Students Of Success

Furniture surrounds us everyday of our lives. From the time we wake up to the hours we spend at the office or watching television we use furniture to add comfort and convenience to our lives. That is why it is so important to surround yourself with good quality items that can add the comfort and use you need to your life.

Let us start with bedroom furniture since that is where our days begin. The style and design of the bedroom items should be useful to you. If you need a lot of storage, for example, you can find that there are several options. You could find dressers and shelving options or find a bed that offers drawers under the bed. You’ll need to find items that you enjoy as well. Let’s not forget that the mattress that you use should be at the comfort level that you enjoy as well.

Move on into the kitchen and living space. The table needs to be at the right level. If you have a family of small children, be careful with sharp corners. Need extra storage here? Add in an island counter that can add space and storage. For the living room furniture, think about comfort and support for the back. Look for tables that are the right height and offer a good finish to match the room. Your entertainment center needs room for the TV, VCR, DVD player and any gaming products you have.

Of course, there is also the office. Here you need something professional that meets your needs. Spend a lot of time at your desk? Make sure your desk chair supports your back and posture. Need lots of storage? You’ll find it in file cabinets and shelving units. You can find professional looking furniture pieces or you can look for those that will serve the purpose you need them to first and foremost.

No matter what type of furniture you need, you can find something that suits your needs without a problem. On top of this, you’ll find furniture that you will also enjoy from the beginning of your day until the end. It is even more amazing when you find these pieces in the price range that you need as well. Sure, you can find a wonderful quality about the furniture you use now, but does it really offer you the comfort, style, and look you deserve? If not, you are sure to find pieces that do and do so in a way you can be proud to show off!

Robert Brand
Furniture Directory

OK, so you’ve had a few days of steady rain, and going to the beach isn’t an option. But you’re starting to notice your pasty white skin, and you’d like to do something about it. Or … it’s January, and tanning outside is a little brisk.

So you head to a tanning bed, and — voila! — in a few short minutes, you’ve got that tan you wanted.

What’s the problem with this scenario? You’re inevitably going to get complaints from people who tell you that a tanning bed is somehow dangerous.

Nonsense.

A tanning bed is not “dangerous,” is not a “voluntary coffin,” (to quote my mother’s dermatologist) and isn’t silly.

It’s a way of getting tanned, a way of getting your body’s needed dose of vitamin D.

Your body doesn’t differentiate: the UV rays react on the skin whether you’re out on the sand for a few hours, or spending 10 minutes on a tanning bed.

10 minutes is a good rule of thumb: it’s roughly equal to an hour in the sun. It’s easy, relatively cheap (look for specials) and is especially good for those times when you don’t have time to spend in the sun, or can’t because of the weather.

Of course, watch your time. Most places won’t let you use more than 20 minutes at a pop, but even that’s a long time, if you haven’t had any UV exposure for a while. Start slow, ease in, and enjoy your tan.

And if it’s December, enjoy the envy of your pasty-skinned friends. If your looking good bothers them, suggest they get therapy.

Jim Huffman, RN specializes in natural and alternative healing therapies. His first book is ‘Dare to Be Free: How to Get Control of Your Time, Your Life, and Your Nursing Career,’ and is aimed at helping other nurses find satisfying, dynamic careers. His website is http://www.NetworkForNurses.com and his health blog is at http://www.shababa.blogspot.com

This living relationship is not the flowers’ sole relationship. Don’t be alarmed, your darling flowers aren’t cheating on you! But your flowers have already shared a vital relationship with the florist, who decides which flowers to buy and where to buy them from, who takes care of the flowers even before they are in her possession, and who certainly leaves a personal touch on the flowers, using the talents of artistry and style to create a bouquet you won’t want to take your eyes off. Thus, it is the florist who prepares your flowers for you — not only in the beauty of a bouquet, but also in the care that the flowers will expect us to continue giving them.

Thanks to today’s leaps in technology, specifically communication and transportation, a flower growing in Mexico, for example, can be transported to France within the span of twenty-four hours. Of course, this seemingly simple statement involves a lot of work. A good florist will scan the world market for quality and prices. Naturally, flowers that can be bought locally will be, as they will have less distance to travel, and arrive at the florist’s shop quickly and safely. Since, however, freesias don’t often bloom near London in January, a large quantity of cut-flowers do use their frequent flyer cards as they make the trip from this to that country, or this to that continent. Needless to say, extreme care goes into preparing these travelers for their voyage. When flowers are coming right from the grower to the florist, they are usually cut right before leaving for the airport (talk about last minute preparations!) and prepared in the trucks on the way to the airport. Flowers that retain water well are laid flat in boxes, while more perishable and exotic flowers are guarded by individual water holders on the stem. In this manner, the well-prepared flowers make their trip. Most flights for these delicate passengers will be extra cool to provide for a most enjoyable flight. Upon arriving, the flowers are transported to cooled trucks which take them to the florist. This exchange — directly from the grower to the florist — is ideal, as the flowers spend less time traveling from here to there, and the costs won’t be increasing as the flower quality is decreasing.

The florist keeps track of the above-mentioned process to ensure the fresh and happy arrival of her materials. Upon receiving the packaged-up bundles of joy, the florist is like a new parent for a few minutes, unwrapping the flowers with utmost care, in order to get the flowers the nutrition and safety they need. However, during the caring and feeding, the florist will consider the new arrivals with much more scrutiny than would the parent of a newborn (or so we hope), checking for imperfections and making sure quality is first-rate. Once the flowers are cut to appropriate lengths and safely refrigerated in water, the florist communicates to the grower that all is well, and ideas are exchanged for future interactions. Communication is a large part of the florist’s job, and this conversation with the grower was certainly not the first, and will not be the last.

A good florist, while being a client of the grower, is also a seller, and knows the importance of communicating with people like you — her clients. And communication with a florist is important. In a job that requires such care for living flowers, as well as artistic talent in arranging, the busy florist is never too busy to hear your input, and in fact needs this important information: if the client is to be happy with the result, communication must be strong between the florist and client. Flowers truly can convey what words cannot say, so the specifics of what type of event, who they’re for, preferences in colors, flowers, textures, even the types of leaves used to give the bouquet body, is important information. Specific holidays, such as Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day will also influence the client’s choices. The florist needs your feedback to create the right bouquet. Watching a florist at work certainly gives the impression of an eccentric or a mad genius at work. Suddenly, a flower that was placed with such care is pulled out of the bouquet with a displeased look, then placed almost identically back in its place. But something is different, and the florist continues working with an appeased mind. Florists are artists, and take care to create the perfect picture, whether it is one conveying carefree joy or somber mourning.

When admiring your bouquet sitting on your dining room table, keep in mind that the florist who arranged it has done much more than arrange. The florist ensures that the quality of the flowers is top notch even before laying eyes on them. The quest for the freshest flowers is now an international search, and the florist makes sure her flowers are treated like first-class passengers during their trip to her store. Once at her door, the florist continues the care she started, dexterously cutting and submerging the stems in water. Happily seeing that the flowers are finally safe and ready for the chef d’oeuvre, the florist will create the masterpiece based on what her client is looking for. The florist, a person of many talents, is, at the end of the day, a businessman, a caretaker, an empathetic listener, and an artist.

This article was sponsored by www.serenataflowers.com, an independent florist. Serenata provides flower delivery within the UK and removes the costly middleman by buying directly from the grower. Fresher than any bouquet you’ll find in traditional flower shops, shop Serenata Flowers for exclusive, well cared for bouquets at reasonable prices. Reproductions of this article are encouraged but must provide a link back to www.serenataflowers.com

Often simple things really matter. And the use of keywords in linking text is one of those simple things that turn out to be hugely important. Linking text, sometimes called anchor text is the clickable text that takes people to another page or resource. You need to choose that text carefully.

On the home page of Linking Matters, I refer people to the latest edition of this newsletter. I could use the linking text, Latest Newsletter: the text is meaningful, clear and wouldn’t need to change every time I published a new issue.

However, I’d be missing out on some important opportunities. Using the actual title of the newsletter - Keyword Phrases in Linking Text is a much better option.

There are two reasons:

* Keyword rich text is more attractive to humans. A casual reader may see ‘Latest Newsletter’ and say so what? By using the title ‘Keyword Phrases in Linking Text’ I’ve told the visitor what the article is about and offered two hooks that they might be interested in - ‘keyword phrases’ and ‘linking text’. As a result the click through rate will be higher.

* The text that links to a particular page gives Google and other search engines clues as to what the page is about. ‘Latest Newsletter’ provides little information while the actual title of the newsletter contains at least two important keyword phrases.

In highly competitive situations the extra ‘points’ that Google gives can mean the difference from appearing on the first page of results and appearing nowhere.

Therefore to embark on an effective link building campaign you must be aware of your important keyword phrases and incorporate them into your titles and linking text. You also need to influence the words external webmasters use to link to you.

Title text

Including keywords in title text is attractive to human visitors as well as being a fundamental search engine marketing tactic. Your title also has the opportunity to influence the words that an external webmaster may use when linking to your site.

If your title is meaningful and useful, another webmaster is likely copy it, or at least edit it rather than go to the trouble of creating their own linking text.

Linking text

There are two types of linking text to consider - internal and external. As far as Google is concerned, internal and external linking text are both important.

The internal linking text that you use is completely within your control so you have opportunities to use keyword rich linking text. Yet many people overlook this and use lazy phrases such as ‘home’, ‘click here’ and ‘read more’. Avoid these phrases and use keyword rich linking text instead.

Introducing variety into linking text is also a good tactic. Good writing in English uses a variety of different ways to say the same thing and keep the reader interested.

Likewise in linking text, use variety. This keeps readers interested and also provides additional information for search engines.

External linking text

This is the linking text that sits on external sites and links to your website. You may think that you’re at the mercy of other webmasters in how they link to your site, but there are many situations where you can control the external text that links to you.

These include:

* Reciprocal links where you can ask for specific linking text to be used.

* Directory listings where you have editorial control and can specify the exact linking text that points to your site.

* Listing on subsidiary and partner sites.

* In bylines to articles that you publish. Many sites will allow you to specify not only the linking text but the text that surrounds the link.

* Links that you buy will always allow you to specify linking text and will nearly always allow you extra descriptive text.

After that you do depend on how individual webmasters decide to link to your site. The best way to influence this is to write good titles and linking text in the first place. Then all the webmaster has to do is to cut and paste.

Even if the webmaster decides to write his own text, what you have written will influence how he does that and at least some of your keyword phrases are likely to be included.

Finding Keyword Phrases

To help determine your most effective keyword phrases, use the excellent Wordtracker service at http://www.wordtracker.com or use an expert such as Dan Thies at http://www.seoresearchlabs.com to do the job for you - his keyword reports are terrific value at $99 and highly recommended.

Initially, this may seem like a lot of work but the benefits can be tremendous. If you plan methodically and practice, using keyword phrases in your linking text will become second nature - and a highly effective way of engaging your website visitors and boosting your search engine results.

---

Ken McGaffin is author of The Linking Matters Report and publishes a regular newsletter on linking strategy. He provides training and consultancy in
link building and online marketing.