BLOGGING ARTICLES

Jesse Phillips asked:

Global warming, climate change, increased cost of living, the list goes on for reasons it would be beneficial to generate electricity at home to take the burden off environmentally unfriendly power plants and in the long run to save you money you would need to give to power companies to maintain our modern lifestyles we tend to take for granted. Can you generate power at home that is cost effective and environmentally friendly?

Many ill informed designs for generating power have appeared online in the last decade and all of them have proven to be hoaxes, ineffective theories or so expensive as to be worthless to the average home owner. However technology and the “green” industry has come a long way and with the buzz of renewable energy in an age of fear of dwindling power resources clever people have worked out ways to make home power generation an affordable option.

The main methods of doing this are not new, they involve primarily wind power and solar power which have been proven to work and implemented by governments and companies world wide as part of their renewable energy schemes and the same can be done in your own backyard if you are willing to do a few things yourself and put up a small initial investment that will generate electricity at home enough to cut your bills down so dramatically it will make you money in the long run and you will do your part to help the environment.

The trick is not just in the materials involved in the creation of energy but how they are applied through your home. To generate electricity at home you need to be able to store power, route power to the right places at the right times and is efficient with that power through the use of solar and wind powered devices.

Elizabeth Ashe asked:

Each of us loves free traffic coming to our sites. Whether we’re maintaining blogs, content sites with AdSense, or online stores, more traffic means higher revenue. If you have been using the search engine optimization strategies I’ve shown you in the past, you’re already building momentum in the organic ranks.

Today, I’m going to explain a slightly different approach to generating free traffic to your online properties. I’ll show you how to tap into the public’s insatiable hunger regarding current events and describe creative stopwatch How To Generate Free Traffic By Tapping Into Current Events ways for maximizing its traffic potential. Chances are, you’re not fully leveraging this strategy yet. Let’s change that.
Where To Uncover Current Event Ideas

Your first step is to gather a few resources that will deliver a constant stream of current event ideas. Google Trends is one of the best. It is updated every minute and provides a bird’s eye view of most popular phrases people are using to search. Yahoo Buzz is another good resource, though it is updated a bit less frequently.

Because Twitter has become such a powerhouse traffic magnet lately, their Twitter Search is a valuable tool for mining current events. You’ll need to put a little more effort into it than you would for Google Trends or Yahoo Buzz. But, with millions of members who visit daily, you’ll uncover popular topics that would otherwise remain hidden.

Planting Search Engine Seeds

Now that you have an ongoing stream of current event ideas, you can quickly gain traction for popular keywords in Google and Yahoo. Google’s current ranking algorithm allows pages targeting popular phrases to climb the organic rankings quickly. While they haven’t admitted it publicly, it’s reasonable to assume the data from Google Trends is an influence on what they consider “popular.”

How To Generate Free Traffic By Tapping Into Current Events This is an opportunity to expand your search engine coverage. Create new pages or blog posts that target popular keywords.

For example, as of today, Google Trends reports that the phrase “American Idol voting controversy” has picked up steam. If you maintain a music-related blog, create a new post specifically targeting that phrase.

There is always a mountain of free search engine traffic generated from people searching for news about celebrities, sporting events, politicians, and similar topics. This is a way to tap into that traffic and cast your net wide.

Tapping into current events in order to generate search engine traffic is a powerful free internet marketing strategy. But, leveraging it properly takes effort. The good news is that this type of traffic exists perpetually.

Ornesha De Paoli asked:

Ken Daniel, of Security Advisors Worldwide, or SAW, a renewable energy security advisory company contracted by Jetstream Wind, Inc. recently returned from the island of Haiti.    

I understand that you and Security Advisors Worldwide had a very successful trip to Haiti.  There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of media coming from this nation as to the daily lives of Haitians, the environmental issues they face, or the energy issues they’re looking at.

So that we can have a better picture, can you begin by talking about what it’s like for average citizens in Haiti on any given day?

Mr. Ken Daniel: 

On an average morning in Haiti, people there don’t wake up to the possibility of electricity like we do here. They pretty much use coal to warm themselves in the morning. There also aren’t the refrigeration capabilities like here in the states, so they walk to the market everyday to get whatever food they can prepare and eat that given day.

As far as the issue of water goes, in the capitol of Port-au-Prince there was some running water, and I would see people on the exteriors of buildings filling up their water containers. But out in the rural areas, it’s more difficult and being pumped out of wells.

Along the roadways are fifty-five gallon plastic drums filled with water. Haitian citizens basically walk some distances to these to get their daily water since there aren’t many vehicles owned by private citizens.

There’s obviously not a large availability of electricity in Haiti, which seems odd in this day and age. Where does this issue stem from?

Ken: 

There’s a hydro-plant that rests in-between Port-au-Prince and Hesh. It was actually built by Americans in the early part of the last century and has been around for a very long time. Put simply, it’s just old and doesn’t kick out enough power.

All of the power lines that we take for granted here in the US, actually have cobwebs growing on them in Haiti. And then, with the bad weather, hurricanes and such, there were numerous poles leaning at 45 degree angles with wires coming out of them.

The only real power was in the capitol of Port-au-Prince and it goes off regularly. Mostly though, what I saw were people with candles and bags of coal to cook their food. Really, unless you are a person with a little bit of money and can afford to be affluent, you can’t rely on the comfort of being able to depend on electricity.

With the hurricane situation, the lack of food and good shelter, renewable energy quite possibly could be the key to bringing in some the needed electricity to help with the situation.

This would be the first renewable energy technology being developed on an island, which is monumental. Would it be more difficult creating wind, solar, or hydrogen power on an island in the middle of the ocean as opposed to it being developed on a mainland?

Ken: 

In this particular place, almost everything that is needed can literally be brought to the land. With hydrogen technology for example, an area of land is cleared where it won’t require much manipulation as this technology is easily able to be placed. An added benefit to that is there won’t be any deforestation.

With solar technology, another small piece of land within a vast spread of land is cleared and the technology placed upon it. Lines won’t have to be ran over long expanses of land for fuels, diesel, or natural gas. There won’t ever be an oil spill or pipes in the ground that corrode.

So it doesn’t seem to be too difficult. Exporting equipment out of the United States and importing to an island would be the main issue to be dealt with. Jetstream Wind would have to look at building an airstrip so that they can cargo fly equipment in. Most building materials would have to be imported from the U.S., which is 300 miles off the coast of Miami, and would either come in by cargo plane or shipped in by sea.

It would be a benefit to take the time and see if there was anything available on the island that can readily be used, salvaged and recycled.

The terrain in Haiti (being an island) is more than acceptable. There are mountains, which means the wind is constantly blowing across them. There’s plenty of sunshine shining on the hills that are vast, rounded and able to be navigated. Even the new hydrogen technology can easily be implemented there.

If Haiti were to bring renewable energy in, it could be put anywhere. It wouldn’t have to be placed in a major metropolitan area, and the power from the renewable energy plant(s) could run to the pre-existing grid. The hope would be, however that Haiti itself would help to re-build the infrastructure so that all of this power could get to the homes, schools, hospitals, businesses and other places where electricity is vitally needed.

The truth is that they would have to wait far longer to get any other type of an energy program in, such as coal for example. There are also some pretty severe issues with deforestation happening at present, and so I would think that renewable energy is really the only way to go for Haiti right now.

Looking at the environmental impact of renewable energy on Haiti, would you say that there would be any, at all, created from this technology?

Ken: 

As compared to a coal-fired plant here in the United States, no, other than having to clear small pieces of land to put things on.

There are many countries that simply have to have energy right now, and this is by far the cleanest way to get it. Nuclear is not the answer. It leaves a long-standing residue as a result of that power. Natural gas and coal also lead to numerous environmental concerns.

The fact is that we can’t rely on oil for our needs any longer and I don’t want to see any more damaging changes in the land. This won’t. And the residue from this technology won’t be a bigger burden for the Earth. What’s cleaner than water?

But it really doesn’t matter what country it’s in as far as getting the renewables to work for people. It’s the technology that Jetstream Wind has that hits the central point of this whole thing. In other words, if the technology can get there and the transmission lines can get ran, then this can work almost anywhere.

Working through the issues of basic infrastructure, transmission, politics, and environment, a company like Jetstream Wind is the right answer for those people.

Did the Haitian government welcome you and the possibility of a Jetstream Wind collaboration?

Ken: 

Yes. I was treated very well. I was able to meet with the US Ambassador to Haiti, the advisor to the President of Haiti, several Prime Ministers, and the necessary others that would become involved should we all come together and build a renewable plant there.

Other than simple barriers with the French-Creole language, it was a very successful meeting and everyone was excited. It went from one meeting to five or six, with them wanting me to speak with as many leaders as possible in my short time there.

This is a major project of which Jetstream Wind would probably want to share some sort of responsibility. How deeply would the country of Haiti be involved and responsible in re-powering their nation?

Ken: 

The United States created a bailout for the auto industry. The country of Haiti will possibly need to create a financial bailout for their energy problem. They’re probably going to have to put some money into the system to start readying themselves for this type of project.

Having the years of experience in large military operations, I’ve learned to back-plan for anything. In other words, I can see the end result, but before I can get there I have to first go all the way back to where it begins. It begins by asking questions…a lot of them.

In order for renewable energy to be a reality in Haiti, the Haitian government has to ask themselves some questions so that Jetstream Wind and Security Advisors Worldwide can do our jobs.

How will they find the necessary people needed for this large of a project? How will they train these people? Where are the people located and where is the transportation going to come from to move these people? How will they communicate?

There is a lot of work to be done from taking out old transmission lines and putting in new ones, to breaking ground on the energy plant itself. Power poles will be placed on every block. New construction companies will be built, taking into account everything that goes with that including the huge amount of labor needed.

We can also take into account the education necessary to work with a project of this type, creating a national boost in knowledge. Anything from taking down a power line to managing a company with the large workforce will have to be covered.

It’s not only about the end result of the plant supplying renewable energy to the people. It also includes the entire scope of the process beginning with Haiti’s choice and ability to prepare for it.

In seeing the potential, meeting the representatives, and observing the culture, what is the one thing that you come back with?

Ken: 

I come back with the insight that the country of Haiti is only a two and half hour flight from Miami. It’s not so far away that we can’t touch it with our assistance.

Little kids are walking distances, carrying the water they needed for the day. You have to remember we as a human race have also been to the moon. We’re building a space station. How is it possible that an island, so close to the United States is in the situation it is?

This has the capacity of creating and developing a whole new job infrastructure and economy. It is a prime example of renewable energy quickly effecting the situation for the better.

The capability is there to get it done. The land is there, the people are motivated, and the technology is ready to go. With the help of the Haitians in getting the infrastructure ready, a whole new way of life can arise from this for the people of Haiti, and also the same possibility for other people and nations all over the world.

What strikes me the most from our conversation about renewable energy is its ability to cross borders, boundaries, cultures, political policies, and even world religions without leaving heavy footprints of various unwanted agendas.  

Thank you once again, Ken, for sharing this information showing how people and technology can come together to create a clean, economically stable world for our future and our children’s futures. 

Click here if you would like more information about Security Advisors Worldwide (SAW).

Ornesha  De Paoli

Green Ascension ~ Evolving People on an Evolving Planet

Sean Shahin asked:

Are you suffering from buying the electricity for your home? Are you suffering from the high cost electricity bill that comes to you every month? Why don’t you generate your own electricity instead of buying it? Yes, my advice for today is to generate your own electricity by building a solar or wind power system.

Building electricity is not that hard, you can build your own solar panel and wind turbine to power all devices in your home. By doing that, you can dramatically reduce the power bill by %80. You can even cut the whole electricity bill forever.

The main point with this issue id to learn how exactly the solar panel and windmills work and how you can build them by your hand. You need a step-by-step guide to build those systems yourself. You wouldn’t pay much money for tools that will be use in the installation process.

Why I told you that you should build your own home power system? I told you that because I know that the ready home power systems like home wind turbines and home solar panels are very expensive and will cost you more money that you pay for your electricity company in a year.

When you can generate your own electricity for your home, you can save your money by %80, you can save your environment because the solar and wind energy resources are very clean energy resources and you can save your children. Take the first step to build all electricity you need for your home and start building your very own solar panels and wind power systems right today not tomorrow.

Dennis Roeder asked:

When the Internet was in its infancy and online marketing was gaining popularity, e-mail solicitation was the primary way to advertise. Solicitors did not generate leads on their own they purchased thousands of e-mail addresses from “list” companies. They would then blast an offer to thousands of recipients at the same time. As the e-mail invitations increased, people began complaining that they didn’t want all these unsolicited marketing offers cluttering up their inbox. This process became known as “spam” and now there are rules and regulations that govern this type of marketing campaign.

What happened was these e-mail lists were sold over and over again and consequently the same addresses were receiving many, many different offers that they didn’t want or in which they had no interest.

The proper way to send e-mail offers today is to send only to recipients that have given their permission to you to do so and also, the e-mail needs to have a way for them to option out of your list if they want to.

Reverse marketing can give you the ability to acquire your own list of prospects that are actually looking for your product or business opportunities then you can develop a relationship with them that is spam free.

Here is how it works. You invite prospects to e-mail you by using free for all (FFA’s) ad companies to advertise what you are offering. People inquire back to you and you then have the chance to communicate with them on a more friendly basis. These are people that have requested information from you so they are looking forward to receiving your e-mail.

Another way to acquire e-mail address is to set up a “capture” page on the Internet. Each of these capture pages or “portals” have a specific function called an opt-in form that when filled out collects their e-mail address into your list. This way they have actually asked for your information and you can then send it to them.

No more paying many, many dollars for a list of e-mails that usually provides minimal or no results. You can market to a list of your own prospects that are exclusively yours because they have requested something from you and you can do it completely spam free.

Michael Pound asked:

The biggest challenge network marketer’s face is learning how to generate MLM leads. The reality is you could be a distributer for the best network marketing, home based, opportunity on the planet, but if you do not know how to generate MLM leads for your business it will never become the raging success it deserves to be.

Simply presenting your opportunity to family and friends will not work 99 times out of 100. WHY? Because your family and friends did not ask you to show them this opportunity and chances are they have been burned in the past by similar “scams”. Even if you do manage to persuade some of them, if they do not believe in the opportunity and more importantly if they do not understand the power of the MLM business model, then they are never going to grow their business with the same motivation and determination as you.

Imagine growing your downline with people who understand what network marketing is all about. They understand the power of leverage that this business model can create for them and they understand the long term residual income that can be generated. If you could grow your downline with these people and they can replicate what you are doing by growing their downlines with similar people, your business will explode.

I can hear you asking yourself now… “But how do I generate MLM leads for my business?” Hang on just a second, I will get to that. Firstly there is a massive difference between simply being able to generate MLM leads and being able to generate TARGETED MLM leads. A targeted lead is a lead that is specifically interested in either your business opportunity or in YOU as a leader. A targeted lead is a lead that approaches you and requests information from you!

There are many ways to generate MLM leads and I am only going to touch on a few here. It may seem obvious, but before you can generate your own leads you must have a way of capturing a lead’s contact details - this is known as a Lead Capture Form. Each of the below methods directs targeted traffic to your capture page.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Pay per click advertising is a great way to find targeted traffic and ultimately generate targeted MLM leads for your business. When setting up an online advert, you specify what keywords must be searched for before your advert is displayed (targeted traffic) and you only pay when somebody clicks on your advert which will take them to your lead capture form.

Articles

Writing articles is an effective way to generate MLM leads online. You can write articles that educate your reader, and potential prospect, about topics related to the MLM business industry, your company’s product or your Network Marketing opportunity. By doing this correctly, you are perceived to be an expert in the field and you will gain the trust of your readers.

Website / Blog

Create a website full of great content and information that budding entrepreneurs want to know. If you provide a site jam packed with useful information you portray yourself as a leader and an expert. People want to join leaders and they will contact you about your business.

Forums

Another great way to get targeted leads is by participating in forums that are specific to either your company’s product or specific to network marketing in general. Again you will demonstrate that you are a leader in this field and like I said above, people want to join leaders.

Ezine Advertising

Ezine Advertising or online newsletters, as they’re sometimes called is another top method to generate network marketing leads. This technique involves placing adverts in front of the subscribers of various network marketing ezines, and/or ezines related to your product. The advantage of this method is that your advert will be shown directly to your target audience.

Gregg Hicks asked:

Backyard Walkway Ideas from the Professionals
Backyard walkway ideas are out there whether you need them for a porch project, a patio or even a garden, here are some ways to get the ideas flowing.
Backyard walkway ideas fall under the category of masonry and landscaping. One of the best ways to get a professional opinion is by hiring a landscape architect. Talk to a professional about their previous work. Ask for photographs if available or if they can point you in the direction to check out completed projects in person.
For other beautiful backyard walkway ideas you can look through home or garden magazines. Your local home improvement center also has building books you can browse through to get your creative juices flowing.
Simply take a drive through historic parts of your town. There you will find walkways and materials used that have stood the test of time. These historic sites are great places for ideas and the materials you might consider for your area.
Backyard Walkway Ideas
After you are done with the historic areas, swing by some of the upper scale neighborhoods. There you are more likely to find professionally designed walkways and landscaping.
Once you begin finding beautiful backyard walkway ideas you should photograph them, scan pages and even check the measurements of the walkways you like. Write down all your thoughts about the project in a notebook for future reference. Keep a written record of any ideas you think of as you’re browsing.
You want to make sure everything is perfect on paper before buying material and trying to put anything together. Take your measurements, sketches and other parts and make a final more accurate drawing for you and your landscape artist to use.
At this point it is important to involve a professional, to make sure your additional landscape items are placed for proper drainage and will endure the test of time as plants and trees that might be in the area grow.

Richard Chapo asked:

Wind power is considered a renewable energy source because it will be with us as long as the sun beats down on the planet. Wind is a creation of heat produced by objects warming up under the relentless rays of the sun. Certain objects warm up faster than others. When this occurs, wind is created. As hot air rises off the hotter objects, cooler air rushes in to fill the gap. This rushing process is, of course, wind.

Wind power has long been of interest to scientists and energy companies. It is relatively cheap and can easily be tied into the current utility grids that feed power to nations. The question with wind power has always been how to generate enough energy from wind power to make it feasible. The entire discussion comes down to wind turbines.

Wind turbines are the devices that catch the wind and convert the inherent energy into electricity. The process works exactly like a hydropower dam. As the wind hits the turbines, the blades catch it and spin. The spinning motion then cranks a turbine, which kicks out electricity. The only difference between the two processes is we are talking about wind instead of water.

A single hydropower dam can produce a lot of electricity, but a single wind turbine cannot. Why? Well, the water rushing through a dam is condensed under the weight of itself. When it is released into the generator shutes, it also runs at a near vertical angle to maximize the speed of the water and generator cranking output. With wind, both of these factors are non-existent. One cannot really harness the wind to really power up a wind turbine. Instead, one has to install dozens and even hundreds of turbines to generate significant amounts of electricity. As you might imagine, this can cause problems.

The biggest problem with wind power is the number of turbines needed to produce enough electricity. While the turbines have grown more efficient and larger, one still needs significant numbers to produce enough tangible energy. The two primary solutions are old and new. The old solution is to find great swaths of vacant land for the turbines. With growing populations, this is still relatively difficult and expensive. The new solution is to build wind farms at sea. This makes much more sense since the wind on the ocean is nearly constantly there and the “land” isn’t costly.

At the end of the day, experts estimate wind power will account for upwards of 20 percent of all our energy needs in the next two decades. With further refinements and the use of offshore platforms, the number could be much higher.