My Personal Finance Blog

When you own a small or medium-sized business, it is a good idea to look for ways to save money. That is great advice if it makes you avoid buying something more expensive when something less expensive will do, or if you avoid buying things you don’t need. However, some business owners try to cut corners a little too far, and end up without services they actually need. One area in which business owners make this mistake is in voicing their own commercials. Unless you are a voice-over artist yourself, don’t try and voice your own commercials, because doing so can actually drive away potential customers.

The most common reason that customers are driven away from businesses whose owners make homemade commercials is that the commercials themselves annoy them. It may not be a pleasant truth to bear, but not every voice is cut out for the microphone. If you have a voice that grates on the ear, customers will not want to listen to you. If you are not a professional, you may be sending messages that you don’t want to send. You may sound tense without intending to and will, in turn, make your potential customers tense. If your voice makes them tense, then people will not be inspired to purchase your product or service.

If it is obvious that you don’t have a professional voice talent, listeners will assume at least one of two things – that you are cheap or that you are not successful enough to afford to put together a professional commercial. People who assume you are cheap when it comes to your advertising may also assume you are cheap when it comes to the product or service you are trying to sell, and will not have confidence in you. It is also a bad idea to let potential customers know you can’t afford things, even if it is true. People want to do business with successful people. Therefore, you must always act as though you are successful. Spending money in the right place will help you do that.

Though the final reason for not acting in your own commercials won’t necessarily drive away potential customers, it is a valid thing to think about: Wasting your time doing a job best left to professionals is a poor use of one of your most valuable resources – your time. As the owner of a business venture or department, your time is best spent doing what you do best, and that is running things. Your job as manager is to delegate tasks and responsibility. If you do elect to do some things yourself, do those things you can do well.

Your commercial is like a job interview. It’s your opportunity to make a first impression on potential customers who don’t know your business and to remind others you are still out there and still doing a fantastic job. Just as you would never go into a job interview as anything less than a professional, you should never allow your advertising to be anything less than totally professional. Hiring professionals and delegating tasks, where it is the appropriate thing to do, instead of wearing out yourself trying to do everything, is the mark of a good manager. Don’t let the desire to save a buck make you a laughingstock.

Starting out in your web design? Wishing to use CSS? You can.

But first – before you begin anything – there is one thing you must do: don’t start with CSS. Confused? We’ll explain.

Although it may be tempting to jump straight into your website by creating the design, unless you know what is going to go on your website, this is a mistake. In fact it will be nearly impossible for you to do, so put CSS to the side for the moment and consider another route: Content.

Yes content. Layout and everything else can come later. What’s important is working through the content of your webpage as it is here where your initial impressions for your web design will begin to appear.

So forget layout and how many divisions you plan to place onto your website; ignore graphic design, and consider for a moment what the purpose of your website is? What is your ultimate goal by creating this site? Once you know and are confident on how you want to tackle it, go to your computer and write the content straight onto the page.

As you do this, view the page as though you are writing a HTML for IE 1.0. This includes putting your navigation into a list, your headlines with H1, H2 and H3 tags, and your content inside paragraphs.

Sounds simple? It is. And if you plan to have subsections on your website, this is easily resolved by separating them with DIV tags. All that matters at this stage is that you place the basic content onto your webpage. The rest will come.

Yes we know what you are thinking – your page looks boring… plain… dull. Your doubting what you have done.

Let me reassure you that this is just the first stage of the process. There is much more to do before it is finished, and we promise once you have created a new CSS web page, you will actually have achieved it in half the usual time frame.

You see the reason we do this way, is that some designers make the mistake of trying to build up the layout of their web design without content. This is possible, but without content, elements such as width and height may look misleading and are guaranteed to alter once the content is introduced. Until it is there, you can never be sure of the accuracy of your layout.

Even if it is rough, content will give your page perspective… a structure… something for you to work on later.

Master Style Sheet

What is the Master Style Sheet? This should be the first style sheet you call all your documents onto. Through this style sheet you should be able to clear out the default browser settings that can cause later problems in cross-browser design and begin afresh..

Once you have cleared out the styles with your master style sheet, your design can start from the same place in all your browsers, giving you a clear canvas to play and paint on.

Now… once your content and basic HTML have been set up, work your way down from the start of the page and place in your CSS styles. We know it may feel tempting to work more globally before focusing on the little details, but that can complicate the CSS process.

By working down the HTML document gradually, the movement – acting as a cascade -will actually work to limit the complications of CSS at a later stage.

Another important aspect to bear in mind is the CSS itself and how you write it. The more complicated it is, the harder it will be to maintain later and can result in styles not working to the level you expected. Instead:

o Avoid complex selectors (defines the exact elements to apply the style to) – alternatively use simple tags and ID selectors when possible to simplify the design
o Ask yourself this question – does the page need it? For example don’t add a class for ‘bolder’ or ‘italic’ unless this will play an integral part to the representation of your page
o HTML – unless it is absolutely necessary avoid changing. The biggest mistake is adding extra div tags to your website. The only exception to this rule is your ‘container’ element used for column layouts and graphic designs.

Lastly create a library of styles to keep consistency of your page constant. This includes the basic elements of centre, float left, underline and no underline.

It is even possible to create a standard style sheet that you can load directly onto all your pages, so that when you use the class of float right, you can be confident that the element will appear aligned to the right when the style is applied.

And that is it. With these simple tools at your side you can easily create a new webpage or web design, and expand upon your website at a later stage.

All you need to do is plan and the rest…easy.

You have heard it a thousand times over: how education is one of the most
important things that you should invest in for your future.

Once you have finished high school and the rush of activities have passed,
the next thing that you need to think about is college – where to go and
which field of study to take. Taking up undergraduate studies can both be a
torture or a lot of fun, but it is a mere preparation for the things that
are in store for you when you go to college.

The next thing that you, as a student, will prepare before applying for a
university is your personal statement or college essay. The outcome of your
personal statement for college will reflect whether you found writing it a
breeze – or a chore.

Even if you are not a future novelist and you are not good with the pen, you
can still come up with a decent college essay that will reflect your goals,
give the reader an overview of who you are as a person, how you have
overcome some obstacles in your life and how important education is for
you.

Take a look at the following tips on how you can compose a readable,
concise and heartfelt personal statement for college which you can surely be
proud of:

1. Study the essay question and answer it.

Treat your personal statement for college like a job interview. Answer the
essay question directly and do not beat around the bush. You can go on and
on about how you really want to get into the university that you are writing
the essay for, but if you did not answer the essay question, your personal
statement will not earn you any plus points.

2. Follow technical guidelines to the letter.

One mistake that most college essay writers make is that they do not conform
to the requirements. They either write a very short essay thinking that
‘short and sweet’ should do the trick. Or, they write a very long and
tiresome essay, which is not what examiners are looking for. If you are
required to write a three-page long essay, then stick to the rules. Other
minor details like the size of the paper used, your grammar, punctuation and
overall presentation of the essay will count as well.

3. Be honest and direct.

Your personal statement for college should give the reader an insight into
your mind and personality. A list of your accomplishments is not enough. Add
some anecdotes from your life which will show how you have become the person
that you are now. Make sure that the essay reflects your confidence in
yourself, your positive traits and how you view education in general.

4. Rewrite if necessary.

It a rule for colleges and universities to accept only the best students.
Show in your personal statement that you are the student that they are
looking for. After having a draft of your essay, re-read and rewrite if
necessary. Have somebody else read it for you, to get an outside feedback on
how your essay would read to others.

Once you have written a good personal college statement, you can be on your
way to getting into the college or university of your choice.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Related posts on Mistake
• Avoid Limo Hire Mistakes When Booking Your Wedding Limo

• Related posts on Pockets
• THE MURAL AND THE MINT show off their private parts. | Philly Rock …
• Tripp NYC Time Warp Bondage Pants – Rave Clothing
• New Obama Administration Regulations Funnel Taxpayers' Money into …

• Related posts on Smart Divorce
• The Collaborative Way to Divorce « Divorce Dayz
• Celebrity Children and the Phenomenon of Divorce
• Applying for your child's passport « The Smart Divorce® Weblog

Article by The Golf Swing Genius

Having or creating lag in the golf swing is something many golf pros will talk about when referring to a good swing move or creating more power. Many amateur golfers don’t know what having lag in the golf swing actually means. Simply put, lag occurs when the angle between the forearms and the golf club shaft is maximized and maintained for as long as possible in the downswing.

Setting the golf club properly in your backswing will give you the ability to have lag in your downswing. Without doing certain things correctly in your backswing, it will be difficult to generate power in the downswing. An important key to a good golf swing is to remember that a good backswing will generally lead to a good downswing. Golfers with good backswings do not tend to have problems in their downswings. Problems in the backswing lead to more problems in the downswing.

In order to create lag in the golf swing, you must have a good wrist set or wrist hinge in your backswing. Ideally, the wrists will set fairly quickly as you begin to take the golf club back. You don’t want your backswing or takeaway to become jerky, you should still try and maintain good tempo, however it’s important to have a good wrist set to load up or create the power angle between the club shaft and your forearms. Once this angle is formed, it then needs to be maintained for good lag to occur in the downswing.

A note about setting the wrists in the backswing. You still want to maintain good extension with your arms as you take the club back. When I teach the wrist hinge or wrist set, many golfers will make the mistake of bending their right elbow too early. The right elbow will naturally start to bend at the halfway back point in the golf swing and should be folded at the top of the swing. However, bending the right arm too early will decrease extension and less power. So make sure to bend your wrists while keeping your arms straight as you take the golf club back in your backswing.

Lag in the downswing allows the hands to come into the golf ball ahead of the clubface. This is important for solid contact. This allows you to hit down slightly on the golf ball which lets the loft of the club launch the ball up into the air. This is especially helpful when hitting your irons. Hitting down on the golf ball happens when the hands can lead slightly coming into your impact position. With your woods and your driver, the hands should approach the ball in the same line as the club face because the swing will be more of a sweeping motion with these clubs.

Great golfers usually have a tremendously amount of lag in their swings. Lag produces power and distance and is generally a good thing too have. The pros will often have to work on not having so much lag because they may have too much. Too much of a good thing can be a problem. Most amateur golfers do not need to worry about having too much lag. Try to focus on creating a proper golf wrist set and maintaining the angle between your club shaft and your forearms as long as possible on the downswing and you’ll no doubt start hitting the golf ball farther and more solidly.

For more great golf swing tips and strategies, check out our Best Golf Swing Tips and play your best golf today!