The year started very slowly. Nothing out of the ordinary or anything…it was just normal. The first major thing that happened was that I moved home. The kids did not change school which meant that I had to drive them everyday to school. It was hectic in the beginning but I quickly got used to it. A few months later, I I got a new job and passed the school run duty to my other half.

Because of that my usual online marketing and business took backseat. Less time was spent promoting any product which meant that my online income was slightly affected.  I could see the traffic and drying up slowly. Not good if you want to maintain a certain level of income.

Luckily enough my work pays enough to cover all my out-goings and still have some spare change to treat myself to some well-earned holidays away.

This time we didn’t go anywhere very far but nonetheless it was cool to be away for a change.  In June we took a short break to Paris and caught the Euro Star to Brussels on a 3-day holiday. If you’ve never been to Brussels, I would suggest you give it a try. The Art scene is one of the best in the world – great architecture, lovely people and nice restaurants.

Back in London we went to the world famous Leicester Square Cinema for the British Music Award which my other half got the ticket for through their work.

This week though, we have been at home enjoying the Christmas celebrations with the family. So, as this is that last day of the year, I thought I would quickly put this up here as time is running out before the new year celebration starts.

In the new year I will properly post how my online earning performed. But for now, just enjoy the day and have a great new year celebration.

My goal was try everything to see if there were any weak points in the device and frankly I just can’t find anything that I dislike. Throw in the great price point and I’m feeling really good about waiting on that much more expensive IPAD purchase!

First the the colors are amazing! I love the way everything is set up and integrated. It’s very easy to figure out and in fact I didn’t even consult the User’s guide until last night….just to see if I missed anything that might be helpful.

I’ve downloaded apps and a magazine, played games, checked my email and facebook, added a weather app and watched movies from both Amazon Prime and Netflix. I also set-up Pandora. While the built in speakers are not very loud I found with headphones it sounds great! I love the touchpad but found that some of the apps require a harder tap…however that’s the apps and not the FIRE itself which is very responsive

I also surfed the web,loaded some of my photos and watched a video emailed from my sis!!! The Photo Gallery app allows cropping and even provides a slideshow function…and the photos look awesome!

Last night I borrowed a book from the lending library….it took about 5 seconds. I’ve had no issues with load time on anything…it’s just smooth. To be honest…I’ve had a hard time putting it down!

Amazon has hit a grand slam home run with this product and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone considering it. In fact I love this so much I bought one for my Mom. Ssssshhhhh! Don’t tell her!

So, the afternoon is spent installing all the software and tools that I will be using. Another thing I love doing is copy my firefox bookmarks over from my home computers – it has lots of links to good resources that make software development much easier and faster.  Once I’ve got that sorted, I will be looking at some of the code these guys are working on and see where I can slot in.

The company works with the government to produce and maintain automated payment systems across a number of services including parking, driving test payment, meter reading and fine payments. We will be working heavily with XML and web services which I think it’s going to be quite fun.

Instead, the guys are all trying their best to show me how things work, where I can find anything I may need – including where to find spare computers, monitors and how to get the brand new Keurig Coffee Brewer working.

You know that feeling you get when you are the new person somewhere; everyone wants to impress you with the stories and jokes. It all feels nice. Except that I prefer to spend my own time finding out what I need to know on my own rather than someone getting in my face all the time.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate their openness and concern, but sometimes it makes sense to let the new guy get to know their own way around and let them ask if they need help.

Anyway, in this new role, I will be working mainly on Python applications. This is something I have been looking forward to doing since my last stint with another company developing Django application for their A3 Colour Laser Printer business. Talking of which, I have put up a post on Blogspot to write about my experience on that project.

This new company promises to be better than the last one – they have good training programme in place. That allows the developers to either go on specific training course or buy study materials like books, DVDs and conferences that they think will benefit them. This is something my last employer did not even bother to invest in. What good is it when you give your all and get nothing in return…no one wants to spend their time and money on study materials when the directors and the company owners pocket huge amount without investing in their staff.

I once got pointed to a site by my last manager on where to get free Python books online if I needed any study material. I thought it was not only having disregard for the developers, but was not prepare to invest in the staff.

Do you work in a company where you’re not valued? I would like to hear about it. How did you handle it, did you move or spent your own money on training?

Please share your thoughts and experience.

So, as the weather begins to brighten up, you just can help but look back at the previous months and think how long it took for the cold season to finally pass. Things have changed. You don’t have to look very far to see it – trees are now greener, the flowers are looking much brighter and the birds can be seen singing around the lawn.

These all add to the great excitement of summer. In the last couple of years, I have spend the summer away from home. Whenever I hear the birds and see the flowers blossoming, it reminds me of the good time back home. Back then we would spend the little money we could earn trying to look our best for the summer.  For me, my money was always on exotic swimwear and sexy bikini.

But since moving away from home, all that has changed.  Although I still try to find time to treat myself to nice looking sexy outfit for the summer, I hardly get to go swimming like before. So, that’s why I like the latest range of evening and lingerie range from wicked temptations.

I have not bought any yet, but looking to get one of the red see-throughs that is guaranteed to flatter anyone regardless of shape and height. You have to feel great sometimes, and what better time to do it than summer time.

So, go ahead as well and see if there’s something there for you too as well.

I occasionally take time off to do a few things from home myself, but never really looked at properly pushing it to save on travel cost. There’s this argument that working from home means that you either put very little time into your work, or put too much. Well, the writer seems to cover all these issues.

Do, you work from home as well? If so, would you think it makes any difference where you work from? Giving that most people now have good broadband connection at home, should they be using it for company’s work?

I’m not sure I totally agree with his arguments, but if spending the time on office work at home can save me a few £100 monthly, I am more than happy to consider it rather than hauling my Swissgear Laptop Backpack on my daily train commute to work.

Read the whole article here.

So, with that in mind, I have stopped complaining about how tough life is for me and start appreciating the very little I have.

We recently moved home and things have not been the same since then – changed schools for the kids, put our house up for sale, still trying to divert my important mails and correspondence. Last week, I went to the post office and had to fill in a redirection form so that all me incoming snail mails can be redirected to my new address. I find this very important as it helps avoid my insurance, banking, and travel documents being sent to the old address.

If only all companies had a simple system for updating contact details on their website; things would be much easier. One of the magazines I subscribed for was so bad that they asked I cancel my and resubscribe with my new address. What is hard with having a simple system on their site that we could log in to and just edit your contact detail???

Anyway, the new house is just great – big, spacious, not far from the kids new school, and with shops and train station around the corner. I still have to do some work in the garden though, my husband is planning on getting things for his DIY stuff, while I focus on keeping the inside to taste. The house came with the original solid wooden flooring which requires good sanding. Luckily for us there’s a hire shop so I will be popping in to get the sander machine.

What I can’t compromise on though, is the steaming bit. I just saw this Eureka 313A Enviro Hard-Surface Floor Steamer that seems to do what I want. It has a great many reviews which gives the impression that it works quite well.

Have you used it before? Own one? Let me know before I commit to it.

Spring has just sprung, so this is the right time to buckle up and get working so that we can have our dream home for the summer.

But to be victorious in your research, you need to be natural and leave the  whim of competitiveness – Having found your target keyword, it is key that you learn how many searches it needs to achieve while staying on the top  of big G for your keyword. The reason for this is that it does not help to optimise and fight your way to the top only to realise that it does not get enough searches and hits. To give you an idea of that sort of traffic to expect, Google keyword tool and some traffic tool should help…learn to use them – they are quite usable and free. As always, focus on keyword that have enough traffic that and can be monetize.

Once you are satisfied with your keyword you are hungry to compete for, the next stage would be to research your new rival from those sites on the front page. Those are the people you need to be worried about; forget about those on the second page. One way of doing it is to check each site – determining their page rank, inbound links and domain age. The higher the page ranking and domain age, the harder it would be to outrank and compete. But don’t let that put your off, with good planning, you can easily outshine and burst into the top place.

Once the spying is over, the real optimisation starts. This involves modifying the Meta tag to show the updated keyword / keyword phrase, page title, content, image tags, anchor links and ultimately, endeavour to scatter your keywords around on your content. This notifies the world to your new keyword; and that they should start ranking your page for those keywords. A quick warning though, make sure that your content is unmatched and not scrapped from some forums. Besides on page optimisation, nearly all search engines also regard off-page optimisation too. Third-party site optimisation involves ongoing inbound links from third party sites. You may also want to get good quality links from article directories, web 2.0 sites for example Squidoo and Hubpages; blogs, forums and social bookmarking sites.

To wind up your campaign must be a unremitting working up of backlinks to your web site. One last thing – ramping up too many links so quickly could produce a flag with Google, doing it too slowly, your website might not move up the SERP at all. The trick is, do it cautiously to get the desirable result. To learn more around or leave me a message if you’d like to know how many links on average is idea on a per week basis. Thinking of being on G’s top page?, start by researching your keywords, optimise your page with your new keywords, write good quality content and in conclusion, begin putting together continuous backlinks from high ranking web 2.0 properties, forums, blogs and news sites.

Bio:  Helen is an avid blogger and enjoys spending time in the woods when she gets the time. Apart from blogging, she also loves taking her office around in a nice Swiss Gear Laptop Backpack. Check out her blog here http://17inchlaptopbackpack.blogspot.com

I just started working on a new product and thought I would make a quick post to test how it performs. A few of the posts I made last week are already doing well, but I can’t rely on them for a definitive conclusion; hence this second post.

A few of the test pages you should be checking for more information are as follow:

Swiss Gear Laptop Backpack

Wool Blankets

Heated Blanket

Samsung Water Filter

I will see what G thinks of them in the coming days. Feel free to visit them and leave your honest comment.

Luckily, it didn’t last very long. But what it showed was that it is likely to be something we should be expecting every year. The same thing happened in 2009 winter; and everyone thought that was a simple matter of freak of weather. But as we saw this year, that was not the case.

I don’t mind winters, but what I do mind however, is the heating bills that come at the end of the month. We already pay some of the highest rate for gas in the western Europe, so  with this recent cold snap, that is only going to add to it. But if you think everyone is complaining about their bills like myself, you will be wrong.

I was on the phone to a friend who left London for the dark cold Glasgow, because they wanted to raise their kids with traditional values. They told me how they came up with ways to help them reduce their bills. Heated Blankets -

Keeping a house of 5 rooms heats all the time is a big undertaking in anyone’s book. So, what they’ve done is to apply for the government’s energy and home warm front grant. This is a government initiative to help cut down on the amount of energy wasted through walls and lofts. The good thing about it is that it is open to anyone who owns their own house. Tenants are not allowed to apply, but they could contact their landlord and have them apply.

That said, they applied and given the full grant. With the loft insulation and double glazing done, most of the energy is retained and not lost any more.

But that’s not the only reason why their heating bills have come down a lot – it’s because they don’t heat the whole house any more, instead, the downstairs are left heated while the rooms upstairs are turned off. With an investment on Wool Blankets and Electric Blanket, they are able to keep warm and cosy while still saving heavily on their bills.

So, this is something we will be looking into soon.

Have you too been able to save on your heating? What methods you use?

For some, especially the gas and energy companies, this is the time when they make enough revenue that covers their annual profit. But if you are unlucky enough to be earning very little, this could mean more than half of your income going into heating.

Luckily for some of us, their are other ways to save of heating. Heated Blankets. I didn’t think they would make any difference until I tried one last year.

These blankets work so well that you can have then on while leaving your windows open. Me and my husband bought 2 of those Heated Blankets a while back, it has a auto timer set which allows it to self-power off after a set time. During that time and afterwards, you still continue to enjoy the warmth that it produces long into the early hours of the money without the need to turn them back on.

Instead of keeping the house heating on burning your hard earned cash – while watching your money fly through the windows. But with this Heated Blanket, the heat is kept within the electric blanket keeping you very warm. The dial on the side allows you to regulate how warm or cool you want to keep it.

This is our second year of using it and we have been very happy so far. Have you used any of these before including the wool blanket? Let us know by sharing your thoughts in the comment.