Article Time

The digital world is evolving and the trends are changing in real world, making the world faster than ever before and technology more stable. Mobile is all about today`s world which took birth with the invention of first pager in 1956. The world started getting mobile and the launch of first commercial mobile phone by NTT in Japan was the next step to stabilize this mobility.

The innovation in this mobility with SMS happened to be originated in Europe in 1985. SMS was a boom in the later part of 1900s and early 2000s, and still it`s the top cellular activity. Now, there`re above 4 billion mobile phone subscribers, with 74% of them using SMS of which 94% of SMSs are read. Just in UK 1.4 billion text messages now being sent every week.

This is just about mobile phones and SMS, innovations like iPhone, Blackberry, Android and mobile-internet integration are constanly opening the new horizons of excellence for mobile marketing. Web marketing is one of the most cost effective marketing methods with maximum outreach. Since there`re more mobile phone subscribers than that of internet users, so mobile opens broad ways for marketing from small and medium to large businesses.

Mobile-web integrated marketed is still in the process of development, reason being the lack of awareness among most of mobile phone subscribers, i.e. there`re about 10 million users worldwide using GPRS services that makes only about 0.25% of the total subscribers. But, this low percentage doesn`t mean that mobile marketing is not growing. There`re various alternative methods within mobile marketing including SMS Marketing, Ingame Mobile Marketing, Location Based Services etc.

Ingame Mobile Marketing is the fastly growing area and the future of mobile marketing. The reason is that more than 90% of mobile phone subscribers play mobile games. From simple interactive real-time 3D games to massive multi-player and social networking games, mobile gaming is everywhere. This trend is accelerating the growth of mobile 2.0 on one hand and hence the mobile development on other.

Mobile development being the next big thing is now the focus of small, medium and large business, and hence it`s becoming a competitive industry. The competition is becoming tougher as the industry leaders Nokia and Google have moved to opensource, and this situation is critical for ISVs. ZDNet also reports that, it`ll not be the great UI as only challenge instead, things that matter more are ideas and methodologies. Though ISV`s are more under pressure, but companies will have equal pressure and will have to face almost same challenges. It`ll be the race of collective innovation [what I can term it as] or Product Innovation [combination of innovation in methodologies, design, productivity etc] so, innovation in over all performance will win!

Qurratulain is working with Zigron Inc, a technology firm specializing in mobile development, J2EE solutions and PHP based web 2.0 applications development.

Membership Sites -Way to face Common Membership Site Challenges
are one of the most lucrative business models on the internet. Some of the benefits include earning continual income, incurring less advertising expenses, earning the trust and respect of members, building your reputation, and being able to make various offers to members.
Membership sites can be very profitable indeed; but maintaining them is no walk in the park, especially if you don’t have the proper knowledge or experience.
Here are the most common challenges encountered by membership site owners, and the steps you can take to resolve these issues.
1) You have to provide excellent content or products on a consistent basis.
To keep members happy and satisfied, you have to provide quality content.for more details :www.secure-member-area.com. Unless you’re happy creating the content yourself, you’re better off outsourcing the task to qualified freelancers, so you can focus on the moneymaking aspects of your business.
When you outsource, you may run the risk of hiring incompetent ghostwriters. That’s why you should test them with a small assignment first to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Once you’ve chosen your ideal freelancers, ask them if they can provide the same type of quality content on a consistent basis.
Before you launch your membership site, make sure that you have already found the best freelancers or ghostwriters for the job, and that they are committed to providing their services every month.
Keep the contact details of other good freelancers. In case your main ones fail to deliver due to any reason, you can choose the 2nd or 3rd best to fill in their positions.
2) Reports indicate that the average member cancels after 3 months.
Even if you have monthly income coming in, you need to continuously promote your membership sites so that new members can replace the ones who have cancelled.
However, your ultimate aim is to keep your members from canceling by providing excellent products and services. Over deliver and strive to exceed their expectations.
As an example, let’s say you’re providing quality PLR products and teaching your members how to make money with them through a step-by-step system. If your techniques and products really work, and their ROI (return on investment) is high, they’d be crazy to cancel their membership.
3) Membership sites have lower conversion rates than other site models.
Since membership sites charge monthly, people are more doubtful of joining because they have to shed out money every month without knowing if it’s truly worth it. So how can you resolve this?
Forced continuity is the answer.visit at:www.start-ownbiz.com. You can set up a free trial offer or a special deal such as a “$1 trial for 30 days.” You can then bill them monthly after the trial period, unless they cancel.
4) Members can’t handle information overload.
Many membership sites simply provide too many materials that tend to get members confused.
Giving enormous amounts of valuable stuffs is an effective strategy to keep members; but it may backfire if the members don’t know what to do with everything you’ve given them.
Consider providing step-by-step, foolproof instructions on how to use the membership products. Unless you know your members’ knowledge or experience level, don’t assume. Ask your members to fill up a survey so you’ll know how to treat the majority of them. If there are many differing opinions or if in doubt, explain everything as if you’re doing it to a 12-year old.
5) You may have to deal with some unethical members (Members using one-time credit cards; those who sign up, download everything, and then cancel immediately; those who share their login info).
What you can do is to blacklist these unethical members so you can avoid having them as your customers in the future.
You may also use a download protection software like DL Guard to prevent members from sharing their download details.
Since we can’t do much about these issues, don’t waste your energy on them; just focus on the more important aspects of your business.
6) Credit card has been declined or has expired.
Use a membership management solution that allows a reminder email to be automatically sent to any member whose card has expired or has been declined.

www.awesome-membership-riches.com
www.member-site-manager.com

Membership sites can be very profitable indeed; but maintaining them is no walk in the park, especially if you don’t have the proper knowledge or experience.
Here are the most common challenges encountered by membership site owners, and the steps you can take to resolve these issues.

1) You have to provide excellent content or products on a consistent basis.
To keep members happy and satisfied, you have to provide quality content.for more details :www.secure-member-area.com. Unless you’re happy creating the content yourself, you’re better off outsourcing the task to qualified freelancers, so you can focus on the moneymaking aspects of your business.
When you outsource, you may run the risk of hiring incompetent ghostwriters. That’s why you should test them with a small assignment first to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Once you’ve chosen your ideal freelancers, ask them if they can provide the same type of quality content on a consistent basis.
Before you launch your membership site, make sure that you have already found the best freelancers or ghostwriters for the job, and that they are committed to providing their services every month. Keep the contact details of other good freelancers. In case your main ones fail to deliver due to any reason, you can choose the 2nd or 3rd best to fill in their positions.

2) Reports indicate that the average member cancels after 3 months.
Even if you have monthly income coming in, you need to continuously promote your membership sites so that new members can replace the ones who have cancelled.
However, your ultimate aim is to keep your members from canceling by providing excellent products and services. Over deliver and strive to exceed their expectations.
As an example, let’s say you’re providing quality PLR products and teaching your members how to make money with them through a step-by-step system. If your techniques and products really work, and their ROI (return on investment) is high, they’d be crazy to cancel their membership.

3) Membership sites have lower conversion rates than other site models.
Since membership sites charge monthly, people are more doubtful of joining because they have to shed out money every month without knowing if it’s truly worth it. So how can you resolve this?
Forced continuity is the answer.visit at:www.start-ownbiz.com. You can set up a free trial offer or a special deal such as a “$1 trial for 30 days.” You can then bill them monthly after the trial period, unless they cancel.

4) Members can’t handle information overload.
Many membership sites simply provide too many materials that tend to get members confused.
Giving enormous amounts of valuable stuffs is an effective strategy to keep members; but it may backfire if the members don’t know what to do with everything you’ve given them.
Consider providing step-by-step, foolproof instructions on how to use the membership products. Unless you know your members’ knowledge or experience level, don’t assume. Ask your members to fill up a survey so you’ll know how to treat the majority of them. If there are many differing opinions or if in doubt, explain everything as if you’re doing it to a 12-year old.

5) You may have to deal with some unethical members (Members using one-time credit cards; those who sign up, download everything, and then cancel immediately; those who share their login info).
What you can do is to blacklist these unethical members so you can avoid having them as your customers in the future.
You may also use a download protection software like DL Guard to prevent members from sharing their download details.
Since we can’t do much about these issues, don’t waste your energy on them; just focus on the more important aspects of your business.

www.awesome-membership-riches.com
www.member-site-manager.com

6) Credit card has been declined or has expired.
Use a membership management solution that allows a reminder email to be automatically sent to any member whose card has expired or has been declined.

Everyday academic challenges make every student face a set of certain problems. These problems in the first place deal with the importance of choosing the proper theme for an academic paper in the first place and making it creative in the second place. Each career requires a unique approach towards the perfection of the necessary academic skills. A custom essay writing service is one of those auxiliary tools that help each student to learn what academic creativity is and how to be able to produce excellent quality assignments. Some people do not feel confident in writing papers and have difficulties in formulating their thoughts. So, for instance getting a custom essay on the required theme has the goal of organizing the thoughts of a student. The natural desire of each and every student is to be successful. Nowadays, when a lot of time is given to students to work on their own, custom essay assistance can be vital. It is common knowledge that different people learn differently. This does not mean that someone is a better or a worse student, it simply means that they are different. custom essay is a perfect opportunity to work independently, create authentic paper and acquire new attainments. Academic challenges are not to frighten students, for they can always get a help by ordering a custom essays. Challenges are the premises of further academic erudition and competency. Asking for help is not an indication of immaturity but vice versa a sign of an enormous thirst for knowledge. So you can face the challenges of academic success together with a custom essays and remember anything unattempted remains impossible for challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

Globalization challenges the modern world, countries and companies. Globalization increases the interrelationship of different levels of globalization, such as commerce, technology, straight investment and makes the manufacture international. A global economy has the ability to work as a unit in real time on a global scale.

The major features of globalization are:

synchronous competition in every market between several competitive companies from different states;

internationalization of manufacture that means elements, products and services from several countries;

increasing interrelationship of different levels of globalization, such as commerce, technology, straight investment, etc.;

intra-industry structure of international commerce;

decreased role of trade.

Globalization includes trade, foreign investment and technology transfer. The changing working pattern is the result of global economy. Globalization challenges people to become more competitive changing the way company produce and sell and the way people work. Nowadays, labor market requires more sills and much knowledge of the subject creative a rigid competitive market of human resources. There are to be institutions that will help people get a benefit from the economic change. There can be distinguished several changes in the work organization as a result of globalization. They are: changes in employment models; change in employment conditions provided by companies and appearance of a new working pattern.

The first change means a shift in employment from technological industry to a service industry. Nowadays, a constantly growing service sector takes about 75-80% from the whole industry sector while manufacturing industry has a decline. The shift in today’s demands influence the employment structure in industries. The changing employment chart can be analyzed according to a classification of industry types. There are companies involved in production of goods, those involved in production and sale of goods, and those involved in service only.

Moreover, in a small company there is a working flow and the rate of work receipts and work losses is greater than in a larger company. Also, there is a `core-periphery` pattern. This means the delimitation in salary of a highly knowledgeable worker and a marginally worker; number of hour per week (from 20 to 70 hours); full-time (mature employees) and part-time workers; increase in casual employment. In other words, the smaller part of workers is involved in a full-time work while the larger part is just a labor force.

Globalization has changed patterns for skill demand too. A person should have diverse skills to fit the modern requirements for obtaining good position in a globalized world. People with good knowledge-based skills are given more preference then other kinds of workers. This pattern is becoming more and more popular in many countries. The production and service industry is growing rapidly producing more working places for skillful specialists unlike other industry sectors. This industry needs specialists with financial, managerial skills, as well as design and communication skills in all industrial countries.

The thing is that the changes in work patterns and labor market structure must be achieved alone with the purpose of full employment. It is necessary to increase the economic growth of a country to guarantee more working places for people. However, there are problems that appear with the implementing the changes in industry. They are solved by focusing on the training and work-creation models and strengthening educational institutions. Rapid changes in production and sale assume the replacement of old production technology and methods by new ones which allow producing more goods at the same production run. This modification in the production methods influence industry sectors and is spreading quickly in developed countries. The movement from simple work tasks to complicated ones demands more responsibility from a worker, thereby, opening new challenging assignments and interesting jobs. However, the number of such jobs is relatively small.

The phenomenon of globalization changes the entire structure of the worker meaning and his/her contractual conditions. These changes are many-sided and complex which touch the state role too. So, an employee has many questions to solve with a new international environment emerge.

The article was produced by the writer of Essay-Paper.net. Olivia Hunt is a 4-years experienced freelance writer and a senior manager of Essay Writing Service. Contact her to get book report and custom term paper tips.

The most common question I hear in the triathlete world about the mysteries of swimming efficiently usually involves something with breathing. In freestyle, it is the first step to get your body position right. Then, for many, you throw in breathing and everything goes haywire! This has to do with lack of balance, using your head instead of your core to breath, and a few other factors.

Here are the top 5 challenges in learning how to breathe in freestyle, along with the remedies on how to get over these:

1. Not Getting Enough Air. There are a couple of reasons this typically happens in freestyle. First, make sure you breathe out all of your air before you rotate to take a breath. When learning, some people try to exhale and inhale while they are rolling to the side for air. There simply is not enough time for this! Your exhalations should only be in the water in the form of bubbles. At first the timing may seem difficult, but eventually you will get used to it. Second, you may be sinking as you breathe. Make sure you are rolling to the side to breathe, and not rotating your head and looking straight up. Practicing the side kicking and shark fin drills, as discussed in The Complete Guide and in the introductory 4-session online clinic you get by signing up for the Tri Swim Coach newsletter will also help you with this challenge.

2. Extended Arm Sinks While Taking a Breath. This is mainly a balance issue. While you breathe to one side, your other arm should be extending. For many swimmers, this extended arm pushes down into the water (elbow drops) and they are sinking while trying to inhale. The side kicking and shark fin drills will also help to improve this. Another drill also discussed in the materials that will help with this challenge is the first drill, which forces you to not use your hands, therefore improves your balance in the water.

3. Speed is Sacrificed because of a “Pause” While Breathing. A typical scenario is that you feel like you`re cruising along just fine and then you take a breath and it feels like you`ve just lost all your momentum. To remedy this, when you breathe, concentrate first on breathing to the side (as in #1), then on having your mouth parallel to the water, instead of over the water. The latter will take a while to master, but once you do, it will take care of the pause, and improve your speed overall.

4. Difficulty breathing while navigating in a race. You need to look up to see where you are going, and at the same time grab a breath. How can you do both? Start with bilateral breathing (breathing on both sides every 3 strokes). This will help you to see about where you are without lifting your head up as much. When you need to lift your head up to sight, try not to look straight ahead- this will make your hips sink and throw you off balance. Instead, take a quick peek at your target, roll to the side to breath, and bring your head right back down into position.

5. Sucking In Water While Taking a Breath. In practice, this will sometimes occur because of #1 and #2 above. In a race, the waves may cause the inhalation of water instead of air (bilateral breathing will help here as well). The drills to practice to improve balance and avoid this unpleasant occurrence are the side kicking and shark fin drills, as well as the one-arm drill. To perform the one-arm drill, swim a full stroke with one arm while your other arm rests at your side. Breathe on the opposite side of the stroking arm. This is a difficult drill and takes some practice, but it will pay off! For more and to view this and other drills, see the Full Package from Tri Swim Coach.
www.allfreereports.com

Top 10 Webmaster Challenges

Webmasters deal with a myriad of complex design challenges every day. This article will discuss the top ten challenges and provide solutions and tips for solving each problem.

1. Browser Compatibility You must design your Web site so that it is viewable on both browsers: Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE). Netscape Navigator is very strict when it comes to HTML tag completion, but IE isn`t. You need to view your site first using Macromedia Dreamweaver before publishing to the Web. Make sure you`ve run the command convert to ensure your site is version 3.0 browser compatible. If you`re using Netobjects Fusion to create the layout of your site, make sure that all layer objects are converted into tables. This is highly recommended if you want to reach a broader and wider audience.

Online resources:
A) Dr. HTML, located at www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/
B) Web Site Garage to check your links, located at websitegarage.com

2. Graphics Optimization
Web graphics play an essential part in your Web design, because it conveys the emotion and impact of your site. Always make sure that all of your graphics are in .gif and .jpg format. Unless your site deals with photography, minimize the use of the .jpg format. You can use Macromedia Fireworks to minimize the file size, especially the slicer feature if you need to place a large photo on your site. Another option is the export preview of Macromedia Fireworks. This allows you to remove unwanted colors in your graphics, thus decreasing file size.

You can also do this online by using one of these online utilities:
A) GIF Optimizer by Media Builder, www.gifoptimizer.com
B) JPEG Cruncher and GIF Cruncher, www.spinwave.com/crunchers.html
C) Windows-based graphics optimizer, CyberView Image Lite (JPEG Compressor), www.cyberviewcd.com/cvimage/index.html
D) Advanced GIF Optimizer, www.gold-software.com/ago.html
E) Photo Crunch (JPEG Compressor), www.imroncorp.com/photo.htm
F) JPEG image compression FAQ, www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/part1/

3. Keeping the Site Fresh
I think this is the bulk of a webmaster`s work, if you want your site frequently visited. You can keep your site fresh by really working on new content on a daily or regular basis and by making it interactive. As with content, you can make use of www.moreover.com, www.subportal.com, www.newshub.com, and other content syndication sites to provide the content for your site automatically. Let them do the hard work for you! If you place a tag, they will email you with new content. As for the interactivity, offer your visitors web-based email accounts, a message board with a chat room, a search engine crawler, and banner ad rotation. This is easy, and provided by Everyone.net. Searching your site is another way to easily provide information to your visitors. You can get a site search engine from www.picosearch.com and www.atomz.com.

4. Pushing Information to Your Visitors
A Web site is a “pull” promotion, but as a webmaster, you also need to be thinking about how you can “push” information to your visitors, users, or subscribers. You can publish an ezine on a weekly or monthly basis just to let your users be informed about the latest technology you`ve added to your site. As for the mailing list, you can get a free mailing list from www.egroups.com, www.topica.com, or you can choose a paid service such as www.aweber.com or www.getresponse.com. As for the content, you can get lots of articles from bbs.weblord2000.com, or try one or more of my articles that can be found on the same Web site.

5. Driving Traffic
Webmasters shouldn`t forget to announce your Web site. Accomplishing this is easy for Web sites that already have a lot of traffic, but even sites that are starting out with 5 or 10 members can benefit from the viral marketing of online recommendation software. Services include www.Nabaza.com/refer.htm, www.evite.com, and www.ewomp.com.

6. Dealing with Spammers Unfortunately, the reality of the Internet is that people will spam and flame on a daily basis. Web-based email addresses like the ones set up by www.everyone.net are spam-proof. You can set up your account so that any emails sent without your address in the “to” box can be directed automatically to the trash or spam folder. However, flames and hate emails are a different field. You shouldn`t try to get even or retaliate. These people are not a joke. It might cost you your ISP or your e-life. Instead, check out www.spamcop.net. It does the nitty-gritty work of automatically reporting misbehaving people to their postmasters. Usually, it`s helpful to get the ISP, or at least the IP address of the suspected person.

7. Stickiness!
Webmasters are also faced with the challenge of keeping their site sticky. CBSMarketwatch.com is a good example of a sticky site. This stock/investment related site contains timely news and excellent company data. The vast amount of information results in a good number of page views per visitor. Plus, visitors return on a daily basis to get the latest-and-greatest market news and stock data. Lots of page views per visitor AND repeat visits. now that`s what you could call really sticky.

Here are some additional suggestions:
A) Make your site a portal of information. It encourages your visitors to return and stay. Hotsheet.com is one example of a one-page portal.
B) Add games to your site. You can get some here: www.uproar.co.uk or at www.pogo.com/affiliates.
C) Make your site interactive with a guest book, forum, tell-a-friend link, webring, customizable news, contests, polls, e-card, and free for all links. Bizland.com allows you to sign up for an account and place the code on your site.
D) Provide links to freebies, get-paid-to-surf sites, contests, incentives, jokes, quotes, mp3, and gnutella. Just don`t forget to opt in for at least their email address before they can actually download stuff from your site.

8. Find Your Web Host
It`s critical to find the right Web host. Although you may need to get your own server when your site gets one million page views per month, most sites that are starting out do not require the complex and expensive task of managing your own servers. There are many Web hosting providers that are willing to provide starting at 40gb of Web space. You can also look and compare different Web hosting providers on these sites: www.webhostdir.com, www.hostfinders.com, www.hostindex.com, www.hostsearch.com, and www.findahost.com. I always recommend the advanced search, which allows you to specify your budget and the specific features you will need.

9. Think Globally
Keep the site international in its appeal. Babelfish.altavista.com allows you to place snippets of code into your site that will automatically translate your English site to a different language, such as Spanish, Italian, German, or Polish. As webmasters, we must remember that we cannot filter countries on our site. We must be able to communicate with them.

10. Search Engine Submissions
Webmasters love to promote their sites on message boards, newsgroups, link exchanges, and even email, but they often forgot the best source of traffic. Submission sites like www.Nabaza.com/traffic.htm, www.Nabaza.com/submit.htm, and www.beseen.com can be used to submit your site for free. You don`t need to submit to all of them, only to the major ones, like Yahoo, AltaVista, Google, Hotbot, Infoseek/Go.com, Lycos, and Northern Light.

I hope that you have found these tips helpful. For more information, please visit my site www.MoreFreebies.info.
Nabaza.com provides solutions to everyday webmastery task like search engine submissions, internet promotion, and sticking your visitors to your site. Become a member now for as low as U.S. $100.00 a year.

Nabaza.comspecializes in building, designing, implementing, managing and maintaining corporate website to boost sales of your company. Email william@nabaza.com for information on functional, dynamic webpage designing with affordable packages. Subscribe for free!
http://www.nabaza.com/subscribe.htm

Have you ever wondered what challenges are faced by other webmasters and owners in the design and promotion of their websites, well I certainly have and so I decided to try and find out.

I created a short survey which asked the following questions:

1. How long have you been running a website ?
2. What challenges do you face right now with the DESIGN of your website ? 3. What challenges do you face right now with the PROMOTION of your website ? 4. What challenges do you think you`ll face with your web business over the next 12 months ? 5. What is your Number ONE single biggest problem in running your web business ? 6. What is your 2ND single biggest problem in running your web business ? 7. How experienced do you consider yourself with all the areas of WEB DESIGN ? 8. How experienced do you consider yourself with the PROMOTION of a web site ?

For most questions respondents were asked to choose their answers from a list and could select as many answers as they thought applied to them.

In answer to Q1. How long have they been running a website ?

27% answered less than 6 months.
18% said 6 to 12 months.
18% said 1 to 2 years.
37% had more than 2 years experience.

To answer Q2. What challenges do they face right now with the DESIGN of their website, respondents were given 36 possible answers to choose from.

The top 10 challenges respondents gave in DESIGN were, in
order:
1. Optimizing Web PAGES for Search Engines
2. Optimizing Web SITE for Search Engines
3. Choosing/adding a Link Directory
4. Adding a content management system
5. Tracking pages visitors view on their site
6. Finding content for the web site
7. Creating Images for web pages
8. Choosing the right web hosting
9. Choosing/adding an Autoresponder
10. Adding and using RSS News Feeds

To answer Q3. What challenges do they face right now with the PROMOTION of their website, respondents were given 24 possible answers to choose from.

The top 10 challenges respondents gave in PROMOTION were, in
order:
1. Getting more visitors from search engines
2. Writing content to attract search engines
3. Finding other sources to get more visitors
4. Gain/maintain more links to their web site
5. Get better Google Adwords results
6. How pages rank with search engines
7. Testing web pages for best changes to make
8. Creating better headlines for web pages
9. Getting better Adsense results
10. How/Which Search Engines to submit to

In regard to challenges over the next 12 months and the number one and two single biggest problems in running a web business, the common theme was getting enough traffic, cheaply and finding the time to do everything.

On how experienced respondents considered themselves with all areas of WEB DESIGN the majority felt competent but would like to learn more.

When asked how experienced they considered themselves with the PROMOTION of a web site the majority knew nothing or just how to do the basics.

Conclusion
It was clear from these early results that issues with search engine ranking and getting more traffic by what ever means were among the greatest challenges for website owners in 2005. Other specific problems were in creating content, managing and getting links and finding the time to do it all. The majority of respondents felt they knew little or just the basics about website promotion.

It remains to be seen whether these results change as more people complete the survey, since it`s still ongoing. Not enough responses have been collected to make these results statistically sound, so if you would like to contribute to these finding then you can take the short survey at the link below.

I will publish an update to these findings on my site. As a thank you for completing the survey I have some good advice on the site to help with the 3rd highest issue with web design that of choosing an adding a link directory. I am also giving away some free automated link directory management software.

Challenging and beautiful golf courses are open to everyone in Northern California. Here are three you can play next week, including Harding Park home of the 2005 World Golf Championships, Berkeley’s Tilden Park with its notorious 420-yard par 4 straight uphill to an elevated green, first hole and a course with views of the Pacific Ocean.

Part of the fun of city golf is having a San Francisco limo or car service pick you up at your hotel and deliver your party to the course. Then when your game is over, your driver awaits, just as he does of Tiger.

It’s always smart to call several weeks ahead for tee times, deposit requirements and to reserve a Quicksilver TownCar or Suburban to pick you up at the airport. (800) 486-9622 The Suburban easily holds four golf bags and all your luggage.

Harding Park San Francisco was designed by architect Willie Watson in 1925. Among its kudos are a Top 50 US Courses ranking by Golf Digest and a place among “Top 100 You Can Play” by Golf Magazine.

Harding Park played host to the 2005 World Golf Championships-American Express Championship. The American Express event in October of 2005, which saw Tiger Woods defeating John Daly on the second playoff hole.

Harding Park Golf Course is located next to the private Olympic Club course which has been host to many U. S. Open tournaments and is less than one mile from the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Zoo. Harding Park’s layout follows the original 1925 plan, using the property’s existing topography, contours and vegetation. Features include the towering Monterey Cypress trees and a view of Lake Merced where high school crews practice on a dogleg 2k course.

Tee-times for Harding Park Golf Course are available 8 – 30 days in advance. A non-refundable deposit is required for advance booking at the time of the reservation. To make an advance reservation, call the Harding Park Pro Shop at 415-664-4690. http://www.harding-park.com/view.asp?id=129&page=1727

The weather, fog, wind, sun and fog again, can be a challenge year-round.

Lincoln Park Golf Course 300 34th Ave, San Francisco, (415)221-9911, is easily one of the two or three most beautiful courses in northern California. Lincoln is the oldest course in this list; its 18 holes were built in 1908, designed by Tom Bendelow. The weather, fog, wind, sun and fog again, can be a challenge year-round.

Located west of the famous bridge, several fairways provide postcard views of the Pacific and Golden Gate. If you play this course carry a camera in your bag. City of San Francisco golf info: http://www.sfgov.org/site/recpark

Tilden Park Golf Course is located across the bay in Berkeley at the intersection of Grizzly Peak and Shasta Road, above the University of California campus. (510)848-7373. This is a challenging hillside course. Tilden Park’s signature first hole is a 420-yard par 4, straight uphill to an elevated green. My father-in-law compared it to playing the Royal Course in Nepal. The 18 hole course was built in 1937 and designed by William P. Bell.

Tilden is notorious for its hills and natural setting. According to one report, the front nine is fairly forgiving, but things change on the back nine, which starts with a vertigo-inducing tee that recalls Olympic ski jumps, followed by narrower fairways. http://tildenparkgc.americangolf.com/

There are many golf courses in the Bay Area, but we suggest trying these courses which are inexpensive and well know to your Quicksilver TownCar (800)-486-9622 driver.

Home-based travel agencies are doing good business, thus attracting many people towards this business. There are several reasons behind popularity of home-based travel agency businesses, some of them are:
· 1. Increasing attraction for travel and tourism: These days’ peoples are being more and more attracted towards travel and tourism. Television channels like Discovery, Animal Planet, and The History Channel are doing a great work to make people aware about the hidden treasures of nature. They are also trying to make people understand the need of nature’s presence in our life. People also get knowledge about tourist places through films. Films are a perfect medium of making people aware with the most beautiful places on earth.
· 2. Easier and Cheaper Travel Deals: Traveling to distant places has become cheaper due to tough competition among tour operators as well as aviation companies. Airfares are cheaper like anything, and its getting cheaper day-by-day. Aviation companies are providing excellent facilities too, just to attract more and more passengers. Even hotels and resorts are busy providing attractive deals on several occasions for their visitors. In brief, the whole scenario for tourists is best.
· 3. Less running cost: This is one of the most important reasons behind home based travel agencies blooming day by day in almost every portion of world. You do not need to invest lot of money for starting this business, just a PC, Internet Connection and few stationary is enough to start your own home based travel agency. Operating cost of such agencies are also low, you do not have to pay rent or installments for having a place in upside market for your agency.
· 4. Less Manpower Requirements: You don’t need much manpower to run a home based travel agency. You can run your travel agency like an exclusive family affair by you and your few interested family members.
Therefore, we can conclude that running a home-based travel agency is not only easier, convenient, less time consuming, and cheaper. It also gives you a chance to socialize with people, travel the whole world and chances to earn attractive sum of money regularly.
Pro Travel Network is a group of home-based travel agents. It also provides opportunities to be a part of this growing community. For more information, please visit: http://www.ptninfo.com/joshgold/info.