Start watching the Super Bowl ads below:

Most big time travel agents and travel portals have some sort of tie-up with certain airlines.

They get hefty discounts on bulk purchases which most pass on to the customer.

If you take advice of your friends, they will suggest you to some travel portal they have recently been to.  But most people are not aware that the travel portals and travel agents that are around are mostly specialized in one way or other.

Some are specialized in Domestic Travel, some other are specialized in International Travel, and yet some other are specialized in Last Minute flight tickets.  This means that the travel agents or travel portals that are specialized in something can provide you with better fares for that category of travel.

Here are some tips and tricks to get cheap tickets

Advance purchase:

If you are not in a hurry it is always a good idea to book your tickets in advance. At least 21 days in advance. Airlines generally give outcheap tickets if you book your ticket in advance.

Compare prices:

There is a lot of competition in air travel, and most service providers who deal with flight tickets have their shops online. Which makes searching for fare on the internet a critical step towards cheap tickets. Your search should include websites of the major carriers and consolidators. When comparing the prices one should be aware of taxes and Fees applicable on the fare.

Best days to travel:

Try being flexible when scheduling your travel. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday are normally the cheapest days to travel. Also you should avoid festive seasons such as Christmas Eve and New Year.

Late night or early morning flights:

Try opting for odd time for travel usually late night or early morning flight which fewer people prefer. This way there isn’t much competition and hence flight tickets tend to be cheaper.

Flexible Departure Airport:

Search ticket prices at surrounding airports. It can be less expensive to arrive or depart from a surrounding airport or city. Crunch numbers to see if you save or spend more money with this option.

Round trips Vs one way:

A roundtrip happens to be cheaper than two one way trips, if you plan to return to our originating airport. It is always better to book a roundtrip.

Airline Deals:

Find the lowest prices through other sources but before you buy, check out the airline’s website directly. Often the airlines offer additional discounts on tickets purchased online. Plus, you will save more money by not having to pay a booking fee for the tickets.

Consolidated Deals:

It is a good idea to book your  Flight Tickets  through consolidators who buy in bulk and sell them on discounted rates.

Special category Discounts:

If you are a student, senior Citizen,  a sports person or you fall under other special categories, ask the airline if they can provide special discounts for you.

National carriers for International Flights:

If you are travelling abroad, try choosing national airlines of the destination country, there are generally less taxes involved on national airlines. However this may not be always true.

Nonstop Vs 1 stop and 2 stop Flights:

When travelling inside US, try choosing nonstop flights, the more stops you will have the more tax you would be paying, so your tickets would get expensive. However, on international flights if you choose 1 or 2 stop flights and if the layover time is more than 4 hours the Flight Tickets  tend to be cheaper. This may not be true always.

Frequent flier programs:

Research frequent flier programs available through the airlines that allow you to earn free tickets for each time you travel.

This article was originally presented on Buy247

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Joe Nathan Out for the season:

Joe Nathan is suffering from a “significant tear” in his right elbow’s UCL, according o the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  Joe Christensen of the same paper has since tweeted that the injury may require Tommy John surgery, which would end the Twins closer’s season before it ever began.

Here’s The ESPN News Video Update on Joe Nathan

From The Wall Street Journal:

An Ohio State University employee shot two co-workers in a campus-maintenance building, killing one of them, and then fatally shot himself.

University Police Chief Paul Denton on Tuesday identified the suspect as 51-year-old Nathanial Brown, a custodial employee. Mr. Denton said Mr. Brown recently received a poor performance evaluation, but he declined to say if that was a motive for the shooting.

No students were hurt.

Mr. Denton said Mr. Brown was pronounced dead at Ohio State University Medical Center several hours after the shooting, which was first reported at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.

One of the victims, 48-year-old building-services manager Larry Wallington, died at the scene. The other worker is hospitalized in stable condition.

Get Mortgage Leads With A Facebook Fan Page

I’m really starting to buy into the concept that Facebook Fan Pages are the most effective tool at generating leads.  And I want to quickly give an example of how a Facebook Fan Page can be used to generate leads for a mortgage company.

This is all hypothetical of course, since I don’t own a mortgage company, nor am I generating leads for a mortgage company.  But my point here is to show how I would do it if I had to, or if I owned a mortgage company.

What’s Most Important To A Mortgage Customer

I would start by asking myself the question, “what’s most important to a mortgage customer?”  Regardless of whether someone is a new homebuyer or looking to refinance their existing mortgage, more than likely everyone is initially concerned with interest rates.

Interest rates might very well be the most important factor for mortgage customer.  And then from there, customers will be interested in things like monthly payments, different mortgage product options, etc…

My Facebook Fan Page For Mortgage Leads

Now that I’ve answered the question, “what’s most important to mortgage customers?”  I’m ready to put my Facebook Fan Page into action to start generating leads.

For existing mortgage websites:

If my mortgage company already an existing website, then this is super easy to achieve.

I would simply take my Facebook Fan Page box and embed it directly into my website.  The fan box would be positioned so that it’s seen on every page within my site, and also positioned so that people’s attention are drawn to it to quickly become a fan of my mortgage Facebook Fan Page.

If I don’t yet have a website:

If my mortgage company is new and I’m just starting out, then I would actually build a website upon the Wordpress blogging platform.  This way I can have a powerful blog integrated into my mortgage website.

The blog would be utilized to generate a lot of high quality mortgage related content.  And in the sidebar, or at the top of the blog, would be my Facebook Fan Page fan box.

Again, this would allow people to quickly and easily become a fan of my Facebook Fan Page.

Generating Mortgage Leads via your Facebook Fan Page

The old method of generating leads from a website is by placing a form somewhere that captures names, emails, phone numbers, etc…

And then when someone filled out the form and submitted their information, the mortgage company would have someone new to follow up with.

The problem with email subscription forms is they have very low conversion rates – meaning, very few people fill out the form compared to the number of people that visit your website.

With Facebook Fan Page fan box on your mortgage website or mortgage related blog, people don’t have to fill out any forms nor have to go back to their email inbox to verify they’ve subscribed to receive your information.

A Facebook fan box allows people to become a fan of your Facebook Fan Page with one click – that’s it.

The simplicity of getting new fans to your Facebook Fan Page allows you to spend more of your time focusing on communicating with your new mortgage leads, instead of having to manage complex email form submissions.

Plus, with people only having to click a button once (the “Become A Fan” buttong) – your mortgage website will dramatically increase fan conversions (lead conversions).

Following Up With Leads on your Mortgage Facebook Fan Page

As the fans increase on your mortgage related Facebook Fan Page, you now simply need to provide high quality information – the type of information that is most important to your potential mortgage customers.

That’s why the first thing I did is ask and answer the question – what is most important to potential mortgage customers?

Sending out valuable mortgage information on a regular basis will allow your Facebook Fan Page fans to see your specific mortgage company more often than your competitors.  Plus, with high quality mortgage information that you are sending out for free, you’ll build a strong reputation with your fans and increase your chances of mortgage customer conversions.

So if I had a mortgage company, or I was in charge of generating leads for a mortgage company, that is how I would leverage the power of a Facebook Fan Page!

Facebook Fan Page Lead Generation

If that’s the case, then keep reading to learn how a Facebook Fan Page can help you dramatically increase leads – regardless of what type of business, product, or service you may have.

Why A Facebook Fan Page

I’m a big believer in the fact that the most effective online marketing is achieved when you can deliver your message (or content) to an audience that has requested to hear from you.

Some people call this “permission based marketing”.

It would only make sense then that if you want to increase your leads, and thus your sales, from the Internet, then you need to have an effective “permission based marketing” platform.  Meaning, you need to be able to increase your list of subscribers that are wanting to receive information from you.

As you build your list, then it simply becomes a number’s game – the more people you send your marketing message out to, the higher probability of converting sales.  Increase your subscriber list equals increased sales – period.

A Facebook Fan Page provides the most effective “permission based marketing” platform the online business world has ever seen.

Each time  a new person becomes a “fan” of your Facebook Fan Page, you’ve just captured a new lead for your business.

Plus, increasing “fans” (or leads) on your Facebook Fan Page is super easy – all someone has to do is click the “Become A Fan” button.

As compared to email subscription list building services where you have to enter a name, email, etc… click the “Join” button, then take the additional step to go to your email inbox, open the “confirmation” email and click the confirmation link….

That’s crazy compared to the efficiencies of a Facebook Fan Page.

With a Facebook Fan Page, people only have to do 1 thing – click the “Become A Fan” button!

Facebook Fan Box For Your Website or Blog

Every Facebook Fan Page has what’s called a fan box. Facebook provides you with a snippet of code that you add to your website or blog.  Once added, you will then have a small banner that allows people to become a fan of your Facebook Fan Page.

People visiting your website or blog will be able to see your Facebook Fan Page box and easily click the “Become A Fan” button.  This allows you to quickly and easily increase “fans” right from your website or blog.

Permission Based Lead Generation

As I’ve mentioned before, people who become a fan of your Facebook Fan Page are high quality leads for your business, product, or service.  In fact, I would argue that they are higher quality leads even compared to email subscription lists, because people are starting to spend more time on Facebook than they do in their emails.

Plus, with your Facebook Fan Page, all of the fans can comment and interact with you, allowing for high quality interaction between you and your leads (fans).

Facebook Fan Page Lead Generation

So get started today by creating a Facebook Fan Page for your business.  Then, add the fan box to your website or blog and watch your fan numbers increase.

Finally, understand that fans are the equivalent of “leads” that you’d get through email subscription forms.  And I consdier them higher quality leads simply because Facebook is the connection that brought you (your business) and your leads together.

The secret service agent who saw this pulled out his gun, and was about to open fire on the boy when just before he pulled the trigger, he noticed the gun was actually red, and appeared to be more of toy than an actual gun.

The 15 year old was mulled to the ground by the Secret Service and come to find out, it was a water gun and not an actual weapon.

I just heard this breaking news on the radio and I’m still trying to find more details on the web, but nothing has been published yet.

Let me know if you have any more info about when this happened, where it was, etc…

Russian Launch Keys

According to TheBrainChildGroup.com,  Russian launch keys being featured on a pawn show on TV.

The keys were initially thought to have been used for launching Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), but it turns out they were actually used for launching spacecraft.

The gentleman selling the keys requested $10,000, but was shutdown and Rick offered nothing close to that amount. I mean, it’s one cool piece to have, but it does all come down to the buyer, and not many people are willing to fork over $10k for Russian launch keys.

From Allison Busacca:  New York Times

In celebration of JetBlue’s 10th anniversary, the airline is offering $10 fares on all remaining seats between Kennedy Airport in New York and the airline’s first 10 destinations. Travel must be booked online by midnight tonight, Central Time, for travel tomorrow or Wednesday, March 9 or 10.

Jet Blue $10 Flights:

Keep in mind: the $10 fares are only for the departing flight. The return flight is normally priced. Anniversary fares are available between J.F.K. and:

• Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
• Buffalo, N.Y.
• Tampa, Fla.
• Orlando, Fla.
• Rochester, N.Y.
• Oakland, Calif.
• Burlington, Vt.
• West Palm Beach, Fla.
• Salt Lake City, Utah
• Fort Myers, Fla.

But wouldn’t a Facebook Fan Page provide a more valuable “list building” solution than email subscription forms?

When I think of a Facebook Fan Page, I immediately associate it with a “permission based marketing tool”.  Meaning, people follow Facebook Fan Page voluntarily by pressing the “Become A Fan” button.

And people know that once they are following a Facebook Fan Page, they are opting in to receive updates from that Facebook Fan Page.

So now whatever business owns that Facebook Fan Page can send out updates, promotions, and other informative content to their growing list of fans.  And better yet, the fans of your Facebook Fan Page can actually comment and interact with your comments and updates.

Doesn’t this make a Facebook Fan Page more valuable than an email subscription form?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Another advantage I see that Facebook Fan Page has over an email subscription form is that Facebook can deliver viral marketing to your business that email forms cannot.

As a fan of your Facebook Page, if I comment on that page then all of my friends can see that comment.  That comment is directly linked to your Facebook Fan Page which opens up exposure and traffic to a wide audience of people on Facebook that never would have heard of your business otherwise.

And I would also argue that it’s easier to get people to become a fan of your Facebook Fan Page than it is to get them to join an email subscription list.

A Facebook Fan Page promo box can easily be integrated into any website, and all someone has to do is push the “Become A Fan” button – no forms to fill out, no links to click in their email address to confirm their email subscription.

A Facebook Fan Page makes it super easy to build a “list of subscribers”.

So I guess what I’m saying is that the term “list of subscribers” is analogous to “fans of a Facebook Fan Page”.

And in my opinion, Facebook Fan Pages provide a more perspective value for list building than email subscription forms.

I now defer to you – what do you think?  Would you agree that a Facebook Fan Page is more valuable than an email subscription form and email marketing service?

Of course, since I’m writing this article you may have already guessed that I have the answers!

According to an Epoch Times article, “forecast figures for social networking giant Facebook Inc. could see its value reach $11.5 billion based on calculations by a SharesPost Inc., an online trading platform.”

SharesPost tracks values of private companies, and acts as a private-company exchange for buyers and sellers directly without brokers and commission.

The appraisal of Facebook, a popular online-based social networking platform, is in line with investors’ valuation for the company. In 2007, Microsoft Corp.
bought a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook that valued it at $15 billion. Last year, Russia-based investor Digital Sky Technologies bought a 1.96 percent stake that valued the company at around $10 billion.

Twitter, the San Francisco-based micro-blogging site, is the third-largest U.S. social networking site behind Facebook and the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based MySpace. Twitter was valued at $1.44 billion in the index.”

My only question now is this – when can we expect to see the Magic Jack iPhone App?

One of the readers at our Facebook Fan Page made a comment yesterday that the CEO of Magic Jack has stated, “the Blackberry and iPhone apps will be available in the third quarter of this year.”

A Magic Jack iPhone App could be revolutionary for the iPhone and the Blackberry.  When this type of VOIP application running on mobile devices, could we not then drop our voice plans from our current mobile phone carriers?  I mean, we’d still need a data package for the iPhone, but with a Magic Jack iPhone App, who would need voice packages along with their high monthly rates?

Am I missing something here, or could the Magic Jack just about make the mobile phone carriers irrelevant?

And when looked at with that perspective, the Magic Jack could, very soon, become a household name!

What are your thoughts about the impact of a Magic Jack iPhone and Blackberry application?

DELL 20% Off Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook

Dell has just announced they are offering 20% off their Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook with a designer cover.

At checkout, just enter the code:  TKHH6QP8JGWNMT

Dell announced this sale via their Twitter outlet profile at @DellOutlet.

Here’s more about the Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook:

The Mini 10 and Mini 10v are everything you want in a mobile companion and more. They may be small, but you’ll be surprised by all the fun features packed inside.

Here’s the features of the Miami Vice Complete Box Set at Woot.com:

But is it really worth the $39.95 for the first year and then $19.95 for each year thereafter?

According to Consumer Reports, who had someone actually test the maximum capacity of the Magic Jack, the answer is a resounding yes!  Here’s more from Consumer Reports:

The check

One of our electronics experts made dozens of calls over several days, sometimes while downloading files or playing online computer games.

Bottom line

Shazam! Calls connected, and voice quality was clear, though not as clear as on a good corded phone on a regular line. When our tester downloaded a big file while playing an online game and making a call, there was some interference. But if you can live with a few limitations, it’s a great deal. Vonage VoIP service can cost $216 a year; Skype, $95, and you must buy a Skype phone.

Learn more at MagicJack.com

It is the frustration with Word that I am writing this article. As I am developing a new dynamically-generated employee handbook to be part of my new employee education website (hhtrain.com), my Word crashed. I was prompted that I had to pick to leave Word closed, or relaunch Word and recover my document. Word was polite; it did say it was sorry. I picked the recover and relaunch option. Word opened back up and opened the document and adds the (Recovered) title to the document. I scrolled down to where I was working and my current text was not there. This didn’t make me happy.

My past experiences with Word have left me gun shy, so I save my documents manually after every paragraph and I have the “save” settings to auto save every 5 minutes. With these settings in place, I ask, why did Word not have my content saved correctly? Because I save frequently, I decided to open up the non-recovered document and compare it to the “Recovered” document. My saved version had my current content and the “Recovered” version did not. To me this is a flaw. Any time a document is saved to the hard drive, it should replaced any cached version of the document that is used for auto saving.

I have used many word processors over the years like AmiPro, WordPerfect, Word, and Pages, and Word wins on ease of use and features. However, it is the crashing that drives me nuts. I have lost so much productivity because of Word crashing. I have even had Word documents that crash every time they were opened and I had to open them in Pages and export them into Word again in order for them to work in Word.

I realize that word processors are complex programs but why does Word have to crash so often? I’m not doing anything tricky, I’m just writing text, maybe adding a different font color and inserting comments.

Are there any readers out there with similar Word frustrations?

Article Written By,

Robert Thompson
President, Avant-Garde Education
www.hhtrain.com

But now China Unicom is working with Apple to finally launch a Wi-Fi version of the iPhone, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Due to a relaxation of rules, devices sold in China can offer Wi-Fi as long as they also include WAPI.

Speaking with reporters at the National People’s Congress, Unicom Chairman Chang Xiaobing said Saturday that the change in regulations has opened the door for a new iPhone with built-in Wi-Fi, the Journal reported.

READ MORE HERE

By David Streitfeld:  The New York Times

In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.

This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.

More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government’s $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry representatives say much more needs to be done.

For the administration, there is also the concern that millions of foreclosures could delay or even reverse the economy’s tentative recovery — the last thing it wants in an election year.

Taking effect on April 5, the program could encourage hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers who have not been rescued by the loan modification program to shed their houses through a process known as a short sale, in which property is sold for less than the balance of the mortgage. Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed.

“We want to streamline and standardize the short sale process to make it much easier on the borrower and much easier on the lender,” said Seth Wheeler, a Treasury senior adviser.

The problem is highlighted by a routine case in Phoenix. Chris Paul, a real estate agent, has a house he is trying to sell on behalf of its owner, who owes $150,000. Mr. Paul has an offer for $48,000, but the bank holding the mortgage says it wants at least $90,000. The frustrated owner is now contemplating foreclosure.

To bring the various parties to the table — the homeowner, the lender that services the loan, the investor that owns the loan, the bank that owns the second mortgage on the property — the government intends to spread its cash around.

Under the new program, the servicing bank, as with all modifications, will get $1,000. Another $1,000 can go toward a second loan, if there is one. And for the first time the government would give money to the distressed homeowners themselves. They will get $1,500 in “relocation assistance.”

Should the incentives prove successful, the short sales program could have multiple benefits. For the investment pools that own many home loans, there is the prospect of getting more money with a sale than with a foreclosure.

For the borrowers, there is the likelihood of suffering less damage to credit ratings. And as part of the transaction, they will get the lender’s assurance that they will not later be sued for an unpaid mortgage balance.

For communities, the plan will mean fewer empty foreclosed houses waiting to be sold by banks. By some estimates, as many as half of all foreclosed properties are ransacked by either the former owners or vandals, which depresses the value of the property further and pulls down the value of neighboring homes.

If short sales are about to have their moment, it has been a long time coming. At the beginning of the foreclosure crisis, lenders shunned short sales. They were not equipped to deal with the labor-intensive process and were suspicious of it.

The lenders’ thinking, said the economist Thomas Lawler, went like this: “I lend someone $200,000 to buy a house. Then he says, ‘Look, I have someone willing to pay $150,000 for it; otherwise I think I’m going to default.’ Do I really believe the borrower can’t pay it back? And is $150,000 a reasonable offer for the property?”

Short sales are “tailor-made for fraud,” said Mr. Lawler, a former executive at the mortgage finance company Fannie Mae.

Last year, short sales started to increase, although they remain relatively uncommon. Fannie Mae said preforeclosure deals on loans in its portfolio more than tripled in 2009, to 36,968. But real estate agents say many lenders still seem to disapprove of short sales.

Under the new federal program, a lender will use real estate agents to determine the value of a home and thus the minimum to accept. This figure will not be shared with the owner, but if an offer comes in that is equal to or higher than this amount, the lender must take it.

Mr. Paul, the Phoenix agent, was skeptical. “In a perfect world, this would work,” he said. “But because estimates of value are inherently subjective, it won’t. The banks don’t want to sell at a discount.”

There are myriad other potential conflicts over short sales that may not be solved by the program, which was announced on Nov. 30 but whose details are still being fine-tuned. Many would-be short sellers have second and even third mortgages on their houses. Banks that own these loans are in a position to block any sale unless they get a piece of the deal.

“You have one loan, it’s no sweat to get a short sale,” said Howard Chase, a Miami Beach agent who says he does around 20 short sales a month. “But the second mortgage often is the obstacle.”

Major lenders seem to be taking a cautious approach to the new initiative. In many cases, big banks do not actually own the mortgages; they simply administer them and collect payments. J. K. Huey, a Wells Fargo vice president, said a short sale, like a loan modification, would have to meet the requirements of the investor who owns the loan.

“This is not an opportunity for the customer to just walk away,” Ms. Huey said. “If someone doesn’t come to us saying, ‘I’ve done everything I can, I used all my savings, I borrowed money and, by the way, I’m losing my job and moving to another city, and have all the documentation,’ we’re not going to do a short sale.”

But even if lenders want to treat short sales as a last resort for desperate borrowers, in reality the standards seem to be looser.

Sree Reddy, a lawyer and commercial real estate investor who lives in Miami Beach, bought a one-bedroom condominium in 2005, spent about $30,000 on improvements and ended up owing $540,000. Three years later, the value had fallen by 40 percent.

Mr. Reddy wanted to get out from under his crushing monthly payments. He lost a lot of money in the crash but was not in default. Nevertheless, his bank let him sell the place for $360,000 last summer.

“A short sale provides peace of mind,” said Mr. Reddy, 32. “If you’re in foreclosure, you don’t know when they’re ultimately going to take the place away from you.”

Mr. Reddy still lives in the apartment complex where he bought that condo, but is now a renter paying about half of his old mortgage payment. Another benefit, he said: “The place I’m in now is nicer and a little bigger.”

I am a professional health care educator, registered nurse, registered respiratory therapist, and accountant, and my brain wanders at peculiar times.

I would like for everyone to think about the human body as a miracle of form and function with this thought process:

I am playing catch with Grant and with each throw and catch the human body must calculate, process, and react to a multitude of stimuli.

When the ball is approaching at 40 miles per hour our brain must judge the speed the ball is traveling, judge the trajectory of the ball, set our skeletal muscles in motion and move our body in a satisfactory manner to be in the vicinity to raise the mitt, open the mitt, see the ball enter the mitt, and close the mitt. The human brain then has to process what to do with the ball we hopefully just caught.

What I find even more amazing is throwing the ball. The human body has to calculate the mass of the ball, the correct grip to place on the ball, the distance of the player to throw the ball to, and the force it will take to get the ball from one point to another accurately. To make things more difficult, usually the target the thrower is aiming at is not stationary. How does the baseball player hit his/her target consistently?

You may ask why I consider this simple act a miracle? It’s because the human body does this without cognitively thinking about it and within seconds or portions of seconds. Oh and I forgot to tell you, Grant is eight.

Article Written By,

Robert Thompson
President, Avant-Garde Education
www.hhtrain.com