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The price of flying within Italy is often comparable to the cost of rail travel, although be sure to factor in the cost of getting to and from the airport. When flying out of Italian airports, always check with the airport or tourist agency about upcoming strikes, which are frequent in Italy and often affect air travel. The work stoppages are called by trade unions over contractual disputes, and can also ground or delay flights to and from Italy operated by several European carriers, including British Airways and Air France.

Things to Think About when booking
When you book, look for nonstop flights and remember that “direct” flights stop at least once. Try to avoid connecting flights, which require a change of plane. Two airlines may operate a connecting flight jointly, so ask whether your airline operates every segment of the trip. You may find that the carrier you prefer flies you only part of the way. Check web sites to find more booking tip, to check prices and to make online flight reservations.

When flying internationally, you must usually choose between a domestic carrier, the national flag carrier of the country you are visiting (Alitalia for Italy), and a foreign carrier from a third country. National flag carriers have the greatest number of non stops. Domestic carriers may have better connections to your hometown and serve a greater number of gateway cities. Third-party carriers may have a price advantage.

On international flights, Alitalia serves Rome, Milan, and Venice. The major international hubs in Italy are Milan and Rome, served by Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines. American Airlines flies into just Milan. US Airways serves only Rome.

Alitalia and British Airways have direct flights from London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports to Milan and Rome. From Manchester, British Airways has daily flights to Milan and Rome. Smaller, no-frills airlines also provide service between Great Britain and Italy.

EasyJet connects Gatwick with Bologna. British Midland connects Heathrow and Milan. Ryanair, departing from London’s Stansted Airport, has daily flights to Milan, Rome, Pisa, and Venice. Meridiana has two or three direct flights each week between Gatwick and Olbia on Sardinia in summer, and daily flights to Rome and Florence throughout the year. From its hub in Brussels, Virgin Express files to Milan, Catania, and Rome.

Alitalia connects Canada and Italy. Air Canada flies to Munich for connections to Rome, Florence, and Milan via Lufthansa. Qantas flies from various cities in Australia via Bangkok, arriving in Rome. Alitalia and New Zealand Air fly from Auckland to Rome with a stop in London. Another option if you’re coming from Australia or New Zealand is Thai Airlines, landing in Rome via Bangkok.

When buying tickets for flights within Italy, on Alitalia and small carriers such as Meridiana and Air One shop around for the best deals. Tickets are frequently sold at discounted prices, so check the cost of flights, even one-way, as an alternative to train travel.

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One of the world’s most evocative squares, Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) is the heart of Venice, a vast open space bordered by an orderly procession of arcades marching toward the fairy tale cupolas and marble lacework of the Basilica di San Marco.

Perpetually packed by day with tourists and fluttering pigeons, it can be magical at night, especially in winter, when mists swirl around the lamp posts and the Campanile.

If you face the basilica from in front of the Correr Museum, you’ll notice that rather than being a strict rectangle, this square opens wider at the basilica end, creating the illusion that it’s even larger than it is.

The Piazza was paved in the late 13th century with bricks laid in a herringbone pattern. Bands of light stone ran parallel to the long axis of the main piazza. These lines were probably used to help set up market stalls and in organising frequent ceremonial processions. This original pavement design can be seen in paintings of the late Middle Ages and through the Renaissance, such as Gentile Bellini’s Procession in Piazza San Marco of 1496.

On your left, the long, arcaded building is the Procuratie Vecchie, built in the early 16th century as offices and residences for the powerful magistrates of San Marco. On your right is the Procuratie Nuove, built 500 years later in a more grandiose classical style.

It was originally planned by Venice’s great Renaissance architect, Sansovino, to carry on the look of his Libreria Sansoviniana (Sansovinian Library), but he died before construction on the Nuove had begun. Vincenzo Scamozzi (circa 1552-1616), a neoclassicist pupil of Andrea Palladio (1508-80), completed the design and construction. Still later, the Procuratie Nuove was modified by architect Baldassare Longhena (1598-1682), one of Venice’s baroque masters.

When Napoleon entered Venice with his soldiers in 1797, he called Piazza San Marco “the world’s most beautiful drawing room” and promptly gave orders to redecorate it. His architects levelled a 16th-century church with a Sansovino facade in order to build the Ala Napoleonica (Napoleonic Wing), or Fabbrica Nuova (New Building), which linked the two 16th-century procuratie and effectively encircled the piazza.

Piazzetta San Marco, the “little square” leading from Piazza San Marco to the waters of Bacino San Marco (St. Mark’s Basin), is a landing that was once the grand entryway to the Republic. It’s distinguished by two columns towering above the waterfront.

One is topped by the winged lion, a traditional emblem of St. Mark that became the symbol of Venice itself; the other supports St. Theodore, the city’s first patron, along with his dragon. Between these columns the Republic traditionally executed convicts.

It takes a full day to take in everything on the piazza thoroughly; so if time is limited you’ll have to prioritize. Plan on one to two hours for the Basilica and its Pala d’Oro, Galleria, and Museo Marciano. You’ll want at least two hours to appreciate the Palazzo Ducale. Do take time to enjoy the piazza itself from a cafe table, or on a clear day, from atop the Campanile.

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Thailand can be separated into four geographical regions. In the north are mountain ranges and deep valleys in which are the sources of Thailand’s principal river, the Chao Phraya. The mountains are covered with forests of teak and evergreens. In central Thailand is the plain of the Chao Phraya. This is the most densely populated region, and it has the most fertile farm land. In the east is the Khorat Plateau, a high, rocky plain, where cattle, pigs, buffaloes and horses are run. The fourth region of Thailand is the part that lies on the Malay Peninsula, which is mountainous and contains the primary tin and other mineral deposits.

The climate of Thailand is tropical. It is governed largely by the monsoon, a wind that blows from the southwest from May to November, bringing a warm, rainy season, and from the northeast from November to March, bringing a dry and cooler season. The months of April and May, between the monsoon seasons, are the hottest of the year.

Thailand has many wild and strange animals, including more than a thousand varieties of brightly coloured birds. It is famous for the elephant, which is the national symbol of the country and is protected by law. The so called white elephant (which is really a lighter shade of grey) is considered holy. A favorite animal from Thailand is the Siamese cat. Thailand used to be name Siam.

The largest city of Thailand, and the capital, is Bangkok. It is a modern city located about 25 miles inland from the ocean at the delta of the Menam River. It is a harbor and center of commerce, and has a population of more than 1,500,000. Several international airlines connecting Asia with the United States and Europe make regular stops at Don Muang airport, which is one of the largest and most modern in Asia. Other important cities are Khon Kaen, Buriram, and Thonburi.

How the People are Governed
Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, which means that it has a king, a parliament that makes the laws, and a constitution that protects the rights of the people. There is a prime minister, who is the head of the government, and a Council of Ministers who assist him or her. The first constitution of 1932 was suspended in 1958 after repeated disorders, and a constitutional assembly was formed in 1959 to draft a new and better constitution. Thailand is divided into provinces called changwats, each of which is governed by a commissioner who is responsible to the Council of Ministers.

Everyone must go to school between the ages of 7 and 14. There are many elementary and high schools, and there are five universities, including a medical school. Three of these are located in Bangkok. There are also military, naval, and police academies. More than half of the people of Thailand can read and write.

Thailand in the Past
In ancient times Thailand was a land of independent city-states. These were usually at war with the Mongols and the Burmese. The greatest of the city-states was Ayutthaya, which became strong in the 1300s and won much territory from neighboring states. Marco Polo visited Ayutthaya, and many other Europeans came to trade with the Siamese, including Dutch, English, and French. After four hundred years of prosperity, Ayutthaya was invaded and conquered by the Burmese, in 1767.

Another city-state arose at Thonburi, and in 1782 a Thai king arose who was the founder of the present Thailand dynasty, or family of kings. He was Rama I, and he established Bangkok as his capital. During the 1800s European nations were establishing claims to territories all around Thailand. The king was forced to give up Laos and Cambodia to France, and parts of the Malay Peninsula to Great Britain, but Thailand never gave up its independence.
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Thailand is a kingdom in southeast Asia on the Indochinese and Malay peninsulas. Through most of its history Thailand was called Siam. The people call themselves Thai, which in their language means “the free people.” In 1948 the Thai government changed the name of the country to Thailand.

Thailand has an area of about 511,770 square km, which makes it not quite as large as the American state of Texas. About sixty one million people live there, which is nearly three times as many as the population of Australia.

The People of Thailand
The first people in the region of Thailand were Negritos, a Negroid pygmy people. The Negritos became mixed with invading Mongols and tribes from China to produce the modern race of Siamese. There are two main groups in the population, the true Thai and the Lao. Thailanders are rather short, but well built. They have brownish skin and straight black hair.

Thailanders are an independent and courageous people, and there are no caste divisions in Thailand. All the people, including the women, have equal rights. Thailand is a very musical country, although its music sometimes sounds strange to Western ears, and the people are artistic dancers.

Education in Thailand is provided mainly by the Thai government through the Ministry of Education. A free basic education of 12 is guaranteed by the Thai constitution, and a minimum of nine years’ school attendance is mandatory.

Thailanders are noted for their artistic abilities, ranging from the making of jewelry to the architecture of the beautiful Buddhist temples. There are many religious festivals in Thailand, with colorful costumes and ceremonies.

The people speak the Siamese language, which is a member of the Indochinese family of languages. Religion plays a very important role in Thai life. Religion is considered an essential foundation of society, it is not only the major moral force of Thai family and community but has also contributed to the molding of freedom loving, individualistic, and tolerant people for many centuries.

Hinayana Buddhism is the national religion of Thailand, but there is total religious freedom and all major religions can be found in practice. There is absolute freedom of religion – Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and other faiths are practiced and protected by the constitution. Buddhism is the faith of 95 percent of the population, 4 percent are Muslims, 0.5 percent and Christians, and the remainder Hindus, Sikhs and other religion.

Despite the fact that Buddhism is the faith of majority, both the king and the government uphold and support all the religions accepted by the people. Amidst rich diversity of beliefs, until recently people of Thailand have always lived together in peace and harmony.

How they Live
Thailand is largely a nation of farmers, fishermen, and lumbermen. The principal foods of the people are rice and fish. Nearly all of the farm land is planted with rice. In addition to the large quantities eaten by the people, Thailand exports a large quantity of rice as well as electronic products. Other farm crops include cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, corn, soybeans, peanuts, and sesame seeds. The rivers of Thailand are full of fish, and large catches also are made in the Gulf of Thailand (previously the Gulf of Siam). Much of Thailand’s wonderful food contains seafood dishes.

Three-quarters of Thailand is covered with forests from which come the country’s famous teakwood, as well as bamboo, ebony, rosewood, boxwood, and Palmyra palm. The forests provide important quantities of lac (a resin deposited on trees by the lac insect) , rubber, oils, dyes. and tanning bark.

Thailand has large and varied mineral resources, the most important of which are tin, wolfram ore, coal, copper, antimony, gold, iron, manganese, molybdenum, silver, lead, gypsum, and lignite. There is a growing hi-tech economy and foreign countries have been encouraged to build factories there for the production of chemicals, textiles, and other goods.

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Chic apartments take on many styles and forms. They might be decorated in high-style Victorian or in clean, minimalist Italian themes. They might even be arrayed in an eclectic mix of styles in which antique pieces are artfully displayed in a floor of modernism.

One thing’s for sure about these kinds of apartments: each has a style all its own. Whether large or small, divided by rooms or wide-open spaces, you know when you’ve walked into one of these gems. Your reaction is to stop, took around, and soak in every piece, every detail.

Creating a chic apartment is reliant on many factors. Exquisite taste and an eye for one of a kind pieces is part of it, but a sense of architectural form and detail can play a huge role in how your trendy apartment evolves. The space itself is as important as the pieces you bring to it so the first step is to find just the right shell in which to show off your works. Whether you choose an older building replete with architectural charm of its own, or a glass box in a modern skyscraper, this will set the backdrop for how the rest of the design evolves.

In some cases, apartments in older buildings have retained their luxury of space and also preserved their architectural charm. Details, such as moldings and carved ceilings, abound in such apartments. These spaces can be desirable, but the downside is that some of them may have been ignored or altered unfavorably through the years, thereby requiring a great deal of time and money to bring their structure and design back to life. They may also require excessive work and funds to maintain them in their improved state.

There are many questions you should be asking yourself before selecting an apartment. Do you want to rent or buy, and based on this, how much money do you want to spend? Are you willing to forgo some of the ultra modern conveniences like a deluxe shower system that an older building might not be able to accommodate, or are you willing to live in a uniform space without any architectural charm? And if it’s a matter of simply redecorating your present residence, can you work with the existing architectural style to create the fashionable apartment of your dreams?

Once you’ve selected your shell, its time to start decorating. In a chic apartment, hardwood floors adorned by elegant area rugs to designate room areas are common, but so are spaces covered in plush, thick, wall to wall carpeting. There is no one floor-covering standard in determining what makes an apartment “chic,” so there’s no one way to decorate it either.

The decisions you make about wall coverings will set the mood in your apartment. Will it be serious and plain, or warm and feminine? Do you want to introduce a lot of pattern on the walls and then select more subdued furniture pieces, or do you want the walls to serve as a backdrop for what you bring in?

Certainly some might say that the walls should be the backdrop and that’s all, but what if you decide to cover the wall in an exciting hand painted mural that spans floor to ceiling, or inlay a mosaic pattern in one of the walls? The point is that there are times when the walls themselves can be focal points so you must decide carefully on how they will look and what kind of statement they will make in your trendy unit.

Furniture selections should be taken very seriously. No matter what kind of apartment you live in, your furniture is a natural focal point. In a chic apartment, furniture can mean the difference between chic and ordinary. The same holds true for accessories. Depending on how interesting or eye catching these pieces are, finishing touches like an antique vase or a carefully placed lamp can take attention away from prominent furniture pieces and become focal points in and of themselves.

But how you decorate a chic apartment need not be all on the inside. If you have a view, it can become part of the design. Flaunt it to make the room and your apartment look larger. Balconies, patios, roofdecks, holland blinds, and window seats offer private places and make an apartment seem larger and cheerier because of the light and outdoor vistas they reveal. A nature-scape or cityscape will create different moods in a design scheme. Think carefully about whether or not your particular view will enhance your decor or detract from it before you bring the outdoors in.

The most important consideration for decorating a chic apartment is to not let form overcome function. Remember, this is not a museum piece, it is where you live. No matter what means you take to make it a showpiece, don’t forget you have to exist there every day. Consider why that means in terms of what goes on in your home on a daily basis, but don’t forget the most crucial concept: comfort. No matter how wonderful you apartment looks, it still must be a space in which you can get away from the world up and call it home.

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How can you create a sense of intimacy, style, coziness in such an immense space? If you recruit an interior designer, how can you be sure that for every inch of your unit that the personality coming across is yours and not that of the decorator or the builder?

And with all that space to fill, should you acquire furnishings quickly so that you can’t hear your own voice echoing in the emptiness, or should you be patient and slowly decorate as you find the right furnishings and accessories? Are we just grasping at straws trying to target what’s not great about a large apartment? Probably a little bit.

The fact is that sizable, roomy apartments provide one of the most desirable and comfortable living situations. You are free to keep your space as spare as you like or to accumulate at leisure. Do you have room for that adorable little Victorian bench you saw at the flea market? Of course you do. There’s always room. Studio apartment and other small unit dwellers envy you as they know they can only desire such treasures from afar they’re sometimes lucky just to fit a couch and a bed in their apartments.

And that’s not the only upside of larger apartments. Consider the freedom a large apartment gives. What do you do with all that space? If you have a family, you might just have enough room for everyone to have their own “space,” which could mean bedroom, but depending on how large the apartment is, it could mean a whole lot more.

For example, do you find yourself taking work home from the office at night or on weekends? If so, where do you work? In a large apartment, you might be able to set aside an entire room of your own or even a corner or nook that you can transform into an office for yourself.

What about hobbyists? Every household has its share of these. Why not divide out a special place for that hobby to be performed. Perhaps you have several small children and all the requisite toys that go along with them. A playroom or play area designated by a colorful rug and a toy box is also a strong possibility in a large apartment.

Another thing you’ll enjoy in a large space is the freedom to break out of the constraints of traditional decorating. You can trick the eye with clever furniture placement. Float a sofa with a table set behind it, or place the sofa diagonally across the corner. In a small apartment, you’d be asking for trouble with either of these solutions because they can eat up too much space. However, in a large apartment, you have the freedom to try out unusual furniture positioning. Take some risks and see what happens.

Of course, large apartments do have their downsides. One of these lies in creating a sense of cohesiveness in the big space. Whether the apartment is older or brand new, a sense of unity in the decoration is always desirable in an apartment large or small. In a house, there’s usually room to depart from the mood of the general design on different floors not to mention attics and basements, but an apartment is usually taken in all at once, no matter how large it is. One way of creating cohesiveness is to stanradise things like floor coverings or window blinds.

The smartest design professionals and apartment owners recommend that you consider the whole space when designing any one room or section in the apartment. If you’re just moving in, you might live in your apartment for a while to get a sense of the space before you call in the decorators.

If you’re redecorating the apartment you’ve been living in for years, start looking at the space as objectively as you can, analysing what really works designwise and what has never worked. While the rooms of your apartment need not appear as though finished in one fell swoop with one repetitive style, the goal should be to aim for a coherent background decor and compatible palette.

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Living in inner city lofts has many benefits and offers a range of decor choices. Most lofts still offer a bit of the feeling of living on the edge due to their original use as factories or warehouses located in industrial neighborhoods. But in many cases, the latest examples have all the trappings of the most elegant CBD apartments, including walls, fancy floors and ceilings, shared lobbies, enclosed garages, and even balconies and decks.

Instead of the original occupants, including struggling artists, architects, and other professionals who had to work from their homes for economic reasons, the newest crop of owners are successful executives, physicians, lawyers, television and film actors, restaurateurs, writers, and others who have come to see the charm and wisdom of such large scaled units in city neighborhoods.

Residents are also no longer restricted to living in lofts just in downtown Sydney, where the genre first developed in the large cast iron manufacturing and printing buildings of the Paddington district. Over time, the loft concept has spread to more of Sydney and on to other cities in Australia and around the globe.

Rather than share a geographic commonality, the tie that binds most lofts is a building that makes economic and aesthetic sense to save and remodel as the back to the city movement continues to grow. More and more people want to avoid commuting, traffic, and McMansions. And they want to take advantage of all the amenities of CBD life.

With greater acceptance among the mainstream, the interior architecture of lofts has also changed. The loft has evolved from the original “hard” design, so termed because of its hard surfaces, to a “softer” style. The original wood or concrete floors are sometimes covered; the brick or concrete walls are sometimes platered; the ceiling ducts, sprinkler systems and timber beams are often concealed; and the walls and halfwalls used to partition off bathrooms sometimes shield bedrooms from the public living spaces as well.

Whether these changes are favorable or too far removed from the original form is argued among purists, but many observers of the changes applaud the quieter, more energy efficient and human oriented lofts that often result.

The way lofts are furnished has also undergone a marked change through the decades. The first generation of lofts tended to be decorated in Salvation Army chic and recycled, secondhand or hand me down objects and lacked any thought out design.

Loft interiors have evolved through the decades, revealing a much wider range of furnishings and styles from the sleekly modern Italian mode, where less still remains more, to the traditional international mix with English or French antiques, American quilts, and Oriental accessories and holland blinds.

The finished design does not look overmanipulated or untouchable, but is relaxed and easy to live in. The most favored look, however, remains a highly edited leanness of whatever period, so that the open feeling associated with this style of unit comes through strongly. Some call this an undesign where the unalterable can serve as inspiration.

Two surprising twists in recent loft development are also noteworthy and bode well for future occupants who desire a choice. Brand new lofts are now built to mimic the original buildings, but these modern architectural versions are made with a combination of both old fashioned attention to the art of the structure and new amenities.

In addition, the boundaries of acceptable areas in which to live in a loft have been expanded to the suburbs and ex urban areas, so now more can enjoy the form. The primary goal of the loft, however, remains the same: an abundance of space, natural light, and air and an eclectic flair in the choice of furnishings and accessories.

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I’m really getting fed up with fax spammers. I get up in the morning, I walk into my office and often there is a wad of junk faxes waiting for me from domain name companies, water cooler companies, debt collectors and recruitment companies.

This time it was a promotion for a company called destinationrus for a holiday in Fiji. Apart from the waste of toner and paper, the thing I really object to is that it cost me 2 minutes and a phone call to try to get off the list. And when I do ask for a removal, it doesn’t mean it happens.

Destinationsrus appear to be using a fax spamming company called Prospect Marketing. In fact, Prospect Marketing use Destinationsrus as a glowing example of how to layout a good spam fax. These spam faxes cost about $750 for 10,000 faxes. Talk about a waste of paper and the irresponsible generation of green-house gases !

If the Rudd Government want to really get some brownie points before Christmas, announce a do-not-fax register along the lines of the amazingly popular do-not-call register. It will be a sure-fire winner.

Comments please

When money is tight, priorities have to be established. It is smartest to invest in good, long term essentials that can travel later to larger quarters: a well-made sofa, a dining table, end tables, some chairs, a bed, and cooking and serving equipment.

If your new quarters consist of just one big room that combines the functions of eating, cooking, sleeping, sitting, and reading, keep furnishings small scale and not too quirky. Pieces that later might took too small in a larger home can always be recycled into more casual, smaller rooms, such as a library or family room, or from the master bedroom or sitting room into a child’s bedroom.

You may also want to physically divide some spaces in a small apartment with roller blinds or dividers or a tall piece of furniture, such as a high chest of drawers. A corner of a living room can be cordoned off to offer some privacy for a desk in an at-home office, or a low row of chests can separate two beds when roommates share a bedroom.

As the world has changed, so has the way we live. The new global economy now gives cities, suburbs, towns, and even rural areas a heightened role to play in daily lives. With no place completely out of bounds, an increased number of residents seek temporary accommodation for pleasure and business in far away locations.

A hotel can sometimes be too impersonal, expensive, or hard to secure on a regular basis; similarly, a friend or family member’s offer of a place to stay wears thin after repeated visits. On the other hand, a pied-a-terre, which translates from the French to a “foot on the ground,” offers an appealing alternative as a little home away from home.

In such abodes, owners can hang their hat (literally), stretch out, and really relax, surrounded by a few cherished furnishings and mementos.

Think of the space in the same vein as a Bach cantata—short and sweet, rather than a full symphony played by an orchestra. These small, second homes-away-from-home pre-sent a refuge from the commotion of a day’s work or play, and a platform to jump back into the world after rest and refreshment.

They become a place to slip into something comfortable and familiar, enjoy breakfast casually, chat or work on the phone, and stash needed belongings and supplies for the next visit.

Because these spaces are not used all the time and are typically small, you do not need t spend a lot on the furnishings. Invest in some good quality primary pieces such as a comfortable sofa am bed, an expandable dining table that can double a! a desk with appropriate chairs, maybe an area rug or two, an end table and coffee table, and a few favorite accents to add warmth and personality.

You might also include a beloved art piece or two, some cherished books, and a favorite inexpensive collection such as snowglobes, fishing lures, postcards, family photos to further the feeling of home.

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Marketing academics have noted increasing media fragmentation. In recent years, the role of advertising and promotion in the overall marketing process has changed considerably. The audiences that marketers seek, along with the media and methods for reaching them, have become increasingly fragmented. Advertising and promotional tactics have become more regionalised and targeted to specific market segments.

The extraordinary expansion of media options to reach niche markets has been fully documented. Along with the growth of products and services and the segmentation of types of consumers has come an extraordinary proliferation of media. There are new kinds of media, new developments in the traditional media, and new uses for media. Increasingly, the new media are tools for targeting rather than for saturating the mass market.

Information and the role of the marketing database In the information age marketers are not only focusing on analysis, but also understand the value of information collection.

In the past, direct marketing has been distinguishable from other marketing disciplines because of its emphasis on initiating a direct relationship between a buyer and a supplier, a relationship that until recently centered primarily on the exchange of goods and services. However, in today’s market, exchanging information is becoming almost as important as exchanging goods and services. With rising costs, crowded supermarket shelves, and overstuffed mailboxes, smart marketers are not just efficiently consummating a sale, they are also providing a chance for customers to communicate with them.

Of all these changes surely the most revolutionary is the ability to store in the computer information about your prime prospects and customers and, in effect, create a database that becomes your private market. As the cost of accumulating and accessing the data drops, the ability to talk directly to your prospects and customers — and to build one-to-one relationships with them — will continue to grow.

The new marketing landscape The effects on consumers of overwhelming change and the acceleration of change in our time have been brilliantly documented by Hugh Mackay in Reinventing Australia: So apparent is our national malaise that it has become fashionable to talk about the Age of Anxiety.

For people given to applying labels to decades, the 1980s was popularly described as “The Anxious Eighties” and there is no doubt that the decade lived up to the promise of that rather anxious label. Australia has not been alone in all this. All around the Western world, social commentators have been impressed by the rising level of angst over the past 20 years. The mind and mood of consumers in the 2000s provide interesting challenges.

The growing number of market segments and the simultaneous increase in available products have made marketing much harder. Manufacturers are in a quandary about what to produce; retail merchandise buyers are overwhelmed by the task of product selection; and advertisers feel swamped trying to convey appropriate messages to so many market segments about so many products …companies are grappling with the fact that mass advertising campaigns have become less and less useful in reaching diverse groups of consumers.

Marketers must now fight to establish the relevance of their products in an extremely noisy marketplace. The marketing future will undoubtedly look different in another respect as well: customer information technologies will change the relative roles of retailers, manufacturers, and media companies.

Retailers have a natural advantage because they can directly measure customer response and get first option at the broadest range of information. Indeed, point-of-sale scanning systems have already played a significant role in shifting power from manufacturers to retailers.

Most important, the balance of power between large and small companies will change. As customer information technology becomes more prevalent, only those companies that can invest the resources and show technological leadership will succeed.

If you’re looking for a Brisbane Marketing Company contact Search Tempo Pty Ltd. For a Brisbane Internet Consultant contact John Hacking. BSON081208ST

Not everyone can write well. But if you can, article writing can add significantly to your prestige, create very favorable publicity, and generate incoming links( backlinks), to your web site. Think for a moment about the types of articles you can write and use as marketing tools and who would read them.

Marketing, and not additional income from freelancing, is your primary reason for writing articles. Your goal is to appear to prospective clients as a sophisticated expert who can solve their problems. Therefore, fight hard to get information included on how to contact you.

Format and Submission Rules

You can prepare “canned” features and send them off to papers. Be sure to send them only to newspapers that don’t compete with each other. However, expect a very low placement rate.

With article directories, make sure you check their submission guidelines in terms of number of links and text verses html formats. There are some article submission serices that can help.

A better approach is to send out queries briefly outlining an article you’d like to write, and why you’re qualified to write it. You can send the same query out to several people at once, with individualised addresses. Don’t send the article itself simultaneously to competing markets, but you can send queries.

Submit articles freely to noncompeting markets, as long as you don’t sign a contract that says “all rights” or “work for hire.” For instance, publish the same article in journals serving Baptists, Lutherans, and Congregationalists. And a how-to article aimed at business owners in Queensland could easily be modified for business publications elsewhere.

However, even if the market isn’t as clearly segmented, you can multiply your audience. I once proposed the same storyto computer, safe energy, back-to-the-land, regional, and bicycling magazines. If one market rejects your idea, query a competitor. Finally, you can even query different editors at the same publication with the same idea (wait two years or so).

If an editor perceives an article as written just for his or her magazine (in response to a go-ahead on your initial query), the publication will be much more likely to accept it. Once your material begins to appear in print, send tearsheets of your published work with your queries. After you get rolling, you should be able to place about one in every fifteen to twenty ideas. Find them in Writer’s Market (Writer’s Digest Books, annually), the freelance writer’s bible.
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Searchtempo.com is a Brisbane marketing consultant firm specialising in search engine marketing and SEO training. BSON061208

What did an average schoolboy football game look like hundred of years ago? Well, most matches began with a “bully”. A bully is a type of scrimmage or scrum.

After scrambling for the ball within the scrum, one player ended up with it. The ball was then tossed, usually behind, or dribbled, Usually ahead, towards the “goal”. This was often as line, imaginary or otherwise, at the end of a field.

Perhaps the goal was between two trees, hedges or buildings. Sometimes the goal was two sticks stuck in the ground. At this stage each school team had its own ideas on the finer points of the game — on offside rules, tackling guidelines, ball-handling, ball out-of-play and so on. But from about the 1830s through to the 1860s, public school codes were developing and diverging into two distinct camps.

One camp had more dribbling than handling, and the other more handling than dribbling. One had less hacking — the other, as much hacking as possible. Some of these differences developed from environmental factors — such as the size and position of the pitch. Others grew from tradition, whim and the imagination.

So Why the Dribble?

How do you play football in a confined space? Perhaps in the back yard, or a narrow street? You can’t run far with the ball, nor boot it into oblivion. You have to dribble it, trying to outwit your opponent with dodging and quick passing. Football in schools with small outdoor spaces were often forced to develop the game along these lines. There were still scrums and ball-handling, but far less than games played in open fields.

Football at Charterhouse School developed within a cramped, city environment. From 1611 to 1873, the school’s London site restricted games the the opposite side, rather like modern rugby’s “drive tries”.

You can see from the goal-scoring that kicking and foot skills were highly valued. The two-point goal seems almost like converting a try in rugby football. In fact, quite a lot of the game reminds me of rugby. But in none of the games described so far could you run with the ball, which is very relevant to the way football developed later.

If you’re looking for football academy or football tours, contact the Football Management Group.

The underlying demand for housing in Australia is set to increase because of decision by the Australian Federal Government to boost migration levels significantly during the 2008-09 financial year.

In 2008–09, the Federal Government will increase skilled migration by 31,000 places, taking the skilled stream of the migration program to 133,500 places. The overall migration program will rise to 190,300 places.

In addition, more than 100,000 temporary skilled migrants on 457 visas are expected to arrive in Australia in 2008–09.

A total of 39,500 subclass 457 visas were granted in 2003–04 compared with 49,700 in just the first half of 2007–08.

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, said the temporary skilled migration program is expected to exceed 100,000 places in 2007-08 and 2008-09.

Population growth is a key driver of the real estate market because it leads to a rising demand for housing. This demand is driven by both people who wish to live in Australia and those on working visas.

Overseas migration is playing a key role in Australia’s population growth. In Western Australia, overseas migration now accounts for more than 50% of the overall population growth rate.

It is expected that the surge in overseas migration will have an immediate impact on the rental market which is good news for property investors who can look forward to falling vacancy rates and rising rents during the coming financial year.

The Investors Club research department will examine the impact of rising migration levels on the Australian property market to identify those areas that will benefit most from this trend.

An interesting fact about migration is that around one million migrants arrived in each of the five decades following 1950:

* 1.6 million between October 1945 and June 1960
* 1.3 million in the 1960s
* 960,000 in the 1970s
* 1.1 million in the 1980s
* 900,000 in the 1990s

We are reaching one million migrants now in four years and today, nearly one in four of Australia’s 20 million people were born overseas. The United Kingdom has been the major source of migrants in recent years.

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For more information about Australian property investment, talk to The Investors Club. The Investors Club was created by Kevin Young, an Australian property investor and CEO of The Investors Club. BSON071208

Despite unstable interest rates, women remain avid property investors. In fact when it comes to satisfaction with their choice of investment, women with property out-rate their male counterparts.

In a recent survey of property owners by investment house, women were more upbeat about their choice of bricks and mortar than men, with one in five aiming to build their portfolio with as many investment properties as possible. The majority (55%) of women interviewed own one investment property, while 41% own between two and five properties.

The remainder own over six properties with a small, but noteworthy, proportion of 1% owning a staggering 11 or more investment properties.

According to Property Choice national manager corporate affairs, John O’Rourke, women are increasingly making a large impact on the investment property market. He says: “You only have to visit a handful of auctions to work out how many women are confidently investing in real estate, often by themselves.”

Property has long been a favourite among Australian investors though the survey identified different points of appeal between the sexes. Apparently, women are more likely to opt for houses in a bid to set themselves up for the future. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to buy property for the tax deductions, provided by negative gearing. This could be a possible reflection of wage differences between men and women.

Julianne Chancey, author of a recently published book about property investment says: “Women have always been comfortable with the ‘look-feel’ aspects of property investing.” She adds: “With the high number of divorcees and singles, women are often conscious of the need for security, and real estate caters to that need on a psychological level.” A

spate of loan interest hikes followed by recent drops may have left home investors worried and uncertain as to the future, but it doesn’t seem to be discouraging female property investors who are adopting a range of measures to cope with higher interest charges.

According to Mortgage Choice, 37% of female investors manage their own rental properties versus 33% of men, saving on professional property management fees which can be around 8% of gross income.

And despite a well publicised rental rent creep, female landlords are likely to be more sympathetic with tenants. Only 24% of women have raised the rent on their investment property, compared to 38% of men.

Gender shouldn’t be a factor when it comes to finance. Paul Grogan, a Mortgage Specialist with NAB, says: `Lenders don’t discriminate between male and female. It comes down to security, your ability to repay and your credit history.” He said that men appear to have a clearer idea of the sort of finance they want.

He advises: “Do plenty of investigation, be prepared to take advice, and if you are still unsure, speak to someone you know and trust.”

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Brought to you by Kevin Young, CEO of the Investors Club. The Investor’s Club help people build wealth through sound property investment with a long-term outlook.