Coffees and Cream

Mini Notebooks using cardboard, coffee sleeves & scrapbook, mini album stash

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:13:41 +0000

Here are some cute, fun notebooks perfect for throwing in your purse or pocket. Great for RAK gift or stocking stuffer. Check out my blog for more fun projects at http://RoxPaperScissors.blogspot.com

Duration : 0:9:3

Technorati Tags: cardboard, coffee sleeves, mini album, notebook, scrapbook, stash

Supersize vs Superskinny | Coffee and Cigarettes | Channel 4

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:13:23 +0000

Skinny Kevin starts the day with a balanced diet of caffeine and nicotine… | Tuesdays 8pm, Channel 4 |

Watch Supersize vs Superskinny FREE on Catch-Up http://www.channel4.com/video/supersize-vs-superskinny/catchup.html

Visit the official website at channel4.com http://www.channel4.com/programmes/supersize-vs-superskinny

Watch 1000s of Channel 4 clips http://www.channel4.com/video/

Duration : 0:2:0

Technorati Tags: Channel 4, channel four, channel4, Cigarettes, coffee, Diet, eat, eating, Extreme Bodies, Food, Obesity, Supersize vs Superskinny

Hottop KN-8828P Coffee Bean Roaster Tutorial

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:13:01 +0000

A very quick run through of roasting coffee in this dandy little home roaster.

Duration : 0:3:3

Technorati Tags: 8828, 8828B, 8828D, 8828P, bean, coffee, Drip, espresso, home, Hottop, How-to, KN-8828, KN-8828B, KN-8828D, KN-8828P, roaster, tutorial

Importance of Secrets to Build a Successful Internet Business

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:32:54 +0000

Everyday He talk with people who want to get started on the internet with their own business. But the whole process seems a mystery to them whether they have an affiliate marketing program, a real estate course or they sell health and fitness products. The easiest way he found to walk people through the basic building blocks is to use a real life example of building a brick and mortar business. Success on the internet is possible when you know how to build it and drive targeted traffic to your website.

1. Identify your niche

Well, it’s not much different on the web. You want to first identify your niche. First, let’s quickly explain what a niche is and isn’t. If you are selling every affiliate marketing program under the sun, this is not a niche. For more information visit to :www.social-marketing-secret.com A niche would be to focus on affiliate programs in a specific field like health and fitness. Then you want to find out what the top websites are by typing ‘health and fitness’ into Google. Here you can see the top 10 sites that Google says are important. Remember that even the category ‘health and fitness’ can be broken down into further niches like weight loss for women or top 20 health products for longevity. See what your competition is doing and how you could do it different or better.

2. Build a user friendly website

What will the environment of the coffee shop be like? What experience do you want your customers to have? Your customers will be entering your website with expectations of finding the information they need and the products they want. In that order. You might invite them to sign up for a free 7 part report on ‘how to lose 10lbs guaranteed over the next 30 days eating healthy.’ At the end of that report you can encourage them to look at your weight loss supplements or vitamins.

3. Good navigation

As in the coffee shop, have your items for sale laid out in a well organized fashion so the buyer can order exactly what they want with little effort except to give you their credit card number. It is best to have your products grouped and images optimized for fast page loads. Think about what you like. Do you want to see ten products described well on a page or fifty crammed in? As you would have nice displays in your coffee shop so will you on your website.

4. Offer something better than your competition does

What other things could you do to enhance your buyer’s experience? In a coffee shop you could offer free samples of new drinks or have a discount card for people who drink coffee with you every morning. On your website, you can offer free tips, reports and discounts on volume buys or repeat purchases.

5. Market wisely

So, how do you get people to come try your coffee shop? Typically, a brick and mortar business will advertise in the local paper. It may be that you have the coffee that is guaranteed to get them going in the morning, free internet access, homemade muffins or the freshest coffee beans available. For more info login to :www.tube-traffic.comWith your website, you may do pay-per-click advertising, exchange reciprocal links or write articles.

Traffic must come in the door of your website, like what they see and hopefully buy from you.

While most of these tips are common sense, it is amazing how few people actually use these critical ingredients in their online business. Pretend you are a customer arriving to your web store for the first time. What could you do to make the whole experience better?

SunilVerma
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/importance-of-secrets-to-build-a-successful-internet-business-671729.html

How to Choose the Perfect Holiday Gifts for Your Clients

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:32:36 +0000

The holidays are fast approaching, and if you’re like many, you’re still “thinking” about what to get your clients. Well, time is running out, so here are some suggestions that will make buying holiday gifts for clients a little easier.

1. Personalize it - Clients are impressed with a gift that tells them you’ve taken the time to get to know then.

Is she a wine connoisseur, or does she have a favorite liqueur? Try giving a nice bottle of her favorite.

Eco-friendly? Think about planting a tree in her name.

Gourmet cook? A great apron and pot holder set, or any number of cool kitchen gadgets or gourmet food items would be a great gift!

Sports fan? Some season tickets would I score some points, or perhaps some sports memorabilia from his favorite team!

Does she like to eat out? Try a gift card to her favorite restaurant.

Maybe he’s big into charity…make a charitable donation in his name. (Note on this: Be sure to donate to a charity based on your client’s preferences, not your own.)

Crazy about coffee? How about a grinder and a great bag of beans?

The point is, personalized gifts tell your clients they’re not just one of the crowd.

If you don’t have time to think of a personalized gift for each client, think of one gift that you could engrave with each client’s name. For instance, a nice travel alarm clock, or a brass wreath hanger, or a magnifying glass. Brookstone is one of my favorite places for these types of gifts.

2. Don’t forget the card - Be sure to attach a card or letter with each gift, personalized to the client, and signed by you. Also, be sure to wrap the gifts nicely. First impressions do count.

3. Avoid “trash and trinkets” – Don’t send trinkety type things with your logo on them. While you may consider it “branding,” your client will most likely toss it. There are exceptions to this, but generally speaking, avoid anything plastic that’s less than $10 each.

4. Designate a gift coordinator - If you’re a really small business, this may be you. But if you have a staff, consider assigning one person to coordinate all the gift details – from purchasing, to wrapping, to delivering. Client gifting can get complicated and time-consuming, so make sure the designated “Santa” is detail oriented and well-organized. Assigning someone besides you to be in charge will ensure you don’t get distracted from the job of building your business.

5. On a budget? Think about giving your clients gift certificates for free product or services (whatever you sell). If you’re a consultant or in a service business, give them a free hour of your time, or a percentage off on their next purchase. If you own a restaurant, give them a free dinner for two, or a free dessert or appetizer. Be creative!

6. Host a holiday party - Send out a great invitation, have an open bar, heavy hors d’oeurves, some desserts, and you’re done. Your clients get to know you better, and can rub shoulders with your other clients who will all be singing your praises.

Here are some of my favorite ideas for client holiday gifts:

Gift baskets - From steaks to wine to gourmet delicacies, clients love getting them as much as you do! You can go online to order them, and have them delivered. What could be easier? There are hundreds of gift baskets to choose from, one for every budget and every taste.

If you want to go more personal, put together a basket filled with some of their favorite things.

Books or Subscriptions - Have you read a great motivational book lately? How about fiction? Your client might like it as well. And if you can get a signed copy, so much the better! Or if you know your clients’ hobbies, consider giving them a 12-month gift subscription to a hobby magazine or journal. What I’ve done is buy a copy of the current issue, wrap it, and deliver it to my client with a hand-written note. You could also mail it if your client lives out of town.

Massage or Spa Day - One of my all-time favorite gifts was one I received from my creative department one year. They all pooled their money to get me a day of de-stressing massage and pampering at a spa. Your clients will love this idea, believe me.

Delivering a thoughtful gift to your clients during the holidays goes a long way toward letting them know how much you appreciate their business.

Donna Williams
http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/how-to-choose-the-perfect-holiday-gifts-for-your-clients-675779.html

How to Search Engine Optimize (seo) a Website

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:32:24 +0000

This article is a follow-up to my last entry about search engine optimization (or SEO), which you can find here on Articlesbase. While the first article provided a broad overview of what SEO is and how it can help you market your business, this one is meant to provide a more detailed outline of how the process works and some of the tasks you should perform in order to optimize a site. My intended audience for this article is web design firms and marketing companies who are looking to break into the world of SEO, but need a primer to help them get started.

Getting Started

There is one key piece of information to keep in mind throughout the entire optimization process, and it can be said like this: Search engines have one goal, and that is to return the most relevant results for any given search query. SEO is essentially the process of ensuring that those search engines understand that your site or your client’s site is, in fact, a good, relevant result for certain queries. For example, if you or your client owns a coffee shop in Philadelphia, then their website is absolutely a relevant result for the query “Philadelphia coffee shops”. However, the search engine algorithms can’t determine the relevance of a given page on their own if the site isn’t properly optimized. Let’s take a look at the key steps that are involved in optimizing a site, thus allowing the search engines to realize, “oh! This is a very relevant result for the query I was given”.

Choosing Your Primary Keywords and Phrases

Choosing the primary keywords and phrases which you will be optimizing for is one of the most important pieces of SEO. You need to find what I call a “middleground” keyword – something that’s not so broad that it’s useless to optimize for, but not so specific that no one is searching for it.

Consider a client who asks you to optimize for the phrase “real estate”. With very few exceptions, this is a perfect example of a keyword that is simply too broad to be worthwhile. Anyone searching for “real estate” will immediately realize that they need to refine their search beyond such a broad term. For example – are they looking to buy real estate, sell it, invest in it, or find a real estate agent? And are they looking for commercial properties or residential properties? To buy or to rent?

It should be immediately clear that optimizing for such a broad term is almost always a wasted effort. Not only because the optimization process itself will be excessively difficult, but because, more than likely, the traffic generated will not result in any sales ( “conversions”).

Now, let’s assume your client is ABC Real Estate in Bala Cynwd, PA, and they are residential real estate agents specializing in the Philadelphia market. They might ask you to optimize for “ABC Real Estate Bala Cynwd”. This is an example of a keyword that’s incredibly simple to optimize for (I probably wouldn’t even call it “optimization” since there is only one ABC Real Estate in Bala Cynwd, pretty much guaranteeing you the #1 result), but this keyword is almost useless for driving new traffic to the site. People searching for the company name already know about the company and probably know what the company does. You want to drive traffic from people who are searching for a product or service the company offers, even when the potential customer doesn’t know about the company yet.

“Homes for sale in Philadelphia” is a keyword to think about in this instance. We know from this query that the person performing the search is looking for homes for sale in Philadelphia. Our client is prepared to provide not only home search capability, but real estate agents who are willing to help the searcher in their quest for a new home. This is the kind of traffic you want to drive to the site. You should choose 2-3 similar keyword phrases to serve as the primary search goals. It’s important to note that your site will not be locked into appearing for only those phrases, if you perform the optimization correctly. Now, let’s take a look at how you actually go about doing that.

Site Structure

The first thing to look at when tasked with optimizing a site is the structure of the site itself – the HTML code, the URL/link structure, and the title and meta tags. If the site doesn’t exist yet, but you will need it to be optimized once it’s built, this section still very much applies, so read on.

Navigation

One of the most common problems I see with poorly-optimized sites is a navigation system that is effectively invisible to search engines. Oftentimes, the main navigation was created with javascript or flash, and no alternative sitemap or links are provided. While search engines such as Google are getting much better at identifying links embedded in javascript and flash, it is still a much better idea to provide a plain HTML/CSS based navigation system. You can do this without sacrificing any of the javascript or flash functionality or changing the user experience at all, so there is no reason not to do it. If your navigation is javascript based, make sure you are using a “pure CSS” menuing system, meaning that you can code your navigation as if it were a normal

or based menu, but the script will transform these tags into javascript-powered dropdown menus. Some of the menuing systems we use at Context are: Superfish, OpenCube, and SmartMenu. If your navigation is flash based, you can use a dynamic flash publishing script (see swfobject) that will transparently replace the HTML-based navigation with your flash element. In both of these cases, the search engines will see the original HTML and CSS based navigation elements, which are much easier to traverse and index than their javascript or flash-based counterparts.

A Note about flash based sites

If your site is done completely in flash, you may want to re-think your design, instead using flash for a header, footer, and/or borders, but leaving the main content as HTML and CSS. Otherwise, I recommend essentially building two full versions of the site – one in HTML and one in Flash. As I mentioned above, search engines are becoming much more effective at indexing flash pages, but you are still doing yourself a disservice in terms of SEO if your site is 100% flash based. Also, completely flash driven sites can often degrade user experience, but that’s a topic for another article.

URL Structure

Now let’s talk about URLs. Search engines like very clean URLs, the kind you see at the top of this (or any Wordpress-based) blog. Even if your site is driven by dynamic content, you will want to rewrite your URLs to look like static pages. For example, rather than having /product-view.php?fromcat=5&id=32, you will want a url that looks more like /products/32/this-is-the-product-name.html. Not only is the actual URL part of what search engines look at when determine what a page might be about (which is why we include the product name), they also have a much easier time indexing static URLs as opposed to complicated dynamic URLs with a string of variables at the end. There are many ways to accomplish the rewriting, and it’s usually not very difficult. The easiest way is to use Apache’s mod_rewrite module, which lets you transparently redirect one URL to another, while the visitor only sees the original. If you are using ASP.net on IIS, there is an excellent rewrite module for IIS6, and IIS7 has built-in rewriting capabilities. Finally, development frameworks such as Fuse for PHP or Ruby on Rails have extensive “routing” functionality which allows very fine grained control over the URL structure.

Title and Meta Tags

The and description tags are very important in SEO. These tags are your first chance to explain to a search engine what your site is all about, and you should follow some guidelines when generating these tags:

The title and meta description tags should include your primary keywords and phrases, but only once. Don’t repeat “Philadelphia coffee shop” five times in the title tag, because the search engines will penalize the site for keyword stuffing.

While there are no strict rules on length, the title tag should be no longer 60-80 characters, the meta tag around 200 maximum.

The title and meta tags need to be different for every page. Even if the title or meta description tags for some pages don’t actually include your primary search phrases (and they don’t have to), they should be clear and relevant to every individual page.

Content

It is a common SEO adage that “content is king”, and although the SEO process has gotten a bit more complex over the years, it is still largely true.

Your site should contain as much useful, unique content as possible. Simply plastering bits of text all over the site won’t do you much good, but the best thing you can do to optimize a site is to provide high quality content that people actually want to see or read. Developing such content can be tricky, but here are some basic guidelines:

Every page should have at least two paragraphs of relevant content. There are some exceptions here because some pages simply don’t require any text, but you should try to work in as much high quality, relevant (remember: HIGH QUALITY and RELEVANT) textual content as possible.

Don’t rely exclusively on bulleted lists. Bulleted lists are fine and won’t hurt your positioning, but they should be augmented by rich prose, since larger bodies of text will net you the most gains in terms of SEO.

Include your targeted search keywords and phrases in the content, but don’t “stuff” keywords by repeating them more times than is reasonable. There is a balancing act to be performed here, but as a general rule, I try not to include the same keyword or phrase more than once per two paragraphs. There are plenty of exceptions, however, so it’s something that you have to develop a knack for after some trial and error.

Your home page is the holy grail of content for your site. Every single website only gets one home page, so the content there is weighed very heavily by search engines. Make sure your home page content is of a decent length (at least 2 paragraphs), contains your primary keywords and phrases (gracefully – don’t keyword stuff), and is well written and relevant.

Include as much content on as many different pages as you can. Remember, though: high quality and relevant. Don’t create pages for the sake of having more pages – think about information that will be relevant to your potential customers and provide it through your website. For example, if you are optimizing for a coffee shop in Philadelphia, a page dedicated to how to identify & choose the best coffee beans might be a great resource. Oftentimes, you will be surprised and unable to predict some of the keywords and phrases that drive people to your site, but these relevant “landing pages” ensure that you can pick up good traffic that you weren’t necessarily expecting.

Inbound Link Building

Another essential piece of the SEO puzzle is getting other sites to link back to yours. There are several ways to do this, but also some pitfalls to avoid.

Directory submission – this is the process of simply adding your site to online directories that list and link to external sites. There are a few important things to remember when submitting your site to directories, however:
- There are a lot of good free directories that do not require a reciprocal link. Don’t get caught up paying for every submission (though there are some directories that are worth paying for).
- Make sure that the directory itself is in good standing with Google. You will want to check its Page Rank (Google’s 1/10 score of the importance of a site). The easiest way to check page rank is to install the Google Toolbar
- Make sure the directory links directly to your site and doesn’t first go to a tracking page. If the link is not direct, it is essentially useless.
- Try to find directories that allow you to specify the anchor text – the text that people will be clicking on to get to your site. Make the anchor text one of your primary keyword phrases, e.g. the words “Philadelphia coffee shop” should link to philacoffeeshopsite.com.

Press release distribution – Your client should have press releases that outline the current happenings at their company. These should be posted as text (instead of or in addition to PDF) format both on the website, but also on aggregate press release sites that allow you to submit your own press release. You should also include links back to your site directly in the press release

Social Networking & web 2.0 – There are many sites available that allow you to post your own business profiles on the web. Hotfrog and Merchantcircle are good examples of such sites, and I recommend adding a listing there for any site you are optimizing. Additionally, if you have interesting, relevant content to share with the public, consider posting it to aggregate sites such as Digg

Conclusion

Hopefully this article provided insight into the SEO process, and can act as a “getting started” primer for companies who are looking to expand their services offerings. I do not recommend that business owners attempt to optimize their own site, because you will not get the results you expect, and your time is better spent running the business. Hire a competent SEO company instead, and work with them to position your site for ideal keywords and phrases.

Jim Keller
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-promotion-articles/how-to-search-engine-optimize-seo-a-website-736210.html

amy’s cooking show ep.4:Amy’s specialty coffee

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:20:29 +0000

The revolting taste gets reborn.Spindashpro’s recipe gets meddled with into a horrible,disgusting,never liked,never cared for,etc recipe.Thanks to spindashpro for the idea!

Duration : 0:2:49

Technorati Tags: amy's, Cooking, cool, ep., episode, everything, games, great, hedgehog, ingredients, intro, introduction, pizza, plush, recipe, show, sonic, super, the, toys, ultimate, weird

The Gift Card

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:20:19 +0000

Zayne and I won the Roll the Brim to Win Video contest on Facebook and received a $50 Tim Horton’s gift card in the mail!
This is our Thank You video!

Duration : 0:2:22

Technorati Tags: Brim, Card, coffee, facebook, gift, roll, the, to, win, Zayne

Organic Coffee Business Opportunity Part 1

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:20:15 +0000

http://www.DietCoffee.org

Every day, millions of people sit down and enjoy a hot cup of coffee. Because of the huge demand, coffee comes in hundreds of different options that include caffeinated and decaffeinated. There is also a lot of flavored coffee such as hazelnut, French vanilla, maple, chocolate mousse, and the list goes on. In addition to flavored coffee there are many specialty blends such as Kona, which is a wonderfully balanced coffee from Hawaii. However, the best coffee comes from the organic grown coffee bean.

In South America, traditionally, coffee is shade grown, which means it grows under bushes since the beans do not tolerate direct sunlight. These canopy shade trees provide just the right amount of shade for most coffee beans. This shade coupled with the leaves help provide the needed moisture in the soil for the coffee plant and the results are fresh beans with amazing taste. Best of all is that this type of organic coffee bean is grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides.

Because the organic coffee bean has become so popular, we now see new hybrid varieties being developed. With this, crops produced more beans, smaller in size that make harvesting much easier and more efficient. Another huge change with this coffee bean is that it can be grown in direct sunlight, which has helped the production rate to meet ongoing and increasing demand.

http://www.DietCoffee.org

Duration : 0:2:22

Technorati Tags: business opportunity, coffee business, Coffee Business Javafit, Coffee business opportunity, coffee franchise, Coffee MLM Business, Coffee Products Opportunity, Coffee Shop Business, Diet coffee, gano, Gourmet Coffee, healthy-coffee, High Energy Coffee, Home Based Business, Immune Coffee, javafit, Javafit Coffee Company, javafit mlm, JavaFit MLM Business, Lions Mane Mushroom, organic coffee, Stimulating Mushroom Coffee, weight loss, work at home

CATIA Imagine & Shape – Coffee Anyone?

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:19:56 +0000

Excellent example of Imagine and Shape being used in an industrial design application with free style sketch tracer tools

Duration : 0:3:54

Technorati Tags: CATIA, REA, V5