Winning A Trip For All!

This is for anyone looking to win a trip for yourself, and a group of your friends, up to 100. I don’t think I could even come up with a 100 friends to take with me, might have to take some family members, just kidding Mom.

Man, what would I do with 100 of my family and friends for a weekend away. Just doesn’t seem like a weekend would be enough. Since most of my friends play golf we’ll have to locate a top notch course to hit for about 4 hours. Then come back and party till the sun comes up the next day. Hopefully my wife will be able to get me back home, but who’s going to get everyone else home, looks like the ladies are coming.

Anyway, there’s a contest that anyone can enter, it’s called the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes. The grand prize winner will win a free stay for themselves and 100 of their friends at a Hampton for one weekend. You will also be given $5000 to help pay the tax for the weekend. After all the government wants you to still pay the tax, glad to see this contest will cover that. One last thing, this sweepstakes is open to everyone, not just those that are Hilton Honors members or those that have previously stayed at a Hampton. So every one of you need to enter, and if you win, add me to your list.

Like most everyone out there times are getting harder. And lately it seems like the standard services we use are costing more and more every month. I’m talking about services like cable and phone services. Most of the time these service providers are rising their prices without any warning. Although the local phone companies have increases, there’s really not much we can do. What I mean by that you can’t switch your local provider out. But with cable companies, you can always order a dish service to fight back. But cable companies fight back by running negative ads against dish service providers to scare you off. In my opinion, if someone’s spending a lot of money to scare you off you need to at lease consider going with a dish company like Direct TV, or The Dish Network. These Dish TV companies require a contract so please make sure you understand the contract and service plan before you make the switch. Do what‘s right for you.

No Contract Needed!

My Wife and I went looking for new cell phones. Our contract was up, 2 years ago, we never renewed because they didn’t require it, and plus we weren’t sure if we wanted another contract. We were with the same company for over 10 years, so we weren’t sure if we wanted someone else. Anyway, we wanted new phones with better text and web access. What we really wanted was to get on Twitter and Facebook with our phones, plus a few other sites. But we didn’t want to purchase a $600 Blackberry. So in order to get free phones we would have to enter into another 2 year contract, which we weren’t ready to do again. So we decided to look at all the major cell phone providers, you know who they are, before we agreed to another contract. We even looked at Boost Mobile, a new provider in our area. Boost didn’t require a contract, we could get a Blackberry for $150 bucks, and all data plan that includes everything for $60 a month per phone. Which we both like because we can get on the web, get some great free apps, and get on Facebook. They even provided a way to reload your account, it’s called Re-Boost. Re-Boost is a way to reload your account to fund your plan. I will end with this, these guys, Boost Mobile, are worth considering for our next provider. I will be reading more about them to make sure their the right fit for us.

Are you a business owner looking to increase your sales in this economy? I am, and I’m always looking for new ways to increase my sales. Lately however it’s been really tough going with sales. It seems what ever I try to do it’s just not working like I want it to. Some of the things I have is running discounts and compiling services, selling packages basically. I’ve even lowered prices on a few of the products I offer, which has worked a little. But when you start lowering prices it underscores your products services in my opinion. And then what do you do with the customers you have paying full price, do you lower them as well? I know I would want my price lowered if I was a customer paying full price.

So I’ve been looking for new ways to get my name out there. One way is marketing offline, something I’ve never thought about before. Since all of my services and products are related to webmasters and site owners I’ve never marketed offline. I’ve been thinking about doing some direct marketing by sending out fliers. I’m even thinking about sending a postcard to some of my customers to let them Know I appreciate their business. I think by sending a full color postcard could go a far way, and hopefully bring in new customers. I know I would like to receive a great looking postcard with the vendors I do business with. The cost of a few postcards is very cheap, and the amount of business coming in could be huge. After all word of mouth is the best form of marketing. The more people you have saying great things about you will grow any business. What do some of you think about marketing online services offline, do you think it would work?

I was poking around on the net today and came across a story about a couple who shoplift toys and other crap to sell on eBay. This couple was on the Dr. Phil show bragging about on they made over $100,000 in selling stolen product. And that’s not even the whole story. It seems that they brought along their three small children. There was even a time they got caught shoplifting with the kids. Now since the story aired law enforcement is involved. Just a week ago the Secret Service and the San Diego Regional Fraud Task Force seized toys and a car, plus other crap. The man accused of this crime is Matthew Eaton, who said that the thefts where “easy money.” This just shows how dumb people are. I would like to ask this guy why would he go on the Dr. Phil show and think nothing would happen to him. This guy and his wife should have everything seized, everything. After all that’s the law.

Fueling Up!

If any of you are anything like me you’re always on the hunt for a good burger. There’s not to many places around us were I can find a burger worth noting. When we lived in the Rochester, NY area a few years back there was a few places I would recommend, and not those chain stores.

One place I would consider getting a burger is at the ampm convenience stores. These guys are more than just a place to fuel up your car, you can fuel up yourself with just about anything you can think of. They have just about everything you want and need to be satisfied, and even satisfied everyone traveling with you. They have sandwiches, burgers, pizza, and treats for everyone, and of course fountain drinks. And lets not forget the coffee, every pit stop needs a good cup of coffee to fill you up. The ampm really isn’t like those other convenience stores, or food chains. You get hot foods prepared on-site, and a fully stocked condiment bar to make your food your way. Anyway, check out my picture of a burger, just the way I like it. If you have an ampm in your area you know what I’m talking about. Next time you visit them take a picture of your burger and post it on their face book page, just click on the secret menu tab on their Facebook page. You know what, just click on over to their Facebook page and see what others are posting, might make you rush out and get one, so be warned.

I just read an article online that states that the Blu-ray Disc Association recently started to license their technology to Chinese manufactures. You all know what that means, Blu-Ray players for under $100 bucks. I hate to say it, but that’s when I’ll get one. If we could build these players and sell them at a much more affordable price I would have gotten one a long time ago. Right now these Blu-Ray players are selling for more than $200, which is way to high in my opinion. And the disc’s cost about twice as much as the standard DVD, why? I once heard that making a Blu-Ray disc was cheaper than making a standard DVD. The same happened when we went from a VHS tapes to a DVD, it was cheaper to make the DVD. At the time they where selling the DVD for twice the amount of the VHS tape. If these makers would stop being so greedy we wouldn’t need Chinese manufactures to get the pricing under control, and people would by more things made in the USA. I really feel that if the maker of anything would charge reasonable prices for their products we would be much better off than what we are now. The greed needs to stop!

I was just reading about an article online about my favorite NFL football team. The story goes something like this. During the 2009 NFL Draft the Minnesota Vikings drafted Nick Urban, who was a former standout lineman at Winona State. Being drafted by a NFL team is a dream come true for anyone in the sport. So when he got word that the Minnesota Vikings had drafted him he got excited, and then but on his Target shirt and went to work. That’s right, he will be signing a contract for a huge amount of money and he headed off to do his part time job at Target. He stated that the reason he went to work because his bosses worked around his schedule to get ready for the NFL. He also stated that he wasn’t going to leave them high and dry, he wasn’t raised that way. The Vikings should draft more people like him, people who work hard and have loyalty.

What in the world happened to FAO Schwarz? I had no idea they filed for bankruptcy in 2002, and then again in 2003. Then I read that not to long ago they were sold to Toys R Us Inc. I’m not sure how will Toys R Us will do with them, or if they even fit in with them. FAO Schwarz only has 2 locations, that I know of. One is their flagship store in NYC, and the other one is located in Las Vegas. They also run a catalog business, which up till today I thought they where doing very well. I guess their main customers, the rich folk aren’t buying their toys anymore. I once went to their store in NYC and saw race care their listed for over $25,000, a kids race car. Their toys are over priced, only the rich shopped there. Now with Toys R Us taken them over maybe we’ll see prices come down to where everyone will be able to afford that crap.

It seems that the rich people can no longer hide their money off shore. The a Swiss bank, UBS AG is planning on turning over the names of American people suspected of hiding money in their bank. UBS AG has made a deal with the IRS that will start the process of turning over American names. I read that the bank will first notify the people on the list of almost 4500. These people will have the choice to appeal to the Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court to make sure laws are being followed. The IRS said that they will fight for the names and amounts that aren’t turned over to them. The IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said that we’re looking to collect taxes with held in the account of almost $18 billion. I think this fight will go on for a long time. Plus it’s going to be hard to prove where the money was made. These are really rich people hiding money, so it’s going to be a fight with the IRS. If the money is owed to the U.S, then I’m all for it. But if it’s not I hope the U.S government leaves them alone.