The LuxMob Info Tags

A villa vacation is a fantastic way of enjoying a relaxing break. But so much can go wrong - some villa owners, unfortunately, fail to tell the whole truth about their properties, and sometimes you find help difficult to come by if something goes wrong.

So how do you find out the reality before you arrive for your vacation? As a villa owner for over 15 years in Spain and also as a villa agent that fully manages villa rentals on the Costa Blanca - as well as personally preferring self catering accommodation - I’ve seen what can go wrong with a villa vacation from both perspectives.

I also know the best ways to make sure you and your loved ones or friends get your dream vacation. What to look for, and the questions to ask. If you’re not happy with the answers, simply go elsewhere. Your vacation is too important to gamble with.

What do the photographs tell you?

Firstly don’t get fooled by a single picture - especially if it’s tiny and difficult to see - or the lovely descriptive prose which may not resemble reality. All villas can look stunningly beautiful when painted gleaming white, but avoid booking one that does not show sufficient interior pictures. And look closely into each picture - does the bedroom show a headboard, or is it just pillows against the wall? This could indicate lack of preparation by the owner or lack of expenditure on the villa generally.

Clarify if the pictures are current. Was that fantastic view taken from the roof of the building or before some building plot was developed next door? It’s not much fun if your sea view is only from the top floor toilet. It does happen.

Ask if you have sun on your terrace. Or will you be in shade from 1pm onwards? Find out about the villa’s position and orientation so you know that you do not have go to the beach in order to catch some rays.

Key questions for private advertisers:

A private villa owner may oversell his pride and joy. Think about the things that can make a big difference to your vacation. Would you think to ask an owner if the kitchen china is really just inexpensive acrylic or is it a proper unmixed china set? How can you tell if the sofa suite is cheap and not so comfortable or of superior quality? What is the type of linen and towels used, could it be bobbly winceyette sheets for summer use?

Look for an unbiased grading or rating - it’ll save you asking awkward or embarrassing questions about your villa vacation. It’s best to seek out those who show gradings that indicate the quality grade of kitchen equipment and soft furnishings (including beds and sofas), say, separately.

Ask what service backup do you have if something goes wrong. Ensure that your chosen villa has professional support in case you experience a problem that cannot be rectified quickly. Is for example a knowledgeable local person on hand seven days a week to resolve maintenance issues efficiently?

What happens if the villa becomes unavailable due to the owner taking a double booking (it happens)? Or if there is a problem with the pool, a new building next door, or something not repairable quickly. A private owner may have problems relocating you, while a firm has more options to give you alternative accommodation should something go wrong.

Is privacy important to you? Be aware that many new villas are on very small plots and though are detached, you will be close to your neighbour. So check if the details are specific about this. And, if closeness to shops and supermarkets is important, then do ask.

Private owners may also wish to get a high rate of return on their investment when they rent them out to vacationmakers - or simply believe that their villa just has to be worth more than the market around them. So rates could be unjustifiably higher when compared to similar villas in the same areas.

Key questions for Villa agencies:

When thinking about booking a villa vacation through an agency, be certain who you are dealing with. Ask if the agency has a direct contract with the owner and is not sub-contracted. This ensures that you only liaise with one party, as sub-contracted parties are not in full management control of the villa, resulting possibly in delays of damage deposit repayments.

Check the small print carefully for extra charges. These can include surcharges for credit card use, damage charges even if no damage occurs, and unfair administrative fees charged per person or for simple changes to a booking.

Using a credit card such as Mastercard and Visa (not a charge card such as Amex, Diners Club or Switch or a business card) gives you, providing the payment exceeds £100 (payment amounts and cover may vary from country to country), full consumer credit card protection. So if the villa was fictitious, or the owner or agency was not what it seemed, you can get a full refund from the credit card firm.

Get the information you need

Take a more detailed look at the web site or brochure and look for the detailed information that will help you decide that you can be comfortable with your choice. Look to see if there are clients’ comments, how old are they, how many. Always look at the pictures and ask the questions, then you’ll have that relaxing villa vacation you’ve dreamed of.

For more tips and information, see www.villaspain.co.uk

Bruce Gibson is owner of Villaspain (www.villaspain.co.uk). Villaspain is a long-established, though modern, friendly local Spanish villa rental agency.

Adsense is probably one of the quickest and most powerful roots
to website profits with the easy implementation of a simple
snippet of code. If used properly it can generate a great
passive income for any site. But that’s the crux if you’re not
placing the right Adsense code in the right style and in the
right position on your pages then you’re actually loosing money.

Apart from the ease of implementation the results you can
achieve are fast and they can also be surprising and exciting.

The first thing to do when considering Adsense is to research
your keywords. Research your market if you’re adding Adsense to
an existing site or explore niche markets if this is a new site.
Examine keywords and keyphrases from the market that get the
most searches on the search engines. There are a number of sites
and software tools that will allow you to do this some of them
even giving you the click costs, essentially how much you will
make per click on an ad.

Select say 10 keywords or keyphrases and then consider your site
content or for best results create new content. Unique and
keyword rich articles related to your site theme work well. Use
your 10 keywords to choose an article theme and then create an
article for each keyword. Aim to have around 3% keyword density
for each article. Keyword density is the number of times your
keyword appears in relation to the number of over all words in
the article.

Be sure to make your article informative and grammatically
correct. Badly written articles, focused on SEO only, will do
you no favours and often turn visitors away and maybe pop up on
the search engine radar, which could mean a slip in your site
rankings. Think long term here. There is no reason that, once
set up, your Adsense site wouldn’t continue to bring in a
passive growing income for years to come.

Once you have your articles build your site.

Now before you insert the ad code you should consider two
things, the styling of the ads and the positioning.

The styling is possibly the most important. A badly styled ad in
the perfect position on your page will get a poorer click
through rate than a well-styled ad in the same position.

The best click through rates, when it comes to styling, have
been proven to come from removing the ad borders and setting the
background colour to match your page background colour.
Essentially blending the ads into the page and getting them to
look like part of the page content. You should also have the
colour of the links on your page match those of the ads.

Next consider the positioning of your ads. Place your ads where
site visitors are most likely to click on them. Research shows
that the top left of the page is the first spot to draw the eye
and in turn get the most clicks. The new format ‘Ad Links’ work
well here. The other hotspot is directly within the body of your
content. The square formatted ads at the top right of your body
copy work best here.

The correct styling and positioning of your ads are crucial for
better click throughs and higher payouts. You will get clicks on
your ads almost no matter where you place them if you have
enough site traffic. But styling and positioning them properly
from the start can triple or more your click through rates.

Adsense has good tracking statistics that allow publishers to
track their results across a number of sites on a site-by-site,
page-by-page basis. You should make the most of this facility to
learn which ads are performing the best and fine-tune them
accordingly to improve your results.

Finally, you have the option to use image ads instead of text
only. But, the average Net user is sophisticated enough now to
ignore image based ads. They’re now almost universally blocked
subconciouHarry Potter !sly by Net users as advertising. Stick
to text ads only. Be sure this is set in your account.

To really start making money with Adsense, you should have a
definite focus on what you want to achieve and how you will go
about achieving it. Set income goals day by day and work to
increase your income by tweaking your pages and adding more
keyword targeted content.

Consitently improving your site and introducing new content will
see your Adsense profits grow.

Everything you do in life – from the way you dress to the car you buy, from the friends you see to the club you belong, from the notes you write to the way you speak — either builds or diminishes your personal brand. Below are ten suggestions for building a stronger personal brand.

One: Become an expert source. Deliver a speech, write a bylined article, and become an expert source for reporters. Make sure you have a current photo, bio, resume, and speaker introduction.

Two: Become a great communicator. Research shows communications skill is the top determinant for upward social and professional mobility. Join Toastmasters or hire a communications coach to ensure that your written and verbal skills are at their best.

Three: Draft a marketing plan for yourself annually, and review it quarterly. Include specific goals, strategies, action steps, and a timetable.

Four: Develop an ‘elevator speech.” Within the time that it takes an elevator to travel one floor – about 60-seconds – be able to deliver a succinct description of what you do, how you do it differently, and the benefit it provides.

Five: Build your Rolodex. Make new business contacts and stay in touch with them. Most people with powerful brands have powerful friends.

Six: Realize that your boss can be your most powerful ally — or enemy — in building your brand. Be loyal and never speak ill of him or her – to anyone. We should make our bosses look good, and help them build their own brands.

Seven: Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Balance your individual style with clothing that will appeal to those you are trying to impress.

Eight: Become a class act. Learn good business and social etiquette. Buy elegant personal stationery and send hand-written notes. Know how to order a good bottle of wine in a fine restaurant and drink it sparingly during dinner. (Remember, alcohol and branding seldom mix.)

Nine: Select “significant” significant others. Who you date or who you marry affects your brand. John Hancock CEO David F. D’Alessandro in his book Career Warfare: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Personal Brand and Fighting to Keep It, suggests that single people not take their dates to company events. If they do, they will be judged by the outcome of every romance.

Ten: Give something back. Giving your time, talent, and money to charitable causes is a brand-builder especially when it complements your brand strategy. Find a cause you are passionate about. When I was in public relations, I wanted to be known for my creativity. By limiting my community involvement to arts organizations I was able to reinforce my personal brand. Not only did my involvement in the arts benefit my career, I enjoyed the work. I still do.

Your personal brand is one of your greatest business assets. Nurture your brand and you will nurture your career.

“The Career Engineer,” Randy Siegel, helps clients electrify their careers and transform their lives by becoming high voltage communicators™. Power up and subscribe to “Stand in Your Power!” his complimentary monthly eNewsletter at http://www.powerhousecommunications.com.

One of the common recriminations by defamers of the fast cash advance industry likes to concentrate on the annual interest rate conventionally charged on short term payday bridging loans which might rack up a hundred percent or more. (If you’d like to read more about getting a payday advance go here.

As you probably will know, the annual percentage rate or “APR” can be defined as a widely accepted metrics to formalize the entire amount of interest a borrowing client would be required to pay calculated for one full year. The APR offers the mechanism for deciding which financial tool offers a higher or lower expenditure impacting the deal, embracing any other fees that may be imposed.Undeniably the annual borrowing rate has deservedly been acclaimed as a commodious device for financial obligations spanning a minimum of twelve months .However, relevant to 2 week payday advances the annual interest rates are manifestly appropriate.

I prefer to liken fast cash advances to hiring a taxi home from the office meeting. It may cost you about forty dollars to drive back home by taxi. Admittedly forty dollars qualifies for anything but peanuts to cough up for a mere ride home and yet people won’t hesitate to do it because it is sensible and it accommodates a need. Now we all know that one could rent a car for a whole day for only forty dollars to drive as many miles as we want.

Now let’s just assume we do that

Have you ever tried to cut through layers of maple roots to plant that groundcover or flowering shrub that you so diligently picked out? Have you ever found that after picking the perfect spot to plant that there is a four-inch diameter root in the middle of the hole? Well there is a better way to plant in the shade and it does not involve digging at all. After years of struggling with pick axes and shovels, I started planting on top of the soil.

The first step to my above- ground planting technique is to remove all debris from the planting area ( i.e., leaves, sticks, old mulch). Next, lay down old newspaper in the planting area. This will help reduce weeds and prevent the old tree roots from invading your planting area until the new plants are established. It is best to water the newspaper to prevent the wind from blowing it away.

Now add pinebark mulch on top of the newspaper to the depth of the pots. If you’re using one gallon plants this would be about 6″. The reason I use pinebark mulch is that it is not toxic to plant roots. Hardwood mulch or any mulch containing woody material will rob your plants of nutrients as it breaks down. Be careful not to pile the pine bark on the existing tree trunks. That would be an invitation for insects and diseases.

If your planting area is large, the pinebark can be acquired in bulk. It is sold by the cubic yard at landscape supply companies. A cubic yard is 27cubic feet. If the area will be 6″ deep, you can expect to cover 54 square feet per cubic yard. That same area would take 9 (3) cubic foot bags from your local garden center.

After the area is covered in bark the holes can be dug by hand. Remove the plants from the pots and pull at the roots if they are wrapped in circles. If the plants are very root bound cut from top to bottom with a knife or shovel. Place your new plant in the hole and backfill to the top of the root ball. Don’t put any mulch on the top of the root ball. Everything that was above the roots in the container should still be seen.

Water the bark well to settle in the plants. A drip hose should be used for the first few weeks while the plants become established. It is hard to say how often to water because it depends on the time of the year and the amount of wind the area will receive. I like to run the drip hose for a couple of hours and then check by hand to see if the water has saturated the bark. Let the area become slightly dry before watering again. I have seen far more plants killed with too much, rather than not enough, water.

The pinebark has very little nutrient content and needs additional fertilizer. A slow release fertilizer is best. Slow release fertilizers have a coating that prevents all the nutrients from being released at once. This prevents the plants from being injured and your fertilizer money from being washed away. All garden centers have many different brands of fertilizers, so ask a sales person for a good slow release brand and follow the directions on the bag.

I have used this technique many times with great success. So put away the pick axe and the shovel and enjoy planting around the trees.

Jim Putnam is a registered Landscape Contractor in North Carolina and Owner of Earthworks Nursery

In today’s world it is easier to count those who do not have a
cell phone than it is to count those that do. Children in
Elementary school and even younger carry cell phones. The latest
cell phones give you the ability to:

View or take pictures View or capture video Surf the internet
Text message Email And most have a variety of other features.

The newest discussions however aren’t about how great a cell
phone, but on the disturbance it brings to others. You can’t
walk block without passing someone who is talking or yelling
into their cell phone.

Now in movie theaters, it is becoming more and more annoying as
other patrons don’t bother to turn off or mute their cell
phones. There are two sides of the argument. Should we ban cell
phones in theaters or not?

Pros:

Banning cell phones or using a device to block their signal will
mean no more annoying ringing throughout a movie. No one yapping
on their phone as if they don’t realize that a few hundred other
people just paid to watch the movie like they did. The sense of
joy that the only sound now besides the movie is the idiot who
wants to loudly discuss every scene to the person to them.

Cons:

Banning or blocking cell phones is a good way to give customers
a break from all the ringing and annoyances throughout the
movie, however there is the problem of not receiving an
important call.

A doctor for instance won’t get calls from a hospital that needs
them to come right away, endangering patients lives. People in
business who needs to know what’s going on every second of every
day with their business, won’t get that important call if
something is going wrong.

What about this one? Someone in your family has been hurt or
killed and you won’t find that out until you leave the theaters.
How are you going to feel knowing that you just spent two hours
watching a movie and wasn’t able to find out that someone you
love needed you?

The National Association of Theatre Owners are fed up with the
cell phone calls and have reported that some individual theaters
have experimented with cell phone bans.

Also some studios block phones during unreleased movie
screenings to prevent people from taping a movie with the
phones. Some professionals have reported that they would stop
going to the movies if this ban or block were to take place.

If people think that a ban can’t happen they should remember
that just last year France’s government gave theater owners
permission to block cell phones. However this is only when you
go in to watch the movie itself and not in the lobby and waiting
areas.

As with anything there will always be the few that ruins it for
those who follow the rules and are considerate of others.
Unfortunately the good usually has to suffer with the bad.

I don’t know what the individual States plan to do about the
cell phone issue, but until then, everyone needs to remember
that they are not the only people on the planet. Put your cell
phone on vibrate and stop disturbing the rest of us.

I had the privilege of listening to a very interesting lecture at a holistic event about something I never really thought about, the practice of circumcision on male babies in the U.S. I learned that doctors do this on a routine basis, charging anywhere between $150 and $300 per male baby to not only remove a large part of his penis, but do it in an inhumane way. The doctors generally reassure parents that this is the way to go, for cleanliness or the prevention of disease.

Now, I don’t believe a mistake was made when man was created, do you? Even if one doesn’t believe in creation, nature just doesn’t repeatedly make what doctors are considering to be faults in baby boys that must be fixed. I understand that those of the Jewish faith regularly circumcise the male child but according to what I have learned, they only remove a very small portion of the foreskin at the tip of the glans. Doctors in the U.S. remove the whole thing which is a lot of skin and amounts to approximately the size of a 3 x 5 inch index card in an adult male! Many times they accidentally remove even more skin than this and boys grow up with either painful erections or their erections are bent because the skin is stretched too tight. Both men and women usually believe that’s just the way some penises look and never question it. There can be other complications also. Circumcised males grow up never knowing that they lost a natural function of the penis and lost a great amount of sexual pleasure.

Females are born with the same exact thing as males have, a foreskin called a prepuce and the same smega, which is just some dead skin. In the U.S., it would never cross the doctor’s or parent’s mind to cut off part of their baby girl’s genitals for cleanliness. It just doesn’t happen. Some countries today practice circumcising and castrating female babies but cleanliness is certainly not the reason. I believe this practice is abhorrent and something needs to be done now to end it. During the lecture, the speaker said Clinton made circumcising female babies illegal in the U.S.

I heard and read about how the babies are circumcised in this country. Their arms and legs are strapped down to a restraint board and during the procedure, they scream in pain and terror. This makes my heart go out to all male babies in this country and elsewhere where this is practiced. I learned that only until recently in the U.S. did doctors begin using some kind of anesthetic for the baby but this is not a common practice.

What a way to come into the world! So I wonder, what affect does this practice have on males about themselves and their self-worth? How has this traumatic experience manifested in the male’s life while growing up and as a man? And why is this still being practiced in America?

Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The lecturer gave me a book written by Thomas J. Ritter, M.D. and George C. Denniston, M.D. called, “Doctors Re-examine Circumcision”. It seems that many physicians around the U.S. are now speaking out against circumcision.

“The United States is the only country in the entire world that routinely circumcises most of its newborn males for other than religious reasons.” [p. 16-1]

It contains pictures and diagrams of circumcision procedures, including pictures of mistakes with the procedure, resulting in a deformed penis or no penis at all. In the event of an accidental, complete amputation of the penis, which apparently happens, the doctor would just create a vagina. The book also has pictures of what a penis is really supposed to look like and all of the benefits an natural, uncircumcised penis has. It examines the many myths people have been told over the years of why circumcision is “necessary”.

“What moral or legal right does any parent have to remove a valuable and normal segment of another human being’s body?” Would it be moral or legal to remove the tip of every male’s left little finger, or to knock out a front tooth, because it was fashionable and everyone else was doing it?” [p. 13-1]

The good news is that there is a movement of circumcised men around the country to grow their foreskins back! A man is actually able to regain a large amount of sensitivity after growing back what was taken from in the first place, without his consent. Our bodies are truly miraculous! More information is available in a book called, “The Joy of Uncircumcising: Restore Your Birthright and Maximize Sexual Pleasure” by Jim Bigelow, Ph.D. There is also a website called, Restore Yourself! A Handy Kit for Circumcised Men at:

http://www.restoreyourself.com

Here is a quote from this website:

“You should feel increased sexual sensitivity on the glans of your penis within 30 days. It may take three months to see new skin. Within nine months, you will probably find that you can use your new skin to stimulate your glans.”

Since the lecture, I’ve shared this information with many men and women. I believe the more we examine and talk about this practice of circumcision, the more something can be done about ending it, not only in the U.S. but throughout the world.

Chyrene Pendleton, Metaphysician, Numerologist, Dowser, teaches several workshops on topics including prosperity and abundance, numerology and dowsing. Her articles have been featured in many mainstream and spiritual journals over the years and in her free, online Ezine called, The Isle of Light.

Chyrene is the owner of The Isle of Light Inc., a spiritual, metaphysical online spiritual center dedicated to assisting all to become more empowered and enlightened in a wide variety of ways. She is a certified television show producer and co-produced and hosted The Isle of Light television talk show in Denver, Colorado, which continues to air biweekly. Chyrene is also the producer and host of The Isle of Light Internet radio talk show which airs 24 hours each day at Live365.

Chyrene Pendleton’s websites can be found at:

The Isle Of Light
http://www.theisleoflight.com

The Isle Of Light Internet Radio Talk Show
http://www.live365.com/stations/avalon22

Prosperity is a State of Mind
http://theisleoflight.blogspot.com