Wednesday, April 28, 2010

How High Will Silver and Gold Prices Go?

Let's face the facts: our economy is in desperate straits: millions of people are jobless and even more are having their homes foreclosed on. Yet silver and gold prices are rising.

In a time when the dollar is all but worthless and the real estate market is so full of For Sale signs that the value of property is at record lows, there is one reassuring trend - gold prices are still rising. The upward trend in the price of gold and silver comes as no surprise to long term investors and advocates of precious metal investments though.

AUTHOR OFFERS ADVICE

Three years ago finance expert and bestselling author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, said in his Yahoo! Finance blog, "In the late 1990s, when people were pouring money into the tech and dot-com stocks, my dollars moved into oil, gold, silver, and real estate, when prices were low. Today, because the dollar continues to drop in value, I keep moving my money into those same asset classes."

In the three years since he made that statement, gold prices have risen over fifty percent and the trend is showing that the value of silver is following suit, though right now it is in a far more accessible price range than is gold. What better time to begin an investment in silver than now when we aren't even sure if the bank that is supposed to protect our money will even be in business in a few weeks?

Though the value of precious metals may fluctuate, silver and gold prices have never been zero and all indicators point toward their value increasing well above the current market rates.

INVESTING IN PRECIOUS METALS IS A SAFE ALTERNATIVE

Regardless of what may happen with the market I feel better knowing that my family is safer because I chose to protect my savings by making an investment in silver coins. Beginning an investment in silver doesn't have to be as scary as you imagine it to be. There is a great free online booklet called, A Guide to Silver Coin Investing, that can give you a solid understanding of the process as well as the importance of investing in silver now while the market is poised to send the cost of precious metals through the roof.

Don't let yourself be one of those folks who look back ten years from now and say "I wish I'd have invested in silver." Invest in it now and prove you are one of the smart ones.

Many people are curious about how to protect their money, but often overlook the many benefits of silver coins. Take a look at our Free Guide to get started today.

Get the Best Deals on Gold and Silver Coins
Don't Pay Too Much for Gold and Silver Coins

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Completely In The Canal (Cic) Hearing Aids

Completely in the canal hearing aids (also known as CIC hearing aids) are, as the name suggests, hearing aids which fit entirely within the wearers ear canal. These revolutionary devices are the smallest hearing aids on the market and are invisible to the average observer who doesn’t know they are there. Most major hearing aid brands and manufacturers now offer this inconspicuous alternative to traditional behind the ear, or BTE, hearing aids.

CIC hearing aids are custom made to fit deep inside the individual wearers ear canal and are said to mimic the natural auditory process more closely then any other style of hearing aid. They are best suited to people with a mild to moderate hearing loss. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages that should be taken into consideration when deciding between CIC hearing aids and the BTE models.

For audiologists, otologists, speech therapists and other hearing professionals, the primary appeal of CIC hearing aids are their acoustic advantages. They are able to closely simulate environmental, and more importantly, speech sounds, patterns, nuances etc. This is imperative to a hearing impaired individual’s competency with the spoken word. Additionally, since CIC hearing aids are worn closer to the eardrum then their BTE counterparts, their microphones are better able to amplify and therefore give a boost to any residual hearing the wearer may have. The advantage that is most often touted by the wearers of CIC devices, however, is their cosmetic appeal and inconspicuousness.

Conversely, it is important to keep in mind that CIC hearing aids also have some drawbacks. If financial constraints are a part of the picture, it should be noted that completely in the canal hearing aids are somewhat more expensive to purchase then behind the ear hearing aids are. Another issue that may make them cost prohibitive to those on a tight budget is that increased susceptibility to ear wax build up puts CIC hearing aids at higher risk for damage, therefore necessitating pricey repair bills or replacement hearing aids.

Whereas BTE hearing instruments are appropriate for almost all hearing impaired individuals regardless of the type or degree of hearing loss, CIC hearing aids are not recommended for individuals with certain kinds of hearing loss. They are also unlikely to be prescribed or advised for children. First of all children tend to be less able to tolerate the discomfort and irritations that sometimes come along with the use of CIC models, especially in the beginning.

Plus children’s ear canals aren’t done growing, so they will need to be refitted and replaced much more often for them then for adults. The size of CIC hearing aids and their even tinier batteries make them difficult to manipulate for the elderly, arthritis sufferers and others with conditions and diseases which effect fine motor control. Feedback and no volume control are two more drawbacks often mentioned by CIC hearing aid users.

Audiologists are the best resource hearing impaired individuals have to help them objectively decide whether CIC or BTE hearing aids are better for them. They can also point wearers in the direction of the best CIC hearing aids provider. Research on the pros and cons can also be done at the library or on the internet.


BTE Hearing Aid St Louis MO

Marketing you web site - Part 4 - Using newsletters, search engines and the yellow pages

Using Newsletters to market your web site

As I stated before, it can take several times for a potential client to begin to trust you. You also want to keep the clients that you have. Part of your marketing plan will be to stay in touch with your clients. Letting them know what is happening, any sales that you may be holding, or new products/services that you may have. A great way of keeping in touch is with a newsletter.

What is a newsletter? Simply put it is a communication between you and your subscribers. By offering information that the client may find helpful, you are offering a service to them that is of value. Immense value in fact. Your information may save them time and money. Building a trust between you and the client. This trust will turn to sales over time.

So what does it take to get a newsletter off the ground so to speak? Two things: First is to have the clients/customer sign up for the newsletter. This can be a simple email or mailing program. RD Web hosting has a mailing list package that is part of the hosting plan. It is simple yet effective. Click here to see it in action. The second thing is a newsletter. This can be written in any word processing program or in your email software. It doesn't have to be long and complicated.

Let's say for example you have found a new recipe. Something that you think your subscribers would be interested in. You type up the recipe along with an introduction and paste it into your email program or mailing list software. From there you send it to each of your subscribers. Cost? A few minutes of time. No printing or mailing charges required. Oh, by the way, in that little letter you sent to each subscriber, you place a little advertising for your web site or store. Or maybe you have 'sold' some space to a friend or business associate who may have something of interest to your subscribers as well.

Newsletters are a great and inexpensive advertising medium. Just remember to place articles of interest in the newsletter and not all advertising. There is nothing worse than getting mail that is all ads. Over time people will stop reading it if they don't find the information useful.


Using Search engines and marketing your web site

Search Engines (SE) are the mystery of the Internet. So many different types even from the users standpoint. There are over 225,000 search engines and directories on the Internet. How do they work and why should you care?

Basically, a search engine is a database of web pages that contains information about that page such as: where it can be found (URL); what is on it (Keywords); when it was last indexed; and a description (Title) of the web page. When you go to a search engine and type in your request (query) the database engine pulls up the data that matches your request. So a search engine is only as good as the data in it. How do we get that data? Most search engines are copies of the major databases. There are only a few real databases out there. So lets talk general terms. Data can be entered by the owner of the website. This information is then indexed and your site is listed. In the past that is how things worked. But we soon found out that people will do anything to get their website listed at the top of the page where they will be more likely to have the searcher click on their site. The owner of the database needed a better way. So programs where written called spiders to go out on the web and find websites. Then catalog each page of the website and enter that information into the database. Today that process is still going on. However, again the owners of the database have tried to make sure that the website information is correct and have been constantly changing the formula used to determine how a website should be listed based on it keywords, headers, titles, content, alt tags, etc. Some database owners even have people visit the website and make a judgment call. All of this is to insure that when you enter a search phrase into the search engine you receive the type of information you want. If you are happy with the search engine you will continue to use it and the advertisements placed on the search engine will help pay for the site.

Search engine technology is changing daily. To try and cover it here would be a waste of your time as it will be out of date tomorrow. So I have listed a site that does nothing more than follow and report on this technology. It is:
Search Engine Watch

What is important for us as website owners is know how to make sure we are properly listed and learn how to get the best listing on the search engines. So lets see... there are 1440 minutes per day and 225,000 search engines. That means if we spend just 10 minutes per search engine entering in our website information it will only take us1562 days to enter the information. But you should submit your website at least every other month, so you can see that is not going to work. There are all kinds of software and website services that will do this for you. But remember there are really only about 4 major databases that feed all those search engines. Even when your website is listed you may not have a very good placement due to other factors. As I said the database owners are constantly changing the rules. So what can you do?

Start with proper design of your website. Good content that is kept up to date. The spiders will find you over time and your ranking will improve as your use of keywords and content are evaluated. Other things that will help is the linking to your site from others. If you have good information, others will point their website to yours which will help your ranking in the search engines. All in all, this will take months to accomplish. But you want to start making money today!

Another way to get listed on search engines faster and at the top of the rankings is with PPC or Pay Per Click. PPC Search Engines charge you each time a user clicks your listing and goes to your website. In addition, many PPC have made arrangements with other search engines to place the paying website URL at the top of the listing (these are called sponsor sites). What does that mean for you as a website owner? Well, it means lots of traffic to your website that you can sell to over and over again. What will it cost? Hmmm how many secrets to give away in a free book :). Oh well, why not! The cost is dependent on how many other people want to be in the top listing. For example: Overture.com has agreements with Yahoo, MSN, AOL and others that the 3 top bidders for keywords will be listed in the top 3 spots for that keyword on each of these search engines. By the way, as of December 2002 those 3 search engines accounted for over 80 percent of all searches on the web. Think that might be a nice place to have your website listed? Ok, back to the example. Let’s say I sell training, I research the keywords and find out that the top 3 positions go for $1.50, $1.45, $1.00 per click to my website. I have a product that sells for $795 per course. I could bid $1.51 and take the top spot. But remember I will have to pay the PPC for each person that clicks on my link. It can quickly run into the hundreds of dollars. I could also pay $1.01 and take the 3rd position saving me $.50 per click. Not all keywords are that expensive...some are more :). Actually you may find your keywords very inexpensive around 10- 20 cents per click.
PPC also do not care about keywords, titles, headers, content etc. So I can write a more compelling description here that will call to action the searcher to click on my site. BUT, once there I want to do everything I can to get them to leave their email address in exchange for my free product or gift. I do not want them coming back though PPC again. It will cost me more money that way. If I have their email address I can send them my link in other correspondence. We will talk about that later in auto responders.

Here is a list of some of the PPC. Since they drive qualified traffic to your site I would recommend using all of them. You will find your keywords cheaper on the less used sites but that is still traffic that you can sell to.

www.overture.com
www.google.com
www.findwhat.com
www.looksmart.com
www.7search.com

This is a lot of work. I know I have spent hours on Overture alone trying to monitor the website, keywords, and ranking.
I have said before in this course that automation is the key. The more we can automate the more time we have to spend on other things... maybe the family?

Using Yellow pages to market your web site

If you have a local business then you probably already have a business phone number. Most business phone services come with a listing in the local yellow pages. Be sure to list you website address. This is much more powerful form of advertising then just placing your address and phone number. Remember your site can offer specials, gather email or contact information, give away items or gifts to your customers to get them to visit your store, tell the customer so much more than you could afford to do in the phone book itself. Plus many people will bookmark your site and return time and time again once they see all the great information that you have available on the site.

I hope you have found some useful information in this package. I have strived to put together information about most of the different methods you can use to market you business.

Visit Philippine Business Directory an online yellow page in the Philippines.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Are Digital Hearing Aids Better Than Analogue Hearing Aids?

How do they differ?

Analogue hearing aids use a amplifier to raise all sounds by a certain amount, which can be adjusted by a simple volume control. The problem with this is that hearing loss is rarely equal over the range of pitches and by raising the volume to hear speech, we will be raising the level of background noise as well. Difficult! In fact many of us have been put off wearing a hearing device for just that reason.

The latest digital hearing instruments from manufacturers like Phonak, Oticon and Resound can be set not to enhance background noise, and to just concentrate on hearing speech, which is what hearing aids are designed to do. This means that digital hearing aids are much better for more difficult types of hearing loss, and for hearing in background noise.

The newest hearing instruments are also great at suppressing those unwanted sounds, incorporating features such as wind suppression and feedback cancellation. These two features can alone substantially improve ones listening experience.

Really for anyone wearing an analogue hearing aid they should try and listen to the benefits of these latest devices because the benefits really are incredible and must be experienced. Its sometimes considered a cliche to hear customers who are wearing the latest devices, comment that "it really has changed my life", or "i can hear birdsong again". But its really anything but a cliche and it is only when we are able to experience these amazing new advances in hearing health that we can trully see at the benefits they deliver.

If you've got an analogue hearing device, or even if you just think you've got a hearing loss, go and get a free hearing test from a local hearing audiologist and ask for a demonstration of digital hearing aids. It really is as simple as that, and anyone who is concerned about their hearing or currently wearing the older analogue style should go and have a look for themselves.


Hearing Aid Maintenance Repair

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Align Your Body with a Chiropractic Treatment

What is Chiropractics?

Chiropractics is a medical system based on the theory that disease and disorders are caused by misaligned bones, especially in the spine, that obstructs proper nerve functions. Chiropractors manually manipulate the joints of the body and realign the spinal column.

Chiropractors are people who diagnose and treat disorders of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. The philosophy of chiropractic medicine believes that skeletal imbalance and joint malfunction, particularly in the area of the spine, can cause pain and other problems. Chiropractors rely on palpitation, pressure, and manual manipulation of the joints and muscles to cure these problems.

Subluxation and chiropractic manipulation

Chiropractors use the term subluxation to depict the altered position of the vertebra and subsequent functional loss, thus determines the location for the manipulative treatment.

Chiropractic kinesiology

Chiropractors often use chiropractic kinesiology to treat structural imbalances and muscle and joint problems. Chiropractic kinesiology is a specific form of diagnosis using functional neurological muscle testing (FNMT) as a primary feedback mechanism to help determine the cause of an individual's chief complaint and to help evaluate our structural, nutritional and mental aspects of health.

Chiropractic treatment is suitable for everyone, including newborn babies, the elderly, pregnant women, and sports enthusiasts. Your chiropractor will help you to maintain your health, and keep your body aligned as it should, and by offering exercise and lifestyle advice for you to follow in the future.

Not all insurance covers chiropractic care. You will need to check with your health care provider. Most chiropractic offices will call and check on your coverage, but it is best to call your health provider prior to your visit.

Chiropractic treatment can be ongoing. You may achieve a degree of comfort after your treatments, but misalignment of joints can sometimes be reoccurring.


Chiropractor Manipulation

Chiropractic Service

Monday, March 29, 2010

Cheap Hearing Aids Are Here to Help Everyone

I often tend to take this space to speak about the great things hearing aids can do and how they really benefit those who need them. With good reason - the advancements in hearing aid technology are numerous and exciting, constantly helping us to improve our hearing and to improve our lives and the lives of those we love and care for. We've also talked a good bit about how those advancements have released a lot of the stigma attached with wearing hearing aids - they're less visible, less bulky and more effective than ever. Not only that, but now it is slowly getting cheaper so that way more people can afford to buy them without having to pay so much money out of their pockets; everyone should be able to afford the technology if they need the help.

We've talked about all the good reasons for wearing hearing aids and they are all excellent reasons for that matter: better social interaction, better safety, just a better quality of life in general. Without the assistance however, life can be very difficult and it can feel very lonely; social interaction will go down and it may very well cause depression, and no one ever wants to suffer from such a horrible thing as depression. Fortunately now, we have the technology to help us but at what cost is all of this progress? The cost tends to be a fairly steep one, especially for those of more modest means. In large part due to the prevalence of hearing loss, hearing aids are not covered by insurance, leaving many forced to fork out the money for them out of their pockets. Luckily, there's a less-expensive solution for those who understand the importance of a good hearing aid while maintaining a good price.

Songbird disposable hearing aids are available for those who don't need hearing aids all the time - or the associate cost of purchasing them. They're available at a variety of drugstores and have a battery life of 400 hours. That could be as much as 6 months of use, depending on usage patterns. With hearing aid costs soaring into the thousands of dollars range, this cheap hearing aid - available in some places for less than $100 - is a welcome addition for those in need of good hearing and a great deal. Not only that, but when it is out of power, there is no need to go and get the battery changed, all you have to do is buy another one, turn it on and enjoy the wonderful world of hearing. It's cheap affordable and it will help improve your life and keep you from missing out on life.

As always, you should ask an audiologist before deciding on a hearing aid. Such great technology should be available to everyone who needs a cheap hearing aid so that way they can still live a good life with the ability to hear well everything around them. It truly would be a tragedy to miss out on life because of the ability to hear well was lost for any reason. Sometimes we all need assistance in these times. The economy is not doing well and it is terrible that those with hearing loss suffer than most other people who need help improving their senses. At least one good thing that can be said is that there are now more and more health insurance companies that will cover your trip to see the ENT and an audiologist. Hopefully, as time continues to progress along with technology, people will be able to afford better hearing assistance technology which will help them lead better lives; perhaps someday within the next ten to twenty years we will hopefully find ways to cure hearing loss with certain medical procedures or some sort of medicine that will be more widely available to anyone who wishes to have better hearing.




Hearing Aid Costs

Factors to Consider Prior to Buying a Hearing Aid

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Make Up Games, Dress Up Games and Barbie - Fun For All Ages

Barbie has been around since the late 1950's and was an immediate success loved by people of all ages. The company that created Barbie, Mattel, now offers a wide variety of clothing choices, accessory choices and things like jewelry and shoes for the Barbie dolls. There are also new dolls like the male doll, Ken, and the teen doll, Skipper. You can find Barbie playhouses, play kitchens with a Barbie theme and even decorations and furniture with a Barbie theme.

Barbie has gone from being just a doll to being an online phenomenon as well. There are many online Barbie games that let you play dress up with Barbie. People of all ages enjoy these games. You can get Barbie dolled up in fancy clothes for a wedding or prom or in work clothes for her nursing shift or for a casual date with Ken.

You can even use cultural clothing from other places around the world to create interesting and unique looks for Barbie. You can change the hair on Barbie in some of the games. This is a way to learn about the styles and cultures around the world while having fun.

Online Barbie games are not limited to make up and dress up games. You can play more complex games where you and Barbie try to solve a mystery with other Barbie characters in a variety of different situations from underwater adventures with sea creatures of all kinds to tropical beach adventures. The possibilities are limitless when it comes to Barbie games.

The games where you dress up Barbie and change her hair and make up still remain the favorites among younger girls who find it fun to experiment with fashion and play pretend on the computer by making up stories to go with the outfits the pick for Barbie. They can pretend to be grown up like their parents while playing these games. For adults it is more about challenging your mind to come up with the best outfits and it is also a fun way to relax and a good stress relief activity.


Barbie Games

Barbie