Making-Money-Month Is Now!

Finishing your basement can almost double the square foot living space of your home. A finished basement can include new living space such as a recreation room, a game room, a bar and even bedrooms and bathrooms.

Finishing a basement or remodeling a basement is also a relatively inexpensive remodeling job as frequently outside construction is not required. And since it is not a critical living area it can be completed at a leisurely pace. Consequently finishing a basement is a project that do it yourself homeowners can tackle.

Prior to the start of finishing a basement, a do it yourself homeowner should first develop a well thought out finished basement construction plan. To help in formulating a basement construction plan a homeowner should carefully evaluate the condition of their home’s existing basement and what type of living space they want to achieve in the finished basement. Frequently when finishing a basement, the mechanical equipment such as water heaters, furnaces, and water and oil storage tanks will need to be moved. With careful planning some of this movement can be minimized.

When finishing a basement a homeowner should also consider any water or moisture problems that do exist or could exist in the basement. Perimeter drains may be required. In addition the exterior and interior concrete walls of the basement may need to be sealed.

If a bathroom or wet bar is to be installed, then plumbing will need to be carefully considered, particularly if the home is on a private septic system. A pump up waste water system may be required and if so a portion of the existing concrete floor may need to be removed to allow room for the drain lines and pump-up system.

Lighting is another important aspect of finishing a basement. If natural light can be installed, via the installation of windows, then I highly recommend it. Besides letting light in, windows also add character to the finished basement. In addition, ceiling lights should also be included in the finished basement plans, and the more the better. Finally, workspace lighting should be added where necessary and each set of workspace lighting should be controlled separately.

Ceiling height is another major concern when finishing basements. Frequently homeowners elect to go with dropped ceilings; however dropped ceilings can significantly reduce ceiling height if not carefully planned. A drywalled ceiling can preserve more ceiling height and give a better finished look to the basement, however careful planning needs to be made for access points to valves and to kitchen and bathroom plumbing traps.

Frequently finished basements include home theater systems. Particular attention should be given to electrical wiring for basement home theater systems. Besides electrical wiring, there is speaker wire, cable wire, and Cat-5 wiring that is typically required for a quality home theater system.

With a well thought out basement remodeling plan a finished basement can be major plus to your home, both in personal utilization and resale value. Addressing up front key items such as basement water and moisture issues, as well as lighting and ceiling heights concerns, can help to ensure you get the finished basement you have been dreaming about.

For more help on finishing your basement, see HomeAdditionPlus.com’s Basement Remodeling Bid sheet. The Basement Remodeling Bid Sheet will help ensure that your bathroom remodeling project goes smoothly and you get the finished basement you are looking for. In addition it will help to ensure that finishing your basement will be accomplished on time and on budget.

Over the past 20+ years Mark Donovan has been involved with building homes and additions to homes. His projects have included: building a vacation home, building additions and garages on to existing homes, and finishing unfinished homes. For more home improvement information visit http://www.homeadditionplus.com and http://www.homeaddition.blogspot.com

Copyright 2006 The Fitness Consulting Group

In most health clubs the personal training department is viewed as a source of some additional cash flow and is focused on the affluent component of the clubs member base. Typically trainers will offer an assessment to new members and will only impact the club’s bottom line by selling packages to those members who can afford one, two or even three sessions per week training. Unfortunately, this is very shortsighted. A well-structured personal training department can be much more than a profit center impacting only a small segment of your club’s member base, it can be your club’s customer service center, referral and retention center and a source of as much as 25% of your club’s gross revenues all rolled up intro one. You just have to look for ways to maximize your trainers’ impact in your club. Here are four tips to get you started.

1. Generate Higher Usage Rates Among Club Members.

If you’re maximizing the role your personal trainers play in your club, invariably your usage rates will climb. By offering a complimentary personal training and program design session to all new members you will ensure that everyone that joins your club will feel more comfortable and have an initial “game plan” to get the results their looking for. When they feel comfortable in your club and feel they’re on the path to their desired results, regular attendance is a foregone conclusion. And that’s going to result in:

•Increased likelihood of them remaining a member of your club longer.

•Increased likelihood of them referring new members to your club.

•Increase the lifetime value of that member via peripheral purchases like cooler drinks, nutritional supplements, tanning sessions, fitness apparel and services like personal training and weight management coaching.

2. Improve Club Member Retention Rates.

In this market where there are new health club franchises popping up almost every other month, and new clubs opening at a break-neck pace, holding on to the members you already have has to be your first objective.

It’s much easier (and also much cheaper) to retain a current member than it is to gain an entirely new member.

You’ll have a much better retention rate if your members:

•Feel a sense of community in your club, which can begin with the personal trainers.

•Are consistently using your club. We discussed this in tip number one. If they are utilizing the services of a personal trainer or at least using the initial plan laid out during their complimentary session, their attendance will dramatically improve.

•Are getting the results that lead them to join your club in the first place.

3. Improve the Rate of New Referrals From Your Members.

If your members are getting all the things listed above, they are going to willingly provide more referrals to your club. And if your trainers are working with them on a one-on-one or small group basis, they are going to experience great results.

Your trainers can also systematically facilitate referrals by inviting clients to bring a friend, family member or co-worker to a session. This will allow the guest to experience the club as a member would rather than on a tour or by wandering around on their own during a trail membership. The guest will feel comfortable because they’re with a friend and in turn be far more likely to join you club.

4. More Clients = More Money.

If you want to reap the benefits listed previously, you need to have a higher personal training penetration rate among your members. In most health clubs the penetration rate is 2-4%. 2-4% of members utilize a personal trainer, therefore only 2-4% of those members are maximizing their results, being coached to make peripheral purchases and are great “referral champions.”

If you don’t already, begin offering one and two session per month personal training programs to members where the clients will receive monthly program design, body composition testing and goal setting. Consider offering small group personal training to bring the price point down and make it a viable option to more members. By implementing just these two strategies you should be able to push your penetration rates above 10% and start taking advantage of the benefits associated with a well-managed personal training department.

Obviously, this is not a comprehensive list of the numerous ways you can use your personal training department to improve your club’s membership and your profits, only a starting point. Take these tips, modify them to fit your club and add you own ideas to them. Before you know it, you’ll be viewing your personal training department as “control central” in your health club.

Pat Rigsby, President of The Fitness Consulting Group, has helped a hundreds of health club owners and fitness professionals grow their businesses, improve their marketing and dramatically increase their profitability. The Fitness Consulting Group is the internet premier resource for helping members of the fitness industry create and grow multiple streams of income. For more information, visit The Fitness Consulting Group’s site at www.fitnessconsultinggroup.com or get your own copy of their free special report: Health Club Profit Secrets Revealed at www.clubprofitsecrets.com/ .

The difficulties of physically going to a offline betting hall makes it recommendable to drop the idea unless one must go there. Traffic jams, the difficulties, and chores called for are too much to justify the exertion for the prospect of placing your wager at offline betting hall, on the other hand, if you happen to be the sort of guy who lives and breathes card playing then going virtual could be the way to go.

In fact you will not need to leave home to have a go at online gambling as it’s easily accessed from within your household assuming you have a fully functional laptop or pc and a broadband Internet connection. Nevertheless, don’t get too excited yet- there’s more than a few pointers that you need to twig concerning online gambling, the more so should you be a rookie. So damp down that flap to turn over the following. Here’s our compressed blueprint that guides you what to bear in mind if you are localizing an honest online gambling Web site. The topmost thing that your knowing Web gambler is certain to look for is an online gambling web site of the type that can offer high winning odds. Here are a few more instructions concerning singling out your online card-playing web site.

Always take care to make certain the online card-playing web site is legally licensed, such as by investigating the license information as documented on the casino site pages. If it’s impossible to ferret out any license information on your particular online card-playing web site, do not attempt to place a wager there. Following this, you’ll want to deliberate very elaborately the particular promotional deals that the online card-playing web site has decided to offer its members.

Poker Players Flock to Online Tournaments

Moreover, another advice is to risk a game initially in modest amounts rather than squander so much it will hurt off the cuff. First of all, check the health of the online card-playing operation prior to running some serious risk– the more so in regards to money… Finally, mind this vital suggestion concerning online casino gaming. It is never to forget that gambling in an online casino should be about pleasurable recreation and not about high winnings. Betting in online casinos is certainly no regular employment, but, instead, a hobby that ought to let you feel jolly and your overall life fun.

After you have kept to all the recommendations described above, set off to surrender to the attraction of online card-playing!

We go to great lengths to make sure our vehicles are ready for winter. Who wants to get stuck in sub-zero degree weather with a stalled car?

But what about during the summer? Believe it or not, the heat takes its toll on your car, too, so it’s important to keep your car serviced.

Periodic maintenance on your car will save you tremendous hassle in the long run. Your vehicle should last longer and command a higher resale price, too! I made it a point to get my car serviced according to the dealer’s schedule, and when I traded it in, I got far more than I expected due to the stellar condition of the engine.

Now I know this isn’t bedtime reading, but the owner’s manual can be your best friend - assuming you read it! At least take a look-through periodically. How about while you’re waiting to get your oil changed?

Follow the manufacturer’s recommended service schedules. This could save you a major breakdown.

Have the air conditioning system looked over by a qualified technician. A check up here can save you a huge bill later.

The greatest cause of summer breakdowns is overheating. Prevent this problem by making sure the cooling system is flushed and refilled as recommended.

Have your car’s belts, clamps, and hoses checked by a technician. This only takes a few minutes and is usually inexpensive.

Change your oil and oil filter every 3,000 miles or four times a year.

Replace air and fuel filters as recommended.

Get plenty of windshield washer solvent - we have a tendency to use a lot of this in the winter, so your fluids may be low.

Tires should be rotated every 5000 miles or so.

Check the spare tire to make sure it’s inflated properly. Also, make sure you have a jack along with it!

Transmission troubles equal money troubles equal emotional troubles! Have your transmission serviced periodically, and prevent big-time repair bills.

If you notice that your brakes are less efficient, get them checked out right away.

Have your battery checked periodically to see how much life it has left!

Inspect all lights and bulbs to make sure they’re working.

Carry a first aid kit, flares, jumper cables, a flashlight, and a cell phone.

There you go - a simple list to keep your car in great running shape. Remember, your car needs to be maintained and checked over even in the summer.

Taking care of your car takes only a few minutes each month, and pays you big dividends for the life of your vehicle!

Contributed by TheCarSites.com. Please visit http://www.TheCarSites.com for car articles and auto industry news.

The use of ultrasound scanning in pregnancy is referred to as Obstetric Ultrasound. Since its introduction in the late 1950s, Obstetric Ultrasound has become a useful diagnostic tool. It is used to “”see”" the fetus in its mother’s womb. In some countries, routine pregnancy ultrasound scans are performed to identify potential defects before birth.

Research indicates that pregnancy ultrasound is safe for the unborn child, unlike radiographs, which use ionizing radiation. Real-time scanners form a continuous picture of the moving fetus on a monitor screen. Very high frequency sound waves of between 3.5 to 7.0 megahertz are generally used for this purpose. They are released from a transducer, which is placed in contact with the maternal abdomen, and is moved around to “”look at”" any particular aspect of the uterus.

Recurring ultrasound beams scan the fetus and are reflected back onto the same transducer. The information obtained from different reflections is recomposed back into a picture on the display screen. The sex of the baby can generally be determined after 16 weeks, depending upon the sonographic machine and aptitude of the operator. Movements such as fetal heartbeat and malformations in the fetus can be gauged and measurements can be made accurately on the images displayed on the screen. Structural abnormalities in the fetus can be dependably diagnosed by an ultrasound scan, and these can usually be performed before 20 weeks.

A full bladder ultrasound is often necessary for the procedure when abdominal scanning is performed in early pregnancy. It is a relatively hassle-free, painless and safe procedure although there may be some uncomfortable sensations from pressure on the full bladder. The conducting gel is non-staining but may feel somewhat cold and damp. Otherwise, there is no feeling at all from the ultrasound rays.

Years ago, before I ever entered the field of marketing, I saw one of the greatest sales presentations I have ever seen, only I, and most of the 200 plus people in the auditorium weren’t aware that’s what was happening.

And it worked like a charm!

In fact, what made it most effective was that we weren’t really aware that we were being sold to. That in fact we were the targets of a carefully planned and executed marketing campaign that worked mainly because of that fact.

Since that time, I have used the technique myself in many different disguises and in more than one medium, but the marketing technique remains relatively constant.

In mail order marketing, it used to be called the two-step technique. My wife has another, more descriptive, name for it, but we’ll save that for later.

Here’s how it went down. It was the late 80’s, and I had completed 13 years of active duty in the army and was in the Texas Army National Guard, working full time as a federal purchasing agent at Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas. Periodically, the powers that be would hold what were referred to as “Town Meetings”. All the offices would leave someone to answer the phones, and all the employees would meet for question and answer periods, procedure updates, or sometimes, informational briefings. When you got everybody in the room, there were a couple of hundred or more.

One day, a Town Meeting was held, and we were all told we were going to receive a briefing on personal safety. A professionally dressed lady was presented to us, and she gave an excellent, humorous yet fact-filled presentation on defending yourself, or better yet, avoiding placing yourself in dangerous situations. She covered many means of self defense and ways you could fight off or escape from an attacker. She gave special attention to the situations in which a woman might be accosted while shopping or on her way to her car, for example.

The presentation was very valuable, and I saw several people even jotting down her recommendations and cautions.

During a question and answer period that followed, one of the women present asked the lady where some of the items she had mentioned, and shown, during the presentation, such as Mace or pepper spray, could be acquired.

Funny she should ask.

You guessed it. As it happened, the lady represented a company which sold those types of items. She had some free handouts, and she had a table with samples of various self defense items on a table in the back, and a catalog for those who wished to take it home and look at it. She was prepared to take orders for things she did not have with her.

Before the last person left the building, she had sold almost everything she had brought, and had taken orders for several hundred dollars more.

My wife calls it “giving something away”, in order to make a sale.

As I stated above, it has long been known as the “two step” method. In the heyday of mail order, a free report was offered, and, when ordered, arrived with informational material on other, similar items. If the person bought from that presentation, they were offered more items. This procedure had two valuable results. It gave the marketer a growing list of people who responded to that type of presentation and were willing to purchase those sorts of items, and it helped establish a trust relationship between buyer and seller.

I can wave the world’s greatest product around all day, and offer it at reduced rates, but I will make many more sales if I am waving it in front of people who are interested and motivated to buy that sort of product, and…in front of people who already trust me!

Sometimes it is easier to lead the customer to choose the product than to sell the product to the customer.

The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service. He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000, and now makes his living online. He has blogs on the subjects of Internet Business and Marketing, Health and Weight Loss, and Real Estate Investing.

Disappearing are the times where the main ticket retailer one would be able to see music tickets would be the venue box office of the actual venue of the excellent show that you yourself were going to sit through. There are now tons of different ways for you yourself to purchase ballet tickets with out even having to get up out of the joy of your own cottage.

Ballet tickets for superb artists such as Alanis Morrisete are these days becoming harder and harder to find hold of. There are the large online outlets like Timeout for which people can get unbelievable theatre tickets for everything. Timeout is the most accepted approach to purchase tickets. The company simply acts as an agent selling the pop concert tickets which the client makes further available to them. One of the first ticketing firms to supply concert tickets on the internet, Timeout now sell a massive % of its big sport game tickets online, a little via phones orders and a % by its numerous ticket outlets.

Ticket resale is the way of reselling musical tickets for entry to events. This is of course more familiarly known as ticket touting. You will probably normally grab ticket touts based all over the venue on the evening of the show or concert starts. Be very careful when finding from a ticket tout as sometimes the touts may be selling illegal musical tickets that can not buy folk into the venue. For events around London log onto Time Out and buy Tickets for your favourite events.

There is a new and improved service offering that is called SMS tickets. All this is an inexpensive cost ticketing system that supplies pop concert tickets via text messaging (SMS) and print at home e-tickets. All that needs doing is to get on your mobile screen your text message or print at home e-ticket to the venue it will often then get looked at and you’re in. You are saved pennies by never being charged postage & packaging costs, and the sport venue booking fees are also forever kept low. There are innumerable advantages to SMS tickets; one get your music ticket delivered to one then and there, there’s no hanging all around for the postman or courier. People can get new ballet tickets for free again if one lose them & you yourself can get in quickly, there’s no waiting around for someone to manually check the concert ticket.

Despite of many medical recommendations, there are few good health reasons to use fat foods in moderate quantities. According to new approaches, 25-35% fats from the total food amount are beneficial to the body, while higher or lower fat intake can cause problems.

Fats can be labeled into two important groups, essential and nonessential. The Essential Fatty Acids (EFA) are responsible for many body functions such as producing energy, controlling cell membrane fluids, water retention reducing, diffusion of oxygen into blood, stabilization of blood sugar and insulin levels and many other.

As you can see, EFA are essential important to keep our body in good function. Among many extreme important EFA we can mention omega-3 and omega-6.
Omega-6 fats has an important role in our healthy mechanism. On one hand it is involved in the above functions. On the other hand, it increases prostate cancer cells development and their migration into bone marrow. Recent researches concluded that omega-3 fats block this carcinogen effect.

Because the body cannot synthesize essential fats, it must get them via ones diet. Vegetable oils, seeds and nuts are natural omega-6 suppliers while omega-3 are present in oily fish like salmon, mackerel and sardines. Because of omega-6 and omega-3 have opposite effects, a right balance of these two types of fat is very important. Researchers found that in order to stop prostate cancer process, a healthy balance means a double amount of omega-3 in comparison with omega-6.

Valerian D is a freelance writer interested in health issues affecting men such as prostate cancer management

Invented and designed by Alfred Butts during the great depression and originally known as “Criss-Cross Words”, Scrabble was renamed into the board game we know today in 1948.

Today, Scrabble is not merely just a board game. It is an internationally competitive “mind sport” with an active competitive circuit, Scrabble Clubs, National Associations and World Championships.

Growth of Scrabble Clubs across the globe continues each year and the standard of competition grows along with it. As a mind sport, Scrabble is quickly approaching the level of intellectual challenge and respect that is held by other mind-sports such as Chess.

The growing popularity of Scrabble today defies the myriad of similar rival word-based board games that have emerged over the past two decades.

Successful Scrabble players know that there is far more to this game than just spelling and vocabulary skills. Scrabble is a mind sport, requiring mathematical skills, analytical and strategic skills, and a mild dose of luck.

To the recreational Scrabble player who enjoys a game with the family over the kitchen table, the lack (or bad luck) of drawing the best (or worst) collection of tiles out of the bag is a major component of whether a player wins or loses. The more advanced and competitive the player, the less luck plays a part. Strategic skills largely eliminate the luck component.

There are several reasons why Scrabble is growing in popularity year by year.

In earlier eras, there were problems with different dictionaries allowing or disallowing various words. Today, Official Scrabble Dictionaries have been almost totally standardized internationally for English language play. There are now just two slightly differing sets of official words - one for North America and another for the rest of the world.

The Scrabble Clubs themselves generate publicity in their communities, offering not just competition, but also a social scene for the less serious yet still enthusiastic recreational player.

Inter-club tournaments, Nation Championships and World Championships draw major media attention.

Even ESPN has trialed televising Scrabble competitions and is believed to be keen on expanding their coverage of Scrabble as a competitive mind sport.

In several countries, Scrabble Clubs and associations are working actively with Government Education Departments to introduce “School Scrabble” - combining the academic and the sporting aspects of Scrabble into the school curriculum.

The internet is playing a role in the growing popularity of Scrabble with numerous websites available for playing Scrabble online. Educational resources and advice from Scrabble experts is also readily available online.

The future growth of Scrabble internationally appears assured. Given that the International Olympic Committee is now considering a number of mind-sports, such as Bridge, for possible inclusion in future Olympic Games, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that at some future point in time Scrabble itself may become an Olympic sport.

Trevor Johnson is the author of the highly acclaimed “Scrabble Bonus Word Techniques” e-book series, available at http://www.bonuswords.com.

Scrabble® is a registered trade mark of Hasbro Inc in the USA and Canada, and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited (a subsidiary of Mattel Inc.) of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. Hasbro is not affiliated with J.W. Spear & Sons Limited or Mattel Inc.

One of the most useful concepts to grow spiritually and becoming
happier is the method of acceptance or surrender.

I have personally found this method to be perhaps the most
workable and useful in retaining my poise and staying happier as
I go through life. Partly because of my upbringing no doubt, I
have had a life-long habit of being very self critical and
judgmental. I have the habit of criticizing and feeling bad
about myself for every little thing that happened to me -
internally or externally. I tried to reason my way out of this
habit but it did not work - the habit is still with me. I also
feel guilty many times during the day when I am caught up with
my memories of times when I behaved badly.

For anybody in this situation, or anybody who feel negatively
about himself or the situation in which he finds himself the
proper attitude is that of acceptance and surrender. Surrender
to the thoughts and feelings which arise in you. If you are
feeling bad about yourself, or your relationships, or your work
or anything about your life-situation welcome and accept that
feeling. Surrender to it, perhaps it was what was meant to
happen at this time. Watch the feeling with as much detachment
as you can. It will pass as it must; all things in this world
are impermanent.

In the classic spiritual bestseller - The Power of Now - Eckhart
Tolle advises us to treat whatever negative feeling that arises
in your mind as a message saying, “Attention - Here and Now.
Wake up - Get out of your mind - be present”.

Surrender does not mean resignation to your life situation. If
you are stuck in the mud you don’t say “I resign myself to being
stuck in the mud” and do nothing about it. If you have lost your
job, if you find yourself trapped in a bad relationship or in
any situation that you find intolerable then obviously you must
do something about it. We all need to plan and work to change
certain aspects of our lives. I am not telling you to blame your
fate or destiny for everything that happens and do nothing about
it.

What I am asking you to do is to surrender to everything, which
is happening to you - internally and externally at this instant
in your life. If you are trapped in the morning rush during your
daily long commute to work, then accept whatever is happening -
inside and outside - at that instant. Surrender to your feelings
of freedom, irritation and frustration. Don’t repress those
feelings - accept them, surrender to them.

Surrender to the long life of cars or the crowd in the bus or
local train. Accept your present situation - at that instant -
fully and without reservation. This should not prevent you from
changing what can and needs to be changed. Perhaps you can get
another job, or shift to another branch of your company closer
to your home. Perhaps you can take the bus to your office
instead of driving yourself. You can make use or your daily
commute by reading a newspaper or a book or doing some work.
Change what can be changed, surrender to what is happening at
this instant - the one thing that you cannot change.

For a more detailed discussion on the concept of acceptance and
surrender please refer the classic bestseller. The Power of Now
by Eckhart Tolle, available at Amazon. Here is the link to the
site:-
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1577314808/ref=nosim/easte
rnphilos-20

I hope you enjoyed this article and that it will be useful to
you.

If you have any comments or questions, please visit the Eastern
Philosophy Blog and post them. I visit the blog daily and
promise to reply as quickly as I can.
http://eastern-philosophy-and-meditation.blogspot.com/

Stay tuned for more articles in this continuing series.

About the author

Transform yourself through Eastern Philosophy. For a completely
new way of looking at life please visit the Eastern Philosophy
website at
http://www.eastern-philosophy-and-meditation.com/index.html and
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