I came across a nice service today that you may find useful.  It is a great tool for when you’re stuck someplace with no phone book, no computer, nothing but your phone and a burning need for a number to dial.  Only you have no idea what that number is.

In the past when you needed to get a number or information you would call 411 and be charged as much as $3.49 per call.

Not any longer.  There are a couple free services that will do the same thing for you.

The first one is by a company called 1800FREE411.  Yep that is the number you dial for assistance.  Now the free information that you get from them will come at a price.  Nothing is every truly free now is it?  Once they get you on the line you will have to listen to a 10 second message from one of their sponsors.  Once through with the message you just follow the voice prompts to get the directory assistance you’re looking for delivered to you by phone or text.

The next one you will probably say “they do that too.”  All you need to do is give Google a call.  They not only help those searching for information on the internet, now they help people in need of directory assistance.  Not only that they will connect you free of charge.

How you make Google work for you is to call 1.800.GOOG.411.  No need to type you can say the business you are looking for and the automated system will understand.  Then when you have it say “text” and the system will text you the information along with a link to a map.

There is one additional thing you should know about Google 411.  It is still in the experimental phase meaning there may be times when it is down or otherwise unavailable.  Oh with Google 411 there are no ads currently so you save having to listen through them.

Between these two choices you shouldn’t have to pay for directory assistance.

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JFK, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Charlie Chaplin all had one thing in common.  They all appeared on postage stamps and guess what.  You can too!

No one ever said that I was the quickest to discover new technology and Photo Stamps have been around for a while now.  The thing is that I just discovered just how easy it is to appear on legal postage.  What used to be the domain of only the rich and famous is now open to everyone.

I am not a person who likes to shop so this was right up my alley.  I literally ordered my custom designed stamps in less than 2 minutes online and they will be delivered to my door in 3 to 5 days.

Now you might be asking yourself why you would possibly want to appear on postage.  I can literally think of dozens of reasons.  Just a few would be a family photo on the stamps for holiday cards and an endless number of reasons for marketing. 

Hey all you Realtors out there, just how cool is it when your clients receive their mailings from you and your picture is on the postage?  I personally ordered the example pictured in this post.  Businesses can use it for branding in any number of ways.

Don’t go thinking this is something difficult.  At Stamps.com all you need is a picture or logo loaded onto your computer so you can upload it when asked.  You choose the amount of postage from a drop down menu, make the payment and they ship them to your home for free.

To answer your question, yes they cost a little more than standard postage.  Setting up the custom print job does take some special handling.  For special occasions, branding and marketing the extra cost could be well worth it.

Be aware that there are several companies that offer custom stamps.  Make sure that the one you order from is certified by the USPS to create and sell usable postage.  If you don’t you may be just getting novelty stamps that can’t be used for postage.

One little catch is that the image you upload must not be considered offensive, but other than that you are free to do what you want.  Be crazy!  Let your imagination go and create some stamps that are truly unique. 

To give credit where due, I came across this while I was trying to come up with an idea I could use to enter a contest over at Balkhis.com.  He will promote your site if you send him a promotional item for your company.  I am going to send him a stamped envelope and see what happens.

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If you want to sell your home you need to impress the home buyers.  It really is that simple.  Do you want to sell your home fast and get top dollar?  Then you need to read the home staging tips in this article and get ready to move.

The benefits of home staging

What staging your home involves is setting up your home in a way that is both pleasing and inviting to the buyers who visit.  Get rid of all that clutter, do some painting, re arrange the furniture and redecorate in every way to make your home inviting and comfortable to any buyer that walks through the door.

There are studies on this topic that show as many as 25% of the homes selling now have been staged and the vital statistic is that staged homes sell faster, as much as 50% faster than a home that has not been staged.

Not only that, but they sell for more!  As much as 6% more than the homes which have not been staged.  When it comes to staging, time and money talk.  By following a few simple tips you can achieve these results also.

So what do you need to do?

Set your goal.  You want to make your home appeal to as many home buyers as you possibly can.  The first way to do that is by arranging your furniture to give the appearance and feeling of a spacious, clean home.  Make sure you start by removing all the clutter lying around.  Hide the remotes and TV guide, get rid of the mail, laundry and any other little things that tend to clutter up a home.  Get away from that lived in look and take on the model home look.

Start removing furniture.  Give the living room more space by taking out about half of the furniture and ensure that you are drawing attention to focal points in the rooms.  Make your spaces inviting to make your home buyers feel relaxed and comfortable. 

Now is not the time to be showing off your latest kitchen gadgets either.  Clear that counter off to give it as much space as possible.  You want all your visitors to see the abundance of counter space available in your kitchen.

Now that you have de-cluttered you need to take on the role of Mr. Clean.  Clean everything!  Scrub the floors, paint the walls and clean the carpet.  Make every area shine with special emphasis on the kitchen and bathrooms.  Get rid of old rugs or mats and pack up half of everything in your cabinets.  Leave only what you absolutely need.  You want the buyers to see cleanliness and space.

Have someone who does not live there check for any odors.  Tobacco or litter box odors have to go, make it as odor free as you possibly can.  Having your carpet professionally cleaned is a good start to being odor free.

Next take your personality out of the home.  Take down any symbols of religion, family photos or collectibles.  You want the home buyers to imagine their family living in your home which is difficult if your personality and family memento’s are screaming from every corner.

The first place to spend money getting your home ready to sell is by repairs to the exterior and foyer including painting.  The first thing that potential home buyers will see is the exterior of your home and you want it to make a good impression.  Open up the windows to let the light shine in and bring in some fresh flowers to brighten up the atmosphere.  With these tips and a few more from your Realtor you will be well on your way to selling your home.

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 There is an important job to be done, but you just don’t seem to find the time. There are so many files piled up on your table. You say, “I will do them tomorrow.” Next morning you find another five added to your already tall stack of files and you tell yourself again: ‘I’ll see them later.” What are you doing? Procrastinating.

One wise man once said procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. Don’t feel guilty about it for it is something that everybody does. Everybody puts things off for tomorrow, especially things that are bound to be unpleasant or difficult. But remember that tomorrow never comes.

This is one of the biggest sources of stress in most organizations. Do you live with a sense of anxiety because you can’t seem to get a hold of your procrastination? The clock keeps ticking and time moves on but you are unable to keep up with it and this makes you anxious and ultimately stressed.

Sometimes you may even begin to doubt yourself, your own potential to do things, the fear of losing a job because you are unable to cope with deadlines. You begin to have a low tolerance level and finally may end up anxious, in severe depression.

What you have to do is really simple and easy. Here are a few tips on how to beat procrastination:

• “I just cannot begin“: One of the many reasons for procrastinating could be because you are afraid of the anxious and uncomfortable feelings that are associated with the beginning of the task. So in order to avoid feeling bad you put it off. When you do this the task seems like this enormous job that is extremely difficult to do. But because nearly everything you try to do in life is bound to produce tensions and frustrations, you avoid it, shrinking from anticipated stress. All you have to do is some mental work. Tell yourself that there is nothing that you cannot do. You have to take the first step. Try to break the task down into smaller activities, study the job well and plan how you are going to go about it. It will be easier once you break it down. So get cracking on the smaller bit first.
• Timeframes: Procrastinators very often have an unrealistic time frame. You constantly undermine the amount of time it will take to complete a given task. A common example being when you have to go to work in the morning, you want to grab those extra few minutes of sleep thinking that you will be able to complete all your activities and be ready for work in half an hour. Be realistic about your time. If there is a task to be done, first try to figure out rationally how much time it will take. If you were unable to do so get a colleague to give you an estimate of how much time a given task would take. And then work and plan your day according to it.
• Be rational: Many times you convince yourself about not doing something. For example, you need to go to the market to buy something. Why have you not done it so far? Because you hate going to crowded places. So you tell yourself that it’s too hot or maybe you’ll go when you need some more things. You have conveniently made excuses not to go. Ask yourself: “Am I being rational about it?” After all your reasons for postponing the shopping seem perfectly logical to you. But if you take a hard look you will notice that they are not logical, rational reasons but just mere excuses, the little lies that we constantly tell ourselves. How do you shed some light on these self-deceptions? What you need to do is draw up a list of 10 most common excuses that you use. Make a conscious attempt to do away with one excuse daily and you will succeed.
• Setting standards for yourself: Many times people are not able to get cracking on a task because they are perfectionists. (This is related to the workload, rather than the time undertaken.) You set such perfect standards for yourself that in the fear of not being able to achieve those you keep postponing your task. The sense of inadequacy and shaky self-confidence leads to a fear of failure. Rather than starting on the project, you get scared because of the high expectations and put it off. Try to set targets that are within your means to achieve, so whenever you are able to complete a task you will feel an ego boost, which will work wonders for you.
• Jobs I don’t like: Everybody has their preferences, likes and dislikes. Try to list out the jobs that you do not like to do. At work you possibly cannot do away with them. But here is your chance to get creative and innovate for your own comfort. See how is it that you can make a job more interesting and fun for yourself. It is important for you to like what you are doing in order to do a job well and not avoid it. Haven’t you heard the famous saying: “Find a job you like and you will never have to work another day in your life”.
• Introspect: Learn to observe yourself. You are the only person who knows yourself better than anybody else. So take a good look into yourself. Scan your thoughts your habits and ask yourself why is it that you put things off. There must be a reason that only you will know. So think hard and get the answer to it.
• Change the attitude: We always save the best for last. In this case the most important for last. Change your attitude. Have a can do attitude. Take life as a challenge, think positively and you will well be on your way to a bright and successful future.

Follow these golden rules to help you deal with procrastination.

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So you want to start up a new online venture which means you need a domain.  The bad thing about starting any new online venture is that not only are you fighting stiff competition, but also the need to get traffic to your website quickly. 

Doesn’t the prospect of avoiding any search engine sandbox sound nice?

If that is your goal an established domain with some linking history might be just what you need.

Established domains can offer faster rankings if you have carefully screened it.  The domain could offer nice relevant links if you focus on finding one in the same niche as your new venture.  If you could find a domain that was previously used and promoted in the same niche it would allow you to take advantage of that previous marketing.

The question is.  How do you find those domains?

Here is one pretty easy way to get it done fairly quickly.

Take a trip to DMOZ and navigate down to the niche you are starting your new venture in.  For my example I want to start a gallery.  So I find my way down to an appropriate category to find numerous sites already listed there. 

Now is the one part of this process which can be a little tedious, except in this case.  Click on the first link called Alcala Gallery and voila!  It is a dead link pointing to bauerart.com. 

You don’t always get this lucky this quickly.  Sometimes it can take ten or fifteen sites depending on the category until you find a dead page or one that has clearly not been updated in some time.

In our case bauerart.com is also showing a nice page rank of 2.  Not a bad start at all and a .com which is fairly brandable to boot.

The next thing to do is look into its history a little at the web archive - There we find a nice history going back to 1999 and up through the latter part of 2007.

Now we have a site and know something about its history, but what about the present? 

Let’s do a quick check into its backlinks by running it through Yahoo site explorer where we find 310 links that are highly relevant to the niche with some edu domains.  An old relevant domain with a good history and relevant backlinks is really not a bad start.  Probably a little traffic too which could be nice to build from.

Now you just need to go to Who Is and search the domain.  A quick search gives us an email address we can use to send an email and start negotiations.

I am not starting a gallery, but if you are this was just a quick demonstration and that domain was still available when I wrote this.

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 With the way that tipping etiquette changes based on the country you’re in or even the region, it is no wonder travelers get confused over how much to tip.

Just where did this strange custom of tipping come from anyway.  Wikipedia tells us that the phrase itself comes from a 16^th century verb tip which means to give unexpectedly.  Everyone easily identifies the term today as a gratuity for excellent service.

When you travel you should try to remember that those who are helping you along the way, making your trip more enjoyable are typically paid low wages and rely on tips to supplement their income.

Your first chance at tipping will come at the airport and try to be prepared with some single dollars so you have the correct change.  If you take a taxi or limo there you should be ready with $2 or $3 minimum and more if it was a long distance or the driver helped you with your baggage or took extra measures to get you there on time.

There will also be sky captains at the airport to assist you with your luggage and their usual is $1 per bag.  More if a bag is especially heavy.

You will have plenty of opportunities to tip when you arrive at your accommodations. 

• The bellman follows the standard of $1 per bag when he shows you to your room and again upon checkout. Consider tipping more if any bags are extremely heavy or if he provided any added services.
• If the doorman hails a cab a $1 tip is appropriate and more if he assisted you with any bags or shielded you from the elements with an umbrella.
• For parking attendants consider a $1 or $2 tip appropriate when your car is delivered.
• Coatroom attendants traditionally receive $1 or $2 if there is no fee for the service. If there is a fee a tip is not needed.
• The most forgotten people are the hotel maids. The standard for tipping maids is $1 per person for every day spent at the hotel. Maids are easy to forget because you typically don’t see them but leave your tip in a clearly marked envelope or they won’t touch it.

Tipping for entertainment and dining

While on your trip you will have opportunities to dine out and enjoy what the area has to offer for entertainment.  This will present you with more tipping opportunities.

• Wait staff typically receive between 15 and 20% of the bill prior to adding tax. Before you tip make sure that the gratuity was not already added to the bill as some establishments do this for large parties. Oh, and don’t forget that room service waiters are also included.
• If you are part of a tour consider tipping the guide or charter bus driver. The amount really depends on the type of service and length. $1 is standard for a half day group tour and $2 for a full day. Private guides should receive more.
• Don’t forget that bartender who has been serving you. By tipping with that first drink you will ensure that the next one will be there on time.
• When you get special assistance from the concierge or are expecting assistance with tickets, reservations or other entertainment $2 to $10 is a standard tip. If you know you are going to need help arranging something special you should consider tipping the concierge $10 to $20 upon arrival.

Sometimes you may feel it appropriate to tip the servers or wait staff on the last day of your stay.  To do this, make sure that you genuinely thank them for making your stay so enjoyable while discretely handing them their tip.  To avoid awkward situations take care of change issues beforehand.  There is nothing more awkward than asking for change while showing your appreciation.

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