Selecting a credit card

How many "pre-approved" credit card offers do you get in the mail in the average month that seem to shout at you to accept the offer before it expires? If you're in the market for a credit card, take some time to shop all the offers to get the best credit card available to you.

First, look into the credit card terms and conditions. These are the fees associated with making purchases on the card, transferring balances to the card, taking cash withdrawals, and late fees. You can easily compare the annual percentage rate between credit card offers. The annual percentage rate is a way to measure what the credit actually costs you. Beware of variable annual percentage rates - and if you are considering credit card offers with variable APR's, find out how often the rate can be changed, how it effects the finance charges you are billed each month, and what the rate is based on.

Secondly, find out whether or not the cards in question charge an annual membership fee. Annual fees can be anything from $25 to $100 a year, with some platinum credit cards charging several hundred dollars. This is a fee that you are required to pay each year just for having the card in your wallet - even if you never make a purchase or transfer a balance to the account. If you're going to pay an annual fee on a credit card, there should be rewards or low rates that make the fee worth paying.

Look into the grace period of the credit card. Many cards will give you about 56 days to make payments interest free, without finance charges, just by paying your entire balance on time. Cards that do not have this free period can charge you a finance charge from the date you make a purchase on your card, or from the date each charge is posted to the account. Also consider transaction fees, and another fees associated with having the credit card. Just about every credit card will issue a fee if you take a cash advance or make your payment past the due date. Find out whether or not there is a monthly fee charged to the account when you don't make any purchases - there are some credit cards that will charge you monthly even if you haven't taken the card out of your wallet, and those are fees you can easily avoid just by selecting a credit card that doesn't have these additional fees.

You'll also want to consider the reward programs offered from each credit card you are considering applying for. If you are a frequent traveler, it makes sense to look at rewards programs that earn you discounted flights, hotels, and car rentals when you purchase your travel expenses and tickets using the credit card. Over time, your purchases will result in free travel, making the credit card with the travel rewards program a great choice for the frequent traveler. A very popular form of credit card rewards program is the cash back offer. These credit cards will reward spenders with 1% to 5% cash back for all of their purchases - either credited back to the credit card or sent as a check to the card holder. This may be a good card for you if you pay your balances off each month in full - because typically a cash back card will have a higher percentage rate than cards without cash back programs.

The bottom line in selecting a credit card is not to jump on the first offer that comes through the mail. You really need to spend a little time doing your homework and learning about the different credit cards available to you in order to get the best rates and best deals for your credit purchases.

The biggest rivalries in sports

From college football to Major League Baseball, rivalries between teams have always added excitement to fan experience. Many teams are old rivals, while others have developed a competitive intensity more recently. What teams have been fighting it out for some time? Rivalries are at the center of many fan’s lives. Here’s a quick look at some classic ones.

College football has some of the most talked about rivalries in all of sports. To begin with, you have the heated battles between the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners. Being in neighboring states, they compete for regional bragging rights and often the same recruits. Over the years, there have been many classic match-ups between the two teams.

One of the biggest rivalries in college football history is between Big 10 powerhouses Ohio State and Michigan. These teams, that are usually nationally ranked, are so well matched and competitive that the winner is often determined in the final minutes and sometimes the final seconds of the contest. Consequently, when these two teams play, the game often determines which remains in the National Championship picture and which is out.

The South features the tough competition between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers. From the days of Alabama’s legendary coach Bear Bryant this has been one of the most talked about match-ups on the gridiron. Both schools are in the same state and are highly competitive with each other year in and year out. There have been many close, tight-knit games over the past century to prove it. The Tennessee Volunteers also have an active rivalry with these two teams but nothing compares to the legendary hard fought battles between the Tigers and the Crimson Tide.

On the west coast, there is the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) rivalry. This competition has been dominated recently by the success of Southern California and the strong teams they have produced over the last couple of years. Recently USC has taken to the field with Heisman Trophy winners Matt Leinhart and Reggie Bush, giving the Trojans the edge. This next year we may see a shift in power with UCLA coming to the forefront.

The National Basketball Association has had the classic battles of the Lakers and the Celtics. For decades these two teams fought back and forth to determine who would take home the NBA crown. There were the great match-ups in the 60’s and 70’s of Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, which are legendary in the history of the NBA.

The 80’s hosted memorable post-season contests between the Lakers’ Magic Johnson and the Celtics’ Larry Bird. Their respective teams, with Bird running the court and dishing off to Robert Parrish for a slam dunk or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar working the ball inside only to pass back to Johnson for three, produced some of the greatest moments in NBA history and will be talked about for decades to come.

The meetings between the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks produced another fine rivalry. Michael Jordon with his extreme athletic ability was the catalyst for tough contests in which the Knicks sometimes surprised the team from the Windy City; although the majority of the time Jordan and company were on the plus side in these contests.

Every season a tandem of college basketball teams always stand out as among two of the best in the nation. In North Carolina both on and off the court, one college basketball rivalry dominates the region. The University of North Carolina and Duke, both members of the highly competitive Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), are located only 8 miles apart. Both schools possess myriads of faithful fans that have traveled Tobacco Road year after year to see their teams fight for victory.

Since 1990, the two clubs have a combined for a total of eleven Final Four appearances. Those who follow the ACC certainly recognize the high profile contests that have defined their rivalry. The Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Tar Heels are synonymous with big name games, some of which they have won and others they’ve lost.

Off the court, these two teams also battle it out by attempting to recruit some of the most talented players in the nation. The Tar Heels and Blue Devils often court the same players, with coaching staffs jousting with each other for the finest players available. NCAA National Championships are the hallmark of both these schools. If you enjoy excitement and hardcore college basketball at its best, Duke and UNC are your ticket.

In Major League Baseball, there is perhaps the greatest rivalry of all sports. The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox have battled each other on the diamond since the early twentieth century. The rivalry became heated in 1920 when the Red Sox sold the game’s greatest player, Babe Ruth, to the New York Yankees. From that point on, the Yankees dominated the rest of Major League Baseball, going on to win 26 World Series; while Boston, after Ruth departed, was unable to capture a single crown.

Some people began to call Boston’s championship drought the "curse of the Bambino." The trade of Babe Ruth, who was also known as the "Bambino," was supposedly the reason why Boston couldn’t win a championship. But that all changed in 2004 when the Boston Red Sox were able to come back from three games down in the American League Championship Series and defeat the New York Yankees, and then go on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

This was what Red Sox fans had been waiting for, and now they’re hopeful that they will never have to hear about "the curse" again. This has been one heck of a rivalry over the years and odds are that it will continue to be one of the best in sports.

When there’s an intense rivalry between two teams it’s always magnified by fan enthusiasm. The fans are what make two teams want to compete harder against each other, but it takes exciting, hard-fought games to get the fans interested. Most great rivalries are not built on one or two good contests, but over decades of excellent games.

There is no set number of games that teams must play in order to generate a rivalry. The fans and players together are the ones who decide what makes an ongoing, classic rivalry. But one thing is for certain, there is nothing better than watching two, evenly matched rivals battle it out until only one is left standing.

How a mortgage can consolidate your debts

Many homeowners consider the possibility of using a mortgage to consolidate existing debt.

If you have already repaid your mortgage, you can take out another primary mortgage.

Taking out a second mortgage is an additional option to consolidate debts for those homeowners who still have a primary mortgage.

How sound of an idea is it to use a mortgage to consolidate your debts?

You should never use a mortgage to consolidate your debts if the interest rate for your debt is lower than the interest rate you would have on a mortgage.

This would mean that you are paying a higher cost for the mortgage than you were paying on your debts. This is not a sound financial decision.

There is a slight exception to this rule.

If you your current debt has some kind of introductory rate that will expire and leave you with an interest rate that will be higher than that of the mortgage, then a mortgage to consolidate debt is worth considering.

There are other factors, in addition to interest rate, that you should take into account when you consider using a mortgage to consolidate your debt.

When you have less than 20% equity in your home, you are required to pay private mortgage insurance.

If these premiums plus the amount of your mortgage without consolidating your debts is the same as or less than the amount of your mortgage with consolidating your debt, then you do not incur extra costs by consolidating.

However, if the private mortgage insurance causes your monthly payment to increase, then consolidation is costing you.

A lot of homeowners make the mistake of thinking only about the monthly payment of their mortgage in addition to what they are paying on their debts without consolidating in comparison to the mortgage with debt consolidating.

Take into account that when you consolidate debt with a mortgage, you are paying it over a longer period of time, which accounts for the lower monthly payment.

Before you apply for a mortgage, you should find out your credit score.

Chances are if you are having trouble with credit, then you have a less than perfect credit score.

Remember that your credit score will affect the interest rate and terms you receive on a mortgage.

If your credit score is below 600, the likelihood of you receiving favorable loan terms is low; not impossible, just low.

Keep in mind that when you use a mortgage to consolidate your debt, that the debt is not eliminated. Instead, you are transferring your debt from one form to another.

The best way to determine what it will cost you to consolidate your debts using a mortgage or pay them straight out is to use a mortgage calculator as well as a debt repayment calculator. Logic can be flawed, but numbers never lie.

Bankrate. com has calculators that will assist you in both of these calculations. Use the calculator to test out different loan amounts and mortgage rates to get a good picture of how much consolidating will cost you.

The increasing power of publicity media exposure -- and how it can benefit your business

The call came into my office and the voice on the other end was very energetic, almost giddy: “I have finalized my marketing budget and need your help launching an advertising campaign for my new product,” he breathed. “Congratulations,” I replied, “but before we implement an ad campaign, I want to make sure you have explored potential PUBLICITY opportunities that could generate some cost-efficient media exposure first.” Then, silence. “I never thought about that,” he sighed. “Frankly, I don’t know much about it.”

He is not alone. It’s a common conversation. Although many entrepreneurs or business people know a bit about publicity or media exposure, the majority of them simply don’t understand the full benefits of “publicity placements” or how to go about generating them successfully. Publicity placements have always been a cost-efficient way to market a product/business and generate clients or customers, but because of lack of knowledge or a misunderstanding of what publicity is and does, many entrepreneurs don’t take full advantage of publicity opportunities -- and that can lead to missed marketing chances.

I recently surveyed a few dozen business owners and entrepreneurs in some newsgroups and business chat rooms about their knowledge of “publicity placements” in the media. I found out that only 37% knew that a simple “product profile” in a magazine was generated as a result of publicity efforts. Most thought the company had paid the media outlet to run the feature, much like an ad. And of that 37%, less than half of them knew HOW to generate a similar placement.

Another interesting fact, because of the recent slowdown in the economy, expensive advertising budgets have been slashed. As a result, many businesses, like your competitors, are turning to publicity/PR campaigns as a more affordable means of marketing to compete with other companies. Here are some ways to use publicity placements to help your business:

Editorial Placements/Media Notification:

What some entrepreneurs might not realize is that we see editorial placements from publicity efforts everyday in the media: product profiles, feature articles and contributed by-lined articles in magazines, newspapers, trade industry newsletters or on TV/radio/cable newscasts & shows. This is not advertising, this is “EDITORIAL Placement” or “Media Notification” of a product, business or industry expert. Notify the appropriate media that your newsworthy product is on the market or your business is offering a unique new service and let them run a feature placement that will spread that message to your consumer market. These placements can detail your product or business very effectively, giving consumers some objective, pertinent information that may well entice them to become future customers.

These editorial placements are looked upon much more credibly than ad placements. That is not a slam on advertising. Paying for advertising placements is indeed an effective way to market your product. But the fact is, a positive editorial placement such as a product profile in a magazine or a newspaper can be much more persuasive than a glossy, over-hyped advertisement – and a fraction of the cost. My point is that editorial placements are an often time overlooked marketing vehicle for a business, and that entrepreneurs should understand the full benefits of these placements to make the most of their marketing efforts.

Editorial placements are a wonderfully reciprocal way for you and the media to work together for the betterment of your business. The media needs to fill its pages and airtime with interesting information -- and you need to get the word out to your market. Research the media market to find those media outlets and editorial contacts with which you can forge that mutually beneficial relationship. But you have to do your part and do it right - or the media will forge that relationship with your competitor. Make sure your media message is solid, contains newsworthy angles and isn’t disguised as overly commercialized ad copy. Have high-quality photos and media samples available and do all you can to make the media’s job of featuring your product as simple as possible. It also helps to have some sort of clipping service in place to track your placements and get you copies so you can use them in your secondary marketing programs.

Expert Branding:

This type of publicity placement generating takes advantage of the expert knowledge within a particular business. It is an effective tool for entrepreneurs whose businesses are more service related, like consultants or specialists. Expert branding basically treats the expert like a product. Alert the media as to your expertise on a specific topic and avail yourself to serve as an expert interview resource for future articles or news feature segments. Additionally, the expert should write a few brief articles on a specialized topic and make them available to editors for review and possible publication. The challenge of this type of publicity placement is the tedious task of finding out which outlets accept “expert editorial contributions” or contributed by-lined articles in their publications. Again, it comes down to meticulously researching your media market to find those media outlets that may be in need of the editorial content that you can provide them.

With some creativity, expert branding can be effective for product-based businesses as well. One client of mine runs a fresh wild salmon distribution business in the Pacific Northwest and was looking to increase consumer awareness of his products. Based on his more than 20 years of experience in the wild salmon harvesting business, we are expert branding him as a viable interview resource to health/food editors for features detailing the differences and benefits of wild salmon over farm-raised fish, as well as other related topics. In this case, my client (the expert) is identified and quoted in features and the name of the business and even a link to a website are often included for consumers to check out. This is great credibility building exposure at little or no cost.

Overall, when using the media to help market your product or business, take advantage of as many FREE media opportunities as you can. If you lack the expertise or time, a PR agency or publicist can generate the editorial placements for you. But the fee you pay them is a FRACTION of what it would cost you to buy similar sized ad placements. And those publicity placements typically lead to a much better consumer response right out of the gate – which is just what you need to boost your business to the next level.

Treatment of diabetes

Now a day’s diabetes treatment has become a common disease among people. It is caused due to mismanagement of carbohydrate metabolism inside the body. Diabetes is identified with the excessive production of urine, hunger, thirst and excessive loss of weight, blurred vision, and delay in healing of skin, repeated infection, and excessive fatigue. Diabetes has got a serous issue of human health. It denotes sugar in blood and urine very excessively.

So, when it comes to treatment of diabetes the main concern should be given to control blood sugar, which is main cause of diabetes. Managing blood sugar is the stepping-stone of this diabetes treatment program. To remove the complications of diabetes one must take it seriously and adopt some good diet process or healthy exercise. Apart from doing so some take insulin and any other type of medication program to be cured to some extent. Frequent testing of blood sugar can denote you how much you have improved on your part to manage suitable measure of sugar in blood. It is very important to learn the right range of glucose in blood unless and until you cannot have the idea about the complication you are facing about this disease. It depends on age mainly such as in younger age assuming not much complication is there the suitable range of glucose is 80-120 mg/dL and in older age it is 100-140 mg/dL.

Diabetes program includes some specific self-treatments like having good and suitable diet, having proper exercise, maintaining healthy weight and medication. When it is about good and suitable diet it does not make any suggestion to take all dull food which are not of your interest rather it denotes to have more fruits, vegetables and grains that means you should be conscious in taking the foods of high nutrition and lower fat and calories. Avoid taking sweets and animal products with no limit. The main part of this diabetes treatment program is that you own self should be challenging in this task otherwise this program will be harder enough. Consult any dietitian about meal plan and try to maintain it at the fixed times every day with same amount according to your diet plan.

On the part of having proper exercise you should be cautious about all aerobic exercises. In this diabetes treatment program you can make your choices among the daily exercises like doing morning or evening walk, jogging, hiking, biking, swimming and any other exercises of heart and lungs. Remember giving consistency to your exercise process is very important to get the best result through it.

Try to maintain weight according to your activity level and age because overweight is dangerous factor which help to make your cells more resistant to insulin. Making suitable weight loss plan and going according to that can make its result more effectively.

Sometimes medication takes a very important role in case where it is found that good dieting and exercise are not fulfilling it purpose. This type of diabetes program includes the insert of insulin as per requirement. As it can’t be taken in form of pill some people have it injected by syringe or some have it with insulin pump.

So now it is very clear that diabetes is always manageable if the sufferer give a serious daily attention to it. Although diabetes stands for life long suffering, yet it never means the end of your life. You just have to remember that the disease will be in your control only and only if you are self disciplined for your each and every step of treatment program.

DISCLAIMER: This information is not presented by a medical practitioner and is for educational and informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read.

Since natural and/or dietary supplements are not FDA approved they must be accompanied by a two-part disclaimer on the product label: that the statement has not been evaluated by FDA and that the product is not intended to “diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

Marlin lodge benguerra island mozambique

When you make the decision to go to Marlin Lodge Benguerra Island, Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique, be careful who you tell, because most people still think it is unsafe, and those folk who know anything at all about Mozambique will probably never speak to you again.

You fly into Vilanculos, which is about two hours from Johannesburg with Pelican Air, and it is possible to coincide flight times coming in from Europe on an international flight.

The boat to Marlin Lodge arrives off the beach so it’s a wade to get on board, but the journey is a delight as you are taken to Benguerra Island that could truly be described as being in the middle of nowhere.

The short journey is at speed, but not so quick you couldn’t take in the colors, turquoise, aquamarine, sapphire, contrasting with the stunning white sandbanks.

The first thing that struck me on arrival was how warm the water was as I waded ashore, and arrival we had become used to in Zanzibar on a previous trip – no jetty here either!!

We had a luxury chalet which was gorgeous, and it had its own private walkway to the beach.

To see photographs go to worldwidevacationspots. com/articles/16/1/Marlin-Lodge-Benguerra-Island-Mozambique/Page1.html

All toiletries are provided in big bottles and so you don't need to take your own

The staff were terrific, and in an unobtrusive way, giving us excellent service.

In so far as activities are concerned, some people went scuba diving, others went fishing, some like us did virtually nothing but unwind with a bit of snorkelling thrown in, and exploring too.

Whilst it is more a place for honeymooners than families, there is water skiing, and banana boat rides too

All in all it was everything we had hoped for, and I'd certainly recommend it.

It was quite superb - the food, especially if you like seafood, although if you wanted something else that didn’t seem to be a problem, the location, the service and people were all terrific

I can't recommend it enough!

It was a perfect place to relax and unwind.

I would highly recommend Marlin Lodge.

Seo - linking strategies for seo

It can be difficult to generate unique content each and every day that you sit down to write your blog. This is where RSS feeds and news stories can provide a valuable source of inspiration. Many blogs simply are commentaries on what is going on in the news, rather than an attempt to announce the news. This is because you simply are not a news provider. When you provide news to your readers in this way it is called “filtered” writing.

The best way to take this reactive position as a blog writer is to always dynamically link your commentary to the source of the news story or the article. You can also link to others commenting on the same subject in other blogs. This gets your name and the name of your product out there and raises your search engine page rankings.

The reason you want to always link your ideas is two-fold. First of all the search engines rank you according to the number of links indexed on your site. The more pages it finds linked to yours, the higher your visibility will be in the web search pages. Second of all, showing your readers that you know how to research and give credit where it is due shows that you are a professional. It simply lends you an air of credibility that your readers can respect. This allows your readers to come away from the experience of reading your blog feeling like they know more than they did before they logged in to read your site. They should not feel like they just read what you have on there in the newspaper yesterday.

Whatever the theme of your blog, your readers will expect every entry to be timely, relevant, and accurately sourced. This is why you should check your links regularly to make sure that they are not broken.