1732 Giant Florentine Holds the Record for Most Expensive Furniture Worth $36 Million

A 1732 Florentine Ebony Cabinet Chest originally made in Italy was purchased for an astonishing $36,000,000. The auction was conducted in London by Christie's Auction House in December of 2004. At the time it was the highest price ever paid at an auction for any furniture.

This broke the record of the highest price ever paid at auction and including a private sale. The previous record was held by none other than this same 1792 Florentine Cabinet Ebony Chest n it originally sold in 1990.

The Florentine cabinet contains amethyst,quarts,chalcedony,jasper, lapis lazuli,agate, pietra dura, embeded scarce rocks and several other valuable stones. The chest has about 10 different drawers surrounded by a black base background. It has beautiful gold and wooden ornaments adorned by blue purplish borders throughout the frame. It has some intricately detailed birds and floral designs encrusted in the stones. Additionally it is a very large piece of furniture measuring almost 12 feet tall which stands on 8 different luxurious legs in order to hold its full weight. It is nick-named the Badminton Cabinet since it resided in the city of Badminton for approximately 200 years.

It was originally commissioned in 1726 to be given to Duke the III. I was then completed sometime around 1732 by Henry Somerset at a young age of 19 years old. He was an English Duke from Beaufort Florence Italy. This particular chest had previously sold in 1990 when Barbara Piasecka Johnson a billionaire from the Johnson and Johnson Family purchased it for a hammer price of $15.1 million. With the buyers premium included it realized an approximate $17,000,000. Also a record price at the time.

Fourteen years later Barbara Piasecka re-consigned it to Chirsite's Auction House where they resold it in another auction. Prince Hans Adam II from Liechtenstein was the winning bidder. Dr. Johan Kraefter represented the Prince in the auction by placing his winning bid.

By the end of the auction Prince Hans paid a total of $36 million for the chest. This was new record at the time for any piece of furniture. After the auction Prince Hans donated it to the Liechtenstein Museum located in Vienna Australia. Prince Hans happens to be the Director of the Museum and the 1732 Ebony Cabinet Chest that he now owns is displayed to the public with numerous other of his collectibles that are already in the museum.

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How to Determine the Date and Age of an Old Antique Print

Old prints by their very nature have been printed. Printing is most commonly associated with Johanes Gutenberg's innovation of movable type in the issuing of his famous Bible in the 15th century. Therefore your print will be less than 550 years old (non-Western prints can conceivably be older, but this is beyond the scope of this article).

Now, how do we determine how old your print is.

Professionals have many criteria at their disposal, which include the paper on which the image has been printed, the method of printing used to print the image, printed signatures or initials and the presence of a copyright year. Each one of these takes years of experience and knowledge to address, however you can get a ball park idea by studying your prints visually and by touch.

For your date inspection, you should clean your hands and prepare a clean space free of clutter and safe of oily substances or liquids. Remove the print from it's frame or protective sleeve so that you can touch it and have a closer look. Take notes while you go through the following three criteria so you can get an idea how old your print is.

The first criteria is the type of paper that was used. You will need to touch the paper. If it feels rough and a bit like a paper towel, fairly rigid but not crumbly then you are probably holding hand made rag paper. This paper was used from the 1450s until well into the early 1800s. A further clue is to lift it up to the light and you should see hundreds of lines in a row. These are from the fine wires that were used to hold up the paper pulp during its manufacture. There could also be a watermark, a transparent symbol or sign designating the papermaker.

If the paper is smooth at the touch, is more brittle and shows no lines up to a source of light then you are looking at a print dating from today til the early 19th century.

The second criteria is determining the method of printing employed to make your print. This demands a much greater level of expertise which is beyond the level of this project. There are hundreds of variations of printing techniques used over the last five centuries such as woodcut, copper engraving, etching, steel engraving, lithography, wood engraving, chromolithography and off-set in chronological order. However off-set is easy to distinguish.

Use a magnifying glass or jewelers loupe to take a close look at a section of the image of your print. If you see a multitude of even overlapping circles in the image then you are in the presence of an off-set print. These prints were made in the twentieth century and are most often of little to no value.

The third criteria is a signature. These are mostly printed signatures. Look on Wikipedia for the artist or engraver and write down their dates. Signatures customarily have the engraver's name on the bottom left and artist's name on the bottom right.

Finally the fourth criteria at your disposal is a copyright year printed on the print itself. The printing of a year on prints started in England in the late 1700s, but are most commonly found on late nineteenth and twentieth century prints. You can generally trust that the date on the print is close to the year of printing. Tip: If you have an off-set (described above) with a date in the 1800s then you have a fake.

Take all the notes all the notes you wrote down during your inspection to determine your date.

Keep in mind that these tips are very general, but they will help you get started.

In the following articles we will address further details about prints so that you can venture out in the antique world in the search of treasures.

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The 1861 and 1862 Confederate Pennies

The period of the American Civil War was one of the most dramatic and tumultuous in United States history and witnessed the first major land battles on American territory since the War of 1812 against Britain. It was also the only time when there were two fully functional sovereign governments within the current boundaries of the United States, both of which were capable of issuing their own coinage and paper currency.

The period would be even more interesting to coin collectors if the Confederate states had ever issued their own half dollar coins in any viable quantity. A few such coins were struck, but for the most part, for some reason, the Confederate mints continued to strike ordinary "Union" half dollars, a frustrating situation for numismatic enthusiasts. The very few examples of actual Confederate half dollars which exist - featuring wreaths of sugar cane and cotton, as well as a shield with seven stars representing the rebellious States - are all in museums or collections, from which they are unlikely to ever emerge.

Confederate pennies also exist, and, again, were struck in very tiny quantities - which is strange, considering that the Confederacy had both the resources and technology to mint their own coinage in quantity, had they wished. These extremely rare coins were rediscovered in 1874 by several coin experts who proceeded to issue a "restrike" of the pennies, until their efforts were interrupted by the shattering of the die that they were using.

For once in the history of numismatics, the men carrying out the restriking process were apparently scrupulous and honest. They struck the coins in a different metal from the original alloy used, thus simultaneously marking their own coins as restrikes and preserving the value, both monetary and historical, of the originals.

The original coins were struck in copper-nickel alloy, while the restrikes were apparently made out of copper. The originals now sell for several hundred thousand dollars apiece, and all have been thoroughly accounted for, their locations known and tracked by numismatic associations and collectors alike; but the restrikes are priced more affordably - though, as usual, the collector must beware of more recent counterfeits.

The Confederate pennies of 1861 and 1862, and their late 19th century restrikes, represent a very close equivalent to today's "vaporware" - software which is described, even possibly partly developed, but never issued. They are extremely rare coins which owe their rarity to a curious decision on the part of a sovereign government to mint the coins of another government in place of their own, and which therefore add a bit of intrigue and mystery to any collection that features them.

Indian Antiques - A Collection Of Precious Traditional Items   What Is the Difference and Definition of Antiques and Vintage?   Collecting Compacts   Can Antique Collecting Be the Perfect Hobby?   

What You Should Know About Domain Flipping

Presumably you know the basics of domain flipping - buy a cheap domain, sell it for profit. Buy low sell high. Simple. But there is more to the process than just that. Here are some of the things you should know to make a profit in domain flipping.

You already know that you are going to need to spend money to make money. However, you need to decide how much money you are going to spend. Some people like to buy cheap $10 domains and then sell them for $20. This is only a small profit, but these people sell hundreds of these on a monthly basis. It's a lower risk, but more time consuming as you have to purchase and sell each individual domain.

Other people like to buy more expensive $1000 domains and sell them for $2000. This is a lot more risky, and you have a lot to lose if you make a bad investment, but it takes less time, less effort, and there's a higher payout. It is up to you which one you decide to go with.

You need to have a little criteria list for any domains you might purchase. Check each domain against this list before you buy it. If it doesn't meet one of the criteria, you shouldn't buy it. This criteria list should include things like how short the domain is, whether it is made up of real words, whether it is a popular keyword and any other things that are going to be important.

Domain extensions are tricky. Popular extensions, like.com and.net, are ideal. But on occasion, you can go for other extensions..com.au is an Australian extension and that would be fine if you could find an Australian buyer. The same goes for other country's extensions. On the other hand,.bz is a less popular extension that is only used by very small business owners who can't get or afford the domain that they want. They won't be able to pay very much, and so it won't be worth very much.

Very importantly, look out for scams. Occasionally you will come across a seller who is offering to sell you a domain cheap, but then it turns out they don't even own the domain or the right to sell it. Be cautious of this. If something seems wrong, stay away. You don't want to get conned.

It is important to note that this is not a passive income. You have to buy and sell each individual domain, so this whole process is quite a lot of work. When you start making money from it and gathering a bit of profit, you can outsource the work to someone else and create a small business from it. This is how you make a passive income from domain flipping.

These key hints will help you on your way to becoming a professional and profitable domain flipper. Keep them in mind as you start up in this business, and you should be successful.

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How To Get a Domain Name and Hosting For Free For 1 Year

It's very hard to get a Domain Name for free when it's already available for a very cheap price. However there are many people who love free stuff. There is a good news for them. You can even get a Domain Name with .com, .org or.net extension completely for free. Here I'm sharing couple of ways you can go through to get a Domain Name for free and even get it hosted for free for 1 year.

Get a Discount Coupon or Gift Voucher:

Registered member with one of the Domain Registrars (like GoDaddy) regularly receive news letters in their email address. It's there where they receive Gift Vouchers or Discount Coupons. Often, these people share their coupons on Discussion Boards or Forums etc. These coupons can be used multiple times, and usually you get a huge discount. And if you're lucky you may even get a completely free package.

Search Through Google:

No big deal you'd say... I regularly search through Google but never find any such things - But most of you miss the true deal of searching through Google. Google provides many operators that if you use wisely, you'll never miss a deal. For example - Time Operator. First of all, these coupon codes or gift vouchers don't last long. So you ought to search in Google keeping "Show only results from LAST 24 HOURS". This way, you'll only get Fresh coupons and you'll never miss a deal.

Forums Like DigitalPoint or WarriorForum:

These are the two forums full of members who want to make money online. At times, some members who receive Coupons or Vouchers in their emails, buy the domain names for almost free and then sell it for a very cheap price in these forums. These forums have separate place where these Domains are sold. While you may not have choice here over which domain to buy, you can always PM one of these members and ask them to buy your choice of Domain Name if they get a coupon or voucher again. Usually they get these Domain Names for hardly $1 or $2. So they don't really mind selling it for $2 or even $5.

And if you're a real bargainer like me, you can also send them a message and ask them to deliver 2 Domain Names for the same price. And in return, you give them a good feedback. This is a win win situation for both - Buyer and Sellers.

The Domaining Home Business Model for Entrepreneurs   Secrets To Having A Successful Online Domain   Need a Great Domain Name - Ask a Domain Name Generator   Domain Name Availability Search   

Keys to Breeding Zebra Finches

Zebra finches, as well as the Society Finch are very easy to care for, and are also one of the easiest kind of finches to own when considering breeding finches. Finches are wonderful pets, because of their colorful personalities and the fact that they are a very hardy species of bird. These two types of finches, the Society and especially the Zebra will surprisingly raise the babies of other finches, even of the more rare species of Australian Grass Finches.

Determining Gender: There are several different ways to tell the difference between male and female Zebra Finches. Some species of finches may have a difference in appearance between male and female, while others look alike and can only be differentiated by their behavior, or the songs of the male bird. Male Zebra Finches tend to have a bright red beak, compared to a more orange color in the females. The males have orange patches on their cheeks, a black bar on their breast, stripes on their throat, and a chestnut flank with white spots. The female Zebra Finches don't have these features and are gray in those areas. Young birds tend to have the markings of females, but with a black beak, until about the age of 90 days, when the adult colors and beak are usually evident.

Breeding Environment: The arrival of spring is when the breeding season begins. A compatible pair of Zebra Finches will mate in almost any environment. Some species of finches need a specific environment to have success at breeding. Some breeds need a large aviary with many other birds around, where some will do fine as a single breeding pair in an isolated breeding box. Zebra Finches tend to make good parents, and seldom have problems in raising their young. With Zebra Finches, the male and female share equally in the responsibility of raising their young. The male bird is the one who weaves the nest for the babies. It is a good idea to give him a supply of nesting materials in the cage or aviary, such as grasses, feathers, or finch nesting materials available for purchase in pet stores. After the female has laid her eggs, any excess materials should be removed so the male doesn't cover up the eggs in his enthusiastic effort to make home improvements.

Nesting: Some finch species lay only two eggs, and other species lay as many as ten eggs. Zebra Finches tend to lay one egg every other day, with a total of four or five eggs in their clutch. The female is the one who spends most of her time sitting on the eggs, but the male will often keep her company, and relieve her so she can take food breaks and exercise. The eggs begin to hatch after twelve to eighteen days.

Chick Care: The adult birds will need access to calcium while the chicks are in the nest, which can be attained with high protein foods, or with cuttlebone. At around eighteen days, the chicks will start to get feathers and begin to leave the nest. They will be eating entirely on their own by about a month, and can be safely removed from their parents at this time. If the parents begin another nesting cycle before the babies are fully weaned, it may be necessary to separate the father and babies in a separate cage, as the father Zebra Finch will complete the job of feeding the chicks. After the babies are completely weaned, he can rejoin the female.

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An Indoor or Outdoor Finch Aviary?

An aviary is commonly known as a bird house and because of its larger size it gives your finches a lot more freedom to do what they love and what comes naturally which is to fly. So bearing that in mind, having an aviary is highly recommended especially if owners already have or intend to keep more than two finches.

The beauty of having an aviary is that it can be situated either indoors or outdoors plus an aviary requires the same basic facilities of a smaller cage but just on a slightly larger scale. There are many aviaries available to suit your needs (and the needs of your finches) but the practical requirements for having an indoor or outdoor aviary are essentially the same. There are a few differences to think about and special considerations to make depending on your choice of an indoor or outdoor aviary setup.

Many aviaries are available that will suit every owner's needs and these will come in various sizes. If you are skilled enough and plan to build your own aviary you certainly can and will save a lot of money. Either way, you should consider the costs of both types of aviaries and also the permanent space where the finches will be kept before making any decisions. The aviaries can be as decorative and pleasurable according to your imagination however don't forget to think about what finches need too!

All aviaries should only be made out of non-toxic wood or a metal frame which should consist of a fine wire mesh. The outdoor aviary's floor should preferably be made from concrete, as it is easy to maintain and keep clean. With your outdoor aviary you should ensure a slight slope to the floor as this provides better drainage and easy cleaning. Having an unclean aviary is not conducive to your birds' health, and the last thing you need is unnecessary vet bills.

Most finches love to have a bath so putting a bird-bath in the aviary will also help the birds to be healthier and it keeps them happier in the process. One thing to remember which is extremely important is to clean the bath out regularly - this will prevent the growth of bacteria and other nasties that will harm your birds. Both aviary options should also have perches which can be in mixed sizes. Bowls for holding water and seeds should be made of stainless steel and not plastic. Since plastic containers often allow the build up of bacteria, it is better to use stainless steel for this purpose instead.

A finch aviary whether indoors or outdoors will also help the birds to breed more successfully. Having an outdoor aviary allows the finches to feel like they are in their natural habitat. However when placing an outdoor aviary, take into consideration the finches will need some shade and also proper protection from vermin and predators. Indoors, the reverse applies to the light versus shade situation where you should provide appropriate and adequate lighting for day and night. You can also consider the aviary a little safer than an outdoor one and utilize different materials for the mesh.

An indoor aviary should not be overcrowded with perches or toys as this obviously restricts the finches flying space. It's important to ensure that an indoor aviary is well ventilated and kept in a reasonable amount of sunlight or artificial lighting.

Whether you choose an outdoor or indoor finch aviary, both have advantages and disadvantages depending on your wants and needs. So now that you have read a small introductory piece of a much bigger picture, I'm sure you can go ahead with confidence and progressively meet all of the requirements and needs of your finches in order to decide whether to have an indoor or outdoor aviary.

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What Is a Chicken Run and Coop? Build Your Own If You Are Planning On Keeping Chickens at Home

Literally thousands of people in the modern world are now turning to a more self-sufficient lifestyle, and one of the easiest and rewarding ventures is keeping your own chickens.

Chickens are not only a source of healthy, cheap food but they can actually become part of your family making great pets and kids of all ages adore them!

If you are reading this then you are probably considering keeping chickens yourself and I would guess that you already know someone who is.

The great thing about keeping chickens is that it is such a simple thing to do and what's more you only need a very small area to keep your them. It is possible to keep chickens in a small back yard as long as you know how to properly build a chicken run.

What is a chicken run & coop and why do you need them?

A chicken run, also known as a chicken pen, is generally an enclosed area situated in a yard or lawn, where your chickens are able to run loose and feed. There are two advantages to this.

Firstly free roaming chickens are going to be happy chickens and happy chickens tend to produce more eggs and also remain in good health.

Secondly it allows your chickens to live off eating bugs, worms and also minerals that they find in the ground around them. In effect they revert back to being the birds that they were designed to be and nothing like the battery farmed and mass production birds that we have become accustomed to.

A chicken run is usually enclosed within chicken wire or fences to keep predators such as foxes, predatory mammals and also birds of prey such as hawks away, and more often than not, a chicken run is attached to the chicken coop or house so that the chickens can easily come in and out of their coop as and when they please.

There are many types and sizes of chicken runs and coops available to buy from specialized suppliers, however because they are so easy to construct most people tend to build their own chicken runs. Not only that, even if you buy one flat packed you still have to build it!

Not only that, if you are keeping chickens to cut back on your food spending then it doesn't make much financial sense to outlay several hundred dollars on run when they are so easy to build and also quite good fun too!

Chicken runs are normally attached to the coop, which is the place where your chickens will live and lay their eggs. A chicken coop is also very easy to build yourself using simple plans you can find on the internet.

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Why Do I Need To Use An Auto Responder?

There are various auto responder services available, ranging in price from under $20 a month to several hundred dollars. But many internet marketers choose to run a script on their own server rather than pay these monthly fees.

While it seems like a good way to save money, the fact is there are a number of reasons why running your own auto responder script is a bad idea and can even hurt your business.

The biggest problem you'll face when running your own email script is deliverability. Making sure your emails are delivered to your subscribers is really one of the biggest factors in building an effective list. If your emails don't get delivered consistently, it doesn't matter how big your list is - your results are going to suffer.

Spam filtering and blacklisting are two of the biggest issues affecting the deliverability of your email. If you use words in your emails that can trigger spam filters, that's one problem, but it can also damage your deliverability if a lot of people click the "spam" button in their email software when your message lands in their inbox.

If that happens too many times, your server IP address can get blacklisted which means your email might not even make it to your subscribers in the first place.

These things are important to the big auto responder companies and they put a lot of work into ensuring that the email they send is getting delivered. Managing this would be a full-time job in itself, so if you choose to run your own email server you're really not saving any money - you're just trading it for the time it takes to manage.

Maintenance is another consideration when you run your own email server. You're the one responsible for maintaining and upgrading your script, as well as making sure your subscriber data is safely backed up.

If something happens to your server, you could potentially lose all your subscriber data. It's really not worth the risk when there are services that can manage all that kind of stuff for you.

Ultimately, the cost of the auto responder service shouldn't be a problem anyway. By building solid relationships with your list, you shouldn't have any trouble earning back the cost of the service every month (and then some).

Don't scrimp on the services that are the backbone of your business - get started on a solid foundation with a reliable auto responder service.

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Autoresponders Make Your Email Marketing Effective and Easy

Autoresponders are one of the most consistent strategies for bringing in dollars through email.

In case you're not familiar with the term, autoresponders are a series of emails set up to run once someone opts in to receive your newsletter or you white paper/video/other content piece. Your series can be 5 parts, 12 or even more, there's no "right" answer to how long the series should run.

Here's How it Works

Here's an example, let's say you're in the pet industry and you sell a specialty dog food aimed at dogs with wheat allergies.

You could offer a 5 part series to consumers on what the symptoms are for wheat allergies, possible reasons why these allergies are so prevalent and what you can do if your dog is allergic to wheat-positioning your food as the solution, of course.

Autoresponders are a logical extension of a traditional email newsletter. And, they work!

According to a recent Merckle study, 74% of polled adults say they prefer the personal interaction of receiving email from a company over direct mail. Email tool, ExactTarget says, "Direct Marketing Association (DMA) reports that the ROI from email marketing is greater than $43 for every dollar spent."

That's good news for businesses!

Plus, once they're written and set up, they run on autopilot. (I love marketing strategies that continue to bring me money months and years after they launch-don't you?)

An Autoresponder (AR) Sequence Can Be Set Up 3 Ways:

1) Your AR series can be a stand-alone piece such as "Download the 7 Tips to Creating Emails That Sell" and you can piece them out in 7 different emails spread over days or weeks.

2) Or, you can give the Special Report or White Paper outright with all "7 Tips" on it and then let prospects receive a series of AR's relating to the topic of email.

3) Or, the prospect signs up for your email newsletter, which releases an AR series spread over days, weeks, months, even years. You can mix in more timely email newsletters as you like without affecting the AR series.

Besides building your prospect list -essential for anyone in business-AR's can drive more traffic to your site by giving your prospect a reason to visit you again.

Build Your List the Easy Way

Since AR's are typically written around "evergreen" topics, a journalism term for topics that aren't time sensitive-think articles on how to clean an aquarium, how to set a table, etc. they can run indefinitely bringing you money for years. Every niche has topics that fit into this definition.

With every autoresponder, you're reminding prospects of your solution to their problem. If your email directs them to a page on your website, you bring them back to you where they can learn more or buy a solution. I remember reading somewhere that one marketer added $1000 to his bank account every time he added another autoresponder to his series.

Now, I'm not saying you'll see those kinds of numbers just because you add or extend an autoresponder series to your email marketing campaign.

There are plenty of factors, such as your business, how big and responsive is your list, the right offer and a dozen other considerations. However, a well-crafted AR series designed to highlight your solution to a targeted problem can pay for itself over and over-no matter what business you're in.

Are you ready to learn more about ramping up your email marketing with autoresponders?

Email Campaign Software - A Must For Online Business Part 2   Using An Autoresponder For Your Business   7 Reasons Why You Should Use an Auto Responder   Autoresponder Strategies - The Internets Killer Application   Email Signature - What's the Message That You Are Sending to Your List?   Affiliate Marketing Tips: Use an Auto-Responder   

How to Get RSS Syndicated Content Published on Your WordPress Blog Automatically

Getting syndicated content onto your blog can help to provide valuable content to your blog readers and RSS feed subscribers. This content should not be the only content on your blog. You should also write your own original and relevant blog posts regularly in order to provide a reason for your visitors to bookmark your site and to help grow your following.

WordPress plug-ins are available to automate the process of importing feeds to your blog. The subject of this article is FeedWordPress an Atom/RSS aggregator for WordPress. You can get this plug-in from the WordPress website. You do not need to edit any text files or make any difficult configuration changes.

Just download the plug-in, upload it to your plug-in directory and enable it. There are a few options you can set in the configuration panel. Once the plug-in is set you do not need to do anything else. It will automatically publish syndicated content directly to your blog that you have instructed it to get.

RSS feeds are a great source of fresh content for your site. You just copy and paste the feed address you want published into FeedWordPress and it will publish the content on your site whenever the feed is updated with new content. You can choose to do this updating automatically or manually if you wish.

Writing your own content is important though and you should still update your site with content you have written. This is because lots of other people will be using these feeds and you need unique content on your site for it to be worth reading. Otherwise it will be just like lots of other similar web sites and contain duplicate content.

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The Work at Home Women RSS Feed - What is it, What Does it Do, and Why Do I Need it?

Definition

So you've heard the term RSS feed but you have no idea what it is, right? Well here is a simple definition: RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication (or Rich Site Summary, depending on who you ask), and describes a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works -- such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video -- in a standardized format. If you've seen the little orange and white logo on many websites, you'll now know what that means.

The user subscribes to a feed by clicking on the RSS icon in a web browser that starts the subscription process. The RSS reader then checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.

So What?

Well, this is great news for sites like the Association of Work at Home Women, The Work at Home Woman, freelancemom.com, and WAHM.com because it allows them to syndicate content automatically to their subscribers. It also benefits readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from their favorite websites -- or to aggregate feeds from many preferred sites into one place that they can view easily, without having to visit the sites over and over for updates. So in other words, the news comes to you; instead of you going after the news. And that is a huge time-saver, especially if you are looking for information from a variety of sources.

Can You Please Give Me an Example?

Okay, I will. Let's say you are a work-at-home Mom that is looking for additional income streams to supplement your finances. You visit the Association of Work at Home Women site, freelancemom.com, and your favorite USA Today blog throughout the day looking for new updates. This gets old after a while; because sometimes you find something added that you haven't read and other times you do not. So you see the RSS logo and decide to click on it to see what it is. You subscribe to those sites and then something amazing happens: the updates come to you automatically! You don't have to keep going back to the sites hour after hour to see if there is new information that is helpful to your situation. Now you have the Work at Home Women RSS feed, the freelance.com RSS feed, and the USA Today RSS feed coming to you instead of vice versa.

What Now?

The first thing you'll want to do is figure out which sites you want to receive updates from on a regular basis. Then you'll need an RSS reader -- like the free Google Reader -- to read your updates. Then it's a matter of watching your reader to see all of the new information you have so desperately wanted to see as quickly as possible. You have just saved time out of your busy day and hopefully found the additional income that you were looking for on your favorite websites. Now aren't you glad you asked all of those questions?

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The Ghosts of The Tower of London, Part 1

Over the coming week, I hope to lead you on a journey of discovery and adventure. Briefly taking a glimpse into a past so horrid. Of haunting tales and ghastly ends that awaited so many of her most famous occupants. Firing your imagination, so that you will delve deeper into her history for yourselves.

During her long and illustrious 900 years, The Tower of London has developed into one of the most haunted places in Britain. She has been home to beheadings and murders, torture and hangings, as well as being a prison to Queens and Nobles alike.

Thomas A. Becket is "the first reported sighting of a ghost at the Tower of London."

During the construction on the Inner Curtain Wall in the 13th century, Thomas appeared apparently unhappy about the construction, and it is said he reduced the wall to rubble with a strike of his cross. Henry III's grandfather was responsible for the death of Thomas Becket, so Henry III wasted no time building a chapel in the Tower of London, naming it for the archbishop.

This must have pleased Thomas' ghost because there were no further interruptions during the construction of the wall.

The Bloody Tower was the scene of the infamous disappearance of the two princes; Edward V (12) and Richard Duke of York (10), who are thought to have been murdered in 1483 on the probable command of the Duke of Gloucestershire, who was to be crowned Richard the III.

According to one story, guards in the late 15th century, who were passing the Bloody Tower, spotted the shadows of two small figures gliding down the stairs still wearing the white night shirts they had on the night they disappeared. They stood silently, hand in hand, before fading back into the stones of the Bloody Tower.

These figures were identified as the ghosts of the two princes. In 1674 workmen found a chest that contained the skeletons of two young children, they were thought to be the remains of the princess, and were given a royal burial not long afterwards. The story of the little princes is still to this day a heartbreaking story. They are "among the most poignant ghosts" in the Tower of London.

The most persistent ghost in The Tower of London is the ghost of Queen Anne Boleyn.

The King, Henry VIII, after learning the baby she carried for nine months was a boy and still born, accused by her of infidelity.

She was taken to TOWER GREEN and was beheaded on May 19, 1536. Queen Anne appears near the Queen's House, close to the site where her execution was carried out. She can be seen leading a ghostly procession of Lords and Ladies down the aisle of the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula.

She floats down the aisle to her final resting place. Queen Anne is buried under the Chapel's altar. Her headless body has also been seen walking the corridors of the Tower.

Sir Walter Raleigh lived quite comfortable compared to others who were imprisoned within the walls of the Bloody Tower. His "rooms" are still furnished as they were in the 16th century, and can be seen when visiting the Tower today. He was executed by James I, and has been seen looking exactly as he does in his portrait hanging in the Bloody Tower.

I hope you have enjoyed Pt1 to The Ghosts of The Tower of London. In Pt2 we discover what happened to Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey as well as the Horrific end to the Countess of Salisbury.

If these tales have brought your imagination back to life and you want to discover more ghostly and gruesome stories of times past. Then pay a visit to my Haunted Castles page where you can find out about the grisly goings on at Windsor Castle or read about the Heroic tale of the Two Brothers of Berry Pomeroy Castle in Devon.

Best wishes and have a great day!

The Ghosts of The Tower of London Pt2   The Ghosts of The Tower of London Pt2   

Web 2.0 Copywriting - Stamping Out the Bull, Reigning in the Fox

The Internet is a resource that is used by thousands of new businesses each day. Whatever your line of business may be, there will be hundreds of similar companies vying for the same place at the top of Google's search results. In order to stand out from the rest, you have to ensure that your product is marketed to suit the needs of your potential customers. Writing an advertorial for millions of people, while still hoping to sound sincere and personal, is quite a challenge!

What a Foxy Global Nation

People are becoming more and more aware of advertising scams, their foxy minds honing in on them, on any given page, at any given time. These scams might consist of petty, attention-grabbing techniques like bold, bright colours and exclamation marks. They may also appear as blatant lies, false promises, exaggerations and straight up bull.

Years of conditioning has left these visitors with a gift - the ability to quickly identify and ignore an advertisement long before it has served its purpose. So getting people to read about your product for more than a few seconds is becoming increasingly difficult. Its those enquiring minds that have evolved to see through all the glitzy ramble.

Glancing Off the Advertising Bull

The only way to generate respect as a business and build enduring customer relationships is by utilizing your time management skills. Adapting your advertising campaigns to reach an intelligent audience is your next step. Remember that the more time you spend with someone, the better you get to know them. Just like the longer a customer spends reading about your product, the more they will get to know your business and what you have to offer. The foxy reader these days is sold with honest, original and in-depth web content, not a horde of bullish nonsense.

When Foxes Meet in The Sales Arena

Another point to consider is that a paying customer will appreciate an insightful and well written product article a lot more than flashy 'fluff.' Your product may be brilliant and sold at a great price, but if your web copy is not intriguing enough you will lose customers to a website that has it all. Web 2.0 copywriting makes use of interactive strategies that encourages the customer to become involved intellectually, socially, and emotionally with your product and this inevitably leads to more sales. This is the fox generation, and we're not talking about the news network.

Building Your Reputation With Online Strategy

Social networking sites, blogs and videos are all cost effective resources that must be explored if you want to bring your business into the 21st century. Enlisting on these sites also gains your business the trust of potential customers and increases the recognition of your product on a global scale. In order to stand out as a reliable business on the internet, web 2.0 copywriters will encourage you to list your products on sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, which allow customers to view pictures, videos and audio clips -increasing their desire to own the product itself.

No More Mr Nice Advertising Bull

Thankfully, web 2.0 copywriting will step in for businesses and help them to progress with the latest marketing, promotion and writing techniques. It will be writers that usher in the fox generation and say goodbye to the flashy, in your face bull that we've been served for ten years. This form of writing focuses on actively engaging the reader and speaking to them about a product or service in a non confrontational way.

A conversational tone is important and writers tend to be more honest and straight forward about their clients products. The trust of the reader is secured within seconds because there is no stampeding bull putting them off your product. Long lasting relationships are formed, leading to a satisfied customer and of course, a successful business. So sell to the fox, or you might find yourself selling to a dying breed of bull shooters.

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Getting Banner Advertising Traffic in Niche Markets - How to Get Sites to Run Your Ads For Free

When it comes to getting a lot of visitors from banner advertising in the market that you are working in you have to realize that if you know what you are doing you can get a lot of visitors to your site for free! In this article I want to show you exactly how you can make this happen right away.

The Problem With Banner Advertising In Niche Markets...

When you are starting out with this source in niche markets online you are going to find that you can probably get a lot of sites to run your ads if you pay them for the ad spots. That is fine and you are likely going to make money from those ads if you have your sales system setup the right way.

But what you have to realize is that eventually you are going to run out of sites to use to get you more visitors. So at that point you are going to want to make sure you start getting sites to become your affiliate and run banners for you in exchange for a percentage of the income the traffic that they send you generates for you.

You need to realize that getting sites to do this is a great way to add massive amounts of visitors to your site and you can make a massive amount of money doing this. Affiliate marketing is a massive industry and there are going to be a lot of people in the market that you are in right now who are looking for sites just like yours to do this with.

Here Is How You Can Get Site Owners To Run Your Ads For Free And Send You Traffic...

First - You have to make sure you are focused on contacting site owners to see if they would be interested in doing this with you.

You need to realize that very few people ever do this in niche markets so when someone does, you are probably going to get a good response from the site owner that you are trying to target.

Second - Make sure you focus on giving them a great offer that is worth their time.

You are going to want to make sure you offer to give them a great commission rate for promoting your product. You have to realize that the more money you give them, the more likely they will be to promote your product for you.

You can make up the lost income on backend sales! The main thing is that you get a customer and you don't have to pay for that customer until they buy from you! At that point you send the site owner a commission payment.

Getting Banner Traffic in Niche Markets - Insider Secrets to Increasing Your Click Through Rate   Choosing the Right Banner Software For You   Monetize Your Site With Direct Advertising   Quick Cash Concept Review - Find Out The Truth About This System   Banner Advertising Must-Knows - Impressions, Costs, and Benefits of Banner Ads