Aim Promote CRM

What exactly is CRM?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and is an integral part of the modern business model. In days gone by, a business would have filing cabinets full of customer files and the information held there would not normally be used to it’s full potential. What CRM does is to use that information to forge marketing strategies and maximise the data that you already have.
A good CRM program firstly gathers data effectively, and then uses the data it has available in a way that is both useful to you as a supplier, and appropriate specifically to your clients. Where Aim Promote differs is that it offers a vast array of features, but the system is configurable, so the right employees have access to the right information specific to their tasks. This simplifies the system for that individual employee whilst retaining the full array of features intact. This means that your sales people have access to sales-related data and your marketing people have a different set-up allowing them deeper analysis into sales trends etc.

The full system functionality remains intact for the Business manager, Operations manager or other key personnel to be able to interrogate the system and form strategies, which will be, implemented company-wide based on all the relevant data to hand.
Experience tells us that a vast proportion of the employees time can be taken up with trying to manage the system itself, Aim promote has been developed to do a lot of that work, leaving the workers free to do their job

Some of the features that I could use to aid my growing internet empire(?) would include the ‘alerts & reminders’ feature. I find time-management to be the biggest problem especially where I am handling multiple tasks, a system of alerts allowing me to put-off less important tasks while still retaining them as ‘to-do’ items would definitely be on my wish-list.
Of course every budding internet entrepreneur is going to be tracking his or her web statistics on a daily basis. Free statistics services are all very well, but basically you have to accept what is on offer and sometimes you have to get through several layers to find the data you need. Aim promote has web statistics integrated offering you exactly the data you want configured exactly as you want it.
The final feature which is paramount for me, is the online support – you don’t want to be left floundering with super-powerful software without someone to guide you through it. Good support allows you to optimise the package to ensure you are really getting the most out of it.

Whatever you see written about CRM software, you won’t be able to appreciate the impact unless you actually try it, the good news is that Aim Promote are offering a 14-day free trial of their CRM package for you to really get to grips with what it can do for your organisation.

Another tool from WeBuildPages.com

The WebuildPages site is a great resource for bloggers and webmasters alike. Todays 'top tool' is the link back checker which assesses the link popularity for any URL and splits the result into the different search engines. For example, here is the result for this blog

Domain	livewyre.blogspot.com
Search Engines
Yahoo!	1,157 (check)
Yahoo! linkdomain	1,420 (check)
Google	38 (check)
AltaVista	605 (check)

Total	3,220

Why not check out some of the cool SEO tools at this site, each of their little applications tells you something you probably didn't know about your site...and they don't even pay me to plug them!

Tracking systems for the modern business

For anyone working in a modern working environment, there can be no doubt that work-related technology has been advancing in leaps and bounds at a phenomenal rate over the last few years. Think back to when Windows software was new in 1990, and contrast that image with your current workspace and home technology that you use on a daily basis. It is now perfectly possible, and indeed, normal to access the internet on the move either via a laptop, PDA or mobile phone. The kind of tasks that can be carried out via web servers, GPS, GPRS and SMS technologies make a reality of what was previously limited to ‘futuristic’ films and TV programs.
In the last few weeks, we have been testing mobile phone tracking at my workplace and are considering vehicle tracking for two reasons. Firstly, it is undeniable that this technology will aid the bosses to clamp down on shirking and possible fraudulent overtime claims. Secondly, there are the issues of efficiency where a worker may be able to be easily re-routed if his route and progress can be tracked. Coming a very poor third, but nonetheless valid, are the health and safety concerns of lone working. We often work on unmanned sites sometimes in precarious situations, a static signal over a number of hours might be enough to raise concerns about a lone workers safety and enable someone to mobilise possibly vital assistance.

The technology we looked into is simple enough, but today I came across a system which blows the system we’ve been looking at, totally out of the water… The company offering this service across the USA is GP Insight, and their GPS tracking system is seriously impressive. The tracking device fits directly into the vehicle diagnostics system and reports all the data you could possibly require. The package reminds me a little of the type of system that a motor-sport team would use to regulate a racing car. The system can report the position of the vehicle, the speed, the fuel consumption, a list of all the stops and starts the vehicle made, how long a vehicle spent at a specific location. Not only this, but early warnings of engine problems can be generated, vehicle maintenance can be easily overseen and you can even link up with a breakdown service as part of the package.

This system is ideal for every aspect of fleet management and can provide live tracking of the entire fleet on one overview map. There is an excellent on-line support website with an extensive list of FAQ’s and resources. Further support is provided by the blog, which is a really innovative way of informing clients about the latest software developments and how to get the best out of the system.
You may be thinking that systems like this are only within the reaches of global corporations like UPS (actually I wish couriers DID use such a great system…), but the price of the package breaks down to between $1.50 and $2.00 per day per vehicle. This type of stuff, once a fantasy, is not only available but affordable too.

Statistics the key to growth

Having the right information, and being able to interpret it is the key to growing your business at any level. I am aware that traffic on five websites I manage has been growing steadily over the last month or so, and I get those statistics from Google Analytics for free. I also use Technorati to assess how much link love I am getting from other blogs.
Without these free services, I would be pretty much flying blind when it comes to assessing the impact of changes I am making on my websites.
If you register a blog with Technorati, they can tell you when people have provided a link to your blog on their blog, this blog has almost 300 unique links registered with Technorati, my other blog has nearer 500.
Google Analytics can tell you how many visitors found your blog or website, what search terms they used, and where in the world they came from. If you haven't yet got either of these up and running, now is a good time to start...

Berlin and Vienna Hotels

I was taught German at school and have had the chance to visit Germany on a number of occasions, although it has been a long time since I last visited. In fact it was long before the Berlin Wall came down, so I have never been able to visit Berlin though I would love to go.
I believe that the building and Hotels in Berlin are well worth a visit, The Brandenburg Gate would be a thrilling sight, symbolising as it does, where the Berlin Wall used to be. Berlin has much to offer in terms of restaurants, art galleries and nightlife. There are hundreds of clubs and thousands of bars in Berlin, giving the city a joint reputation both as a historical landmark and a vibrant nightspot.Recently restored as the capital city in the new unified Germany, Berlin has plenty to keep visitors from all interest groups busy. Try the restaurants and hotels in Berlin to discover the hospitality of the new Germany.

I was eight when I visited Austria, it was the first place I ever visited outside of my own country, and it still retains a fascination for me as being both familiar yet at the same time exotic (at least exotic for an eight year old…)
Staying at Hotels in Vienna offers you culture rarely paralleled anywhere in the world. From the Vienna State Opera to the Vienna Philharmonic or the world famous Boys’ Choir. Vienna is a place for musical pilgrimage that has, in it’s past attracted the likes of Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn.Immerse yourself in the sophistication of Vienna’s coffee-house culture and marvel at the architecture, no visit is complete without a visit to the stunning former Imperial summer house Schloss Schönbrunn.
Hotels in Vienna range from the full five star treatment to the smaller family-run establishments holding a charm all of thier own.

Post and Learn

It struck me today, that whilst researching for subjects to post about (even paid posts) that a good blogger is learning all the time. Passive learning is a direct symptom of creating blog posts, you have to learn something new in order to write something new. You have to learn in order to keep a blog content fresh. The circle is then repeated if visitors to your blog learn something new too. Knowledge is the currency is of the blogger, in 'spending' the knowledge, it is passed on to someone else (assuming anyone is reading!!!).
There is an effect in economics called 'the multiplier' and it examines how spending creates wealth for others, and the quicker you spend, the quicker the economy grows... I won't go into the mind-staggering details, but suffice to say that the same can apply to knowledge. Accelerating knowledge around the world in the way that the internet can, enables the 'economy' of knowledge to grow more quickly.

Traffic or pagerank revisited

Since writing about this a few days ago, there have been some developments in the paid blogging world. Namely that Google have pursued paid post participants and dropped their pagerank.
This will end the pursuit of paid posts on high PR sites if Google are successful in punishing every PayPerPost participant.

However PPP have introduced their own rank called ReakRank which is based mainly on traffic - this turns on it's head my theory that PR was more important than traffic, that or PPP have had to change strategy.

My PR was 4 on the blog where I do PPP posts, my new PR has been dropped to zero, and my Real Rank is 2 - presumably this may limit paid posts with PPP as if I had PR2?

Either way, there seems to still be paid posts available, and this will hit PPP, blogsvertise, smorty and all the service providers harder than it will hit me... I expect some new strategies which will keep paid posts alive in the future and prevent Google from crashing the market.

Online Shopping with Mpire

On line shopping is taking over from high street shopping, and the post-Christmas statistics will no doubt show that more and more people are buying online. So how do you know where to look? Many people will prefer to use Ebay (me included) others may prefer Amazon or some other service, there’s no shortage of on-line stores after all…

One website that can locate the best deals from ALL of these on line resources as one search result is Mpire.com.
I thought I would test out the ability of the search engine to deliver results for something very specific, so I entered the term ‘rubber elephants’. To my surpise, I had quite a lot of relevant results including a load of 1 inch rubber elephants for sale on Amazon, 107 entries for rubber elephants for sale on Ebay, but sadly no rubber elephants on Craigslist in New York…

Searches are not restricted to domestic items, but are just as applicable to industrial and commercial work. At work today a colleague was looking for a ‘Genie’ lifting device so I tried out Mpire and got a list of new equipment available from 'Amazon', 'Net shops' and 'Northern Tool and Equipment' websites, and 30 results from Ebay.

The search window even anticipates your search term and offers a list of possible matched items. There is even data on price trending for the item you have searched on. I have to admit that this is an excellent service, if you are already using Amazon or Ebay, why not try using a service that can get results from both sites at the same time….

Traffic follows your activity

Building traffic to your blog is hard if you are busy actually working on your blog or other projects. The good news is that you don't have to work that hard on traffic-building if you are keeping your content fresh.
I have been posting very actively this month on three blogs and can confirm that even if you don't devote any time to driving traffic to your site through tried and tested methods, the traffic should naturally follow your activity. All of my websites are experiencing definite upward traffic trends during this period of increased activity without me having to actively seek it.
This is good news for one-man-band operations where the same person is responsible for writing content, and publicising the site and designing the layout etc... Work on the content alone and (as long as your site is being 'spidered' and you have some traffic) the new traffic will naturally follow.
Recently I have been experimenting with writing topical 'news' posts on a specific topic on a new blog, and can report that this is certainly a traffic catcher... I posted some up to the minute news last night and my traffic shot up according to Google Analytics (more than 500%!!). So far, this particular project has not generated any significant income, but the experiment is purely about generating traffic at this point.

Christmas Presents

In the run up to Christmas, there are folks who are easy to buy for, and those for whom it is somewhat harder to find the right present. If you're struggling with presents for little ones (traditionally far easier to buy for!) you could try Shopwiki.com where a whole host of child-related goods from all sorts of shops and suppliers has been assembled for you to browse through.

One toy that my little one has had hours of fun with is along the same lines as the ‘Aqua-doodle’,
I particularly liked the travel version which would be perfect for use while in the car or on holiday. I have even been known to use it myself for illustrating things to my wife, and coming up with designs for graphics!

Of course, the old standby is socks for when you are really struggling, and shopwiki have a staggering array of girls socks and boys socks on offer.

And for the new parents or even grand-parents expecting little visitors over the holiday period, there is the all-important child-safety section with all the stair gates, playpen and safety gates which are so important for protecting your little ones. In our house we have a range of these, we had one at the top of the stairs, one at the bottom, one on the office, and a playpen that doubles as a fireguard for our open fire.

Why not visit one of the links above and browse around for the perfect Christmas gift?

Traffic or pagerank

I have long pondered this... why do advertisers rate your site by pagerank when they are assessing a site for suitability??
Well my conclusion is that advertisers (those who pay for paid posts) are actually planning to increase the likelihood of their own site popping up in search terms. Although I have good rank on the two blogs that I do paid posts for, neither of them receive huge amounts of traffic. So if the advertiser wants a high PR, rather than high traffic and high visibility for the post (though I am sure they object to it!!), then he must be looking to raise search engine visibility for specific anchor text primarily. Not all advertisers request specific anchor text though, so I guess any back-links with relevant text is the aim in those cases.
If you were advertising on a bill-board, you would look at the position of the board. Is it visible to lots of people, is it visible to my target audience? In the case of blogs, the advertiser is concerned with the back-link value rather than the passing trade, or so it seems...

Bad Credit advice

Debt is a worrying feature of today’s economic environment, and I believe all of us should be striving to free ourselves from debt where possible.
Credit card debt is a millstone dragging a great many households into a never-ending debt cycle which can only be beaten through determination and making some economies (sometimes unwelcome) in the way we spend our money.

If you find yourself with a bad credit-rating, there is a new resource which can help by providing resources for getting your own credit score and ‘repairing’ your bad credit record My advice, if you are in a bad credit situation, would be to remember to read all the small-print and add up any charges before signing up for something, your only route to improving your situation is to spend less (however obvious that may seem, sometimes the simplest messages are the ones we ignore!). This resource also offers a range of credit solutions for those with a bed credit rating.

Personally I have cut about $8000 off credit card bills in the last couple of years and plan to lose the rest with free 0% credit cards, but that hasn’t meant that I haven’t had to curb spending, quite the contrary, my spending has been dramatically cut and I hardly ever even take any money or credit cards with me when I go out – plenty of time for that when I am debt free!

For me the lure of being debt-free has enabled me to focus on the future and being prepared to go without today. Even if you think your debt is manageable, keep a record of how quickly your debt is rising (especially over Christmas) and you might be surprised at how easy it is for us to be comfortable with our debt.

Top SEO tools

I found a new website resource for SEO tools at WeBuildPages.com, one of their top ten online tools is the 'Top Competitor' tool. This tool reports on the top rated sites for any given keyword. All you do is enter your chosen keyword, press 'check' and the application will fetch the top ranked websites for that keyword. It is then down to you to visit those sites to see if you can assess what they are doing to get such high ranking, and to see if there are any lessons to be learned.
I searched for make money online, and was surprised to find a blogspot blog at position three, way above John Chow and doshdosh (that will mean something to the blogging community). You should get over there now and bang your keywords in to see what you need to work on....

Real Travel Blog

Out of the RealTravel website, comes the real travel blog where everything from the world of travel and the world of travel blogs can be found. I liked the featured travel blog sections where the editors have chosen to feature the best parts of different travel blogs. I was struck by how well written these articles were, really bringing the far-flung places of the world to life with well chosen words.
There are articles on places as diverse as French Polynesia, Hawaii, New York, New Zealand and Europe, all of them providing hints and tips along with fascinating personal travel experience.

The posts are well tagged with sections for hiking, food and wine, solo travel, family travel etc. This blog really has something to say about every sort of holiday, and appears to have a large amount of contributors all adding to the general knowledge base. Added to this is the ability to comment on each post. A lot of information-based blogs don’t allow you to comment, but this one gives people to opportunity to have their own say, either about the destination in question or about the way the post has been written.

I thought I should try and pick a favourite entry so I went for the Killamanjaro story, if only for the delightful photograph of the ‘The Hallgrens’ at the peak. The Hallgrens have travelled round the world and provided other stories and pictures for the blog.

This site even offers you the chance of setting up your own travel blog for free.

Website reviews

One of the better ways in which we learn about how to present a website or blog, is to look at other people's work and lift out the best bits and apply them to our own work. There are not many completely original websites around, everyone borrows ideas from somewhere - the same principles apply to any scenario, but especially to blogs and websites. it is entirely expected that you will see something on one site and then implement something similar on your own. If you do this. it is always a good idea to credit the originator with a link. I intend to carry out some website and blog reviews and post them here.

Italia!

A country I have not visited except when passing through, but certainly aim to visit properly in the future: Italy dripping with romance, fine wine and good food - what more could you desire from a holiday - There is so much on offer in Italy, one hardly knows where to start.

Where better to kick off than in Rome? The Colosseum, the Vatican, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps... you could spend weeks in Rome alone. The Vatican with it's wonderful heritage, architecture and sculptures would certainly form part of anybody's visit to the Italian capital city. Rome restaurants, rome hotels and bars would keep you entertained through to the wee hours.

And who would not visit Venice given the chance? this unique city offers the famous canals, the Doge's Palace, the Bridge of sighs and St Mark's Basilica amongst it's treasures. With venice hotels and a whole vista of sights and experiences, any tour of Italy must take in Venice though it certainly merits a holiday all of it's own...

Now Milan is where they take their music (and their football) seriously. Milan boasts La Scala, believed by many to be the true home of opera. Milan is also home to the Leonardo Da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology and AC Milan... The San Siro (Stadio Giusseppe Meazza) is a place where many football devotees would gladly go to pay homage. Why not stay in Milan hotels and take advantage of some Italian hospitality.
Italy, Italy hotels, architecture, music, food and wine has something to feed the soul, the mind and the belly all at the same time.

Beckham News - a review

For football fans in the UK, there has been a dearth of information about how David Beckham has been getting on in the USA at LA Galaxy. A blog has been set up to chart the progress of the ex-England captain as he attempts to highlight soccer to the USA public.
The aims of the blog are strictly sports-related, with no mention of posh-spice anywhere to be seen (might have missed a trick there - but this is a principled serious attempt to report news not fluff).
The blog reports on all games that Beckham has played in, the injuries, the England team where it impacts on Beckham and follows the story leading up to the European Championships in 2008.
Once the internationals are over, there are a series of exhibition matches and charity matches to report on, but don't forget, this blog won't be talking about the effect LA has on Beckham, but the effect Beckham is having on the pitch....

Short-term loans

Pay day loans provide No Fax Payday Loans for short-term emergency borrowing ie. just until your paycheck comes in. No fax, no written application.

Please note that this speedy type of borrowing is not the sort of borrowing you should habitually use, but a very quick convenient way to get money quickly. The borrowing rates (if you were to compare them with typical APR) are very high, but that's the price you pay for the convenience of having a loan of between $100 to $1500 approved almost immediately.
You can phone them or apply for a loan online, and each loan rate is negotiated on a case by case basis from a range of lenders, funds are generally available by he next working day.

I really want to stress that this type of borrowing should only be used in an emergency when you need funds approved immediately, and it is gratifying to see that the service will only offer loans to those who are in steady employment.

If you are considering taking out a loan, then you should test the market to find the best deal, if your in a tight spot on a one-off basis, a loan from Payday loans would help in the short-term. My advice would be to pay high interest borrowing off as an absolute priority.

Website hosting

There are stacks of website hosts out there nowadays offering great deals from about two or three dollars a month upwards, but did you know you can host your own site for nothing?
You would normally pay for a domain name and a host, but if you add some free server software (such as Apache) to your hard drive, you can configure it to behave as a host using your IP address instead of a domain name.
You may have noticed quite a few disreputable sites use this method so that a host cannot remove their website which will be selling fake goods or medications or worse....
So I'm not recommending this method especially as it will mean that your computer will have to be online all the time and will have to cope with any traffic that visits your site. In fact it's probably quite a bad idea, but I wonder if you knew that this could be done?

Please note, you should never click on a link that has an IP address instead of a URL, unless you know exactly where it points to. However, you could use this method for acessing files from home from another site (but be aware that anyone else could too!)

triOS Colleges in Toronto

Breaking into the job market is a sophisticated process in the current economic climate and being properly prepared is the key to getting the job you desire.

Toronto Colleges are paving the way with an innovative private college set up to prepare job-ready graduates for a new career. Typically this service would be useful to newly qualified job-seekers, those returning to work after a career-break, or even workers coming into Canada from abroad. The triOS Ontario College can offer services to job-seekers in the areas of Business, Technology and Healthcare, being a private establishment, they are not limited to the educational calendar start new classes on a monthly basis.
They offer job-specific training, careers advice, job placement, interview skills training and help with job search methods.

If I were to consider working in a new area, Ontario would be on the top of my list of places that I have visited and would like to work. If I were to consider applying for jobs in Toronto and the surrounding area, The triOS Toronto College would certainly be my first port of call for first-class preparation for the job-market.

Pagerank grumbles

I have seen far more reaction to the latest change in PR than the last PR shake-up where I seemed to be one of the few to have suffered. It turns out that it was good preparation and I would urge other bloggers to take heart from my experience.
I lost PR on my two blogs in May quite drastically whereas few others were affected, this time around, both my blogs have been awarded far better PR than they had before. In the last month or so I have noticed a lot of bloggers bemoaning that they have dropped ranks, and even some advertisers asking for promotion blogs to declare their NEW rank, not their OLD one... I seem to be one of the few who are actually very happy with the new ranks.
Take heart if you lost some rank, keep plugging on, and if you have the same experience as me, you should be back bigger and stronger than before.
My feeling is that many bloggers will lose heart this time around, and the best blogs will float to the surface (I know I considered packing it all in...). Stick with it, do what you do best and bi in it for the long run, that's my advice....

Shopping cart software

Whether you have an existing website or plan to build a site, you may be considering having an e-commerce element to your site. It may be appropriate for you to have a section where your visitors can browse you products or services and make purchases securely over the internet.
If you were so inclined, and had the knowledge and time, you might start coding it yourself - a better solution might be to purchase the service from a tried and tested software house.

Ashop shopping cart software offer a secure service that can be easily added into your website hosted on their own servers and available with full support for a monthly fee. This software will allow your customers to use all major credit cards to make their purchases directly from your site.
The advantage of such a service is that the software is tried and tested, and they also offer a stack of add-on services such as visitor tracking, keyword reports, SEO hints and tips with all you pages automatically optimised for SEO.
If you're interested in having a shopping cart to implement automatic purchases via your website, why not use a service that has been successfully tried and tested by hundreds of webmasters already?

Anchor text success

Recently I have recently begun blogging at a rate more like the daily rate that I was posting some months ago... and I noticed that the visitors to my blogs were starting to build. That triggered my curiosity, so I used Google Analytics to see where my new traffic was coming from.

I should state for the record, that I am not talking about this blog, but my blog about paid to blog schemes - the more observant readers will note the use of anchor text to link to the other blog, and with good reason... I read some time ago about the importance of using anchor text to link to a web page and how that might help Search Engine rankings. So when I embarked on a viral-linking scheme I decided t use the anchor text 'paid to blog' and have continued to use it where applicable as both anchor text and as a keyword.

I checked my analytics today and noted that I was being sent visitors from search engines (note that in the blogging world, one isn't necessarily looking for SEO as a lot of significant traffic can come from social sites and blogging partners etc..). The remarkable thing is that the search terms were all single use one-offs except for one: 'paid to blog'. Whereas every other term used to find my site only appears once, in comparison 'paid to blog' appears a staggering 22 times....

Now I'm not saying that I get stacks of traffic from anywhere, or that the proportion of traffic I am getting from Search engines is in any way significant, just the the traffic I am getting has absolutely centered on my chosen anchor text. How can this help you? well first off you need to decide on an anchor text which you think will drive visitors to your blog and then use it mercilessly. How will this impact on me? Well, I have to make sure that when those visitors arrive at my blog, there is something relevant for them to read which will keep them there...

Wi-Fi from BT

Technology moves so fast today that there is enough computing power in the modern home to run a reasonable-sized business of 10 years ago, and more technology in a single mobile phone than would have been required to run a large business of 20 years ago.

Internet access is not enough nowadays, wi fi broadband is available and widely used around the UK. BT’s wireless Home Hub is available with BT’s wireless broadband option 2 for under £14 per month for the first 6 months.

This option offers up to 8Mb download speed with 8GB download limit per month. For a small additional fee, they will even send round an expert to get your network up and running… Option 3 offers even more for under £19 per month, you get the Home Hub phone and unlimited downloads. With both these offers from BT, you even get free use of BT wi fi hotspots around the UK with your laptop (option 2 limited to 350minutes per month). Both options also offer 5GB of online storage in the ‘Digital Vault’.

BT offer good support for their broadband packages, and most users are starting to appreciate how valuable that sort of service is. BT can offer support for your PC problems as well as your broadband connection.

Blog earnings

Just about 9 days into November and I am happy to report record earnings through paid postings. My newly-attributed pagerank has given me many more paid opportunities than previously and I have already almost overtaken my previous attempt to maximise earnings in a month.

In May this year I earned $187 in 31 days, and I am looking forward to reporting this month's figures which are already within $3 of my previous record even after just 9 days. My strategy has been to take as many opportunities as possible in case there are no decent ones the next day. So far there have been plenty of tasks on offer, but there's no guarantee that this trend will continue. I really hope to be able to reach a target of $500 in November.

I am always looking for new legitimate ways to earn money via websites, and you can be sure that I will report any that prove profitable.

UK destinations

Closer to home (for me, at least), you may need to visit one of England’s major cities for business or to visit friends. CheaperThanHotels offers a service to find you last minute accommodation, often at reduced prices…

You may be interested in Hotels in London, Britain’s largest and busiest city by far. London has the splendour of a major European Capital with the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. London is packed with the culture of the West End theatres, cinemas, clubs and any sort of entertainment you could desire.

England’s second and third cities respectively are Birmingham and Manchester, both traditionally industrial areas, but enjoying a renaissance as centres of service and culture. Many British cities have made use of their industrial waterways and Birmingham has used it’s canals to create a scenic backdrop to the theatres and clubs around the city centre. A fair few Hotels in Birmingham are to be found in the same district, along with top restaurants and nightlife to suit every taste.

Hotels in Manchester offer you the chance to visit the famous Theatre of Dreams where Manchester united ply their trade along with bustling nightlife and a rich cultural heritage. Famous for it’s clubs, Manchester has always been a place to experience great hospitality

Gimpshop

Photoshop has proved an invaluable tool for website builders, photographers and designers over the years, but Gimpshop is all set to upset the graphics software market... Long hailed by Linux users everywhere, Gimp has crossed platforms onto Windows PC's everywhere. And get this: It's free, open-source as free as a bird... you won't have to pay a cent.
Website building without having to pay a penny, that's the kind of stuff I really want to bring to you. If you want more, just keep reading....
For more on this and other free software, visit this link...

EasyToBook hotel website

There are many websites for booking hotel accommodation scattered around the worldwide web, many of them offer hotels from just one company, others don't offer a great range of different types of accommodation or special deals. I have just found one website which offers the complete solution.
EasyToBook.com offer accommodation ranging from 1 star to 5 star in every major worldwide destination. There are special online deals for many of the featured hotels.
You may be looking for fine-dining Italian style in Rome amongst the historical building and unique Roman atmosphere.
You may fancy Christmas shopping at some of London’s exclusive stores whilst taking in the majestic buildings such as Buckingham Palace or the Tower of London.
You may prefer to enjoy the ‘craic’ in Dublin's fair city and the romance of the emerald Isle. Whichever destination is the ideal place for you, EasyToBook has the hotel at the right price, all laid out in an easy to read format on a well-constructed website. Not only that, but it transpires that rooms are in fact Easy To Book…

Enlightened about lamps

Today I learned a new word ‘torchiere’ I was intrigued and followed the link to end up on Farreys.com where they sell all types of lamps for use in the home or garden. It turns out that torchieres are a kind of standard lamp, but the type which is also an up-lighter… (see the photograph)

Farreys have an extensive range of lamps including desk lamps and floor lamps along with outdoor lamps for your deck or for wall-mounting. They have a neat search tool with drop-down menus so that you can quickly find all the products available in either wide or narrow search terms. You can search by brand and by price, you can specify the style, finish and application.

There are thousands of products to sort through on this site, and they are not limited to lighting, you can also find air purifiers, cooker hoods and many other products for the home and garden. Stock items are shipped in 1 or 2 days within the US, and all forms of payment are accepted. All that remains is for you to visit Farreys.com yourself….

Making money online

So much rubbish is spoken about making money online, but it is possible to make some money if you ignore all the crazy schemes that promise $1000 a day. After all if you could make $1000 a day, why would you bother to market your ideas of how others could make that money when you could put your energy into making revenue yourself if you were genuinely able to???
However, as I said, a certain amount of cash can be made online through various means, my own personal favourite being 'paid to post'. I have recently gained pagerank on this and my other blog, so you will see more paid posts here, but I hope readers will find them well-written and informative.
For more about genuine ways to make money online, please see the Livewyre.NET article. I will talk about some of the schemes I have used in later posts on this blog, but you can read about these schemes over at Munny4Hunny too.
In my experience so far, I would have said that it is possible to make about $200 a month with one blog with a PR2, but hope to find out this month, how much can be made with a PR3 blog AND a PR4 blog with paid posts.

Favourite destinations

When I think about going on a touring holiday, my favourite destination without a doubt is France. France has it all from the sophistication of Paris, the rural beauty of the Loire valley and the French Alps, to the bright light and freedom of the Cote d’Azur and Monte Carlo. France is full of contrasts, I have visited four times and have experienced something different every time.

One trip was our first wedding anniversary to some paris hotels where elegance was the watchword, We dined on the River Seine and climbed the Eiffel Tower, walked along the Champs-Elysees, visited Notre dame, Louvre Museum and experience the buzz of Paris in Springtime.

On another occasion, we visited nearby Versailles and took a trip to Monet’s garden before travelling south to experience more france hotels. In the south, we stayed in Cannes and Menton and Nice where the nice hotels were pleasant and full of character.

The south is my personal favourite, Paris is all very well, but I love the countryside and quaint historical towns (and wineries) of the south. I was caught by surprise by some of the medieval towns that are prevalent around Orange, Avignon and the quality of the Roman remains in those areas. If you are planning a trip to Europe, allow yourself extra time in France to take in all the different aspects that make up one tremendous country. (and that from an Englishman!)

Smorty - paid to post

If you are looking to monetise your blog, then I have found that paid to post programs are more profitable than most other forms of advertising. One such service is Smorty, a scheme that offers upwards of $6 per paid post and allows you to write honest opinion on a range of websites and products. Registering is simple and quick, and you will quickly hear back from them if your blog is acceptable. You are then ready to get paid for blogging. You may register multiple blogs, and each opportunity offered will be for a specific blog. Smorty also operate a points system called a smorty score which helps advertisers to identify good members of the scheme.
The greatest reason for using Smorty is that they pay up within a week of your post being approved and there's not many schemes that payout that quickly - For that reason alone Smorty is definitely worth considering as many other schemes take weeks and weeks to pay out.

My new blog...

I have used some new blogging principles and developed a new blog which I am unleashing on an unsuspecting public....
My new blog seeks to follow the progress of the England football (soccer) star David Beckham as he carves out a career in the MLS at LA Galaxy.
I enjoyed designing the new blog and was able to approach the project in a very different way than with previous blogs as (I hope) I have more of an idea about what I want and how to achieve it than I did when I started blogging a little under a year ago.
There are a few things I need to work on, but I am happy with where it is at right now - take a look and let me know what you think...

Holiday time

It's about this time of year when the chill starts to kick in, that thoughts turn to Summer Holidays and warmer climes. Lazy days by the pool, reading a good book, or hiring a car and seeing the sights. A vacation means different things to different people.

For some, it’s a hotel with all the amenities, for others, it’s staying with friends and family. I like the idea of the freedom that comes from renting a place and a car for a week or two where you can really relax and feel at home. I really enjoy exploring the surrounding areas and especially trying out the local food.

A location that suits the whole family is important too. I would be more in favour of sight-seeing in San Diego with San Diego vacation rental homes whereas the rest of my family would no doubt be happier relaxing on the beach with Newport Beach vacation homes Whatever floats your holiday boat, you may well find the answer at vacation rentals.

Maybe you own a place that you would like to have promoted at 'Goin2travel' vacation rentals, they have properties from all over the world, pay them a visit, rent out your property and maybe even sort out your own vacation at the same time…