Fixed Ads

One of the last strings to my 'internet earnings' bow is fixed adverts. These are placed on fixed pages and pay a set rate every month. Currently I have just three of these that remain active which gets me £5 a month - not a lot, but it's passive income so ratio of effort to earnings is well worth it.
In the past I have had loads of these running at any one time, earning me more like about £30 a month at the peak. I used a couple of companies, but to all intents and purposes, they were run by the same organisation, and only the parent group survives intact as far as I can tell. Nevertheless, when I have a few more sites running I fully intent to maximise on this type of income if at all possible, in the meantime, I am happy taking my £5 a month...

Weight Loss Tips

If you're looking for fast weight loss tips there are plenty of resources on the internet. The trouble is that 'fast' weight-loss is not always the best way to lose weight. 'Fast' implies abnormally quickly which means that the chosen method could have unwanted side effects.
A proper weight-loss program should be looking at the longer-term results rather than short-term. Speed should not really be a factor when it comes to losing weight healthily.

Coupons

Ways in which to save a bit of cash are always welcome at this time of year, so now could be a good time to see what coupons are available to help you with your Christmas purchases.

Often, there are vouchers and coupons available for some of the most popular Christmas items including Hi-Fi equipment, mobile phones, laptops, cameras and HDTV's.

Every little counts when it comes to making a saving, but it's important to bear in mind that with these types of offers, you have to spend to save. Don't be fooled into paying out MORE just because you are saving more - try and make the coupons work for you to save your over-all expenditure.

Under Eye Creams

Whether you are looking for the best under eye cream, or the latest piece of electronic kit in your quest for the perfect Christmas present, a combination of online and offline shopping will probably get you the best deals.
Online shopping usually gets you the best prices and provides a lot of additional information, but offline shopping (in your local mall or shopping centre) carries less risk and enables you to actually touch the product and maybe even 'try before you buy'.

With online services, there is always the risk that the product may not be quite what you expected, and you should always use reputable retailers.

eBay Partnership

I had a go at eBay affiliates a long time ago, but didn't really get anywhere with it - I recently signed up again, this time directly with the eBay Partnership. I had an idea for a website that would be suitable for this type of advertising, and sure enough in a very short time, got some returns. Since then the goal-posts have been moved a little, firstly a minimum payout was imposed (£25 - or 25 of whatever your home currency is), secondly there was a patch when earnings flat-lined. I am not sure what the glitch was, but it inspired me to change the existing flash-adverts that I had, and within days the earnings came back online... I have lost a couple of months earnings with this glitch, but at this stage it is nothing too dramatic.
This is a revenue stream that I would like to exploit in the future, so getting to grips with it now is helping to form my future plans.
In short, the scheme allows me to place contextual, graphical eBay ads directly into my pages - the site I have built assumes that the visitor will be interested in the eBay adverts, and sure enough, they seem to attract enough interest to prove worthwhile. Again, like the paid to post schemes, given time, this is a model that I could repeat using similar themes with slight variations to capture different search terms/keywords. Right now, this site on which I use the eBay partnership ranks extremely highly for it's niche keyword - this keyword when used as an eBay search shows adverts which interest the visitors, some pages in the site have more specific keywords and again, the adverts shown on the page match perfectly with the page content.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for bloggers, but if you think your site could be used to drive traffic to eBay, it's worth thinking about signing up.

Creatine

The trouble with creatine powder is that you need to keep taking it to benefit from the effects. Like a lot of medications, it provides short-term results which substitute for a lifestyle change. To get longer-term effects, a proper exercise and diet regime needs to be worked out.

This applies to medications for weight-loss or muscle-enhancement. Another concern is that taking any medications over a long-term may introduce side-effects. It is always advisable to read up about any possible effects especially when the medication has not been prescribed.

Male Enhancement

One of the most common themes of spam email is male enhancement. This indicates that there must be a large market for such products especially online. It is fairly obvious that the 'discreet' nature of purchasing goods on the internet is ideal for products of this nature. However, it is always advisable to seek proper medical advice over any medical condition you might have before simply purchasing a remedy online.
You should also ensure that your online retailer is reputable, check that they are a properly registered company with a genuine address and contact details.

Medical Assistant School

Adult education is often carried out on-line nowadays anything from theological college to medical assistant school can be found offering online courses to willing students.

The advantages of this type of education are obvious, studies carried on at your own pace and at your own convenience suits those who are already working, and may have significant financial commitments.

The more traditional model of the teenager leaving home to study has been augmented by this more practical alternative that resonates with older individuals who may have families and a mortgage to support.

Paid to post

Right back in 2007, the aim of this blog was to investigate possible earnings from the internet, and primarily the various paid to blog programs that are available. Whilst various companies have come and gone, there are still a couple of companies that offer decent earnings purely from paid to blog opportunities.
Please refer to my monthly earnings for a breakdown of how much can be made this way. I would say that if I had more blogs (and considerably more time), I could probably multiply this several times over (and in fact, information on how to do this is often 'sold' as part of an internet money-making package - don't buy it - read my blog instead..). I often mention the services that I use, so a quick intelligent search through my posts will tell you all you need to know. I spread posts around a few different blogs at the moment, and sometimes get specific offers to create a post for a particular niche. On the whole, I will do posts for as little as $5 where the requirements are simple, but will look for $10 to $15 for more demanding posts. I do not do posts for less than this (everybody has a limit right?)...

Dark Circles

Well Hallowe'en may almost be upon us, but dark circles of another kind may be the bane of your life if you are looking for eye creams to correct your facial flaws.
There seems to be a bewildering array of face creams on offer, and at vastly differing prices - all of them claiming to make radical improvements to your face. However on the 'face' of it, the majority of products seem to be little more than glorified foundation cream to cake over the top of the offending dark patches.

Other products offer remedies that go a little deeper, so look very closely at the ingredients if you plan to buy anything that you expect to dispel those dark circles.

Christmas Garland

October is not yet finished, but I saw my first Christmas decorations this year through a living room window on my way home from work this evening. I have heard of families who are already getting their Christmas trees ready for assembly, and others are no doubt preparing the christmas garlands and Christmas candles.

I have long been of the opinion that Christmas should really start with Advent, so I won't be getting the baubles out until December starts...

At least none of those really garish house adornments have hit the streets yet, but it wont be long I'm sure before the flashing Santa's are out!

Affiliates

Affiliates can be a good way to make some extra income, and you can read more about effective affiliate marketing on Livewyre.NET. I have had some success, but earnings have been very sporadic. I remember when I started, I had nothing for months and months, then got two 'sales' within hours of each other and got paid about $70... this encouraged me greatly, but I have never really got into a groove with affiliates and I do regard it as something of a missed opportunity.

I have tried a few in my time, never had much success with clickbank, and never really understood their reporting... The one service I have found effective is 'ShareASale', although I tend to have long periods of inactivity with affiliates, this is the one service that has come up trumps for me - and again, it's passive income so why wouldn't you?

I have never really got into using PPC to generate leads, and so have never really tried to exploit this market fullly, but nonetheless, affiliates can generate earnings if you can find affiliates that are closely linked with your niche. ShareASale have an extremely wide range of affiliates available with very wide ranges of earnings. I have earned from ones that pay a couple of cents to others that pay in tens of dollars - each one has it's own payment matrix.

If you think this is something that could work for you, check out the article on Livewyre.NET linked above, and then sign up with ShareASale and see what they can offer that fits in with your niche - you have nothing to lose, they provide a variety of banner you can place on your pages, if you get sufficient traffic, and the affiliates is well in line with your visitors interests, you may well start a new revenue stream.

Barcode Scanners

My boss has been talking about getting a barcode scanner for work. He thinks it will help with stock control with new products that we are selling.
In the main, we have sold large high-cost instrumentation in the past, but recently we have expanded into smaller low-cost items that may lead to high-volume turn-over.

In order to speed up the system and allow the sales team to know exactly what we have on the stock shelves, we have been thinking about a barcode system that will be used to scan deliveries coming in and out to keep everything up to date. We are also considering implementing an online e-shop, so having 'live' stock level figures would be very helpful in informing clients how long it will take for them to receive their orders.

Even though the company is only small, technological developments allow even the smallest companies to have a big market presence, and this type of automated stock control could then be implemented into our other product areas - which could make things a lot easier to control!

It's coming...

As winter rears it's head, thoughts turn inevitably to... Christmas, and it is my intention to start my Christmas shopping as early as possible. I will no doubt be blogging about various present ideas, some will be conventional, but many will probably be a bit off-the-wall...

My gift idea for the day is the chair slipcover perfect for protecting your chairs from the ravages of small children and pets.. or even larger children and clumsy adults. We have had covers on chairs since our little one was born - it does give you considerable peace of mind.

You can use covers not only for protection, but to spruce up a 'tired' chair or sofa, maybe your old suite does not fit in with your newly planned colour scheme? Chair covers are an inexpensive way to transform your living space.

Oooops!

The picture here is my printer scanner in bits... stupid thought he would print off some sticky labels even though one of the labels wasn't properly affixed to the paper.. within seconds it was not attached to the paper at all, but it was well and truly attached to the inner workings of my printer!

Quite prepared to chuck the thing if my 'repair' didn't work, I set about the printer with my screwdriver and a certain amount of misgivings.. After about 10 minutes or so, with about a dozen screws lying around my feet, I finally removed the paper, but not before inadvertently removing a ribbon cable that did not look like it was going to easily slot back into place..

I battled with the ribbon cable eventually forcing it home, gathered up my screws and put it all back together again. it's a testament to Hewlett Packard that the whole thing went nicely back together, and worked! Hats off to HP, not all manufacturers are bothered about making repairable goods nowadays, and although HP did not exactly make it easy for me, a bit of determination and invention was all it took to correct my stupidity, now where did I put the rest of those sticky labels....?

Surveys

I used to do a few of these, but mostly have become a bit disillusioned with them - I am left with just two that I use now;
YouGov: Payout of £50, will take a long time to reach - at least you get paid small amounts for 'non-qualified' surveys which is better than how 'Ciao' treats its surveyers...
PureProfile: This has a lower payout at £25, but it will still take time to reach this level - again, you are rewarded even if you turn out to be not suitable for the survey

Both the above are decent honest schemes, but you will have to put a lot of work in to get anything out of them - I don't really intend to carry on with them once I have reached payout, as I can probably make better use of my time. I have also used dNeero surveys in the past and Ciao, both of these started well, but have turned into useless schemes after a while - having said that I have been paid out by them, but I wouldn't go back...

Reward Cards

reward cards can be a big help in the drive to save money, however you should be careful about how you view the card. Firstly, there is the danger of the 'spend more to save more' philosophy - you must ask yourself: 'in taking advantage of this extra reward point offer, am I going to spend more than I normally would?'. In essence, by being attracted to offers that involve gaining points on your reward card, has your weekly expenditure increased? or can you forfeit another purchase? the biggest rewards are offered on luxury goods, ie. stuff you don't need!

Secondly, you should be aware that using the reward card helps the shop to build up a profile of what you buy. You will get vouchers for more expensive dog food if you tend to buy a cheaper brand - all clever tactics to get you to increase your spending.

Reward cards are great if you can take advantage of them without unwittingly increasing your spending.

Work Experience

Nowadays it is not at all unusual to find yourself having worked for several employers half-way through your working life. I 'spoke' to a friend via Facebook the other day, he has been working for IBM for his entire working life (30 years) whereas I have had seven employers in that time. I have worked for the family firm, large utility companies, companies with only three employees, have had two healthcare industry jobs, and now work for a small firm again...
I find that the experiences gathered in all these completely different environments make me better at what I do. Being able to draw on an array of experiences equips you for most eventualities that working life throws at you...

Google Adsense

Many bloggers have a fairly negative attitude towards Adsense, mainly because it is very difficult to make anything from Adsense on a blog.

Before you consider using Adsense, you should understand that you will probably only get any results if your blog is sufficiently specialised (niche), and the niche is one that is profitable.

In my experience, it is easier to get results from a good niche website than it is from a blog, but Adsense on a website has it's drawbacks:

An Adsense click on your site means that you 'lose' your visitor - you are effectively paid (sometimes a lot, sometimes a little) to drive your customers to another site. If you are in some sort of business, that may well mean that you have sold a potential customer to a competitor for the price of a click.

You can 'filter out' competitors from your site, but I take the philosophical view that the price paid for the click is 'passive' earnings meaning that you didn't have to lift a finger to get the money - entering into a transaction with a visitor involves effort and investment on your part. When you compare the amount earned with the effort expended, Adsense clicks are infinitely 'better' because they involve no effort on your part whatsoever.

If I earn passively from a competitor, then I am happy to regard that as income every bit as valid as income earned from a direct transaction with a client of my own.

YouGov Surveys

I have not been over-enthusiastic about surveys recently, as reaching payout on and of the 'half-decent' survey sites is hard going. However, I had a fairly long survey to complete for YouGov last week, and the reward was almost immediate (well, it took about a week...) a £5 amazon voucher was enough to restore a bit of faith in surveys at least temporarily...

The voucher has already been spent, but it was very gratefully received. YouGov offer surveys for amounts that vary from £0.05 to £1.00 on the whole, (£0.05 is the usual payment for a survey that you start but get filtered out...). They also do 'prize draw' surveys where you don't get a set payment, but you get entered in a draw. I don't do those as a rule, and the main drawback is the time it takes to reach payout for the 'normal' surveys. However I always say that it pays to have many 'strings' to your internet earnings 'bow', and surveys could well make up one of your sources of cash.

Bad Back!

I have been seeing a chiropractor for years now to help me to live with back and neck problems. The problems are not very severe, but do give me uncomfortable nights on occasions. Fortunately, the chiropractor is a good friend and charges me 'mates rates'. The last time I went to see him, we started to talk about memory foam mattresses because I had been waking up with considerable back pain.

Now, the problem is that you always think that memory foam mattresses are very expensive, but he suggested a couple of options:

• Look around for a promotion, there are always promotions for these products if you take the time to look
• Try just a memory foam layer on top of your existing mattress as a compromise
• Most companies offer a no quibble guarantee that allows you to try the mattress for a month or maybe even longer, then return it and get your money back if not entirely satisfied.

I am actually due to see the chiropractor tomorrow, no doubt, we will continue the discussion then...

Disability Insurance

I have been reading up on how disability insurance works in the US. There is a process for applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and often, applicants need help to take them through the process.
There are organisations that are set up to help potential applicants to complete paperwork and get the award that they are properly entitled to under the US social security system. Allsup.com are one such company who only charge a fee if the claim is successful. The awards eventually received are paid for through taxes, so the recipients must have paid into the 'FICA' tax system.

Orlando

For years now I have been thinking about a Orlando vacation, especially when the nights draw in and the temperature drops to the zero mark as it is threatening to do now in the UK.

Even the best of our summers pales into nothing compared to the Florida sunshine and East Coast scenery. Of course, the attraction of Orlando is not limited to the weather and the scenery, theme parks are what Orlando is famed for, and the reason that this region makes such a good vacation spot for families.

I look forward to the day when our dreams of such a vacation an start to become a reality...

How to survive winter

Everybody has misgivings about the onset of winter, however for some, the lack of light during winter has serious depressive effects. However, modern civilisation is fortunate in that it can provide us with summer produce even in the depths of winter. There are a couple of ways in which we can bring the summer into our homes:

• Placing fresh flowers or floral centerpieces around the home.
• Having plenty of fruit on show and available to eat.

Supermarkets are full of this stuff all through the year regardless of season, and you can fool your senses into ignoring the winter effects by surreptitiously promoting summer.

Heated Mattress Pads

Heated pads are big favourite in our house, we have several types, beginning with the ones you can put in the microwave to the sort of heated mattress pads that you plug in to the mains.

They can be great for those who suffer with chest problems, or those that easily feel the cold. The one we have has an automatic shut-off so that if you fall asleep, it will turn itself off after about 15 minutes. It also has three levels of heat, and is generally a bit more sophisticated that the 'electric blankets' of old...

I have often been known to 'borrow' the various devices littered around our house to ease my bad back, or to ease my chest if I have a cold.

Monthly progress

This month has been busy in some ways, but earnings are likely to be down. However, I am getting quite a few enquiries for cassette to CD conversions, and have bought some stock to cover projected needs based on the enquiries. This is a big turn around compared to the first half of the year when pickings were meagre and enquiries where scarce. Some of the investments made this month will (hopefully) come to fruition in the next month or two. Added to this, there will be another Adsense pay day on the way soon (again, mostly from the cassette to CD site).

Acne

In formative years, acne can be a real problem for some youngsters causing discomfort and embarrassment. However what may be considered just acne on chin in youth, may turn into skin problems that persist into adult life. In some cases, corrective procedures are offered to adults in order to remove marks from the face caused by acne whilst growing up.

Acne is so common that virtually everyone will suffer to some degree or other during their youth, usually young males suffer more acutely than females since it is a male hormone that triggers the reaction.

Gadgets

I remember that my first ever digital mobile phone was a Samsung. I think that was probably the first time I had come across the brand, but yesterday I was browsing for cheap netbooks and the brand cropped up again. We are thinking of offering a netbook with some products that we sell at work. The netbook would need to be inexpensive, but at the same time, it would have to be a recognisable quality brand. Samsung is one of those brands that is reliable and offers every-day usable no-nonsense quality - that phone I had was certainly well constructed. At the same time, it is not one of those brands that has 'fashion' value, where the manufacturer relies on the goodwill associated with the brand to charge extra. Apple is certainly one company that is not frightened to charge extra because of the strength of the brand image. Personally, I do not buy 'image' as it has no real value, I prefer to buy 'functionality' and 'quality' where it is on offer...

Back problems

I have found that my back problems can be considerably eased by changing the type of mattress that you use. For years, we just had a standard cheap mattress, but a few years ago, we went to a mattress sale and got an orthopaedic mattress. I am now thinking of going again and looking for one of those memory foam mattresses this time. I am not sure I can afford a complete mattress, so I may look just for a mattress 'topper' so we can take advantage of a layer of foam on top of our existing mattress.
Whatever we end up spending, if it gets me night after night of undisturbed sleep, I don't care how much it costs!

Backup update

Well, it's just as well that I have my backup system in place as my main hard-drive has disappeared from 'My Computer' today... I have one 500GB SATA drive on one of my PC's which holds the data files from my cassette to CD conversions. This is no longer showing, but fortunately everything is backed up using my new system, so I am not too concerned.

There is every chance that the power cable has come out as the SATA cables on this system have a tendency to drop out, and yesterday I disconnected a floppy drive - I am assuming that I have been a bit clumsy during this process... I don't have to worry either way as I am quite safe in the knowledge that I have lost no data (as long as nothing has gone wrong with my backup drives!).

Forex

I have looked at all sorts of money-making schemes on the internet, but tend to avoid anything that involves financial risks. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the biggest rewards often involve the largest risks of losing your capital.

Of course, the 'good' gamblers minimise risks by watching Forex charts and reading up on the markets. In some cases, one might even regard the risks as minimal once the markets are fully researched and understood. For me, I am happy with the smaller, safe rewards - if you are tempted to take these types of risks, then you should gather all the tools that you can to help you, and do a lot of research until you understand the markets inside out.

Money Makers

Today, I thought I might just list all the different schemes I use that make me money even if just in small amounts..

• Google Adsense - Contextual adverts, I am not allowed to say how much, but it's definitely worth it for me..
• PayU2Blog - sponsored posts at $5 a time maintains a regular small income which is not to be sniffed at..
• TheAdnetwork - fixed ads that run and run on your website, £5 every month for a batch of three adverts..
• eBay partnership - user-definable eBay auctions displayed on your site - seems a bit 'hit and miss', but limited degrees of success nonetheless..
• Surveys - these won't be part of my long-term strategy after I have reached payout..
• Affiliates - very much hit and miss, and I haven't had a hit for a very long time..

These are my purely web-based activities, I do also run a service converting cassettes to CD's which is often at the leading edge of my earnings - this is a bit more 'hands on' than simply posting ads and completing surveys, so in a bit of a different league to some of these other activities. I will go into a bit more detail about some of these services over the coming days...

Hoodia

The plant extract with the weird name hoodia is actually derived from a plant from the Kalahari Desert called Hoodia Gordonii. It has been used for centuries as a short-term appetite suppressant in these tribal regions.

I would not advocate it as a longer-term remedy to weight problems, as simply repressing appetite may not address the real problem behind a weight problem.

Artificially changing eating habits may not have any long term beneficial effects. The best way to address weight problems is to establish a healthy lifestyle for the longer-term. A healthy exercise regime and a good balanced diet is easier to maintain than a dietary supplement, after all you don't want to be buying the supplement for the rest of your life...

The winter cold creeps in..

We are just starting to get those really crisp cold mornings, indicating that winter is certainly creeping up on us. After one false start with the central heating, I fear it has been switched on now for the duration - I even had to buy a new timer for our boiler as the old one kept forgetting the time...

Now is the time to buy vitamins and ingredients for soups, a time for thinking about warm woolly clothing and extra blankets on the duvet. On the whole I quite like winter, at least in it's early stages - I even like snow, although we get little enough of it. It's the freezing winds and lashing rain that I can't really get to grips with. However, until we can afford a permanent home in the Caribbean, or some other warmer clime, I'm afraid we're stuck with UK weather...

New backup system

I mentioned some time ago about some great free (for home use) software by '2 bright sparks' called 'Syncback' - a really excellent backup/synchronise utility. Originally I used it with a small (160GB) external drive that I bought, but inevitably I have outgrown this and the other 250GB drive that I have.

I tried a cheap NAS (Network attached storage) system, but it proved unreliable, so I now have another external drive, this time a 'dual' caddy with 2 x 400GB hard drives installed. (400GB seem to be better value on eBay, probably because people do not search for them so much!). The new caddy (which has a built in fan) seems a little noisy, so I have devised a cunning new system...

I have two PC's in my home office which are 'semi-networked', one of them has the older 160 GB drive and 250GB drive attached, the other has the newer 800 GB device, a total of 1.2TB... (purely for backup). I have all of these drives plugged into a multi-plug which has a timer set to come on just for four hours every day. I have timed my backups to take place within this time-frame, so that I am not powering up these external devices unnecessarily. I was telling someone last week how many sockets were in use in my home office - it came to a total of 16 sockets to run two PC's and associated devices, and another 6 for the sound system....

Every so often I change the plugs and sockets around a bit, but one day I plan to have a system that will make it easy for me to switch off devices that are not needed all the time in order to save a little electricity.

Getting in Early

I have decided to put my internet earnings to good use this year by seeing how many presents I can get online using PayPal. Using this method could ensure that the financial impact of Christmas will be minimal come December. We have already 'invested' in a games console for the 'family' Christmas gift using online payments, and I am now looking around for a bargain ipod touch for another gift. I do like the idea of a hand held device that includes so much functionality. I am especially intrigued by web browsing facilities, as well as the emerging arena of applications that could make life so much easier including features such as calendar and phone book.
The beauty of using internet earnings for presents is that the money never quite seems 'real', also buying stuff for presents on websites fulfills the 'shopping desire' to a degree and prevents me spending so much on my own 'toys'...
I have to acknowledge, that even as a male, I do experience pleasure from making purchases, there is a danger that this can become in itself a reason to buy. At least if I am buying presents, then I am less likely to make frivolous purchases (If I say that enough times, I may even start to believe it!).

Diet Supplements

I have to say I am a bit wary of supplements because even too much of a 'good' thing can be bad for you. If I were tempted to partake of anything of this nature, I would certainly want to study the latest available diet supplement review to ensure that there were no nasty side-effects.
Healthy living should ideally comprise some rigorous and regular exercise, along with a healthy diet. Supplements may be required for short-term dietary imbalance corrections, but for the longer-term, a balanced diet should provide all that your body requires.

In the groove

The current furrow of internet earnings that I am ploughing has not changed much over the last 12 months or so. It consists of a smattering of tape to CD conversions which are supplemented by earnings from PayU2blog. I have a small recurring revenue from fixed adverts on a website, and every three or four months, there is the Adsense payout.

That more or less sums up where the money comes from. It doesn't pay to keep ploughing the same furrow for too long on the internet because the sands are always shifting. I want to open up new revenue streams, but as ever , the time to put everything into place just isn't there. More and more I am finding commitments in the 'real' world have a big impact on progress in the internet world.

This reiterates what I have always said about internet earnings, ie. you CAN make a small income, but you will have to work harder than you would at your 'day job' to get far less rewards. However, if you hit a rich stream of revenue, you may be in a position to be one of the few exceptions to this rule.

I am still looking for that rich stream....

Giving the right impression

There are a number of ways in which a small business can present itself in a way that can bring parity with some of it's larger competitors. Having a good web presence is a great way to project a 'big' company image even though the truth may be a somewhat more humble reality. Another great way to project a professional image is through company branded products and literature that you produce in-house. The literature comes in two formats:

• Portable Document Format (PDF), easily compiled in Open Office and exported straight into PDF to place on the web and email to your clients.
• Hard Copy literature to hand over face to face and at exhibitions- these should always be well-presented and finished with Velo binding if more than about a dozen pages or so.

Using these simple devices, a small company can project itself as equal with the bigger industry players. The first step is a small investment in some 'big-player' tools - a good logo, a good website (Wordpress or other CMS is ideal for this) and some quality paper, printer and other office accoutrements.

The Wedding

I for one have been won over by the idea of getting married on foreign shores, although we organised everything ourselves (I am not the sort of guy who would employ a 'wedding planner'!), it actually is less hard work than organising a wedding at home in my opinion (plus it was a lot cheaper!).

Of course, this has been an increasing trend over recent decades and has led to a whole new wedding couture including the idea of destination wedding dresses specifically suited to getting married on exotic shores in higher than 'normal' temperatures.

Naturally, the traditional heavy dress with train and veil may not be ideal for tripping along the beach in the Caribbean... equally it is now not uncommon to have the groom dressed in Bermuda shorts (even if the formal top-half is retained as is so often the case).