Monday, August 17, 2009

Using Grass Plugs to Fix your Lawn

Grass plugs are literally small plugs of specific grass that are planted in the ground and spread fairly quick. This is one of the easiest ways to fix bare patches in your lawn without the worry of straw and wire mesh. It is fairly simple to plant and usually roots itself within seven to ten days. Here are some tips to using grass plugs to fix your lawn.

Choosing your Grass Plugs

You will want a grass plug that grows quickly and spreads easy. There are a number of different grasses that do this and you should choose one that is to your liking. If you order them from a mail catalog, make sure you uncrate them as soon as they arrive. If you have purchased them from a local lawn and garden supply store, take them home and lay the flats out in a single layer. Make sure you place them in an area away from wind and the elements. Water them well and keep them watered until you are ready to plant them. Allowing them to dry out will kill them before they are even planted.

Prepare the Soil

Make sure your soil is firm but not hard. The roots can't penetrate hard soil any easier than you can with a shovel. If the ground is too hard, water it and work the soil with a garden rake. This will loosen up the soil and allow you to place the plugs much easier. Make sure there is not crabgrass located within or around the area. Crabgrass will kill the plugs before they root good. Remove any crabgrass along with their roots. Level out the soil so that water will not stand nor will it drain off before soaking in.

Planting the Plugs

If you are covering a large area, map it out like a checker board. You will place one row in the ground at the specified spacing according to the instructions. The next row will be placed behind and in between the first row. They will be staggered in rows like this until the area is covered. Make sure you use the recommended plug fertilizer so the plugs are fed well while rooting. Water the area and do not allow traffic to traipse across the plugged area.

Supervise the Growth

Keep an eye on the growth of your plugs. If they begin turning brown and dying off, you will want to buy more and replant them. No method is perfect and some dying may occur simply because they are not perfect. Keep them watered so that the soil is moist all the time. This promotes good root bases and will ensure they take off quickly. Do not mow the area until the plugs have grown at least four to six inches. By this time, their roots are well established and will be ready to be cut. Mow with a sharpened blade and a bagger so the trimmings do not lay on top and kill your new growth.

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John Smith is an avid garden and lawn care enthusiast. John is also an avid blogger. You can read more of his articles at Husqvarna Equipment.

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Article Source: www.articlesnatch.com

Increase Online Brand Awareness

Increase online brand awareness can be done very effectively and measurable. Due to the nature of the Internet and the easy accessibility, statistics measuring a marketing campaign has become as simple as installing Google Analytics and other effective measuring tools. There are 4 things that I want to touch on today that affect an online brand: brand recognition, brand creativity, brand loyalty, and brand equity.

Brand Recognition
Can someone remember your brand even after they have left your website? Is your name catchy, short and sweet, and invokes a trustworthy feeling for your customers?

When coming up with a name for an online business or a website, it is very important to make sure people can remember your website even without Google or the other search engines. Make sure that your brand has recognizable words that are easy to spell.

When we created our brand "Karma Snack" we made sure that it contained words that where easy to remember, rolled off the tongue, and had a catchy feel. The one flaw this with example was that the word "karma" was sometimes easily misspelled with as "carma". To fix this problem we made sure we registered the "c" version of the domain name as well that forwards to the current website. Make sure you anticipate for spelling errors that can occur, especially online. With the amount of positive feedback we have received thus far, we are confident that we hit the nail right on the head. Have you hit the nail on the head for your brand?

Brand Creativity
Brand creativity is very important especially when it comes to online marketing. When a visitor surfs your website, do they visit more than one page? (Bounce Rate)

Is your website design bland, and not memorable? Will they remember it one day or one week after they have visited it? Will they return to your website?

In this "Attention Deficient Disorder" driven world, 5 seconds is all you have to capture the attention of the online users. They want information fast, quick, and want to be dazzled at the same time.

Creativity comes easy as children, but as most people grow older, they conform more to society, and then live in "the box" in terms of creative. But there are those outliers that don't lose the spark that they had as a child, they keep at it, and are allowed to express themselves through their art. Great web designers are able to blend their raw talent into a business model that helps increase sales, revenue, and eventually profits for a company.

A creative design helps draw and focus the attention of the hyper active surfer. This is key to online success. Online research has shown that bland doesn't work online you need a design that gets their attention. Does your brand get their attention?

Brand Loyalty
What value does your brand create for your visitors? Does it give them information that addresses their needs, or do they hear a sales pitch about how great you are?

The successful online brands convey helpful information to their visitors, which creates that brand loyalty need for visitors to turn into customers.

The opportunity to providing information to visitors has been hyper-enabled with social media, social bookmarking, and web 2.0. Now you can deliver excellent content using video, images, photos, and contextual content at a level that was normally not possible with offline traditional medias.

Another great way of creating brand loyalty is to create a presence at industry events. Whether it be trade shows, event booths, free seminars, conference calls sessions, or a free newsletter that talks about the things going on in your industry, there are a lot of opportunities to become an "authority" in your field by simply informing potential customers about your industry.

The best way to create brand loyalty is to be the first one in your industry to do something or lead that pack. Usually the first brand in the minds of consumers to in an industry is considered to be the industry standard or authority. Come up with a great unique idea, and executive it on a massive sale. The easiest and most cost effective way to reach your targeted audience has been proven to be online marketing. Do you feel that you are doing online marketing correctly?

Online Brand Equity
A brand's value, or equity is especially easy to measure online. Google Analytics for example collects very informative data that is key to watching your brand's success.

In a quick skim of Google Analytics, you will see something called a bounce rate. The bounce rate is the percentage of people that visit only 1 page on your website, and immediately leave your website forever. Bounce rate is affected by your brand's creativity, and loyalty. Do the visitors like what they see? Is the message conveyed correctly to their demographic? With a proper online marketing campaign, gradually seeing a lower and lower bounce rate means in the minds of the consumers your brand creativity, and loyalty is great.

Another quick measurement is the average page views. If you have a website with several pages over 50, a good page view would range in about 5 to 10 anything more if beyond great. Is it widely known that the more a pages a visitor chooses to view and read, there are better chances of them become a client. Increasing page views is a simple as interlinking websites that are similar and cross talk about industry topics. Focus on images that the page currently has, fix bad ones and if there are none on that page, then get some!! You will be surprised how much the average time on site and page views increase when you put the perfect next to a paragraph.

That leads into the next topic, time on site. Like stated before the more pages a visitor views and the longer they stay on your website, the more likely they will convert into a sales. Increasing the time on site is also simple. View the pages with the least time on page, and improve the content, make it more user-friendly ? Include better images, graphics, or even include a video. By improving the worst performing pages, the overall time on site increase. But don't stop there. You can also have to a/b split test the pages that are performing great, and improve their performances as well. Always be Testing!!

The best measure for brand equity is conversion rate. The conversion rate is the percentage of traffic that converts into a lead or sales. Average website have a conversion rate of about 0.5% to 1%. Online industry standard has it that if a website has 2 to 3% conversion rate, they are doing great. In my opinion those numbers are too low. Currently we have websites that are doing anywhere from 8% to 10% daily conversion, some superstar websites are doing up to 35% daily. The higher the better, since you get more bang for your buck for the amount of traffic going to the website.

Increasing conversion for a website can only be done ONE way: testing. Using a/b split testing, and multi-variant testing, you must constantly test your website's elements to see what changes increase the website's performance, and what don't. Maybe a different background, or left hand navigation menu makes more sense for your industry. You will never know without testing. No matter how good a website developer is, there is no way they will hit the nail on the head with a highly converting website the first time. A website needs to grow and evolve, and in order to grow the correct way, they needs to be tested for the right elements that will increase leads, sales, and revenue for companies.

Increasing brand awareness comes with several other factors that will be touched at a later date. To receive more information about how Karma Snack can help you increase your brand's equity online, or to learn more about our services simply contact us today to speak with a friendly representative that can go over anything discussed in this article. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter to get updated on new articles and informative articles to help your website succeed online.

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Read More about Increase Online Brand Awareness/a>. Karma Snack is currently the #1 Miami Internet Marketing company that has risen in rankings very quick. Karma Snack focuses on results, and helps business increase their online revenue using Advantaged Website and SEO techniques.

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Facing Financial Crunch- Apply For Small Business GrantsGovernment of USA has sanctioned staggering amount of 151.5 billion dollars for aspiring small

Government of USA has sanctioned staggering amount of 151.5 billion dollars for aspiring small businessmen under the category of Small Business Grants for the current year 2009.

If you want to start your business but facing financial crunch, you can always apply for business grants provided by the government but conditions apply. Firstly there is a need for you to show specific interest in your project so that you can secure funding for your business.

Besides having a good business idea, it is also utmost necessary to present a well made and substantial project report of your business to convince authorities of your eligibility for the grant.

The project report requires market research and analysis to show the viability and feasibility and income generation capacity of your business.

As such it is a grant and you are not required to pay back the money granted but still the government is interested in financing those projects, which ensure sustainability and would continuously help to create jobs and generate revenues to foster economy and welfare of the nation.

What you are required to prove is your faithfulness towards your proposed project and practicability of the same.

The best part lies in the fact that there is no need for you to show deposits or credit checks to qualify for grant just a good business plan is sufficient.

The reason being that grants are free money and agencies make sure the same are awarded to those applicants who deserve the most.

It is common myth that agencies extending small business grants require large amount of file work, which simply make impossible for you tackle it.

But this is not true as the fact is that most of the agencies would rather help you and present you with the persuasive and adequate ways to get your proposal of grant noticed.

What you do is find out about the government, state or local grant makers and fix up a meeting with their representative and discuss in complete detail the grants offered to help you with the startup costs and then choose and apply for those whom you consider you are best eligible for and the grants which have been specifically designed for your project.

The small business grants for your new business can be used in any field such as starting up for your daycare center or building your business online.

Just keep in mind that complete, accurate and proper information is to be filled in the application so that no chance is left for rejection of the grant.

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John Goldman is one of the foremost advisors in matters relating to Government Grants and Financial Aid. To learn more about government grants and how to apply for them visit the Government Grant USA website

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Article Source: www.articlesnatch.com

Calgary Vending - Simple Tips To Finding A Great Vending Service Provider!

If you have ever wanted to search for a vending service provider then here are a few great tips to find the right one who can get the job done right for your company. Finding the right vending service company can help your business greatly.

First the vending service business is a specialty business which focuses around the customers needs. When looking for a vending service provider there are a few things to consider. First consider looking for a vending company who can provide reliable service.

Reliable service is crucial to any business and vending is no different.

Having your machines restocked on a regular basis is very important. The last thing that you need is to be calling the service provider asking them to constantly be restocking your machines. If they care anything about your business then they will get the job done right the first time out.

Second always make sure that you are receiving good quality vending machines to be place at your company. This is important because when the machines are newer they are less likely to have break downs and look more appealing to your staff and clients eye.

Plus they will be less likely to have problems due to product hang ups which will reduce refunds and customer dissatisfaction.

Next ask for a product list to view when seeking out a new vending service provider. Having the option to choose a good variety of products is paramount. How about healthy items as well? Most people are looking for a tasty healthy snack during the day.

There are many new items out in market that are very tasty and great for you and I. Things like granola bars and fruit bars, and packaged dry fruit are becoming more popular.

Be sure to ask as well if the machines ever break down how soon will they be looked and fixed. The normal turn around time to fix a machine would be within 48 hours if possible. Anything more than that will cause your staff frustration and ultimately the vending company loses business.

These are just a few things to consider when looking at using a vending service company in your area. At the end of the day the less headaches that you are faced with the better and when you have the right company helping you with your vending service needs this is one less thing for you to worry about.

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Heinz Zurcher owner and operator of Calgary's All Choice Vending Services provides top notch reliable vending services for local companies in the Calgary Alberta area. Feel free to contact him by visiting Calgary Vending's All Choice Vending Services.

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Article Source: www.articlesnatch.com

Slow Computer Running At A Snail's Pace - Learn How To Fix It

Is your computer dragging slowly along at a snail's pace? It happens to everyone's computer somewhere along the way, so you are not alone. After a couple of years of adding and deleting software, your computer's performance goes out the window. There may be many reasons for this including hardware problems, but the most common one is the computer's registry. Has it become corrupted or disorganized? Discover how to straighten it out and fix your computer's performance problems.

Does your computer slow down, have ActiveX errors or crash? Well, it is time to take a look at the Windows registry. You may be asking, "what is the registry and how does it work?" Do not feel alone. Most people that use a PC do not understand the Windows registry or really want to until they have problems.

The registry is one of the most essential pieces of a computer's operating system. It acts sort of like an address book holding the addresses of all of the computer's components. When it becomes out of order or disorganized, your computer has to spend extra time piecing together where everything is located. It is like taking a road trip without a map, wasting time going down every side street to get to the final destination many hours late. Just like this type of road trip, your computer does the same thing and actually gets lost at times causing it to crash.

Why not just clean out and organize the registry yourself? That sounds like a good idea, but it could be very stressful if not truly dangerous to your computer especially if you do not know what you are doing. It is not uncommon to see computers that can no longer be started up and the operating system no longer functional because of a manual cleaning attempt. Even if you do enough research to get the manual cleaning right, it is very time consuming and frustrating.

It does not have to be extremely hard to get your computer's registry cleaned in a safe and simple manner. There are automatic cleaning programs available that take all of the guesswork out of the process and adds in safety measures to keep from destroying your operating system. There are even free registry cleaning scanners that will scan your computer's registry and identify any issues that need to be fixed.

Make sure to educate yourself on how the registry works and how to fix it or how to use automatic registry cleaning software. Not all of the available software has safety features built in, so you should be cautious when choosing a free or Internet based registry cleaner. It is best to be educated on the process and how to do it correctly before trying to manually clean your computer's registry or before using a software based cleaner.

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Learn more about registry cleaning, check out the Free Registry Risk report and scanner. Feel free to get it today at http://registrycleaner.kteweb.com .

Get a registry cleaner to scan your computer now and you will discover how important it is; once again, the free report covers all of this.

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Article Source: www.articlesnatch.com