In the year 2004, when people get what they want with a flip of their wallets; when social status become the measure of individuality and life is being referred to be money, a traditional love story began…down in an unexpected moment in an unexpected place.
Spring, 2004. This is when it all started. Bevar, an island located in south most part of a wealthy country becomes the perfect place of lovebirds. Bevar is a land anybody dreamed of. It is a world on its own. The island is glittered by spring flowers blossoming in middle of April, beaches with pure sand resembling talcum powder being washed away by fresh blue waves of the southern sea and Corinthian-inspired manors, mansions and palaces resembling Rome’s Renaissance Period filled the island’s neighborhood. Tourists coming all over the world never forget to dip their bodies to Bevar’s grand spas and baths and meeting millionaires’ and royals’ daughters living in Bevar. No one can ever picture the island in reality. It is a complete and ideal atmosphere in the eyes of new comers.
In a spring day of April, Erick, son of a simple tenant of Ricardo Alfonso, one of Bevar’s plutocrats is hired to look out his Ludwig II-inspired sea-overlooking castle situated on the western part of the island. It is filled with antiques and historical relics bought for billions of dollars which needs a man to guard it from burglars. Erich agreed to Lord Rick, as the millionaire is often called despite the fact that dealing with things much valuable than your life is a gigantic responsibility, but the fact that it deals with money, he has no choice.
Erick Fredrich Veumar, Erick, as he is known to many, ages in early twenties, stands out among other tenant sons with his tall and firm body, shining eyes like the once owned by medieval princes and hair as black as the clear evening sky of the island. All the beautiful ladies in the Tourist Prohibited Area of Bevar, TPA or commonly known as the Untouchable Village follows the pathways of this guy next door looking lad which he courteously acknowledge with a humble smile . Erich is a person every girl has been looking for: with looks, with physique, with virtue.
The afternoon of that day, Erick began to unpack his luggage in his new home, the Lord Rick Castle. He was accommodated in one of the 30 huge guestrooms of the castle. The room is bigger than the house Erick had been living since he was born: it has a four-poled bed with expensive looking sheets; a personalized cabinet made from finest wood and sculptured by Europe’s well-known sculptors; carpeted floor and stained windows. His room lies beneath the Masters’ Bedroom and in front of Lord Rick’s youngest daughter’s room but fortunately, the Alfonso’s are not living there. They only remember the castle every autumn when birds begin to fly towards south, which is very clear if seen from the topmost tower of the chateau. Erick feels that he owns the whole place for he has been instructed by Lord Rick to feel the royalty, which he awfully enjoys. The monotony of Erick life in that grand castle in Bevar is much boring. He is not allowed to go out unless, otherwise, he is being sent to fetch some new antiques to be placed in the living area from the city. He spent many nights longing for the world outside the castle’s marble gates, behind its marvelous stonewalls and manmade enchanted forest.
Two long weeks of monotony was broken by a noisy horn outside the castle’s skyscraping doors. Erick quickly formulated the conclusion that the Alfonsos have thought of a surprise visit or planning to hold a grand ball but then, he never panicked. Erick has just finished fixing the castle with ten house cleaners and male servants. When he opened the castle doors, a long, wavy haired lass, with eyes like diamonds, lips as red as roses and skin as white as clouds stared at him closely as if they are just waiting for them to touch each other’s lips. Erick, returning to his own self shake his head twice to feel reality and stared back to the lady, now, not been carried away. “Good Afternoon, Madame. What can I do for you?” as he darted his pair of humble beautiful eyes to the lady at the doorstep. “Oh, accept my apologies!” as the lady realize that she is still in the state of shock. “I am Lord Rick’s youngest daughter, Stella Vanessa Alfonso. I came here to stay for spring and summer before I get back to school in Europe. Who are you, by the way? Why are staying in our castle?” as the young lady ask Erick with sweet smile, soft voice and glowing eyes obviously, looking mesmerized by the beauty of the lad. “Sorry, Madame! I’m Erick. I am new here. I just moved in a couple of weeks ago to guard your father’s collection. Welcome, Madame Stella.” as he open the castle doors in full and give way to his maiden master with red cheeks and a simper. “Call me Stella. I am too young to be a Madame and in fact it’s 2004, we must live in the modern world and not in Madams and Lords. Furthermore, I hate social gaps so please, live like a master here and I will be your lady. Understand?” as Stella smiles with the inner thought of having Erick as his man will be an achievement. He finds Erick so cute and gentle which is very much true. Erick on the other hand, still acted awkwardly having her young maiden acting so normal and modern despite the fact that she just see him a couple of minutes ago. That night, “Ma’am, dinner is ready.” as he knocks on Stella’s door to invite her for dinner. “I told you not to call me ma’am. Stella will do, and please join me for dinner.” as the Lord’s lass run down the stairs for dinner still wearing her meaningful smile. “Just eat first, Ma…Stella. I will just have mine in the kitchen.” Erick slowly drifted away still shaking and ashamed for calling her master in her name. “No, you won’t! Eat here or I will be the one to eat with you in the kitchen.” as Stella depicted a child ready to cry loudly with turned lips and sharp eyes which is just of course, a false imitation. The not-so-concerned helpers in the castle began to clear throat and chat softly as if they smell some unusual understanding between their master and the young helper. “Are you sure? I am not worthy to eat with my master. I respect you Stella as my master. I must learn to put myself in my own standing. I am very sorry.” as he turned towards Stella with an irritated look yet still reflects his gentleness and then turned away and move towards the kitchen door. “Okay, fine. Let’s put it this way. Don’t treat me as your master; treat me as your friend, so now sit here and eat. Or, you will eat there and I will bring my food there and eat with you. Be my friend or I’ll eat as you do?” holding her plate ready for transfer. “Okay, I’ll eat with you!” Erick take a deep breath as a sign of refusal but then deep inside, he liked it too. The two young people begin eating and talking until they ended in talking, talking, talking and talking.
Stella, Lord Rick’s daughter has same age as Erick do. She studied her primary years in Paris, Secondary at London, and Tertiary still in London. She is considered the different one among the Alfonso Daughters. She is modern, yet conservative; talkative, yet gentle and probably has the most expressively molded physique, face and values. Stella is the most charming among the daughters of Lord Rick not to mention her equal views between servants and masters. To cut it short, she is a real person.
After a long talk in front of the table, Erick felt comfort talking to Stella, which on the lass’s side is probably a blessing to have a talk with the cutest guy she ever met. As they leave the table, “Stella, want to have a walk under the moonlight? The weather is fine and I think the stars are clear this time of the night.” “Oh, sure, I love to!”. They both headed for the castle grounds and lay down under the star-filled heavens. They continue talking while taking rest down in the romantic place of the castle. It was nearly midnight when Stella finds herself sleeping under that dark night sky and in her amusement, Erich is actually staring at her straight to her eyes, which he quickly turned to the first thing he sees when Stella woke up. She slowly get into her feet after stretching her body still tired but yet fulfilled with her first goal and ride the stairs to the room. Erick is also on his feet and followed Stella to the stairs to take a long sleep in his den after staring the young maiden for a couple of hours.
The first week of Stella in the castle goes very well: Usual talks with Erick; frequent visits to other manors with Erick; Horseback riding in the Alfonso’s Ranch still with Erich. All Stella’s appointments are set with Erick. The lad has also enjoyed the company of her best friend, which he finally considers himself for Stella. They treated each other as close friends. They have picnics every other day and movies in the castle’s theater everyday. The servants enjoy making gossips between Erick and Stella, which sometimes, Stella, make her own stories and being told to the house cleaners to make Erick make a move towards her.
Two weeks later, God answered Stella’s begging prayers. Erick woke up so early that morning and prepared a very special meal not to mention the fresh red roses in the vase. He called up for Stella who is still in her royal bed that morning. Stella takes a dip in her bubble tub to refresh herself and goes down to the dining area. “Oh, what is this mess so early in the morning?” as she sees petals of variety of roses settled on the floor: white, red, blue and yellow. She started to gargle some messy words when she realize Erick stands far across the table carrying a bouquet of different-colored roses like the ones on the floor and walking towards her. ” Oh, forgive me Stella. I have something to ask you. It is something that concerns you and me. Us. I felt this beat the first time I saw you but I hesitated to make a move because… because you’re my master. I think I am falling for you. I am ready to take a chance, whatever it takes. Would you be my girl?” as Erick speaks straight to the eyes of Stella showing his sincerity and respect to the young lady. The lady in her shocked, sweet and amused face answered his prince charming, “I do want to be your lady, young man of Bevar.” embracing Erick with her smooth, delicate skin. This scene is being witnessed by more than twenty housecleaners and male servants of the castle. They begin to look at each other’s face as Erick gently kiss Stella’s sweet lips.
After a month, a big problem arouses. It happened a night before Stella’s plan to call her parents to tell them about her relationship with Erick. It was late midnight. All were in deep sleep including Erick when out from nowhere a masked man entered the castle’s tower and stole one of the antiques, one of the queen’s favorite rings. It was made up of diamonds, rubies, sapphires and gold. The ring was considered the most expensive ring in a world-renowned valuable things magazine. It was gone with a split of a second and in a wrong time.
The next day, before Stella get into the phone, a noisy beep outside the castle stopped her in her moves and run towards the door. ” Oh, my dear Stella. When did you get home? How are you? Where are the servants?” Madame Clara Devian Alfonso, wife of Lord Rick showed up in front of Stella talking again in her nasty rich-sounding accent. “Oh, Mom. I thought you are not going home yet. So soo…on, huh?” she asked with shaking voice. “Oh, yes. We did plan to get home early because we are planning to fly to New York to sell the Queen’s Ring.” answered Madame Claire, as she calls her name. Lord Rick on the other hand, runs towards the castle tower to get the queen’s ring when, “Where is the queen’s ring? You dumb pigeon! I hired you to check and guard my valuables. You are not paid to be me!” as Erick’s master shouted in front of his face, never showing a signal before doing it. “That ring costs more than your life!!! Do you understand? ” as he shrieks louder. ” I…I am very sorry my Lord. The ring was just there yesterday.” Erick reasoned with frightened voice. “No more reasons, reasons, reasons. Get your things and leave the castle right away. I don’t need some useless underdogs in my house. There you go! Shhh!!” as he pushed away Erick away throwing an envelope with money from the tower room. “No, I will not let you take us apart!!” shouted Stella with sparkling tears and wet eyes. ” I love your underdog. I love that irresponsible guy, you call.” ” He will leave this castle for once and now that you admitted your feelings for him, I guess I need to fly you back to Europe.” Lord Rick threatened Stella with his sharp rich eyes. “When did this happen? You fall in love with an ‘untouchable’? You are disgraced to this family.” as Madame Claire slaps Stella in the face, a slap of disgust and rejection.
Erick left the castle for hundreds of meters away but not far away. He gets into one’s house as a servant paid with a house nearest to his love. He manages to satisfy his new master with his performance which latter, he was paid for his job. Erick stays in that house for nearly a month until he had his money saved for Stella and him, and ready to take Stella away from the Alfonsos.
Stella, on the other hand, is locked away in her room and is only allowed to go out if its mealtime. She cries night and day. No minute in the castle, that Stella smiled. It is like mourning for a dead loved one. This life of Stella took place while Erick is away.
The first night of Erick’s appearance after a month of vanish took place in Stella’s window in her room. It is a dark, rainy night. “Stella. Stella!” as Erick softly called for her name in her windows. “Erick!!! What are you doing there? Mom and Dad might see you.” she answered with softer voice. “I don’t care. Stella, prepare your things tomorrow night, we will be leaving. Ok. I will be back, same time.” he instructed. Stella kissed Erick on his red lips and waved a sweet smile on her beloved young man.
The night of the escape come. Stella dressed up for her escape, she already has her bags packed and ready to leave the luxury of life just for the man she loves. Erick reach her windows, Stella quickly opened it and pushed her delicate self outside that little stone window. Suddenly, the door of the room opened. It is Lord Rick carrying a gun. He quickly pointed the gun towards his daughter when out from nowhere before he fired the gun, Madame Claire pushed herself to the mouth of the weapon and BANG!!! She released a piece of jewelry from her hands, the Queen’s Ring. The gunshot was heard clearly all over the castle. Blood covered the whole circle of Madame Claire. Her majestic white gown suddenly turned to blood red. The usual elegance of her beauty shifted to sleepy eyes and boneless fall. She slowly hold the most painful part of her with her left and used her other hand in pulling her husband’s lips and kiss him with tenderness, the last kiss she could ever give to the person she loves and the person who ended her life. Stella, blanked, run to her blood-bathed mother, “Mom, don’t die. I beg you. Call for an ambulance!!! Now!!!” Stella shouted with grief. “Ste…ella, I… I dddid steal thhe ringgg. I knnnew about wwhat’s happennning herre. The hhelpers tolld me. Forgggive me, my Stttellla” Madame Claire take a deep breath and leave in the hands of her daughter and in the mistake of his greedy husband.
After the incident, Erick and Stella flee from the castle, leaving Lord Rick in that gigantic fairy-tale house. Stella, returned back to London to finish her studies after that huge tragedy in her life. Erick was given by Lord Rick a mansion and a wide plantation of grapes for wine as a payment for what he had done. The Untouchable Villagers are hired to work for the plantation of the vines. The lad works hard for his lady’s return.
Bevar, a place of fantasy, a place of perfection, a place of harmony, and a place of an equal standing of masters and servants in the view of love. This is a story of a traditional love built against the walls of money, greed and luxury; a story that happens everytime; the story of his, your, or my love…
About the Author: Tristan Val, at 16, is a multimedia person. He won 2nd place in the provincial Popsong Singing Contest, 3rd place in a national extemporaneous speaking competition, a congressional-level folkdance participant, a regional science quiz runner-up, a regional press conference participant, and a campus journalism awardee. A versatile student in an early age.
Source: www.isnare.com
By Brad Beiermann Ph.D., Hienote Inc.
This question is often asked by many people hoping to start a new ecommerce site or simply adding to an existing one. The answer to the question can be simply answered with another question: How much is your time and online business worth to you? The more experienced ecommerce site owners will often ask the question a little differently: How do I find a useful, and legitimate, drop ship directory? The answer to this question is not immediately straight forward without doing a little homework. However, when you find a great directory, it can be worth the price of admission a thousand times over. So, in this article we are going to present a couple of important pieces of information that can help you answer some of these questions and guide you through the forest.
First, let’s get on the same page together and define what a drop ship directory is supposed to do (or contain). These directories are supposed to contain the names and contact information for companies that drop ship their products to your customers for you. They offer you the lowest wholesale pricing. They are able to ship single quantity items to your customers. They do not require minimum orders and the drop shipper will not ask you to pay any association fees. The drop shippers in the directory are usually one of two types: 1) They are the manufacturer, or 2) They are an import distributor with a warehouse. So, these folks are a key business ingredient when it comes to supplying and shipping product to your customers without you carrying the inventory.
How hard can it be to actually find a drop shipper?
The best way to answer this question is to try and find one yourself. If you have actually tried this in the past, then you know this can be a very time consuming task that requires some research. This is particularly true if you are trying to find a specific niche of products the general public has not seen often. These products typically do very well on the Web with a niche type of ecommerce business. So, finding the wholesale supplier to drop ship the items can be a very time consuming challenge, and sometimes you might not find anyone. One of the biggest values a drop ship directory brings is the ability to save you all the time searching for a drop shipper. The time saved can let you concentrate on other parts of your business. Another value a directory can bring is the possibility of finding new product ideas for your business.
What should I be evaluating?
Let’s now turn our attention towards what you should be looking for in a drop ship directory. The drop ship directory business has been plagued in the past by many scam artists. Today, there are still some directory scams out there, which is to be expected. Virtually any line of business has, or has had, it’s share of scams. A little bit of education is key in spotting the real directory companies from the not so real directory companies. With a little bit of knowledge and a trained eye, you can spot them fairly easily. For purposes of this article, we are going to focus on evaluating a directory and the company offering it. Again, this should help guide you through the forest.
There are ten key parameters you should consider when considering a drop ship directory:
1. Balance – You want to find a directory rich in many different categories of products rather than the quantity of products available. Many of the directories try to advertise how many products are available in their directory (i.e. 500,000 products). Why is the number of categories important? A directory will not serve you well if it has hundreds of thousands of products, and none of them are in your product interest category. A directory with a good balance has focused on their categories of drop shipper products rather than the quantity. This gives you a better chance of finding something for your line of business.
2. Uniqueness – You will want a directory with uniqueness amongst its drop shippers. The drop shippers should offer a wide array of unique products that are not necessarily mass marketed. Why? Web sites offering unique and unusual products often do well on the Web versus sites trying to sell big brand name products that you can find with a mega retailer. A directory offering a bunch of big brand name product drop shippers could land you in the highly competitive commodity market against the mega retailers.
3. Selection – A directory with a good selection of drop ship categories is important. The number of drop shippers or the number of products a directory carries should not be the goal. The goal and question should be, “Do they have a drop shipper that would fit my line of business.” A common mistake for many folks is getting fixated on the quantity of products a directory might offer with its drop shippers. The question they start to ask is, “A directory with over 700,000 products ought to have something for me to sell.” Wrong! Be sure to remember the first parameter we mentioned. Balance.
4. Search Method – The directory must explain the methods they use to find drop shippers. Be careful of directories that do not publish their search methods. If they do not explain their search methods, they may not have a solid search methodology. The directory could be full of a bunch of middlemen. At that point, the directory would be worthless to you. Directories using search methods such as trade show searches and foreign government agency searches are preferred over directories only focused on Internet searches. Why? Not all drop shippers and importers have a Web presence. A directory based on a bunch of Web searches could be missing some of the best hard-to-find drop shippers.
5. Sample – A sample of the directory should be made available to give an idea of format and information provided. The actual names of the drop shippers will not be given in a sample, but you will get an understanding of the type of information provided.
6. Price – This is a subjective parameter but there is something to consider. As an observation, most legitimate directories on the Web today are sold between the $60 and $80 price mark without any markdown. If you find one good drop shipper in a directory and you sell their products on your site, you could find your directory investment paid off quickly with just a sale or two.
7. Education – The Company selling the directory should have a website fairly resourceful with FAQ’s and articles written by its own research staff or owner. Topics should include drop shipping, ecommerce, importing and general FAQ’s about drop shipping. Watch out for directory sites only containing FAQ’s about their directory and not drop shipping.
8. Custom Search – Find out if the company offering the directory will do a custom search for a drop shipped product. A custom search can sometimes be done under certain conditions with the directory’s parent company. As of this writing, Hienote is the only directory company advertising this type of service.
9. Toll Free Number – You should be able to talk to the folk’s offering the directory without paying for the call. Contact by email only is not acceptable! Also, be leery of directory sites without toll free numbers or only a cell phone number given as this could be a suspicious con artist.
10. Customer Service – Any online business that cares about its customers should have a section dedicated to customer service. A company that offers a drop ship directory is no exception. It should have a section of its site dedicated to customer service. At a minimum it should have a toll free number, mailing address (not just a P.O. Box number!), email address, hours of operation, money back guarantee, and a phone number for calls outside of the country.
With these ten parameters you should now have enough knowledge to get started in the right direction for evaluating a drop ship directory. In addition, hopefully this has given some food for thought in terms of considering a drop ship directory for your online business.
About the author:
About The Author:
Brad Beiermann Ph.D., is President of Hienote Inc., Crystal Lake, IL 60039. Dr. Beiermann is one of the leading experts in business technology and e-commerce. Hienote Inc. specializes in assisting businesses locate unique wholesale drop shipping companies. You can visit their site at www.hienote.comor call 1-800-342-0386.
The prevalence of low budget flight tickets – occasionally lower than internal train ticket – has improved to make purchasing a estate out of the country a simple option; even in this stage of worldwide fiscal hesitation. Not to mention the fact that a land out of the country has colossal investment possibilities – be that through transformation and sale or renting your asset as a vacation house.
Most of the time numerous persons are unaware or ill informed as regards the potential dangers concerned with purchasing land in a foreign country. Although there are a few simple measures you can apply to guarantee you collect money, buy a huge house and avoid future constant worry, apprehension and financial catastrophe.
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Never Use Caps
Its a good practice to use all lower case characters in a url.
Never try using all caps or first letter caps.Its really
confusing.
Kill the spaces
Never use spaces in ur file names.Spaces can lead to the awful
%20 signs in your filenames.Avoid using spaces for the same
reason.
Use underscores and hyphens
You can use the underscore character and hyphen in place of
spaces in your filenames.
Use URL encoding if necessary
Suppose space is unavoidable in the file name, then you must use
url encoding for the same so that the space is replaced by a
plus(+) sign.
Avoid @#$%&^
Avoid characters like the dollar sign and ampersand symbol.
Use short to-the-point filenames
Use filenames that are precise, yet simple.
Organize your content based on filetype
Split your site into many folders like images, scripts, media,
files and pages.
Organize your content based on use
Split your content based on use and requirement.
Protect premium content / Restrict access
Restrict access to certain parts of your website if you dont want
public access to them
Take regular backups
Taking a regular backup of your entire website is a good
practice.
Get people to review your site
Criticism is definitely constructive. Get others to speak up
about your website
Never put up confidential info online
Never ever try putting your confidential info like credit card no , bank accounr no etc online.
Varun Krishnan http://www.varun.vk123.com is a mobile phone/web enthusiast. He is a web developer and SEO consultant. He’s currently heading http://www.fonearena.com
Whether you’re giving a critical sales presentation to a client, producing visuals for a meeting, event, trade show or seminar, or unveiling the new company logo before an audience of shareholders, top-notch graphics will help ensure that you, your products, and your message receive the attention they deserve.
Yet when you decide to do the graphics in-house to reduce turnaround time or cut expenses, those logos, photos, charts, graphs, pictures, timelines, illustrations, etc. can be a source of frustration, embarrassment, stress and perhaps lost business. Following ten simple tips to surefire do-it-yourself graphic design, however, will help maximize your visual punch, minimize your mistakes, and give you the professional-look your graphics deserve. Not to mention, cut down on the headaches.
- -Take a deep breath
Especially if you have a key presentation looming that needs charts, graphs, and visuals and all you have are loose papers and a migraine, first take a deep breath. Put on a fresh pot of coffee. Clear your workspace. Handle those last minute telephone calls. In short, you are going to need to focus your attention on your design project, so prepare yourself. You’re about to solve your graphic design problem in classic, do-it-yourself fashion.
- – Outline your project
Make a simple list of the presentation graphics you think you’ll need. Don’t get into details at this point. For example, you might list: opening– photo of young couple with product and company logo; midpoint– new market piechart and bar graph of financial growth; close– photo of new satisfied customer using product. You just want to create a rough outline that can help steer you through the project.
- – Define what you’re trying to say
To keep your audience visually interested you must keep things simple and avoid clutter that will confuse your focus.
Communicate one concept at a time with your graphics. Your message can contain various parts, but your communication as a whole must concentrate on the key concept you want to get across. To shoot for more is to court disaster. At all costs, avoid making everything important, as that’s the surest way to create visual anarchy. When you attempt to give great importance to more than one message (or visual item), you introduce confusion and succeed only in dispersing the viewers attention instead of directing it where you want it.
- – Keep it simple
Visually, simple is better than complex, especially when images will only be seen a short time. Avoid the complex since it obscures your message rather than clarifies it.
Use pictures, illustrations, graphs, etc. to punch up an important point, and to make complex ideas simple. However, avoid literally mimicking what’s said in the text. The graphics must enhance and play on variations of the text to make it more interesting – but never stray from the spirit of the message. At their best, graphics add humor, emotion, reality, believability, and playfulness to help bring about understanding and agreement in viewers.
Keep text simple and readable, without overdoing emphasis. Use changes of size, style, color, and position, including bullets, symbols and other devices to highlight and organize your text in moderation. To avoid distracting the reader, limit the number of fonts to two or three in no more than three or four readable sizes. Keep the background simple, and use contrast to ensure legibility. Contrast is the noticeable difference between things, and can be as simple as bolding or underlining text in some cases. But don’t fill every bit of “empty” space, as well-chosen space can serve to “frame” graphic elements you may want to emphasize.
- – Lay out your type, graphics, and photos
Look at how the elements blend together. Lay out the type, graphics, photos, etc. in rough format similar to how they will be presented. If you know how, use computer formatting on programs such as MS Word or Excel to experiment with layout. Or you may want to lay out the physical materials on a desk or conference table. Similarly, you may want to tape or pin them to a wall or cubicle to see how vertical display affects their visual impact.
Now, here’s where a little strategic thinking can set your graphic design work apart from the norm:
Visually group graphics to show similarity and build interest. Try to visually group objects using similarities of theme, color, direction, position, alignment, etc. Show what goes with what, so your viewers will draw the proper conclusions. For example, a picture of worn-out old shoes could depict a potential client’s current database management system (DBS), and brand new track cleats could depict your DBS product. Of course, things that belong together must have characteristics in common, and must be similar enough to be perceived as a group or set.
Also, make visual order part of your message. For example, decide WHEN the viewer should notice your logo: Before reading the copy? After reading the headline? Should the viewer note your company name before or after the product you’re selling? These strategic distinctions can boost or detract both from your credibility and ability to persuade.
- – Add emphasis with a little color and contrast
The graphics of your piece must be easily seen and attract more attention than anything around it. If not, your audience’s attention will go elsewhere: to a competitor’s ad, booth, flyer, banner, etc. To improve the odds of getting your audience’s attention, use color and contrast in moderation to create interest. Remember to use emphasis sparingly, like spice in cooking, because a little goes a long ways but too much simply overpowers.
That said, attention does gravitate toward the area of greatest contrast. (That’s why print is usually black-on-white, which makes the letters stand out for easier viewing, instead of say, black-on-brown). For example, in a visual ad or billboard, a single sentence on an otherwise empty page demands attention. You can’t help but read it. Other examples of good, eye-catching contrast: a white spotlight in a dark theater; a 3-D object jutting out of a flat wall; a moving object among motionless ones (or a stationary object among moving ones); and a bright, colorful poster over a dull, monochrome background. Similarly, at a trade show you’d want your signage to run horizontally if you’re competitors’ signs run vertically. In each case, your audience is visually attracted toward what stands out or offers contrast.
Here are a few types of useful contrast to consider using in your graphics: large/small, light/dark, flat/3-D, high/low, short/long, strong/weak, smooth/course, one/many, full/empty, warm/cool (colors), before/after, complex/simple, straight/winding, round/angular, continuous/interrupted, horizontal/vertical/diagonal, etc.
For a series of visuals, use contrasting sequences to build interest as well. Contrasting sequences such as before/after, young/old, or gradations of color can guide and build the viewer’s interest by suggesting degrees of importance, recognizable patterns, or consequences. When establishing what the viewer should notice first, second, third, etc., control the order in which he perceives the various items, using a scale of contrasts from most different to most similar. The greater the contrast, the more importance a visual item is given.
- – Get a fresh perspective
After focusing on your graphics project, it helps to get a fresh perspective. Ideally, you should ask someone with art or design experience a few questions. How do these graphics strike you? Do they support the message? What would you change? The less they know about your presentation, company, or product the more helpful their opinion, as it will more closely approximate your audience’s reaction. But really, anyone’s opinion helps to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in your designs, so don’t be afraid to ask. And don’t be afraid to accept criticism. If no one is available, take a break from your project if at all possible, so you can approach your graphic project with fresher, less biased eyes.
- – Put on the finishing touches
Then adjust your graphics project according to the objective feedback you received. Here’s where you may brighten or lighten colors, change font sizes, or rearrange graphics for better overall layout.
Also, round out your pictures and graphics with carefully chosen words. From caption to headline and story, words are a critical part of the message you’re visually communi-cating, so they must be chosen and arranged carefully for the whole to work. Include only what’s important, so as not to dilute your carefully crafted message.
Along these lines, speak your viewers’ language in a way that addresses their problems and answers their needs. For example, if your picture shows a healthy Mr. Jones tussling with grandkids after successful bypass surgery, mention how your new medical product reduced recovery time to three weeks from the normal three months.
- – Take one last look
No matter how careful you are there’s always last minute mistakes to catch: misspelled words, misaligned margins, or graphics that still need to be rearranged to lessen distracting “white” or trapped space. Use spell and grammar checkers, then print out sample copies to test overall visual effect until you’re satisfied with the results.
- 0 – Print out and mount your final presentation
Since all your previous work counts for naught if the final graphic product isn’t displayed and mounted properly, it’s critical to prevent the wrinkling, bubbling, warping, and peeling that can sink an otherwise impeccable graphic presentation. To this end, I have long used and recommended Pres-On products. Well known amongst professional graphic artists and photographers, Pres-On has a broad line of do-it-yourself, self-stick mounting board products for just about every application. I’ve mounted everything from extremely large oversize prints like architectural renderings and giant logos, to small decorative items, and consistently Pres-On mounting products makes it very easy to do and gives me professional results.
Their newest mounting product Score & Snap, is made of a thin, surprisingly strong, plastic material that’s coated with self-stick mounting adhesive. It was designed to mount logos, photos, charts, signs and other graphics quickly and easily, with the capability to correct mistakes, but with subsequent permanent positioning. Once a graphic is mounted, the protective plastic can be easily scored with an X-Acto knife, then snapped off into the desired shape. Because of the consistency of the plastic material, its versatility in positioning graphics, and its clean edges, it makes it easy to produce a spectacular looking finished product that won’t come undone at the worst possible moment.
With a firm grip on your graphics project, you can now look forward to the presentation deadline without knots in your stomach. Who knows, with the knockout graphics you cranked out, on a shoestring budget to boot, you could be in line for a promotion. As a parting tip, ask for a raise, as you’ve just added polished graphic presentation to your list of job skills. Just keep your Graphic Design Rescue Tips handy because the next project might not be so easy.
Call Dali Bahat at (818) 765-6635 or email at ot_artist@earthlink.net for more information about Master Design. For more information on Pres-On “Score & Snap”, and other Pres-On Self-Stick adhesive mounting products contact Pres-On Corp. at 21 Factory Road, Addison, Illinois 60101; Phone (800) 323-1745; Fax (888) 543-9406; www.Pres-On.com.
About The Author
Dali Bahat is an Internationally recognized graphic designer, and President of Master Design.
ot_artist@earthlink.net
Once you hit a certain age there is a recommendation that you get health checkups on a regular basis. This is recommended so that you can live longer and be healthier. These checkups are called screenings and can make a huge difference in your years to come.
We all should lead healthy lives, eating nutritious foods, sleeping each and every night for a good amount of time, lowering our stress, having healthy relationships, exercising after taking the Acceletrim diet solution, and many other proactive things. Doing these things can help you feel better and you can even end up living longer. Getting regular screenings gives you an opportunity to make sure you are on the right track. Let’s say that you go in for a screening and find out that you have some abnormal cells, at first it can seem quite alarming, but more than likely it could be the early stages of something and since it is so early you can do something about it and make sure it doesn’t get worse. If you ignored the screening, then you would have never been able to take any action. The regular check ups can help you and the ones that you love the most, so please make sure to follow the recommendations.
As auto insurance premiums keep going up, people are looking for auto insurance discounts. There are several assorted types of price reductions available and if you can save a few dollars, then why not? Below is a list of general price reductions that may be available to you. Check with your insurance underwriter to see if you’re entitled.
Individual Insurance Discounts
These discounts are usually given based on your performance as a driver and policy holder. The other discounts are given based on your present status in life.
Car-Related Deductions
Your car is a huge factor in defining how much you’ll be giving for automobile insurance. Depending on the overall safety and other features of your car, you can receive certain discounts on auto insurance.
- Air Bags. They present an added safety feature to your car and insurance agents love these.
- Anti-Lock Brakes System (ABS). Some states require that insurance agents give deductions to customers whose cars are equipped with ABS.
Anti-Theft Devices. Installation of anti-theft devices like car alarms is a way to get cheaper automobile insurance rates. There may be an added bonus if the alarm automatically turns on when the car’s engine is turned off.
A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your web pages and places a certain amount of importance on what the content says, but not quite like a human does. A human will place the words together in their head and try to decipher the relevancy to them personally and decide within a few seconds whether they will continue reading or click to another site, whereas a robot counts words and places all relevancy in the numbers it finds. It also gives extra credit to the size of the type and title of each page.
What a webmaster should consider, is every word connecting to a keyword and not wasting words, for the public and the robots. This can be difficult to do when writing about certain subjects, but not impossible. Take diets for instance. Saquoyah Publishing writes diets and uses www.free-diet.biz to promote them, but nobody wants to read pages full of the word diet just bandied around with no oomph in the article that should teach the reader about diets. So a happy medium must be reached to get the website placed high in the search engines database, yet allow the articles to inform the reader of the subject written. Remember, the information super highway is called that for a good reason. Most people just want to learn something about a subject, not necessarily buy something. So if you are selling, the first thing you will want is to get the reader to find the pages you have written, and that means search engine optimization, or SEO as it is called.
SEO should be a major consideration as the page is written, and a concentration on keywords should be the main concern of the page writer. Take diets as an example of page writing. The word Diet or Diets should be placed in the title of each page on the website if at all reasonable, and each page should utilize those words as many times as possible without deterring hopeful customers. The title of the page is the most noticeable attraction to your website from the searcher’s perspective, and the few words you have to say everything about your site. Free diet is a two word search that will get you over twenty five million pages on Google or Yahoo, and the competition is fierce. Just the word free will get you over a half billion pages and the competition is downright crazy. So stick with keywords that you can compete in, and use those words wisely as you write your pages.
Simple, free, healthy diet are the four keywords that describe the title of my index page, and they are the best way to describe what I hope the searchers will be looking for, as well as what I have to offer. This is the most optimistic I can be when writing my title to help people learn about diets and to help my website get a good placement with search engines. Also, a four word phrase has less competition than a two word phrase. So make sure your title is something that the searcher is looking for as well as something you provide or you will never get customer satisfaction, and maybe never get customers.
The contents of the page can be categorized into sections to help keep your keywords alive without pushing them on the reader. For instance, free diets, beer diets, funny diet jokes, potato soup diet, pineapple diets, Beverly Hillbilly Diet foods, and many other strange things can be written without being insensitive to the reader, if they are titles of some of your other pages or just paragraphs on each topic. The contents close to the top of your page should also be the same words you have in the contents meta tag that the robots will copy to be placed under your title in a web search. In this way, the reader will also get a fair chance at what you really have to say on your site and can make a better judgment call on whether to open your index page or some other. This is how you select customers instead of wasting everyone’s time. This article can be copied and reprinted anywhere as long as it is intact and includes the author’s bio.
About The Author
Ted Dupuie owns a home based publishing company that only publishes his work, which includes diets, an investment strategy, and 8 websites, plus a family newsletter. He is also a writing critic with top ten placement on Google and Yahoo!
www.saquoyah.com – www.homewriters.com – www.free-diet.biz
This article can be copied and reprinted anywhere as long as it is intact with the author’s bio.
A lottery syndicate can be a sound and pain-free means to play the lotto without mishandling a colleague’s hard earned cash; one only needs care to set up plus with the correct lottery contracts in order or possibly an elottery syndicate. Every now and then though it can be challenging whilst dealing with the subject of cash and can still get people mad with one another. This is why a third individual who addresses the cash is thus a good idea.
Consequently, to be the syndicate leader and purchase the lottery tickets for the UK National lottery you must reside in the UK. This does not mean that you must reside in the Uk to take part in the UK Lottery though. All you that’s required to set up or join a lotto consortium and have the lotto tickets bought in the UK. When the lottery draw has been made then all you need to do is check off your lotto numbers. Colleagues, friends and fellow workers placing their cash collectively to buy multiple lotto tickets is not a new conception! There have been several stories of factory employee’s and acquaintances that have won it big. Astonishingly though, even when they have gained a significant sum of money they still return to work as normal.
Well, that’s them, for us it appears elottery syndicates are probably the most effective way of winning the lottery. The idea works on one elementary principle which is the more lottery tickets your consortium purchases the greater your likelihood is of succeeding. There are nonetheless still those people that seem to win with only one ticket although they’re rare, though a couple of individuals are capable of winning the lottery by purchasing 1 or two tickets on their way home from work. Nevertheless an increasingly popular process for winning requires the use of syndicates. This method presents you with a lot more chances to win by purchasing as many lotto tickets as conceivable.
