Free line rental deals are quite a recent development and are therefore little understood by most people. Free line rental offers are the best kept secret above all the offers around currently.

By far the most cost competitive way to obtain a free line rental mobile contract is on the net. As free line rental packages are an obscure package you would be well advised to use a mobile comparison site to see the cheapest packages on the day.

Free line rental contracts are nothing more one hundred percent cashback offers where the amount paid by cashback redemption is equal to the amount paid during the life of the contract. With this type of phone contract you must remember to pay the phone bill as you would normally for the first few months until you are able to get your one hundred percent cash refund. Then the onus is on you to remember to claim all costs of the mobile cellular phone back from the store that initially sold you the mobile cellular phone.

Theoretically a free line rental contract should not cost any money to own. This is based on the assumption thatthat the individual taking out the mobile contract correctly makes their request for for refund by redemption. Often this is not quite as simple as consumers are lead to think because of the fact that mobile retailers stipulate a number of sneaky tricks in the agreement of free line rental contracts so they can control the quantity of successful customers.

Free line rental is innevitably a trade off, due to the fact they are usually only available with cheaper handsets. The most significant drawback of free line rental packages is the fact that in the event that the store cease to trade you cannot redeem your money.

Putting aside the pitfalls of free line rental deals they remain legitimate and customers are able to find a 100% free mobile cell phone for 12 months.

If you will stay with me a while, I am going to tell three related stories and then make a point…I promise!

Story number one goes back to the days when I was a truck driving instructor. Many new truck drivers are very cautious, and even frightened at first. It is not unusual for a student driver to drive verrrry slowly. However, one young lady was going at incredibly slow speeds in all circumstances, and nothing I could do could get her to speed it up a little. She constantly spoke about never having made any real money in her life, and this gave me an idea.

One day, I said, “Shirley, how would you like a $4,000 a year raise?”

She said she’d love that, so I went on. “The company is going to pay you 25 cents a mile when you start driving full time. Let’s say you can safely improve your speed and efficiency by 10 miles per hour. You will easily drive 50 hours a week or even more. That’s at least an extra 500 miles a week. Over the course of a year, even if you only did that 65% of the time, and took a two week vacation, you would still make an extra $4,000.00 a year or more.”

After that, Shirley speeded up quite a bit and turned into a fine driver.

Story number two happened a few days ago.

Several years ago, I put my daughter, a single mother, in one of my downlines, created a couple of web sites for her, and from time to time promoted them as well. One means of promotion involved a Pay-Per-Click search engine. Normally, I would send all visitors to my sites, but at the start of each week, I would switch the traffic to one of her sites until she got a couple of sales, then I would switch back. Now, for various reasons, which would take too long to describe here, this cost me about $100 a week out of my advertising funds. Her two sales would net me about $40 in commissions, so my net loss for doing this was $60 a week.

One day, it came to me that one of her sites was immensely popular at a certain traffic exchange, but she didn’t have internet access and I didn’t have the time to get the requisite number of clicks needed weekly to generate the two sales. However, I WAS able to buy a sponsoring position for her at $35 a month. This made her two sales at a cost to me of a little over $8 a week. Commissions from those two sales was still $40, but now I made $32 a week instead of losing $60. Additionally, I used the $100 I had been spending on her on my own sites, netting two additional sales a week for me. I made about $60 per sale, so that was $120 plus the $32 for an increase in revenue of about $150 a week. If this works only 60% of the time, I make over $4,000 a year more than previously, and still shove some business her way. Since over half the sales to new customers result in repeat business, the raise is actually a lot more than that.

Story number three also happened recently.

A few months ago, I was looking back at some web sites I created back in 2000 and 2001, when I first began teaching myself html. They were pretty basic, but had a lot of good content. I hadn’t promoted them in a couple of years, so I loaded them into a search engine submission program I have, and fired them off. A couple of weeks later, they generated a nice little batch of inquiries, several of which resulted in sales. After a few weeks, this tapered off, so I brushed them up and shot them off again. Again, more inquiries, more sales. The increase isn’t all that big, but it’s averaging about one and a half sales a week. Since I made $60 on average per sale, that’s about $90 per week. That’s a little over $4,000 a year more than before.

I said there was a point to all this, and here it is. Two points, actually.

First, in my own experience, and in all the internet marketing and network marketing courses and literature I’ve studied, the importance of testing, reviewing, and refining your advertising and marketing strategies is of paramount importance. Sometimes simply changing an attitude, a technique, a wording, a process, or something else may be what it takes to generate or rejuvenate a successful process.

Second, complacency is a killer. You must always continue to strive to achieve maximum performance. Sitting back and saying, “There. That’s done. Now I can quit.” will eventually result in failure more often than not. My wife is a fairly successful, semi-professional online poker player, and every time she thinks she’s got it all figured out, she realizes that she has to go back over everything she thought she knew and refine it even more to stay on top of her game. Every time she sits back and figures she’s got it down to a system, she faces an opponent or situation that requires her to go back to the drawing board, despite her knowledge, skill, and success.

So, take a look at what you’re doing. No matter how successful, or unsuccessful it may or may not be, review it, refine it, revise it, retry it…massage it and thump it. Who knows? Maybe it will give you a $4,000 a year pay raise…or more!

The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service. He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000, and now makes his living online. To learn more about improving your marketing performance, please visit http://marketingsecrets.xtramoney4me.net. To read more articles by the author, please visit his blog at http://donovanbaldwin.blogspot.com/, or http://xtramoney4me.net/internet_marketing_links/articles/index.html.

Rejection is like a very painful disease; it can strike any one at any time. We will be looking at rejection that occurs during childhood that has a lingering pain even into adulthood. Children and adults have the need to be loved and accepted. Rejection occurs when these needs are neglected or overlooked. At the time you experience rejection, it is painful, but even more painful is the long-term affect of living as if you are rejected.

Rejection is experienced when the significant people in our lives refuse to see how important their love and acceptance really is. Rejection may come as a result of actual abandonment and neglect, or just simply a lack of affection.

Children can experience rejection, and feel abandoned during a divorce or separation when the children are separated from one or both parents. Abandonment leaves you feeling all alone and unwanted. This feeling can also be felt in a home where parents are preoccupied, and unaware that the children’s emotional needs of love and acceptance are not being met.

Rejection can also occur in a home where parents are caring, but because the parents did not receive affection and touch from their parents, they are unable to show love by affectionate touches and affirming words. This will cause a child to feel the same feelings of rejection as the child down the street whose father is never at home. A father or mother, who is in the home, but emotionally unavailable and not present, can be as hard on a child as if the parent was gone.

Rejection creates a deep wounding that is very painful. The pain from the experience of rejection will not just go away without healing. Many people are stuck, or “locked in time”, desperately needing to be set free from the pain of past rejections. Until healing occurs, you will live life as if you are still being rejected. Pain holds you to the time when you experienced the rejection. This causes you to feel as if you are still being rejected today even though it has been 20 years since the original rejection occurred.

Rejection is not…

Rejection is not a sign of weakness, although those who suffer from the pain of rejection over time become weary and even weak. Jesus understands your pain because He too experienced rejection. “He came to his own and his own did not receive him.” John 1:11
The rejection from His own people lasted for three years until He went to the cross. On the cross, He cried “Father, why have you forsaken me?” He felt all of our pain at that moment; however, His last words were “it is finished.” He died, and rose again on the third day making full acceptance possible.

We are no longer rejected; we are fully accepted in Him! I can now say that I have experienced the pain of rejection, but I know that I am not rejected.

Jesus made provision for our complete healing. “He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3) Bring your pain to Jesus Christ and release it to Him.

Don’t just forget it

One way many people try to get rid of pain is to just forget what happened, and try to block out the person who hurt them. You can tear that person out of your address book, and for a while you will be able to forget what happened; but if healing did not occur, the pain is still there. The pain that lingers from the past keeps you tied to the past. Isaiah, the prophet, said in Isaiah 1:4-6 that those people who have not been healed will end up going backwards. Like taking one-step forward and then two steps backward, you aren’t getting anywhere.

Don’t just run from it

Another way many people deal with pain is to run from it or pretend it really isn’t there. Pain is like a shadow, you look around and it is still there no matter how fast you run. That is why so many people are walking around with the shadow of the past still on them. Pain must be faced and dealt with in order for it to be put away. Instead of running from pain, stop, turn around and face it.

Face it

Pain must be faced to be healed. You may be one who has received some healing, but the pain still remains. The losses you have experienced in the rejection are one source of pain. You cannot forgive completely until you grieve what you have lost. As long as you still feel the pain, there is still more to grieve and release. Healing is like peeling an onion, with tears you peel it one layer at a time. Jeremiah says, from the prophet to priest… “They have healed the hurt of my daughter slightly, saying “peace, peace, when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:13-14) The amount of peace you have can be a good indicator of how much healing you have received.

Healing

For steps to healing go to livingwatersministry.com

For further healing on this subject, may we suggest the following CD’s:
“Forgiveness”
“The Pain of the Unmet Needs”

For Complete article on Rejection http://www.livingwatersministry.com/articles.php?viewtype=read&trans=18
Denise Boggs is an author, teacher, and director of Living Waters Ministry. She writes a daily devotional call The Path Called Righteousness.
http://www.livingwatersministry.com/devotionalsubscribe.htm

The lovely region of Africa called South Luangwa has been named the leading place to safari in Africa. The area has been celebrated in various years by the Uks most credible wildlife experts. Tourists will probably be able to admire big groups of lions as well as amazing boars.

The region is well known for its outstanding driving safaris and is popular with all British folk. The changing seasons makes the safari region irrestible with a dry season during winter and a green appealing jungle feel over June and July. During the changes in season the animals can change giving UK travellers a different aspect.

Learn the appeal of South Africa with a safari holiday and be at one with nature. The astonishing rivers and hippos and lions will make you feel alive with energy. Folk will be able to take large volumes of photos and bring home amazing memories.

South Africa comes with legions of animals in its regions and you can often easily get the perfect photo of a giraffe. If you are not used to a walking holiday you might well go on a driving safari and admire large amounts of the country all within a short amount of time. When you have exhausted your walking safari by day you can then go back to your hotel to eat. Abounding apartments are 4 star and superb.

You’ve been meaning to tend to the administration part of your business, that is, the growing list of things to do that relates to your small business. You’ve shoved all other appointments aside and starts getting down to working on the nitty gritty details, you’re ready to go all out and tick everything on the list off! But where in the world is the list?

The Administration part of the small business may seem simple but unless one gets down to doing it and doing it right, nothing else will get done.

Time management is key to an optimal administration process of your small business. Regardless of how swamped we are with work and how lacking in sleep we are, if we want our small business to make money, we have to sit down and block time off to handle the administration work. Although you should make allowance for life’s unexpectant changes, if we really get down to it and manage out time better, life won’t be so topsy turvy at all - in fact, we migght even enjoy doing the administration work for our small business.

And here are some helpful tups to help you manage your time better and perhaps may even make earning money from your small business more enjoyable.

Administration tip 1: OUTSOURCE projects to others because you want to handle more important things for your small business.

Many small business owners would rather do everything themselves, because either they don’t trust anyone else to do the job right or there isn’t a budget to outsource to others. But here’s the thing, you SHOLD learn how to outsource things you are not capable of handling, because of time or experience factor, because it is simply more effective that way!

Outsourcing will help clear some of your time for important things you are capable of doing and if you don’t have a budget to get someone else to do it, markup the fee to include the outsourcing fee. This way, you’re not really paying for the outsourcing fee.

Administration tip 2: Start with the thing you hate most and end it with the things you like most.

Sounds weird when you put it that way but it works wonders. Wake up early and do everything you hate first. You won’t be looking forward to a wonderful morning but hey, at least, you get to end your day on a good note. You’ll also find it such a joy to tick off everything you hate on that list first and then by the afternoon, you’ll have everything you LOVE to do on the list.

Administration tip 3: To ensure your small business runs smoothly, make it a habit to run through the administration process at the end of every day.

What we mean by administration process is to look through everything, do your filing, check your to-do list and update it, look through your email box, open your letters and plan for tomorrow, and perhaps, you may want to make a phone call or two before you call it a day.

Administration tip 4: Get physical when you’re feeling bogged down, stressed up and tied up in knots!

Yes, we mean it, get physical, as in exercising, it doesn’t take a long time. Some exercises require 10 - 15 minuts of your time and if you intend to take a longer time to clear your mind, go do it. You’ll come back more refreshed.

Marsha Maung is a freelance work at home graphic designer and writer who resides in Selangor, Malaysia with her husband, Peter, and 2 boys, Joshua and Jared. Marsha is the author of “Raising Little Magicians” and ‘No products to sell’ and other work at home books. For more information, visit http://www.marshamaung.com

Connect both of men’s main pursuits and what you’ve got is a vogue we customarily call a sportsbook gambling Web location. Can you imagine anything that could be more imaginative? Visualize a clique of sports buddies cheering over a preferred local players, and all the time wagers are proclaimed besides the racket. So very keen to get a bit of the pleasure, onlookers will repeatedly seek to figure who will win in the approaching competition. All this eventually develops into a friendly bantering competition called sportsbook gambling Web location.

Tips, tricks and strategies for all the top custom sports wager games here.

To bet, you should check out a sportsbook gambling Web location, i.e. a setup which receives sportsbook gambling Web location. In America, we have no less than four states where to go for sports betting absolutely legally, but illegally you can go for it just about anywhere as long as you pinpoint a bookie and you are legally of age. Amongst the sporting contests you can choose to wager on are professional including, naturally, college basketball & football, professional hockey, professional hockey, including, naturally, bets on both dog and horse racing. Punters might wager on the entire combined score of a contest or game, when a given contestant will be defeated, and even whether a given coin toss in a contest or game will come out either heads or tails.

The odds makers will confide in mere numbers to help you decide which players you deem will win. First of all, there is the spread, meaning points lead given to a the losing party that is presumed to go down by X number points. This comprises the bookie firm’s formal approach of making unprejudiced bets possible for a sportsbook. As an example, a customer may bet money on a contestant that is presumed to go down and and yet win the bet as long as the party does actually take a licking by X number of points.

You can see plenty of many different breeds of lays: straight, parlay antes, teaser wagers and, obviously, over-unders, the straight being the best known in sports betting.

So why not run a test or two, and enjoy the recreation in the process? Only ensure that you won’t get unduly carried away and kill your complete income on a caprice! Because else you’ll likely end up bemoaning it all life long!

In the ongoing AOL sweepstakes, it appears MSN may be the winner over Google. So, what will it mean for all three companies?

AOL On the Block?

As you may know, the AOL unit at Time Warner has been thrashing around for the last year while trying to find a way to remain relevant. The problem for AOL, of course, is the continually decreasing use of dial-up modems as a method for accessing the Internet. Depending on the study you look act, dial-up modem access now accounts for approximately 40 percent of all Internet users. This number is consistently dropping as DSL and cable Internet access systems become more popular. The resulting struggles at AOL are having an interesting impact on the search engine wars.

Google and MSN are trying to position themselves to dominate online search. The situation boils down as follows: Google is the king, MSN wants to be it. This situation takes on particularly interesting impact when one considers that Google now supplies ads and search results to AOL. In doing so, Google derives roughly 10 percent of its revenues from the AOL relationship.

In the summer of 2005, rumors started that AOL was for sale. MSN and Google were obvious buyers. The only problem was both companies realized AOL was a good short term play, but a terrible long term one given the death of dial-up modem systems. So who would buy AOL and how much would they be willing to pay? Would Google let MSN swipe 10 percent of its business? If so, how high could Google drive up the price of AOL for MSN?

Google Makes Major Mistake

If rumors are to be believed, MSN and Time Warner have reached a deal on the AOL platform. So, how much will MSN pay Time Warner for AOL?

Nothing. Not one penny.

By the end of December 2005, MSN and Time Warner are expected to announce a partnership wherein the two companies will intertwine their Internet units and pursue joint advertising efforts. In turn, Google will be kicked off all AOL listings, to be replaced by MSN or some AOL-MSN mix of search results and advertisements.

The executives at Google are making a major mistake, a critical blunder. Google will lose 10 percent of its business to MSN without MSN being required to expend any resources for the business. The Google Adwords program, the primary revenue source for Google, will no longer be on AOL. Surely Google could have come up with something more enticing to AOL or at least forced MSN to pay some serious cash for the acquisition. Instead, it failed on both accounts.

Google is a great search engine, but this is just one in a number of business mistakes made by the Internet giant. How could it lose 10 percent of its business without making MSN pay for it? If MSN pulls this off, one will wonder who is at the controls at Google and what they could possibly be thinking.

Richard A. Chapo is a San Diego business lawyer with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com - a San Diego business law firm in San Diego, California.

Rupert Steiner in his book ‘My First Break’ attempted to define the secret of becoming an entrepreneur and following interviews with over one hundred entrepreneurs, Steiner concluded that there was not one defined path. He has, however, drawn out observations of an entrepreneur’s personality traits. They have a tendency to be rebels, outsiders, original thinkers, risk takers and break new ground. Entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for new business opportunities and have the guts it needs to start up a business. They have total commitment to what they are doing, which verges on obsession behaviour.

Although some of the traits that they exhibit are similar to those of ‘ordinary’ businessmen, entrepreneurs have a tendency to come up with good ideas, which they execute better than anyone else. The have the flair to identify niche opportunities and are able to secure finances and to build an infrastructure and to keep the organisation afloat until it starts to make a profit.

Sue Birley, Imperial College Management School Professor of Entrepreneurship has tried to identify when the spark of an entrepreneur comes from. She concluded that to get a business established you need someone with persuasion, persistence with no inhibitions about identifying resources to transform the vision into reality.

People do not typically switch on being an entrepreneur. Some comes from nature, some from nurture. It is hard for people to be taught to be entrepreneurial: they either have it in their genes or in their upbringing or not at all. People cannot be taught to relish risk taking. Imagination is not taught in the classroom.

However, academics believe that education can help to provide those with a spark with at least some of the skills they will need to turn that spark into something more substantive. Michael Hay, Director for the Foundation for Entrepreneurial Management at the London Business School says it is possible to give aspiring entrepreneurs some insight and help to build their confidence. He says that you cannot teach people to have a good idea but you can develop inter-personal skills, sales and marketing and general management skills. You can make them better prepared and increase the odds for success. He says that it is crude to say that people are born entrepreneurs but thinks they are shaped by early experiences and role models.

Other theories regarding the psychological traits of an entrepreneur suggest that they are driven by specific psychological traits or even flaws. Some have a passion to be able to prove to themselves and to others that they can achieve although deep down they are suffering from low self-esteem. It has been found that some entrepreneurs are profoundly insecure and they strive to prove to themselves that they are better than they perceive themselves to be. However, they do tend to have an insight into other people’s strengths and weaknesses and have a great ability to lead and motivate their staff. They generally have a gut feel for what customers want.

Extensive research has been carried out on the psychology of entrepreneurs by Cary Cooper who is Bupa Professor of Organisational Psychology at Manchester University’s Institute of Science and Technology and he states that many entrepreneurs are ‘bounce-back’ people with a powerful desire to achieve. He says that ‘….they do not get distracted by either success or failure; they just plough on, never satisfied and constantly in fear of ‘being found out’. Often after one success they think ‘I fooled them’ and need to do it again to prove it was not just a freak event.’

Cooper also says that entrepreneurs see failure as confirming their inner fears but following failure they do not give up; they just get started again to try and prove that they can get it right a second time. Cooper also observes that being an entrepreneur has negative aspects to it. They tend to be unable to have and miss out on close relationships and the family life that others have. Their focus is only on the business to an obsessional degree, which can be likened to a drug. Only a few entrepreneurs actually set out to build big businesses and to attain wealth and, interestingly, money I is not a prime motivator.

Cooper has classified entrepreneurs into two categories; those who are functional and those who are real. He suggests that functional types are not genuine entrepreneurs. They tend to have one success and subsequently live off that success and need to show to people that they have been successful. They like to be seen with their money as they have little drive to establish another success. This varies significantly from the real entrepreneur. They keep coming up with new ideas to prove to themselves and to their peers that they are capable to doing so. Their main driver is a fear of failure and not for tangible wealth benefits. A real entrepreneur never stops.

It has been demonstrated that many entrepreneurs grow tired of their business after a while and sell them or recruit fresh managers to free them up from day to day involvement. Once the buzz has gone from the original risk, many are on the look for their next entrepreneurial ‘fix’.

By definition they are risk takers, modern merchant adventurers avoiding the stifling bureaucracy and politics of big companies.

Cooper notes that many entrepreneurs are actually incapable of running a business. They do not like the tedium of building a company. They employ a strong team of managers to do this

Cooper says entrepreneurs are driven by a need to control the world in a way that they were unable to control in their childhood’s. In a survey he discovered many were inspired by a caring parent or a mentor. More than 70% of entrepreneurs could identify some significant shaping event in their childhood. A factor common too many entrepreneurs Cooper has researched are the number who suffered bereavement at an early age.

Richard Branson of the Virgin Group says that he would not have been able to start Virgin if he had not done so whilst he was a teenager, with no mortgage, dependants or ties. He states that half of his success is getting the right people around him and encouraging them to be committed to what he is doing. He states the importance of having a passion for what you are doing.

Krueger and Thueson using the Myers-Briggs Type Personality Indicator would describe an entrepreneur as having an ENTP type of personality - extrovert, intuitive, thinker, and perceiver. An ENTP looks for one exciting challenge after another. They are highly inventive types whose enthusiasm leads to a variety of activities. Their inventiveness is attributable to their rich intuition which gives them a world of endless possibilities, which, when combined with their objective decision making facility and directed outwardly converts everything to ideas and schemes.

During an interview with a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, he described entrepreneurs as extroverts. Serebriakoff describes entrepreneurs as an outward looking, socially friendly and uninhibited type of person. Enjoys company, feels at ease in a large circle and tends to form a large number of relatively shallow relationships. They are confident, assertive and friendly, we can represent this extreme type as a boisterous, talkative and friendly commercial traveler who is very much at home in a bar or at the club.

The constant variable in being an entrepreneur is getting a break.

Any country that ignores its entrepreneurs quickly runs into trouble!

Aurel Voiculescu MBA http://www.aurelvoiculescu.com Corporate strategy research - Media Industry - The honey pot for entrepreneurs. http://www.aurelvoiculescu.com/mba/strategy.htm For a full list of references follow the links in the resource box.

Sport is increasingly popular as we have more leisure time and we are encouraged to be more active. Obesity is increasing and becoming a problem in all groups of people, especially in children. These two pressures are increasing our levels of participation in sport.

However, sport is not a completely positive pursuit. Injury, even long term disability, is a distinct possibility in many sports, and the risks of this kind of problem are not fully recognised.

Everywhere we are encouraged to exercise. When we are young we participate in sports at school and college, and when we are older it is suggested we exercise for our health, our hearts, our weight and our joints. It’s pretty persuasive, isn’t it? Even if we don’t buy in to the whole message and take part we are aware of the pressure. Is this pressure a wholly good thing?

Young people play sport for fun, not for their health! When we are young we don’t need to play sport for our health, because unless we are unlucky we are already healthy. Young people play hard and put large forces through their limbs and joints, risking injury in their competitive efforts. This can have long term consequences.

Older people don’t participate in sport and exercise as much as younger people, but have more need to exercise. Sensible exercising in the years from fifty onwards can give benefits in terms of life expectancy and ability to function in life. At this age we are likely to be more moderate in the level of effort and forces involved, so are at lower risk of injury.

If we look at it logically, young people don’t need to exercise (and do, hard) and older people do need to exercise (and don’t). There’s a interesting paradox! We need to look at this unquestioning acceptance of exercise as a good thing, as we hear very little of the personal and financial consequences of going for it.

Heavy exercise (high level sport, military training) is associated with a significant level of joint and other injuries. Many of these problems get worse over time and cause pain and disability. People in their forties and fifties may need joint replacement due to the arthritic changes which have developed since the initial injury. However, We can take some precautions to avoid problems later.

The ten tips for success in sports

1. Very young people should not put extreme forces on their spines and joints. Early gymnastics with large ranges of movement may give problems later.

2. If you are hypermobile (very bendy or “double jointed”), think very carefully about engaging in contact sports. Your joints are more vulnerable to injury and your muscles less able to control their movements to keep them safe from damage. I know someone whose joints are so lax that dancing is a risky activity!

3. Choose an activity to suit your physical type. Impact sports may not suit a high body weight, and a poorly coordinated person might not choose a complex contact sport. High level sport is not for everyone, no matter how much they want to participate.

4. If you get injured, get a proper diagnosis from a qualified person and follow the treatment plan. Do not be tempted to go back to the activity until you are completely recovered and have regained your fitness. Otherwise re-injury is likely.

5. If you have a serious (or repeated) injury to your spine or one of your joints, consider giving up the activity responsible and taking up some other, more appropriate, pursuit.

6. Take the advice of a competent physical therapist if your problem persists.

7. Moderate level exercise, such as brisk walking, can give you all the health benefits without the injury risks of more extreme sports.

8. Consider whether or not to encourage children strongly to be competitive in sports where they can get injured.

9. Don’t just start a new sport straight off, work up your fitness and participation until your physical condition and skill are good enough to avoid injury. Be particularly aware of this at the times of the year when sports and other activities may start and you are least used to them.

10. Remember that fitness is very specific to the sport you are used to. Don’t expect your fitness to transfer to a very different activity, or you may get muscle soreness or injury. For every new activity, you need to start again with your fitness.

Jonathan Blood Smyth is author of Secrets of Pacing and a Superintendent Physiotherapist in an NHS Hospital in the South-West of the UK. With over 15 years experience of managing orthopaedic conditions and looking after joint replacements, he now specializes in the management of chronic pain conditions. For more information on these and other subjects see The Physiotherapy Site.

No. I’m not talking here about the outdoor activity enjoyed
by many. And no again; I did not misspell it. Phishing is
the name given to the latest online scam where millions of
unwary Americans are getting their identities stolen.

This fraudulent activity is considered the fastest growing
crime of modern times. The favorite target groups of
phishers seem to be very young children and senior citizens,
as they do not often ask for credit reports, fill out credit
card applications or solicit loans. This allows the thieves
to go undetected for longer periods of time; but still, be
careful. We all are potential targets.

Remember when throwing away unshredded documents with
personal information in the trash bin was considered a big
risk for identity theft? While this still happens, identity
thieves have become more sophisticated in recent times, and
this is how they do it…

Phishers create bogus e-mails that look as if they came from
large, well-known institutions and banks, such as eBay,
Paypal, Citibank, EarthLink, and Wells Fargo among others.
These e-mails claim that you are due for an account update,
or that the account number, password, social security number
or other confidential information needs to be verified. Then
they warn you, stating that if you do not do it within a
certain period of time, that your account will be closed,
terminated, the service discontinued, or something to that
effect.

They even provide you with links to websites that look
legitimate, because they hijack the real logos of these
well known banks, and trusted institutions and companies.
And that is the scary part… these e-mails look 100%
legitimate, but they are not.

In some cases it goes even further… some of these phishers
are installing spyware on your computer to monitor your
online activities. So… should you leave the online world for
good? Not necessarily.

These are a few things you can do to protect yourself from
these scammers:

1. Do not respond to any e-mail that asks for personal
information from you, such as account number, credit card
number, user names, passwords, etc. If you suspect that the
e-mail, indeed, be legitimate, contact your bank or
institution to verify this.

2. When in doubt, visit the Anti-Phishing Working Group for
an update of the latest scams, and tips to avoid becoming a
victim. The website’s URL is www.antiphishing.org

3. Websites like www.Paypal.com, www.citibank.com, and
www.ebay.com, offer security tips and tell you what
information they’d never ask for in an e-mail.

4. Get anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date.

5. If you suspect you have received a fraudulent e-mail, do
not click on any links within it, and forward it to the FTC
at uce@FTC.gov

Finally, if you suspect you’ve been a victim of this fraud,
get a copy of your credit report immediately to check for
unusual activity. If you discover that you’ve been a victim
of identity theft, close your account at once and…

- Call the Credit Bureau.

- File a police report.

- Call the FTC ID theft hotline at (877)IDTHEFT.

- Alert other financial institutions where you have accounts.

According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, phishers send
millions of e-mails a day, getting about 5% response. Even
with this low response, it is estimated that about 150,000
Americans have fallen prey to these scams since May of 2004.
Get informed. Do not become a victim yourself.

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You have permission to publish this article electronically
or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are
included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be
appreciated.

E-mail: marketingplanet1@aol.com
November, 2004.

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Tamara Baruhovich is the author of “Straight Talk about
Network Marketing” A no hype, no B.S. e-course that
shouldn’t be missed if you are serious about starting
a successful career in Network Marketing! Get your
complimentary copy here… e-course04@aweber.com