Is it OK For Christians to Make Millions on the Internet? Part 1 of 5

I'm reading a newly published, spiritually uplifting book by a well known Cajun TV minister. His name is Jesse Duplantis and his book is titled, "The Everyday Visionary - Focus Your Thoughts, Change Your Life". I've followed Jesse's (I'm going to call him Jesse instead of Pastor Jesse) ministry for a long time and feel close to his teachings. I love his messages because he is so humorously down to earth. I'll give you my version of Jesse's inspiring book in five parts.

The question many Christians have, "Is It OK to Make Millions on the Internet?" The short answer is YES, it is OK.

Jesse clarifies how Christians can prosper spiritually, physically and financially. Christians have dreams, thoughts and visions just like everyone else. So why shouldn't they be free to prosper in all areas of life, especially financially. It is all in the mind set and not understanding what God promises in his Word.

Jesse has a lot to say about mental mapping. What a person believes will affect how he thinks and acts. Get your belief straight; then thinking and actions will fall in place. It is all in the mind. Jesse calls this "Mental Maps". Mental maps are the kind of thoughts that have purpose and direction. Following your mental map will lead you to success and that is what God wants for you.

God made us to dream and dreaming is wonderful. Especially the dreams that are divinely inspired; they give people hope. God takes that hope and adds it to your faith. After all 'faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see'. So by faith take those dreams and visions and implement them. That is what God wants us to do. It does not make any difference how old you are. You can be a visionary and you can act on the ideas and visions God has put on your heart as long as you're still breathing.

I believe I will stop here and continue with "Is it OK for Christians to make Millions on the Internet?" Part 2 of 5 later.

Carpenter Ants

When it comes to Carpenter Ants, the biggest question many people have is, "Are they in the house or are they coming from the outside?" This is a great question, and there are some ways to try and figure it out. Carpenter Ants can be a real problem if they are nesting in the house. Before you start spraying everything you can find under the kitchen sink on these ants, let us make sure they are Carpenter Ants, and not some other species. If you have black (not dark brown) ants that can be different sizes when found, you probably have Carpenter Ants. The same colony can have small and big members. Size is not a real factor in determining if you have them, so do not spend a lot of time analyzing this variable. A better idea is to determine where they are coming from (we will talk about this later).

One the sure way of knowing that you have an infestation inside the home is if you find "flying ants" or "swarmers", as we in the pest control industry prefer to call them. Flying ants inside are never a good sign. But before you get all worked up, make sure they are not termites. You will be thankful when you determine it is just ants if that is what it is! If you do determine that they are termites, call a professional company and consider having a professional treatment before you try to tackle them yourself. Mistreating a termite colony could cost you thousands of dollars in the long run. The easiest way to determine if you have ants (whether Carpenter Ants or other) is to look for three distinct body parts. With ants, the head, thorax and abdomen are all visible to the naked eye. Termites appear to only have two segments. However if in doubt, call in a pest control company to make sure. Most companies have a "free inspection policy" and will not charge to tell you what kind of bugs you have.

Another way to determine if the ants are nesting in the home is to note the time of year. If you have Carpenter Ants roaming around the house in the middle of the winter and it is cold outside, they are definitely not coming from the outside! This is also possibly something you will see in the late winter-spring. "Ok, what do I do now?" you ask, itching to kill these things. Well hold on, before we get into that, let's talk about some habits these home-wreckers have.

The biggest thing you need to know about Carpenter Ants is that they need water to survive. Although their primary diet is dead insects, they will always need a water source. It is usually outside--such as a bird bath, a clogged gutter, poor landscaping or some other drainage issue. Worse yet, the water source may be inside. "What?" you may ask. It is true, it can be inside your home. Many times homeowners have told me horror stories about that tiny leak under the bathtub or kitchen sink they never knew about under one day... Carpenter Ants started showing up and someone suggested a leak. Or, it could condensation on pipes in a crawl space. And what about improperly sealed shower stalls? All these things contribute to attracting Carpenter Ants. They say to themselves, "Why live outside in the elements when we can live can live here with our primary staple (water)." They certainly are not stupid creatures, as King Solomon noted and encouraged lazy people to go and learn from them.

Another habit worth noting is that they are primarily nocturnal. Most of the ones you see during the day are just scouting the situation out. A lot of people report to me that they see them only in the early morning. This is the graveyard shift getting ready to clock out. They most likely found a gold mine in the sink from last night's dishes that were washed.

Now let us talk about control. First, you must determine where the colony is hiding. It may be far away from the sightings and you may never find them without help. A good idea is to look outside during the late afternoon on the perimeter of your home for "ant trails". If you find them going up the side of your home, follow them. Especially if they are carrying something like a dead insect-they are always going back to the nest with it and will lead you to some idea as to where it may be. It could be in the attic, or one of your eaves, a basement sill area, or simply between your walls. If you can find the nest and want to treat it yourself, using a powder or "dust" is one way to kill the colony by using a bulb-duster and pumping the powder into the hole on the outside where they disappear into. Sometimes though, this can make matters worse, you may end chasing them deeper into your house and then they manifest in areas you were not seeing them in before. Using a general spray insecticide can hold them off on the inside, but could end up causing the situation to become more severe with their speading-out in areas where they are not visible.

After treating Carpenter Ants for more than a decade, I do want to encourage you consider calling a professional who has access to professional products that may discourage the ants from moving around and dying right where they are. An example of this would be baits or non-repellents that act like a virus to the colony. If your concern is financial, please consider that mistreating Carpenter Ants could result in serious damage to your home long-term, and translate into repairs that seriously out-way the cost of a professional treatment.

The Issue of Trademark Infringement on Google AdWords

Google AdWords treats the importance of trademarks very seriously, in fact on Google AdWords Terms and Conditions, the intellectual property infringement by advertisers is strictly forbidden and there are stringent measures in order to arrest such behavior and disciplinary actions are implemented to make sure that all advertisers are given equal advertising opportunities. Each advertiser is held responsible for the keywords that they opt for in order to generate ads and the texts that they choose to use in all those ads that they create.

Whenever an allegation is made on trademark infringement, Google investigates the matter at hand in a very serious manner especially if the issue is raised by a trademark owner, an entity who legally paid for the exclusive use of a product or any representation of it. The trademark infringement issue is not a new thing, especially with companies such as Google whose line of business encompasses all boundaries and since trademarks are territorial meaning the coverage of a trademark is bound into a specific area, it is but normal that different entities may own the same kind of logo or mark in different countries.

So the first thing that Google does is it tries to determine the validity of the trademark in question, information on the scope of area where the trademark is considered still valid and for what exact goods or services (since a brand for a certain coffee product can also be used as a name for another totally different product which is no way related to coffee like for instance the brand of a bed or the name of a hotel and there are no infringement issues there). The trademark infringement complaint investigation process can apply not only to Google Advertisers but to non-AdWords advertisers as well, yet the complaint and the investigation will only affect ads served on Google.

The issue of trademark infringement and its accompanying complaints and investigations cannot be applied to organic search results, only to the sponsored links so if the complaint is about a trademark that appeared on the Google search results, the complainant has to take it up with the site owner directly. If the issue is with AdSense for Domains, the investigation affects only the participation of the domain name in question in the AdSense for Domains program.

And since these ads are just passing through Google and Google is no way a third party arbiter, Google encourages the complainants or the trademark owners to send their disputes directly to the website owners in question. The reason for this is because the advertisers may have similar ads going on running in other advertising programs and if the complaint is sent through Google, the investigation will only be confines in the Google domain.

Use Stila Cosmetics to Get the Perfect Summer Look

Stila Cosmetics was the beauty brainchild of a celebrity make up artist, and was created in the mid 1990's in Los Angeles. Stila Cosmetics are now really hard to access in the UK, but are well worth hunting down. This beauty-full brand remains totally committed to creating artist quality beauty products that are sought after by pro's and everyday Stila girls.

Stila Cosmetics creates the kind of beauty that comes from creating your own unique, natural glowing, feminine look.

1) The first of Stila's all-star products are their amazing eyeshadows. Stila's eyeshadows are fantastic, with textures that are soft, blendable and easy-to-use. They have a great selection of colours and we have designed our own palette of eyeshadow colours to create the smokey, seductive summer eyes.

2) In the summer, you cannot afford to live without Stila's Tinted Moisturizer. In summer, skin should look like skin, so strip away your mask of normal foundation and opt for something more sheer and sunkissed. Stila has two tinted moisturizers that are perfect for this. Stila Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer gives sheer coverage with a subtle shimmer, giving a pretty and luminous look. This tinted moisturizer will give a natural glow, with light coverage.

Stila Sheer Colour Tinted Moisturizer gives a sheer, barely there look, moisturising skin at the same time. It is the perfect alternative to foundation for the summer.

3) To create the perfect summer smokey eye, try Stila's Smudge Pot. The smudge pot in cobalt is an amazing navy tone and is perfect for making your eyes really open and pop!

Once you've tried Stila Make Up, you'll wonder how you ever lived without them.

Promotional Products

As a promotions director for a lot of super markets, one of my key responsibilities was finding promotional products for the events we make. I worked with distributors to order, design and customize these items to promote the super markets image to the general public.

When it comes to finding Promotional Products for your business, you want to find items that feature your company name prominently. If you're promoting a "toys event", you don't want to give people watches, or mugs.

Promotional Products Made Simple

Promotional products marketing fits easily into any advertising budget. Promotional products complement and actually increase the effectiveness of other advertising media. They can be directed to selected audiences, which dramatically increases their effectiveness. And they remain in use for long periods of time to repeat the advertising message each time the product is used, without extra cost per exposure. People like to receive them. And since the items are useful and appealing, they are effective as incentives and motivators. Because there are so many products available, there is a lot of flexibility in planning a successful promotion.

The Power of Promotional Items and Gifts

In 1993, a Baylor University study2 found that salespeople who handed out promo items received 22% more referrals than those who did not give out free gifts. In addition, when compared to coupons (discount offers), promotional goods produce more sales, according to a 1993 Southern Methodist University study3. Within the food delivery industry, the study found that "customers who received promotional products reordered up to 18% sooner than those who received coupons and up to 13% sooner than those who received no promotions." A similar 1994 SMU study4 of dry cleaning customers discovered that "new customers that received promotional products spent 27% more than those who received coupons."

Finally, promotional items are a great way to thank your employees and partzners for a job well done.

Happiness Fleeting

"You cannot capture happiness no matter how hard you may chase after it. Happiness is something that follows you." The words of the old sage echoed in the young man's heart, sounding a constant beat like the song that plays over and over without reprieve. "What does that mean?" he asked himself. "Time to walk," he continued, trapped in his own inner dialogue.

He thought about how many ways he tried to find lasting joy--from the cheap thrills to the bigger emotional investments that still left him bankrupt, at square one, with no more to show than a few scars and wrinkles and perhaps a tiny glimpse of what to avoid--far from any solution, more like a the-pain-will-stop-when-you-stop-smacking-yourself-with-the-baseball-bat approach that moved nothing forward.

At least it didn't move back.

Or did it?

"The pursuit of pain avoidance will never lead to happiness," he mused inside his aching head, an ache that scratched his soul, dug deep into his bowels to trouble and torment him, turned his stomach green, a sickly, hungover nausea that clung like ivy smothering a chimney. "I've gotta' figure this out," he demanded, "I want to' be happy."

He kept one foot in front of the other, as if the forward march would somehow will the understanding to step forth and make itself known. No such luck--though he vowed to keep on.

His slow gait opened space for introspection--plod, seek, plod, seek. The mental wheels spun, though he wrestled with a vague notion that only in stillness would answers emerge or materialize.

"I can't capture happiness but I yearn for it. I try to do the right things yet it eludes me, like pushing a string. When do the right things add up? When is enough enough? How do I reel it in? Or can I?" His legs carried him while his mind churned.

"I know I can't look outside myself but how do I look within? How does looking help anyway? What do I do with what I see?"

He tripped over a protruding stone and found himself falling, a gash on the knee, a burn on the palm of his hand.

He sat for a long while, watching the wounds leak, a queer smirk across his lips.

"What's that about?" he pondered.

Despite his stuff, he felt a smile creep upward from his chin. It spread into a grin, like the sun rising between two mountain tops, filling the space with pale light that gains strength with each passing moment, a space that floods with pinks and reds and causes the valley between the crests to stream awakening to all below.

He suddenly knew, as we all know, in that profound and knowing place, that the rock that sent him tumbling spoke a universal truth.

Only he could pry open the creaking, groaning door that hid his darkest secrets as well as his enlightenment and build a pathway for happiness to alight and embrace him.

He licked the blood from his wrist and tasted himself, glanced down at his torn jeans, the naked flesh speckled with bits of gravel, glanced up and discovered an emerald green tree line, a blue sky, a stray cloud, a soaring hawk and a glowing eye that stared back at him and gave him, for a hushed moment, a tiny piece of happiness.

That's A View From The Ridge...