Business, economic development - the unofficial Chamber of Commerce

If you’ve never had contact lenses or haven’t worn them in
a long time and need a refresher, here’s a few tips on what
to do and what not to do when wearing and caring for your
lenses.

First on the list, make sure to listen to what your doctor
tells you. When he or she prescribes the lenses in the
first place, they know what type of lenses they are giving
you as well as the type of care they will require.

Some people need to remove their lenses for a few hours
each day and let their eyes ‘rest,’ especially in the first
few weeks of wearing new lenses.

Learn to carry rewetting drops with you. Nothing like dry
eyes during work or a meeting will make you wish you had
stashed an extra bottle of solution in your car.

Avoid excessive rubbing at your eyes while wearing them and
wear sunglasses when you’re in the bright sun. If your
eyes hurt excessively or you experience severe itching and
redness, call your doctor. These are signs you don’t want
to ignore.

One thing your doctor will do on the day you pick up your
new contact lenses is to go over their care. You should
wash your hands every time you intend to handle the lenses.

Microscopic dirt and dust may not seem like much, but when
it is pressed between your eye and the lens, it can cause
discomfort and pain. You will be provided with a holder for
your lenses as well as solution to store them in, depending
on the type of lens you buy. For daily disposables, you
don’t have to store them in anything.

Always handle the lenses with care and if by some
occurrence you should happen to tear a lens, never re-use
it. And, despite the urge when solution isn’t available,
never use saliva to moisten dry contacts. Your mouth is
filled with bacteria that will contaminate the lens,
possible causing an infection in the eye.

For daily wear contacts, it’s good to take them out and
clean them each evening and leave them in a solution over
night. This keeps the lens clean and lubricated. It’s a
hard lesson the first time you insert a dirty lens on your
eye or an eyelash is dislodged during the insertion.

If that should happen, let your eye tear naturally - tears
will often wash dust particles or an eyelash out.

Another handy tip that is rarely mentioned (although some
people have certainly had a problem with it) is the drain
plug in the sink. When adjusting your lenses, be sure your
contact lens doesn’t fall into the sink and go down the
drain.

Most people lean towards their mirror so they can see what
they are doing as they slip their contact lens into place.
The act of leaning forward places you over the sink. It’s
a good idea to make sure the drain is in place, just in
case.
===========================================================
Discover important advice and information about contact
lenses. Are soft or hard best ? What’s the best cleaning
solutions ? For a comprehensive guide, Click
http://www.contact-lenses-special.com/

About the Author

Peter has worn contact lenses all his life. He’s tested
different types, and explored all alternatives. In this
series of articles he shares his advice and experiences.

Collecting coins is a hobby that can be enjoyed by anyone of any age. A lot of coin collectors started as children, with the help of their parents or grandparents collecting pennies or dimes. For some coin collecting can become a lifetime hobby.

There are various reasons to collect coins. Some people collect coins from a specific period of time, some collect coins based on perceived future value, some collect coins based on type of metal, some for historical value. Some people happily collect more common everyday coins, going through their pockets at the end of the day for them is fun, checking dates and mintmarks on their change. Some collectors can spend thousands of dollars on rare silver and gold coins from the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Some collect coins from different countries.

With any new hobby comes the learning. As coin collecting is a hobby involving an outlay of money for coins from the start, it’s best to join a group to get help from experienced collectors. You will need someone to buy the coins from, and it can be difficult to find a reputable coin dealer. Someone who has been coin collecting for years can help you choose a knowledgeable and honest coin dealer. You’ll need to learn about the value of different coins. This can be done by following what coins are being sold for, and what dealers are paying for coins. You will need to be shown how to assess the true value of a coin which can be based on many factors such as age, mintmark, and condition.

The mintmark of the coin can usually be found near the date and on newer coins the mintmarks are as follows: “P” Philadelphia, “D” Denver, “S” San Francisco,”W” West Point New York. Older coins may show the following mintmarks: “C” Charlotte North Carolina, “CC” Carson City Nevada, “D” Dahlonega Georgia, “O” New Orleans. It’s interesting to note that from 1793 to 1838 the only mint in operation in the US was in Philadelphia and coins from these years have no mintmark.

As you become a more experienced coin collector your “eye” will mature and you’ll be looking more closely at details like the lettering on a coin, making sure the letters are still clear and not worn down. You’ll pay attention to the general condition of a coin, and you may stray away from coins that have a lot of obvious wear and tear. These are a part of grading a coin. You’ll learn to look for minting errors which can make a coin quite collectible. For example a three legged buffalo instead of a four legged one, or perhaps an off-centered image.

As with any hobby, the more you learn about coin collecting the more you’ll be able to enjoy it.

About the Author

This article courtesy of http:/http://www.gold-coins-guide.net

I have experienced a break through - I have caught a feeling and translated it, I now understand what it is.

I have spent most of my adult life in a city, London, UK in fact, and travelling to and from cities in one country or another. I couldn’t understand why even though they were havens for chaos I felt at ease in them.

I have spent many years as a graphic designer too, all of these years in fact were in the same cities. Unfortunately being a graphic designer, unbelievably, caused me to miss this feeling, or at least miss-understand what it was. As I believe it, graphics was all about solving other people’s briefs, or theories, over short periods of time; the nature of graphics.

I have often looked out of the window while I was contemplating an idea and something made me feel good, enough to return to the issue with vigour. I believe this was the fact that I was staring out into a city.

Why do I find tranquillity in a chaotic city? A city cannot survive unless it is operating properly, so when I am in London, or Sydney, Singapore City or Paris, and others; I understand that these cities are well established, hence they must have some order.

I was day dreaming in the studio - in my late re-introduction into art, since just before Christmas 2005, after a 5 year break from Graphic Design, I have rented my own studio, and embarked on a fine-art journey, this time solving my own theories - and while taking a break from a very strenuous charcoal and pastel morning, I sat down and looked at all of the bits of charcoal I had accumulating.

My nature provided the first part of my artists journey, fast, furious, and flowing actions. When finished I am “stuffed”. I sat down and noticed all the bits left over from burning away at the charcoal sticks. (I say burning as I have, many times been burnt, forgetting in my passion, that charcoal sticks don’t remain the same length!).

I picked one bit up while thinking, “wouldn’t it be nice to do some smaller artworks, be a change, be cheaper too”, and started rolling and smudging it around a pad of cartridge paper, A2 in size.

It felt nice. I had tons of space, and a very small piece of charcoal. I was day dreaming still and just let the paper take me where ever it wanted. Shapes appeared in the images, and still in a state of tranquillity I continued with mild direction. It was great, people love them, I feel a bit embarrassed as I am having difficulty accepting they are mine, I know I did them, but who was pushing the charcoal?

Anyway, I did another. While doing this it gave me time to think, I used another piece of charcoal and started a drawing with vertical straight lines, then naturally I put in a horizontal line, a bit of shade and another vertical line, and so on.

Good god! I was drawing edges of buildings, they looked familiar, it was a scene of about anywhere in London, any “alley way”, or terrace house rear.
I was at home. I now had a theme, and caught a feeling. While drawing I realised that from all of London’s billions of chaotically placed bricks, drain pipes, windows, curtains, outside toilet cisterns; like in any established city, there was order.
A tranquillity has come from the variety of chaos, which over the years had found its own order.
I have started putting them up on my website now, you can see the first four at the bottom of my “projects” page on my website www.alecellis.com - these are the first, as I mentioned above, but the ones I have yet to put up are more intense, and more tranquil.
It shows how happy I am with my new discovery, I have already had these four mounted and framed for my wall in the studio. I am off up to Sydney next week to take allot of alley way shots, sketch some close views of bricks and drain pipes. The dirtier, uglier, and seedier the better.

I love the way the front of the house is a face, yet the alley ways, in which people are not expected to venture or observe, nor the rears of terrace housing, are given any real attention. Drain pipes, dirty walls, bins, old fencing, little side windows that still retain the fifties or even thirties original curtains, the curtains that came with the house.

A million pieces of chaos come to order… lovely.

About the Author

Alec Ellis
Artist
http://www.m6.net
For eighteen years as a Graphic Designer from London College of Printing, UK, I have never had as much fun, freedom and serious focus as I have now.

You would think that choosing camping food to bring would be as easy as saying “I’ll take what I like to eat at home”, unfortunately not all the things we love to eat can be easily transported or cooked over a campfire. You’ll need to get an idea on the recipes you’d like to make first (preferably easy ones) and then create a food checklist of items to take.

Camp food you will bring doesn’t have to be boring, you can find some of the best food tips as well as good menus online from novice to expert campers who’ve added there favorite campfire recipes to camping chat forums. They have great suggestions on what freeze dried or dehydrated foods to bring on your trip, gourmet ideas, healthy vegetarian food and even fun kid food recipes.

You want to be prepared for your camping trip and you want the meals to taste even better than home, so do your research before you make that shopping food list and remember to add non-perishable items.

Some food and supplies we suggest to bring would be cast iron pots and pans, IDP camp toaster 23458, Dutch oven P10D3, Coleman Xtreme 5-day cooler 6251-707, cooking mitts, clean water, peanut butter, juice boxes, canned tuna, ham and chicken, dried fruits and nuts, powdered milk, beef jerky, spices, bread, hot dogs and marshmallows to name a few.

About the Author

Fatima Medeiros is a successful author and publisher of http://www.discount-camping-gear.org. Get information on camping gear, backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, furniture, and other camping stuff.

When you’re in the hunt for top advice concerning abrasives, it will be tricky separating quality information from poorly sourced abrasives proposals and guidance so it is important to recognize ways of moderating the information presented to you.

Abrasives 4 Sale
Manufacturer sells industrial grade sanding, grinding, and cutting products for woodworking, metal fabrication, welding, granite, marble, floor sanding, and construction.

Now we’d like to give you a few tips which we really think you should use when you are searching for information about abrasives. Please be aware that everything we are telling you is only relevant to internet information about abrasives. Unfortunately we are unable to provide any direction or assistance for conducting research offline.

Applied NanoWorks - CMP Slurries
Company offers a range of nano-oxides for semiconductor CMP. Particles range from 5nm to 20nm and are available in custom suspensions. Call for sales & technical info.

A great hint to follow when you’re presented with information or advice on a abrasives site is to find out who owns the site. This may show you the people behind the site abrasives qualifications The easiest way to find out who is behind the abrasives web site is to find the sites ‘about’ page.

Any reputable site providing information concerning abrasives, will almost always provide an ‘about’ or ‘contact’ page which will list the owner’s details. The fine points should detail key points about the owner’s skill and understanding. This enables you to make an assessment about the webmaster’s training and understanding, to give recommendations about abrasives.

About the author:

Tom Brown is the webmaster for http://www.hession-bananas.info

*How often did you recieve emails like this one below?:

Abidjan`s high offecials are seeking to smuggle US $22.500.000.00 from Coast d`Ivory to Europe.

The money belongs to The Coast D`Ivory`s Committee for Rehabilitation and Construction(Co^te D`Ivoire Societe Ivoiriene de Raffinage-S.I.R-) in Abidjan. The Refinery had a fire disaster October last year.

A mandated high official contacted some individuals in Europe a week before the recent disturbance, searching for acceptance to above 30% of the money transaction when successfully transfered to an indvidual account in Europe.

The high official stated that money was realised from over inflated contracts which the contract awarding committe awarded to some foreign contractors for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the refinery and the network pipeline.

He said his group will use the money for personal purposes,declaring that the contracts was awarded to the contractors to the tune of US$42,Million, but his group used it`s positions and over invoiced the amount to the tune of US $62.5 Million.
“Now that the project has been concluded and contractors are coming for their payments” he said, “we now required a reliable and trustworthily person, whom will be used as a sub-contractor and claim the over invoiced amount of US $22.5 Million, which has also been approved for payment and use his foreign account to transfer this fund from the paying bank in Abidjan”.

The high official said to one of the contacted indviduals that he and his colleagues have mapped out all the necessary modalities towards the claim of this fund, but he added “due to our position we do not want to be noticed”. A service of an attorney , he suggested to the contacted resources, will be used to secure the registration certificate as your sister`s company in Abidjan, to enable us reflect your name as one of the contractors, for board to raise a payment draft covering the fund in your favour.

He said,the contact of the attorney will be forwarded to the first one who`ll agree immediately notifying his interest in this proposal, by sending the name and address of his company and his bank particulars. He informed also that his presence will be needed in Abidjan to enable a meeting with him, to know him and agree on some vital joint venture investments which he will be quranteed to manage for the high official and his colleagues, since they are still in service .

He suggested the agreed bargain will be that 10% of the total fund will be given to whom will agree to cover his travelling cost, accommodation and some other expenses he might incure, 40% will be used to go into joint venture investment with him, which will be supervised by him personally, of which the yearly profit will be shared equally by all parties involved, while the remaining 50% of the total fund will be for the high official and three of his colleagues.

He assured this transaction to be kept confidential, because of their positions in Government and also their committee is fully in charge of all contracts verifications,allocation and approval.

*Did you ask yourself about what to do with it or did you think to act accordingly to get some millions of dollars?

I advice you to keep yourself clean as you`re and to submit such emails to the police.
But to understand some similar scenarios that are happening on the Internet today you need to read some more articles here:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?kmo90/ebksecrets

Khalid Osman is a political refugee.He was a teacher and a journalist with 30 years experience. He wrought in Sudan, Iraq, Kuwait and Eritrea. He was a freelancer contributed in many newspapers and magazines published in
London, Paris, Cyprus, Amman and Beirut. He was an activist organizer in regards to: the Environment,Press,Education,Unions, Human rights, Children and Women. He broadcasts sometimes from a local DK radio station.

Big and Tall Clothing.

Save BIG - for yourself or that big and tall, portly or stout man in your life - with our guide to finding the best fit at the right price - plus info on living large including expert tips on how to buy big & tall sizes with additional consumer resources around the Web…

Casual Male - Featuring the George Forman line of big and tall clothing, and an extensive collection of shirts, pants and jeans, underwear and sportswear, along with a designer collection including Ralph Lauren jackets and shirts.

bigtalldirect.com - Rated ‘Best Value’ by the Wall Street Journal for their deep discounts and seasonal sales offering a searchable database of hard-to-find sizes in shirts, pants, outwear and underwear, swimsuits and sports clothes, belts, neckties and extra wide socks, also browseable by name brand.

Rochester Big and Tall Men’s Clothing and Accessories - The big name in big and tall with a huge, quality collection, and featuring a store locator for their U.S. and London UK shops, with online ordering of suits and sportcoats, sweaters, pants, shirts, underwear, pajamas, accessories and lots more.

Kaufman’s Big & Tall Men’s Shop - The exclusive online retailer for Levi’s big and tall clothing plus more name brands you’ll recognize, and offering shoes up to 20 EEEEEE, online gift certificates, sizing guide.

King Size Direct - Featuring neck sizes to 26 1/2″, sleeve lengths to 40″, waists to 80″, and shoe sizes to 18, including a great collection of casual style big men’s clothing plus dress shirts and pants, accessories and clearance items.

About the author:

http://www.a1-big-and-tall-4u.info/bigtallclothing.html

Bernina Sewing machines are among the best available. They offer many choices, designs, and features to everyone from the most experienced sewer to the beginner. Their website is a great tool to all of those individuals as well. With so much to offer the consumer, Bernina sewing machines are great assets to own.

Bernina sewing machines have been around since 1890. In 1893, Bernina invented the world’s first hemstitching machine which could stitch 100 stitches per minute! A great feet for the time. The company prides themselves in their precision and workmanship. All of the designs are made to allow the user to do more and do it better. Most models have computerization to enable this. Bernina sewing machines are competitors in the market for the ultimate sewing machine.
While Bernina sewing machines are offered in department stores and craft/hobby stores worldwide, their website also allows the consumer to find and purchase the most up to date equipment available. But, the website allows for even more. There, the consumer can find ideas, inspiration, and even download a design. Even available at their website are online classes to teach the consumer how to use their state of the art Bernina sewing machines.

With so much available to the consumer it is no wonder that Bernina sewing machines have been around for four generations as leaders in innovation and quality. The company’s machines speak for themselves, but their website offers even more. Being in the market for a new sewing machine or even learning about them, means looking into Bernina sewing machines.

About the author:

Mike Yeager
Publisher
http://www.my-sewing-machine-4me.com/

EVOLUTION: More surprising to me as I consider where my intellectual head-space has been on this issue, which is central to theological ideal; is the fact that I have become more of a creationist. Skeptics may say that God doesn’t exist and I am inclined to agree he/she isn’t within our purview to limit and say we know; HIM, or even what it is that really goes on, in the world about us. It would be difficult to say there is any one humanistic discipline or theology that fits with my perception. Teilhard de Chardin’s ‘templates’ and ‘quantum many worlds’ join Lamarckian science, that requires uncertainty and values mystery and uncertainty principles with purpose. In the final analysis you can put me in whatever ‘cubby-hole’ you want and there’ll be agreement and respect for the truth therein expressed. I see a lot of people sounding like they disagree and yet I see little difference except when they seek personal gain by it. Surely science has given a great deal of support to the concept of consciousness existing in the very smallest parts of energy, and in the ways it performs what was once considered miraculous, or magical. Here are the thoughts of two very scientifically oriented people from MIT in a book called ‘Darwinism Evolving’:

“They also made it harder for the scientific worldview to be received with equanimity by other sectors of culture. Indeed, since the reducing impulse undermines fairly huge tracts of experience, people like Wallace, who feel deeply about protecting phenomena they regard as existentially important, frequently conclude that they have no alternative except to embrace spiritualism, and sometimes even to attack the scientific worldview itself, if that is the only way to protect important spheres of experience that have been ejected from science’s confining Eden. In response, scientists and philosophers who feel strongly about the liberating potential of a spare, materialistic worldview began to patrol the borderlands between the high-grade knowledge scientists have of natural systems and the low-grade opinions that in the view of science’s most ardent defenders, dominate other spheres of culture and lead back toward the superstitious and authoritarian world of yesteryear. ‘Demarcating’ science from other, less cognitively worthwhile forms of understanding was already a major feature of Darwin’s world. A line beyond which the Newtonian paradigm could not apply was drawn at the boundary between physics and biology. We have seen how hesitant Darwin was to cross that line and what happened when he did. Twentieth-century people are sometimes prone to congratulate themselves for being above these quaint Victorian battles. They may have less reason to do so, however, than they think, for the fact is that throughout our own century, the same sort of battles, with emotional overtones no less charged, have been waged at the contested line where biology meets psychology, and more generally where the natural sciences confront the human sciences. Dualisms between spirit and matter, and even between mind and body, may have been pushed to the margins of respectable intellectual discourse. But methodological dualisms between what is covered by laws and what is to be ‘hermeneutically appropriated’ are still very much at the center of our cultural, or rather ‘two cultural’, life. Cognitive psychologists and neurophysiologists are even now busy reducing mind-states to brain-states, while interpretive or humanistic psychologists are proclaiming how meaningless the world would be if mind is nothing but brain. Interpretive anthropologists are filled with horror at what would disappear from the world if the rich cultural practices that seem to give meaning to our lives were to be shown to be little more than extremely sophisticated calculations on the part of self-interested genes. Conflicts of this sort would have given Darwin stomachaches almost as bad as the ones he endured over earlier demarcation controversies.

The rhetorical pattern of these battles is still depressingly similar, in fact, to Huxley’s confrontation with Wilberforce. Hermeneuts ridicule scientists like Hamilton, Dawkins, and Wilson when they suggest that nothing was ever known about social cooperation until biologists discovered kin selection. Reductionists in turn criticize hermeneuts, now transformed largely into ‘culturists,’ for bringing back ghosts and gods, just as their nineteenth-century predecessors were taxed with being ‘vitalists’ every time they said something about the complexity of development. Humanists identify scientists with an outdated materialist reductionism. Scientists insist that hermeneutical intentionality is little more than disguised religion.

Perhaps, a way out of this fruitless dialectic between the ‘two cultures’, can be found if each party could give up at least one of its cherished preconceptions {Or just give up the science that rejects certain facts in favour of convention or the ‘Toilet Philosophy’.}. It would be a good thing, for example, if heirs of the Enlightenment would stop thinking that if cultural phenomena are not reduced to some sort of mechanism; religious authoritarianism will immediately flood into the breach. They should also stop assuming that nothing is really known about human beings until the spirit of scientific reductionism gets to work. Students of the human sciences have, after all, been learning things alongside scientists ever since modernity began. Among the things they have learned are that humans are individuated persons within the bonds of culture and cultural roles, and that as recipients and transmitters of cultural meanings, they are bound together with others in ways no less meaningful and valuable than the ways promoted by strongly dualistic religions. By the same token, it would be helpful if advocates of the interpretive disciplines would abandon a tacit assumption sometimes found among them that nature is so constituted that it can never accomodate the rich and meaningful cultural phenomena humanists are dedicated to protecting, and that therefore cultural phenomena ‘ought never’ to be allowed to slip comfortably into naturalism. Humanists seem to have internalized this belief from their reductionist enemies, whose commitment to materialism is generally inseparable from their resolve to show up large parts of culture, especially religion, as illusions. These opponents, we may safely say, take in each other’s laundry.” (7)

Ego and protecting territory abound in the internecine warfare that academics who seldom DO anything, often fight over. Meanwhile the real DOERS explore the boundless and awesome ‘waves of the marvellous’. (8) We should accept even the ridiculous possibilities that come to mind as having merit or avenues to understand, rather than constantly fighting to make black and white answers that support our ego and limit the people who put forward possibilities. The real rule should be something along the line of ‘if it hurts no one, why not enjoy the possibility? There are ample evidences that every supposed correct point of view or paradigm is short-lived unless backed by force and some kind of authority that limits rather than supports god and his/her purpose. Then an open-mind obtains new insight and finds the templates of reality even in exploring what first appears to be utterly absurd. I admit I often have found the idea of creationism absurd, and yet as I said at the start of this entry I am now on the side of creationists through evolutionary forces with intentional creative inputs in the Intelligent Design or Interventionist mode. The next entry will seem absurd to most people and few will think it deserves inclusion in a segment purporting to have anything to do with science. I must include it in honest presentation despite the ridicule most people will attribute to it, and me.

EXORCISMS: - No, I don’t believe it has anything to do with devils and those who project such evil images and intents. These people are the ones who claim only they can exorcize the very devils they manufacture, in the hallucinatory and delusional or vulnerable people they treat. ‘The Devils of Loudon’ by Aldous Huxley exposes these Catholic masters of the art of deception. That doesn’t mean there are no spirits or dimensional entities with consciousness. To say such a thing would fly in the face of all the science we have presented. The soul would have no immortality as the Keltic Creed and Mandukya Upanishads that Eugene Wigner thinks explains quantum reality tells us is real. To deny such phenomena is the kind of thing reductionists in love with logic and certain of their omniscience will assure us they know. How can shamans create herbal concoctions that chemists can’t create? How can we doubt the actual results of the ‘dowsers’ and Tesla’s great achievements from visions or his ‘non-force info packets’ which allow such ‘free energy’ to be manufactured in something called a vacuum. NASA assures us the ingredients of life are ‘everywhere’ and that could even include a vacuum. What kind of avoidance of fact or ‘easy answers’ do you have to find in order to explain away reality and what you can observe with your own eyes? You would have to attribute the construction of ‘henges’ or the Nazca Lines to aliens or gods!

We don’t reject these possibilities but they would only serve to enhance the probability of spirits that can possess our physical and complex body with all of its conscious atoms and coordinated centers of energy known as chakras. The science and medicine of the ancients assures us that these things exist and these scientists have a solid track record of performance. They DO the things others can’t explain - then they explain how ‘chhi’ or Shakti is in every part of everything in the universe, and have suffered the guffaws of know-it-alls who are usually wrong. This energy with consciousness is open to direction and will avail the trapped or confused soul without awareness and unwilling to go on with life, an opportunity to hang on as ghosts or in the bodies of those they have shared life with. Sorry to disappoint the authors of ‘Darwinism Evolving’ but I knew this was fact even before 500 watts were extracted from a vacuum by machines built on the principles of Tesla. Those of us who have first hand knowledge of ‘the waves of the marvellous’ like Bucky Fuller and Einstein need no peer approval from those who deny god, the soul and ESP.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I am an activist author for ecumenicism and exposure of Synarchy. My work can be seen at World-Mysteries.com.

Inc. magazine is currently in the process of judging sites for its annual
small business Web award winners. Since I was a judge last year, I thought
I’d offer some observations on how and why to enter your Web site for
prestigious awards like this.

First, there were less than 800 entrants in six categories. If we
eliminate entrants that were clearly not ready for serious consideration
(rampant misspellings, garish color schemes, unfunctional links, no
business focus), you may have had a one in 50 chance of winning — and
much, much higher odds in certain categories.

Second, it’s essential to read the entry instructions carefully. Every
question or item asked for in the instructions is there for a reason, and
you run the risk of disqualification if you don’t provide all the requested
information.

In the case of the Inc. awards, some excellent sites were removed from the
running because they did not answer the questions asked in the entry
procedure. Even after being e-mailed for more information, they still did
not address the questions. I couldn’t tell whether they did this because
the answers might not have placed them in a favorable light or because they
had a cavalier attitude toward the judging and thought they could set their
own terms for the competition.

Third, for a Web site award, make sure you don’t schedule a site upgrade
during the judging period. This happened in more than one instance,
believe it or not. A couple of companies that might have won were
eliminated from the running because their sites weren’t available at all
during the week that the judges were viewing the finalists. Inc. bent over
backwards to give sites a second chance when judges complained they
couldn’t access some finalists. Even so, this factor knocked a couple of
promising candidates out of the picture.

Fourth, take your own competence seriously. The sole proprietor category
was sorely lacking in quality entrants, and if you had entered a site that
was clear, functional, readable, decent-looking and businesslike, you could
very well have had an excellent shot to win.

According to Anne Stuart, senior writer for Inc., material about their
awards is among the most-read stuff at their Web site throughout the year,
with awesome click-throughs to the winning sites. The only cost of
entering this sort of competition for such a publicity bonanza is the
effort required to submit a considered and complete entry.

Adds Dan Janal, author of several books on publicity and founder of PR
Leads, “You will get mindshare from the judges, who are very important,
influential people who could write about your company or tell their
audiences in speeches. I know — I’ve judged many contests and have found
many interesting companies as a result.”

Remember this the next time you spot an announcement for an award
competition. A blue-ribbon credential — and attention from the media and
the public — may be closer than you would assume.

About the Author

Marcia Yudkin is the author of the classic PR guide,
Six Steps to Free Publicity, and 10 other books. You can learn more about
her new special report, Powerful, Painless Online Publicity, at
http://www.yudkin.com/powerpr.htm