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Jean Elliott Fitzgerald, associated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Real Estate School, has been awarded the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) Green Designation, the only green professional designation recognized by NAR.

Fitzgerald completed extensive training to meet NAR’s qualification to train REALTORS better understand what makes property green, to help their clients evaluate the cost/benefit of green building features and practices, to distinguish between industry rating and classification systems, to better list and market green homes, to discuss financial grants and incentives available to homeowners, and to help homeowners see a property’s green potential.

“As energy costs rise along with concern for the environment, homeowners are looking for innovative ways to save money and live responsibly,’” said Fitzgerald. “It is my goal to assist Realtors to become more familiar with green real estate concepts so that they can better serve their clients.”

NAR’s Green Designation was developed in response to growing consumer awareness of the benefits for resource-efficient homes and buildings. The designation helps consumers who care about energy efficiency and sustainable building practices identify REALTORS who can help them realize their green real estate and lifestyle goals.

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage is the largest residential real estate brokerage company in New England. With more than 4,000 sales associates and staff in more than 90 office locations, the organization serves consumers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage is part of NRT LLC, the nation’s largest residential real estate brokerage company. NRT, a subsidiary of Realogy Corporation, operates Realogy’s company-owned real estate brokerage offices. For more information please visit www.NewEnglandMoves.com.

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Vodafone has joined forces with Western Union on an international mobile money transfer pilot; residents in the U.K. town of Reading will be able to send money to the mobile phones of relatives and friends in Kenya.

Money transfers has already become a success in Kenya via the M-PESA (”M” for “mobile” and “Pesa,” the Swahili word for “money”) system, which, for example, can be used by someone in an urban area to forward money to relatives in rural areas, and people in rural areas can pay off a loan in an urban area.

The service is marketed by Safaricom, in which Vodafone holds a stake, and there are currently around 4 million M-PESA customers, and that number is growing by approximately 200,000 users a month, according to Caroline Dewing, a spokeswoman at Vodafone.

“What we are doing is extending M-PESA internationally, and we are partnering with Western Union to do this, because they have such a huge foot print in terms of stores and knowledge in the space of international remittances,” Dewing said.

A person who wants to transfer money will be able to go into a Western Union store in Reading and say that they want to transfer some money to a Safaricom cell phone in Kenya. For the receiver in Kenya it will work just like any M-PESA transfer.

“They’ll get a text message saying you have been given X amount of money, and they can then choose how to store that: money on the phone, send it on to someone else or go to an M-PESA agent and cash it,” Dewing said.

Convenience and the ability to send smaller amounts for a low fee are the two major benefits compared to traditional money transfers. Sending up to ?100 costs ?4.90 (US$7.35), and ?100 to ?200 is ?6.90, according to Dewing.

The trial will be conducted for three to four months. During those Vodafone will test all elements of the service and also see if the fee structure works, according to Dewing.

The goal is to roll it out between the U.K and Kenya, and then on to other markets within the near future, said Dewing, who declined to be more specific.

Using the mobile for either money transfers or as an electronic wallet is getting a lot of attention from the financial and telecom sectors.

Western Union is, for example, already working with Orascom Telecom, Globe Telecom and SMART Communications.

Last month, phone manufacturers were urged to include NFC (Near Field Communications) functionality in mobile handsets in order to speed adoption of mobile payment systems by the GSM Association, which is also involved with Western Union.

Payment card companies are also getting on board. In October, MasterCard announced PayPass, an over-the-air provisioning service.

In September, Visa announced it was working with Nokia on payment-related services and applications using the Android platform.

Vodafone currently sees opportunity in the mobile money transfer market, simply because there isn’t a traditional banking infrastructure in place in countries like Kenya, and in the developed world “we have credit cards coming out of our ears,” according to Dewing.

The push from operators and phone vendors is about making people even more dependent on the phone, according to Richard Webb, directing analyst at Infonetics Research.

“It continues the trend of adding more application and functionality to the phone. Making the mobile phone the single device you never leave home without, along with your door keys, and that might come to a mobile phone as well with biometric fingerprinting or something like that in the future,” said Webb.

Challenges include getting people to trust the services and getting the retail sector on board, but Webb expects both to fall into place eventually.

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Author: Sanjog

Get introduced to the beautiful you, to the healthy you after the rejuvenating experience of Ayurvedic massages in South India. This Indian destination is popular the world over for offering amazing Ayurvedic massages and treatments leading to physical relaxation and mental well being. Whether you want to relax or want to cure yourself of some kind of disease, this region of the country is the place to head for.

Ideally located in beautiful and natural surroundings, the Ayurveda Resorts and Spas Of South India have highly skilled and well trained professionals to pamper you with blissful Ayurvedic sessions. Relax under some shady coconut grooves in Kerala and experience a refreshing massage. Kerala, Kovalam, Alleppey, Kumakom, Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut are some of the best destinations for Ayurveda.

Leave behind the fast-paced daily routine, noisy environment and worries of day-today-life and let yourself loose into the revitalizing massages at the backwaters and beaches of South India. Enjoy the perfect combination of natural beauty and heavenly comfort at the resorts and take back home a ‘healthy experience’ which you will remember for long. A wide variety of packages are offered by these wonderful resorts such as packages for weight loss, depression, stress and beauty enhancement.

Some of the best Ayurveda Resorts In South India are:

Kerala Ayurveda Resorts

• Keraleeyam Heritage Home and Ayurvedic Resort

• Kairali Ayurvedic Health Resort

• Somatheeram Ayurvedic Beach Resort

• Coconut Holiday Resorts

• Somatheeram Ayurvedic Beach Resort

• Kovalam Ayurveds Resort

• Cochin Ayurvedic Resort

Tamil Nadu Ayurveda Resorts

• Lukmaania Vaidhyasala

• Cholayil Sanjeevanam

• Le Royal Meridien

• Sukhada Ayurveda

Karnataka Ayurveda Resorts

• Ayurvedagram Health Resort

• Soukya Health Resort

• Windflower Resort

• Kairali Om Beach Resort

• Golden Palms Resort

• Pondicherry Ayurvedic Resorts

• Rosema Ayurveda Resort

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Generally 70 million homes have pets in the USA and the average American spends about 150 dollars every month on pet supplies. This amounts to a enormous amount of money. In fact, the pet industry is selling about 40 billion dollars worth of pet supplies online every year.

Assume if you were able to just get the smallest slice of this ridiculous amount of money!

The good news is that you can. You could be selling pet supplies from conversant with in a very short space of time. Whether or not pets are your passion, the pet industry could provide you with a great income working from domestic.

Selling pet supplies from home is made easy because there is a pet supply company called ilovepets that has done all the hard trade for you. They have created ready made websites with inventory for you to use as your own online pet store business of selling pet supplies from home.

When you vestige up, you will get a free start-up kit that will supply you with a pre-built online pet store that has many different pet supplies in a variety of categories for you to promote on it. You don’t have to worry about storing and shipping the pet supplies because ilovepets does all that for you. All you have to do is concentrate on selling the pet supplies and picking up your profits which are in the configuration of commission.

The more customers to your site mean that you are going to have more profit in your pocket. Ilovepets provide many guides and the marketing director explains how to drive visitors to your online pet store in various ways.

It’s totally up to you how much that you want to espouse selling pet supplies from home. You could just keep it as a secondary income or drive more customers to your site and create a full however income. Some people drive huge amounts of traffic to their sites and bring in enough profit to give them financial disrespect.

The other guides provided are there to help grow your online pet store with general business aspects like banknotes flow, accounts, taxes and wealth and retirement issues. Everything is supplied to you that will enable you to create a large selling, flourishing online pet supply store.

The wonderful thing about selling pet supplies from home from your pet store, is that once it is up and on-going and you have enough customers to provide you with your required income, you can just leave it. It will basically run itself.

Selling pet supplies online will prepare for you with a constant stream of money 24/7, when you are on holiday, asleep, keeping fit or whatever you fancy doing. You are going to have to vouchsafe your pet store site, marketing etc occasionally but that doesn’t take long, only a few hours per week. You will have no customers to deal mush to face with. You will have no awkward employees and employee related issues and no wages to pay.

Eliminating The Difficulties Of Finding Auto Insurance

Author: Alisdair Cosgrove

If you want to drive your car in any of the states in these United States you have to have some form of auto insurance.

With some insurance companies, it is easier for them to look at their clients as statistics instead of human beings, so they can concentrate on the money making part of the business. If you use the method of self-education to find the auto insurance that is best for you, it may be what works for you.

We are usually placed in one “pool” or the other by the insurance executives who figure out how much someone is going to cost them and then they charge a rate which is based on this placement.

An auto insurance policy typically has several different parts, corresponding to different types of insurance. You will need to sign up for the types of insurance your state requires you to have plus the additional ones you want.

Bodily injury insurance coverage is a requirement in most states. This coverage will take care of claims of bodily injury to another person you may have hurt in an accident; the other motorist, a pedestrian or maybe a passenger in your vehicle.

You will likely need to or want to include liability insurance to cover against property damages. When you are at fault in an accident where there is property damage this type of insurance will cover it. Many of the states require motorists to carry liability coverage for at least $!0,000 to $15,000 in damages, although you likely will want to get more.

If your car is more than five years old you may not want to get collision insurance, which covers the damage done to your own car in an accident caused by you. The repair costs have to be weighed against the premium costs. If you finance a new car, you’ll probably be required to buy some minimum level of collision coverage.

Comprehensive insurance was introduced to cover dmages to your car in addition to those caused by an accident with another car. This might include fire, hitting a deer on the highway,vandalism or storm damages.

If you think your car is not in very good condition or if it is an older model, you may want to forget about this type of coverage. Newer or recently financed vehicles will likely require this coverage.

If you happen to get in an accident with someone who has no auto insurance coverage you can be taken care of by Uninsured Motorist insurance. It is supposed that any driver will obtain auto insurance before driving, but some do not, so this kind of coverage was introduced.

Those categories of auto insurance are the major ones. There has to be confirmation of your need for all of these kinds of coverage, according to your auto’s age, condition and likely repair cost plus the minimum requirements of your state.

In many cases, you can dramatically reduce your premiums if you increase your deductibles on things like Collision insurance, and then save enough money in a reserve fund to cover the deductible.

Alisdair Cosgrove interests include insurance and other personal finance topics and has been writing for numerous years and can find more of his work at the insurance site www.Peppercoin.com, offering cheap auto insurance and also great information on comprehensive auto insurance. Visit today to read more of Alisdair’s great articles.

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Valentine’s Day is the in unison a all the same of year for lovers and romantics of all kinds to show that love and affection openly without ridicule. Each year we try to find the perfect backsheesh that will show our affection. This year give that someone special, a very special gift on the occasion of the Valentine’s Day: Cruising 2009 - Valentine’s Day voyage Package.

What could be more romantic than be lavished upon while traveling on the open seas on a cruise holiday? Not only some time away from the continuously chores of life, enjoy elegant dining rooms with mouth-watering cuisine that tempt your palette, fun filled Valentine dearest activities and games. Among other features of cruising are: watching the sun set into the sea; moonlit strolls on the decks; dancing into the night; and, watching the sunrise over the water.

Who wouldn’t be impressed with such a knack? Besides all of the amenities on board ship, the exotic ports-of-call and the pampering service, we are also giving ourselves as we spend precious measure with the ones we love.

Cruising 2009 - Valentine’s Day Special Cruise Packages’ Rates In the main I know most of us think it cannot be affordable. There are many cruise liners that are offering a special Cruising 2009 - Valentine’s Day voyage packages. And due to the booming cruising fleets, there is a fierce competition in the travel industry. You can always take advantage of the deals you get under the steadfast cruise deals.

Cruising 2009 - Tips for Maximum Enjoyment

If you follow short tips you can enjoy cruise travel to the maximum.

Planning a Valentine’s Day: If you organize your trip correctly and search for the crush deal, you can save a lot on your fair charges.

Web Search: One of the finest methods to locate cheap cruises is to search online. There are many trekking agencies that promise if you locate a lesser price anywhere on web.

Dining Services: Cruise liners put on the market variety of scheduled or alternative dining services. The only thing that you require to be conscious of is that lots of vessels have corresponding exactly dining quarters where you have to give additional money to eat there.

Travel Agent: Tour agents often obtain originally notices of promotional cruises before they hit the common public. You can bag good deals if you are in touch with them in advance.

Seasonal Promotions and Specials: Event exists in any industry. This means that many world cruise liners provide Valentine’s Day special promotions and discounts for passengers to last in the present market.

No matter what type of cruise you choose, it’s sure to that the Cruising 2009 - Valentine’s Day closest cruises will be the one that your special with remember forever.

C I Host, a Cassiopeia Internet, Inc. brand, has announced the acquisition of its shared web hosting interests by X7 Hosting. The move allows C I Host to increase focus on core services while ensuring benefit to all customers.

C I Host will be able to further define a diverse service portfolio geared to Dedicated Server and Colocation customers and enhance existing services.

Chris Faulkner, CEO of C I Host says, “We believe that focus and specialization is a key factor for success in the hosting marketplace. Over the years, our company’s growth and operational expertise has allowed us to target mid- and large-market services and this move enables us to further specialize in these segments.”

C I Host plans to refine client services across the board. In the works are the introduction of dedicated sales and support teams to better meet the needs of customers and a host of other upgrades. C I Host’s multiple data center locations will prove a strong asset with new offerings including geographical load balancing, clustering, and other services that require geographical fault tolerance.

C I Host has been offering dedicated servers since 1999 and colocation services since 2000. The additional asset of their team’s expertise and years of experience will allow new offerings such as managed colocation services in addition to a range of dedicated server solutions.

Erin Bullock, Executive Director of Business Development remarks, “It has always been our goal to provide a superior service experience for all our clients. X7 Hosting has some great new features to offer our shared hosting customers, and focusing our service catalog exclusively on dedicated server and colocation customer needs will allow us to better serve our customers.”

The company continues to invest in research and development.

About C I Host

C I Host ( www.cihost.com ), based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, is a Web hosting, domain name registrar (DNR), and colocation service provider, operating for more than 11 years. C I Host creates business-class Web hosting solutions for the enterprise market, with the broadest portfolio of managed hosting and value-added services in the industry. C I Host is accredited by ICANN to register domain names. C I Host operates multiple data centers across the United States, with its main facility and Network Operations Center in Bedford, Texas.

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Author: Karen Sielski

Do you use lack of time as an excuse for starting a business? Let’s take a closer look at a fundamental principle of time. The 2 things you can do with time are spend it or invest it. Let’s look at each of these options. If you spend time, it’s  gone forever. There’s no getting it back. However, when you invest your time appropriately, you can create a lifetime of residual income. 
Here’s how it works. Start by determining how much residual income you want to make per year. Let’s say your goal is to earn $200,000 a year. That works out to about $100/hour for an 8 hour work day. Bottom line, your time is now worth $100/hour. 
The next step is to look at your activities, for example, watching tv. If you are watching 3 hours per day, and the average in the US is actually much higher than 3 hours, and your time is worth $100/hour, you are throwing  $300/day out the window. 
Let me ask you, is it worth $300/day to watch that much tv? $300/day is $2,100 per week, and over $100,000 per year! Can you really afford to watch that much tv? Now, I’m not saying to stop watching tv completely, but hopefully knowing this information will make you more selective.  Try to cut back to ~1 hour/day instead of going cold turkey.
Now let’s do an exercise with your goals. How much income would you like from a home business? Now take a look at how many hours of tv you watch per day or spend on other activities like hanging out at Starbucks. 
Take your income goal and divide by 250.  This will give you the approximate number of work days in a year. That’s how much you need to earn in 1 day. Divide by the number of hours/day you want to work. That’s how much your time is worth.
Now look at other ways you spend your time like cleaning your house or taking care of the yard. If you can hire someone to do those activities for less than the hourly cost of your time, you can use that time to work on achieving your income goal. What if you could hire a virtual assistant for $4-5/hr, just like I do, to do many tasks?
When you look at it this way, do you think you can find the time to start a business and create the life you want to have, not the life you currently have?
And now I would like to invite you to claim your Free Access to "15 Ways To Grow Your Business Online". Just send an email to kw-online-mktg@aweber.com and you’ll start receiving valuable information that can help you get more traffic to your website or blog and make more money from your visitors.

Do you use lack of time as an excuse for starting a business? Let’s take a closer look at a fundamental principle of time. The 2 things you can do with time are spend it or invest it. Let’s look at each of these options. If you spend time, it’s  gone forever. There’s no getting it back. However, when you invest your time appropriately, you can create a lifetime of residual income.

Here’s how it works. Start by determining how much residual income you want to make per year. Let’s say your goal is to earn $200,000 a year. That works out to about $100/hour for an 8 hour work day. Bottom line, your time is now worth $100/hour.

The next step is to look at your activities, for example, watching tv. If you are watching 3 hours per day, and the average in the US is actually much higher than 3 hours, and your time is worth $100/hour, you are throwing  $300/day out the window.

Let me ask you, is it worth $300/day to watch that much tv? $300/day is $2,100 per week, and over $100,000 per year! Can you really afford to watch that much tv? Now, I’m not saying to stop watching tv completely, but hopefully knowing this information will make you more selective.  Try to cut back to ~1 hour/day instead of going cold turkey.

Now let’s do an exercise with your goals. How much income would you like from a home business? Now take a look at how many hours of tv you watch per day or spend on other activities like hanging out at Starbucks.

Take your income goal and divide by 250.  This will give you the approximate number of work days in a year. That’s how much you need to earn in 1 day. Divide by the number of hours/day you want to work. That’s how much your time is worth.

Now look at other ways you spend your time like cleaning your house or taking care of the yard. If you can hire someone to do those activities for less than the hourly cost of your time, you can use that time to work on achieving your income goal. What if you could hire a virtual assistant for $4-5/hr, just like I do, to do many tasks?

When you look at it this way, do you think you can find the time to start a business and create the life you want to have, not the life you currently have?

And now I would like to invite you to claim your Free Access to "15 Ways To Grow Your Business Online". Just send an email to kw-online-mktg@aweber.com and you’ll start receiving valuable information that can help you get more traffic to your website or blog and make more money from your visitors.

To receive the information series "Top 15 Ways To Grow Your Business Online", send an email to kw-online-mktg@aweb.com.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How To Find More Time For Your Business

Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. plan to raise prices in the U.K. to counter the pound’s drop, a strategy that may drive away buyers and accelerate the plunge in British car sales.

Ford says it will raise sticker prices in the U.K. by an average of 4.7 percent today, including a 5.2 percent increase for the best-selling Ford Focus. GM’s Vauxhall, whose sister brand Opel has cut prices and offered improved financing in Germany, will release details of a planned U.K. increase later this month, Simon Hucknall, a Vauxhall spokesman, said in a phone interview.

“Additional price increases are likely unless there is a strengthening in the value of the pound against the euro,” Brian Bennett, a Ford spokesman in England, said in an e-mailed response to questions.

U.K. auto sales fell 11 percent last year, with the decline gathering pace in December, when vehicle deliveries dropped 21 percent. The pound has fallen 11 percent against the euro and 27 percent against the dollar in the past six months, leading carmakers to strike a new balance between logging a sale in Britain and getting enough money from a purchase.

Raising prices in the midst of a recession is normally “suicidal,” Simon Empson, managing director of car sales Web site Broadspeed.com, said in a phone interview. Dealers use Empson’s business to move hard-to-sell inventory.

Writing Off Britain

“The manufacturers are going to write off the U.K. market for the foreseeable future,” said Empson, whose site is offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal on the 2008 Kia Magentis. “There’s such an overhang in the market that we’re seeing dealers sell at real losses. I can’t see too many positives right now.”

GM’s price increases are “due to the decline in value of sterling,” Hucknall said.

The Bank of England cut the key interest rate in January to the lowest level since the bank was created in 1694 as it tries to drag an economy that’s contracting at the fastest pace since 1980 out of a recession. Frozen credit markets have led to unprecedented discounting, such as Broadspeed’s offer on the Kia model.

Boosting prices seems “idiotic” because it’s likely to accelerate the industry’s decline, said Tim Urquhart, a London- based analyst with research firm IHS Global Insight. “The argument may be: What’s the difference? They’re not selling anyway, so we may as well charge a decent price.”

The U.K. car market is the third largest in Europe and was traditionally a key source of profits for automakers because of the high prices consumers were willing to pay, Urquhart said.

‘Cash Cow’

“They saw the English consumer as a cash cow, but no one’s making money in the U.K. right now,” said Urquhart, who estimates that sales of cars and sport-utility vehicles will fall 19 percent to 1.96 million vehicles this year in Britain.

Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker, probably will follow the lead of its U.S. rivals. Paul Buckett, a spokesman for the German carmaker’s U.K. operations, said the company tries to keep pricing in line with competitors and that GM and Ford are two of the manufacturers it tracks. “We are looking at what our competitors are doing.”

The weaker pound means Europe-based manufacturers, such as Volkswagen, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Fiat SpA, get fewer euros for cars sold in Britain, depressing profits.

“The manufacturers should be helping dealers by putting the price down rather than up,” said Richard Peace, a sales manager at car dealer Motorhouse in Cannock, England, near Birmingham. “It all comes down to price” in the current environment, he said.

Export to Continent

The pound’s decline also makes U.K. cars potentially attractive for exporting to continental Europe, even with the steering wheel on the opposite side, and could hurt sales there, said Broadspeed’s Empson.

Higher U.K. car prices will “protect more profitable EU markets and provide support for drastically falling” values of cars being returned from leases, Empson said. The U.K. car market has reversed, he said, becoming the cheapest in Europe “by a big margin.”

US President Barack Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia at the start of a Middle East tour aimed at increasing US engagement with the Islamic world.

Mr Obama will spend a few hours in Riyadh before heading for Cairo, where he will make a keynote speech.

He says he wants to open dialogue with Muslims, overcome misapprehensions, and revive Middle East peace negotiations.

Apart from a stop-over in Iraq in April, it is Mr Obama’s first time in the region since becoming president.

Barack Obama’s goal is to improve perceptions of the US and to push for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, says BBC Diplomatic Correspondent Jonathan Marcus.

In the process he wants to make other US strategic goals in the region - like stability in Iraq and the containment of Iran - easier to achieve.

To do this he needs Arab partners and this trip takes in two key nations - Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The Saudis are sponsors of the only comprehensive peace plan for relations between the Arab world and Israel.

Egypt is intimately involved with the Palestinian problem, acting as an intermediary between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Mr Obama needs both countries on board if he is to breathe life into the largely moribund peace negotiations, our correspondent says.

‘Action not words’

In Saudi Arabia, Mr Obama will hold talks with King Abdullah in Riyadh. As well as regional issues, Mr Obama said he would raise the issue of oil prices with the Saudi ruler.

Ahead of the visit, al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia issued an internet statement vowing to target President Obama’s convoy in Riyadh, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner reports.

On Thursday, Mr Obama is to deliver a speech at Cairo University which he hopes will set a new tone in US-Arab relations.

After Cairo, Mr Obama will travel on to Europe for D-Day commemorations.

The tour itinerary does not include Israel but shortly before departing for Saudi Arabia, Mr Obama had a meeting with Israel’s defence minister, Ehud Barak, in Washington.

The president is reported to have used the meeting to reiterate that the US intends to be tough with Israel on the question of settlement building in the West Bank.

Israel is resisting calls to freeze building activity in all settlements, but Palestinian leaders have said there can be no progress towards peace without a halt to such construction.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of his visit, Mr Obama said he believed the US was “going to be able to get serious negotiations back on track” between Israel and the Palestinians.

He said his visit offered the US and the Islamic world the chance “to listen to each other a little bit more”.

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