Students Of Success

Presented by Nanny Cay, the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing festival is an expanded seven-day format that takes avid and novice participants on an exciting multi-class, multi-course event throughout the beautiful British Virgin Islands.

This year the boats were split into fifteen classes and ranged in size from the 75′ Reichel Pugh, Titan XII, supporting a crew of twenty, to the one man Lasers and windsurfers.

Since its inception in 1973, the BVIs Spring Regatta has witnessed tremendous growth in both size and competition with continuing support from racing enthusiasts around the globe. This past weekend 154 boats helped mark the 35th anniversary of the BVI Spring Regatta as the event’s biggest year ever!

The 2006 Sailing Festival – which serves as a three-day warm up for the regatta - kicked off on Monday, March 27 with a welcome party at Nanny Cay. Afterwards participants were able to experience three days of destination cruising, racing, diving and Lay day fun including the Nation’s Challenge Cup, all which led up to the main three-day Spring Regatta that started on Friday, March 31. The four racecourses of the BVI Spring Regatta were held on the south side of Tortola - the sailing stronghold of the Caribbean - and the backbone of the protected Sir Frances Drake Channel.

This year the boats were split into fifteen classes and ranged in size from the 75′ Reichel Pugh, Titan XII, supporting a crew of twenty, to the one man Lasers and windsurfers.

The Racing and Racer/Cruiser classes sailed in the Copper Island course area with back-to-back racing on windward-leeward courses. The multi-start, multi-race format first introduced by the BVI Spring Regatta ensures that time on the water is spent racing.

Performance/Cruiser, Multihull, Bareboat, Jib & Main classes sailed on the Norman Island course area. Such is the geological/topographical nature of the BVI, that many of the marks from the previous regattas have been replaced by islands. On this race area - previously known as the non-spinnaker course – spinnakers were permitted and let those sailors that didn’t want to race back to back, windward-leeward courses, the chance to fly a spinnaker, perhaps with a less practiced or short-handed crew.

Each day of the regatta the weather conditions improved and finally on Sunday, sailors (and photographers) were able to enjoy a picture perfect day with wonderful sunshine and 10-12 knots of breeze.

For additional information, please visit ==>http://www.catamarans.com

Most organizations over look this very important security tool.
How can an organization or an individual verify the authenticity of an in coming
mail? Attaching a signature to your mail should be a standard practice.
Your E-mail Signature is an electronic business card and as such is a very
important security tool in e-mail verification.

Here is a sample of an e-mail signature

<+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++>

Customer Consideration Ltd    info@customerconsider.com

http://:www.customerconsider.com

No 20 Ibadan Road, Opposite Yemi Book Shop,

Kaduna, Nigeria, West Africa.

GSM:, Tel No:

We Sell Affordable Baby Clothes

<+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++>
 

This is an example. The design of the e-mail signature is based on choice.
The e-mail signature must contain the following;

All the ways by which your organization can be contacted; phone numbers, fax number, mailing address, e-mail address, url address.

The particular designation of the individual or the department’s name sending the mail. Example if it’s the CEO of a bank it should be stated.
ceo @ xyzbank.com

Every e-mail address must have an e-mail signature.
Example ceo @ xyzbank.com

info @ xzybank.com
Each e-mail address should have an e-mail signature.

The organization’s logo and slogan should also be added.

As A Weapon Against E-mail Fraud
A mail stating that, they must not honor any mail not containing the attached e-mail signature must be sent to all clients. A copy of all e-mail signatures must be forwarded to the company’s lawyer.

How Do You Set Up An E-mail Signature
All standard e-mail programs come with the ability to set up an e-mail signature. The e-mail programs also give you the option of attaching the e-mail signature to every outgoing mail.

Advantages Of E-mail Signatures
Any Organization or Individual, claiming to have received a fraudulent mail from a well established organization, should be made to send a copy of the fraudulent mail for verification. Once the e-mail signature is not attached to it. The lawyer can always sue for name defamation, if the said organization is not aware of the company’s e-mail signature.

Advice:
In information security, the little things we over look counts. How many companies in Nigeria are aware of e-mail signatures?

A copy of the e-mail signature or signatures must be registered with the appropriate copyright organization.

Website development must be accompanied by an it security consultant.
Recently a disclaimer Advertisement was placed in one of the widely read newspapers stating “scams involving illegal reference”.

The question now is, how can people identify legitimate mails?

Christopher Okoh
CEO
Computer Security & Network Associates
Website:http://www.compsana.com

Fall is by far one of the best times to fish any smallmouth lake. This is a great time to catch your limit of big fish.

Smallies like to stock up ahead for winter, a time when they are not as likely to get a belly full of shad or whatever baitfish is available in that lake.

So, the key is to locate baitfish. That’s where you will find the smallies.

Your focus in the fall will not be much different than in the spring. Set your sites on shallow shelves adjacent to deeper water (flats that drop sharply), also rocky humps and shoals with patches of grass mixed in.

Fish can be at any depth, but you will mostly want to look in 8 to 12 feet of water in the fall.

This is going to be a bit hit and miss because smallmouths gather in big schools of up to 50 fish. So if you don’t find them quickly, move on.

The best baits for this method are spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and hard jerkbaits fished quickly. These allow you to cover a lot of water fast. Keep the lure just under the surface.

When you do nail one and suspect there are more to be had, but they have refused your original offer, try using a slower moving bait like a soft plastic tube.

Work the area slowly and completely. Follow-up is extremely important to catching the maximum amount of fish from an area.

Once you have found them, you don’t want to leave any of them behind.

—-
By Bobby Ivie

Bobby Ivie is an avid fishman and owner of Fishing-Hunting-Camping.com. He makes the biggest part of his living on the Internet, NetBizWorkshop.net

This article may be reprinted as long as this source box is added and the source box hyperlinks are kept intact.
—-

You just got your website online. Everything is setup and you’re
ready to go. Excitement is high and the time has come to open
your virtual doors to the millions and millions of Internet
users around the globe. You put out the cyber welcome mat and
declare your site ready for action. But, instead of sitting and
watching the users trample over one another to get to your site,
you see little to no traffic.

Don’t worry! This is something every webmaster goes through and
is to be expected. (Well, webmasters in the late 90’s expected
to launch their site and be millionaires the next morning, but
times have changed since those wonderful days!)

But there are some quick and easy things you can do to begin
building your ‘link network,’ which will ultimately help drive
traffic to your site. Since the Internet’s conception, the
notion has been that sites link to one another, while web
surfers click from place to place. Thus, the challenge begins:
Get your site linked to as many others as possible.

You can start contacting other websites offering to trade links
(but be prepared to invest a lot of time); you can buy links
(but be prepared to fork out some cash); you can join
link-trading programs (but be prepared to get a lot of
irrelevant sites linking to you); or you can start submitting
your website to web directories.

What Is A Web Directory? A web directory is a compilation of
sites organized by category or topic. Most web directories have
multiple levels of categories, progressing from general to
highly specific. In addition, a web directory editor will likely
have to approve your site, lending it at a certain degree of
credibility. Being listed in a directory ensures that if a web
surfer finds their way into a specific category, they don’t just
see your competitors, they see you! And, if they can see your
link, they can click it, producing traffic to your site.

A Web Directory Listing Helps with SEO If you have a website,
you undoubtedly know the importance of ranking well in Google
and other major search engines. These search engines count links
from other sites as votes for your site, which helps determine
your ranking, or position in the search results. There are a lot
of other parts of the algorithm and this brief explanation
doesn’t do it justice. However, it serves the point that links
improve your ranking, and that’s something every website owner
needs to know.

A link in a directory that is spidered by Google (and a lot are)
will count as a vote for your site. This improves your ranking,
and yet again helps drive traffic to your site. It’s important
to note that not all directories help with SEO. Sometimes, a web
directory will link to your site through a special URL that is
often a programming CGI script. If the URL is not a direct link
to your site, then the search engines don’t count it as a vote.
Therefore, it’s best to pick directories that offer a direct
one-way link to your site. (This way, you get more bang for your
buck: traffic from the directory and improved search engine
ranking.)

Relevancy Matters If you trade links with random sites, then you
are theoretically building your ‘link network,’ but you are
sacrificing the quality of that network. Web searchers who are
looking for information on a particular topic often use
resources that link to a variety of sites related to what they
seek. This makes web directories the perfect destination.

Since directories are categorized by topics, a person can arrive
in the directory and have one-click access to a variety of
resources. You definitely want to be one of those resources!
Plus, when the other search engines pick up your link, it will
count for more since it is surrounded by relevant content, which
is most likely filled with your important keywords.

As you build your link network, you’ll continue to see
increased traffic. And if you use web directories as your
vehicle, you are essentially paving more paths to your site.
Several good submissions in popular directories will help get
you rolling. The best part is that many directories are free, so
this jump start won’t even hurt your bottom line.

Good luck and happy submitting!

When creating wealth in the stock market, you need to build a
certain understanding of the risks involved. How do you assess
the risk? When do you listen to other people’s opinion and when
do you make up your own mind based on training and research?

Well, for starters, don’t listen too much to others. Who is
going to look after your money best? You, of course! Then why
not learn for yourself how to be a stock market investor instead
of listening to advice from possibly unreliable sources.

To start with, learn basic strategies. If you understand how the
stock market works to a certain degree, then maybe you should
look at derivatives. These are highly leveraged investment
instruments and need to be understood properly to be used to
their full advantage.

Once you understand stock market derivatives (and you will if
you apply yourself), you can move on to more advanced strategies
and this will open up some interesting possibilities for you.

For instance: I invest with returns around 15 - 20% per month. I
learnt this with very little knowledge of how to be a stock
market investor. I achieved this in less than 2 years. I know
several investors who learnt this in 3 to 6 months.

There are also bad months. This is where money management comes
in. Learning to manage your investments with a proper strategy
and money management is vital to your success in the stock
market.

You have plenty to gain by learning from other enthusiastic
traders. Visit stock market or wealth creation forums. Learn
from other like minded people. A little bit of effort, fuelled
by dreams will get you a lot further than little effort with no
dreams.

Remember this is all about leverage. Learn to leverage yourself
and the income potential rises with it.

Many will say that the risk rises with the income potential. If
you agree with that, then read this quote by a very seasoned
stock market investor and think again:

“Risk is NOT understanding what you are doing” - Warren Buffet

Think about it. If you didn’t think - “YES, that’s true!”, then
read it again and again until you really get the point.

What some people perceive as risky, others do as an everyday
task, as if it is second nature. It’s just like having a casual
walk to the local shop.

Driving a car is risky. Especially if you haven’t driven before,
or have little experience. Maybe you haven’t bothered learning
the basic traffic rules.

How risky is it for you to drive a car when you know the traffic
rules, have made the effort to practise and stay aware of any
changes that may affect you in that environment?

Not very risky at all!

Same task. Very risky for some. Hardly any risk at all for
others.

Compare this to being a stock market investor. If you enter a
trade with little or no knowledge, it would be fair to say it is
very risky. Do it with base knowledge, research and networking,
then it would be fair to say that you have reduced your risk
dramatically.

The very same trade will have different outcomes depending on
how you react to the market place. Hence, the different risk
levels in the very same situation.

So hang in there. Utilise resources like stock market forums. Do
a course or attend a seminar to fast track your learning.
Educate yourself with things that WILL make a difference to your
future. Believe me, whoever said money doesn’t buy happiness,
either didn’t have any money at all or never went without.

Of course, money doesn’t buy happiness. But it sure does help. I
know which option I prefer.

Let me think. Here are my financial options:

Option number 1 - Little or no wealth.

* Work until I’m 65.

* Put my kids through average under funded schools because I
have no choice.

* Having to budget most or all of the time.

* Trying to make ends meet.

* Keep a relationship and a happy family while always struggling
to pay the bills.

* Have very few holidays.

* Constantly worrying about fuel prices.

* Have little or no money for charities.

* Etc, etc

Option number 2 - Plenty of wealth.

* Enough money.

* Comfortable living. Stress-less lifestyle.

* Work until I want to. NOT until I have to.

* Work as a hobby. Do what I want to do. With a passion!

* Put my kids in the schools I want to. It’s my choice.

* Support as many charities as I like. Make other peoples life
easier.

* Support my local community financially, because I can.

* Holiday as much as I like.

* Make ends meet ALL of the time. Who cares how much the grocery
bill is?

* What fuel prices? What’s the issue? When fuel prices go up, so
do my shares.

* Etc, etc

If I cannot be happy using Option number 2, then I’ve got some
serious problems!

You choose your own destiny. Don’t let others make up your mind
for you. Make wealth creation a part of your financial education.

Happy researching, and good luck to you in your quest for
financial independence.

Whether you’re looking for a job, have a job, are hiring or even none of the above, networking can be invaluable part of who you are and what you do. But networking isn’t just about the free lunch (if there is one – and you know the old adage about that anyway).
When it comes to the language of networking, be sure it’s all about them and less about you. Like advertising, networking is all about a “what’s in it for me” approach. But the approach needs to be turned around so that the person benefiting is your conversation partner and not you, yourself and you.

If and when you make the exchange about them and not you, you will find that opportunities begin to present themselves to you in ways you may not have even imagined.

If you want to get the most out of business networking and cultivate a network of endless referrals, follow these commandments:

1. Build, don’t sell: Don’t view your encounters as selling opportunities, but as relationship builders. Nobody wants to be cornered or pressured. You’re not “sponging” off of others for your own benefit (that approach will turn others off quickly).

2. Listen. Don’t go on and on about your experience, your business, your education or your significant other. Ask questions and listen to the answers so you can find some common ground upon which to have a real conversation.

3. Ask. Questions and comments about their companies and even their hobbies and families will get you further than just the typical, often boring business card exchange and small talk.

4. Be specific. Don’t generalize or assume when discussing what you do or what you are looking for. Give specific scenarios so your conversation partner knows how to help you should the opportunity arise.

5. Be a connector. Find ways to refer others to one another even when there is no direct benefit to your job or business situation.

The real work begins after the event. Follow up, preferably within 24 hours, with a handwritten card or e-mail (there are arguments for choosing one or the other, just make sure you do at least one).

If you’ve promised to give them a name, number, web address or other information about a potential customer, employee or business connection, be sure to follow through and send it along. If the situation warrants it, call them a few days later to arrange a time to meet for a coffee or have lunch and start from there.

Final thoughts: Remember, whether it is a job fair, a business event or even a social situation, treat networking as an exchange of ideas, information and experience.

Be generous in sharing your talents, experiences, and ideas, and the benefits will come back to you many times over.

Allison Nazarian is president and chief copywriter of Get It In Writing, a Florida-based company that helps businesses nationwide harness the power of words to sell, inform and publicize. Allison can be reached at 561.487.3917 or anazarian@getitinwriting.biz.
Copyright© Get It In Writing, Inc. May be reprinted without permission of Get It In Writing, Inc and Allison Nazarian if in full, unchanged format and with complete attribution to author.

I have a quick question to ask you… “do you know How-To set up
your own BLOG and RSS Feed so you Too can take advantage of all
the benefits Blogs and RSS(Real Simple Syndication) have to
offer you and your business?”

If you answered NO, your not alone.

I didn’t either at one time, but that didn’t stop me from
finding out How-To on my own.

So basically, what I’m trying to say is by the time you finish
reading this article you’ll be a master at setting up your own
Blogs and RSS Feeds in a matter of minutes by simply following
my simple ‘Step-by-Step’ instructions below.

With that said, Buckle Up, put your thinking cap on, grab
yourself a beverage and get ready to learn…

“HOW-TO Set Up Your Own BLOG and RSS Feed In Less Than 5
Minutes…”

Know lets go to Step #1.

Step #1. Go set-up an account with Blogger.com.

This is probably the easiest part of all, which is simply
setting up an Blogger.com account at http://www.blogger.com.

Go there right now. It will take you to Blogger.com’s homepage.

Once there, you’ll see an orange arrow pointing to the right
that says…”Create Your Blog Now” … click on it.

That’s Step #1.

Step #2. Creating your account with Blogger.com.

If you thought Step #1 was easy than Step #2 will be a breeze.

Simply select a Username and Password that you’ll remember
followed by your Email Address.(You don’t have to use your
primary email address, you can use a Free web-based email
account like Hotmail or Yahoo! if you like. Your choice.)

Then check the box that says “I accept the Terms of Service”.

Now proceed by clicking on the orange arrow that says…
“Continue”.

That’s Step #2.

Step #3. Naming your Blog.(Very IMPORTANT!)

Now, depending on what your Blog is about your going to want to
use your target ‘Keywords’ within the name of your Blog, its
description and the URL.

And there’s a good reason for this simply because this is what
the Search Engine spiders are going to see first.

They’ll first see them within your Blog name which is at the top
of your Blog that your visitors see, they’ll see them within
your description of your Blog and then they’ll see them within
your Blog URL that you choose.

Why is this SOoooo important?

By using your ‘Target Keywords’ within those areas I just
outlined, thats what the SE’s will use to index your Blog under
so when someone does a search for those target keywords, guess
whose Blog will pop-up within the results depending on your
competition?

That’s right, Yours!

The SE’s will also use those area’s I outlined for your SE
listing within there results index.

Here’s an example for a quick ‘Case-Study’ for you.

This is one of my Blogs I have.

Go to: http://internet-marketing-tactics.blogspot.com

You’ll notice my Blog title, description and URL all have the
‘Keyword Phrase’… Internet Marketing Tactic.

To take this a step further, I want you to go visit these search
engines MSN, Yahoo! and AlltheWeb and type in “internet
marketing tactics” within there search boxes so you can see
where my Blog sits within those SE’s so you can see the
importance of having your Target keywords within those area’s I
mentioned earlier.

MSN http://www.msn.com

Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com

AlltheWeb http://www.alltheweb.com

In the MSN SE results my Blog is #1 for that keyword phrase, in
Yahoo! I’m #11(not bad) and in AlltheWeb I’m #18.

Of course these positions will very in time but just as long as
you get the point of WHY you need to use your Target keywords
within those 3 areas.

Lets move on.

Now, your last step for Step #3 is to simply type in the
‘Verification Code’.

Once you’ve done that, click on the orange arrow below that
says… “Continue”.

Step #4. Choosing your template.

If everything went well in Step #3 and that Blog name you chose
isn’t taken you should be looking at a bunch of Blog templates
Blogger.com offers.

Simply select the one you like most and then click “Continue”.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You just created your first Blog and completed Step #4.

You should now be looking at an orange arrow that says… “Start
Posting”. Click on it and it’ll take you to where you can start
posting whatever it is you want.

Now that you have set-up your Blog your probably wondering…
“where does RSS fit into this formula?”

Step #5. Locating your RSS Feed URL.

What can I say, I always leave the Best for last.

Assuming your still within the Blogger.com ‘Posting’ area you’ll
notice a bunch of tabs at the top labelled, Posting, Settings,
Template and View Blog.

Click on the ‘Settings’ tab.

This will take you to a sub-menu with a bunch of other options.

Out of all those options click on the one that says… “Site
Feed”.

And there it is.

It should look something like this:

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml

This is the URL you’ll want to use to promote your RSS Feed with
to the RSS search engines and directories so that everytime you
make a post, the RSS SE’s and directories will be
‘Automatically’ notified and updated with your latest
information bringing your Blog more exposure to your target
audience.

That about sums it up for this tutorial, but, just before I go
I’ll leave you with a few articles I wrote earlier on RSS
promotion to help you get the Most out of your Blogs and RSS
Feeds.

Here are the links:

http://www.internetwondersezine.com/article_13.html

http://www.internetwondersezine.com/article_14.html

http://www.internetwondersezine.com/article_16.html

Now that you are armed with this information that I just
revealed to you, you should have no problem setting up and
getting the MOST out of your Blogs and RSS Feeds.

When applying for your first mortgage, you are going to hear many terms tossed around that are specific to the real estate and financial industry. These terms are not hard, so don’t be concerned. If you are not dealing with financial information and real estate on a daily basis, you may not have learned what all the terms mean. Sure you may have heard them before but were never explained the specifics.

Loan to value ratio- This is a ratio that the lender who is financing your mortgage uses to determine how much he or she can loan you. It is determined by dividing the loan amount by the market value of the home in consideration. The market value is often determined by appraisals that evaluate the property and comparable homes that have sold in the immediate area.

Most lenders will loan up to 80% of the market value of a home. If the lender were to loan more than that, the lender would be risking not being able to recover the loaned funds if the property were to go into foreclosure. However, there are lenders who will loan more than 80% of the market value in exchange for a higher interest rate. You will be paying more in interest in exchange for their increased risk of loaning more money than what would normally be acceptable.

Points - This term refers to interest costs paid to the lender in exchange for a lower interest rate. Points are paid one time and are usually equal to one percent of the loan principal. It is not always a good idea to pay one-time points for a lower interest rate. This is where lenders can make a lot of money, and many times points are not even needed in a deal, and are just a bonus for the lender. Be sure to always do the math for each mortgage option to see what will cost you the least amount of money. Also shop around to see what a comparable contract is so you do not overpay.

Interest rate- The interest rate is a yearly rate that is charged on the principal of the loan amount provided by the lender. The principal accrues interest and you must pay it as an exchange for borrowing the money. Interest rates can be very different depending on the type and terms of a mortgage.

The interest rate charged in exchange for borrowing the money has a base percentage dictated by a national index and then percentages are added to this according to the amount of risk the lender is taking by giving you the money to finance the house. The lender should show you the breakdown of the final interest rate charged so you know why the number is what it is. If the lender does not do that, there could be some shady dealing going on and you should consider going somewhere else. Have all the parts of the interest rate disclosed so you know where your money is going and how you are being charged.

Loan term- This is how long you have to pay back the money borrowed from the lender. Common mortgage terms are 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years. The loan term is always negotiable depending on how much you need to borrow, what monthly payments you can make, and the amount of interest you will have to pay.

Debt service coverage- This is a ratio that a lender uses to see the borrower’s (you) ability to pay back the loan in monthly installments. The ratio is found by dividing your net income by debt. Lenders generally look for debt service coverage ratios of 1.2. This ratio compares the amount of debt to your income. The more income you have to cover your total debt, the better. This ratio shows the lender you are capable of paying the mortgage in addition to your other current debt.

Use this information to get educated and make your first time home buying experience a good one! These terms are specific to mortgage characteristics. For more information on other topics regarding first time home buying, check out the resource box where you can find more information that will help you with buying your first home!

John R Blakefield is a mortgage and real estate specialist. For more information, articles, news, tools and valuable resources on home mortgages or investment loans, refinancing, debt solutions, visit this site: http://ww.scourtheweb.com/mortgage/.