Garret

I have always rather envied those people who have a burning vocation; they knew the career they wanted to follow and went for it. If, like me, you have never really known what you want to do, the years fly past and you still have to earn a living. But doing what?

I did well at school and it was assumed that I'd go onto university. I wasn't happy at home and being keen to move out I end up leaving school after 5th year to study for a degree in Hotel and Catering Management at Strathclyde Uni. Well my heart was never really in it and I dropped out after 1st year, against all advice.

I went to live with my aunt in north London and found a job in the newsagent's kiosk in the Strand Palace Hotel. I was very keen to visit Greece. I'd a very romantic notion of it. None of my friends were interested so it was either go alone or not at all. I saved up from my meagre wages and booked an open return on the coach to Athens in June 1978. I think it cost 25 return.

I planned to travel down through the Peloponese and then do some island hopping. I was not impressed by Athens but had already paid for a 3-night hotel stay in there. The train journey down to Kalamata in the Peloponese was wonderful, a narrow gauge railway, the carriages had wooden slated seats. I was the only tourist on the train. I then visited Crete, Rhodes, Kos, and Kalmynos. It was in my next port of call, Samos, that I met my husband. He was doing his 2-year military service. Although I did think that I'd fallen in love, I thought be sensible you have heard all these stories about holidays romances. Suffice to stay I was back in Samos a few months later. He finished his national service just before Christmas 1979 and we were married in Glasgow in February 1980.

We had been so intent on just being together that we hadn't really thought through how we were going to live. My husband had studied at a naval college before his national service but we didn't want him to go and work in the merchant navy. He couldn't even work when he first came over to the UK, until his work permit was sorted out.

We decided that the best way to save up the money for the deposit for our own home was for me to do a "live-in" job as a housekeeper. We would be provided with a small flat to live in and have virtually no expenses. We managed to stand that for a year and had saved 5000, enough for a deposit on a place of our own. My husband now had a steady job at the Hyde Park Hotel, so we could apply for a mortgage.

I continued with a succession of menial temporary jobs. By 1982, I was getting fed up, so enrolled in a secretarial course at a private college. This paid off; I found a job as PA/secretary in a publisher's office. Little did I know but this would be the high point of my career to the present day. I worked a 32 and a half hour week, was reasonably paid, I had an office junior to do the routine tasks and work was great fun. The company published 2 magazines, one was a naturist magazine, Health and Efficiency, and the other a bodybuilding magazine.

However we were living in a one bedroom flat with no garden in East London. We couldn't afford to buy something bigger or in a more salubrious area. We were thinking about having a family, so when my husband saw Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire advertising for staff, we though why not move to Scotland, housing would certainly be a lot cheaper. My husband got the job at Gleneagles and he moved up, leaving me to sell our flat in London. He lived in staff accommodation at Gleneagles and started house hunting.

He found a house in Muthill, near Crieff. It was quite large so I decided to try my hand at bed and breakfast and we registered with an agency that sent German kids over to the UK to stay with a family and receive English lessons. That wasn't exactly a roaring success. In 1986 I saw an advert for market research interviewers and decided to apply. I did my first survey in Pitlochry. It was quite hard at first but I did quite enjoy being out and about and chatting to loads of different people.

However I discovered I was pregnant in the Autumn of 1986 and when I went for my scan was informed that it was twins! My husband was in his 2nd year as a mature student at Stirling University. We thought it would be better if we could move nearer Stirling, as he needed the car to get to university and I would be pretty stuck in the village with twin babies. Our house in Muthill took ages to sell but we moved to Tullibody, in February 1988.

In the spring I went back to work as a market research interviewer. It fitted in well with family life, as I would go out to work evenings and weekends and we didn't need to pay for any childcare. As the boys grew up and had a nursery place when they were 4, I thought I should be doing something better than trailing around asking a whole load of questions. I saw places funded by the European Social Fund for women to study for an HNC in Admin at the local college. They were even offering free creche places. I had been thinking about going back to university and was advised that it would be easier to gain admission if I could provide evidence of recent study.

The year at college was harder work than I had envisaged, then the 4 years at university, studying for a business studies degree, were even harder, and I was still doing market research most weekends. Now I hardly thought I was going to be headhunted into a top management position when I completed my studies but I did think I'd be able to find a semi-decent job.

After looking around a bit for a job, I decided that I would try to start my own business. I wanted to work locally weekdays during the day. I knew that there was a strong demand locally for domestic cleaners and thought I would try setting up a domestic cleaning service. Sure enough my research was correct there was demand and after a few leaflet drops locally and a few personal recommendations, I started to advertise for staff. After a year and a half I had 7 part time staff. However things were not going smoothly, I was doing cleaning every day myself and there always seemed to be at least one staff member off. The quality began to drop if I was always on hand to crack the whip. I was hardly making any profit and was spending around 30 hours a week just cleaning, never mind wages. weekly rotas, leaflet drops. I realised that I would have to expand to be profitable but couldn't find reliable staff to maintain quality. I'd been doing quite a lot of work cleaning rented staff accommodation, between lets for a company that was relocating to the Stirling area. They were having a new office custom built for them. The office manager verbally assured me that I would have the contract to clean the new office. I thought that this would be the salvation of the business, as I could easily supervise employees while on one site. The logistics of the domestic cleaning were very complicated. However the contract never came to fruition. The office manager told me that my business was too small to take on the contract and her deputy told me that they were legally bound to take on the cleaning contractor that the whole business park used. Who knows what the truth was but basically I was left in the lurch. I decided to give up the business.

I drifted back into market research telling myself that I would just do the more interesting social survey work. I started with a company who only did social surveys and was told there was plenty of work available. I think I had about 3 jobs from them over 6 months. When I was doing a sex survey for them in Perth I bumped into another interviewer. She told me that the company she worked for were about to start a big social survey where the same families would be interviewed every year for the next 3 years. I phoned the area manager the next day, we hit it off and things seemed to be going well. After a few months the area manager asked me to apply for the position of deputy. Believe it or not, as deputy manager I was still paid by the hour. I actually had more hassle, made less money and had less flexibility than working as an interviewer. I still had to go out interviewing and would get home in the evening to a pile of faxes and phone messages, when I just wanted to relax.

I lasted around 6 months as deputy. I rationalised that I had tried studying, tried a promoted post, I wasn't that ambitious and no employer seemed prepared to offer me a decent job, so I would have to be realistic and just plod on as an interviewer. Well that lasted for around a year then the area manger was forced to retire at 65 and the new manager wanted to greatly reduce my work on the annual social survey and force me to do all other sorts of surveys I wasn't interested in.

I was wracking my brain about what on earth I was going to do to earn a crust. I had started thinking that I would like to start a travel business. It was a growth market, I wouldn't need any employees, and I could work from home. The Internet was really catching on (this was 2002) and I thought that it would allow me, to gain some market exposure, even as a small fish. I also thought it would be wonderful to work in a field in which I had a great personal interest. I signed up with a flight supplier as a travel broker in August 2002.

That was almost two years ago. I am still working as a market research interviewer and the business is slowly growing. It's been an ongoing dilemma to me, whether to give up the interviewing and just concentrate on the business. At some points I have been doing market research six days a week, so really have not had much time or energy to devote to the business. However I have been loathed to give up the steady income. By the same token if I don't focus on the business then it will never really take off.

My initial business was Europe a la Carte. I thought that there was a niche in the market to assist people who were looking for something different to the traditional package holiday, put together a tailor made trip to Europe. It is possible to do this yourself on the Internet but it's pretty time consuming. I reckoned that there was a significant minority of people who would value some assistance with planning and booking their trip.

From enquiries I received I began to realise that there was demand for cultural and activity holidays in Europe. The sister site, European Cultural & Activity Tours, was started in January 2003. May aim was to build up a good selection of holidays offered by small specialist suppliers throughout Europe.

I have to say that I am extremely lucky that one of my sons is really good on the computer. He has designed my sites and databases. My other son has also helped me with newsletters and photos.

I have begun to get more bookings and last week I had my first repeat customer. I have learnt a lot in the last two years about IT, the Internet and marketing. I have tried my hand at writing articles for the websites.

I have had some interesting trips to meet up with suppliers and visits to the areas that I promote. I have worked really hard but I haven't really minded that as I have, on the whole, enjoyed the work. I am working toward my dream of having a profitable business in a field I find fascinating. I believe that I have found what I want to do now that I am grown up!

Karen is a travel consultant and writer specialising in travel to Europe. She has two websites: http://www.europealacarte.co.uk http://www.europe-culture-activity-tours.com

Executive Summary Introduction

Search Engine Marketing is the process of leveraging the usage of search engines to create website exposure for a company. This exposure normally is used to garner conversions in the form of sales, leads, subscriptions, downloads and any other definition of a user turning into a paying customer. This intent-based advertising is the core of Search Engine Marketing that amounts to the best return on each marketing dollar spent.

Fundamentals of Search Engine Marketing

At its core, Search Engine Marketing leverages user intent by optimizing an organic or paid search listing around that specific users intent. Instead of blind placements on billboards, mass mailings, and the like, Search Engine Marketing serves up specific advertising via ad creative or search listing based on what the user is actually looking for.

The premise of Search Engine Marketing will provide the most relevant result after a keyword query is entered, in the form of a title, description, and URL, whether it is organic or paid. There is much more control over these factors, known as creatives in paid search, but organic search results allow some customizing here as well. Depending on the relevance of your listing and how well it matches to the intent they have in mind, they will chose to either click-through to your site or not.

Why Search Engine Marketing?

Search Engine Marketing, as an advertising and marketing channel, continues to grow its national and international reach and offers businesses and consumers the first true worldwide platform to conduct business. Industry statistics continue to show that more advertisers and consumers are searching to buy and sell what they need.

In a study done by Pew Internet & American Life Project from 2000 2005, using search to find information was done by 90% of all internet users in the US. This number came in second to only Email users at 91%. According to March 2007 data from Neilson/Netratings, about 209 Million people in the US have internet access, which means that about 188 Million of them use search engines regularly.

According to a statistical survey done by Hitwise in March, 2007, of the top 20 most popular websites on the internet, 18 of which are wholly owned by search engines. These websites make up for 26.85% of all website traffic on the internet. They include the search, Email, music and social media industries. The lone exceptions being eBay.com and Wikipedia.org. Of those top 20 websites, the Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN contextual, image and video search interfaces make up for 14.23% of all website traffic.

In a scientific study conducted by Eyetools and Enquiro, the top three organic listings are viewed 100% of the time. The lower positioned listings get incrementally less attention as follows: rank 4 (85%), rank 5 (60%) rank 6 & 7 (50%), rank 8 and 9 (30%), rank 10 (10%). In that same study they found that the top paid search listing is viewed 50% of the time, with lower positioned listings getting incrementally less attention as follows: rank 2 (40%), rank 3 (30%), rank 4 (20%), rank 5-8 (10%).

Based on comScore data from February, 2007, Google is the leading search provider in volume with 3.3 Billion searches per month. Yahoo scores 2 Billion, MSN: 730 Million, Ask: 348 Million and AOL serves 338 Million. These statistics show that the 5 major search networks were responsible for over 6.7 Billion searches per month or about 35.6 searches per user.

Attributes of Pay Per-click Marketing

Pay Per-click advertising works by charging the advertiser a set auction price that they establish for each keyword. Every time that ad is clicked, the advertiser pays that set amount. PPC advertising has both distinct advantages, which at the same time can be considered shortcomings, over search engine optimization and other forms of interactive and traditional marketing.

Advantages:

Being the latest and greatest in interactive and on-line marketing, PPC advertising offers guaranteed placement, complete transparency and analysis down to a very granular level. Through the use of built-in search engine tools, commonly available analytics, and tracking techniques, the marketer can track when the ad was clicked, how much they paid for that click, what that user did after that click on the site, and whether or not that click was converted into a conversion. They can then take that data, analyze their entire campaign, determine how successful their spend vs. return was and make an educated decision on how to improve that effort.

Campaign-wide decisions and changes can be made by quickly analyzing a set of data and making a few simple clicks with PPC thus giving it a distinct advantage over any other type of interactive media.

Shortcomings:

Because it is now considered mainstream, everyone from major international corporations to mom-and-pop shops are bidding on the same industry keywords, driving up click costs considerably. The strategy of taking a loss on a click but taking the chance of a consumer becoming a lifetime value customer is known as volume bidding and is sometimes employed by new companies looking to brand their name causing smaller companies struggling to compete.

Click fraud is another shortcoming where automated robot programs or manual clickers perform erroneous or intentional clicking on PPC ads without any intention to view the site or make a purchase.

Another issue is trust: the users that are aware that they are clicking on sponsored listings tend to assume (correctly) that the site is trying to sell them something. Statistics show that a majority of searches are information-based so not all consumers will want to be overwhelmed with sales pitches on the site.

Attributes of Search Engine Optimization
Coined sometime in 1995 or 1996, SEO is the process of modifying the layout, navigation, content and popularity of a website to improve the chances of ranking higher in the organic or algorithmic search results. Ever since the rise of Google in 2001, external link popularity has become a major aspect of search engine optimization. SEO has some great merits that have helped it stay on top as one of the most effective interactive marketing methods around, but some of the basic aspects of SEO are also shortcomings that must be considered.

Advantages:

Search engine optimization tends to be less expensive than PPC advertising in the long-run. Attaining positive results through good navigation, content and link profile requires a lot of initial optimization work but with time, as those results appear, the long-term costs tend to decrease. SEO has also been known to have a slightly higher conversion rate than PPC advertising, thus improving the return on the marketing dollar.

Organic listings tend to have higher click-through volume which is an advantage over PPC advertising because you are not paying for each click. You can also use log file analysis and server-side analytics software to track the path of the user and various data points such as which keywords they used to get to the site, the conversion rate for organic results and project your final ROI.

Additionally, organic search engine optimization can show results for long tail and obscure search queries that you have never thought about. Google statistics recently pointed out that 50% of all Google queries are wholly unique meaning half of all search traffic is hitting the long tail of keyword search. It is this long tail that is easy to optimize and rank well foryou just have to find it.

Shortcomings:

With search engine optimization - search engine guidelines, best practices and algorithms are often updated and changed. What may have worked a year ago may not necessarily work today making SEO an art form that is incredibly hard to keep up with.

Compared to PPC advertising, SEO is also difficult to change once everything is in place. It may take a year or more to optimize a site to rank well for a particular search term. If that search term is discovered to not convert well after all that time, you cannot simply switch to another keyword. Changes often require the collaboration between multiple departments such as IT, Marketing, Sales, Legal, Copywriting and SEO.

More of the Good, less of the Bad

The basic premise of PPC advertising is to get more traffic out of the good keywords, and less out of the bad.

1. Bidding Bidding is the most basic strategy, where you bid down on bad keywords to get less traffic, and bid up on good keywords to get more traffic. Bad keywords can be defined as words that are less relevant and convert worse than good keywords.

2. Building When a good keyword is in the right position and is converting at a profitable metric, PPC marketers will build-out and expand that keyword, such as using different variations like pens, buy pen, custom pen, and so forth, to get more traffic from similar keywords.

3. Subtracting Negative keywords allow you to make a semantic distinction between two words with the same meaning. For example, if you are a company that has a keyword windows for sale, you would not want to be coming up on searches for Microsoft Windows because that would yield a 0% conversion rate as your website would be totally irrelevant to those looking for information on the operating system.

4. Testing Landing Pages Unique domain landing pages can be built specifically to act as the destination for a specific set of keyword creatives. This method often leads to higher conversion rates because the user is taken to a page that is highly relevant to what they are searching for.

5. A/B Split testing A/B split testing is performed by supplying search engines with 2 unique ad creatives and defining when and where each is shown. This allows the marketer to test which creative will yield the higher CTC Rate.

6. Multi Variant Testing Landing page or multi variant testing involves analyzing multiple landing pages that deliver a different layout, call to action, conversion form or message. Often times, simply moving one part of the page to another area and changing some of the wording can significantly alter usability and conversion rate.

7. Day-Parting Day-Parting analysis is useful when the business has specific limitations or previous testing has shown that certain ads perform better at certain times. If, for examples, your call center is operational only at a certain time, you can select your Click here to speak to an operator ads to only run during those times and not waste money on clicks that will yield to phone calls going to voicemail. Day-Parting allows for maximum return on the marketing dollar in these situations.

8. Geo Targeting A company that sells products or services only in specific geographical area can geo-target ads to only run in the designated areas that you select. This technique allows users that are most likely to buy your products in that geographical location to see and click on your ads.

SEO Techniques

1. Content In the field of SEO, it is often said that Content is king. High quality, useful and relevant content is one of the main aspects of SEO. Simply duplicating other sites content will hurt more than it helps. Good, creative product descriptions and copywriting will also help generate high quality inbound links which are also an integral part of the organic ranking algorithm.

2. Link Profile High quality link development that is highly targeted to the content on the page will be how to get ranked for ultra competitive keywords. The goal is to get backlinks with the keyword you are focusing that page on in the anchor text of the link to point directly to that page. It will further help if that linking site is somehow related to your site and has few other outgoing links to other sites and many back to it.

3. Navigation and Indexation Navigation and indexation are the very basis of any site and are crucial to being listed in organic search results. Search engines will send crawlers or spiders to your site via external inbound links that can only follow text links for navigation. If the site is coded entirely in flash, JavaScript, or images, the crawler will have nothing to read: it can only read HTML text. Further, using strategically placed words in the anchor text of your navigational text links will help the search engines determine what the page you are linking to is about and therefore improve your ranking on that page for the keywords on which is it focusing.

4. Web 2.0 Web 2.0 is a broad definition encompassing image search (Flickr), video search (YouTube), social media optimization (blogs), social media marketing (Digg), and user generated content (Wikipedia). These emerging marketing avenues and venues have provided a new medium for the development of the core SEO premises: content and link development. Leveraging the power of Web 2.0 can bring significant amounts of traffic to your site.

Combining PPC and SEO Methodologies

The experienced internet marketer will understand the need to use both PPC advertising and search engine optimization in their internet marketing efforts as both paid search and organic search is important and heres why:

Studies prove that when a user sees the website or brand name on the search results in both the organic areas and the paid, they tend to have more trust in that brand.

As the trust in the brand is established, the user is likely to click on organic listings which will not cost the advertiser any money.

Increased impressions of a listing will remain in the memory of the user, possibly bringing them back to that brand or search query later on.

If you have multiple pages that are relevant to a specific keyword or broad phrase match; you can optimize a content-rich page to rank in the organic listings while guaranteed results for a less optimized page can be paid for.

Successful internet marketing should use both paid and organic search techniques. The difficulty is how to best integrate the goals to generate the best potential outcome. Here are some of the techniques to use:

Your main (top level) domain should always be optimized with proper usage of keyword focus, content development, code optimization, server-side setup, keyword prominence, link acquisition, and the main purpose of informing and having the full conversion functionality. At the same time, you can build what are called micro sites, which are prettier and more conversion-driven sites on new domains that are built with a specific set of keywords and high conversion rate in mind. This will encourage a greater conversion rate than your main domain that is more content-heavy and broad that will require the user move around the site.

In addition, micro sites that are just one page will rank lower than those with multiple pages that have the feel of real sites. Try and include a few pages connected via text links such as an About Us page, Contact Us page, FAQ page and search function page.

The most valuable aspect of combining your PPC advertising and search engine optimization is the use of paid search data to quantify, measure, and strategize your organic search campaign. Running the paid search campaign will allow you to test various keywords, implement different creatives, and determine how much you are willing to spend and what your potential return may be.

Paid Search Challenges

The PPC advertising challenges facing this particular music download website and its company involve the complexities of scale. The music industry has many possible variants on keywords such as artist names, song titles, album titles, lyrics, record labels and many others. Scaling the keyword development and creative writing for the industry was a major hurdle requiring a significant initial investment. This industry is one with constantly evolving keywords: there are always new artists, songs, and albums being released and the company needed to keep up with each new aspect. Meanwhile, each search engine ad network has a different set of guidelines and interfaces that the company had to mold its campaigns around.

The music industry is highly competitive and keyword bid prices are constantly on the rise. Requiring the need of a campaign management team with a tight focus on conversion and maximizing the ad spend; the bidding and customer acquisition strategy was constantly audited, evaluated, and tuned.

The psychology of the user interested in legal music downloads had to also be taken into consideration with advanced PPC advertising techniques. The psychology of the free music download user is that of an I-want-it-now consumer, and the usability aspect had to be optimized through negative keywords, landing pages, A/B split testing, multi-variant testing, day-parting, geo-targeting, web design and usability testing to match the consumers requirements.

Organic Search Challenges

Scale is also an issue with organic search and search engine optimization. The particular website has over 100,000 unique pages active, 90,000 indexed by various search engines, and adds about 500 new pages per day. Therefore, the IT team, in collaboration with the SEO and copywriting teams, had to figure out a way to automatically add various on-page and code elements such as the Title tags, Meta data, and content.

As for content and copywriting needs, since there are so many different ways to structure content around every aspect in the industry (artist, song title, album, and related information), a copywriting team was required for research and the development of unique, optimized content for each particular artist, song release and album.

The most challenging aspect of SEO for the site has been high quality link development. It is also the most challenging part to do correctly because it is the sole aspect that you cannot directly control. Many links tend to be un-optimized due to the limited amount of inbound link acquisition and the strict amount of control exacted on linking qualities. In this scenario, the company developed and fine-tuned an internal linking structure that best leveraged that attained link profile by imparting relevance factors in its navigational structure.

Other Search Engine Marketing Considerations

Web Design:

Web design can have a significant impact on both paid and organic search results as well as the user experience on the site. By not complying with noted search engine best practices in your HTML code, search engines can potentially decrease your organic search ranking.

The use of complex graphics, on-page scripts or image-based navigation are not search engine friendly and will harm the indexation of your pages and navigational ability of crawlers on the site.

Web design and W3C compliance also impact usability. A website with HTML markup errors can lead to poor user experience due to missing page elements, resolution non-compliance, cross-browser display issues and mobile devise layout problems.

A poor web design may also be unappealing to end-users. Better calls to action, simpler navigation, clearer fonts, faster load times and a Web 2.0 design layout will usually merit a better conversion rate.

Analytics:

Analysis of success and failure is an integral part of any marketing campaign. In the case of the internet, websites, and search marketing, that need is exponentially greater.

A good log file analytics program will help determine which pages are converting better than others and why and also allow you to analyze many small data points on a very granular level. Most modern analytics programs allow you to test:

keyword usage
referring site
time and date of arrival
user entry point
user path
user exit point
bounce rate
time on page
site visited before yours
site visited after yours
click fraud detection
crawler tracking
funnel analysis
conversion rate of each link on the page
ROI tracking
map costs, revenues, and profits

You can use this information in both organic and paid search to determine who is buying and when, and decrease the possibility of those that do not buy from clicking on your paid listings.

Contextual Ads:

Contextual advertising aims to target users by providing related ads near content that is on the webpage. For example, a newspaper site might run contextual ads provided by Google or Yahoo! along the top, side, and bottom of its pages. These ads will be triggered by certain keywords used on the page making them very relevant ad placements.

Contextual advertising is more targeted and relevant to what the user is interested in at the moment than search engine PPC advertising; therefore, it tends to carry a higher CTR but a lower conversion rate. In addition, recent technology updates have allowed smart pricing functionality to automatically discount the amount the advertiser pays for the ad based on the likelihood of conversion as well as site exclusion abilities allowing the advertiser to not have their listing show up on pre-selected sites.

Conclusion

Search engines have been used as marketing tools since their earlier inception but as technology improves, new methods develop, and more ad spend is being pushed towards Search Engine Marketing, the complexities of making it work and the ROI succeed is becoming more challenging. Both PPC advertising and search engine optimization have unique advantages and some inherent shortcoming, but through their collaboration, each ones advantages fill the gaps present with the other.

It is through information acquired from data sharing that both PPC advertising and search engine optimization benefit and combine to become a highly optimized Search Engine Marketing campaign. With branding, implied trust, budget allocation, and various on-page testing, the complete Search Engine Marketing campaign is successful.

It takes the collaboration of a wide range of teams to effectively integrate and operate a large scale and successful Search Engine Marketing campaign. It is this large-scale collaboration that most companies that do not focus on Search Engine Marketing alone tend to fall short and rely on experience and technology offered by a Search Engine Marketing agency.

Gennady Lager is an SEO Specialist for an interactive Online Marketing Firm and SEO Agency SendTraffic.com Send Traffic is committed to providing high quality service and results using proven white-hat SEO techniques and ethical search engine optimization practices and standards.

What is pepper spray?

Pepper spray is the naturally occurring chemical, oleoresin capsicum (OC). It can temporarily disable attackers, whether the attacker is an individual, a group, or some sort of dangerous animal. According to The FBI Bulletin, pepper spray is an inflammatory agent and is a natural derivative of the cayenne, or hot pepper. The publication further explains that pepper sprays rely on propellants to dispense their contents. Most sprays contain carbon dioxide, nitrogen, or isobutane propellants. In addition, the OC can be suspended in a water or alcohol solution.[1]

Since pepper spray can be purchased in small, easy to carry and conceal containers, an initial spray of the solution can take an attacker by surprise, placing would be victims firmly in charge of the situation. The use of pepper spray does not require any special training or physical strength.

What does it feel like to get blasted with pepper spray?

The benefits of understanding what happens when you are hit with pepper spray are immeasurable. Knowing the effects of pepper spray ahead of time can prevent your mind from going into panic mode should you somehow accidentally spray yourself. And in the event that you need to use it against a criminal, youll know to get away fast as he falls to his knees -- you can rest assured that you havent blinded him, you have simply paralyzed him. Use this opportunity to seek safety and to call the police.

So what does it feel like? As soon as the pepper spray hits you, your eyes will involuntarily close, tear up, and begin burning. But dont panic: studies have shown that while debilitating, the effects of pepper spray on your eyes is harmless and produces no long-term effects. As your eyes close, you will begin coughing. The cough will be excruciating, but temporary. You might suffer from restricted breathing, inflamed skin, and become awkwardly uncoordinated. All of these effects will last anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour but will not be fatal.

Overcoming Pepper Spray

If, in the act of defending yourself, you get pepper spray on you, blink rapidly to prevent eye penetration. Do this as you head to safety and towards anywhere that clean air is flowing or blowing. Remove all impacted clothing as soon as possible and wash areas where the pepper spray touched you with cool soapy water. If the spray still wont come off, try an old fashioned treatment of milk and honey.

[1] PEPPER SPRAY, Jett, Monty B., FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Nov97, V66, I11, Database: Academic Search Premier.

Fred Cheney is the owner of Pro-Tech Products at: http://www.citizensfightingback.com

Pro-Tech Products specializes in providing personal security products and other self defense items. They carry a wide range of security products to help you to protect yourself and your family. If you would like to know more about how pepper spray can help protect you from harm, check out: http://www.citizensfightingback.com/wildfire.htm

If you are a law student, chances are that you are looking at attending one of the top law schools in the nation. California law schools are some of the best law schools that there are out there, and they have some of the most major law schools out there today all housed in the one Golden state. Many of these law schools are among the top 100 law schools in the United States of America and they have what it takes to provide them with the best education in law that is humanly possible.

Of course, the best California law school education that anybody could have is Stanford Law School. Stanford Law School is one of the best California law schools out there as it is one of the finest Ivy League schools that anybody could ever attend. It is located in Palo Alto, California which is what it makes it one of the best schools in California simply because the area is so beautiful. There is sunshine two thirds of the day of the year, and there is never any snow or ice in Palo Alto. It is a California law school paradise!

The thing about this school is that they have over 4000 applications to fill a class of about 200 students each and every year. This makes it one of the more stiffly competitive of the California law schools out there each and every year, as most of the students who have been admitted have above a 3.8 grade point average and a high LSAT score, usually above 160 points.

U.C. Berkeley also has one of the most esteemed of the California law schools. T is one of the heftiest of the California law schools out there, boasting a lovely campus in the San Francisco Bay area and it is considered to be one of the top ten law schools in the entire United States let alone the state of California. They have all types of fields of law to deal with, from intellectual property laws to environmental laws, to child and family law and other things.

The admissions process to this California law school is such a hefty one that many people don't even submit an application and pays the fee, as it is very difficult to get into the school. All of the applications to this school are hand-read by people, gone over with the intensity that is given to each and every potential student. There are thousands of applications to be read and very few of them are actually admitted into the school, as well as the different letters of recommendation and individual grade point averages and test scores.

Remember that the different California law schools out there are all based on different requirements, and they have a different style of learning than many other schools. Choose your California law school wisely.

You can get into the law school of your choice. Get your FREE newsletter with the secrets to getting into the Top Law Schools. Simply go to http://www.be-a-lawyer.info for your free report.

Dean Novosat has studied the secrets to getting into Law School. He reveals these secrets on his new website http://www.be-a-lawyer.info

How to Disable and Enable Cookies

If you want to enable and disable the cookies then perform the following actions.

• In the Internet Explorer go to Tools > Internet Options > Security Tab > Click Custom Level.
• Go to the Cookies section.
• To enable: Set "Allow cookie that are stored on your computer" to "Enable" Set "Allow per-session cookies" to "Enable"
• To disable: Set "Allow cookie that are stored on your computer" to "Disable" Set "Allow per-session cookies" to "Disable"

If you want to increase the images loading time then just add the height and width tags in the image tag. e.g. . This can increase the images web pages loading time significantly.

How to find out the location of the website?

If you want to know that where the website is physically located, whats the associated IP address of the website and whats the registration information of the website use the following URL.

Domaintools.com and put your web address in it.

It will display all the required information regarding the website.

Tips to avoid Internet Fraud

Some of the known internet scams are jobs scams, charity scams, Nigerian money offers, work-at-home scams, scholarship scams, bogus credit card offers, phishing, get rich scams, fake check scams and investment scams etc. The best way to avoid all these scams is to block all the scams related email addresses and not open any email attachment from unknown source.

Google Operators

Link:domain name

It shows you the incoming links to a webpage

Cache:domain name

It shows the version of the webpage that Google has in its cache

Define:

Define shows the definition of the word that you enter after it define:

Intitle:keyword

If you use this operator then Google will restrict the results to the web pages that has same title as you specified keyword.

Inurl:

If you use this operator then Google will restrict the results with searches that contain the same word in the URL.

Internet Security Tips

According to Antivirus Solutions Company Symantec that every computer, which is connected to internet can be infected in only 20 minutes if no proper security measures have been deployed on that computer. The best tips of being secure on the internet are use an up-to-dated antivirus program, anti spyware program and firewall software. Using updated antivirus program and regularly scanning your computer with it makes you secure while you get connected to internet.

B. Bashir manages this website Networking Tutorials and regularly writes articles on various topics such as Computer Networking, WAN Networking Overview Wireless Networking, Computer Hardware, Certifications, How Tos, DNS Server Overview and Computer tips.

Do you have difficulty in starting conversation and maintaining the interests of the people you are speaking with? Or are you unable to convey your message properly among your co-workers or friends. Or you face a problem of not being able to interpret what the other person wants from you? Then do not worry as you belong to one of the larger group of people on this earth who need to improve communication skill.

But wait! You should take steps to improve your communication. Improved communication can improve your personal as well as working relationships.

Communication is usually taken for granted, that is, until it breaks down. Why did not my teacher get my point? How can I get my counselor to understand what I am saying? Why does every discussion with my mom turn into an argument? Improved communication help you express your ideas clearly, learn from other people, and resolve any conflicts. Most of these skills you will pick up with life experience. Here are a few tips to improve communication skills.

A powerful way to improve communication is to step into others shoes. In the film 'Freaky Friday', a mother and teenage daughter exchange bodies. It is a hilarious comedy where they both get to experience what it is like to be the other person and in their situation. Stepping into other people's shoes enables great communication to take place, even under difficult circumstances. Many of the problems we experience on a daily basis are due to either a lack of, or poor communication.

One of the best ways to improve communication and break down any barriers is to understand other people. Once we truly consider things from the perspectives of others and understand what inspires them, their beliefs and fears etc, interpersonal relationships improve dramatically. These relationships include: Intimate relationship with spouse or partner, parent and child, co-workers, managers and team, peers, clients and potential clients.

Another way to improve communication is by being clear. Make sure you understand what you want to say before you start. Explain the context of your point so your listener clearly understands why you are talking to them, use simple words and language to express your point.

Another important tip to improve communication is to stay positive. Phrase your ideas and suggestions in a positive, rather than critical way. Be confident. Do not assume that what you have to say is not worthwhile. Keep in mind, a listener's silence does not necessarily mean consent or disapproval. It may just mean that the person needs to think about a response before answering.

One more method to improve communication is to listen actively. Make sure you understand what the other person is trying to say. And see if you got it. Do not get so preoccupied planning what you will say next that you do not pay attention. Keep an open mind. Be flexible about compromises and alternate solutions. Speak with self-control do not just say the first response that comes to mind

Last but not the least learn from experience. Review situations in which you had to communicate with different people, such as a friend, parent, or a study group.

To reduce misunderstandings and hassles of poor communication with your team, friends, family one must improve communication. Improved communication lead to strong and healthy personal and working relationships.

John Khu is an experience entrepreneur and internet marketer. He specializes in communication development and personal happiness.

http://www.communicationessence.com

It is a common known fact that it is far cheaper to keep an existing customer then it is to acquire a new customer. With this fact in mind you need to do everything possible to keep your existing customers happy and find complimentary products to offer your existing customers.

If you are a Mortgage professional why not offer your clients mortgage life insurance as well? Many of today's home buyers depend on the income of both spouses to pay the Mortgage. By offering Mortgage life insurance you are helping to fill a need, You have already built up their trust by getting their mortgage business why not offer them Life Insurance as well.

If you are a Real Estate agent most of your customers already trust you with the biggest investment they will ever make their houses. Why not offer them investment products? Many real estate agents are the ones chasing down the lenders and pushing those Mortgages thru. In many states it is perfectly legal to earn a commission on a home sale or purchase and the Mortgage that goes with it as long as you file the proper disclosures.

We have a business here in town that offers to help new homeowners get set up with Phone service, Cable or Satellite TV Service, High Speed Internet, Alarm service and trash service. Many of these companies will pay you either a one time commission or better yet a monthly residual for referring them clients. Why not offer to help your Home Buying Clients a service by giving them a packet with information about the different Phone Companies, Cable and Satellite companies, Alarm companies and then offer to help them with the leg work after they decide which ones. Some will pick the ones you get commissions on others won't. By allowing them to choose among all the alternatives you stand to make a small commission every now and then and at the same time provide your clients with an added service they can't get elsewhere.

About the Author
Mike Makler Offers Financial Services (Mortgages,Life Insurance, Annuity) in Florissant Missouri which is in North St. Louis County Missouri Just Across the Bridge from St. Charles Missouri

Call Mike at 314 398-5547

Visit Mike's Web Page:
http://ewguru.com/finance

For Missouri Specific Insurance and Loan Questions:
http://ewguru.com/Mo-Finance

Get Mike's Newsletter Here
http://ewguru.com/fin-news

Copyright 2005-2006 Mike Makler

Wooden desk chairs are always credited with flexibility and function. These chairs are of exceptional value and provide everyday office seating needs. Wood is normally used for crafting desk chairs, as it satisfies the requirement to be cozy and comfortable. Wooden desk chairs, created by brilliant carpenters, make all the difference in the work place.

All wood types are made of 62% cellulose and 28% of lignin. This is responsible for the fibrous and woody cell walls of trees. Superb quality lumber is kept aside for use, where fine appearance and finishing are required. Wooden desk chairs are created considering the differences in people and the type of work involved. This helps to generate the best working conditions and comfortable seating.

Desk chairs are crafted in many types of timber, each with unique characteristics. Each wooden desk chair possesses distinctive characteristics as each tree gives lumber its own granule patterns and distinct markings. These chairs are available in many colors and patterns. Moreover, they come with a variety of mechanisms that manage the tilt angle, tension rigidity and other customized controls as well. These features make a substantial difference to the comfort provided by a chair.

Wooden desk chairs are in demand, as they mix style with contemporary convenience. Craftsmanship is the main factor in the manufacturing of these chairs. They are handcrafted and the finishing and carving may vary. The provision for fresh and fashionable office seating has made wooden desk chairs available in various types of wood. These include mahogany, walnut, oak, maple, cherry, rosewood and teak. They can be manufactured with flexible arms and adjustable heights. Along with the style and postural support, these chairs are apt for people who have to be at their desks for long hours, such as police, fire fighters and ambulance dispatchers.

Desk Chairs provides detailed information on Desk Chairs, Office Desk Chairs, Computer Desk Chairs, Ergonomic Desk Chairs and more. Desk Chairs is affiliated with Office Desks.