Archive for the ‘Window Stickers’ Category

What does your vehicle say about your business? You drive to work, commute through traffic, stop at the shop for refreshments, park up outside your business, take care of deliveries and run some errands during the day, finally, you drive home in the evening. How many people did you pass or meet today? All potential customers, but did they notice you?

Grab a significant advertising advantage over your competitors by covering your vehicle with your message in the form of an eye-catching digitally printed self adhesive vinyl advertisement known as a vehicle wrap Vehicle wrapping is now being recognized as an extremely cost effective and unique form of outdoor media for all sizes of businesses and company promotions. Many companies are finding out that vehicle advertising wraps and full colour fleet and car graphics are a great way to reach new and existing customers. Compared to other forms of media, wraps are extremely cost effective and generate millions of impressions each year.

An innovative method of advertising a business by creating a moving billboard on a vehicle, vehicle wraps provide companies with a method of advertising on cars in three dimensional form, providing an extremely high retention rate among those who see the vehicle. uses semi-permanent graphics that can be removed without harm to the vehicle if desired. It is typically used on vans, but also on cars, trucks, fleet vehicles, buses, trains and even aircraft, in fact anything on wheels or that has an exterior shell.

Many customers with vehicle wraps take advantage of their advertising in areas that normally would be very expensive. Booking advertising at such venues as , sports events, concerts and grand openings may need to be done well in advance and rates may be very expensive, this is ideal for your wrapped vehicle, simply drive around or park at a conspicuous location. Another advantage of this type of advertising is it is not like print, radio, or television. It cannot be switched off and the channel cannot be changed.

There is no standard price for advertising wraps which are normally installed by specialist signage companies, It depends on a number of factors including the total number of vehicles to be wrapped, how much printing is involved, how much vinyl material is required per wrap, designer time, how many installers will be involved and how long it takes to fit, All that becomes the basis for pricing a project.

Wrapping a vehicle is a sophisticated process of being able to print on vinyl films and perfectly cover the vehicle with that advertisement. A good wrap must be able to cover, but not hinder window visibility and all materials must be weather resistant to heat, UV, cold and wind. Good adherence to the vehicle body is important, as the wrap must stay on without it peeling off before purposely being removed. The process involves cutting edge software, durable printing inks, high performance adhesive vinyl materials and laminates. It begins with an accurate engineering drawing known as a template which is taken from the vehicle, the advertisement is placed on the template on a computer, this is printed on large vinyl decals which are then fitted properly into a seamless image by professional installers.

If the company doesn’t want to invest in vehicle wrap advertising, it can place advertising on vehicles in the form of magnetic signs, bumper stickers, window decals, etc. Companies seeking to attract business with a different format have found advertising on vehicles using these methods to be effective, without having to go the full vehicle wraps direction.

Vehicle wraps are like giant billboards, only more imaginative, they move in the area your company services and they create a visibly striking presence. They work all day , generating awareness for your company and are constantly reaching new and potential customers. Vehicle advertising is the best and most cost effective form of advertising available.

Ron Avigad
http://www.articlesbase.com/automotive-articles/create-an-impact-and-drive-your-business-forward-nextgellccom-84062.html

Traffic on the freeway is bad. Traffic on the Internet is good. With over 60 million web sites on the Net, you need a solid strategy for steering customers to your home business web site.

Search Engines

Search engines are the yellow pages for a home business web site. Over 80% of Internet surfers use search engines to find information on the web. To get the most traffic to your site, list with the big search engine players Yahoo, Google, and MSN. Smaller search engines also get results from the big three so you’ll be covered in case customers visit less popular engines.

Looking Good

Your home business web site can be simple or complex but it must be functional and attractive. Make sure your site does what it is supposed to do – provide customers with concise, useful information about your product or service. Be wary of making things too complicated. The site should be easy to navigate or customers will look elsewhere.

Your web site should also look professional, not cheap. If you aren’t design savvy, spend money on a good web designer. The investment will pay off by attracting more people to your web page.

On-line Ads

The Internet has many sites where you can list your home business for free. To guarantee the greatest exposure, place your ad on several (20 or more) sites and repeat the process every month.

Banner advertisements can be as effective as TV spots in increasing customer awareness of your business. A banner ad should be direct, i.e. promote a benefit of rather than just the name of the product or service. Try participating in a banner exchange program such as LinkExchange that connects your home business web site to other company sites that have similar customer bases.

Affiliate programs offer an excellent opportunity to promote your web site. Affiliate businesses post links to your web page on their sites. You pay them a commission or set fee based on the amount of traffic sent to your web site. Pay arrangements vary and can be based on the number of people who visit your site or the number of customers who purchase your product.

Bloggin’ It

Bloggers are the hot new information medium. Getting them to write about your home business web site is an excellent way to gain exposure to potential customers.

Technorati Blog Directory provides a listing of blogs by industry. Do your research here to determine which blogs might be interested in writing about your business. Send a short, personal email to a few blog writers describing your web site and asking the blogger to write about it. Offer the writer something in return, for example, free product or a link back to his blog on your web site.

Off-line Ads

Cruising Down the Highway

Your car is a moving billboard for a home business web site. Window decals and bumper stickers are inexpensive ways to get the word out about your web site. Spend a few extra dollars for a personalized license plate with your web address.

Old Media Standby

Regardless of what the bloggers say, people still read the printed page. Run ads in the classifieds of large and small papers, trade magazines, and free weeklies. Your choice of print media will depend on the product or service offered and whether you do business locally or nationwide.

Sources

Gaebler Ventures, “Advertising on the Web” (gaebler.com)
Data Synthesis, “Internet Solutions for Today” (ictks.com)
“Top Ten Ways to Promote your Website” (agora-business-center.com)
“Using Blog PR to Promote Your Site” (sitepronews.com)

Larry Bregman
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-promotion-articles/tips-for-promoting-your-home-business-web-site-54007.html

Children, as well as adults, love to play the Dreidel Game during Hanukkah (also spelt Chanukah), and a wide range of dreidels can easily be purchased online at judaica shops. The selection and variation of styles available can be overwhelming, but the game played with them is always the same!

A dreidel (also spelt draydel and draydle) is a four-sided top or any shaped spinning item with four Hebrew symbols on it. The symbols are each a different Hebrew letter: nun, gimel, heh, and shin. These four letters stand for the words: nes, gadol, hayah, and sham. The translation of these four words is: “A Great Miracle Happened There.” In Israel, the last letter on the dreidel is peh instead of shin. This last letter stands for the word poh, which changes the meaning to: “A Great Miracle Happened Here.”

To play the Dreidel Game, you start with a “pot” in the middle. The “pot” can be made of candy, coins, chocolate gelt, or any other small thing of value, although most times children play with gelt. Gelt is the Yiddish word for “money,” but in this context, gelt often refers to chocolate coins widely available during Hanukkah. Each player is given a certain amount of gelt and puts one piece into the center to start the “pot.” The players then take turns spinning the dreidel, and whichever side faces up (or whichever Hebrew letter is pointed to) when it stops spinning determines what you do:

If the letter NUN is facing up, you do NOTHING.
If the letter SHIN is facing up, you PUT ONE piece of gelt into the pot.
If the letter HEH is facing up, you TAKE HALF the gelt from the pot.
If the letter GIMEL is facing up, you TAKE ALL the gelt from the pot.
If ever the pot is empty, each player puts one piece of gelt into the center. When a player runs out of gelt, he or she is out of the game! The winner is the last one left in.

Some dreidels are hollow and can be filled with candy or chocolate. Some play music when they spin. And still others can be stacked on top of one another as they spin. They are made from many different materials, including plastic, wood, ceramic, glass, gold, and silver. The plastic versions cost as little as ten cents, but gold and silver dreidels can cost in the hundreds of dollars. Even though dreidels are mostly enjoyed by children, no matter how young or old, many adults collect ornate and beautiful dreidels, and display them in china or curio cabinets.

“L’dor l’dor” means “from generation to generation,” and it refers to the importance of passing down traditions and religious practices to your children. Hanukkah is one of best times to pass down your Jewish traditions to your kids because of how many resources there are, and how much fun the holiday is.

Fortunately, it’s easy to help your kids enjoy and understand the Hanukkah season, and to get them involved in Hanukkah activities. Of course, most popular is the dreidel game. If your kids don’t have dreidels, buy at least one for each of them and teach them how to play. If you want to encourage their artistic side, you can get dreidels your kids can color and decorate themselves, or even ones that they can build themselves such as the new clay dreidel that can be molded, dried and then painted before it is played with.

Other activities during the Hanukkah season include reading Hanukkah books, eating candy and gelt, coloring, putting together puzzles, sending out Hanukkah cards, making cookies with Hanukkah cookie cutters, playing with Hanukkah stickers, and more. Kids can even get Hanukkah yo-yos that play traditional songs like The Dreidel Song, which begins, “I have a little dreidel.”

It is common for each child in the family to have their own Hanukkah menorah to light. But if you have kids who are too young to light candles, then you may want to consider some of the kid-friendly menorahs available today. For instance, there are stuffed menorahs with flames that Velcro on, and thin plastic ones that stick to the window and have separate plastic flames that can be attached.

Because the Hanukkah season is so festive, there are big parties and family gatherings. Many families give their children a present each night of Chanukah and decorate their homes with blue and white festive decorations and electric lights, often shaped like dreidels. Gifts run the gamut from gelt to clothing, from hanukkah toys and crafts to video games.

Some families choose to get and fill Hanukkah bags for their kids so they don’t feel left out when their non-Jewish friends receive gifts and candy in stockings. Again, all of these wonderful items are easily available online as you shop from your armchair, and you can shop to your heart’s content as you plan on making this a hanukkah for your kids to remember with hanukkah toys, activities, dreidels, puzzles, cookie cutters, menorahs, and more.

Adam Barnett
http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/hanukkah-the-dreidel-game-hanukkah-crafts-fun-for-kids-70639.html

The major problem with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) program is that nearly all vehicles pass current tests. This makes it hard for consumers to compare between vehicles. This situation triggered the need for the NHTSA to overhaul its crash test program. Some of the standards have not been changed since its creation in 1979. The crash test program overhaul will also reduce three crash ratings to one.

The safety agency earlier held a day-long hearing with automakers, suppliers and safety advocates to discuss ways so as to overhaul NHTSA’s crash test program for new vehicles and create a single safety ranking. The hearing is aimed at toughening the standards and give rewards only to the most deserving vehicles.

Among the revisions contemplated is the awarding of higher ratings to vehicles that have more safety features, including crash-avoidance systems. Other revisions include increasing speeds in some crash tests, increasing the weight of crash barriers, expanding the scope of the new tests to account for additional injuries, considering the use of dummies to better represent female drivers, and improving frontal, side-impact and rollover testing while gauging new auto technologies and features like electronic stability control, brake assist systems and lane departure warnings.

The proposal to overhaul the crash test standards do not require for new legal requirements. This is because what would only be changed is how the safety agency conducts tests that are used to assign the ratings.

Automakers offered support for the proposal to overhaul the crash test standards for new vehicles. On the other hand, safety groups suggested that the NHTSA should also test child restraint systems to ascertain how they hold up in crashes and rate them accordingly. The standards should not be limited to the efficiency of brakes, steering, suspension or even the K & N cold air intake – it should delve deeper than the current standards.

At the said public hearing, General Motors Corp., the Honda Motor Co., and the Toyota Motor Corp. all endorsed the efforts to give vehicles a single overall ranking for performance during simulated frontal, side and rollover crashes. Toyota’s Chris Tinto said it is hard for engineers to figure how much weight to give each of the current three scores, let alone for consumers to try to interpret three numbers.

The NHTSA introduced a list of changes that it is considering. However, the safety agency did not disclose the final details of their proposed revisions. In 2006, 87 percent of vehicles received four or five stars for side impact crashes while some 95 percent garnered top ratings for frontal crashes.

Safety groups criticized the safety agency for not going far enough in toughening the standards. At present, tougher crash tests are conducted by outside groups like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The institute’s standards have gotten more attention and have stressed safety flaws of those vehicles which got top ratings in government tests.

Adrian Lund, the institute’s president, offered harsh criticism of the NHTSA initial revisions, calling them “timid” and “disappointing.” He said that the NHTSA has been delinquent in doing research, noting that it still is not considering the roof strength in assessing new cars. He said, “These tests don’t challenge industry to design safer cars and instead reinforce what they’re already doing.” Lund also said that the NHTSA should not focus all of its efforts on crash-avoidance technologies such as electronic stability control at the expense of ensuring that vehicles are crash-worthy.

At the much-concluded 2007 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, NHTSA officials announced that the agency planned to toughen several of its voluntary car safety crash tests used to rate new vehicles. The safety agency said the new program would encourage automakers to voluntarily invest in safety technologies.

Joan Claybrook, who was NHTSA administrator when the program was introduced in 1979, said Wednesday that the program is “long overdue for updating.” Claybrook said the program should include ratings for child safety restraints, pedestrian safety and vehicle performance in rear-impact crashes. She also suggested automakers be required to add the ratings to new car Window Stickers.

Lauren Woods
http://www.articlesbase.com/automotive-articles/nhtsa-to-overhaul-crash-test-program-115281.html

For millions of Americans their home is their safe haven: the place to which they retreat for time with loved ones, relaxation, and the majority of life’s important events. From precious loved ones to prized belongings those things most valuable to us are centered in the home as well.

Unfortunately, for hundreds of thousands of families however, their haven is breached each year; either by theft, burglary, or even violent crime. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (www.ojp.usdoj.gov) over three quarters of all crimes in the U.S. are made up of property crimes. With the estimated 2005 burglary rate of 726.7 per population of 100,000, the likelihood of experiencing a home burglary was greater than being the victim of car theft with a rate of 416.7 per 100,000. Although the monetary losses can be significant, certainly the emotional effects resulting from the feelings of vulnerability and unease are discomforting at the least.

For some, home security seems a distant concern; something that only those living in large urban areas need to consider. Statistics from the Bureau of Justice indicate otherwise. Although burglary rates are higher in urban areas, it has been far more equal opportunity than one might suspect. The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics shows a 2005 urban burglary rate of 37.7 per 1,000 households, while in rural areas it was 29.4 and in suburban areas it was 24.7.

Certainly, homeowners insurance can help to defray the cost of any material losses. Replacing home electronics, jewelry, and other possessions or replacing broken windows and doors after a forcible entry can all be accomplished relatively easily except in the instances of prized family heirlooms or similarly loved personal items. However, replacing the sense of well being is not so easily achieved. Questions regarding what would have happened if someone had been home at the time of the burglary can linger. For millions of those with children at home alone for portions of the day or left with a young baby sitter, these concerns become amplified.

Although insurance goes a long way in covering the loss of material items after the fact, other home security measures can take more proactive steps in preventing loss and assuring the safety of those in the home. With many home security systems offering 24 hour per day monitoring and fees that are more affordable than the average home insurance policy, such systems seem to be a wise step in the direction of prevention.

Most home security systems today offer Window Stickers, yard signage, and even sirens which act as deterrents to potential invaders. Most also possess a panic button to allow any occupants in the house to summon help immediately with the push of a single button. These systems are also dependable as they switch to battery powered backup when power is out. Each home security system offers their own specific features but may also include things such as the ability to warn parents when young children slip out of the house unattended or when children fail to arrive home from school on time.

It is estimated that only 20% of American homes have home security systems installed. This is either a reflection of a sense of security or perhaps a lack of information about the features and affordability of a good home security system. For the average homeowner, the six figure home security systems that make the news aren’t something to consider. However, in most areas quality home security systems that feature free equipment and free installation with a monthly monitoring fee in the neighborhood of $25 to $30 is much more worthy of consideration.

Certainly burglary or any type of forcible entry into the home is not inevitable but like all risks homeowners must assess not only the likelihood it will occur but also the potential outcome to determine if the cost of prevention is justified or not. For homeowners who determine that greater home security is a need, there is most certainly a home security system available to fit their pocketbook.

Christine Peppler
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-security-articles/does-home-security-deserve-your-serious-attention-87358.html