I visited Barcelona a few years ago and I fell in love with its architecture. Especially work of Gaudi is amazing. Antonio Gaudi, who lived from 1852 to 1926, designed buildings with unique shapes and colors inspired by nature (roots, branches, etc.) There are no square shapes in his works as there is none in the nature…

Gaudi’s most known work, Sagrada Famila, an astonishing unfinished church, is surrealistic in its surroundings (La Sagrada Famila entrance fee: 8 Students – 3 ; Elevator – 2 ).

Park Guell, also designed by Gaudi, is another “must see” in Barcelona. It is in the northern part of the city, 20 minutes walking distance from the Lesseps metro station. You will find here elegant arches made of stone, and sinuous, geometric surfaces with designs made from broken ceramic tiles at the main entrance. Guell Park was declared a place of World Heritage by UNESCO in 1984.

The house where Gaudi lived for 20 years, until his death in 1926 is located in Park Guell. It is a museum now, with furniture made by Gaudi himself. Museum entrance fee: 4 ; students 3 .

La Pedrera (the quarry), also know as Casa Mila (Mila house) , is an apartment building located on Passeig de Gracia. It is the last piece of extraordinarily architecture by Gaudi I was able to see during my short stay in Barcelona. The entrance fee is 7 .

Live goes on after dinner at Las Ramblas which stretches from Monument Colon (memorial to Christopher Columbus) to Placa de Catalunya. It is a 1.2 km (0.75 mile) walkway in the heart of the city centre with restaurants, theatres, local artists, souvenir stores, and Miro mosaic pavements.

Teresa Szefler – extensively traveled through Europe.
Enjoys sharing her experiences with others. See her website http://www.ExchangeZones.com

Accommodation in Spain:

Accommodation: Rentals by Owners

Sagrada Famila

Park Guell

Wherever you stay, traveling abroad can be a wondrous adventure. New sights, new sounds, new people, and perhaps even a new language add sparks to your vacation and provide you with experiences and memories that can last a lifetime.

Although many people choose to travel abroad with group tours or book hotels through a travel agency, others are increasingly choosing a more personal option: vacation rentals. Homeowners in places ranging from Europe to the Caribbean are offering either their primary or secondary residences as vacation rentals. Nestled within small towns or at the center of bustling metropolises, vacation rentals can provide a unique and more personal vacation experience.

When you book holiday homes in France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, or the Caribbean, you spend your vacation surrounded by locals and immersed in the culture. Vacation rentals provide a refreshing contrast to more impersonal hotels, and give you more options for your holiday experience. With a vacation rental, you can buy your own groceries and cook at “home,” which will save money and give you greater flexibility. Vacation rentals can also serve as a “home base,” from which you can travel to outlying areas.

Vacation rentals also provide a broader range of options than more traditional accommodations. You can rent a house, a flat, a room, or even a castle or a barge! You can select from among vacation rentals with two bedrooms to more than nine bedrooms. You can also find accommodations with private pools or those that are wheelchair accessible.

Whether you choose holiday homes in France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, or the Caribbean, it’s important to be prepared for traveling abroad. The U.S. Department of State offers these ten tips to U.S. citizens traveling abroad:

1. Make sure you have a signed, valid passport and visas, if required. Also, before you go, fill in the emergency information page of your passport.

2. Read the U.S. Department of State Consular Information Sheets (and Public Announcements or Travel Warnings, if applicable) for the countries you plan to visit.

3. Familiarize yourself with local laws and customs of the countries to which you are traveling. Remember, while in a foreign country, you are subject to its laws.

4. Make two copies of your passport identification page. This will facilitate replacement if your passport is lost or stolen. Leave one copy at home with friends or relatives. Carry the other with you in a place separate from your passport.

5. Leave a copy of your itinerary with family or friends at home so that you can be contacted in case of an emergency.

6. Do not leave your luggage unattended in public areas. Do not accept packages from strangers.

7. Prior to your departure, you should register with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate through the State Department’s travel registration website. Registration will make your presence and whereabouts known in case it is necessary to contact you in an emergency.

8. To avoid being a target of crime, try not to wear conspicuous clothing and expensive jewelry and do not carry excessive amounts of money or unnecessary credit cards.

9. In order to avoid violating local laws, deal only with authorized agents when you exchange money or purchase art or antiques.

10. If you get into trouble, contact the nearest U.S. embassy.

Finding affordable web hosting can be a difficult task. There are so many companies that offer the service that it is hard to tell which ones are even giving you a deal. Webhostinggeeks.com is changing all of that. We provide you with a list of the top web hosting companies and what they offer so you can make an informed and responsible decision about the hosting company that is right for you.

That’s not all. We also have made deals with these companies to make the service all that more appealing. When you sign up through Webhostinggeeks.com you will receive as much as $50 credit towards Google Adwords. That’s right, $50 in Google Adwords when you sign up though Webhostinggeeks.com. You will not find a better deal on the web, that much is certain.

The rewards do not stop there either. Depending on the company you sign up with, you can also receive as much as $50 in Yahoo credits as well. Use the credits for the patented Yahoo Search Marketing to further the amount of hits that your site receives. This tool will help you in the quest to make your web site a profit producing cash cow.

If you are looking to save money then Webhostinggeeks.com is the place to be. Each of the companies listed provide at least one free domain and some offer as many as ten for each account opened. You can even get two free domain names for life when signing up through Webhostinggeeks.com.

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Don’t delay today if you are in the market to purchase webhosting and to gain a $50 google adword credit. These amazing deals cannot last forever so hurry to reserve your spot with these great companies to ensure that you will receive all of the rewards that Webhostinggeeks.com offers when you sign up for web hosting through their site.

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Bandwidth can make all the difference when choosing where to host your website

A common mistake made by so many people when looking to choose a web host company is not asking about bandwidth. After spending so long designing or with a developer designing your web site you do not want to see a good web site ruined and only viewed by a handful of people at a time. A web site is generally your shop window and you want as many people as possible to look in and hopefully click on your information or purchase online if you are offering products. All web host companies will offer you a limited amount of bandwidth, it’s then up to you to calculate whether or not you need to pay a little extra for bandwidth you may require.

Don’t be afraid to ask for advice from the web host company, it is there job to help you along the way and after all it’s you who is paying for there service. You will need to advice them as to how big each page is on your website and if possible a rough calculation as to how many people you think may view your site on a weekly or daily basis.

Is it possible to save bandwidth?

Yes it is and this comes into play at the time of designing your website. If you are looking to save the bandwidth you should put all photos in the JPEG format and all graphics in GIF format. By doing so you are compressing the files using only the very least bandwidth required.

Why do some companies offer only a very limited amount of bandwidth?

You have got to remember that web hosting is an extensive market and very profitably for the web hosting company. The more people they can attract to their services the more profit they make. They in turn have to pay out to the telecoms companies for the bandwidth provided to them and are only wanting to pay the bare amount to keep profits high. Web host companies that are not offering you the additional bandwidth are the ones to avoid. If they say it is not possible to purchase additional bandwidth, then the chances are this is a small company with poor technology behind them operating on a shoestring budget.

What will happen if I do not have enough bandwidth?

It’s very simply really, if your website has not got enough bandwidth to operate with, one of two things will happen. Your website will download onto peoples monitors very slowly and the chances are they will not wait around. The second problem is that your web site may only be viewed by a very limited audience at one time. You may have great link backs from other websites driving traffic your way only for that traffic to be diverted elsewhere to a properly functioning competitor.

How can I ensure that this will not happen to me?

Undoubtedly it is very frustrating to spend time and money developing a good informative website only to have it’s viewing reduced by lack of bandwidth. You need to be honest with your web host company and tell them the number of pages and how large your overall files are, by doing this the onus is on them to offer us the service your require. You can ask for a guarantee from the web host company that all will be fine with your site and there are many out there willing to give such guarantees. If you decide to go it cheap and risk the low bandwidth you are only fooling yourself. Look at the rates from the different web host companies for extra bandwidth and you will be pleasantly surprised that it will not cost an arm and a leg to have a little extra. Knowingly going over bandwidth with only cost you revenue in the long run and makes your website very unprofessional. If you are hosting with a reliable web host company they will not allow this happen anyway.

If you are unsure as to how large your website actually is act the person or company who developed the site for you to advise or simply ask the web host company, all will be happy to oblige you.

About the Author
Declan Tobin is a successful freelance writer providing advice to consumers on purchasing a variety of
Affordable Web Hosting and
Cheap web hosting, and more! His numerous articles provide a wonderfully researched resource of interesting and relevant information.

This article may only be reproduced in its entirety, including the resource box and subscription information electronically or in print. A courtesy copy of your publication would be nice, too!

The Finer Points of WAH Etiquette By Dan Reinhold

Business etiquette is vitally important in the corporate world…and more so when you work at home. Here we at WAHumor present a basic primer on the finer points of WAH etiquette.

Proper Telephone Etiquette:

When answering a WAH business phone, you must first and foremost must answer it yourself. The most pleasing and eloquent message on your machine proves useless when your three-year-old proudly announces to your befuddled caller, “I MADE POTTY TOOOOODAYYYY!!!”

An easily recognized signal to quiet any outstanding clamor is most essential. A snap of the fingers, a ring of a bell or the sharp report of an airhorn may prove adequate. If not, consult your local Army/Navy surplus supplier for…ummm…unadvertised specials.

It is also imperative that you answer in the correct manner – it’s not so much what you say as how you say it. Although you may have had a mad scrabble with several youngsters experiencing Double Stuf Oreo-induced psychosis, upon answering your voice must be perfectly calm and your breathing even. Asthma attacks are very poorly received and could cost business.

In the event of severe noise, a tranquilizer dart gun is not thought unseemly.

Entertaining Clients:

For the purpose of entertaining clients, always use a small. secluded room away and well insulated from sounds emanating from the main living area. Should such a room be unavailable, build a shed.

Clearly mark the pathway to your chosen meeting place. Be sure to provide the quickest possible access to respect your client’s time and avoid children. Consider installation of an extra large vacuum chute of the kind once used to transport mail in office buildings.

Have suitable refreshments on hand to be certain that you will not leave the room, thereby leaving said client alone and unprotected. If something should spill during the meeting, clean it up promptly and discard it in a large waste basket under your desk. If your client requests something that is not on hand, politely affirm that you have none – even water.

Unexpected Guests:

Use an intercom to ascertain the identity of the visitor, By this method, you may avoid opening the door and the risk of inadvertantly inviting them inside. It is crucial that you use this approach at all times – even when the front door is open and the visitor is plainly visible behind the screen door. Feign blindness.

Provide an unwelcoming atmosphere at the entrance – no coatracks, tables, chairs or ironing boards that could hold coats. Should the visitor enter, assume the military “at ease” stance with your hands clasped behind your back. Maintain this position so that the visitor cannot hand their coat to you.

If guest still enters and wants to sit, prepare furniture by placing large, angular rocks under the cushions. Hide old rotten half-eaten bananas and unfinished yogurt cups (with children, there is always a constant and abundant supply on hand) in strategically chosen areas of the furniture to soil your visitor’s clothing so that you may hurry them off to the dry cleaner and resume work.

We at WAHumor hope that you will find this basic primer to be of some use and always be mindful of the importance of proper etiquette for the work at home lifestyle.

With two boys, a dog, a cat, a wife and a household to keep together to boot, Dan Reinhold is the editor of WAHumor to hang on to his sanity by showing how insane the work-at-home community can be. Work at home? You deserve a laugh!

Subscribe at WAHumor-subscribe@topica.com Send something WAHumorous to WAHumor@yahoo.com Do both and enter our monthly drawing!

“What’s the most important function of your web site?”
Most small business owners will explain, “To tell people about myself and my services.” This sounds like the right answer, and it’s the one I hear most often. But it’s wrong!

Build a web site focused on yourself or your products and it is doomed to fail from the start. No matter how hard you work to promote it or make it look impressive, it won’t pay for itself, ever.

What is the primary purpose of a web site? Keep reading to find out.

There are 3 key steps in the web marketing process.
Understand the purpose of each and you’ll be able to bring in more new business with your web site. You need to attract prospects, convert them into qualified leads and then convert leads into clients.

The problem for most people is that despite their best efforts to collect thousands of leads, they only end up with a few clients. Sound familiar?

Your marketing is like New York City’s water system. In upstate New York they use reservoirs to collect rain. This water is then piped down to New York City and finally when apartment dwellers turn on the tap, they’ve got clean drinkable water. The only problem with this system is that for every ten gallons of rain that falls into the reservoirs the city only receives eight to nine gallons of water.

What happens to the missing gallon or two of water? It’s lost through an antiquated leaky piping system.

Is the same thing happening or worse with your marketing?
Are you losing the majority of your prospects due to an antiquated marketing and follow-up system?

If you are, don’t despair. There is a simple solution. You can use the 3 key steps below to help you plug the leaks in your marketing system and get new business pouring in.

The 3 key steps to improving your web marketing

1. Get More People to Your Site

Your first objective is to get the greatest number of people to visit your site. If you use pay-per-click ads such as Google Ads, take a look at your clickthrough rate.
Are you getting at least 1.5 to 2% of the people who see these ads to visit your site? The purpose of any and all of your web advertising is to get people who might be interested in your services to visit your web site.

If your ads don’t prompt at least 1.5% of viewers to respond, test alternative headlines and subheads. You’ll have the most success with headlines and subheads that focus on your prospects’ problems and concerns.

In my experience with my own sites and my clients’ sites, changes in the wording of headlines and subheads makes a huge difference in response rates. You can double the number of people who click on your ads – and double the number of potential clients visiting your web site – by changing a few words in your ads.

2. Convert More Web Site Visitors to Leads

Let’s say a hundred people a day visit your web site. How many leads do you generate? With the right copy (headlines and text), sales offer, and page layout, you could motivate 15 to 25% of the people who visit your web site to contact you. Instead of a handful of inquiries from site visitors each week, you could have dozens.

At the beginning of this article, I asked my client John what the main function of his web site is. This is it.

> The primary purpose of your web site is to get the greatest number of visitors to email you or call you with their contact information.

Your site may be the best looking site in the world, but if it doesn’t motivate your prospects to contact you, you’ve lost them and won’t get their business.

Few people buy products and services the first time they visit a web site. Most look at dozens of options. Unless your site is as well known as aol.com or amazon.com, your prospects won’t remember your site’s URL ten seconds after they leave for another site.

Before another prospect leaves your site and forgets your business, start using your free offer and your site layout to prompt at least 10-20% of all site visitors to contact you.

3. Convert More Qualified Leads to Clients

If you’ve taken the first two steps above, you’d have more people responding to your ads and more people contacting you. You’ve probably guessed; the next step is to follow up and convert the greatest number of prospects to clients.

Depending on the type of business you’re in, your follow up process may include a phone call, a mailing, a series of emails, or some combination of these. Whichever system you use, you want to increase the percentage of people who buy your products and services. It sounds obvious to both you and me, but this is where 80% of new business is lost.

Is your web marketing system leaking more than New York City’s water system?

Take this Quick Quiz

1. Is the clickthrough rate for your pay-per-click ads 1.5% or better?
Yes – No

2. Do 15 to 20% of all unique visitors to your site contact you?
Yes – No

3. Do you have an automated system for following up with leads generated from your web site that generates sales from 4% or more of your prospects?
Yes – No

If you answered “No” to one or more of these, you’re in the same boat as most business people on the web. Your web marketing is full of leaks and with a few changes you could be collecting a lot more leads and converting more of them to clients. Discover how to get a better response to your ads, get more people to contact you.
Your sales could skyrocket within weeks.

2006 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Strategy eBook, ‘7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business’ at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

The latest MWC Mobile World Congress met this year, but as some had expected, it has also been impacted negatively by the economic slowdown. As compared to the previous years, the attendance had shrunk and a lot lesser gadgets were on display. This happened despite all the reports of the communication-based mobile market being quite strong and optimism about the industry.

The MWC and all its previous versions such as the GSM World Congress or the 3GSM World Congress have been known to be events displaying the latest advancements in the world of gadgets and major product launches. However, with the trend of sales being down and manufacturers trying to cut costs, the response was rather lukewarm.

Rob Conway, the CEO, GSMA pointed out the fact that low attendance, which was down about 10 per cent from last year, was indeed a worry. He then moved on to more formal discussions about other major issues like spectrum reallocation and how mobile has the potential to bring 3g mobile broadband to more people across the world.

An interesting statistic that has been reported recently is that there are nearly 100 million Europeans who still do not have access to fixed broadband services. Perhaps, with this number in mind, mobile executives keep highlighting the importance of bringing more people to the world of broadband services. Although, as in any other business, investments from the providers simply follow the general pattern of establishing themselves where there is more money to be made, i.e. data services. A GSMA survey by Tellabs indicates that almost 70 percent of existing consumers anticipate a considerable increase in their use of data services in the near future and it is this expected demand and not philanthropy that will eventually chart the course of growth in mobile broadband.

Passing Saliva Drug Test

Drug test has grown into a familiar phenomenon around the globe. Some parties execute drug trials on newly working individuals or existing employees to ensure a drug-free surrounding at workplace.

Insurance agencies and courts guide drug trials on a frequent basis on distrusted people. The serious inquiry that comes to your brain, when you go for such trial is how to pass the drug exam?

Cyber web sites such as Type Of Drug Testing provides the up-to-date detox products including eternal cleansers, phoney weewee products, and saliva cleaning products, detox drinks and home drug screen kits.

Drug Information Saliva Testing

Pass The Drug Test offers up master support for every item, with support brought home the bacon by drug test professionals who are highly knowledgeable with different types of drug testing methodologies and results. Support is available by electronic mail and telephone. Transportation is instantaneous, with complete secrecy assured, using plain and discrete boxing materials to sustain absolute customer privacy.

Passing A Drug Test

Involved on the new web site is a wide range of products for detox and screening intentions. Permanent cleaners are offered in 3, 5 and 7, 10, 14, 21 and 30 day systems, with a assortment of herbs, roots, barks and minerals that are notable lipids destroyers which make to break down fat cells and eliminate toxins wholly. Synthetic urine is offered, which contains all components usually got in piss, particularly balanced for pH with specific gravity, creatine and other urine characteristics. A saliva cleansing mouthwash is proposed will cleanse toxins from your mouth with exactly 3 minutes of use. We offer a range of detoxification drinks, every last one bearing the most working herbs and fiber to help free the body of toxins that may have accrued.

If you use Google to hunt the internet for us here are 10 Important words to use to encounter our website.

Drug Testing Student Athlete

Random Drug Testing In Schools besides proposes drug screening kits including saliva, hair and piss based tests to see that detoxify efforts are effective. For more information, visit Employee Drug Test If you have any questions, please call us at: 866-902-6627

There is no question the fact that the success or failure of an organisation ultimately is as a result of the work carried out by the team, but one catastrophe can easily wipe out your hard work & reduce the profits to zero. Thus, to keep away from such a case, you ought to insure your business, whether it’s a small enterprise or a large corporation. Though, please note that smaller organisations are somewhat more probable to require business insurance protection in today’s world. This is mainly because smaller organisation owners will have put their total lives and pay straight into the company.

Some of the items usually protected by most business insurance covers comprise of: natural tragedies, Tsunamis, mechanism or equipment breakdown that shuts down the business, loss of revenue as a result of workforce failure & lawsuits brought against the company. Find cheap business insurance online today.

There are many insurance firms, which provide policy covers that combine protection for all main property & liability risks in one complete package. You can also obtain a separate policy covers. Such a policy cover is usually branded as a business owners’ policy (BOP). Large firms might buy a business policy cover.

BOPs comprise of building insurance for property and equipments owned by the business. If there is any loss of earnings because of disruption of operation & commerce because of disasters like floods, it can be protected under the Business Interruption policy.

There are a choice of liabilities, which insure the organisation’s legal duty for the harm it might cause to others. It is the result your organisation’s failure to do the business operations. It can as well be the physical injury or building damage caused owing to damaged goods, faulty fittings and slip-ups in services offered.

Although, BOPs don’t cover against professional liability, auto insurance, employees’ compensation or health and disability cover. Instead separate insurance policies are critical for professional services, vehicles & employees. In general, floods, earthquakes & terrorist attacks are not covered in the business policy. Please check before you purchase!

Let’s face it. Buying products and services from the Internet can be a bit intimidating.

You may have no idea where the online merchant is located. You may not know how safe your personal and credit card information will be.

You may be unsure if you’ll even get the product or what to do if the product is broken when it arrives at your door.

These types of concerns are what you are up against when you sell products from a website.

Here some tips to build credibility with potential customers.

1. Include all your contact information on your homepage. Your phone and fax numbers, e-mail address, etc. List the hours you’re available to take customers’ phone calls.

2. Offer a money-back guarantee. This is a must, especially if you’re selling higher price items. Mention your guarantee at least a couple of times in your copy.

The more details you give about your guarantee the more comfortable your prospect will feel. Your guarantee should be valid for at least 30 days after the purchase and it’s best to have a “no-questions-asked” return policy.

Be prompt in refunding the customer’s money

3. Tell your site visitors how their credit card and personal information will be protected if they buy from you.

Do you use a secure,encrypted server to process their transaction? Tell them. I have this info spelled out right below the “Buy Now” button on my website.

If you use a online credit card processing company like PayPal, be sure to include the credit card buyer protection policy and merchant verification process. People want to know how they’ll be protected against credit card fraud.

My credit card processing company, PaySystems (http://www.revecom.com) has a 100% guarantee against credit card fraud. Customers can click on hyperlink to read the guarantee before they actually fill out any credit card and personal information.

4. Use testimonials from satisfied customers. Nothing helps sell a product like a happy buyer. The more detailed the testimonial the better. Be sure to get your customer’s permission before you quote him or her in your marketing material.

Always use the customer’s first and last name, company name and title (if applicable) and their location.

I think you’re less likely to believe a testimonial if it’s just signed “J. Doe” instead of “John Doe, President, XYZ Company, Houston, Texas.”

5. List your credentials or experience on your website or in your ezine. Again, the key is the more a customer knows about who they are dealing with, the more assured they going to feel doing business with you.

By putting these suggestions into action, you’re bound to have a happy group of customers. And good “word-of-mouth” is the cheapest, and most effective form of advertising.

About The Author

Dave Coyne is a marketing consultant and information publisher. Get his FREE Report: “How to Run A Home Based Business And Never Create A Product, Write An Ad, Or Talk To Anyone.” Send an email with REF006 in the subject line to dcinfobiz@GetResponse.com