How to Reach a Real Person

I was just sent an email which recommended this article to the readers of this blog. PBX Hell: 50+ Hacks to Get to a Real Person in 10 Seconds or Less“ . I checked out the article, and it looks like a really groovy article with some really nice tips for getting through to an actual person and not just an answering service…got to hate long telephone messages with tons of options….ugh. Well check out the article, and hope it is of service.

The Magic Bullet Blender

One morning I was up at an unusual time, after getting my coffee, I sat down and turned on the tube. For some odd reason, I settled in on the infomercial for The Magic Bullet. This was one funny infomercial because there was this little old lady in the panel who had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. It was just such a ridiculous commercial. The panel of users was watching as the presenters were making lots of food items with their Magic Bullet, and the ews and ahhs were just way too funny.

A few weeks later, I was chatting with a friend from twitter, and he was telling me he was having a diet shake that he made in his Magic bullet. He swore by it, saying he uses it two to three times a day…he was a believer. He highly recommended that I get one. I have actually seen them at various other stores, but have been a little reluctant. After all the only thing that I would be getting the Magic Bullet for would be to make my smoothies, and I use a blender for this task, at most three times a week.

Then today I was doing a bit more research, and I found a site that does reviews of as seen on tv products. The bullet had less then spectacular reviews. Many people said that if you wanted to liquify something it was great, but if you wanted to make something minces, like slaw, it would chop it way too finely. Well this should not be a problem for me, since the primary thing I would be using it for is as I said, to make my shakes.

I can not yet recommend the Magic Bullet, but I do plane on investing in one in the near future. I also plan on looking for the Magic Bullet infomercial on tv, because it was just hilarious.

Nutrition related Resources;

• Agreatdirectory.com has a Diet-&-Nutrition category with some groovy sites listed.
• A great directory, AskFrank also has a Nutrition category with a ton of nutrition related sites.

Grocery Shopping on Amazon

I have an affiliate membership with Amazon.com and I was testing out their Grocery Shopping program, but you won’t find it on this page. So Lizzie had been shopping at Walmart and other stores in our area, and was unable to find Bran Chex a really healthy food that Lizzie enjoys in the morning, at any of the local stores. So when I was on Amazon doing some research for an affiliate link, I noticed that they were doing a referral special for their grocery shopping service. 3 dollars per referral. I suppose that could add up.

Anyway I checked out the program, and found the cereal that Lizzie has been trying to find. Looking at the prices, it came out to something like $15 for what I thought would be 5 boxes of cereal. Which came out to about 3.50 a box which was comparable to the grocery store. So after checking with Lizzie, I placed the order. Several days later, the package arrives, but with only one 16oz box of cereal. WTF. I certainly had not intended to pay 15 bucks for one box of Bran chex, and I am sure Lizzie would not have approved that purchase.

Looking back at Amazon.com the Amazon adds, the package of 5 boxes is not available, but the single box is available. Just the way Amazon has their adds is very deceptive. So needless to say, I am not happy with the Amazon service, nor will I recommend it to others.

I just tried to contact them via a contact form on the site. I will try to contact them next week and see what they have to say. But for now, please be careful when using Amazon’s Grocery Shopping Service.

Some shopping Resources:

• Food and Diet category of Resources4humans.com
• Nutrition category of a Beauty Directory
• Eshop Index Food and Drink category
• Sporge.com sub category for Diet and Nutrition
• LinksJuice.com Weight Loss Category

Pet Sites, Pet Resources, and Pet Blogs

Pet sites are very abundant on the Internet, which only makes sense. Sites that are made about our passions seem to have the best results. Passion for pets is an area that many pet owners can understand. The sacrifices we make are very understandable, since often times they are just like adopted family members. In some cases, they are the only family members. At other times, such as with seeing eye dogs, we are dependent upon them for our safety and general well being. Regardless if it is a cat, dog, snake, or fish; pets for the most part, improve the quality of life for everyone.

Please visit the following pet resources, and if you have a pet resource you would like added to the list, please leave a comment with a link to the resource in the comments and it will be evaluated in due course.

Pet Resources

• MyPetblog Pet Resources page has lots of pet resources.
• Pet resources site Animalspetsandfriends.com, has lots of great pet resources.

Weight Loss Programs

Weight Loss programs will always be more efficient when the program combines the two components of nutrition and exercise.

Nutrition involves the stuff we put into our mouthes to sustain us. Good programs will help the individuals to make small changes that will lead to big results. Nutritional changes can take the form of teaching portion control to teaching about the quality of foods that we consume.

The second component which will help you to be more effective with the results of your weight loss program, is Exercise. Exercise does not necessarily mean running a marathon or even doing things that are physically strenuous. Of course, the more physical activity you get, the more calories you are going to burn. This might be taking the stairs instead of the elevator or walking to places that are close by instead of driving. When beginning to exercise, gradually increase the amount of physical activity slowly to avoid injury.

Before undertaking any life changing program, make sure you do your home work or due dilligence, and consult with medical professionals before beginning any weight loss program.

Helpful links weight loss related resources:

• PlentyLinks.com general webdirectory Weight Loss Issues subcategory.
• Weight Issues subcategory from 1stchoicesearch.com, which also has a blog that is a great resource for webmasters.
• An Online Health Food Store with lots of great health food products.
• LinkDirectory.com Health Shopping Sub category page.
• A Quality, Human Edited Web directory with a Health food subcategory.
• ABC. MD medical directory Nutrition sub category for Supplements and Products.
• Lamonterey.com  Food and Nutrition category.

Weight Loss Products

The weight loss product industry is a huge market that is growing exponentially. Our society is going through an epidemic of obesity. With our improved technology, comes a less physical life style that results in ever increasing waist lines. Consumers have many choices about what products to choose for weight loss. I actually do marketing for a product weight loss shake which can be purchased from Rightsizeonline.com. You can read about the shakes in in an article on the GreenTeaToday.com blog entitled Green Tea Weight Loss from Rightsizeonline.com.

Other weightloss resources:

• Fatladysingz.com is a weightloss program review blog of Lizzie Bean. Lizzie also did a review of RightSize® smoothies as well as other weight loss programs.
• One of my favorite directories, Pegasus Directory has a Weight Loss subcategory with lots of great sites.
• NIDDK National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Weight Control Information Network.
• Wikipedia Weight Loss page.
• Emory University’s MedWeb, a medical niche directory.
• Questions about Appetite Suppressant Medication from the University of Wisconsin.

Travel Industry

The travel industry is a Multi Billion Dollar industry that continues to grow year after year, and for many communities represents the lions share of the community income. Care for a Hershey bar from Mexico anyone.

Sites in the travel category can range from hotels, restaurants, vacation planners, event sponsors, cruise lines and the like. We ourselves have a Philadelphia Travel blog that does reviews of our travels, which are frequently in the Philadelphia area, due to its proximity to our current home of Boyertown, PA. Recent travel posts include trips to the Philadelphia, Atalanta, and Gananoque Ontario.

Future travel reviews will include hopefully destination in Hawaii, Las Vegas and Canada. Future travel related posts will also be contributed to this blog as well.

Industrial Goods and Services

I have recently taken on a new industrial type client, and am in the process of obtaining another industrial goods type client. These two clients, although not sites that sell consumer goods, do indirectly have an influence on consumers. One client, specializes in industrial services that make industries work more effectively through automation. This may not apply directly to the consumer, as in a product that a consumer can touch and use. However, indirectly, it allows the consumer to get their consumable items at a quicker rate, and hopefully at a reduced price, due to decrease in production costs that can result from the increase in automation efficiency.

Another, potential client, manufacturers items that relate to the advertising of consumer items as well as industrial related labels and tags, which similarly, affect consumers indirectly.

Industrial Goods and Services Resources:

• The Business Services sub category in Christoperheinc.com, which is a great looking, human edited directory, with many quality sites.
• The Industrial Goods and Services sub catergory of the SEO Executive Directory.
• The Industrial Services sub category of JAGDirectory.com(just another general directory)
• Business and Economy subcategory of Ipsarion.com.

Nutrition and Health Resources

Nutrition is one of the most important factors that determines a person health state and which can help to ensure ones good health. It is not say that you will never get sick or never get a disease if you maintain a nutritious diet, but making good choices about what you eat will increase the odds of maintaining your good health. Nutrition also plays an important part in your emotional well being. Studies have shown that children who have a good diet do better on standardized tests and in school in general.

Below is a list of health and nutrition Resources. If you know of a resource that should be on this list, please leave a comment and it will be considered for inclusion as time permits.

• The first resource on our list is a general directory 2listnow.com that has many health related resources available as well as many others.
• 4do.org another general directory with many health related listings.
• Luxus Directory
• Nutritious weight loss shakes from RightSizeOnline.com which include smoothie shakes such as strawberry, banana or other fruit shakes. Rightsizeonline also has a smoothie recipe page with tons of delicious recipes.
• Health and Wellness Products – Helpful articles and reviews on numerous health and wellness related topics and products.
• Weight Loss Products and Information with lots of articles on weightloss and nutrition.
• Pegasus directory a seo friendly general directoryQuality human edited free web directory
• Niche-listings.com Health and Beauty and weight loss listings.
• Nutrition categroy from Pixelheadonline.com a general directory.
• Diet and Nutrition category of health-wellness-central.com.
• My Green Corner Directory which has a weight issues subcategory. Really unique directory with some cool options
• Awesome Directory

Shopping for Music

Music is a great present to get someone for Christmas which has many forms that it can be given to include CD’s , instruments, MP3 players, and music lessons to name a few. My better half, Lizzie does a lot of shopping online and so far this year she has purchased more than one music related Christmas present. Just last week she was shopping on the Skymall.com site and bought an Ion USB turntable for one of her sons. This is a record player that can be used to turn your old records into computer music files. He is always bringing home albums that he finds at yard sales or flea markets. This in itself can be a used to make presents by converting peoples old records for them into CD’s. I would love it if I got some of my old records converted. I am sure I will be able to use it as well.

In addition to this item, Lizzie is always going onto Half.com for CD’s for the kids. Her son who got the turntable is a big one for this type of music gift. Half is great because it has a huge selection of music, but as its name states, everything is half off. And since it is an off shoot of Ebay, everything can be paid for via Paypal or one of their other payment options.

Another type of gift that Lizzie has gotten in the past is music lessons, in particular string instrument lessons. Now this strikes me as being a good gift, however, the lessons were given in the form of a gift certificate for lessons at a local music shop. The gift certificates to the best of my knowledge have yet to be used. The lessons have not been learned.

I had been channel surfing the night before last, and I come across a infomercial for the Esteban Master Class Guitar package. Previously I had reviewed the Esteban Guitar package from Seenontvexpress.com, in the Holiday Shopping post. I realized that this package not only has the Master Class Esteban Guitar, but it also has 5 instructional DVDs and a lot of other guitar accessories. This is pretty cool because it would give a person a basic understanding of playing guitar, lessons that never expire and can be watched and practiced over and over.

Music is an important part of the holidays, from the Christmas Carols, to the hymns at church. So if you have someone that is hard to shop for, think about a gift of music which can range from CD’s or gift certificates from local music shops. Giving the gift of music is a gift that shows you care and wish the recipient good fortune and happiness in the new year.

Below in the previous post, are some Music shopping resources that may be useful when shopping for Music. If you know of a resource that should be included in this list, please let me know by making a comment and I will add the shopping resource if appropriate.