may face a "small increased risk" of higher blood sugar levels and of being diagnosed with diabetes.

The federal safety agency said Tuesday it plans to add the diabetes-risk language to the "warnings and precautions" sections of labeling for the statin drugs. The drugs that will get the warning include top-selling brand names such as Lipitor, Lescol, Pravachol, Crestor, Mevacor, Altoprev, Livalo and Zocor. Under these and a range of generic names, the drugs have been taken for years by tens of millions of people to prevent heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular disease.

The largest manufacturers of statins didn't have immediate comments on the FDA's action.

In addition, the FDA said that labels for statin drugs now will contain information about patients experiencing memory loss and confusion, though this side effect was classified as an "adverse reaction" rather than being put in the more serious warnings and precautions category.

Dr. Amy Egan, the FDA's deputy director for safety of metabolic and endocrinological products, said "these cognitive changes can be quite dramatic" and "sustained," but that they do disappear when statin therapy is stopped. She cautioned that the agency isn't able to identify a specific drug or age group of people who might be prone to such cases of memory loss and confusion, but that patients should notify their doctors if such symptoms occur.

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Should You Hire a Arbeitstier?

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By Kate Rogers

Everyone appreciates a go-getter in the office. Someone that will hit the ground running and do whatever it takes to get the job done may seem like an asset, especially in a small business.

However, workaholics may actually do more harm than good for your factory, experts warn. And, employers don't always recognize when their star workers are starting to lose steam.

Polly Wright, senior consultant for HR Consults, said business owners often get too comfortable with those who are willing to go the extra mile time and again.

"They don't realize these [workers] are burning out," Wright said. "They need to shift into a more strategic outlook and think about how they can get their business to the next level and be able to afford the next person, not just taking advantage of the workaholic."

These dedicated employees are willing to put up with a lot, so it may not always be apparent to employers that they are burning the candle at both ends, Wright said. Instead, employers often put in more time, effort and training with these trusted workers, only to lose that investment.

"[Workaholics] may leave in a rush, and take all of that learning knowledge with them," she said. "Then you are stuck as the business owner thinking, 'What can I do now? I put everything into this person and they left me.'"

Instead of simply heading right to your trusty workaholic, Wright said to spread the knowledge and training around—your business will be stronger for it.

As research professor Brené Brown wrote in this week's Washington Post, sometimes being a perfectionist at work truly takes its toll on an employee's family life.

"This emotional armor we bring to work is heavy, and the weaponry takes a long time to assemble, so when we get home in the evenings, we don’t put it away," Brown said in the column "A love note to the workaholic.""It’s too much trouble and, frankly, it’s too risky. Home can also be a place where performing and perfecting are expected. With everyone’s vulnerability shielded, our families are together, but we really don’t see one another."

When an employee's home life is being impacted due to over-committing in his or her career, that can also harm your business, Wright said.

"When you hear rumblings about the [employee's] spouse or family not being happy, or them not taking a vacation in a long time, physical weight loss or tiredness, these are all symptoms that people are getting to their breaking point," she said.

Workers should speak up and be themselves—take vacations and breaks, and let their employers know when they have had enough.

"There's a difference between someone who has work ethic, and will put in long hours to finish a project, but go have some fun afterwards, and a workaholic, who would choose a conference over taking a vacation," Wright said.

It’s often up to the employer to take note of these things, which can be difficult, especially if he or she is a workaholic as well.

"Small business owners that are workaholics themselves, they have the hardest time recognizing that they're taking advantage of someone," Wright said. "Other business owners that want to have their employees to have a work-life balance are keener to it."

It can be helpful to be a workaholic yourself, especially when getting a business up and running, she said. But it's important to take a step back and examine your own commitment and time spent working as well, she said.

"It's the reality of what it takes to get a business off the ground sometimes," Wright said of over-working. "But the downside is the feeling that you can run very lean for a long time, because it's not going to work. If you have those expectations, and expect your staff to work 80 hours a week, you'll [all] burn out really quick."

 

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Making Work More Comfortable

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By Kate Rogers

Small Business of the Day: Office Relief

Who: E-commerce manager Mike Harrell, 33, @office_relief

What: Ergonomically correct office furniture

When: 1991

How: Harrell said Office Relief founder and president Paul Blaubach got the idea to start the business while selling glare screens for computers part-time in the 1990s.

"He was trying to become a fireman, and customers would ask him for (other products) and it grew into what it is today," Harrell said.

Where: San Leandro, Calif.

Biggest lesson learned from a customer: "How to adapt the business—being able to change to meet our customers' demands," he said. "It's not being so rigid. We are willing to make a change to how we do things if a customer is really adamant about having something done a certain way."

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How Does Google Webmaster Help?

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  Sitemaps

  
  
  
  
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    A sitemap is an XML file with links to all of the pages hosted on a website. You can provide the URL of your website's sitemap to Google through Webmaster Central. After you do this, Google's Web crawling robot will download the sitemap and look for changes each time it crawls your website for new content. This may help new content that you add to your website get indexed by Google more quickly.
    
    

    
    
  
  
  
  

  Crawl Errors

  
  
  
  
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    The "Crawl Errors" of Google Webmaster Central are generated when Google's robot crawls your website. This can help you diagnose and fix pages that are missing, links that you typed incorrectly or a problem with your website's "robots.txt" file. Note that this section will also show crawl errors if you have intentionally used a robots.txt file to restrict Google's access to certain areas of your site.
    
    

    
    
  
  
  
  

  Keywords

  
  
  
  
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    The "Keywords" section of Google Webmaster Central displays the most common keywords that Google finds while crawling your website. Google determines the subject matter of your website by its keywords; if you look at this list and do not feel as though the keyword list presents an adequate view of your website's theme, you may need to consider making changes to your writing.
    
    

    
    
  
  
  
  

  Search Queries

  
  
  
  
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    Google Webmaster Central displays the keywords and keyword phrases that result in your website being displayed on Google's search result pages. This section also shows the number of people who click through to your website after seeing it on Google. Attracting traffic to your website depends on attaining a high ranking for the keyword phrases relevant to your website's subject matter, and this section shows where you need to make improvements.
    
    

    
    
  
  
  
  

  Links to Your Site

  
  
  
  
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    Google determines a website's authority in part by the number of other websites that link to it. A high authority ranking -- or PageRank -- can lead to higher placement for your website on Google's search result pages. This section of Google Webmster Central shows the websites Google has found that link to yours~~.
    
    

    
    
  
  
  
  

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Top Tips For Making a Strong Backlink

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  Most article sites and blogging sites have a "WYSIWG" editor ("W"hat "Y"ou "S"ee "I"s "W"hat "Y"ou "G"et), but that site will typically have another option, HTML. Write your article before hand in notepad or a similar text editor. (Not in Word, don't ask why right now, just trust me.)
  When you write your article use simple HTML tags for your Paragraph and bold some words for a better visual effect. Click on the image to the left for an example of how to do this. The top part shows you the code, the bottom part will show you how it will appear after you paste it in your articles HTML editor and then post it online.
  
  

  
  


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  Now find where your want to put your hyperlink. DO NOT use words like "click here", use more descriptive "calls to action" that are not only going to entice a human to click them, but give it a "title" so the search engines know as well what you are sending people to. Click on the image to the left to see how to write a hyperlink.
  
  

  
  


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  Now lets give that link even more juice by adding a "title" to the actual code of the backlink. It is as simple as writing: title="your expression" within that hyperlink code itself. Click the image to the left to see how.
  
  

  
  


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  When you are finished with your article with the correct HTML coding, copy and paste it in your articles HTML editor and click view or save. You have just created a powerful backlink for both humans and the search engines.
  
  

  
  

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What Things That Will Ruin Your First Impression

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Beware of these 20 destructive behaviors:

• Interrupting repeatedly


• Dominating the conversation


• Inconsistent eye contact


• Standing too close, invading "personal space"


• Taking a cell phone call or even letting it ring


• Chewing anything, unless you're at a luncheon


• Arriving late


• Being longwinded


• Risky humor


• Wrinkled clothing


• Checking your watch frequently


• Not listening, missing key points


• Poor table manners


• Boasting (I call it "I" disease)


• Looking and sounding bored


• Complaining about anything


• Distracting noises, such as tapping on a table


• Notebook or briefcase needing replacement


• Power Point that won't work


• Cluttered office when someone visits you china marble

How to help customers find you

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Get listed.

china granite List the physical location for your business in Google Places and Yahoo. Use Google Product listings to drive shoppers to your website. Get listed on sites like Yelp!, Citysearch, Goby and Local.com so people can find your business and review it. Look for websites and mobile apps that search for businesses in your industry and add your location. There's Urban Spoon for restaurants, Hotspotr for wifi cafés, Mappy Hour for bars with happy hour specials, and A Day's Outing for daytrip destinations like wineries, antique shops and family fun spots. Other apps like Future Tap's Where To? pull their information from Google Places, so make sure your information is up-to-date.

Be creative.

When re-branding itself in 2009, Grasshopper Group used chocolate-covered grasshoppers to spread the word in a stunt that our office still remembers two years later. They got lots of television news coverage as TV anchors ate them on the air. Create your own newsworthy event, something so different that people just have to talk about it. Where do you get that great idea?

Listen to your customers.

Morton's Steakhouse got a mountain of publicity for the price of a steak dinner delivered to Peter Shankman as he arrived at Newark Airport. Someone at Morton's was paying attention when Shankman jokingly made a request on Twitter. At this writing, less than a week later, a Google search for "shankman steak" returned 187,000 results. Listen to your customers and respond. They will spread the word.

Use press releases when you have news.

PR Newswire and Business Wire are the factory leaders, and as such, may be beyond the budget of your small business, but they offer excellent advice on how to write and use press releases. PR.com and PRLog.org will distribute your press release for free, and PitchEngine.com allows one free pitch per thirty days. Star Reviews has a comparison chart and reviews of some free and paid press release distribution services. When you get press coverage, ask permission to post it on your website.

No news to report? Use HARO.

HARO(Help A Reporter Out) was created by Peter Shankman to connect reporters and bloggers with small businesses "to tell their stories, promote their brands and sell their products and services." How does it work? Suppose you own a restaurant. You sign up with HARO as a source, and they send you emails with queries from reporters. Choose the queries that you are qualified to answer: maybe for a business article about the economy's effect on restaurant patronage, or a management piece on how to motivate employees, or how to choose wine for a food or bridal magazine. When you are quoted as a source, your business name becomes newsworthy, and you become a recognized expert in your field.

Get connected: tweet, start a blog, get a Facebook page.

This is the digital age. You don't have to wait around for someone else to write about you. Whether you own a pizza parlor on Main Street or you make widgets, you can find something to blog about. Start by sharing advice and how-to tips. Basic service is free on Wordpress, Blogger and Tumblr. Social media can give you exposure as well. A Facebook page gives your loyal customers an easy way to share you with their friends, and even street vendors are using Twitter to boost their business.

Use YouTube.

Businesses for whom ambiance is a big selling factor (like restaurants, bars, boutiques, catering halls) should take definitely advantage of this free platform to show potential patrons what they're missing. But no matter what your business is, you can find a way to leverage this powerful tool to your advantage. For example, a veterinarian shows how to brush a dog's teeth; a hairdresser demonstrates the proper way to use a straightener or curling iron; a pet store owner tells you how to clean the sand in your fish tank. Then put your videos on your Google Places Page.

Give something away.

Facebook Pages are perfect for this. Sprinkles Cupcakes posts daily giveaways on its Facebook page like this one: "What goes around comes around! First 50 people to whisper 'karma's sweet' at each Sprinkles get a free cupcake for you and for a friend!" Howard Rosenthal Photography gave away a free BFF Photo Shoot. Location-based services like Foursquare let you reward frequent customers with something special and build buzz around your business.

Top sell Strategies for Your Business

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• Add complimentary products on the order confirmation page. You can easily have your Web programmer add a section to the order confirmation page which suggests products based on what the customer is buying. For instance, if your customer is purchasing a toy for his child, your Web site can be programmed to suggest to him that he also buy the batteries needed for the toy, as well as a complimentary toy that is part of the series.

• Give them a chance to purchase a warranty. If your customer is at the check out section of your Web site, you can include a screen which offers them a chance to purchase a warranty for the product before they check out. This is a great up-sell strategy that will not only help you, but the customer as well.

• Offer a small discount if they will add something to their order. For instance, if the customer’s order totals to $23.22, offer them a 10 to 20 percent discount on orders which are above $25.00. This will encourage your customer to add another product to the order so that they can take advantage of your discount.

• Offer a bundle of items at checkout for a lower price. If the customer is purchasing a toy for a child, at check out, you can offer the entire series of toys at a discounted rate, but only if they purchase the bundle immediately. This is a good way to entice customers to think about the discount they will receive and want to go ahead and make the purchase at the check out

• Offer a chance to purchase the upgraded version of the product. If your customer is purchasing a 20 inch TV, give them a chance to upgrade it to a 25 inch TV at the check out for only “X” dollars more. You may be surprised at the overwhelming response you get from people who were only looking for an excuse to get the TV they really wanted.china marble

Top 10 organic wines in the U.S.

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For years, many vintners shied away from using the organic label because organic wines, in even the country’s finest wine shops, were relegated to one tiny section that was divided by neither style nor quality. But green is now a golden word and “o” is no longer a scarlet letter. 

While a few wine shops still cling to the organic shelf in hopes of looking hip to the eco-movement, most stores have moved the organics back to their rightful place among the other wines of their region or style. It has become so much a part of the wine business that you might not even realize your favorite wine is actually eco-friendly. 

You see, although we consumers sometimes forget, vintners are really little more than glamorous farmers. As such, they are among the most concerned of us all about the health of our planet and, most importantly for them, our soil. So while the industry works to protect our environment, we want to honor some of the forefathers and leaders in the organic movement with our list of the top 10 organic wines, which all hail from the U.S.  

Korbel Winery Organic Brut
$15
America’s best-known sparkling wine producer recently got in on the green movement by introducing their first Organic Brut in 2009. The wine offers classic, crisp Brut-style flavors at a very affordable price. Serve it with eggs and bacon, coffee cakes, afternoon tea, white fish, roast chicken, or simply on its own as a palate-cleansing aperitif. Read an in-depth wine review of Korbel Winery Organic Brut.

Silver Thread Vineyard 2010 Semi-Dry Riesling
$15

Silver Thread is not only an East Coast leader in organics, but is also considered one of the Finger Lakes’ finest Riesling producers. The winery’s Semi-Dry Riesling offers mouth-filling apricot, peach and a bit of lime with minerality on the finish. With zippy acid to balance its sweetness, the wine works well as an aperitif, with lightly-spiced Thai cuisine, a plate of artisan cheeses or an apple tart.

Sokol Blosser Vineyards Evolution, 15th Edition
$15
This is not only one of the U.S.’s best-priced organics, but is probably one of Oregon’s most fairly priced white wines, period. A unique blend of nine grapes, Evolution is an off-dry white with zippy acid, a tropical fruit bowl of flavors and a crisp, clean finish suitable for pairing with spicy, Indian, Thai and Chinese cuisines. Check out our selections of Top 10 Value Wines.

Frog's Leap Winery 2010 Sauvignon Blanc
$18

A pioneer in American organics, Frog’s Leap has been producing this award-winning Sauvignon Blanc since 1981. We like the wine not only as a top organic, but as a very good example of what American Sauvignon Blanc can be: crisp and racy yet delicate with grapefruit and lemon zest flavors with underlying minerality suitable for salads, seafood and delicate cheeses.

Benziger Family Winery 2009 Sangiacomo Chardonnay
$20

Benziger is one of the few American wineries to produce an organic, vineyard-designated Chardonnay and the resulting wine not only wins kudos among organics, but wins awards among all Chards across the nation. The wine is medium-bodied with ripe apple and pear flavors and lingering oak. It is robust enough to pair with hearty foods from roast chicken and potatoes to pizza to Irish stew.   

Cooper Mountain Vineyards 2009 Reserve Pinot Noir
$21

Cooper Mountain is a leader in organic Pinot Noir, making more than five different organic Pinots to showcase their unique vineyard sites. The Reserve is a blend of the best of the vineyards and the result is a relatively complex and well-priced wine. It is fairly light in body but offers dark berry flavors, bright acid and a bit of spice.

Quivira Vineyards and Winery 2009 Grenache
$26

Quivira is considered an American leader in biodynamic winemaking. The winery’s Grenache is respected not only for its eco-friendly production but also its complex, spicy flavors and bright acidity. Its cherry and berry notes and vanilla oak will pair well with seared duck in cherry sauce, pepper-crusted salmon or aged goats’ milk cheeses.

Spottswoode 2008 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
$136

With a reputation as not only one of the country’s finest organic Cabs, but also one of the Napa Valley’s best reds, Spottswoode’s Cabernet delivers richness and opulence. Its restrained dark fruit flavors are layered with licorice, mocha and rose petals, well suited for pairing with filet mignon, rack of lamb or an herb-rubbed roast. Find more top-rated Cabernet Sauvignons.

Balance by Heath Dolan 2009 Red Field Blend
$24

Balanced both in its approach to farming (the winery is biodynamic) and flavor, this red blend from winemaker Heath Dolan is composed of 40 per cent Syrah, 40 per cent Zinfandel and 20 per cent Primitivo grapes. On the nose, it features a mélange of cranberry, clove and orange peel. In the mouth, its ripe fruit flavors are joined by earthy notes and fine tannins.

Ceago Winery 2005 Soul of Syrah
$28

This wine is something completely unexpected from the Fetzer family (the original owners of the famed Fetzer vineyards). A Syrah base, blended with a touch of Viognier and Colombard for added aromatics, this unique dessert wine is made in a port style. Rich and sweet, it offers blackberry and cherry flavors with lingering chocolate on the finish perfect for serving at the end of the meal.

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Italian cruise ship adrift in pirate-infested Indian Ocean after fire

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An Italian cruise liner carrying more than 1,000 people was adrift without power in the pirate-infested Indian Ocean on Monday after a fire erupted in its generator room. The blaze was extinguished without causing any injuries, officials said.

Two tug boats from the island nation of Seychelles were steaming toward the drifting Costa Allegra, which had 636 passengers and 413 crew members on board, but they were not expected to arrive until Tuesday afternoon at the earliest.

 

Italian coast guard officials said a large French fishing boat could be the first vessel to reach the stricken cruise liner.

Monday's fire on the Costa Allegra immediately raised fears, since it occurred only six weeks after one of its sister ships, the Costa Concordia, hit a reef and capsized off Italy, killing 25 people and leaving seven missing and presumed dead. Both ships are operated by Costa Crociere SpA, which is owned by the Florida-based Carnival Corp.

However, company officials rushed to play down concerns.

The Costa Allegra is adrift "and being pushed by the current. It is stable and upright," Giorgio Moretti, the director of nautical operations for Costa Crociere SpA, told reporters in a conference call late Monday from factory headquarters in Genoa, Italy.

No one was injured in the fire in the generator room and the cause of the fire was under investigation, Moretti said. The fire knocked out power to the ship's engines as well as to its lights and air conditioning.

Italian Coast Guard officials said emergency generators were keeping the ship's control room illuminated and communications equipment such as radios running. Officials said the cruise liner was holding steady, despite 5-foot waves in the area and passengers were being kept in the ship's big communal rooms, not in their cabins.

Moretti, a longtime Costa captain, said he expected the 636 passengers aboard would spend the night on outside decks. Among them were 212 Italian, 31 British and eight U.S. passengers, he said. Four of the passengers were children ages three or younger.

Costa Crociere SpA said in a statement the ship was about 20 miles from Alphonse Island, one of the atolls in the Seychelles, a nation of islands and atolls that is a popular tourist destination.

The Allegra, whose Italian name means "merry," or "happy," had left northern Madagascar, off Africa's southeast coast, on Saturday and was cruising toward the port of Victoria, Seychelles' capital, when the fire erupted. Costa said the Allegra had been due in Victoria on Tuesday.

The general region where the cruise ship was adrift -- off the coast of Tanzania -- has seen a rash of attacks by Somali pirates. In 2009, an Italian cruise ship with 1,500 people aboard fended off a pirate attack in the Indian Ocean far off the coast of Somalia.

Moretti said an armed nine-member Italian military team on anti-pirate duty was aboard the Allegra, but he insisted the maritime region where the ship was now "isn't a high risk area for pirates."

"If pirates attack, the armed guards on board will respond. But as far as I am aware, no pirates have been sighted in the area," said Seychelles presidential spokeswoman Srdjana Janosevic.

A cargo ship was due to reach the Costa Allegra early Tuesday, and Moretti said it would bring batteries and otherwise help with communications. On Tuesday morning, a helicopter is expected to arrive, ferrying in "fresh food, cell phones and walkie talkies."

Tugs from the Seychelles island of Mahe, the largest island in the Indian Ocean archipelago, will arrive Tuesday afternoon.

"Once they arrive, they will decide which port" to take the Allegra to, Moretti said. "It depends on sea conditions."

Moretti said one possibility was evacuating passengers from the Allegra on lifeboats to Alphonse Island, then having them fly from its small airport to Mahe island. He also said 15 Costa engineers, technicians and other officials were flying to Mahe in hope of reaching the Allegra by air to repair its generators

 

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