When i moved to scottsdale

When I moved to Scottsdale more than 10 years ago, my friends thought I was crazy. “What are you going to do in the middle of the Desert?” they would say. “There is no culture there”….”great for golfing but what else?....”theatre, what about the theatre?” Many added”Where would you dine…Burger King, Denny’s or T. G.I. Friday’s?”

Well Scottsdale and the general Phoenix area has changed quite a bit since then. There is now a highway system that navigates throughout the Valley and light rail has gone from the planning stage to fulfillment! There have always been many things to do in the Scottsdale area such as hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing and backpacking. The Valley has offered award-winning golf courses and fabulous shopping venues. We have wonderful resorts and spas which have been here for years and continue to add more yearly.

The snobbery and turning a frown to my adventure into the Desert did not diminish my drive to change my life and leave the problems of L. A. behind. I won’t go into the details of why I left L. A. but the words “earthquakes,” “fires”, “floods” and “rock slides” come to mind.

The Scottsdale area has many opportunities to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle and yet has a cosmopolitan feel for upscale living and entertainment including theatre. Sure, most Americans think of New York and L. A. for the raising of the curtains and seeing live entertainment on stage. Off Broadway Theatre is big in the Valley with shows at the Gammage Auditorium at ASU and Herberger Theater. Concerts fill the Valley’s night air at the Dodge and Celebrity Theaters as wells as the huge auditoriums at the Cricket Pavillion and the U. S. Airways Arena.

Las Vegas has its different kind of night life as well for which the Valley has its own affordable alternatives! The casinos here present the opportunity to enjoy the same gambling and nightlife without the hassle of leaving town.

We have some of the finest dining that can be imagined. There are standalone restaurants like Eddie V’s and Mary Elaine’s to upscale restaurants like Roy’s and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. There is not one restaurant chain that has not entered the Valley. The Phoenix area is one of the fastest growing in the nation and many of the residents are multi millionaires. With the influx of upper income individuals comes the need for quality services.

So for all the caterwauling and invectives that were thrown at me for leaving L. A., I have come to and continue to enjoy the quality of life in Scottsdale and the Greater Phoenix Area.

Whatever you want, you can find it right here...in the Valley of the Sun.

Lawsuit cash advances

A lawsuit cash advance can help the claimant win a personal injury lawsuit if all other means of obtaining funding have been exhausted. People have borrowed money from relatives, sold valuables, and taken out loans in order to pay for the services associated with their lawsuits, but there is a simpler and often cheaper alternative; working with a cash advance company. Legal advances can help the client proceed with the case by helping to cover the cost of necessary personal expenses required for the lawsuit. Companies like Legal Advances can provide a lawsuit cash advance in order to successfully take the lawsuit to court.

Some firms have charged effective interest rates exceeding 100 percent a year, but the business generally operates beyond the reach of money lending laws and has mostly escaped the sort of hostile attention that has been directed at, for example, the payday loan industry and its alleged "predatory lending." However, that may be changing. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has reached settlements calling for clearer disclosure of fees from at least ten litigation-cash-advance firms, including one based in New Jersey which billed a client $19,000 for a cash advance of $3,000 two and a half years earlier. (This company later accepted a smaller sum.)

Industry publications have pointed out that we shouldn't assume that the legal finance company is actually pocketing an extraordinarily high overall return on its cash advances since in cases where client/plaintiffs obtain neither a verdict nor a settlement it will lose the money. But this once again suggests a near parallel with sub prime lenders, many of which also must write off a nontrivial share of debt holdings as un-collectable.

To obtain litigation funding from a third party such as Legal Advances, the claimant’s attorney will be required to supply all the necessary information for review. Once Legal Advances reviews the case and speaks with the attorney, they will make a decision to provide the claimant with a lawsuit cash advance if they feel there is a good chance of winning in court. Keep in mind that this cash advance is not technically a loan, as the claimant does not have to repay the amount if the case is unsuccessful.

Prior to signing on with the cash advancing company, the claimant must know what he or she will receive should the case be won, so as not to have any surprises in the end, and then proceed knowing how much to repay after being granted a monetary award from the defendant.

Poker affiliates choose the right online poker room programs to promote

Potential affiliates in the market of online poker can even afford the luxury of being picky about who they choose to represent. Almost every site offers people the chance to become an affiliate of theirs, simply because the ultimate rewards of this cheap but effective form of advertising can be so great. As a result of this not only have the online bonuses for new customers increased, so have the fringe benefits for sites who bring them to the poker room. As with all Internet businesses the market of online poker is highly competitive, as such it is the duty of websites and their owners to make sure they are being represented by the best deal and in turn not misrepresenting their visitors.

Depending on the overall goal of your website, you may choose to incorporate a lot of advertisements or just a select few. For websites looking to maximise their profits whilst not really offering much in the way of useful information, adverts probably provide the primary content. Therefore they may wish to include dozens of adverts from a number of sites, in order to boost the chances of successfully drawing in customers. But in order to truly maximise profits these sites may tend to favour more profitable offers and popular sites. Big sites, with more kudos may be more recognisable to even the most inexperienced of online gamers. Whilst sites who offer huge incentives to affiliates can also get extra brownie points, by offering a higher percentage of players profits.

Smaller sites may wish to limit adverts and affiliated sites because they are not solely dedicated to the opportunities and gains of affiliate programs. If you have a serious site, by which I mean one that was created without making money through affiliates in mind, the idea of clogging up precious space with advertisements may not be quite so tempting. Flashing adverts often detract from the site as a whole, so if you are trying to portray a message or give information advertising is not always the best thing. As an accompaniment or background item it can be a non-intrusive potential money-maker.

There are good deals to be had, which will guarantee more money or a higher lifetime percentage. Shop around the various sites and evaluate the offers, there are hundreds to pick from so why jump in hastily and choose the first one you see? Of course the differences are pretty negligible if you cannot attract anyone to your site. But if you get the marketing and affiliates right, then it is best to do the footwork before hand and not regret it afterwards. Remember that as an affiliate is your job to make money for yourself and the site, so why sell yourself short?

How to set up a business selling your own shopping cart solutions

As we speak, an endless number of small, medium & large companies in all types of niches are planning to build their web presence. It doesn't matter what they sell - some may be import/export companies, others might sell DVDs and others still may deal solely in digital products. Some will have turnovers that barely touch $100,000, while some will be yielding millions per year.

What do all these companies want and need that you can give them - right now?

The majority of them will seek out some type of shopping cart software or service. You can bet, the first sub-point in the MD's notepad for web development would be something along the lines of "Find best way of accepting web orders". And that's where you come in.

You see, the potential reward of offering a cart solution to these new web businesses are very good indeed - in the U. S. alone, there are almost 230,000 monthly searches for the term "Shopping Cart" (top 3 engines only) which should provide you with some indication of the market size. While there are a few services and software that already exist for this, they tend to be pricey - the business either has to fork out monthly fees (for example Volusion that charges upto $197 for their monthly cart service), or SumEffects which at $349 is a one time fee, but still pretty steep.

But, the fact is, businesses will pay these fees with their eyes shut and today you can own the rights to a powerful shopping cart solution that you can offer them.

Here are the features you will need to ensure that your software offers your clients:

- Ease of use & set-up.

- Search engine friendly design.

- Unlimited number of potential products. With many carts, higher prices are charged the more products you offer. The majority of the "free" ones only let you offer five or ten items which is insufficient for the majority of businesses.

- In built newsletter management.

- Product database that can be searched.

- Compatible with various payment gateways (including Paypal).

- Powerful sales analysis & tracking.

Ordinarily, this type of software can cost upwards of ten thousand dollars to develop yourself. But if you don't have this much then don't worry, you can actually pick up the resell rights to powerful shopping cart software for a fraction of that cost (as little as fifty dollars if you know where to look). Resell rights allow you to repackage the software and offer it to your own clients and keep 100% of the sale proceeds.

We're just seeing the tip of the boom for these types of software. Ultimately, every business will have to come online and accept credit card payments - what an opportunity for those that offer a powerful shopping cart solution service!

Airline security

Ours is a changing world, and recent events have caused people the world over to take on new security measures, both personally and on a corporate level. Traveling to a foreign country, and even within your own country, has become more stringent with enhanced security requirements.

To beef up security and enhance customer service, many airlines, like TSA, are now conducting individual passenger screening at security checkpoints. TSA staff and screening equipment are concentrated at these checkpoints to perform random searches. Every passenger is required to have a boarding pass and photo identification in order to pass through a security gate. Tickets and ticket confirmations are longer accepted as valid identification at these checkpoints.

Many airlines now offer four methods of purchasing a boarding pass. New and convenient options include using the curbside check-in option, the airline's self-service ticket kiosk in the airport lobby, and the opportunity to purchase and print the boarding pass directly from your airline website. Of course, you can also pick up your boarding pass at the airline's ticket counter in the airport.

Check with your airline or travel agent to confirm the time you should arrive at the airport. It's also a good idea to confirm that there are parking lots available at the airport, or if shuttle service might be required.

Double-check to make sure that you have all of your valuables with you, as well as the documents required for boarding. Make sure that you have your boarding pass or ticket confirmation ready, as well as a piece of government-issued photo identification such as a driver's license or passport. If you have a medical implant or other device that can trigger the security alarm system, make sure that you have certified documentation from your doctor. Remove any prohibited items, such as pocketknives, before going through airport security.

It's a good idea to stay on the alert at all times. Keep close watch on your luggage, carry-on bags and other belongings. Never agree to carry a parcel for a stranger. If you find unattended bags at the airport, report it to a security officer rather than trying to pick them up yourself. If you see any individual that looks or acts suspicious, point it out to airline security. More than ever before, airline security is very serious business. Never joke about having bombs or firearms on board a plane or at security. The mere mention of such items can lead to lengthy questioning and possible expulsion from the airport.

You have definite rights as an airline passenger, but remember that this is a commercial service and your agreement may be subject to changes. In the case of a delayed flight, airlines will usually try to accommodate passengers by offering a seat aboard the next available flight. Rescheduling your flight on another airline is also an option, but there may be cancellation policies in effect.

Airlines typically overbook flights so double check your reservations to make sure you're guaranteed a seat. When a particular flight is overbooked, the airline will ask for volunteers to wait and board the next flight, and may offer cash or a free trip as an incentive. If there are no volunteers and you are involuntarily bumped, the airline will reserve another flight and you will be compensated for the inconvenience. If you fail to confirm your reservation or meet the check-in deadline, and if the plane has fewer than six available seats, no reward is offered for involuntary bumping.

You can easily avoid boarding hassles if you know your rights as a passenger and understand the airline terms and conditions for boarding. For your own safety and the security of airline personnel and other passengers, you need to take extra caution to avoid inevitable circumstances.

Being well informed is the ticket to enjoying a safe, secure, and pleasurable flight.

Secondary market for adult targeted traffic - the untold industry

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I have this theory that there's an element of self-consolation people have at looking at their stats soar over a 24 hour period with these types of guaranteed hits programs. Sure you don't convert any new visitors, but you can tell all your buds that your site got in the vicinity of 50,000 hits yesterday!

Impressive, yet totally useless. If money is to be made, you must think outside the box--do something which few others are aware of.
The online adult entertainment market is far and away untouchable in terms of profit generation, but it too can at times get stagnant. With such an over saturation in the industry, it gets harder and harder to compete. Sites die down, the big names get bigger, and the small names have an even tougher time competing. It is no wonder, therefore, that adult websites have such a high turnover rate. Webmasters like to move on to new things, try out different niches and the ilk. In the process, they abandon thriving websites, or simply forget to renew the domain names for some of their existing sites. It happens daily, and more often than you would think. And the really scary thing is, it's a gargantuan market--one which has been vastly untapped. The market is that of secondary expired traffic -- possibly the most latent industry online for monetizing traffic.

Concept
The concept is simple: Find previously developed websites (read: domains) which have since expired due to webmaster neglect or abandonment, and make use of the link and search engine traffic that they are already receiving.
Expired domains are nothing new, and have been the rage on the net for the past few years.
The function of the expired domain market as it exists today for most individuals is to:
a) Find a suitable name for developing a new site
b) Try and grab up a hot sounding expired name in the face of cutthroat
Competition.

The fact remains that 99% of expired domain speculators are still fixated on the notion that they can snap up the next Business. com--assuming that the previous owner fails to renew it (here's hoping). Very rarely do you find an individual who ignores the undeveloped, great sounding, generic names and understands the value of those domains which have expired, but were previously developed. In the past, if an expired domain hunter had registered an expired domain with existing traffic, it was often by dumb luck. That traffic attached to the domain was just thought to be an added bonus to the domain purchased. Now individuals are beginning to realize that there are fairly simple means to locate and estimate with accuracy those domains which have existing link and search engine traffic attached to them, and those that do not. However, few still have access to the right tools and information necessary to identify the gold in all the expiring, undeveloped rubble.

Very few legitimate opportunities exist on the net which offer entrepreneurs start up costs of less than $10, minimal, passive involvement, and a growing recurring revenue stream--expired traffic just happens to be one of them.

Once you've found an expired domain with a sizeable stream of adult traffic, the best thing to do with it is to squeeze every last drop of profit out of it by utilizing any one of a number of appropriate sponsors. Alternatively, you could redevelop the expired and previously active domain, in the hopes that the pre-established traffic it is already receiving may be revitalised through fresh, new content. If you go the way of redirecting to sponsors, the best sponsors for expired adult traffic have been Clickcash and Nastydollars for general adult traffic, and the Mr. Skin program, using Flashcash for any celebrity orientated material. These programs are highly established, have been paying on time for several years, and will provide you with free content and tools to promote them. Below we outline a real-life example of how this entire process works.

An Example
What happens is that the expired domains traffic is redirected (either through domain-based re-direction or JavaScript re-direction) to one page. So say those 15 names, each were previously developed adult sites, but had since expired. They were each snagged for the mere cost of registration, about $9 a pop, and are then pointed to “yourname. com”. You continue to receive new streams of real traffic both originating from the search engines and from other sites of expired domains you start linking to yours.

Say you receive in the vicinity of 2,700 hits a day (180 a site), which is the equivalent of approximately 1,000,000 hits a year.

Net cost: about $150 for the 15 domains (and hosting fees, which vary. However, you can usually set up a basic affiliate redirect for free.) If you then convert somewhere in the vicinity of 0.25% (1 in 400) of visitors—which is the usual Clickcash conversion rate.

Doing the math:
From the traffic of the 15 expired adult websites, in 1 year.
Estimated to be -- 0.25% conversion from * 1,000,000 visits/year *
$60/lead = $150,000.00 gross
Less $150 for the domains purchase = $149,850.00

Sound unbelievable? It isn't. Although there is one small caveat--the sites must continue to bring in the same amount of traffic they are each currently sending. Over the course of the year, the traffic quality and quantity will surely degrade, but since sites expire on a daily basis, we can always replace older expired traffic with newer leads and newer sites.

Conclusion
So how do you get a piece of this market--a market where a select few individuals in the know have quietly gone on to make untold millions?
Through information, and the right tools. Understanding this nascent game, which I estimate fewer than 2-3 thousand or so individuals are actively participating in, is the key to prospering in it.

Very few legitimate opportunities exist on the net which offer entrepreneurs start up costs of less than $10, minimal, passive involvement, and a growing recurring revenue stream--expired traffic just happens to be one of them. While everyone continues to march to the drum of optimizing and developing existing sites to eek out small gains, I'll continue to find other people's abandoned property, and use it without fail to make a quick buck. But hey, you do what suits you best.

Off to see the wizard

Do you remember the story of “The Wizard of Oz”? In this story we saw the characters of Dorothy, who had wanted to run away from home because she thought there was a better place somewhere. We also met the scarecrow who believed he had no brain, the lion who thought he had no courage, and the kindly tin man who assumed he had no heart.

Together the four of them set off to the Emerald City to find the wizard in hopes that he could bestow upon them these virtues and find a way for Dorothy to go back home.

Even though Dorothy had thought she had wanted to be somewhere else, once she arrived in Munchkin Land she realized that hers dreams of being in a different place were not what she thought they would be. Disappointed in the reality she desperately wanted to return to Kansas and be with her loving family.

How many of us can relate to their dilemma? For some reason we think there is greener pasture on the other side or that we do not possess the characteristics necessary to fulfill our dreams.

From a very young age, many of us are told that we can not do this or that because we do not have the talent or that we are not wise enough, or strong enough, or smart enough. What happens is that we end up living our lives in character with what others have told us about ourselves and in our personal belief system about ourselves.

This jaded view of ourselves keeps us from doing the things we dream of doing. Many of us yearn for a magic wizard that would come along and bestow the qualities we feel are missing so we can do more with our lives.

For this reason we are afraid to step forward and go for our dreams. We feel inadequate to fulfill the calling ahead of us. From past experience we can see none of the characteristics necessary for us to reach our goal, our destination.

What many of us were never told, is that we are all given those things necessary in life for us to move ahead, but because of our past experiences and lack of self confidence we tend to shrink back from going forward in our lives.

Many people do not realize that self confidence comes from succeeding in an area that we wish to excel in. Success itself is not a one time event. In fact, it takes many failures and learning from our mistakes that make us eventually self reliant and confident.

Remember when you first started riding a two wheel bike. It’s something that you really wanted to do. You saw your friends riding and were certain that it was something you could do. What happened? You tried and you most miserably failed. You would go a few short feet and then wobble and then bingo! You would fall again. Did you give up?

No! You got right back on that bike and kept practicing until you succeeded.

The great baseball hero Babe Ruth was known for his fantastic batting. He could hit a ball right out of the park! Did he just get up one day and say, “Hey, I’m gonna hit every ball out of the park”? No, of course not. Sure, it was probably his dream to hit as many as he could out of the park but he knew in reality he needed to practice and practice, and hit and miss and eventually he would hit more than he would miss. Every ball player has a batting average. This means that they hit a number of balls but it also means that miss a lot of the balls or end up walking to base or striking out.

We may have specific goals. We want to hit that ball, but we must be prepared to fail in order to succeed. As we fail, we learn better how to hold the bat the next time or at what angle we need to swing the bat to hit the ball head on. Even if we become super proficient at this, there will still be times when we just miss the ball. That is part of life, but unless we get up to bat we will not be in the game.

What about your dreams, are you giving them a fair shot. Sure you may not be perfect! Who is? The thing is, that you have to go after your dreams and not let failure or lack of self confidence hold you back.

Just like the scarecrow, the lion and the tin man, we must go through the adversity and step forward in faith. Along the journey we will find that indeed we do have the qualities that we were longing for.