You are about to embark on the most exciting enterprise of your life -- publishing a cook book! You will soon learn that writing a cook book is truly a fun, exciting and challenging project

CHANEL, VERSACE, DOLCE & GABBANA, VUITTON, GUCCI, DIOR, FENDI, PRADA, COACH, MARC JACOBS et al.
As the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear, these are the brand-name clothing and fashion accessories that women will expect. But with the average cost of these items ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars, how can the average woman afford these at all
Add to the mix the celebrity endorsements. Paris Hilton wears CHANEL sunglasses, Jessica Simpson totes a VUITTON Speedy bag, Jennifer Lopez wears a DOLCE & GABBANA dress.

User Base
The non-US and non-English Web segments have been boosted by a growing trend towards PC penetration and cheaper Internet access in the last couple of years. The US share of the global population online, once above ninety percent, is now under a quarter, while the number of Internet users who do not speak English at all continues to grow.
The Asia-Pacific region remains a key contributor to the increase in the number of non-English speakers on the Web, but the Russian Internet, aka Runet, demonstrates the accelerated pace of development as well.
The Russian language on the Web was represented by 2.7 percent in March 2003, said Global Reach http://www.global-reach.biz/globstats/index.php3, a consultancy that tracks non-English online populations. The share is quite minor, compared to English with its 35.2 percent. However, the growth rate of Runet is far more exciting; the Russian Internet audience has tripled over the last two years, registering a 40 percent increase annually. The February 2003 Report by SpyLOG http://gs.spylog.ru/interesting.phtmlid=51%20 indicates that the total users who surf the Russian portion of the Internet have reached about 15 million, 60 percent of whom live in Russia and seven percent in Ukraine. Moscow and St.-Petersburg account for 53 percent of the total Internet users in Russia. Similarly, the Ukrainian Internet surveys reveal that the vast majority 70 percent of Ukrainian users live in Kiev, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Donetsk, according to freenet.kiev.ua and mct.kiev.ua as quoted in Kyiv Post Business March 20, 2003.
The Ukrainian user base grows as fast as its Russian counterpart. The total Internet users in Ukraine reached 2.5 million by year-end 2002, a 150 percent increase in a year, said the head of the Ukrainian State Committee for Communications and Information Technologies http://mignews.com.ua/events/ukraine/73927.html. Independent marketers confirm the recent trends on the Ukrainian Internet, or Uanet for short. For example, eRus.ru http://www.e-rus.ru/news/2003/03/251511_3939.shtml quoted GfK-USM, a marketing company, as stating that the regular Internet users in Ukraine accounted for 6.4 percent of the total population 3.1 million of 48.4 million in February 2003, and the number of the users who purchased products or services through the Internet was doubled when compared to February 2002.
Internet Access and Prices
Dial-up connection is the most common way of accessing the Internet in both Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian dial-up users, for example, pay $0.1 to $2.0 an hour for Internet access, depending on an ISP, time of day and availability of callback services. The monthly charge for unmetered access in Kiev currently ranges from about $4 midnight to 9.00 a.m. with no callback support to about $40 24-hour access via callback service. The callback service in Kiev will save you about $0.4/hour, an additional fee charged by Ukrtelecom for connection to the local telephone line.
The broadband access is rather expensive, ranging from $40/month IDSN, 64 K/s, 1 GB monthly data transfer to $300/month dedicated line, 64-128 K/s, unlimited transfer with a set-up fee of $200 to 300, plus some hidden charges that are quite common for the local providers. Thus, only corporate clients can enjoy the privilege of broadband subscription.
What Users are Searching for
Like Internet users worldwide, the majority of Russian and Ukrainian surfers search the Web for information. A Yandex poll http://www.yandex.ru/polling/9.html shows that about 24 percent searchers use the Web for easy reference and over 15 percent use it as a research tool. A further 12 percent of those polled said the Internet was a news source for them while only 14 percent preferred online entertainment services. An increase in personal consumption in Russia and Ukraine has made a positive impact on the regional Internet. Russians and Ukrainian are increasingly relying on the Internet in order to evaluate products or services before they make their final decision to buy, whether online or offline. Currently, about 1200 online shops are listed in Magazin.ru, the largest Russian e-commerce catalogue, while CNews.ru http://www.cnews.ru/reviews/online/ reported last year that the total number of operational online shops in Runet was 500 at the beginning of 2002. The most e-shops are online outlets of bricks-and-mortar businesses, but some "pure" online stores have opened their virtual doors as well. Most notable are bookstores such as Ozon, Biblio Globus and Books in Russia, and Bookshop, AzBooKa and Bambook in Ukraine. Despite a certain lack of high-quality online offerings in Runet and Uanet, surprisingly few Western sites offer the products and services that need no customs clearance. For example, web hosting fees in Ukraine are about two to eight times higher than those somewhere in the United States, but the service providers abroad seem to be in no hurry to enter the local market. This is also true for e-books, especially on programming and computing.
Spam and Spamdexing
Despite spam is still flourishing on the Russian Web, unsolicited email messages in Runet are far less aggressive than the email marketing campaigns in the US, when a news subscriber may receive bundles of advert mailings that are vaguely associated with his/her initial subscription.
The more pressing issue for both users and search engines is spamdexing, i.e. unfair tricks aimed at attaining high rankings in search engines. Searching Runet for a particular key phrase can give you dozens of mirrors and doorways. Some successful SE optimizers in Russia and Ukraine openly advertise that their promotion techniques are solely based on building doorways or cloaking, which currently seems unwise on the global Internet.
The top Russian search engines fight against spam in much as the most popular search engines do worldwide. For example, Yandex and Rambler penalize websites for using unfair tricks and encourage Runet users to report search engine spam. Many professional programmers and webmasters also voice their concerns about spamdexing. Articles by A. Shkondin at ClubPro.spb.ru http://clubpro.spb.ru/ provide some classic examples of how spammers play games with the Russian search engines and Internet surfers.

About The Author

Vyacheslav Melnik is the founder and owner of AzureL10n http://azurel10n.com/, a website specializing in web localization, copywriting and search engine optimization for Runet and Uanet, the Russian and Ukrainian portions of the Internet.
vm@azurel10n.com

1. Wear them around the house for at least 2 days, with a pair of thick white cotton athletic socks, using either sandpaper or a sidewalk to slightly scuff the bottom.
2. If theyre leather, waterproof the outside of the shoes, then soak the entire pair underwater for about 2 minutes. Wearing a pair of thick white socks, walk around your house until dry. The shoe will mold to your foot. Caution: Don

Most interactive websites nowadays require data to be presented dynamically and interactively based on input from the user. For example, a customer may need to log into a retail website to check his purchasing history. In this instance, the website would have stored two types of data in order for the customer to perform the check

In March of 1999, the Guinness Book of Records bestowed upon Hotel Everest View the title of Highest Placed Hotel in the World. This hotel is situated 13,000 ft 3,964 m above sea level in Sagarmatha National Park in the Southern Khumbu region of Nepal. With its luxurious accommodations, guests stay overlooking the Himalayan peaks and Mt. Everest.
A Japanese construction company, Trans Himalayan Tours Ltd, built the Hotel Everest View in 1968. In October of 1973, the hotel opened its doors for the first time. The hotel was built with the intentions of attracting wealthy Japanese tourists seeking luxurious getaways that offered a breathtaking view of Mt. Everest. In order to accommodate tourists, the Shyangboche airstrip was built to receive private plans and helicopters.
Unfortunately, the Japanese tourists encountered some difficulties adjusting from a lower altitude to 10,000 ft above sea level. Tourists flying into the Shyangboche airstrip from Japan experienced horrible motion sickness, including nausea and vomiting. Even though Hotel Everest View offered a beautiful view of the surrounding peaks and high-quality accommodations, guests were unable to enjoy themselves.
Hotel management tried desperately to resolve the issue by supplying guests with oxygen tanks, but the problem still remained. It was after several deaths were reported that the government finally took action and forced the Shyangboche airstrip to shut down, leaving Japanese tourists to fly into Lukla 9,200 ft and walk three-days up the mountainside.
Elimination of chartered flights into Shyangboche airstrip caused a devastating affect on tourism for Hotel Everest View. Very few tourists would endure the three-day hike up the mountainside to enjoy the amenities of the hotel. Business declined rapidly and left the facility bare. Since than, the Shyangboche airstrip has reopened to transport gear and supplies to Mount Everest. Tourists that are accustomed to the altitude fly into Shyangboche airstrip to visit the Hotel Everest View.
Tourists still climb up the mountainside from Namche Bazaar, in the Himalayas, to stay at Hotel Everest View. Although the menu has changed from ravishing meals to light food and hot and cold beverages, this Japanese run establishments accommodations are still breathtaking. For a reasonable rate $170-$270 per night, guests can enjoy a luxurious room overlooking the surrounding peaks.
Hotel Everest View is staffed with Sherpa people, who are natives to the Mt. Everest region. Om mani padme hum, a Tibetan Buddhist mantra, is inscribed on the hotel interior walls. These ancient stone carvings serve as a constant reminder of the Sherpas deep religious beliefs. A Sherpa tour guide is on hand for guests.
Plane or helicopter charters are available for guests that desire a more direct flight to the hotel. Guests may also take advantage of a 50 minute flight over Shyangboche from Kathmandu and walk 45-minutes up the mountain trail to Hotel Everest View.
Reservations and transportation can be arranged through:
Hotel Everest View
P.O. Box 1624
Durbar Marg
Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel: 977-01-224854
Shyangboche: 977-038-40118
Fax: 977-01-227289
Credit Cards Accepted

About The Author

Scott Chamaden owns and runs Route Four Travel a quality source of travel related information. For more travel articles take a look at: http://www.rftravel.com/ezine/

Every year the Astros say next year, will its next year, and the Astros and the fans are ready. This year the Astros look ready to fight for it all. What will really happen this year Injuries can be a key factor for them this year. Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio will have to step up to the challenge and have great years. Bagwell is still putting up the power numbers as he hit 39 homers and batted in 100 RBIs last season, but the BA has slipped down to .278. As for Biggio, hes a fighter. Biggio led the league last season with 27 HBPhit by pitch.
Look for Brad Ausmus to turn around last seasons horrible hitting.229 BA and have a good season at the plate, and behind the plate this season. Jason Lane, Orlando Palmeiro, and Jose Vizciano will the the best trio off the bench in the National League this season. Berkman, Hildago, Kent and Ensberg will have great all-around seasons. Adam Everett will struggle but find his way this season. The bats will be very exciting, runs will be plentiful.
The astros will have two 20 game winners this year and could end up with the best staff in the league. Oswalt, Pettite, Clemens, Miller and Tim Redding will be the rotation for the Stros this season. Oswalt, if he can stay injury free is one of the top pitchers in the game and Andy Pettite won 21 games last season. Clemens is a future hall-of-famer and could put up 15+ wins. The relief pitching could struggle at first but will get there act together in time to make a run for the playoffs. Octavio Dotel will take over the closing role with Billy Wagner in Philly now. Dotel was one of the premier set-up men last season and he has to turn into one of the premier closers this season.
In all, fans should get there tickets early and often. The 2004 Houston Astros will fight for a World Series birth. I think the Astros will end up with 95 wins. The Astros will be in the World Series against the New York Yankees, and game seven will be a game for the ages. This is the year that every fan can be proud to say "The Astros are my team".

About The Author
Garret Tupa Jr. wrote this article for http://www.sportznow.com

September always means Back To School, and for thousands of families it also signals Off To College. In addition, more and more young people are opting to continue their education with post-graduate studies.
Once a student is past the Mandatory - Freshman - Year - In - The - Dorm Policy that many colleges have, parents face an interesting dilemma: should they continue to shell out rent, or considering buying a property for their children to occupy while attending school
Here is a TRUE Story.
In 1994, A young man decided to attend North Carolina State University. He enrolled in a combination Master/Ph.D. program. This meant he would be in Raleigh, NC for the next four -six years. After investigating the rental options in the area, his parents decided to help him purchase a townhouse.
This was the deal. A 3 bedroom, 2

For years, the search engines have continued to introduce new factors into their algorithms to make their search results more relevant and to keep savvy search engine marketers from "cracking the system."
Weve seen many ranking factors come and go in importance. For example, years ago, META tags were the key to success, or so we thought. Stick in META tags that were loaded with your keyword phrases, and you were sure to achieve top rankings.
Then, we had keyword weight as a ranking factor. We struggled to determine the keyword weight of our competitors pages, then duplicate that weight in all of the various areas of our pages.
Along came link popularity, and with it, the massive link farms and link exchange programs. Web site owners joined as many as they could in an effort to boost the sheer number of incoming links pointing to their sites.
In the midst of these evolving ranking factors came changes to page components like the title tag. Put your keyword at the beginning of the tag for maximum ranking potential. Oops. Things have changed. Put your keyword as the 3rd and 4th words in the title tag. Wait - lets try the 2nd and 3rd words.
These are just a few of the ranking factors that have come into play over the last several years.
Can you see the potential for problems here
After all, including keywords in your META tags doesnt mean that the page is more relevant for those keywords. Just because you have 12,792 worthless links pointing to your site doesnt mean your site is relevant for your keyword phrase.
Now, were in the middle of another "link popularity" or "link reputation" surge. But the rules have changed. Now, we want sites that are related in content to our site, or authoritative, popular sites in our focus area.
Okay! Now were beginning to get on the right track! After all, if an important, authoritative site in a particular topic area links to your site, it must mean that your site is important and popular for that subject too. Or, if other sites in your subject area link to you, it must mean that your site is truly about that subject as well.
Equally important, or even more so, comes the "link reputation" factor. If enough popular sites in your topic area use your important keyword phrase when linking to you, its telling the search engines that your site is relevant for that keyword phrase. After all, the Web community has deemed to describe your site using that keyword phrase, which is a vote of confidence to the search engines.
Makes sense, except for one small problem. I can have a site thats devoted to wireless Internet connections, and you can have a site thats devoted to kitchen utilities. I can link to your site from mine and use the keyword phrase "kitchen utilities" in the link text. Some of the engines appear to use the link text as the determining factor when deciding link reputation, not the contents of the page pointing to the site. So, two sites that arent related in content whatsoever could potentially help boost the link reputation of each others sites. We may see the engines consider other factors in the near future, such as the contents of the title tag on the page containing the link, which will help solve this potential problem to some degree.
However, when looking at all of the factors listed here so far, do any of them truly prove that the page is relevant to a particular keyword phrase
With relevancy comes a much more stable, trustworthy search engine. When you search for a particular topic, youre assured of getting search results that contain pages with good, solid content related to that keyword phrase.
After all, most people venture onto the Internet looking for information. If we can provide that information in content-rich, valuable pages, weve done the search engines, the users, and ourselves a big favor.
With all of these various ranking factors, what is the one area that is sorely missing
How about a site ranking algorithm based on a combination of content relevancy and user popularity data
"Content" relevancy and "user popularity" arent as easy to manipulate as link popularity, link reputation, or even keyword placement, so the search engine results should certainly be more relevant. After all, anyone who is concerned about relevancy in search engine rankings should want the most relevant pages and sites to rise to the top of the rankings. If our pages arent the most relevant, we have some work to do!
Introducing an Innovative Search Engine Ranking Algorithm
I just learned of a new search engine that actually uses a combination of content relevancy and user popularity to determine rankings. Its called ExactSeek.com.
How does ExactSeek measure user popularity The engine has teamed up with Alexa, which offers a toolbar that measures activity on the Web. By measuring the surfing activity of millions of Alexa users, ExactSeek is able to determine the user popularity and relevancy of Web sites in its index. User popularity is a far more reliable indicator of where Web sites should rank and gives users some input on the search results they see.
Mel Strocen, CEO of Jayde Online, which is the parent company of ExactSeek, says,

"Alexa traffic data will be a strong factor in the ExactSeek ranking algorithm but not the dominant factor, that being page content. Essentially, weve opted to emphasize user popularity over link popularity."

In fact, in an effort to make the results even more relevant, ExactSeek.com will be in flux for the next week or two as they work to determine how much weight to give Alexa traffic data in ranking search results.
The beauty of ExactSeek.com is that the harder you work toward increasing traffic to your Web site by adding new, relevant content, paying for SEO, advertising in various publications, investing in a PPC campaign, etc., the better your rankings will be in ExactSeek.com.
Can User Popularity be Manipulated
I think a better question would be, what search engine results cant be manipulated The key is to consider relevancy and valuable content, which is something that ExactSeek.com has wisely chosen to focus on.
Its true that not everyone uses the Alexa toolbar. However, it does provide results based on an excellent sampling of users on the Web. Plus, user popularity will be more difficult to manipulate than other factors, because it is certainly more difficult to manipulate the surfing public than it is to manipulate the search engines.
Give ExactSeek.com a Try!
ExactSeek.com is innovative in more ways than the way it determines rankings. For example, you can check your sites rankings in the ExactSeek database from a link on the main page of the engine. How convenient!
In Conclusion . . .
As the search engine industry evolves, well begin to see more and more innovations geared toward arriving at relevant search results that arent as easily manipulated as some of the ranking methods in the past. One of those innovations is being put into place now at ExactSeek.com: user popularity combined with content relevancy.

About The Author

Robin Nobles is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine Workshops with John Alexander. They teach 2-day beginner, 3-day advanced, and 5-day all-inclusive "hands on" search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe. She also teaches online search engine marketing courses through http://www.onlinewebtraining.com, and she

Heres a really simple way... any novice can create a fully functional website in less than a week.
Websites are the wave of the future. Although many companies are using an online presence to drive business to their brick and mortar stores, many hobbyists also tend to have a bit of interest in developing their own online presence as well. Developing a website from scratch can be rather expensive, but armed with the right tools, and given a little instruction, anyone can develop a professional website in less than a week.
One thing you must always remember is that anyone trying to do a particular job should be armed with the right tools. Having the right tools will definitely make your project a bit easier to complete.
I guess you are scratching your head wondering what type of tools I would be talking about. You see when you are developing a website, you become a builder, a painter, or an artist. You are taking an idea from your head and transforming it into a digital image so to speak. Just as if you were going to build a home from the ground up, take a paint brush and create a masterpiece painting, or take a piece of clay and create a winning statue, you need the right tools to do the right job.
The tools Im referring to are web graphics software, web design software, and ftp file transfer protocolsoftware. These are tools are a must if you want to get off on the right foot. There are so many of these types of programs that you must really do your homework in order to purchase the one the best fits your needs. Some of these programs can even be downloaded for free. Each program focuses on a particular task. The graphics software helps you create images for your website from scratch. The web design software in short helps you to design and build a website from scratch. The file transfer protocol software is you link to sending your completed web pages from you computer to the internet.
Day one should be focused on purchasing cyber "real estate", and purchasing a name for that real estate.
Building a website is like building a new house. You have to purchase the land and then you can purchase the materials to build the home on the land. Lets take a look at this. Every website has a so called name. Example www.1234.com. This is called the domain name. There are many places that you can purchase cheap domain names. They usually run under $10 dollars and are good for about a year. Once you have the domain name you can start looking for a place to host you website. There are many hosting companies that are popping up on a daily basis. Hosting can be dirt cheap or it can be rather expensive. It all depends on the quality of service you receive from the company. Heres another area you should consider researching before you make a purchase.
Day two should be focused on the whole planning aspect of your website.
The planning aspect of your website should be focused on the objective of your website, the audience you are trying to target, and how your competition is doing in the market. Focusing on the objective simply means to think about what you are trying to accomplish with your website. Your goals and accomplishments should fall into this category. You should also be trying to focus on a target market. Many internet marketers feel that you should focus on a niche market. Remember that the internet is a big playing field. A beginner will get lost in the crowd trying to cover several areas. Instead, try and focus on something with less competition but enough competition to stay in business. Targeting a specific market or niche market is basically the audience you are trying to win over.
Day two should also be focused on the look and feel of your website. For example, you should have a mental image of how you want your website should look. It would be safe to say that you could even sketch out a raw diagram of how you want things to look. Pay attention to the color scheme as well. remember that all colors do not coordinate with one another.
Day three should be focused on the type of graphics you plan on using.
In all honesty, web graphics can make or break the success of your online presence. The internet is all about information and speed. Its like going to a fast food restaurant. You go their because you something quick to eat. The internet is similar. A fast loading website will beat out any other website hands down any day. In order to have a fast loading website you must keep your image graphics file size down to a minimum. The more clutter or bells and whistles you add to your site, the faster it will take to load. There are several website design programs out their that will let you know how long it would normally take for you page to load up. Shrinking the file size, saving it in different formats, and even cropping the image can cut seconds off your loading time.
If you want to save money, you can purchase a graphics program and make images and logos on your own. If you are a bit scared of the venture, you have the option of hiring someone to do the job for you. Whatever choice you make, always do your research for the best details and outstanding customer support.
Here we are on day four. Only one day left. Creating your web pages.
This is basically the meat and bones of any website. For the most part, an easy way to build a website is to use what is called a template. Basically a template is a preset model used to create a number of different pages. It saves you time and headaches. Once you find the look and feel of your website, you use that interface as a preset model to help you move along more smoothly. There are many html editors that can help you do this quicker than usual. One thing to remember is that using an html editor prevents you from dealing with actual html coding. Basically what Im getting at is you dont really need to know html when using an html editor.
You want to focus on building links, inserting and formatting text, and focusing on building your other pages throughout your site. Day four is the day where everything starts coming together. Take your time on this day. Dont rush anything. Make sure you are satisfied with one step before moving on. Your website is basically a mirror image of what you stand for. It will reflect on your work ethic and personality.
Congratulations you made it to day five. Give yourself a pat on the back. This day is spent publishing your website to the world.
This is where all you work is tied together and presented in a nice package. In order to do this you need some type of ftp software. In technical terms its called File Transfer Protocol. This is how you transfer your web page files and graphics from your computer to your hosting company. The procedure is rather simple. You basically use a point and click interface. You highlight the file you want to transfer and hit upload or send. The software is rather self-explanatory. Once the site is up on the web, check for links that are not working, or slow download times. Way to go, you have completed your first website without all the technical wisdom. There are a few more details that you will run into, but this is like a crash course of something that is really rather simple.

When you decide to tackle this task, just remember to take your time and plan everything out in advance. Do your research, and learn the basics of the three main software tools that are required. The tools are only as good as the user. If you become stuck or confused on a certain function, seek help. Customer support, chat rooms, or newsgroups. Remember the internet is a world of information. Use it to your advantage.
Follow these steps and you can impress your friends and family. Completing this will eventually get you labeled as a genius or whiz kid.

About The Author

c Copyright 2003 by R. Grisby
R.Grisby distributes ebooks dealing with various topics. The information presented in this article above comes from the Ebook "How to create a website in 5 days." Find it at: www.grisbynovels.com/5daywebsite.htm
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