Archive for January, 2008

How To Target Your Niche Online Markets

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

Does your web site target a particular market? Is it geographic or demographic? Male or female, young or old? Business or consumer?

Targeting your niche market via search engines can be a very efficient and effective way of pinpointing your visitors with the most potential to buy your products and services. With a little planning, you can determine exactly who visits your site and who doesn’t. How? Well, by using search terms throughout your site that are geared specifically towards your own niche markets. We’re going to show you how to do it right now.

Take a minute to write down the specific markets your products and services are aimed at. Now drill down even further. Do you service only one country, State or city? Are you mainly targeting men in their twenties? Parents? Low-income earners?

To give you an example, let’s take a fictional florist located in Miami, Florida who specializes in wedding bouquets. Their target markets would be something like this:

- women in their early to late twenties – people living in Miami and surrounding suburbs – brides-to-be living in Miami and surrounding suburbs – dating males – couples (especially around Valentine’s Day)

There are probably more potential markets than this, but let’s stop there. Ok, now that you have narrowed down your target market/s, try to get inside their heads. If you were a single parent/ frequent traveler/ retiree, what would YOU type in to the search engines to find the goods and services offered on your own site?

Start writing down these search terms as they come to mind. Using our florist example again, relevant search terms could include:

- flowers – roses – bouquets – Valentine’s Day – wedding flowers – florists – gifts

Now start adding qualifying terms that will help define your market even more closely, ensuring the chosen terms are extremely relevant to your geographic region, or specific product / service offering. Unless our fictional Miami florist sends flowers outside the State, they wouldn’t want to attract any web site visitors from outside Florida right? Perhaps not even outside Miami. Also, if somebody searches the web looking for advice on growing roses, our florist wouldn’t want them visiting either, agreed? Adding qualifying terms reduces the likelihood of these visitors. For example, let’s add the following terms to our original list:

- [send] flowers [Florida] – [send] roses [Miami] – [wedding] bouquets [Miami] – Valentine’s Day [gifts Florida] – [Florida] wedding flowers – florists [Miami] – [send] gifts [Miami]

See how a few selective terms narrows down the searches considerably? Visitors that arrive at the site after typing in such specific search terms are already highly qualified to buy from the site. This increases the visitor/sale conversion rate while reducing the ‘click away’ rate considerably.

Ok, now you know your niche markets and you’ve narrowed down your target search terms to reach these markets. What next? Well, now you scatter these search terms throughout your web pages, in a logical way so as not to interrupt the flow of writing. Then you replace keywords in your existing META keyword tag with your new target terms and use the most important ones within your META description and title tag too. If you’re not confident enough to do this yourself, give the terms to your web designer or a SEO and ask them to do it.

Now when the search engines index your site, they’ll find it more relevant for these target searches and (hopefully!) rank you highly for these new terms. The result: effective targeting of your online niche market, less ‘click aways’ and more real customers.

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Top 10 Gifts For A Teenager

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

Do you have a certain teenager in your life that is hard to buy for? That probably is a rather difficult question considering that many teenagers are difficult to buy for and it does seem like as they get older presents get more and more expensive. This year electronics are in full gear and they are on every teenagers wish list. To me it just shows how far we have come with technology because about as much technology as I had at Christmas was plugging my easy bake oven in and as I got a little older it was the cassette player. It’s hard to believe we have come that far in technology. Any teenager would be happy to receive a gift from this list.

1) Iphone – this is a bit pricey for a teenager but Im sure apple will definetly sell their share of Iphone this Christmas.

2) Ipod – Still at the top of wish lists even after a couple of years on the market

3) Nintendo Wii – This is item to buy this year for Christmas

4) Xbox 360

5) PSP

6) Video Games

7) Perfume /Cologne

8) Portable DVD Player

9) Notebook Computer

10) DVD Movies

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An Overview Of The Worlds Most Beautiful Flowers – Australian Orchids

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

There are over 30,000 species of orchids making it the largest family and the plant world. These fabulous flowering plants are known for their gorgeous flowers that come in all colors. Although they can grow in many places, orchids love tropical climates where they grow on trees trunks and branches.

In Australia, orchids grow in the southern region and can be found growing on tree trunks as well as in the ground. Australia boasts about 1200 orchid species many of which are not found anywhere else in the world.

Many of the Australian orchids have adapted some specialized methods of enticing insects over for pollination. The Drakonorchis Barbarossa or common dragon orchid looks like a wingless female wasp and therefore is very attractive to male wasps.

These specialized orchids are so interesting that scientists at the CPBR study these orchids which are sent to them by licensed collectors of Australian orchids. This national herbarium orchid collection consists of 48,000 dried specimens 18,005 hundred cards whichh contain the affected pieces of flowers and over 19,000 Spirit preserved orchid specimens.

Some of the interesting Australian orchids Include the Durabaculum Nindii or endangered blue orchid which is native to North Eastern Queensland, the dotted Sun orchid, the nodding green hood, the tongue orchid, and the cowslip orchid to name but a few.

In Australia, you will find epiphytes which grow on trees as well as terrestrials which grown around. The ratio is about 70% terrestrial to 30% epiphytes. Epiphytes are the easiest to grow in the most common in orchid collections.

Western Australia is home to mostly terrestrial orchids which are well-known for their size, bright color and strange markings. These dainty fragile flowers fascinate most everyone who sees them. Some of these orchids like those of the endemic genus Rhizanthella live their whole lives underground.

Orchids are great plants and make an unusual gift whether they are given as a live potted plant or in a vase with other flowers. If you have a green thumb, you might even try growing your own orchids if you can provide them with enough humidity and proper nutrients you may be successful not matter where you live in the world.

When growing orchids, the most important thing you can do is provide enough humidity. They will need over 50% so be sure you setup an area where you can provide them with this!

Orchids can be challenging to grow but if you love these beautiful plants, you can easily find them at your florist or even in the supermarket and take an already grown plant home to enjoy!

Posted in Australia Orchird | No Comments »

Christmas Tree Decorating Tips

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

You do not have to be the design guru to create a Christmas tree worthy of a display window. Just follow these general guidelines to give your tree maximum impact this year.

A complete tree traditionally is composed of lights, garland, trim, and ornaments, arranged in that order. Add a tree skirt for a finishing touch. It is customary to add the topper last, although this is mostly for ceremonial purposes.

Lights Thread lights from the base of the tree to the tip, and the inside branches to the outward ones. For trees taller than 4 feet, use up to 100 small twinkling lights per foot. Trees 2-3 feet tall need 35-80 lights. If you prefer to use the larger C-7 or C-9 bulbs, multiply the height of your tree by its dimension. For trees up to 7 feet divide this number in half. Divide by 3 for trees over 7 feet. Check the packaging of C-7 and C-9 bulbs, since not all brands have been approved to use with artificial trees.

Exercise caution when using strings of lights end-to-end. As a general rule, do not hook more than 3 sets of lights together, as doing so can overload the circuits and blow the fuses. Some commercial grade sets are safe to hook up to six sets. Hook together only strings of the same lights; for example, never hook a string miniature twinkling lights to a line of C-7 bulbs. This is also true when hooking your tree topper to the light sets. Use a 3 outlet cord instead. Discard any damaged light sets or decorations and turn everything off when you go to bed for the night!

Garland Garlands can be made of tinsel or beads, and some ambitious revelers still make their own garlands out of popcorn, cranberries, and/or linked paper. Ribbons of various widths, styles, and colors also make fabulous garlands. Hung in large loops, garland adds drama to your tree, although how you drape your garland is a matter of taste and sometimes depends on the size of your tree. (Large loops can look silly on a smaller tree.) Nowadays you can also string garland vertically, by securing it at the top and looping downward. Experiment to see what looks best. Garlands may slip, particularly if the tree is delicate or droopy. To keep them in place, wind the garlands around the branches or secure with ribbons or wire.

You will probably need about 10 feet of garland per foot of tree. Any extra garland can be used to decorate around the house, and is particularly lovely used on the mantle or in wreaths. You may use up to three different types of garland, but make sure these coordinate with each other.

Ornaments Whether you have hundreds of one-of-a-kind collectibles, or a box of shabby hand-me-downs, your tree can look fabulous if you hang your ornaments well. First, create depth and interest by hanging some ornaments on the inside branches. Use plain or inexpensive ornaments for this, using the outside branches to showcase collectibles, if you have them. If you are still building up your collection, shoot for 10 special themed ornaments per every 2 feet of tree. Hang similar ornaments in a group, taking care not to crowd them, but keep them together for maximum impact. You really can’t have too many ornaments, the key is in the spacing.

A word about metal hooks: save them for fishing! Instead, use loops of ribbon, raffia, or cord to hang ornaments. These can be a unifying factor if your ornaments don’t all match, and are much lovelier and easier to handle than metal hooks.

Skirt, Trim and Toppers This would include tinsel, bows, or whatever else you want to throw on your tree. Trim can be used to tie together different types of ornaments, but it’s completely optional. Whatever you do, don’t spoil your tree by drowning it in trim. Use a little for enhancement. As far as the skirt goes, it should be big enough to cover the stand, but not bigger than the average branches. Add some wrapped presents and you are ready to go!

The most common toppers are stars, angels, and finials, but these days you can use almost anything to top your tree. A big bow that matches the garland would be a fine example of a tree topper. Your tree topper is a significant piece, so choose wisely!

Posted in Wreaths | No Comments »

Fall Gardening – a Quieter Time in the Garden?

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

In the fall as the nights draw in and the days become shorter many people think that a quiet and restful time for the gardener is approaching and that it’s almost time to put the garden tools away in the shed till spring. While this may be true for the lawn mower, there are many other garden tools whose services can still be required during the fall.

For the more serious gardener who wants to continue to grow as late in the season as possible or who wants to optimise his lawn and garden in preparation for next year. There is still much gardening that can be done, both in growing vegetables and preparing and planning your garden for next spring, until well into the fall.

With the constant possibility of early winter frosts many gardeners don’t even consider fall gardening. This is a pity as with the right planning, planting the most suitable plants and at the right time of year, the rewards can be well worth the extra work. As often, for example, vegetables, produced in the fall can be sweeter and tastier than those grown in the height of the summer. This can bring a refreshing new dimension to some of the same old varieties of garden vegetables.

It is important, however, to choose vegetables with a short growing season to give the best chance of harvesting before the more severe frosts do make an appearance. Vegetables that can be ideal to grow well into the fall include carrots, beet, lettuce, broccoli, turnips and radish. They should be planted while the ground is still warm and in a place where they are likely to get a minimum of six hours of sunshine.

Fall is also the best time to plant your spring bulbs, especially the hardy varieties such as crocuses, daffodils, tulips and irises and these will do well in either containers or beds. They will flower in the spring so you can look forward to their colourful displays as an early sign of the arrival of spring, which should be ample reward for your additional work and planning in the fall.

Looking after and maintaining your lawn is another task you can be busy with in the fall to enhance your chances of a luscious lawn next spring. It is an ideal time to concentrate on factors like aeration of the soil and clearing debris accumulated over the summer growing season. You should remove any twigs, stones and fallen leaves from your lawns as these can harbour disease and encourage pests. A leaf blower or garden vacuum will make this task much easier and you should, of course, keep all of the organic material for composting.

Aerating disrupts the soil surface by making holes in the earth. This can be done manually with a garden fork or a number of tools can be used to make the work easier, or if you have a larger area to deal with. This allows more oxygen into the soil and water will also gain easier access, rather than simply running off. Earthworms will thrive better in this environment as well as a number of other beneficial organisms. Fertilizers and other top dressing substances will be more effective after aeration and it makes re-seeding, if necessary, more successful.

These are just a few of the tasks that can be keeping you busy in your garden during the fall. So if you want a beautiful garden in the spring it’s not quite time to lock away those garden tools just yet.

Posted in Flower Seeding | No Comments »