How do you choose a web host when they all say they’re the best?

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Well, you cut through all the hype and determine what’s really important to you. You ask yourself what do I really need when I want to buy web hosting and what are some of the hype false promises that I can definitely live without?

It’s really only when you get 100% specific and make your list of what you do and don’t want that you will narrow your broad search to a laser beam focus!

Having had 5 different web hosts over the years I have developed a criteria that I now stick with like glue. When I find a host that has all of these characteristics I stay with them and basically host all of my sites with one host. Let me tell you it sure makes life a lot easier.

So, what are these characteristics that I have determined are simply must haves in company that you’re going to buy web hosting from?  Well, it’s a pretty short list but it’s what I have found that really counts.

My criteria is very simple. What do you really need from a web hosting company?
You need:

1.A Great Price. But buyer beware if it’s too cheap. This is a sign that this company won’t be around long enough to give you any support. And, if they fold overnight which most of them do, what happens to your site(s)???

2.Uptime and Reliability. It’s got to be so good that you never have to waste your valuable time calling customer service.

3. Great Customer Service, because if you do have to get on the phone with them you want to get someone who can actually do their job without transferring you 10 times.

4. Easy to Use, you desperately need a web host with an easy to navigate and easy to use site. Nothing will drive you crazy faster than trying to navigate a site that looks like it was designed by a guy that takes an hour and a half to watch the TV show 60 minutes.

5. Value, sure we all want the best price we can get. But is it worth it to save 50 cents a month if your site crashes all the time and customer service is in some foreign country? You know exactly what I mean, you call because you need something urgently, your call get’s routed overseas and English is definitely their second language. Not Good!

6. What’s the Down Side, every company has things they could do better, that’s for sure.But what are the challenges, are they deal breakers and how much if any do they affect you? Here you look for the weak spots, if they have any. You then ask yourself only one final question, is this where I want to buy web hosting?

Home Organization, You Either have it or You Do Not

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Where are you and your family on the scale for home organization?  Would you say, “Yep, we’ve got it together and we can find what we need when we need it” or “We’re a mess, we’re stressed out and we have to keep buying duplicates because we lose everything.”  The first step is recognizing that much of your stress is related to not having your house in order. Get started and you will start feeling the stress go away…

Now keep in mind, a home doesn’t have to be perfect or look perfect to be considered organized. 

So, where do you want to be?  How important is it to you to have an organized home?  I will share a few of the benefits we enjoy due to an organized home:

1.    We aren’t cramped.  We have everything we need without excess.  We have room to add something new.

2.    We don’t have to run around searching frantically for anything.  If we need something, we can go right to it.

3.    We don’t have the stress of stuff hanging around that needs something done to it.  If it’s broken we fix it or get rid of it.  If it doesn’t fit, we pass it on.  If it’s ugly-we admit that it’s ugly and get rid of it!

4.    We enjoy belongings because they mean something to us, not because we have just taken in a bunch of stuff.

5.    We have the papers we need at our fingertips, no more, no less.

I know I benefit from home organization as do my clients.  You can to!

Maybe Jenny Craig?

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Okay so What is the Hoopla on Jenny’s Plan?

This is a different diet because you are actually required to purchase Jenny’s own line of ‘cuisine’. With that, you eat other foods, such as fruits, vegetables and low fat dairy products. Then there are the essential grains and healthy fats that you will be consuming in this diet as well. You will be assigned a consultant to help with any questions and in choosing the right plan for you as well. You will have the advantage of having a professional help you all the way through and whenever you need it. he or she is there to go over the plan and to help you maintain your weight.

There is a Step by Step Process

Unlike some diets, this one is a little different. The consultant that you are assigned will actually go through a week by week program. your consultant will touch on certain subjects such as food, mind and body. This will go on for about four weeks. Then there will be a check up. This is when you will record all of the accomplishments since you first started. You will also go on to making new goals and discussing the next course of action. The consultant is not only there to counsel you but to also encourage and guide you through the entire program. The consultant is a mentor and a coach of sorts.

So What’s on the Menu? What’s Jenny Cooking Up For Us?

This is a diet where your primary foods are already prepared for you. You simply order them and voila! there you go, instant meals. Jenny’s foods are prepared special because there is a certain amount in each portion. Everything is counted already. Then there are also certain recipes that you can follow. Your consultant will guide you through these if you like. You are able to eat whole grains and low fat dairy products. Then, of course, let’s not forget the fruits and vegetables as well. There are even Jenny Craig snack portions as well.

There is a variety of foods, anywhere from a breakfast menu to snacks. They are all presorted for your convenience. They contain the correct amount of nutrients that your body needs. This makes it easier to prepare as well. This is good for those days when you just don’t have the time to prepare a big 5 course meal for the family. If you did, you wouldn’t have to worry about preparing your own special meal as it is already done for you.

To Jenny Craig or Not to Jenny Craig, that is the Question

First of all, there is a fee to even join. Not to mention the cost of food. That alone may make anyone shun the diet program. We never know if this particular diet will work for us until we go through it and pay all the fees that are attached to it. This will help you in the decision making process as well, I am sure. You should always consult with your doctor before choosing any diet. Your doctor knows your body just as well as (if not more than) you do. Consider all that is involved. The meetings and the consultations. A lot of people do not even have the time for this kind of diet. With work, car pooling, after school activities and all of the daily household chores, who has time to sit and chit chat about food and weight? Not too many people. The other side to that is whether or not you see the advantage of having a support system. That is a good thing. Are you willing to make your own special meals outside of the ones that you should be preparing for your family? Some people may find that very inconvenient. Be sure to discuss the pros and cons with your doctor. If you are in doubt, find some success stories that you can be inspired by.

There are other things to take into consideration before you decide that this will work. You will mostly need to go ahead and try it in order to know whether it will work for you. That is with all diets. If you are willing to pay the fee and pay for the meals, then this may be just the right diet for you. Consider the time that it will take just to get through the first stages. Most people want results NOW! Make your choice and let Jenny help you lose that weight! If your desire is to lose weight and keep it off with a good support system and to do whatever it takes, then the Jenny Craig diet may be the right one for you.

The author of this article runs a web site devoted to gnu snowboard and snowboard dvd and snowboard weight.

Complete Editable Clickable Country Maps For Your Website

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A great way for website owners to categorize their articles, posts or any information related to specific areas or states is to have a clickable map on their web site instead of a dull list of links on the page.

With the new JQuery plugin javascript techniques being developed across the net, it is now exciting to use image maps again. For instance the great jquery plugin MapHilight by David Lynch actually hilights areas of coordinates that are plotted in a way that can be easily edited.

Creating a perfect hover over effect for any image map is an ordeal and plotting coordinates to make this effect is even more time consuming but very worthwhile as you can see in this demo clickable map of the UK and Ireland. If you dont pay attention to detail the effect is lost and it wont look good. Perfectly plotted coordinates for county and state maps make a big difference.

OK so we have all the correct coordinates plotted to produce a great hover over effect, so now we need to have a nice map design for the map in question. This is also a tedious job for a webmaster to create and trace county borders…that’s why It’s best to find a layered photoshop images with all the state borders traced with the pen tool 1 pixel in black on a white background.

There you have we have it ready made clickable maps for your website or blog, usually at 600 pixels width perfect for most web pages. The whole process of making a clickable map like this from scratch is very time consuming and can be very expensive to pay a webmaster to create this and even worse days and weeks of your own precious time if you decide to make it yourself. Plotting tight coordinates for the 130 clickable counties of the United Kingdom and Ireland would take weeks to complete. See this excellent result clickable map of the USA .

If ever you need a clickable map of USA, EUROPE, GERMANY, FRANCE and ASIA there are some great maps to download with editable photoshop images and html code to save yourself a mountain of precious time. One last note: Joomla users can experience difficulty adding image maps to their pages, some of these maps have a solution for this proble… that’s a big relief for Joomla users that have tried and failed to add clickable maps before.

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