You may have spent a great deal of time and money creating the perfect Website – your photography images may be superb, but if people cannot find your site your images and talent along with your business may become a white elephant.Promoting your Website is not that difficult but will take up some of your precious time. My advice for you is to set out a few hours per week for this.If your Website is new the chances are that Google, Yahoo or any search engine won’t index your site for a few months. And it may even take several months before they place it to appear when someone types in a search phrase that suits your site. So you need to give your photographs and business a reasonable chance of getting paying customers.When a search engine index’s your Website it looks to see how many links point to your site. The more links you can create the better your site will rank, but only if they are the right kind of links. Don’t spend hours and hours online getting thousands of standard ordinary links. Get links that relate to your site. Get links from other photography sites.Photography Directories are a great way of creating free advertisement for your site and also a great way of getting valuable links to your site that search engines will recognise.Before you submit your Website to directories, research the correct keywords that best describe your site. If your photography site is Landscaped based you need to optimise your site correctly for the keywords Landscape photography.Once you are happy with which keywords best describe your site start submitting your site to Photography Directories. Most photography directories require a return link so you should create a links page for this alone.When you are submitting your website you need to use the correct keywords that best describe your site in the link title to your site. The link title will be the title on the submission form. You will also need to create a good definitive description for your site. This should be no more than twenty-five words and should start with the keywords that best describe your site. This is what people will read – this is where you sell your site – a good description will enable potential customers to enter your site.Once you have completed the form click submit and move on to the next directory. There are many good photography directories online – some specialised in certain areas of photography, more cover all areas of photography. Once you fill out the submission form correctly you will start to see the rewards.Some directories will charge you when creating a listing; my advice is to research such websites before you part with your hard earned cash. Stay away from link farms and link companies that offer you thousands of links – these sites don’t rank well with search engines and may harm your site in the long run.While photography directories are just one way of promoting your site; they are the easiest and quickest way to get started. Creating good quality inbound links to your site will help you achieve excellent search engine ranking for your site resulting in more and more traffic entering your photography site.In part 2 of Promoting your photography site, read how to gain exposure from entering photography competitions.
The Healthy New York Program and the Self-Employed
The ability to obtain health insurance, for the self-employed, in the state of New York is determined by what group, sometimes referred to as a pool or marketplace, you, as an individual, fall into.Because New York State uses a rating system that uses a community base, rather than an individual base to determine your rating, you will fall into one of four categories. You will be either classified as an individual, self employed, working in a small company of 50 or less employees, for a large company with 50 or more employees.Within the self-employed category, there are typically two options. The first is to seek insurance individually from an insurance company. This option, for most self-employed people, is cost prohibitive. Although insurance companies in New York State are required to offer health insurance to all who apply, they are free within limits to set the rate, or premium, that they as a company, believe is reasonable. Based on all the factors that affect the costs of health insurance, and the company’s inability to assess you, as an individual, even one in perfect health, the company’s are forced to give you a price quote that would be comparable to a person in ill health. This is not a factor that is within the control of the insurance companies.Another option as the self-employed individual, is to join a group or business association, that, allows you, as a member, the opportunity to apply for group insurance as a member of this organization. The organizations charge a fee to become a member.One example of this type of organization is the freelancers union. This group also advocates for self employed workers in areas of health insurance, tax relief, and other benefits generally available to workers employed in larger companies.Another factor that affects, to some degree, the cost of group health insurance is that not all insurance companies are required to offer group insurance to these associations. Among those who do, are Atlantis, GHI (an Emblem Health Company), the PerfectHealth insurance company, HIP( an Emblem Health Comany), Empire, and Oxford.In addition to all the above restrictions not all companies are available to self-employed workers in all counties. Some excellent web sites are available to assist the self-employed worker to find the right health insurance plan. To begin the search for a health insurance plan that best suits you, go to Vista Health Solutions.
Summer Time Fitness Tips
It can become really hot and humid over the summer months depending on where you live. So how do you keep your fitness routine going during this hot and sticky time?
If your fitness routine was primarily performed outdoors see if you can change the time of day you exercise. Is it possible to fit it into your schedule before the sun is up, this way you can enjoy the cool freshness of the morning air. If not how about later into the evening, once the sun is setting?
If you cycle you can always set up an indoor cycle mount for those extremely hot conditions and quickly take your bike off and back outside when the humidity has passed.
Another option would be to take your routine inside or if not possible, how about doing something totally different during the summer months? Instead of walking or running, take up swimming. This is a great way to keep your fitness routine fresh and interesting. Maybe you can take in a few swimming lessons or join an aqua fit class. There is nothing as great as giving your body some new muscles to work.
If you love what you do and don’t want to change things then there are some easy things to do to avoid getting sunburnt or having to deal with sunstroke.
• Try to stay out of the sun if possible
• Use a protective sunscreen
• Drink extra water while exercising
• Allow your body to cool down slowly – no jumping into a cold shower while your body is overheated
• Exercise at a slower rate and intensity
Always make sure you are giving your body enough nutrition especially before and after you exercise. Feeding your body is going to give you the endurance to continue with your routine during warmer than normal periods.
Wear clothing that allows your body to breathe; you don’t want to be breaking a cold sweat out in the heat. The same goes for your shoes, make sure your feet won’t overheat and cause blisters to form.
It might be a wise idea to invest in a heart rate monitor so you can really see how your body is dealing with the heat and adjust your routine accordingly.
By taking precautions you can still keep your fitness routine going, you just need to be willing to make some adjustments when necessary.