Month: September 2016

Do I Need an Attorney for My Divorce?

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Many couples debate whether they need a divorce attorney when mediation is required by the courts. It is recommended, at minimum, consulting with a family law attorney about your options and what is best course of action for your case no matter how well you and your ex-spouse get along.

Below you will find just a few examples of the aspects you need to consider if you are debating whether you should hire an attorney for your divorce:

  • If you have many complicated assets to divide up. If you have accumulated various expensive marital property, you should consider hiring a lawyer. You will want to have a lawyer present if you have complicated possessions you are dividing, like businesses, numerous vehicles, and real property.
  • If your spouse is prone to lying. If your former spouse is known to lie, it could become difficult when it is your word versus theirs in a hearing or mediation session. If they are spreading false information about you, or lying in the courtroom, you need a lawyer on your side to protect your interests.
  • If violence or abuse is ever involved. If any abuse is present, whether it’s related to children, substance abuse, sexual abuse, mental abuse, or any other form, you should always hire an attorney. Not only will the abused spouse not be able to negotiate properly for fear of manipulation or further abuse, but a family law attorney can help take the appropriate steps to protect you and your family.
  • If your spouse has hired an attorney. Your spouse may choose to hire a lawyer to represent themselves at the last minute. We see attorneys appear at hearings and mediation with little to no notice to the unrepresented spouse. If your spouse decides to have representation, you should as well. It will be difficult to make your case against a family law attorney, even if you believe you have a clear and reasonable argument.

There is so much at stake! If you are going through divorce and you are debating on whether you need to hire a divorce attorney, call and speak to a family law firm you trust in your area. An experienced attorney should answer the questions you have, discuss your options and your particular case to help you understand your options during divorce. A skilled lawyer may be an invaluable asset to protect your and your family interests.

The Ideal Cars for Transporting Many People

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Do you ever find that you need to transport many people at a time but don’t have a big enough car to do it? Maybe it’s time for you to get a bigger car. Here are a 6 bigger cars to consider.

Ford Transit Connect LWB

This seven passenger car can fit two more people than the average car. The passengers also don’t feel as cramped as they would in a standard car. Not only does it have extra leg space but it also has head space for the taller people. The car also doesn’t use too much fuel considering its size and the amount of people it can carry.

Mercedes-Benz M-Class

Although it is considered a status brand, this might be one of the cars that could fit many people. It’s bigger than many other SUVs and it also has an impressive engine. It is powerful and comes with the option of 4matic all-wheel drive.

Honda CRV

This is an SUV that has loads of space. It has more than enough space for large items of luggage and a decent amount of space for any of your passengers. It is also a modern and affordable car that can accommodate a number of passengers.

BMW X Series

Like the Mercedes, BMW is also on top of the status list because of how amazing the engineering is. The X series might be a five seater car but it has a large amount of space in the back. Packing luggage and briefcases won’t be a problem with this car.

Kia Soul

Perhaps one of the cheapest cars for a family, it still has the quality and space that you are looking for. The Kia Soul is nicely compacted for easy driving and parking. Plus the frame of the car is quite large so you will have extra space on the inside.

Toyota Fortuner

This off-road car is one of the older models that have always been a favorite for adventure enthusiasts. Going on a camping trip with friends has never been easier and as comfortable. Not only can you enjoy the space on the inside but you also won’t have to worry about damaging the suspension and the tyres because of the way it was built.

When traveling with many people you have to make sure that you are doing it legally. By law, you are not allowed to overload a car with more than the intended amount of people.

Improving Your Website’s Search Engine Optimization

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It is proven that customers are more likely to visit the websites that show up first when doing an online search. Having your company’s website at the top of result pages can lead to more customers and potential sells. However, having a company with good search engine optimization can be difficult, especially for those who are not as technologically advanced. There are some things that you can do to help increase your website’s visibility.

One of the most important things you should do is make sure that you are always publishing relevant content. Having quality, relevant content is one of the number one drivers of giving your company higher search engine rankings. You will want to identify a keyword that pertains to each page of your site. This will be something that customers may search for to yield results to things that pertain to your company and what you do.

Once you have identified these key words or phrases, you will want to use that phrase several times on each page. Of course, you still want the page to be written extremely well and do not want to sacrifice good writing to throw in the key words more times. Having poorly written content can actually turn away customers instead of improving your SEO. Of course, you will want to update your content regularly to keep it fresh and have it appear relevant.

A big part of improving your SEO is to have proper metadata on each page. Each page has a space between the tags to insert metadata or information about the pages. This can be a confusing part of designing your website and can start to be difficult to individuals who have not been trained to improving search engine optimization. This is when hiring a professional to help you can be beneficial.

There are several aspects to improving SEO that can be difficult, with the metadata being one of the most confusing aspects. You will need title metadata for each page of your website. Then you will need a description metadata that is a textual description that a browser will use in your page search return. Finally, you will need a keyword metadata that is search phrases that are commonly used when someone wants to find a similar website to your own.

If you already own a company, there is a good chance you do not have time to go through your website and improve these metadata titles. Also, if you are not extremely knowledgeable about creating the perfect metadata, the keywords and phrases you are using may not be accurate for your website. There are many professional SEO firms that can handle writing this data for you and optimizing your website as a whole. Though these companies obviously cost you money, they can give you more customers in return which can help pay back the money spent.

Another feature that SEO friendly companies have is that they have several quality links. You want to avoid using terms like “click here” because they are not very search engine friendly. You want these keywords to be rich and improve the overall rankings of your page. This is another area that a firm can help you with as they will be more knowledgeable on creating valuable links that are optimize your page.

Overall, there are many technical aspects that come with optimizing the search results for your website. These aspects can become very time consuming and difficult to understand the average individual, especially when you are trying to run a business as well. Often, you can do some of these website enhancements on your own, but hiring a firm can be a better option. Though you will have to budget in getting a firm’s help, it will lead to better SEO and give you more customers.

The Ultimate Strategy For International Air Freight Shipping

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Gone are the days when physical boundaries and geographical locations created barriers. It’s the age of innovative transportation where businesses have the opportunity to reach out to potential consumers. Whether it’s a bulky electronics item or documents, you can opt for air-freight shipping solutions and get them delivered to exact locations. If you are running a business, all you need to do is develop a unique strategy for such transportation. That will help you send all the products to their desired addresses.

Identifying your needs

Do you know what are the prime requisites involved in International Air Freight Shipping? If you don’t, it is the high time to develop crystal clear ideas of the process. While looking for these services, make sure you know your needs and understand your requirements. It’s highly imperative to comprehend the technicalities as that is the key to executing critical operations.

Things to note

Before devising the strategies and implementing them, make sure you take note of the crucial factors involved in these projects. What’s your requirement in an overseas transportation project? Here are some of the factors that matter a lot when you plan to associate with the best International Air Freight Shipping service providers:

Services and solutions

Does your chosen partner offer 24*7 support assistance? Overseas shipping and deliveries require profound attention, care, and professional handling. You must take a look at the services offered by the top companies before finalizing the associations!

Cargo deliveries

Your cargo should reach on time as that will prove your service excellence. Timely cargo deliveries are of paramount significance for a company and it instills trust and reliability to a great extent. When it boils down to executing cargo transportations, make sure your chosen partners have the right resources in place.

Cost factors

Choosing the top companies can be affordable too. Most of the people think that partnering with a reputed freight shipping firm can be expensive, but that’s not the truth. It’s imperative to check the service costs and their solutions. That will give you a complete idea of their services.

Finding the leaders

Always look for the top service providers, as they always come up with a host of solutions for clients. Check their experience, market reputation, and several other factors that make them the true leaders. The best companies will have services for one and all. That’s what makes them the pioneers.

Factors to consider

If you are planning to get in touch with leaders, here are some of the factors to care about:

Experience: Always get in touch with experienced companies as they have in-depth knowledge of the market.

Expertise: Professional expertise is of huge importance and you shouldn’t compromise in this regard. Check whether your chosen partners are aware of the technicalities.

Services: When the international shipping, you should opt for the perfect solutions. Know about the services offered by the chosen companies and then take the final decision.

Parting thoughts

Once you analyze these aspects, you will surely get in touch with the top shipping and transportation partners.

A Virtual Assistant

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In this year and age, everything is related to the internet. From shopping, banking, bills payment, social interaction, communication and every bit of actions we humans do nowadays was somehow linked to the use of the internet. For several years I had been working a very traditional job in retail. However, personal circumstances made me re-think my current situation. A part of me always feels that traditional jobs here in the Philippines are very time-consuming. With a standard 48-hour work and a 1-day off per week, quality time with family and peers seems unlikely. So if work schedules are eating much of our time, is it after all worth it? This question bugged me for a lot of months. Then one day I came across KOM Academy’s Facebook posting for a free seminar on “How to be a Virtual Assistant.” Curious, I immediately inquired and pre-registered for this event. That’s when I realized that there are a lot of opportunities outside the traditional work environment.

What is a Virtual Assistant by the way? These are smart individuals offering administrative, creative and technical skills to remote clients. So what made me think this virtual job is kick-ass better than my old job? Reason number 1, “I am my boss”! As VA, as they call it, you work as an independent contractor to the client. Which means that you don’t work for a company or an employer, but instead they outsource you to render them the services they require. About this, you are not limited to work for a single client. Hence, the second reason – more clients, more income. By this I mean you can are not limiting yourself to only one source of income. You have the control to expand your financial gains as you deem fit. The third reason, it is home-based. What is not to love working at the comforts of your space? No hassle from commuting, dealing with worsening traffic situation of the city, increased transportation expenses, annoying amnesiac office mates who always borrow your things but never bothers to return them are just a few to mention.

If there is a convenience in the environment, work schedule is something that is flexible as well in this industry. That is the fourth reason why I considered engaging into this business. The chance to be given a schedule that is favorable to your liking is something that is highly unheard of in traditional jobs. Often you must be employed a full-time job to get a decent salary. Whereas in VA, even part-time jobs can still get you good pay. Mainly because you are paid based on the quality of your work output and not just merely on the number of hours you spent. Furthermore, output-based jobs present more opportunity for workers to get promoted as evaluation is real-time.

The fifth reason I seriously consider is that this job is never boring. As mentioned earlier, VAs provide different service from administrative, to creative and even technical for those highly-skilled individuals like the programmers. Thus, this job can present you wide range of tasks that you can explore and hone your skills.

These things cited above are just a few of the factors why I considered becoming a Virtual Assistant. To have the convenience of time and place in your hands is a privilege that an ordinary worker won’t be able to experience in a traditional work setting. As I go along my journey into this business, I am looking forward to discovering more things to love and enjoy.

To be successful in business, sometimes the wisest move to make is to ask for help. Remember that you don’t have to do it all alone. Get a co-worker from a distance!

Global Greenhouse Sector

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What exactly is a Greenhouse? It is a name given to a structure with roofs and walls made primarily out of a transparent substance like glass. Within a greenhouse, plants that need regulated climatic conditions are cultivated with an aim of healthier output. These buildings vary in size from smaller sheds, to larger commercialized structures. In this current scenario, greenhouses are part of modern-day farming which is focused towards protected cultivation of plants in an enclosed shelter, without allowing any type of damage to the product as well its nutrients.

People who love home-grown veggies and fruits will definitely prefer a greenhouse. This is due to its ability to provide an effective method to cultivate plants protected from the harsh external environment. Greenhouses are usually equipped with clear or glass-plastic walls that enable them to preserve heat, while also allowing light to enter. The resulting situation brings the ideal factors for cultivating many kinds of plants.

Quite a number of commercial glass greenhouses are categorized under innovative production houses for flowers and vegetables. The active greenhouse market trends are surely leaned towards modern facilities. The inclusion of heating, lighting, screening installations etc., are needed for the automated growth of plants. Moreover, various techniques are implemented for ensuring a significant decrease in production risk before the cultivation of a particular crop.

Smart Greenhouses

To meet the needs of the sector, greenhouses are produced for high dependability and performance. These types of structures offer valuable data regarding a material’s stability, composition, response to wear and tear atmosphere and external factors. Greenhouses thus contain applications for different types of processes like food production and scientific research.

For instance, the smart greenhouse is an innovation in farming and is a climate managing, a self-regulating procedure that is perfect for plant survival. It helps to create a micro-climate environment which is like a new climate in a restricted zone. This zone is created by the use of sensors and various applications. The smart greenhouse contains different components like monitoring system, actuators, and control system. The concept of smart greenhouse aims to ease growth situations for plants and creates an autonomous growing process.

Extended Growing Season

Plants grown in a greenhouse are not subjected to the same degree of temperature differences which is needed for plants cultivated in an outdoor garden. Based on latest trends, greenhouses trap radiation that comes from the sun into its insides and enables the retention of heat within the enclosure. The controlled climate that is achieved in a greenhouse helps farmers to lengthen the growing season of plants which may not survive the colder climate outside of the greenhouse. This allows consumers to buy locally cultivated vegetables, flowers, and fruits which are out of season.

Control over the Produce

People without a garden are bound to buy their food at the groceries or farmers’ market. On the other hand, commercial farms usually use toxic pesticides and chemicals, to enhance the living situations of crops and improve production. When businesses try to prepare a greenhouse industry analysis, the first aspect that they learn are the crucial advantages that are connected with the implementation of greenhouses.

A test conducted by an environmental group revealed several vital facts. It found trace amounts of toxic stuff over the produce even after the harvest. Greenhouses help farmers grow their own food to gain absolute control over their environment. This process produces tasty and fresh food without the risks of toxic chemicals, which can potentially be hazardous.

Food Boost from Plant Isolation

A greenhouse maintains the plants in isolation, preserved safely from the external world comprising pests, rodents, and insects, along with other animals. According to the research gathered by big universities, gardeners must isolate their plants by using a greenhouse which is sealed and caulked. An efficient greenhouse with absolute isolation and tightly sealed, along with expertly managed air flow which offers protection from insects, pests and even from diseases should be preferred by the farmers.

Food Acids We Consume Regularly

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Food acids are the vital acids found in natural and synthetic food products that give them a distinct flavor or a tinge. Many fruits, vegetables and dairy products contain some type of acid. Human body tends to react differently to different types of food acids. Some of these acids provide nutrients or help alleviate some maladies whilst some have adverse effects on health when they are not consumed in appropriate amounts.

Citric Acid: This is a natural preservative found primarily in citrus fruits. Limes and Lemons are the best sources of citric acid, followed by other citrus fruits and strawberries, tomatoes and pineapples. A great quantity of all the citric acid produced is contained in soft drinks and other beverages, where it boosts flavors and adds a slightly sour taste. Citric acid also acts as a preservative and flavor enhancer in foods, including frozen foods, meat products, canned vegetables, jams, gelatins, candies.

Malic Acid: This is a component of many of the foods that we eat daily; mainly contained in candies, diet sodas and other artificially sweetened drinks due to its ability in masking artificial flavors and alternative sweeteners. The food that is most famous for its high malic acid content is the apple. Other fruits with a very high concentration of the acid are lychees, peaches nectarines, cherries, tomatoes, bananas, mangoes, and strawberries.

Tartric Acid: This compound is naturally found in many plants, particularly in grapes, tamarinds, pineapples, potatoes, carrots and bananas. It is also one of the especial acids found in wine. Tartaric acid can be added to food when a sour taste is desired. Tartaric acids have a dual role of an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory which can help boost the immune system and promote overall wellness.

Acetic Acid: Acetic acid, also known as ethanoic acid, is a sour-tasting compound best known for the sour taste and pungent smell in vinegar, pickles, and sourdough bread. Its produced by fermenting and oxidizing ethanol and the distillation of wood. Acetic acid has many functions, but it is mostly used as a chemical reagent, fungicide, herbicide, and solvent in a variety of industries such as food, agriculture, cosmetics and cleaning.

Oxalic Acid: Oxalates or Oxalic acids is a compound occurring in many plants and vegetables. It is also produced in the body by metabolism of glyoxylic acid or ascorbic acid and does not go through metabolism but excreted in the urine. The body is known to absorb oxalic acid from only a handful of foods, including peanuts, pecans, cocoa, guava, rhubarb wheat bran, spinach, beets and beet greens and chocolate.

Benzoic acid: A natural source of benzoic acid is gum benzoin, which comes from certain tree barks, but, it can also be made by synthetic means. Benzoic acid is very useful as Preservatives to make food products last longer, and also eradicate harmful yeast and bacteria. Benzoic acid is present in various products, including Cranberries, prunes and plums sauces, jams, jellies and candied fruits.

Butyric acid: Butyric acid also known as butanoic acid, is a saturated short-chain fatty acid with a 4-carbon backbone occurring in the form of esters in animal fats and plant oils. Butyrate is produced as end-product of a fermentation process such as, decomposition of butter solely performed by obligate anaerobic bacteria. It is found in milk, especially sheep and buffalo milk, goat, cheese and butter.

Lactic acid: This is an organic compound which is white and water-soluble in its solid state and colourless in its liquid state. It is produced both naturally and artificially but naturally present in many foodstuffs via natural fermentation in products such as cheese, yogurt, soy sauce, sourdough, meat products and pickled vegetables. Lactic acid in food products usually serves as either as a pH regulator or as a preservative. It is also used as a flavoring agent.

Tannic Acid: Tannic acid, or tannin, is a bitter-tasting compound that is derived from plants. It is the component of red wine or unripe fruit that makes your mouth want to ruck. Grapes contain a high concentration of tannins which is critical to the art of wine making. Other products that contain this acid are Green Tea, nettle, oakwood, berries, Chinese galls, persimmons.

Caffeo-tannic Acid: This is a Chlorogenic acid, from coffee, yielding caffeic acid by precipitation with baryta and salts of lead. It is known for relatively lower toxicity and used widely in many other fields like food, feed additives and cosmetics.

Drupal SEO-Friendly URLs For Google First Page Rankings

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Google First Page Rankings and Drupal

Drupal SEO-Friendly URLs to Get Your Drupal Site Listed in Google

Drupal manages the URL aliases for your Drupal site.

The URL aliases are the addresses for your website. A node is a content item for your Drupal site and the following address represents the first content item for a node within your Drupal website:

  • Default URLs for new content on a Drupal website: /node/1
  • URL Alias module allows new content added to become more human readable and most important, SEO-friendly: /articles/title-of-the-article

This format is not exactly human-friendly, nor is it SEO-friendly. Let’s fix it…

Drupal Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Building a professional business plan includes SEO for your Drupal website. It’s that important!

When you first install Drupal, by default, you will most likely have “Path Auto” enabled. This is the reason your URLs are not by default, user-friendly. The good news is that this is an easy fix.

Drupal Modules

Drupal out-of-the-box is pretty lean. It doesn’t do a whole lot. But there are over two-thousand Drupal modules that can be easily installed and enabled to enrich your Drupal website. Contributed modules provide new features for your Drupal website. Just like the App Store, if you need something, there is probably a module for that. When you’re looking for a new “feature”, you are looking for a Drupal module. Modules can also change how existing features work.

Modules for Clean URLs

There are a couple of modules that allow us to automatically change URLs to something more memorable. It gives us more human-readable, search engine optimized “friendly” URLs. This is very important for the long-term success of your Drupal site.

SEO-friendly URLs can help you achieve the business success you are looking for. Install the Drupal PathAuto and Token modules. Once you have these two two modules installed and enabled, it will remedy your ugly URLs problem.

  • PathAuto (requires Token) – this module automatically generates URL/path aliases for various kinds of content (nodes, taxonomy, terms, users) without requiring you to have URL aliases like “category/my-node-title” instead of “node/123”.
  • Token (provides a user interface for the Token API).

You can enable both of these modules at the same time (after you have them installed). If you do not have these modules installed and enabled already, you will want to download and enable them in your Drupal back end. You can download these modules at the Drupal website:

  • /project/pathauto
  • /project/token

Install both of these modules and enable them to benefit from search engine-friendly URLs on your Drupal site.

SEO-Friendly URLs Better Than Just Human-Friendly URLs

Now, you will notice that your Drupal URLs will take on a completely different pattern. The URLs will represent something such as /content/article-name

This is an improvement, but still not best practice because as your Drupal content increases, everything will be “content” plus the article name. So, let’s take your Drupal SEO a step further.

  • Hover on “Configuration”
  • Hover on “Search and Meta Data”
  • Hover on “URL aliases”

If your not seeing URL aliases, it’s OK since you just recently enabled these modules.

Enable Clean URLs

Enable this search and metadata option to make clean URLs possible for your site. This will allow user friendly URLs like example.com/user instead of example.com/?q=user

To accomplish this, it’s pretty simple.

  • Hover on “Configuration”
  • Hover on “Search and Meta Data”
  • Hover on “Clean URLs”
  • Put a check mark in the “Enable Clean URLs” box and click the “Save Configuration” button.

Once this is done, you will notice that your new content will have human-friendly URLs.

Setup Patterns For Your URLs

  1. Setup patterns by clicking on the “Patterns” tab on the top of your Drupal dashboard.
  2. Highlight /[node:title] with your mouse and copy.
  3. Advance to the next “pattern” field that is empty.
  4. Type the name for each path and paste. For example, for your “book” content type, you will have the pattern book/[node:title]
  5. Complete this step until every pattern is defined.
  6. Click “Save Configuration”

Now click on the “List” tab and you will see that the URLs have not yet changed. This is because the content in the “List” tab was already created prior to you enabling your new URL patterns. All future content on your site will now reflect these new patterns.

NOTE: Don’t change the URLs of existing content articles on a live site! If you already have content indexed in Google, you will not want to make any changes to your URLs. Rather, you can set this up BEFORE your site goes live.

  • Click on the “Delete Aliases” tab at the top.
  • Check the “All Aliases” box.
  • Click on the “Delete aliases now!” button.
  • Click “Bulk Update” tab at the top.
  • Choose all the boxes.
  • Click “Update”

Now all your URLs have been re-generated. You now have a pattern of your URLs that actually makes sense. You can test this by adding a new content item. Any testing data will do. Leave the default day and time enabled, then save it. You will notice in the URL that the address is not only human friendly, but it’s also SEO-friendly. The importance of this cannot be understated. Without SEO, your Drupal site will have few visitors. This solution is not difficult nor is it time consuming, yet the benefits are vast.

Drupal is an amazing tool for creating advanced websites and applications.