If you feel that you have a mold problem, you can save money on a mold inspection by buying a mold testing kit from your local South Florida building supply store. The kit consists of a standard, plastic Petri dish containing a mold growth media, most likely MEA (Malt Extract Agar.) Simply open the kit and let mold spores fall in it from the ambient air above it. Within a few days, mold colonies will start to grow. Typically, you will see black, white, gray, brown, and green colonies. Colonies with both green and white are also very common. Most colonies will be fuzzy, and the mold types in the mold testing kit will usually be mostly penicillium/aspergillus-type molds, cladosporium, mucor, and a few others. It’s very cheap, easy, fast, and quite interesting to see what is floating around in your air.

However the conclusion drawn from the results of this mold testing procedure is very limited. Because the kits do not draw in a given amount of air for a given amount of time, there is no way of knowing for sure if the number of spores that settle in the plate and grow into mold are just the normal expected levels of spores found in every house. Most clean houses without a serious mold problem should be expected to contain very roughly 200 to 500 mold spores per cubic meter of air. Anything over 1,000 is typically considered suspect by many mold inspectors. These numbers are just estimates and do not reflect the real world perfectly, however, similar numbers have been supported by several scientific mold studies over the years.

Since there is no control sample using outdoor mold spore testing, you will not know if the mold spores floated in from outside as is expected, or if the mold indoors is different in number and type from outdoor levels and types, which would indicate that the mold most likely grown indoors.

Also, because the mold testing was not conducted by a person trained and experienced in mold testing, you will most likely have no idea of from where the mold came, if it is likely growing inside the walls, why the mold is a problem if in fact it is a problem, or how to properly remove the mold and correct the problem that resulted in mold growth.

If you feel that you have a serious mold problem in your home or place of employment, you may want to purchase a test kit from your local building supply store. However, you will benefit much more by obtaining the services of an experienced, trained, and properly certified mold inspector, certified indoor environmentalist or certified industrial hygienist who is familiar with proper mold testing methods and:

1) Building construction and building forensics Because your mold problem is not in a Petri dish or lab it is in a building and is the result of building failure, mold testing should be done by someone who has knowledge of buildings, vapor barriers, roofing, etc.

2) Psychometrics. Psychometrics pertains to humidity, temperature, dew point and air, and a deep understanding of the interrelation of such factors is important. This is very important during Florida mold testing.

3) Biological sciences. Your mold testing professional should understand at least some basic biological and ecological science principles pertaining to microbiology or mycology (the study of mold).

4) HVAV systems. Your mold testing expert must be familiar with HVAC systems because probably 50% of mold problems are related to HVAC system malfunctions, leaks, or contamination.

5) Sampling reports. Your mold inspector should be properly trained and experienced in investigating and sampling mold, and they should know how to interpret the lab results.

6) Inspection reports. Your mold testing professional should give you a comprehensive mold inspection report documenting visual findings, environmental monitoring results, interpretation of lab results, inspector’s conclusions, recommendations on how to control the mold problem and more. A report from the lab alone will only result in you hiring another inspector to get the interpretation of the results. Look to A Accredited for a qualified inspector who has a college degree in education for teaching biology and general science, has health inspection experience, has extensive home and building inspection experience, has earned not one but three mold inspection certifications and also who is a certified indoor environmentalist certified by The Indoor Air Quality Association.

About The Author:
Daryl Watters is president of A Accredited Mold Inspection Service, Inc. He provides home, mold, and indoor air quality investigations in South Florida. He is also the creator of MIR forms designed to aid inspectors in the production of computer generated indoor air quality and mold inspection reports.

For more inspection information visit
http://www.floridamoldinspectors.us
http://www.florida-mold-inspection.com

Spending your hard earned money to register an expired domain name will help you enhance the visibility of your web site and direct useful traffic and inbound links to add more value to the expired domain. However, with over 50 millions of expired domains up for immediate sale, it could be a tremendous task to find a good domain that can form a viable business asset to you. How do you know that the expired domain that you purchase is the right one for your domain name trading business? The most important issues that you must consider before buying an expired domain are:

A) The amount of traffic that the site receives
B) The type and quality of traffic

When you have this basic information and details, you can try and buy a suitable expired domain name by paying a reasonably good price. Professional domain traders use a number of tools and techniques to guess at the most probable traffic attached to the expired domain. When you get empowered with the required knowledge and skills, you can easily predict, as a guesstimate, the amount of money that a given expired domain can make and derive.

You can make a fair estimate of traffic attached with an expired domain name by using the following three processes or methods:

Tracking traffic: The easiest way to know the amount of traffic an expired domain was receiving is by contacting the owner. Though, the statistics provided by the owner is difficult to believe, you can cross check the owner’s claim by using some of the well known methods like traffic counting scripts and software tools. You can buy one of the well-known traffic finding scripts and tools to asses the commercial viability of the expired domain. Most of these tracking software tools allow you to find additional information like past referral, the quality of visitors and their geographical distribution. Parked domains may provide you an idea of the traffic statistics related to the domain. You may just need to go though the domain sales listing page given on the parking web portal.

Predicting traffic: There are a number of indirect methods that will provide you a fair estimate of traffic. Alexa web portal provides you a comprehensive report on the web performance statistics. High ranking domains receive Alexa ranking just from the type-in type of traffic. A general thumb rule suggests that an Alexa ranking of less than 10, 00,000 for a basic web portal is a good sign and such web portals always receive some amount of traffic. Alexa could be a general guideline and you may need to use the statistics in a general sense. Likewise, the Overture tool will also provide you a general idea of a web portal’s link popularity and inbound traffic. If a domain contains maximum searched keyword, you may safely assume that it has some significant amount of traffic associated with it. Overture keyword search results can be employed as a general predictor or indicator for whether or not a given domain name received traffic. On the other hand, search engine listing also provides a fair idea of the popularity of an expired domain name. Higher the search engine ranking means better traffic and inbound popular links.

However, an expired domain may not be listed in the search engine pages. A domain appraisal report will provide you the past traffic statistics of the expired domain name. Link popularity tools provide you a fair estimate of the volume of the traffic and their overall quality. A solitary link emanating from a major web site may signify thousands of other links from minor and inconsequential web sites. Directory listing will also mean a stable type of traffic that is ongoing and continuous.

About The Author:
John Khu is the well-known author of a new e-book titled \”Expired Domain Secret\”. He is also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web site called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

I frequently rant on Internet marketing and some of the gurus who try to bend your ear. Why? Because many of these so-called gurus trash everything that makes sense in this Internet world, especially when they realize that they cannot make money from the techniques being recommended.

I don’t preach marketing concepts solely for the purpose of selling my products and services. (If you happen to buy my products or services, then awesome, but that is not my point when I share information from my SEO and other marketing campaigns.) I preach the concepts that I have used for myself successfully. Either you can trust me and test the things I recommend, or you can listen to the gurus and drown yourself in pity, when you realize you are not finding the success you seek.

I present things in such a way that anyone can actually go out and try my suggestions on their own, with or without my help. I want you to at least try what I suggest. I don’t want you to try once, but I want you to commit yourself giving the suggested methods a chance to work for you.

Yes, I preach article marketing in connection with building link popularity value for your website (and I operate an article marketing company). But, I am not the only article marketing company out there. So, it remains possible for you to employ my article marketing techniques, without actually using my services specifically. (If you want to use my services, great, but you don’t have to do so.)

Frequently, new customers come along and say, \”Bill, I am going to try this once. If it works out for me, I will be back.\” My response is often, \”Dude, you are selling yourself short, when you do something just once!\”

As a person who has only written one article, you are just one in thousands of uncommitted, wannabe article writers. Your article may very likely be overlooked, because the publishers do not yet know your name or why they should care that you are writing articles.

When publishers have seen your name, 3, 4 or 10 times, then they are more likely to open your articles to see if they like your writing style and to see why they should pay attention to your message. Once publishers begin to pay attention to what you write, then publishers will open more of your articles, and perhaps publish your articles more frequently.

When you do a one-time out article, you are riding solely on a prayer, for success. (I am not in the prayer business - please see your pastor for that service.) But, if you can commit yourself to ten articles, your chance for article marketing success has been improved tenfold.

The first thing that needs to happen for article marketing to work for the promotion of your website is for you to create great content that other people want to publish. Then you must get noticed by the (ezine and website) publishers that will want to publish your articles. Once you have an audience, don’t let them down — keep giving them more content so that they can turn to you always.

To express this point, let me share a couple names with you. How many of you have heard of Willie Crawford? Willie has written and distributed 123 articles through my program, and he has 140,000 search results for his name in Google (http://www.google.com/search?q=”willie crawford”).

My friend Clinton Douglas IV has written and distributed 36 articles. Google credits him with 17,500 mentions in the Google search results for his name (http://www.google.com/search?q=”clinton douglas iv”).

Both of these gentlemen suggest that they rely primarily upon articles to build their presence online. Of course, Willie is somewhat of an exception, since he has his fingers in so many pies. But, Willie still attributes much of his success to article marketing.

When it is time to measure your article marketing success, you should never go to Google’s public search results and pull a simple search for your name or a link:yourdomainurl.com search. You should not even go to Yahoo’s Site Explorer to find the same inforamtion.

Instead of relying on the public records for inbound link counts, you should register your website in Google’s Webmaster Tools control panel at: http://www.google.com/webmasters

On the public side of Google, my site shows 33 inbound links (http://www.google.com/search?q=link:thephantomwriters.com) and Yahoo Site Explorer credits me with 1,478 inbound links. But, inside of Google’s Webmaster Tools, I have 10,000 inbound links according to Google’s records. I am not going to divulge exactly how many inbound links I have (according to Google’s Webmaster Tools), but even I was surprised by the strength of my link counts.

The fact is that Google will only show you a really small sampling of the inbound links for your website, and while Yahoo is more free with this information, they also fail to show anything more than just a small snippet of the number of links you will actually have for your website.

So, if you are truly interested in learning the value that you created with your article marketing campaign, you absolutely have to login to Google’s Webmaster Tools to get to the truth of the matter.

But, building links is just one facet of a successful article marketing campaign. There is also the reputation you build for yourself when you teach your readers something of real value in your articles. There is the consistent traffic you can receive to your website when your article is published on a website that has a regular audience. And there is the surges of traffic you can receive to your website when your article is published in a large newsletter.

I have always tried to play straight with folks, so please take this advice as it is intended. If you are only going to do one article to see where article marketing can take you, spend your money on paid advertising instead. But, if you really believe that those of us who have written hundreds of articles do so, because this marketing method works, then make a serious commitment to seeing an article marketing campaign through to success.

About The Author:
Bill Platt has been providing article marketing to his clients since 2001 at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com/ He offers ghost writing and article distribution services. With lots of experience writing articles that attract publishers, readers, traffic and sales to his website, Bill wrote an ebook to share the secrets of his article writing success that can be found at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html

There are dozens of good ways to send people to your website. These methods come with a wide variety of results and difficulty. Attempting various methods and studying the results has been a focus of mine. I’ll review one of my favorites for you.

Offer something FREE to your visitors.

There is a high perceived value on the part of your visitor if you can provide them with useful information. By capturing and sharing this free information, you can make somebody’s life better and easier in many regards.

It’s simply human-nature that you must constantly work to over-come a basic mis-trust on the part of your visitor. This level of mis-trust MUST be overcome before you can succeed in your efforts.

Your focus should be to find and share valuable information. Finding (and sharing) information on-line is the quickest and most effective. It doesn’t take much search time before you will be discovering subjects and information that folks want to know. This shows you the topics that are being inquired upon and which you will want to include in the information you give away.

One strategy you can employ is to share the information in the form of a multi-day mini-course that people can receive from you. Make the information package you send be of top-quality for maximum results. A little more time and attention at this point will have tremendous benefit in the value of your subscriber list. It costs much less than you might think to do this.

You will be offering to share this information in exchange for your visitor’s name and e-mail address. A ’squeeze page’ is the best tool to use for capturing this information. A squeeze-page is simply a basic website that presents your message offering the information.

Some very professional design work is available at affordable prices these days. Your own squeeze page can be up and capturing names for you in a very quick time.

If you would like to have your own squeeze page up and running, let me know. This is a great starting point in establishing your own highly-profitable list.

With care, your subscriber list can be cultivated and a long-term relationship built with the members. You can build a very rewarding and long-lasting enterprise by steadily and thoughtfully putting these concepts to work.

Like any offline business, you are providing genuine value to your customers who have grown to trust your motives and your interest in helping them. You can be paid very well in the process.

The best strategy in any relationship-selling environment is one where you give before ever trying to take. As with other strategies, here, again you are providing something of value free to the reader. This time it is in a different format and is made available to the reader using different tools and strategies. Quality in what you provide and how you provide it is essential, easy and inexpensive.

A focus on providing information to the people you wish to reach should be foremost in your mind. They will be willing to buy something from you (now or in the future) only if they first perceive that you have something they need or want. The biggest obstacle you will always face with new readers is one of NO TRUST! Providing something free is a great way to start building it. Valuable information can be found readily on the internet. You also likely have more information and knowledge of your own than you realize. There are many sources of information where you can find topics of interest to huge numbers of people.

The article should inform, educate and even enthuse the reader, but should NOT sell something. Your articles are not the place to sell some product or service. It is their job to inform and establish your credibility and TRUST! Your key marketing tool with the article publishing strategy is found in using a resource box. This is simply an area at the end describing who you are and giving your website address where they can visit and benefit by what you offer there.

I’ve seen a tremendous piece of software in action that automates the process of article-writing. This tool merges blocks of words, uses a 30,000 word thesaurus and manges data bases, as well. There is some new software out there (along with people-run businesses) that helps with article production as well as distribution.

Article writing and publishing should be part of an on-going strategy. Computers and professional service companies make this vital function much easier. If you want more information on these useful tools (or anything else in this article), just contact me.

About The Author:
Casey Moher - Caseymoher@comcast.net (801) 941-3334

Mr. Moher is a Registered Pharmacist and Life-Long Marketing and Sales Professional. You Can Get His Free Five-Day Mini-Course on Building Targeted Website Traffic by visiting: http://www.newtrafficmaster.com

Schedule wise the NFC west draws the very tough NFC East, and somewhat less challenging AFC East as common division foes. We see the non-common foes as having a significant impact in what looks to be a wide open division race.

The Vegas pre-season favorite, Seattle, simply has too many questions on offense to pencil them in as the outright division winner. They’ll be in the hunt because they have the division’s best defense, and surprisingly (at #20 overall in the NFL) the Seahawks had the best rushing offense in the NFC West last season. But the Hawks were able to take the division crown on the strength of their pass attack; and they simply are not going to be as strong over the top this year. Couple that with having to play the hardest schedule in the division and we see them as ripe candidates to take a step back. Arizona and St. Louis have made significant strides this off-season, the Rams in particular look to have several key players returning from injury, while Arizona has steadily improved by rock solid drafting. San Francisco is a mess - the ownership group just doesn’t know football; and we don’t see them at the top of the division so long as the York’s control the football decisions. Outside of the Bay team this division should be a dog fight, up for grabs right up to the last few weeks of the season. However, in the end our bet is the Rams come out on top. Our 2008 NFC west division forecast looks like this:

St. Louis 9-7
Arizona 8-8
Seattle7-9
San Francisco 6-9


St Louis

Vegas has installed a pre-season win total for the Rams to win only 7 games. Our win/loss scorecasting models have St. Louis winning 9 games, and the division in the 2008 regular season.

Last year this offensive line had 4 starters miss games due to injury, including mainstay LT Orlando Pace, who was out for the entire season. The upside is several back-ups on the line gained valuable experience. They have several highly rated free agent linemen coming in who should improve the production of this unit immensely. Pace looks to be fully healed from his season ending shoulder injury - this unit should be one of the teams strengths, if not one of the better units in the NFL. The offense is led by All-Pro caliber QB Mark Bulger, surrounded by future hall of fame WR Torry Holt, and stud RB Steven Jackson. The Rams appear to have the strongest offense in the division, and could be one of the top 10 units in the entire league.

The defense gave up a respectable average of 341 ypg last year, but a whopping 27 ppg. Make no mistake this anomaly was primarily due to the difficulties of the offense moving the ball, and leaving the defense with poor field position. This year the defensive line returns healthy, and will be bolstered by first round DE Chris Long. Long will have an immediate impact on the St Louis pass rush making the entire defense better; he has a lot of moves as a pass rusher which is very unusual in a rookie. A player to keep an eye on is all-pro caliber free safety O.J. Atogwe - this guy can flat out play - in a pass happy division he is one of the better DB’s in the division.

What puts the Rams over the top in what will be a tight division race is their strength of schedule - they have the easiest draw of non-common opponents in the league. They play a last place schedule and will host CHICAGO and travel to ATLANTA in the season finale - both are games they should be favored to win. If St. Louis can win those two games, then at least split their division games, and play .500 ball with the division’s common conference opponents (including MIAMI and the NY JETS) - they’ll have a realistic shot at winning 9 games.

Arizona

Arizona is going to be right there, and we won’t be surprised if they pull out 9 (or more) wins and take the division. On offense they have what should be an improved offensive line, with potential all-pro bookend tackles. The Arizona line did get better last season and will probably improve this season, but James will be 30 at the start of the season and is approaching 3,000 carries, very significant landmarks in the career of most running backs. If QB Leinart improves on his decision making in his 3rd NFL season this could be a solid offense. There is a major question mark at RB, where Edgerrin James just doesn’t have the break away speed anymore to make defenses fear him.

Defensively this unit has major question marks up front on the defensive line - where is the pressure on the QB going to come from? DE Calvin Pace left in free agency, and wasn’t replaced. The linebackers and secondary are solid, but without pressure up front no defense can dominate in this league. It’s a shame, because if the Cardinals had a pass rushing threat we think they make some noise this year. The defense will be bringing in a number of new players that will take some adjustment, and they still lack depth.

Arizona unfortunately draws MINNESOTA and @CAROLINA as non-common opponents - both are games where they’ll have match-up problems, and it looks like they’ll do well to earn a split.

Seattle

Vegas has the over/under on the 2008 Seahawks at 9 games. Take the under and run. Seattle’s time has passed, have no doubt about it their window of opportunity has closed. We’re not Seattle bashers, when many last year were predicting their demise, we went against the flow and correctly picked them to hold on and win the division in 2007. This year things have changed. They no longer have a respected rush attack, No. 1 receiver Deion Branch is coming back from major ACL surgery (an injury he received in the playoffs last year and which typically takes 12-18 months to fully recover from), and they lost their most promising young WR to free agency (DJ Hackett). What was once one of the best run-blocking offensive line units in the league has degenerated into a shadow of its former self. The O-line has declined due to the loss of key players in free agency, and key prospects not fulfilling potential. Rumors from Seattle suggest that they are installing a zone blocking scheme, not that it is hard to learn but changes always require adjustment and Jones didn’t see much of that in Dallas, how well he reads the line will be tested. QB Matt Hasselbeck is a star player, but outside of Engram he’s not going to have anyone to throw to, and he’s not going to last the season lining up to throw behind this unit.

The defense is one of the better on paper in the league. It’s a well disciplined and fast unit. However, the defense is not so good that it can carry a weak offense. When the offense struggles, and we believe that it will, the defense will struggle much the same way the Rams defense of 2007 struggled - they’re not big and will simply wear down from being on the field too long - when that happens they’re going to give up points late in games.

Seattle has never been a good road team, and this year they have several non-division road contests where they’ll likely be installed as dogs (NY Giants, Tampa, and Dallas). We also see them struggling on the road at what should be a much improved Buffalo team in the season opener. The non-common opponent draw is Green Bay and Tampa - Green Bay has always given Holmgren fits and they’ll do very well to earn a split between those two. Combine the obstacles of the tough road schedule, 1st place non-division schedule, improved division teams, with an anemic offense and a lame duck coach and you have the real prospect of a disappointing season.

San Francisco

What is there to like about the Niners? This team is the new version of the penny pinching Bidwell owned Cardinals. They’re a well coached and scrappy team, and we even like to play them in the right spot. But they’re not in contention to win the division. The worst thing that ever happened to the Niner’s was Denise DeBartolo. They could reach 7 wins Vegas has them penciled in for, but it’s probably more likely they’ll falter. The defense is solid, but the offense has the potential to really struggle. Consider that this is a long drop Martz offense, they don’t have the offensive line talent nor receivers to pull it off and you have the recipe for a long season on the Bay. San Francisco is replacing most of their offensive line. Martz requires receivers that run precise routes and have superb timing, a description that applies only to Issac Bruce. (Neither Lelie nor Bryant Johnson make a lot of sense in this offense.) To make things worse Martz minimizes most running backs not named Marshall. The other part of this offense requires that the quarterback makes quick decisions and stand in the pocket and take the hit.

Summary

It will be a tight division race, coming down to St. Louis or Arizona. The value play is on St. Louis, at 6.50 to 1 odds, to win the division (the pre-season number on Arizona is 3.25 to 1 odds to win the division). The better play here is St. Louis to win OVER 6.5 games. Our scorecasting models have the 2008 Rams winning 9 games; a deviation of 2.5 games from the Vegas total - which correlates to a strong betting line play.

About The Author:
Kurt Schumacher is an Editor at Football Forecasters, where he provides football commentary, and College and NFL Picks, leading up to and during each football season. Football Forecasters has been providing NFL team reports and football picks since 1999, through its public and membership websites. When you live for gridiron action, Football Forecasters should be on your browser’s homepage. Get started now at: http://www.footballforecasters.com

With gasoline at or above $4.00 per gallon, all of us are painfully aware of the effect of fuel prices on our budgets. Suddenly the fuel efficiency or lack thereof of a SUV, Hummer, or large car becomes painfully evident. Even with a fuel-efficient small car, the impact on our wallets catches almost everyone’s attention.

Most of us simply cannot run down to the local car dealer and buy a brand new, highly fuel-efficient hybrid car. Somehow, we just have to make the best of what we have available to us. In this article, I am going to assume that you are just like me, and I am going to assume you need to figure out how to get the best gas mileage out of the vehicle you have in your driveway. So, what can YOU do TODAY to reduce your cost of driving from here to there and back?

Slow Down. What? S…L…O…W… D…O…W…N (Taxi Humor)

When you have to drive your car, the single thing that you can do to most dramatically reduce the cost per mile is to SLOW DOWN. I know that you didn’t want to hear that, did you? Whether commuting or traveling on the interstate, we all want to keep up with the traffic, which is probably going 10 to 20 mph above the speed limit, if traffic conditions allow it.

Many decades ago traffic jams began to back things up on the Golden Gate Bridge and traffic engineers began exploring ideas on how to move more cars across the bridge in less time. The answer was to reduce the speed limit from 50 to 40 or less. With less distance between the cars at the slower speed, the total number of cars per hour across the bridge went UP dramatically.

Every car consumes energy to run. For most of us this means gasoline. The engine-transmission-rear end-power train combination requires a certain amount of fuel per second for any given speed. While the specific data varies for each power train combination, a graph of speed versus miles per gallons (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/driveHabits.shtml) shows the maximum miles per gallon (and the lowest fuel cost per mile) occurs between 45 and 60 miles per hour. Above 60 the MPG drops rapidly.

For some cars, the computer and the instrument panel can team up to show your estimated MPG data, in real time. If you have the information available look at it - it can help you understand how to achieve the most fuel-efficient operation of your vehicle, in whatever conditions you drive.

According to the DOE/EPA web site (http://www.fueleconomy.gov), aggressive driving (high acceleration, high speed, rapid braking) can reduce you gas mileage by as much as 33%. If you drive with tire squealing starts, 80-mph interstate cruising speeds, and \”stand on the brakes\” stops - you are paying a dear price at the gas pump.

If you hate $4.00/gallon, eliminating these fuel inefficiencies could give you the equivalent of $3.08/gallon gas. Does that sound good to you? All you have to do is slow down. Now, slowing down to 60 may feel a bit frustrating at first, but just think of all the dollars you are saving, every time you get into your car! What’s really important to you… fast acceleration and fast driving, or lower driving costs and more driving distance?

Minimize Drive Time

Aside from riding your bike to the grocery store, instead of the car, you can also reduce your car’s expense by carefully planning your errands to minimize your total miles driven. Make one Saturday errand trip rather than 3 or 4. Think ahead. Shop once a month, instead of twice a week, or only stop at the store on your way home from work. You would be amazed at how much fuel you can save by reducing your need to drive.

Properly Inflate Your Tires

What else can you do? Check your tire pressure and adjust to the recommended pressures. Soft tires consume more energy flexing and rolling than hard tires. The Owner’s Manual lists the recommended tire pressures, and there is an information plate on the car, usually around the driver’s door, giving the same information.

Get a tire pressure gage and check the tire pressure in each tire when it’s cold. Record the pressures and note how many PSI below recommended pressure each tire is. Drive to a service station. Recheck the pressure in each tire - it will probably have gone up some from the initial cold check as rolling and friction warmed the tire. ADD air to each tire to increase the pressure by the number of pounds each tire was low as recorded above (even if the new hot pressure is higher than the recommended cold pressure).

Make Your Car More Aerodynamic - Reduce Drag

Another savings idea - reduce vehicle drag as much as possible by removing car top luggage containers, ski racks, etc. If you feel you must use such devices, understand there is no free lunch - it will cost you in reduced fuel economy. Also, reduce the total vehicle weight as much as possible by removing any unnecessary weight in your vehicle. If you put sand bags in the trunk during the winter, to improve your traction on snow and ice, get them out of your vehicle when the ice and snow have gone.

Good Maintenance

Keep your engine running in good order. That means regular tune-ups, air filter changes, and proper oil viscosity selection. Remember, every little bit helps.

Other Resources

A number of web sites offer other information. See (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/) for U.S. Government data and for suggestions from Consumer Reports, try: (http://www.consumerreports.rog/cro/cars/new-cars/resource-center/green-car-guide/green-car=guide.htm)

Don’t Be Duped - Avoid Magic Bullets

If there are DOs, there must also be DON’Ts. We love to believe in magic potions, silver bullets, and conspiracies. For generations we have been bombarded with commercials and advertisements about stuff to dump in the radiator, in the oil, in the gas, or hang on the car, which will fix our problems and make everything much better. Some of these things work, sometimes. More often than not, they offer false hope and little, if any, practical benefits.

One of the recent popular subjects is running you car on water. Many web sites talk about hydrogen-oxygen powered engines, hydrogen boost from water, etc. It is true that burning hydrogen produces heat, and water is a by-product of that process. Some automobile manufacturers are even experimenting with hydrogen engines, fuel cell propulsion systems, etc.

However, the basic method of getting hydrogen gas, in the \”water powered car\”, is electrolysis of water using an electric current. Unfortunately, the electrolysis process requires more electrical energy to separate the hydrogen and oxygen out of the water than you will gain by burning the gases in an engine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyhydrogen)

Yes, it is true that some people are claiming fantastic results using the water-powered car technology, but you may also note that most the people making these claims are the same people that are hoping you will spend your money with them.

They say, \”If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is\”. Wait until these technologies are well proven, by reliable and independent testing facilities, before depending on them to save you money or reduce the operational expenses of your car.

Final Thoughts

If at the end of the month, you can increase your MPG and/or decrease the miles you drive, you will save money.

Studies have shown that the average person can increase their fuel mileage by at least 30%, by simply changing the way they drive. If you can increase your fuel mileage by a mere 30%, then you can expect to save about $23 per month on every $100 you currently spend on gasoline for your vehicles.

If you can drive 20% fewer miles than what you drive right now, you could expect to save another $15 on every $100 spent.

If you drive as much as my wife and I drive, you can expect to save $46 per month, on your monthly $200 gasoline expense, just by improving MPG by 30%. Then by cutting your driving distance by only 20% per month, you could expect to gain another $30 savings, bringing your overall fuel savings to $76 per month.

Every dollar counts these days.

We are not stopping at simply trying to increase our fuel mileage. There are actually people in this world who are beating the Estimated MPG on their vehicles, sometimes by as much as 100%. We will be happy if we can simply beat the Estimated MPG on our vehicles by a mere 20%. Think of it this way; every gallon of gasoline saved is $4 earned! And I am all for increasing our earning power!

About The Author:
Butch Taft writes about modern transportation for the website: http://automotivewebmasters.com As fuel prices continue to rise, people are thinking about what they can do to \”reduce the pain at the pump.\” So much so that many people are have put summer vacations on hold. The author of the Automotive Webmasters ebook, \”How To Increase Fuel Mileage In Any Vehicle\” is already beating the Estimated Highway MPG for his vehicle, in city driving, and he will teach you - in his ebook - how to do the same: http://automotivewebmasters.com/ebooks/increase-mpg.php

Your marriage falls apart, you or your partner is laid-off, or your spouse gets ill and you lose half your household income.

The financial pressures sweep in like a sudden high tide, and as one of my clients wrote me, \”I feel so pressured to make money I can’t think.\” What do you do in a situation like this? \”Forget about the bladdy-blah-blah of patience and organic growth, man! I need to make the rent like, yesterday!\”

Okay, but first you need to know about the two wings of growth.

The Two Wings of Growth

The Sufis teach that in our growth and development as humans, we fly on two wings: Hope, and Fear.

The Wing of Hope is when our hearts sing. In the ego we know it as joy, in the heart as expansion, and deeper in our soul we know Hope as a state of Beauty.

But, flap too much with one wing, and we fly in circles. Too much with the Wing of Hope can carry us into heedlessness.

Extreme Hope leads to fantasy island, where nothing is real. In business, you can fall off the edge of the mountain because you spent so much time visioning, feeling good, having fun, that you aren’t taking beneficial actions and paying attention to structures.

So you need the Wing of Fear. Fear? Yes, Fear.

In the ego we know it as fear, but in the heart we experience it as a natural state of contraction, and in the soul we know it as Awe and Majesty.

A certain amount of healthy contraction is a great way to grow. How else do you get the toothpaste out of the tube, eh? Urgency about paying the bills has moved more than one amazing heart-centered person out of the shadows into the limelight of successful business.

But, Extreme Fear is not a good thing either. Too much fear and all you do is spin your wheels, working harder and harder trying to make things happen. You forget that there is Hope, and that miracles are ever present.

Hope and Fear- your two wings for forward movement.

I’m still so scared about money I can’t think.

If you’re in the situation above, you have to flap your hope wing. You have to break the cycle of fear. How? Take a break.

Spiritual practice, and fun. Time in prayer, and time at the movies. Time shnuggling your partner, or child, or cat, and time on the meditation pillow resting your heart.

Fun loosens you up, brings you hope. Spiritual connection deepens your ability to contain and experience that hope. Fun distracts you so you can back up from the problem. Spirituality lets you take another look, and see a larger Truth in your situation.

Example: My client was panicked, and reached out for help to me, and to The Business Oasis (our heart-centered online business community). And then she also took time to hang out with her daughter and the dog, watch a movie, laugh, play, forget about her troubles for a little bit.

And she took time in her heart to see a larger Truth about the situation.

She came back refreshed, able to breathe and think, and to take in some of our good advice.

And about our good advice? Well, AFTER she flapped her Hope wing with fun and spirit, then came the action steps.

Keys to Quick Cashola (from the heart)