I was invited to attend a seminar in Vegas. I don’t have much experience booking travel arrangements over the ‘net, so I searched for the most trustworthy site.

I came across Hotel Reservations and was completely surprised on how much they had to offer…Hotel Discounts,Gas rebates, savings up to 70%, translation of not only different languages, but currency as well (this might be needed for my next trip…) There was also a rebate of up to $100…depending on my booking. International specials, cruises, even bed & breakfasts.

You can Research and Plan Your Trip, Get Special Group rates and once you are member, you will receive monthly e-mail with their Best deals and savings for Hotel Reservations up to 70% off, for many cities worldwide including your favorite destinations.

This all peaked my interest, so I continued with a search for my designation. Upon looking further, I found I was easily able to navigate my way through in finding great prices for air fares, hotels, car rentals. The booking tools were great for someone with no experience, so that was comforting.

I did have one question regarding a hotel and found that when I called the toll free number, I was connected to someone very pleasant who helped me. It was wonderful to actually speak to someone rather than having to get those automated answering devices that take you ’round and ’round…that can be so aggravating.

I also learned there are no change or cancellation fees. That was a surprise because I didn’t find that with some other sites I visited.

Maybe you’ll want to visit Hotel Reservations and get Cheap Hotels for your next trip. Save time, save money…isn’t that something we all look for? If you can not find the City Or Discount Hotel you are looking for you can call 1-800-447-4136 ( US & Canada ) and Worldwide at (1) 817-333-5105

Get off your butt for a moment and go have a look at the luggage that you have stashed under your bed or in your closet or garage. How thick is the dust? Now take your index finger and use it to write the following words on your suitcase:

I NEED A HOLIDAY!!!

Leave that where you and any other decision makers in the household can see it. Get your bargain holidays promotion so that you can get what you want in Europe.

I haven’t been to every beach on the planet, but my less than random sampling leaves me with the impression that beaches in Southern Europe are more relaxed and quieter than what people can expect elsewhere. HolidayHypermarket.co.uk specializes in packages getaways to spots like the Bulgaria golden sands.

This travel website now features an application that lets you design you own package so it will fit you preferences, your budget and your schedule within the bargain holidays promotions.

Behold the “Nokla N95″ touch-screen smartphone. A clone of the N95 that’s manufactured by some scrubby company in China. Sellers claim that the phone has a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, and even a touch-screen display! Unfortunately what they usually don’t tell you is that the “Nokla” is dual-band 900/1800 which makes it pretty useless in the USA.

How to spot the fake Nokia N95 phone

The good news is that it’s a clone, but not a very good one. There’s some telltale signs that you need to watch out for when it comes to the N95.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the two phones, frontal view. Note:

The stylus-driven menu buttons (red box). The fake N95 has a “touch-screen” with a stylus, and the easiest way to spot the counterfeit is by checking this area. If you see a row of little icons (compare to the real N95, bottom), then it’s a knock-off.

Wrong buttons and no dual-slide. (yellow and green boxes) In place of the real N95’s Menu/Multimedia Key buttons, the fakey N95 has a Play button (yellow box) and a Stop button (green box). This is mainly because it doesn’t have a dual-slide mechanism, so whoever designed the knock-off dropped the playback buttons anywhere. And since there’s no Symbian OS, there’s no need for the menu buttons either.

Back view of the real and fake N95s:

The Color. The real Nokia N95 comes in two colors: Silver/Plum and Silver/Sand (sort of a silvery-yellowish color). The plum and sand colors refer to the back cover of the phone (which includes the sides too). However, the counterfeit has a back cover that’s black.

Lens Cover Thumb-Switch (orange box). Doesn’t exist on the fake N95, but very prominent on the real thing.

Nokia Logo (teal box). When the two phones are looked at from this angle, note the difference in the logo placement, size, and direction (it’s flipped on the fake).

Some random camera oddity on the fake (purple box). Not sure what this piece is supposed to be, but there’s some random design on the Nokla N95 (the knock-off) that’s in the shape of a 3. Don’t be fooled!

Also note that the buttons on the fake look cheaper and are raised slightly higher than they’re supposed to be.

Some more pictures as a reference (the fake N95):

If an auction refers to a “replica”, “Nokia N95-inspired”, “NOKLA”, or sounds way too good to be true, avoid it like the plague.

from NokiaPhoneBlog.Com

Oftentimes, if we don’t know the tricks, we could spend more time and money shopping on the internet than if we were to just pull out our car keys and drive up to the mall. Truly! If you think about it, we first have to find the “right” store with all the credibility to make sure it’s legitimate, then we have to make certain that it has some kind of security protection to ensure that our credit card numbers aren’t “exposed”. Before we purchase anything, if we’re smart, we have a coupon code to help save us some money. So it takes some time to hunt for the best coupon. The worst thing about that is, after spending about 30 minutes finding that best coupon for that “right” store, oftentimes you realized that the coupon your had searched so hard for had expired or that it doesn’t apply to the product you’re buying. Oh, right, and another thing, if you have a slow connection like most people, we’d have to wait for each page to download…all these things take time! And time equals money!!! Not to mention the fact that our computers run on the rising cost of electricity! Ahhh!!! (Pulling our hair) Need I say more? This is why I’m spending time to tell everyone about eDealFinder.com, a coupon site.

First of all, eDealFinder provides coupons of a wide range of products. It’s the best portal site for shopping. All the stores are credible and the site provides customer reviews for all who wish to leave an opinion about a store. One of the store if you try to find the new computer for your home is the HP Store, or maybe you prefer other brand such as Dell, you can get Dell coupons on their site. All the discount and coupons forDell is there for you to grab!

Secondly, I shop a lot on the internet and I ALWAYS use coupons. I have yet found better discounting coupons than those from eDealFinder.com. Also, the coupons are always up-to-date. So there you go, another time saving tool.

Thirdly, the site takes me directly to the store I want to buy from with the coupon codes located at the top frame, this eliminated the need to write down the codes. Yippy!
Fourthly, this is a great feature for all those with slow connection. eDealFinder has a option for “non-graphics” mode to speed up your connection while visiting their site! How refreshing! I also like how the site isn’t bombarded with flashing advertisement.

Fifthly, eDealFinder.com has a neat feature that stores my favorite coupons. I can basically customize the site to my shopping needs. Another plus!

I really could just go on and on raving about this wonderful shopping portal. The only downside of the site is that I miss getting their weekly newsletters. I guess I should just visit the site everyday to see what kind of bargain is out there in the cyber shopping world.

Regardless of size, building a Web site is similar to building a house. There are many decisions to make along the way, most vendors will try to sell the owners on more than they need, and if one is not careful, the project can end up costing more than anticipated. However, when executed properly, a marketer with little technical knowledge can step away with an effective and appropriate Web site for his/her industry by following a few simple guidelines.

Whether you’ve hired an external marketing firm to assist you with these steps or you’re working directly with a Web design firm, at a minimum the following guidelines should be observed when approaching a Web site project.

Identify Your Target Market

The Internet is so exciting we all want to jump on this gravy train and make things happen, but the cutting edge isn’t for every market, and some technologies may look cool but are useless to your mission. Taking some time to think about who you are targeting with your Web site, and how you would like to steer them towards doing business with you will assist you in identifying your goals and become a reference point for all subsequent decisions.

Examine your target market’s approach to the Web and your content. The Internet provides a uniquely intimate experience in which the site visitor chooses the direction of the information in a non-linear fashion. The site visitor is not bound by pages in a book. S/he can only make decisions based upon the following:

1. What do I need? 2. What are the choices? 3. What is my past experience?

This means that regardless of how you usually consider your product or service offerings, it’s more important than ever to consider those items from the client perspective. Take time to think about how your various targets will approach your Web site - what information will they seek? Is this an existing client? A prospective client? What keywords will this person look for? What keywords are meaningful to that target group? What is their experience with the Web thus far?

Determine Goals and Strategies

After completing the above steps, then decide on some reasonable goals for your Web site. What tactics and strategies will you implement to meet those goals? For example, a goal might be to provide current departmental information on the Web site to keep prospective students up to date on the latest course offerings and department changes. A college may wish to encourage more teacher participation in updating the Web site, but other than providing them with the technology to do so, how will you inspire them and market to this group to make their involvement in the college feel interesting and not just another task? Some of these questions may get complex, and your project may slow down here because it’s not fun. However, more time in this area will enable you to save money in the long run and increase your satisfaction with the final Web site.

Get Buy-In

Bring all your decision makers together and let them know what you’re planning. Let them give you their input. If they disagree with some of your choices, you can back up your choices with something they don’t have - research. Your ideas are not based on feelings, they’re based on fact, and that’s powerful. However, the other stakeholders in the Web site might have some good ideas. Maybe they want to get increased benefit from the Web site, too, like an intranet, or automated email notification. Listen to these ideas and consider them carefully.

Evaluate Needs

Now that you know what you want your Web site to do, you can figure out what technology is out there to do it with. This will inevitably cause some revisions to the previous step, as creative vendors will inform you of applications and opportunities you may not have thought of before. That’s okay - you will not be led astray by the temptation of the super highway when all you needed was a 2 lane road. But you will be able to appreciate the input and take time to consider if this option fits your target market’s approach to your Web site.

Identify Vendors

If you’ve been diligent about the above process, it’s time to consider your vendors - which will be really easy to do now that you know what you need. Then it becomes a matter of comparing facts in a matrix - does company X provide this feature or not? At what cost? Then the choice is less about having lots of features and more about having the right ones that fit your goals.