Archive for December, 2009

Know Your PSP Firmware Version Then Load It Up

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Let’s Do It

As of this writing the latest version of firmware for the PSP is Version 3.75. So here is what you do: Power up the PSP console; navigate to Settings (on the far left); now look for “System Setting” and hit “X”; next look for “System Information” and press “X” again; your PSP is now displaying the “System Software Version.” Good information to know and easy to get.

Now It Time To Load It Up

OK, now you know the firmware version on your console and you want to start adding music, videos and photos to your PSP. Here’s how to do it.

First you need to get everything ready to go. You may want to create some folders on your computer’s hard drive and populate them with all the files (MP3, MP4, JPEG) you plan to load on to your PSP. So what do you need: your PSP, a USB cable, one or more memory sticks and an internet connection.

Now insert the stick into the left side memory stick slot. You may want to purchase a high capacity stick – the more memory the more files you can load up. Now get out your USB cable. The PSP side of the cable has the small connector and the computer side has the larger standard USB connector. Plug them in, turn on the PSP and computer and we are ready to go.

Go to the home menu on the PSP and scroll to the “Settings” icon. Look for the “USB Connection” icon then press the X button. The PSP will then display “USB Mode” and the computer will recognize the PSP as a USB removable storage device.

Go to your computer and click on Windows Explorer. Navigate to My Computer and then to the removable drive which might have a drive letter of D: E: or F: . Now we need to create some folders on the stick. First create a folder called “PSP” on the PSP memory stick if one isn’t already there. There should also be a folder called “MP_ROOT” and it’s not inside the “PSP” folder.

Great, now we’ll create some folders for the files you plan to load on to your PSP. Open the “PSP” folder. Create folders called “PHOTO” and “MUSIC” inside the “PSP” folder. Now go to the “MP_ROOT” folder – there should be a folder called “100MNV01″ inside the folder. If not, create the “100MV01″ folder.

Now’s the time to load up your PSP with your tunes, videos and pictures. If you haven’t downloaded any games, video or song from the internet, do it now. There’s a ton of sites out there. OK, open the file(s) you created on your computer to hold the pictures you want to load into the PSP. All your have to do is drag and drop the picture files onto the PSP folders just as you would files onto folders on your computer. Image files (with .jpeg, .tiff, .gif, .png and .bmp extensions) go into the “PHOTO” folder, audio files (MP3, ATRAC3plus, MP4, .WAV and .WMA) go in the “MUSIC” folder, and video files (MPEG-4, MP4/AVC) go in the “100MNV01″ folder which is inside the MP_ROOT folder.

When you’re finished loading up your PSP disconnect it from the computer by first clicking on “Safely Remove Hardware” button on the bottom menu bar of your PC, or by “ejecting” the drive on the Mac. Now unplug the USB cable and press the circle button to return to the home menu.

Your now ready to go.

Happy PSPing
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E-Commerce Solutions That Let You Earn Profits With Secure Transactions

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Finding the right e-commerce solution for your business is utterly essential, and it must be both easy to use and secure for customers to feel safe handing over their details. With increase of credit card theft and website hacking, e-commerce solutions provided should be trustworthy and secure, making it difficult to find the right one. The golden rule is to give emphasis on quality, usability and extent of features offered by any given e-commerce solution package, and your decision should be based on finding the right application and e-commerce solution for precise e-commerce needs.

E-businesses can move into Inbuilt advanced e-commerce solution with SEO marketing and promotion, SEO service plans, customized web site templates, e-marketing, automated inventory management, 50 major payment gateways, online store creation, shopping cart integration, cost effective merchant account, free domain names for paid account visitors, bulk Import, ERP solutions and in addition to it advanced helpdesk, BPO services and plans along and live chat facilities along with more e-commerce solutions benefitting e-businesses with greater reliability.

Online payment processor PayPal is the most diversified payment gateway e-commerce solution letting many businesses to take orders through, credit left in your PayPal account, credit cards, and via debit card or bank account through the PayPal website. PayPal payment system has an easy to use secure interface for the online shopping cart software and for smooth and safe e-commerce solutions. If you have your own URL you can implement code into your website along with integrated payment gateway e-commerce solutions from Link Points and other service providers and use free checkout services that could provide exactly what you’re looking for in more secure and just manner.

Graphic services offering Logo Design for building up a company’s image, Template Design Service, Home Page Design, Unique Button Creation and Designing, Uniform Customized Page Headings, Category Graphics Design and Flash Animation for your website are all effective e-commerce solutions for more visitor flow to increase profits to the maximum.

The websites once created can get search engine optimized so as to get top rankings. The professional SEO subscription plans of e-commerce websites may differ according to the hand coded page requirement, link creation and link building. On-line businesses are bound to get successful with advanced e-commerce solutions with SEO facilities.

Moving one step ahead, Outsourcing in e-commerce websites facilitating e-commerce solutions, is undertaken through high capacity and scalable helpdesk services. The BPO operations or Call Center Services handle domestic and international customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year with a process that involves skill based routing, efficient, high quality service handling phone orders online, Online chat / live Chat and pre-sales questions, general customer support, technical support, sales and billing support and credit card information. These profitable e-commerce solutions can also be subscribed for and the fee depends upon the type of subscription. Therefore, it’s time to attain the most reliable and profit generating e-commerce solution fulfilling e-business needs thereby creating satisfied customers to avail e-commerce solutions incorporated into website for greater online success.
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Ecommerce Where Do I Begin

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Ecommerce is not just for the brick and mortar company, but also for a one-man shop. If you’re
a one man shop, that has a specialty item that, because of a lack of funds, cannot distribute to the big department stores,look at an online business. It can give you a presence, and a ready market.

But as with everything, you must have some of the standard elements to begin. I’ll try to give you an overview.

Storefront Elements

Your Storefront – Logos and graphics are important when putting up your
store. They should keep your regular customers coming to your site, as well as,
entice new customers into your store.

What I look for in a storefront, as an affiliate marketer, is pretty much the same as what a customer wants to see.

For instance:

1. Photos and description. Make sure your photos and images are loading properly, that can drive people away quickly.

2. Accessibility of links to product details.

3. Easy navigation to make the customer visit hassle free.

4. Ecommerce Shopping cart that works. (why do I say that? I was looking
at one possible affiliate partnership and decided to test the shopping cart). The
shopping cart came up with the item, like it should. I then put in the “1″-to select the purchase one item. Then I hit continue. It was then that the shopping cart software bulked-and forced me to go back to the beginning). I tried several times, then quit in frustration and bought elsewhere. Get my meaning here? (Ease of ordering is important for you, if you want sales)

5. Spelling – Try to have all words spelled correctly – Diminishes the quality of the information.

Important Things to consider

There are other important things to consider-especially when it comes to money expenses.

If you are wanting to build an ecommerce site, you will need an ecommerce Shopping Cart. Shopping cart software can run from free to as high as $500 per month. If you’re a one man shop- with a little money in your pocket, you may want to consider a free ecommerce solution to get you started. For example, OS Commerce (http://oscommerce.com/) is an open source, free ecommerce solution that is available for
free. It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners
to setup, run, and maintain their online stores with minimum effort. If you’re lucky your server will set it up for you. If not, you may need to have someone set it up for you for a small fee.

Payment Gateway – This is the service that will help you to process your payment methods: Be it Paypal, AuthorizeNet, Paynova, etc. You’ll have to check out the charges for each sale, chargeback, and monthly fees that they may charge.

I would like to stress the technical importance of this aspect of your business. Why? It will help you in handling orders, taxes, payment processing and order delivery efficiently. Again, if you don’t have all your ducks in a row, you can lose money.

Ecommerce Website design-If you are going to have someone build your ecommerce website you will need to figure that into your cost. If you’re planning to build your own website than most of your cost will be your own labor. Just a note: designing your own website is getting a little easier, even without
HTML knowledge. But if it is open source software, you will be responsible for the maintenance and updates of the software when needed. And trust me, you will get some friendly reminders to update your ecommerce software by your server. Why? If you don’t update the patches, it can cause holes in the server, which affects everyone. What will they do if you don’t update? First time-remind,second time – but a hold on your account and business till you update.

Product photography – You will want to have quality pictures for your website. Not only to keep customers happy, but also attract affiliates to help you sell your products.

Contact – 800-number, contact number, or email contact for customer service/support. If you don’t have a method for customer service contact, than people will bulk at buying, because they may question the legitimacy of the website.

And let me stress, customer care is important on the Internet. It elicits trust, and when you break that trust the whole of the Internet will know about it. This will affect your customer base, as well as, the attraction of affiliates. In fact, if I find that the customer care of a product or service is an important asset to my affiliate business. If I hear rumbling of bad service or that the service is not up to par,- I’ll monitor it for a month – and if it’s just an isolated incident, it stays. But if it is how they are doing business on a regular basis, it’s gone from my site.

Good computer with a large hard-drive, and at least 1 gig of memory-2 gig if you have a Vista operating system. And a good FTP software program.

Shipping – You’re need to estimate your shipping charges. Determine whether you will only ship within the states or Internationally. And I would advise having a tracking system in place, for both deliveries and returns.

Marketing

Now that you have the major pieces together you will then have to begin the marketing process -SEO marketing, Seo optimization, email marketing, article writing, Adwords, just to name a few.

Desire and Success

I want to stress that an online business is just like a brick and mortar business. With that being said, be aware that in most cases a new business will take 1 to 2 years to break even and 2-4 years to start making a living from your business. And if you’re online, you will have to continually learn and adapt-and be prepared for the competition when you start seeing an element of success.

To conclude, when you get an idea for an ecommerce site, or any business – my advice, is don’t quit your day job until you know you are established and have money coming in. Learn everything you can, and the desire and the passion will carry you through the frustrating times, because the good times will definitely take care of themselves.
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Commoditizing Designer Luxury by Cutting the Middle-Man

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Designer merchandise is a high-demand market. Specifically, the cologne & perfume industry is approximately a $25 billion industry in North America in 2007, and it is forecasted to grow exponentially in the next ten years as today’s generation moves closer towards the trend of being image and fashion conscious. In the heart of this growing trend lies the intense loyalty of consumers towards cologne perfume brand recognition and as youngsters continue to buy from familiar designers of fragrances to compliment their designer attire and accessory choices, the industry grows with incredible speed.

Along with this positive news however, also present is the fact that consumers are always seeking bargains on designer merchandise, which normally come at a hefty retail mark-up. In response, an opportunity in the designer merchandise market has been identified by some key wholesalers and distributors of designer accessories (such as purses, belts, eye wear, perfumes and colognes to name a few.) These key players have identified a niche in the online space of “e-tailing”. E-commerce stores (Internet websites that sell to individual consumers) are being built everyday to cut out the middle-”men” involved in the supply chain of designer merchandise in order to offer “luxury” products at “commodity” prices. In other words, rather than rely on stores to sell the designer products, entrepreneurs are designing websites that deliver the products straight to the consumers, at a significantly lower price.

One might ask, how is it possible to sell luxury products so much cheaper? The short answer is it is very much possible and evidence of it can be observed everywhere (e-bay and yahoo stores). Part of the explanation is that these products are cheap to begin with. By cheap I do not mean inferior quality but rather they do not cost that much to produce. Anyone who has taken an operations management class in business school has learned that a product is marked up by an approximate average of 75% from the time it is manufactured to the time it is purchased by the end consumer. That means that if a bottle of designer perfume costs Carolina Herrera $25 to produce, then it is sold for $100 at your local department store.

Why the $75 markup on one small bottle of perfume? Manufacturers typically deal with distributors, who distribute their products to jobbers and wholesalers, who in turn resell the products to the end seller (i.e. malls & department stores). Many times there are multiple wholesalers involved throughout the product’s life-cycle. Everyone involved in the supply chain has to make their share of the profits, this is accomplished by marking the product price up each time it exchanges hands. The product is marked up the most when it reaches the end seller. This is because most end sellers are large brick and mortar buildings that have the burden of monthly rents to pay, utility bills and other business expenses such as insurance and taxes, among several others. The beautiful showcases, air-conditioning, marble floors and free product samples that you see in stores aren’t free after all. All these costs are passed on to and paid for by you, the end consumer that walks into a mall and purchases a bottle of designer perfume for $100 that costs $25 to manufacture.

Unfortunately this fact is forgotten in our practical day-to-day lives in which our impulses take over our shopping habits. Some shoppers simply do not know how the high price is calculated, nor that they are paying too much for the luxury item. For those that do, the reasons are unclear why these customers would chose to spend 3, 4, 5 or more times the amount necessary to purchase the product that they desire. Calvin Klein, Azaro, Dolce & Gabana, Elizabeth Taylor, Christian Dior, Hugo Boss, DKNY, Giani Versace, Giorgio Armani, Tommy Hilfiger, Valentino, Estee Lauder – everyone recognizes these names.

I personally prefer the luxury of brand name merchandise as well and have spent an incalculable amount of time and money on the names that we all desire to own and wear. But knowing what I know now, am I willing to pay 75% more for a bottle of cologne than I ought to? Absolutely not.

Recently on an international trip, I was shocked to see the prices at which designer perfumes and colognes sold for in some markets overseas. These were the very same perfumes and colognes you and I are used to purchasing at malls and department stores here in the United States of America. The prices of these bottles in China for example (1.7OZ, 3.3OZ, 4.4OZ, doesn’t matter) were almost a third of the prices we are used to paying in the United States of America. Why???

In America, the cost of doing business and complying with Uncle Sam are too rigorous and simply put, very high. In addition, the malls and department stores that we buy from have large fixed costs and overhead structure that they have to pass on to us – the consumers. What happens as a result is that we the consumers end up paying a price three or sometimes four or more times higher than what it would cost us to buy the fragrance from a smaller, “low cost of business” establishment.

The aim of this article is to enlighten those of us who are still spending our hard earned cash at big chain stores – where our impulses take over our budgets in an instant.

How can an online company offer designer merchandise so much cheaper? The key to the success of e-commerce businesses is that the business model can be run at relatively low cost. Since the cost to the consumer increases the minute the product leaves the manufacturing warehouse, by selling directly to the consumer, online companies are able to cut most if not all middle-men and in the process the unnecessary costs of doing business, to provide the consumer with exactly what they want at heavily discounted prices.

During my research I found an opportunity to turn designer merchandise from luxury to commodity goods, thereby making them affordable to the masses. Why should only a few be able to afford a 3.4OZ bottle of Armani for $89.99? Why can’t everyone access this fragrance at half the price all at the convenience of their own home? They can – and the answer is e-commerce (buying and selling on the internet).

These web portals allow individual consumers to purchase genuine designer merchandise at near wholesale prices without having to buy wholesale quantities. In addition, many small retailers are gravitating to these online businesses to procure their inventory for resale in their stores due to the low-cost pricing structure the portals offers. Expect to see continuous growth in the designer merchandise market; and with that growth expect smaller e-commerce companies to respond to the challenges and consumer demands that result from the industry’s expansion.

As an online discount designer fragrance business owner, I wrote this article to address those of you who are still spending your hard earned cash at big chain stores and the likes. Now that you have finished reading this article I hope that you will always think twice before buying a “luxury” product without exploring alternative avenues from where you can purchase the same product, except not pay the various middle-men involved in the product’s life-cycle.
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Understanding OsCommerce

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

The Internet has become a popular place to do business. Now that there are several options available to everyone, everywhere, the need for viable options is imminent. Likewise, companies offering their services online, whether exclusively, or in conjunction with their traditional means of operation, need ways to quickly and efficiently do business, while making sure their customer information is safe and secure. This is why it has become necessary to find an OsCommerce solution.

OsCommerce is an online solution for E-Commerce that is currently under ongoing development by the open source community. This means that it is continually worked on by those in the industry who understand its need and are able to experiment to find out the best solutions. Through the open source community, information is shared in order to provide optimal assistance toward solving both common and uncommon problems that may arise. It also allows store owners to set up, run, and maintain their online solutions with little to no effort, which enables them to concentrate more on the business aspect than the technical issues.

The best part of OsCommerce is that it is free. There are no licensing fees or costs involved, which is often one of the most attractive characteristics of open source solutions. OsCommerce combines open source solutions together to provide a free and open E-Commerce platform, which includes the PHP web scripting language, a stable Apache web server, and the MySQL database server. This scripting language is powerful and the server fast, which allows for more seamless transactions to take place.

There are no restrictions or special requirements with OsCommerce, and it is, therefore, able to run on any PHP enabled web server, along with a variety of supported environments. This broadens the spectrum for OsCommerce to work on several operating system environments and in multiple situations.

OsCommerce began in 2000, and has now matured into a solution that is currently powering a wide variety of online shops around the globe. The services it offers are helping business owners in many ways, and are making it easier for them to concentrate on keeping their business up and running, while serving a constantly growing number of customers on a daily basis. It has also made it easier for potential customers to find businesses, and to purchase products and services more quickly and efficiently. It is serving both the business owner and the customer in ways that will only help E-commerce get better.

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Oscommerce Customization – Online Store in Your Own Style

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Styles of trading are also changing with the changing world. Having your own online store and running your business with the help of it is not a difficult task at all. This can be done with the oscommerce tools, available easily on the internet. The software is being used by most of the online stores as it can be customized depending upon your requirements and it is absolutely free to use it.

Oscommerce development services, which stands for open source commerce, is a relatively new addition to the wide array of services under the E-commerce solutions that focus on services to facilitate the selling of products and services of their clients via the internet. Specifically, OScommerce is an open source e-commerce application heavily used by clients looking for an online store.

In India alone, there has been a emerging trend towards the proliferation of oscommerce development. More and more companies in US, UK, Canada, Australia are outsourcing IT services to India.

Services offered by an oscommerce development company?

The services of an oscommerce development company can be classified into two: oscommerce design and development.

1) Oscommerce designing

It is a blend of the two: customization and programming. In the former, the programmers will tailor-fit the features of an oscommerce application based on client’s specifications. And while programming, the web development company lays down the foundation of the e-commerce application by installation and configuration. The programmer usually installs a template. It is advisable for you to check beforehand whether or not your web hosting company can apply and run the oscommerce software, otherwise your online store will not be able to avail the application.

2) Oscommerce development

It focuses on integrating and upgrading. The focus is basically on creating a virtual store over the internet which has the capacity for receiving online payments, ability to establish links with shipping companies for the facilitation of the delivery of goods, an automated inventory system and support services that will address client queries. The design of the website and the functionality involved are tailor-fit to the specifications of the clients.
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Online Shoe Store – How Do I Build It?

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Basically, building an online store is not as hard as you think. At the beginning, you have to find a lucrative niche market regarding shoe fashion. Since there are thousands of shoe retail store on the internet, you need to find ways to be different than your competitors. In order words, you have to be unique and you must know your main focus. Ideally, this particular internet shoe business can be a very profitable business if you have fulfilled the criteria needed to create an online shop that provides a line of shoe products that are available for internet viewers.

1. You have to set an E-commerce site Firstly, you must have your own webhosting account and domain before you start making a website. If you know basic HTML language, you can set up your own website within short period of time. In fact, there are some web hosting providers offer additional services like creating a site for their clients.

2. Choosing the line of shoe products and determining the type of footwear can make your own online retail store stand out from the others After your website has completed, you need to choose the right shoe products. Your online shoe store will become successful when your products are marketable and sellable. For example, some stores offer custom made shoe services; or sell baby and children shoes; these two approach specifically target on certain groups of consumers.

3. Consider other factors that can affect your productivity Good quality shoes and shoe-size availability, reliable delivery service can also be decisive factors to make customers return to your site and hence improve sales and your company reputation in the long term run of the business.


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How to Kick-Start Your Own Ebook Shop Business

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Are you interested in starting your own online business? EBook shop is a business model for anyone to get started without any physical stocks. It requires low capital and far less time in managing an online ebook shop when comparing with brick-and-mortar store. You will only need a web hosting, domain name, an ebook shop script and digital products to start your business as soon as possible. After reading this article, you will be well prepared to run a new business almost instantly.

Step 1: A Web Hosting

A web hosting is a must and an essential asset to maintain your ebook shop. In fact, there is not much technical requirement to run an online store. PHP with MySQL support will be sufficient to implement most of the popular open-source ecommerce scripts such as oscommerce, zen-cart, magento and freeway. However you should be aware of the disc space and bandwidth offered by your hosting company, because your ebooks and other digital products will be stored in your web disc space. Most hosting companies you will find online that offers cpanel are the ideal ones. Hosting plans cost less than seven bucks a month generally. Some suggestions will be ezwayhost or builthost.

Step 2: A Domain Name

Now you will need a domain name. Try to give some thoughts into it. You want the domain name to be well brandable and generic at the same time. It is strongly desirable to imprint a strong impression by looking at the name. When coming to domain name extensions, such as .com, .net, and .org etc, you should always look for dot com domain, because it is the extension people are instantly attracted to. Other extensions will confuse customers. Additionally, .com domains are cheap nowadays, and you can get it for less than $10 per annum.

Step 3: Set Up Your EBook Shop Platform

When you have got your domain name and web hosting, you will require an ecommerce script to run your ebook shop. There is a wide array of options you can choose from. And among the choices, oscommerce is the most popular, and you can readily find thousands of add-on to increase the script functionality. The script is free, but there are also paid versions like the CRE loaded version. Other free alternatives include Zen-cart, a variant from oscommerce; Magento, a fresh open-source script that gains popularity in recent years; and free way, a brand new script developed with unparalleled features like recurring payment. If you want premium solutions, there are paid scripts like Shop-Cart. You can readily find ecommerce web scripts online. However if you are new to web design, installation of ecommerce scripts can be bothering. In such case you may wish to buy an established ebook shop to get an instant store set up for you.

Step 4: Prepare Your Stock and Start Marketing

EBook shop requires you to have ebooks, software or digital products to sell, definitely. You may already have written some ebook titles that can be sold readily. If you haven’t, you can look for digital products with resale rights included. EBooks with private label rights or reselling rights grant you the permission to sell them on your store and keep the profits. But only private label ebooks allow you to change the content and put your name to it. Make sure you check the rights of products before you plan to resell them.

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Ladybugs, Ladybugs, Come to My Garden

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Ladybugs, also called lady beetles or ladybirds, can be a gardener’s best friend. The ladybug’s bright coloring brings welcomed cheer to the garden, as well as helping with pest control. Since medieval times, ladybugs have been valued by farmers all over the world. Many believe that the ladybug was divinely sent to free crops of insect pests. In fact, that is how the ladybug got its name. People dedicated the bug to the Virgin Mary and therefore called it “The Bug of our Lady”, which was eventually shortened to the present name “ladybug”.

Adult ladybugs are usually oval or domed shaped and have red wings, yellow wings or shades and variations of these colors. The number of black spots can range from no spots to 15 spots and they are typically about one quarter inch in size or smaller.

The length of the life cycle of a ladybug varies depending upon temperature, humidity, and food supply. Usually the life cycle from egg to adult is about three to four weeks, and up to six weeks during the cooler spring months. During the spring the adult female ladybug can lay up to three hundred eggs in an aphid colony. The eggs normally hatch in two to five days. The newly hatched larvae feed on aphids for up to three weeks and then enter the pupae stage. About one week later, the adult ladybug emerges. There can be as many as six generations of ladybugs hatched in a year.

The ladybug enjoys popularity around the world. These pretty insects have long been considered a symbol of good luck and fortune because of their ability to eat an enormous amount of aphids. One ladybug can eat as many as 50 to 60 aphids per day. Aphids (also called plant lice) are herbivores and are one of the worst groups of pests on plants. They feed in colonies and damage plants by sucking the juice out of the leaves, stems, or roots. While aphids feed, they damage plant tissue creating a loss of plant fluids and the photosynthetic tissue needed to produce energy for plant growth. Some plants will show no adverse response to aphids, while others react with twisted, curled or swollen leaves or stems. Aphids also transmit many plant diseases from one plant to another.

Apart from aphids, ladybugs eat a variety of other insects and larvae including white flies, mealy bugs, spider mites, and other types of soft-bodied insects. They also require a source of pollen for food and for that reason are attracted to certain types of plants. Their preferred plants have umbrella shaped flowers such as dill, fennel, angelica, tansy, caraway, cilantro, yarrow, and wild carrot. Other plants that attract ladybugs include cosmos (especially the white ones), dandelions, coreopsis, and scented geraniums.

If your garden does not have adequate space to plant ladybug attracting plants, you can purchase ladybugs from numerous websites on the internet and most nurseries. Before releasing them into your garden, here are a few tips to help ensure that the ladybugs stay where you want them:

1. Release ladybugs near infested plants after sun down or before sun up. They navigate by the sun and are most likely to stay put in the evenings and early mornings.

2. Water the area where you are going to release the ladybugs. They will appreciate the drink and the moisture on the leaves will help the ladybugs to “stick” on the plants. If released in a dry garden, the ladybugs will most likely fly off in search of a drink instead of sticking around to eat.

3. In the warmer months, chill the ladybugs in the refrigerator before releasing them. This will not harm the ladybugs and they tend to crawl more in colder temperatures rather than fly away.

Another way to attract ladybugs to your garden is to place several ladybug habitation boxes around your garden. Fill the boxes with organic material such as peat or compost to encourage ladybugs to roost and lay eggs inside the box. In addition, the habitation box also provides protection for the ladybugs in the winter months.

To further promote ladybug populations, consider cutting back on spraying insecticides in your garden. Ladybugs are sensitive to most synthetic insecticides and if the majority of their food source is gone, they will not lay their eggs and therefore will not continue to populate.

Here are some interesting ladybug facts:

- There are nearly 5,000 different kinds of ladybugs worldwide and 400 which live in North America.

- A female ladybug will lay more than 1000 eggs in her lifetime.

- A ladybug beats its wings 85 times a second when it flies.

- A gallon jar will hold from 72,000 to 80,000 ladybugs.

- Ladybugs make a chemical that smells and tastes terrible so that birds and other predators won’t eat them.

- The spots on a ladybug fade as the ladybug gets older.

- Ladybugs won’t fly if the temperature is below 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

- The ladybug is the official state insect of Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Tennessee.

As you can see, the ladybug is one of the most effective and economically important insects to have in your garden. In some cultures, seeing ladybugs in gardens indicates a bountiful harvest, an indication of good weather or a good luck omen. Create an alluring environment for ladybugs and they are sure to provide charm and pest control in your garden for years to come.
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Bluehost Makes it Easy to Create Your Own Website

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Bluehost offers a wide range of professionally designed Website templates that can be used by businesses to create effective, functioning Websites that look great and are easy to use. Bluehost design templates allow businesses to customize the template of their choice with a company logo and other information so that your business Website can be unique but you don’t have to spend a lot of money hiring a professional Web designer.

Bluehost templates are built to work seamlessly with popular shopping cart and eCommerce applications so that you can build a great retail Website all for the low cost of a Bluehost hosting account. Everyone seems to have their hand in building websites today, so Bluehost can really help you achieve your goal of launching a professional website.

Having a great Website is critical to being successful on the Web. If the Website you’re using isn’t designed well customers won’t want to stay and shop and they won’t recommend the site to others. If the site doesn’t function well customers won’t be able to buy. The biggest Website mistakes that annoy customers are:

Using too many graphics – Website designers love to show off their skills using Flash animation and lots of graphics but customers don’t care for sites that don’t load quickly. Some customers may be using slow Internet connections that can get hung up trying to load a site that is graphic heavy. If your site has too many graphics and animations customers may get sick of waiting for the site to load and surf away.

Bluehost hires designers who are experienced and know how to create designs that are professional looking and business appropriate. You won’t find any design templates on Bluehost that look like they were designed by students looking for extra credit. Bluehost can save small businesses thousands of dollars in Web design fees.

Too much clutter – Customers hate clutter. If there are too many items on a page screaming for a customer’s attention the customer will just leave rather than try to sort through everything. A clean, clutter free Website design is the best way to invite customers to browse the pages and shop.

A Bluehost professionally designed template is built with the customer in mind by designers who know what customers are looking for when they are shopping online.

Tools that don’t work – If a shopping cart, credit card processor or other eCommerce tools on your site don’t work your customers will lose confidence in your business. A site that doesn’t work sends the message that your business is disorganized and unprofessional and customers won’t want to spend their money buying from a site they can’t trust. Bluehost offers easy to use templates and are designed and built to work with popular eCommerce tools so you can plug and play eCommerce applications easily.

Not giving contact information – If the site design doesn’t have the company’s name, location and contact information prominently displayed it sends a bad message to consumers. Customers want to know that they can reach the company with their concerns or questions and they also want to know where the company is located. That usually gives buyers more peace of mind. Bluehost templates can help you create pages that give your company information and tell customers how to contact you when they need help or have questions.
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