planetriches.com

In today’s world there are a lot of reasons to have a multimeter in your toolbox. Though it wasn’t always the case where everyone had a multimeter, in fact, the most common hand held meter that was around for the do-it-yourself-er was the analog volt meter. The biggest reason was because of the cost and lack of knowledge. Now the cost of a digital multimeter is of no concern unless you want the higher quality multimeter.

There are many types of multimeters on the market with cost starting below $10.00 up to many hundreds of dollars. There are still analog multimeters available though they are harder to find because everyone wants a more easy to read digital multimeter. I remember the days when my trusty little analog voltmeter would give me a reading that was all over the scale and it was very hard to pin point the exact reading when charging a battery and 13.8volts was the goal.

You don’t have to be a electrician to under stand the basics of electricity but you better respect it or it will knock you on your butt or worst! Even DC [direct current] can give you trouble, have you ever touch a spark plug when your car engine is running or how did you feel after touching a electric fence?

AC [alternating current] is the common power source for the home or job. The first rule in trouble shooting anything electrical is to turn off all power sources before you start to disassemble anything and then take your multimeter and test the wires for any electricity before your hands touch anything. Turning off the light switch isn’t enough go to the beaker box and turn the power source off. Even then you better test the wires because you may have a back feed from another source.

Just the volt meter in your multimeter will save you a lot of agony when doing house repairs. With a little practice you will find that trusty multimeter giving you a lot of satisfaction in hunting down that faulty circuit or why that light doesn’t work. Common sense and a good book on how to work with electricity using a multimeter will put you in good standing.

Lots of site programmers are using free classifieds affiliate programs to tap new markets and provide their visitors a reason to keep coming back. Whenever you give your prospects a reason to return to your website, you have additional opportunities to earn their trust…and their business.

You place a link to your classified ads site using appropriate keywords for your market (”Free Corvette Ads”, “Hot Rod Classifieds,” “Used Car Ads,” etc.). Search engines just love these types of links, and including these key words will inevitably improve your ranking for exactly the type of prospect you want to attract to your web pages. Greater visibility means greater site traffic.

Here’s something else. When your post free classifieds, they are presented with an offer to upgrade their free ad with enhancements (feature ads, color, highlighted listing, etc). This sets their offer apart from the other ads and gains better exposure for them. Most classified ad programs will pay you a percentage (usually 10-25%) of the upgrade cost. You’ve just created another income stream for your web pages.

By joining and incorporating a free classifieds affiliate program into your website, you create the ultimate win-win-win. You provide your visitors with a free value-added benefit, you improve your rankings with the search engines by incorporating keyword hyperlinks into your site, you attract additional markets to expose to your product, you create an additional revenue stream as they upgrade their ads, and you give your prospects a reason to return to your site again and again.

Join a classified ad affiliate program today and watch as your traffic, and your business, improves tomorrow.

February 17, 2009. New site CommercialMillionsBonus.com is offering a $1 million dollar value bonus to the first 77 people who invest in a brand new commercial real estate investing course from their site. While the new course being recommended focuses on master lease option and joint venture facilitation, two unique low-risk commercial real estate investing strategies, the bonus aims to create a new generation of elite level commercial real estate investors.

Real estate investors are ecstatic over the free preview of the revolutionary new investing strategies students will learn with the Commercial Millions home-study course.  Over 30,000 people have seen the free previews of the course and have posted thousands of positive comments like:

“Very simple to understand”
“I can’t wait to get started with these new techniques, and I’ve been in this industry a long time!”
“I can’t believe I’m just seeing this stuff for the first time. This totally makes sense to me.”
“Awesome & Brilliant! They don’t teach this in the commercial trainings I’ve been to.”
“This is surely a life changing opportunity.”
“Whoa! This is far easier than many of the other strategies being taught out there.”

With comments like these the consensus seems to be, if you really want to learn effective commercial real estate investing strategies, you need to get this course. Noticing this trend, internet marketers are jumping on board and creating incredible incentive packages to get people to buy the course through their recommendation and affiliate link.  The offers available include many things like real estate investing ebooks, entire home-study courses and even live workshop sessions worth $5,000 and more.

The most outstanding offer to be found is a proposed $1 million dollar value being offered at http://www.CommercialMillionsBonus.com.  The bonus focuses on enhancing the value of the home-study course by providing a secret about finding the best places to use the new investing strategies.

“A couple of years ago I learned an incredible real estate investing secret, but hadn’t been able to find a safe investing strategy to use it with.  This all changed when I bought Jason Gilbert’s Commercial Millions home-study course.”

Those who are fortunate enough to jump on this opportunity will become part of the next group of incredibly successful commercial real estate investors. It’s unfortunate however, that many amateurs who take an interest in real estate investing often see offers and opportunities like this, but fail to recognize the enormous potential being handed to them.

“Price is what you pay, value is what you get”

Looking at the review of the “Commercial Millions” commercial real estate investing home-study course on http://www.CommercialMillionsBonus.com, people can easily see if they would be interested in learning these revolutionary investing strategies which virtually all of the top commercial investors will be using in 2009 and beyond. They can also decide if they want to get the $1 million dollar value real estate investing secret or not.  After that we can prepare to see a whole new batch of truly successful commercial real estate investors emerge.

Looking for New Zealand’s best business hotel? The Australasian World Travel Awards 2008 voted Auckland’s Stamford Plaza Hotel as New Zealand’s leading business hotel. In addition, its Kabuki Teppanyaki restaurant was voted one of New Zealand’s best by Metro magazine.

Stamford Plaza has its own events team and six versatile functions room, with state of the art audiovisual equipment. With a central city location, and a capacity of up to 300 guests, Stamford Plaza is ideal for creating a great impression at any event you sponsor is. At the other end of the scale, it can also provide an intimate boardroom setting, with dedicated staff assuring you of complete attention to detail.

The Stamford Plaza hotel is in the centre of the business district, just a block from the famous Auckland Waitemata Harbour, and ideally situated for shopping trips either for yourself or for a spouse accompanying you on a business trip. It is also easy walking distance to the harbour precinct and Vector Arena.

All rooms are upmarket and enhanced with natural New Zealand timbers and a decadent luxury. Large desks provide business travellers with ample working space, together with broadband internet access. The Stamford Plaza has 283 contemporary guestrooms, including 14 suites. It has a fully equipped recreation Centre with a state of the art gymnasium. Large marble bathrooms provide separate baths and Showers.

To find out more about the Stamford Plaza Hotel and compare New Zealand Business hotels, please visit http://www.Touring.Asia - which can also provide information on last minute Auckland hotel deals

Have you ever tried to find a lost friend on the Internet? I have it is not as easy as you might think. I had a good friend in junior high and I have fond memories of hanging out having fun with him. We would hang out listen to music talk just have a great time.

The other day I was thinking about my long-lost friend and I decided to try to find them on the Internet. It seems everyone nowadays uses the Internet so I figured it shouldn’t be difficult to locate him. I pulled up Google typed his name and get pages on pages of results. I checked out page after page but didn’t find any mention of my friend just a lot of people with similar names.

I decided try to narrow my search a bit by including the town and state where we grew up. Unfortunately they were still too many pages to look through for it to be practical to find my lost friend. I decided Google just gave to many results so I would try using a less popular search engine like MSN.

I typed in my friends name and the city and state where we grew up and sure enough I did get a lot fewer results. Instead of hundreds of pages there are only eight. I started looking through those pages of results and I found a couple which I thought would surely lead me to find my lost friend. However, after an hour of searching I still came up empty.

Then I decided to try Yahoo. Since Yahoo search has been around longer than Google or MSN I thought I might have better luck there. Again I entered my friends name the city and state and this time I got about 30 pages of results. I started the arduous task of looking through each and every page and clicking on link after link. Now I was getting frustrated I spent all this time and still cannot find my lost friend.

I pretty much gave up on finding my friend until a couple months later when I discovered reunion.com. I decided to give the site a try and I was amazed at how quickly I was able to turn up results for my lost friend. The service was not free but considering the amount of time I have wasted trying to search in the regular search engines it was definitely worth the small price.

I was able to find a phone number for my friend and I gave them a call. He was very happy to hear from me. In fact, he had been searching for me also. We have a long phone conversation and it turns out that he lived close enough that we could meet for lunch. Although it was more difficult to locate my lost friend than I had imagined it was great to find him and I’m glad I put in the effort.

You see photos and ads showing lean, attractive guys and gals looking great in bathing suits. The guys have 6 pack abs, all their abdominal muscles well-defined. The gals have flat, shapely mid-sections. Mid-sections that set off the rest of their bodies with breath-taking effects. All of them look really great! Wouldn’t you like to know how to get 6 pack abs like that?

Just how hard is it to learn what you need to know about losing belly fat? Are the training and diet routines all that strenuous? What would it cost you in time, effort and money to get 6 pack abs, to look like that yourself?

In reality, it is not at all hard to get 6-pack abs. You would need a good plan, one that would really work. Then you would need the determination to follow through. The first challenge is to get a good plan and get on the right track. The second challenge is following through and staying on plan. Then you need to make up you mind to do it. From that point on it’s simply a matter of sticking to it, following your plan to success.}

It is important to emphasize that you will need to avoid the misinformation out there about how to get your 6 pack abs. Most of what you will hear or read is just flat wrong. You need exercise, right. But not that much. The really important part is how hou handle your diet regimen to sculpt your body into the way you want it to look.

The trick to how to get a six pack is to get good information to start with. Don’t rely on “common knowledge”; that is generally wrong. Get your plan from a professional who has ‘been there, done that’ and can point to the hundreds of people he has shown the way and who got good results. Don’t waste you time experimenting. Go with a proven plan.

By - Charles Riggins

My fiancee and I are devout skiers and we ski wherever our schedule will take us. Since we have found the Orbits, we have been able to ski more than ever in some of the great locations that once would have cost us too much money such as Aspen, Colorado.

A Four-In-One Ski Vacation
What we loved most about our trip to Aspen was the choice of four mountains. Aspen has Buttermilk, Aspen Highlands, Aspen Mountain and Snowmass resorts so you can ski different terrains in a single day. With more than $35 million invested in facilities for the current ski season, Aspen has become a premiere winter sports destination.

Can you imagine spending your entire vacation at a condo on the slopes so that you can get as much ski time as you can handle. There are many new restaurants, more skiable terrain and Buttermilk has added a half-pipe off 22 feet. WestPac is developing a village at the base of Buttermilk that will add even more restaurants, shops and conference space for those that love to mix business with pleasure. Check out everything happening at Aspen.

A Great Time for the Entire Family
Aspen is not just about the sports; it’s also about great family fun. No matter what age your kids are, there is lots for them to do that mom and dad will also enjoy. Hop on a snowmobile for a tour that will take you to Maroon Bells, go on a guided tour with a naturalist hosted by ACES that is totally free or take the kids to the “Family Zone”. There is the new Treehouse Kids’ Adventure Center at the village at Snowmass.

Make sure you check out Orbitz Coupons so that you can save your vacation dollars. It has definitely helped us to visit cities that we thought were beyond our price range and it will save you as well.

Lose Weight Fast

If you know what pure aloe vera gel is, then you know of the amazing properties this natural plant has for healing. Although many people know that it is used for burns they do not realize the other aspects of the gel. There are many more uses such as:

1) Improving the fine lines around the eyes.

2) It also helps to heal cuts, boils, cold sores, skin ulcers and many other ailments pertaining to the skin.

3) The gel can be effective for many people who are suffering from skin allergies. It can stop itching and pain associated with these allergies.

4) Aloe Vera can clean and soothe the scalp. It gets rid of the dead cells to make way for new ones and provides nutrients to the scalp. The use of this gel is also good for those who may suffer from dandruff and seborrhea. Giving relief for these symptoms allow the hair to grow and be healthy.

5) Aloe Vera gel can be used as both an anti-inflammatory and a pain reliever. This is one of the few natural remedies that are known to do this simultaneously.

6) This gel can also help to get rid of cellulite on the legs and buttocks.

As you can see this is an all-around remedy, that takes care of many problems. One of the reasons it works so well on skin is because it is almost the same pH as the skin. This is a very old remedy that has been in use for years. It is spoken of in Biblical times and the ancient Romans and Egyptians have left signs that it was used during their time.

Did you know that Aloe Vera gel can be used to cure athlete’s foot? Probably not, unless, you yourself have used the gel for this purpose in the past. Aloe Vera can also help people who have excessively oily skin. It absorbs the excess oil which is a good start for helping to clear acne. This is such a versatile plant that it is hard to believe that we have not been using it all along.

The leaves of the plant are what are used for extracting this healing gel. There are farmers who grow Aloe Vera so that it can be used for the healing properties it has. The typical plant will grow for about eighteen months and then just two or three of the leaves are removed leaving the new ones to develop. The gel is inside the leaves and is a clear slimy substance with a green tint. Superb for sunburn and other types of burns, many people keep a pot or two growing on their window sill to have on hand for the occasional household burn.

Aloe Vera gel is also very good for using on chapped skin from cold weather. It moisturizes the skin and keeps it from feeling so rough. In addition when used on the face it cleans, takes bacteria away and nourishes the skin. Using the gel everyday will give you visibly noticeable tighter skin and it also reduces large pores. The gel soaks deep into the skin and carries nutrients to the inner layers and helps the blood to circulate more freely. This brings the natural healthy glow to the outer layers.

There are many health benefits of aloe vera that many know nothing about.I hope this article has been beneficial in your search.

Introduction

Welcome to An Insight into Stock Photography. This article is based on a talk given at Focus on Imaging 2007. I hope you find it interesting. Just remember these are my views only, they are not gospel and have been put together based solely on my experience of shooting and selling stock photography, primarily through Alamy and photographic magazines.

We’ve seen a lot of change in the markets and the economy in general. This has affected the stock photography market. But don’t lose faith , magazines and newspapers have an insatiable appetite for images.

One Approach

Having many options - and finding opportunities to build a business from photography. And stock photography is just part of that - a chance for someone else to promote your pictures for you and to for you to get paid, while off doing something else. It’s like having commission only sales people working for you. The thing is you have to give them something saleable but you can’t give them a kick up the backside if you’re not selling much!!

Some commercial photographers don’t do it, some do, some make a living from it. The choices and balance is up to you, as a commercial photographer I do some of it.

It may seem like a big step but it’s not and it’s within most people’s reach . Provided you understand the customer. This applies to both the Picture Library and the Ultimate Buyers.

Take a look around you. Pictures are everywhere - the printed media in its widest context has a massive appetite for images on a daily basis.

Humans generally don’t like reading online - well not for very long - they like tactile magazines to flick though and dip into and if they didn’t, the magazine industry would be long gone by now - wouldn’t it !!

Every magazine, exhibition, web site, company brochure and newspaper all need pictures on a regular basis - and if they don’t have it or can’t send a photographer to go out and shoot it - then they’ll buy it.

Printed media works on deadlines that go right down to the wire, so immediacy is important and the shots can’t be the same old ones turned out time after time .

The corporate buyer generally will work to longer lead times and less tight deadlines - but not always - the images they buy can be more general or iconic - like these motivation posters you see in some offices .

Take for instance a sports shot of runners on a track - you might see it in the sports pages of a newspaper for a day, then maybe in a Athletics magazine that month - but it can soon become a poster with a motivational statement “Defeat” or “Winner” that has a whole new market.

So where are you - the photographer - in the food chain so to speak. Take a look below.

• The Photographer
• The Stock Library
• The Picture Buyer

You’re on the top of the list with the picture library between you and the buyer, but at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to getting paid. But whilst you need to meet the technical requirements of the library and other submission requirements, it’s the image buyer you must be thinking of long before you even contemplate picking up the camera.

The stock library will do the sales and marketing of your images, for a fee which varies from library to library, but they must have images that buyers want.

Before you sign up, read through the agreement and see if the set up suits your requirements.

Diverse Sectors

Each of these publications, Gossip magazines, The Times Newspaper, Corporate Publications, serve a specific market - but each buy photos from Alamy to mention just one library - they also buy from many others too - in order to make the publication that day, week or month.

So what sort of pictures do these publications buy? Well it’s very varied. Just flick through and look at the side of the shot, it’s likely to have an image source next to it.

• Take a Break - items / products, staged poses - youth etc.
• Daily mail - travel
• Environment - utilities, waste, pollution etc, - front cover.

Get Rich Quick - NO!

Some say it’s a numbers game - true to some extent, but the way I look at it is this, if you’ve got 10,000 images of shots that won’t sell - you’ve got very little.

For me as a professional photographer that provides photography services, it’s the long term view - looking to grow and maintain a set of saleable images.

Remember pictures are perishable - i.e. - they go out of date - and this will vary dependent upon the industry sector or subject they apply to.

Transport, fashion, IT, business, communications all need, in my view, re-shooting each year. For example a man in a suit by a computer the size of a house in the 1950’s isn’t the modern business image of today.

Wildlife, sky scenes, landscapes, travel pictures - less so - but look at any developing city - take London - since the Wheel and the Gherkin went up all the skylines are different, also look at Dubai - developing all the time.

Easy money - no it’s not - but you can build up an underlying income if you think about saleable pictures and keep them relevant - remember they have to illustrate a story - so need to tell a story in their own right.

What is Stock

So let’s take a look at how you get started and who there is to choose from. Each Library has its own benefits and key target markets, so find one that suits you and what you are good at shooting.

• Getty
• Alamy
• Comstock
• Jupiter
• Superstock
• Fotolibra
• Istockphoto,
• Pixtal
• Jumpimages
• Adams
• Nevstock

Most will have web sites and these will stipulate how to join of make submissions.

$ Sites

Personally I don’t like them and here’s why. I’m going to set you a challenge and at the end of it I will buy the photograph from you. So you go and shoot a subject you like, do your research, do the shoot, post produce the image and upload it to my site and hey presto - I pay you 50p at today’s exchange rate — any takers ? I rest my case!

Submission Rules

All stock libraries will set technical specifications and these will vary depending on how much server space they want to invest in.

Alamy work to 48mb TIFF minimum - 1, to keep the bar high enough that only the serious photographer applies and 2, to give their customers’ choice and immediate access to high quality images. Now they’ve changed this from the above to accept JPEG images - so your file size is down to around 8 meg.

Others work on thumbnail sizes then let the buyer contact you. Personally, I think, trying to judge a shot off a 100 or 200k image is not doing the shot justice.

Others specify minimum specifications of camera / model, or make you go though an approval or recommendation process. The thing with this is to find a library that matches your needs and capabilities. Also the amount time you have available to dedicate to stock photography.

Licenses

Non-Exclusive License

The buyer pays a licence fee each time they use the picture , but another picture buyer can also purchase and use the image under the same licence.

The image buyer must specify, each time: intended use, media, territory and duration.

Pricing is based on intended use, media, duration and territory. The territorial pricing will be matched to the specific country.

Exclusive License

The image buyer pays a licence fee each time they use the image.

The picture buyer obtains exclusive use of an image under the terms of the licence: these terms may affect the use, media, territory and/or duration in which the image can by used by other buyers.

Rights protection can be an advantage for high-profile projects such as ad campaigns and promotions.

Royalty Free (RF)

The picture buyer pays a one-off fee - they do not have to pay royalties to contributors on a use-by-use basis.

The image buyer will not know who else is using the image.

The image buyer should check that the image has the appropriate releases before using the image where a release is required, for example Model release for people and property release for prominent buildings or logos.

Commission

• 50/50
• 60/40 but with global distribution
• 70/30
• 80/20 - Photographers Direct

Again find one that works for you and also find out when you’ll get paid and any minimum balances you must have to get paid. Sometimes you can wait 3 months for your money.

Work Flow

As a provider of photography services I shoot RAW and make minor adjustments to pictures . Now I’m using Adobe Lightroom in place of Raw Shooter and it’s speeded up my work flow considerably. Photoshop - I use this far less now but only to colour and touch out any dirt or what might look like dirt - by this I mean the occasional bird in the sky can look like sensor dust if it’s a way off in the distance. Resize your image. Output the file to the required format.

Then depending on the library upload over the Internet or cut a CD / DVD.

An Example

Take an older camera the Nikon D70 - 6.1 mega pixel camera. Raw files were around 4 or 5 MB and a TIFF was at 17MB with the JPEG at 4MB.

To meet the submission guidelines you need to Interpolate the image - make it bigger. In Photoshop this was Image > Image Size>Percent. Increase by 168% to give a 48 - 50 MB sized image. Then Save as Jpeg - 5 - 7MB.

I now shoot on a Nikon D300. RAW files are now 18 - 19 mb, opened in CS3 at 34 mb - requiring interpolation by only 20%.

What I’ve Sold

Wonderful sunsets, superb travel pictures, glamour images, or maybe my Dad’s cat! These are just a few examples of shots that have sold.
My dad’s cat, police cars, road signs, street scenes in New York, studio models and traffic jams.

Finding More Value

There are plenty of publications that will promote your sold work, FPME (Now out of print March 2009) is just one of them and if you have sold a shot just let the editor know - chances are it can earn you some more money.

Not only that, look out for sites like Photographer Direct that offer an Image Request service - all you need to do is send 1 email. Also look to the corporate clients - they too may take an image if it fits with their style - be brave, make that approach, but do your research first.

Top Tips

Check out how many images of your subject matter already exist in a library, then ask yourself - can these be improved, shot differently or updated.

Read the picture needs issued by Stock libraries, they tell you what sells and what is needed, don’t ignore them.

Thank you for reading this article, I hope you found it interesting, should you have any questions, please feel free to make contact through the web site.

Author : Peter Davey Ma DipM
First edition Feb 2007 - updated March 2008 and March 2009 

Each island in Hawaii is different in its lure. The six islands all have a wide range of accommodation rentals from which to choose. Make it a point to visit at least more than one of the islands (if not all), if you want to experience all that is Hawaii. The best island to drop anchor would be Maui and then visit the other islands from here. Maui rentals are diverse — everything from luxurious to affordable accommodations that won’t break the bank.

The second largest island is Maui, which has some truly unbelievable beaches: many discerning vacationers think the island’s coast has the world’s best beaches. You’ll want to return to Maui again and again just to bask in your favorite white sand beach. From the coast, looking mauka (to the mountains) you’ll get an eyeful of Maui’s rich green landscape from which you can fill your lungs with fresh, unpolluted air.

Whether you’re relaxing on the breathtaking beaches or touring the winding roads of the famous Hana Highway, Maui rentals are the guaranteed way to ensure your trip to Maui is as spectacular as the scenery. While you are there, don’t forget to sample the eclectic cuisine or browse the numerous shops that line Maui’s coast. Whether it’s a journey to tropical Iao Valley, watching the sunrise at Haleakala Crater, a whale-watching expedition, or a round of golf on a championship course, your trip to Maui will be an adventure to remember.

You must include a trip to Kauai in your Hawaii vacation itinerary. With a serene seashore, gorgeous gardens, spectacular coast, mesmerizing ravines and waterfalls, and panoramic vistas of the vast blue Pacific sea; Kauai is indeed a “tropical paradise”. For your stay to be pleasant, and not burn a hole in your pocket, select from the various Kauai rentals — from cabin retreats to resort condominiums.

You can indulge in a plethora of activities in Kauai. You can hike along the Napali coast or take a chopper ride from where the 3000 feet high cliffs look spectacular. You can explore the Grand Canyon of the Pacific - the Waimea Canyon. You can go kayaking and fishing in the Wailua River, which is the only navigable river in Hawaii. You can enjoy the beaches which mesmerize everyone with their brilliant white sand. You can also play a round of golf or enjoy a picnic. There is something for everyone.

Kauai has a large number of beaches, and to enjoy them all would require several trips to the island. Kauai’s beaches are renowned for their sparkling white sand and for being uncrowded. Some beachfront vacation rentals also have private swimming pools, an arrangement perfect for any honeymooning couple — sure to result in memories that will last forever. In fact, because Kauai is a lush tropical garden paradise, many people choose to have their dream wedding here.

GreatHawaiiVacationRentals.com offers a variety of spacious Big Island condo rentals and vacation rentals in Maui, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai and Lanai.