Getting Into Wimbledon – Recreation
Getting Into Wimbledon
Steve Smith
Wimbledon. Its a word that stands for tennis at its best.
Although it is first of all the name of a London suburb, for millions of tennis fans around the world it is shorthand for sportsmanship, athletic prowess, and celebrity stardom. For the half-a-million or so people who manage to see at least some of the annual championship games in person, it also means a huge social event.
One of the great things about the championship tennis tournament played every summer at Wimbledon is that its one of the few major sporting events for which the average fan i.e, neither rich nor well-connected stands a decent chance of gaining entry.
Interestingly, the Wimbledon games ultimately owe their existence not to tennis but to another, more sedate, game that was all the rage among the Victorians: croquet. You see, the private club that sponsors the worlds foremost tennis championship was founded originally as The All England Croquet Club.
Founded in 1868, the club did not hold its first tennis championships until 1877. Those games were witnessed by a few hundred spectators in what is described as a "garden party atmosphere."
For a long time now the clubs name has been The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, and the Wimbledon championships are attended by more than 500,000 people as well as carried to millions around the world through mass media and the Internet.
The tournament starts six weeks before the first Monday in August and runs for approximately two weeks. Players from more than 60 countries regularly compete.
If youre planning to be in London during the two June or July weeks when the tournament is being played, getting in to see at least a match or two would be a marvelous experience for any tennis fan. So how can you score a ticket to this greatest of all tennis events
If you definitely want to attend the next years Wimbledon, you should enter the public ballot or lottery that is held each January for some of the Centre Court and No. 1 Court seats. You will need some luck to pick up a ticket this way, but its worth a try. All it takes is obtaining the official application form and returning it by the deadline the exact procedures and addresses are detailed on the Tops 4 Tennis Web site at www.tops4tennis.com/articles/wimbledon.html.
If you are successful in the drawing for tickets, you will be notified about four months before the beginning of the tournament and asked to send payment at that time.
Another way to get into the tournament is to purchase a travel package from one of the many companies specializing in tennis tours. Most of these Wimbledon packages will include transportation, lodging and perhaps some local side tours in addition to the tickets themselves. This is a convenient way to go to the tournament if you like the all-in-one approach to buying travel. If youre more of an independent traveler, it might not suit you as well.
You can find Wimbledon travel operators on the Web by searching on "Wimbledon tournament travel" or "Wimbledon travel package."
There are also a number of ticket brokers online, some of whom specialize in sporting events such as Wimbledon. They buy tickets from willing sellers and re-sell them to willing buyers, or alternatively they simply bring the sellers and buyers together to make their own deal. The brokers make their money through the fees or commissions they charge for this service.
Finally, you can also stand in line for tickets during the tournament itself.
Several thousand same-day tickets are put on public sale while the games are going on. Youll have to be present and willing to stand on line a long time to get one of these. In the end you might still miss out, but if youre in the area anyway and have patience, you should show up early and have a go at it.
If youre an avid tennis player or fan or both, Wimbledon is one event you should see in person at least once in your life.
See you courtside
About The Author
© Copyright 2004 by Steve Smith. Steve Smith is a writer who lives near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His Web site, Tops 4 Tennis http://www.tops4tennis.com, includes the expanded version of the above article at www.tops4tennis.com/articles/wimbledon.html.
freedom1@mindspring.com
Editorial Freelancing: 5 Must-Know Tips to Getting Your Foot in the Door – Freelancing
Editorial Freelancing: 5 Must-Know Tips to Getting Your Foot in the Door
Yuwanda Black
So, you want to freelance as an editor, writer, copy editor, copywriter, graphic designer, proofreader, etc. But, how do you go about it
My mother was fond of saying, "If you want to know something, go directly to the source." Taking this advice to heart, I interviewed professionals in the industry for the e-book, How to Really Make a Living as an Editorial Freelancer.
Publishers, editorial directors, human resource managers and editors, among others were a vocal lot regarding freelancers and what they should/should not do to get their foot in the door.
What nuggets of information can you glean from them Here are five concrete points about which they were adamant.
1. Know your craft: Most clients like to see direct experience. This usually means working in the industry full-time for a number of years before going out on your own as a freelancer.
A vice president of publishing at a major trade publisher says, "Experience is key for us. Three to five years minimum, with a proven track record on our types of books. We dont linger over education, but I suspect most have a four-year degree."
As an editorial recruiter, I generally advise two to three years of full-time experience in the position/discipline for which you want to freelance. Five or more is better. Also, provide samples
Getting Noticed by the Search Engines – Marketing
Getting Noticed by the Search Engines
Charlie Cook
Youve got a web site; and you want to attract lots of people to visit it so you can grow your business. But youre only getting a handful of visitors currently. What is the first thing to do to help people find your site
A top listing in the search engines, especially in Google, can increase visitors to your web site and help. Lets say you sell web design services. If your site was at the top of the list when people searched for "web design" in Google, it could increase the number of people who know you exist and know what you do, by a factor of ten or more.
You may already know that a top listing in Google will help your business, but at present you are having a tough time even finding your site in the Google search engine listings. What can you do to help Google find your listing and put it as close as possible to the top of the list
Submitting Your Site
Google uses a "spider" to look for links from one site to another and to add information about additional sites and web pages to its database. Googles "spider" is very active and may already have found your site. If any other site has a link to your site and is listed by Google, Google may have found your site on its own. To find out if your web site is listed, just type in www.yoururl.com into the query box at www.google.com and press search.
If your site isnt listed, you can prompt Google to spider to it at http://www.google.com/addurl.html Submit your primary url and Google will find the rest of your site.
Getting your site listed by Google and the other search engines is the first step. Next you need to make it easy for the search engines to code your site pages correctly and move them towards the top of their listings. Heres how:
Picking the Right Keywords
If you want your prospects to find your site use the words and phrases most commonly associated with your product or service in your web pages. These are called keywords. In selecting your keywords, think about the problem your prospects want to solve. If you sell ergonomic chairs, which will work best, "comfy chairs" or "eliminate back pain" or "ergonomic chairs"
Pick keywords that people use the most frequently. Test different keywords and keyword combinations and compare the number of searches that result from each using http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Using Your Keywords
To help the search engines know what a web page is about, use your top keywords 6 to 8 times on a page. If you sell a number of different products and services, build individual pages for each set of keywords.
Make sure you dont just repeat your keywords more than 6-8 times. In this case more repetition is not better. Search engines reject pages with too many keyword repetitions. Use natural sounding copy and integrate your keywords so the copy reads well for both visitors and the search engines.
Linking Your Own Keywords
Once you have your individual product or service pages optimized for your keywords, link other pages on your site to them using your keywords again. If you have articles on your site on back pain, link your keywords to the corresponding optimized page from 4 to 5 other pages.
Building Incoming Links to Your Site
The above steps lay the groundwork for getting noticed by the search engines. The next step in getting your site listed at the top of the search engines, and particularly Google, is the number of links found from other sites to your site.
Your sites "link popularity" is one of the most important factors the search engines look at in ranking your site. When the search engines see that hundreds of other web sites have links to yours, they rank your site higher than those with fewer links.
How many links do you have to your site Use http://www.linkpopularity.com to see. You can also use this site to find the number of links to your competitors sites, and identify who has links to them.
Getting other people to link to your site is easy. Ask for a link, ideally one using your keywords, and offer a link in return. Create a links.html page and when businesses link to your site, provide a link back.
Link Example:
Attract more clients with Charlie Cooks Free Marketing Plan Guide and grow your business. Learn how to generate more leads and increase sales with the articles and marketing manuals on this site. Highly recommended. http://www.marketingforsuccess.com
Get noticed by the search engines and many more people will visit your web site so you can market your products and services to them.
About The Author
2004 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.
The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up for the Free Marketing Plan eBook, 7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com