The Smart Pounder

When it comes to picking pro football games, there are a number of factors that can affect your success. Last minute injuries to key players, weather, and even an odd bounce of the ball can mean the difference between a win and a loss for both the football team and for you. So how do you make the right picks? There is no real answer; in fact it is called gambling for a reason. There are, though, some tips you should consider. So, to that end, here are some tips on choosing the best pro football pick.

Pick Early

One of the best tips on choosing the best pro football picks you can get is to pick early. When the lines first come out on the game, that is the time you will likely get the most favorable spread. As the week goes on, bets are placed, and things happen, the spread can change dramatically, which can make it much more difficult for you to decide. When you make the picks early in the week you can get on the bet when the line is fresh and before betting has driven it one way or another. This is probably the most common of the many tips on choosing the best pro football picks you will hear.

Go With Your Gut

Another one of the best tips on choosing the best pro football picks you will get is to go with your guy. One of the biggest mistakes that amateur football gamblers will make is to over-think or overanalyze the games. You likely do not have inside information or access to the teams, so beyond what you already know about the game and the teams, there is not much you will learn that will allow you to “cheat” the line. Even pro gamblers fail often, so overanalyzing the games will not help you any more than going with your gut will. See the line, think about the game, decide how you feel about it, and make your picks. It sounds simple, but it is going to serve you better than studying the game deeply.

Pick A Game On Its Own

One of the best, but least heard tips on choosing the best pro football picks is to pick each game on its own. What does that mean? Instead of hedging your bets by picking one game one way because of how you chose another one, you should pick each game in a vacuum, so to speak. Make your picks and stick with them. Hedging can eventually cause you to lose two games when you might have only lost one otherwise. Keep that in mind and you will actually minimize your losses more than when you try to hedge out.

There are many pro tips on choosing the best pro football picks out there, but these are a few to get you started. Remember, pick early on the first line, go with what your gut tells you, don’t over-think the game, and pick each game on its own merit. Do those things and you will be on your way to responsible picking of pro games.

You see them go up to bat, their gold necklaces glistening in the sun.

You see them after the basketball game being interviewed on television, their gold necklaces glistening in the lights.

Last night I watched Dwyane Wade being interviewed by David Letterman. He was dressed pretty casual. No gold necklace dangling from his neck. Then he turned his head. He had a huge gem glistening from his left ear lobe.

On the sports field, every team member is dressed the same. There is no way to show that you are a millionaire by your dress. Even the umpires and referees look better than you do. Of course everybody knows that the referees and umpires are not millionaires so they are not the problem.

Bill Gates does not have to have a gold necklace dangling from his neck. Everybody knows he has more millions than a camel has hairs.

Paris Hilton and Paul McCartney could walk around naked in the town park in Podunk, Iowa and everybody would know that they are millionaires.

But how can you tell if a sports star is a millionaire? Well, you look for his gold necklace.

Just seeing the necklace will tell you the income bracket of the star. If it is a chain that could hold a circus elephant like some of the big basketball players wear, the guy is loaded.

I noticed in Italy that guys driving Ferraris and Lamborghinis wore gold necklaces.

I could tell they were rich. The ladies with them put their noses in the air as they walk past me even though I was dressed in my best business suit. When you see that happen, you know the guy is really rich.

By the way, when you are in Italy and you walk out of the hotel and there is a guy carefully wiping a bird spot off his Ferrari with a silk handkerchief, don’t say anything at all. He sure as hell will not answer you if you say, “Nice car!”

I want to show my lost wealth since I don’t have wealth. I spent it in different ways. My boys all lived in foreign countries for a couple of years and went to college for eight years. Some then had internships. The same applied to my son-in-law. So, my money had a place and it wasn’t in investments.

But I did make my million. I just spent most all of it. And I want everybody to know that I could be a millionaire if I had saved some dough.

That’s why I’ve got to have a gold necklace.

A diamond earring is out. My wife would never put up with me have a diamond earring and my grandkids would think I was a freak.

Now I didn’t mean that I think that a man with an earring is a freak. Certainly not if he has a .350 batting average or shoots 15 baskets and 12 foul shots every game while getting 13 blocks.

I went to http://www.bluenile.com and chose the 18 carat gold Byzantine Necklace. It cost only $700.00. I was thrilled at the low price.

It would have cost more if it were 24 carat but it would not be durable enough for me when I’m out looking at my two horses. Who knows? I might be tempted to mount one of those beauties some day. I’ve lost 25 pounds on my Big Fat John diet so anything is possible.

I checked the bowl where I stash my change at night. Not much in there. But then I remembered that my wife takes the change from the bowl and put it in those little paper things you get at the bank for pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. I found her stash.

WOW!

I don’t need to buy that necklace after all. We’re rich!

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He is Executive Representative of IWS sellers of Tyler Hicks wealth-success books and kits. He also sells TopFlight flagpoles. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.” More info: http://www.tjbooks.com Business web site: http://www.aaaflagpoles.com

The World Wide Web (WWW) has changed how today’s businesses communicate. WWW is not anymore only used to get and disseminate information but employed as a tool for performance. Today’s websites are not just static pages but interactive tools that enhance your business capabilities in real time. These responsive sites are powered by the web-based applications that are capable of responding and interacting with the user and allow skimming the information that is relevant and is up to date.

To be more precise, a web-based applications is the one that uses a website as a front end and you can access this website viz application from any computer connected to the internet. The web applications is delivered to users from a web server. The most common web applications you must be using almost everyday is an e-mail like hotmail, yahoo etc. Other web-based applications that are used frequently to interact with clients, partners and other businesses are:

Custom Relationship Management

End-to-end web based recruitment

Online customer support software

Online data collection, analysis and reporting

Online quote software

Online product database development

Online ordering systems

Personalization of web page content

SMS messaging integration

Secure client areas

Secure areas to allow collaboration with business partners
Web Content Management Systems

Web based applications are all about convenience and getting the combined power of desktop and server applications with the accessibility of 24 hrs, anywhere and anytime.

Let’s see how they become the most strategic business tools: No installation and maintenance of the software: These web applications run on a web server, which you can access through internet. You don’t have the hassles of installing and configuring a program. So, one does not need to worry about the maintenance and troubleshooting or on heavy backups on the disk space.

Cost effective: Since you are running the program from someone else’s computer and no license and space management on your disk is required, so save heavily.

Latest updates available: Since someone else is hosting the program and maintaining it remotely for you, so whenever there are latest updates you just need to click on your web browser as usual and avail the latest features of a web application.

Readily available data: To access your data you just need to be connected to internet through your PC, which is no more a novelty. So, wherever you are, you can get connected to your data anytime. So the accessibility to your data is 24×7.

Multiple platforms: Almost all the web based applications are suitable for every web browser like Internet Explorer, Netscape etc or whichever operating system you have on your PC. The web application will always look and function uniformly.

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Recent precise Global Positioning System readings made on the 13-14th Oct have depicted that Mount Blanc measures 4810.5 meters. Mount-Blanc is veiled by a deep ice-cap which has got bigger by 2.7 m in only two yrs however more unexpectedly the amount of the ice and snow has just about doubled . Leastwise that is as reported by the professionals.

The bulk of ice was figured for the inaugural time during 2004. It was measured at 14500 metres cubed higher than 4800 metres. It was just 13600 cubic metres in 2002 potentially owing to the warmth with positive temperature as high as 4950 meters elevation. Even so the ice cap has nearly increased twofold since then and today equals 25000 metres cubed.

Chamonix village’s illustrious near by weather man Lowell Withrow explained the growth in the size of the ice-cap is among the counter intuitive results of climate change: Snow hasn’t accumulated generally in the Alps merely with global warming we are seeing added hotter westerly air currents which bring rainfall lower down however during summertime this means thick snowfall that rests at higher altitude than 3500 m elevation hence the volume of the icecap is growing. Compare this to the situation during winter time where the snow crystals are very cold and are moved by wind so do not settle down on the crest.

Chamonix town is not just famous for Monte Bianco it is also a well renowned snowboarding town and climbing center with lot’s of ski deals and lodging deals to be found.

Golf stance is one of the most ignored terms and issues in the golf swing and yet the golf stance dictates the success of every golf swing you make.

When golfers think of golf stance, they don’t realize how hard it is to maintain over 18 holes (four and a half hours). Just take a look at the position your body is in during your set up. There are many physical issues taking place, even though it is a static position at the start.

Let’s go over the physical requirements of the golf stance right now.

Bend At Hips To Address Golf Ball

To achieve this initial movement takes strength and flexibility in not only the lower back, but the hamstrings and core muscle groups. If these muscle groups are limited, you will have a very difficult time achieving this simple move.

Flex In The Knees

A combination of bending at the hips and knees allows you to get to the ball. The shorter the club, the more the bend at both the hips and knees. If your quadriceps are weak, you will have a very difficult time maintaining the proper knee flex therefore causing you to create in improper golf stance…resulting in mishits and lack of distance.

Ankle Flexion

Take a look at the ankle joint of any golfer. It is definitely bent (flexed) to accommodate the bending of the knees and hips. If your calf muscles are weak/or tight, you will find it very uncomfortable to stay down at the ball. I see so many golfers with tight calf muscles and they never even knew it.

Spine Extension (Erectness)

This is a BIGGY! How many times have you seen the golfer (maybe even you) in his/her golf stance with the dread ‘camels back?’ This is very common among older golfers and is a KILLER in the golf swing. I could (and probably will) write a complete article on this physical limitation. But the bottom line is a rounded (weak) upper spine will dramatically hinder your ability to make a full backswing. Result: very short drives and a lot of embarrassment.

I just briefly covered just a couple of physical requirements of the golf stance, but I hope you know see the importance of addressing your physical limitations to achieve the end result.

Longer drives, lower scores and beating the pants off your golfing buddies! Pay more attention to your golf stance!

About The Author: Mike Pedersen is the featured expert for Golf Magazine’s GolfOnline.com site, one of the top golf performance experts in the country, author and founder of several cutting-edge online golf fitness sites. Take a look at his just released golf fitness dvds and manual at his golf swing tips site – Perform Better Golf.

You may be shocked to hear this.

You DON’T need a lot of traffic to make your website a screaming success.

Many new marketers are led to believe the key to profits lies in throwing as much traffic as possible at their sites. Hence increasing the popularity of traffic blasting programs which are inevitably money-drainers for the honest marketers.

If only it was that easy.

The truth of the matter is, there’re only two basic ways to increase the profitability of any website, and in turn maximize the true value of your traffic.

One is by targeting the traffic you get, the other is by generating a call to action from that traffic.

Lets look at each one in more detail:

(1) Targeting your traffic

What you need is the right kind of traffic. To put it another way – what you need to make more money right now is highly targeted traffic.

As mentioned, the true value of traffic is in how you can maximize it to achieve certain positive outcomes you desire – be it higher sales or more quality subscribers.

Such outcomes are only possible if the traffic is highly targeted to what you are offering.

The question is in how you can receive such targeted visitors quickly and easily.

You can do this by using certain proven traffic generation strategies such as writing articles, joint ventures with targeted marketers/e-zine publishers, search engines, your own affiliate programs, etc.

Side note:

“Autopilot Traffic Streams” reveals hidden ways to generate your own automatic streams of targeted traffic quickly and easily. You can download this $37 ebook here free, simply right click and choose ’save target as..’ from this link: http://TurnkeyMoney.com/AutopilotTrafficStreams.pdf

These highly effective methods attract pre-qualified visitors who are mostly ‘pre-sold’ before arriving at your site.

(2) Generating positive responses

The hands down easiest way to maximize any traffic is by increasing your website’s conversion rates.

You can achieve double, triple or even 10X more profits by converting more visitors into customers.

Let us look at a very basic example:

If your current website converts at 1% (meaning 1 sale for every 100 visitors), you would make 5 sales for every 500 targeted visitors you sent there.

Lets say you managed to increase this conversion rate to 3%, the same 500 visitors will give you 15 sales, an addition of 10 sales from just a 2% increase in the conversion rate!

While this sounds every ideal, how do you heighten your site’s conversion rates and maximize each visitor’s value?

There are many ways to achieve this, some of which include:

Faster loading time; Easier navigation; Easier reading; Flexible payment options; Packaging of unique offers; Increasing product value and of course creation of more effective copy, etc.

In summary, generating highly targeted traffic and then motivating positive calls to action from it is the way to achieving more profits quicker and easier.

It’s a powerful and synergic strategy you can’t afford to ignore as an internet marketer – so start maximizing the true value of your traffic today!

(c) 2004 Ewen Chia

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About The Author

Ewen is the editor of “Web Marketing Exposed” which reveals specific techniques you can use to get more traffic, subscribers and sales to your websites quickly and easily!

The format and difficulty of computer certification exams is constantly changing. When I took my first certification exam (Novell NetWare 3.1x CNA, January 1997), there was no such thing as a simulator question, and my practical skills really were not tested. The exams then were much heavier on memorization.

One factor that helped make up for that was that the Novell exams were adaptive. If you missed a question on a particular topic, you would continue to be asked questions about that topic until you got it right. You couldn’t afford to be weak in any topic, because the exam would most likely find that out and keep hitting you with questions on that topic until you failed.

Adding to the stress, after a certain number of questions your exam could end at any time. You had no idea how many questions you would get, just that you would get at least 15. Every time you hit the “next” button after question 15, you didn’t know if you’d get another question or if the exam would suddenly end and give you a pass or fail response.

Times have changed. Cisco has led the way in introducing simulator questions to their exams, where the candidate is presented with a simulation of a router or network and asked to perform tasks that someone who is ready to earn that certification should be able to perform. This is a much better test of competency than the exams were eight years ago.

What will be the next “big jump” in computer certification exams? To earn the world’s most difficult technical certification, the CCIE, the candidate must first pass a rigorous 100-question qualification exam, and must then pass a practical lab exam. The candidate is presented with an exacting set of network requirements and must build that network on a pod of Cisco routers and switches in less than eight hours.

This is just personal opinion and not “insider information”, but I believe the day will come when the CCNA, CCNP, and other Cisco certifications will require some kind of hands-on practical lab to earn the certification. What better way to test competency than to have to perform tasks on real Cisco equipment? There would be more overhead for Cisco with this kind of testing, since lab equipment and lab proctors would be needed, but the already-prized CCNA and CCNP would become that much more valuable in the workplace if employers knew that to earn that certification, the job candidate had to pass a hands-on exam.

This would benefit the candidates as well, since it would do an even better job in protecting their investment in time and money. This could also be the next step in ferretting out candidates who try to get past the CCNA and CCNP exams via braindumps. As I always tell my students and customers, when you’re standing in front of that router or switch, there is no multiple choice … you either know it or you don’t!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!

When a prospect lands on your website will he or she understand what you are presenting? Do your ordering/sign up instructions make sense? Can prospects easily find the information they are searching for? If you don’t know the answers to these questions you may be driving away potential customers.

As a writer I put a lot of effort into making ideas clear. Therefore, I sometimes find it annoying when I can’t figure out what a webmaster is trying to say. I admit I sometimes don’t grasp a concept because I’m in a hurry. However, I’ve run across poor formatting, grammar and spelling as well as poor continuity that make web content difficult to understand. This is a big turn off for visitors.

If you are not good at writing consider hiring someone to do it for you. Or, perhaps a friend or relative can tackle this job for you. By doing so, you are assured your web content is proficient and easy to understand. You can then use the time savings (the time you would have spent writing) to focus on other facets of your business.

If you plan to handle writing responsibilities yourself keep a grammar book handy for reference. Ask someone to proof your work.

Not sure of the spelling of a word? Look it up or ask someone for the correct spelling. Even if you believe you know the spelling of a word, it’s still a good idea to look it up. Maybe the person who wrote “of coarse” rather than “of course” was in a big hurry or maybe they didn’t know the difference.

Regarding explanations, it’s sometimes appropriate to SHOW instead of TELL. For instance, if someone signing up for a program must choose a password that is a combination of letters and numbers, include an example of how the password should look.

Employing the use of charts is another good technique. Many MLM companies use charts to explain their compensation plan.

List the benefits of your offer using bullet points:

• A list is easier to read than one long paragraph.

• The visitor is more likely to keep reading.

• And that’s your goal, isn’t it?

I recently visited a website that promised a free ad in an e-zine. I was directed to a link that promised more information. When I landed on the website I could not find what I was looking for. I studied the navigation bar. Which button would give me access to the information I was looking for? I decided to guess. I clicked on three buttons before I finally found the right one.

The purpose of the “free ad” was to draw me to the website. Once there the website owner wanted me to look at other offers and possibly buy. Perhaps the owner felt if the free ad information was too accessible, I would not take time to look at other offers. However, the reverse could have also been true. If I found the free information easily accessible I might have been more inclined to purchase something because I viewed the site as “customer friendly.”

If you make it too hard for potential customers to get to the information they are looking for, some will turn away and find another source.

Not sure if your website is customer friendly? Ask customers/visitors to evaluate your website. Keep the survey short and simple. You could ask, “How would you rate the flow of our website? The choices: extremely easy, easy, extremely difficult, somewhat difficult. Ask your customers to add their personal comments. To keep your survey response rate high give participants a free gift (e-book, ad in your e-zine, etc.).

When potential customers land on your website it’s because they are drawn to your offer. Once they click through, make sure they remain interested by providing well-written content, easy-to-read formatting and by ensuring the information they are searching for is easy to find.

(c) Karin Peavy

About The Author

Karin Peavy has been marketing online for three years. She is webmistress of http://www.incomewaterway.com where visitors will find affiliate programs, marketing information, articles and resources. She also publishes free marketing tips twice weekly.

karinpeavy@incomewaterway.com

The NFL admits that Pete Morelli made a mistake of reversing the interception made my Troy Polamalu. This coming from Mike Pereira, the league’s vice president of officiating.

According to the official, the rule of having to make a football move to establish a catch is only in effect if contact is made with a defensive player. Nobody had touched Troy Polamalu and there was a long enough amount of time established to call it an interception.

I say the NFL is not doing enough. There were several other plays that the officials should admit to wrongdoing. The false start play where both teams were drawn offsides and no call was made. The Steelers player twitched and therefore a false start should have been called on the Steelers but the officials did not see a false start on the Steelers. If this was the case, then they should have called the Colts offsides. But they did not, they blew the call.

There was also a pass interference penalty that should have been called against the Colts but was not. The NFL officials cost the Steelers 3 points on that play.

There is too much precedence of failure on the part of their officials that they need to start making changes.

If you are looking to get a little bit of action on the games, then check out our sportsbook reviews for details on the safest places to wager online.

Baseball players in the dugout will pull no punches when trying to exhort their teammates to “come on” somebody get a rally started. Rally Cap is just the ticket, turn that cap backwards on your head and the magic begins.

The entire team of bench warmers turning those caps backwards has become as common as football players holding up four fingers. If a football team can hold up four fingers at starting of the fourth quarter of play means “The fourth quarter belongs to us winners”,then surely the baseball caps on backwards can ensure a sudden rally to win the baseball game.

Lookout for there just might be one in the crowd who has his cap stuck on his noggin upside down. This upside down cap thing is a “Look at me thing” it is not the true rally call.

Some ball players will roll their cap and stick it in their hip pocket for some reason and I know not why? My baseball cap was always my badge of pride and never would I roll it up and stick it in my hip pocket. As a matter of fact my bill needed to always be curved just right and the front of the cap needed just a little dip on top behind the pretty scarlet “H”.

H for “Hewitt.”

I’m sure out there in baseball land someone might have the rest of the story about the origin and how this Rally Cap phenomenon came about. Our game of baseball will never be complete till we have all the stories.

Let the good times roll. Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall may or may not fall. If he falls pick him up and put him in the hall.

Batter Up!—Let’s Play Ball…

Major Wiley B. Channell USMC (retired) is ready to rally around the flag or rally around the team at http://www.baseballfarming.com for a winning rally.