I just returned home on Saturday, August 28, 2010 from a family reunion along with a vacation that lasted a month.

After sitting down, having a chance to relax and getting a chance to reflect on all that has transpired over the last month, I realized how truly blessed I am to have so much family.

We usually have a family reunion at least every other year and sometimes every year.

However, this year was by far one of the best family reunions our family has had in years due to a surprise that one of my uncles and I cooked up.

And…it was one of the best vacations that I have ever had.

The planned reunion lasted only 2 days but those 2 days were filled with a wealth of family members, different activities, laughter and tons of love.

On Saturday, July 31, 2010 our family celebrated with a picnic in the park where we enjoyed being in the presence of one another, got acquainted with new family members and reacquainted with others, shared stories, played family trivia and other games and had a royal good time.

On Sunday, August 1, 2010, the whole family attended the family Church where we enjoyed a beautiful service with lots of singing, inspirational music and such an overflow and outpouring of love until it was mesmerizing.

As the church we attended is one that the majority of our family has attended for many, many years, nearly every position in the church is filled by family members.

All but a couple of people in the choir are family members. All of the ushers are family members. All but 1 or 2 of the deacons/deaconesses are family members. All of the Sunday School Teachers are family members and the pews are filled with family members.

After church services the whole family went out to dinner where we continued to enjoy each others company, share stories and shared yet another meal.

I know by now you must be wondering…What was the surprise?

To set the stage and make a long story short, my uncle lives in the same state that I live in. However, I didn’t know exactly where he lived until about a year ago.

He’s elderly and lives alone. Earlier this year he had to have a pacemaker put in his chest. When he was released from the hospital I brought him home with me and my family to nurse him back to health and to make sure he got through all of his follow up appointments.

During this time we got to know each other better and became really good friends.

I knew about the family reunion and thought it would be a good idea for him to go back home to attend the reunion and to see the family as well.

So…I told him about the reunion and asked him if he wanted to attend. I also told him that I thought it would really be wonderful if we could surprise the family.

He was overjoyed and thought it was a great idea as well so he agreed and operation surprise the family was put into play.

He and my mother are siblings, are very close and they talk on the phone at least 2 to 3 times a week.

Of all the people to surprise, we really wanted to surprise her. So, we agreed that we knew it would be hard but he couldn’t tell her and that he would have to be very careful when talking to her so that he didn’t let anything slip.

So…we decided that we were going to attend the reunion but we weren’t going to tell anyone that we were coming except my daughter because we were going to be staying with her while we were there.

We set everything up through her.

As for me, I usually attend the family reunion at least every other year, however, my uncle who is 81 years old has not been traveling and had not attended a family reunion or been back to our hometown in over 20 years.

It wasn’t easy trying to keep it a secret as family members kept calling and asking if we were going to attend and we had to keep coming up with very creative answers for them to keep from telling them that we would be attending.

On Wednesday, July 28, 2010 one of my aunts called my uncle to remind him about the reunion and he acted as if he had forgotten about it. On Friday, July 30, 2010, one of my sisters called him to ask if he was going to attend. He told her he didn’t think he was going to attend.

After he told my sister that he didn’t think he was going to attend, she told him that she would call him the next day from the reunion.

We arrived in our hometown on Friday, July 30, 2010 around 1:00 pm. My daughter picked us up from the airport and we went to her home.

We had kept it such a secret until we hadn’t even told my granddaughter that we were coming and she was totally surprised when we showed up.

On Saturday, July 31, 2010 my sister called him on his cell phone from the reunion as she said she would.

He spoke to her, my mother and a couple of my aunts as if he were still at home. They all thought that he was still in our state and said they were sorry he couldn’t make it to the reunion this year.

We arrived at the park for the reunion about 15 minutes later and totally surprised everybody.

It was one of the most beautiful and touching experiences of my life.

We had sent my granddaughter ahead equipped with a camcorder so that she could arrive a few minutes before we were to arrive and record everything that was about to transpire.

We told her to make sure she had the video already going and to be standing close to my mother when we got there so that she could capture the look on my mother’s face and the whole thing.

We also told her that we would call her on her cell phone when we were almost there.

When we arrived we parked the car across and down the street a little from where the family was gathered with the car facing away from them.

My daughter got out of the car and went ahead while my uncle and I waited for a few minutes.

I then got out of the car wearing a big straw hat and sunglasses for a disguise and approached the family.

One of my brothers was putting up a net with his back turned to me and I walked right up on him. Everybody else was doing other things and not looking towards the area where I was.

When he turned around and saw me he was totally surprised and gave me a big bear hug and a kiss. Then he shouted to everybody, “Hey everybody, look who’s here!

When everyone else turned around, they yelled as they were just as surprised as he was. We all laughed, greeted one another and gave each other big hugs and kisses as well.

In the meantime I knew that my uncle was to be the true show stopper and was getting out of the car. So I tried to keep my family’s attention turned to me facing away from the direction that he would be coming so they would not see him until he was very close to them.

It worked. He had on his big straw hat and glasses and was almost all the way in the area where the majority of the family was before they knew he was there.

My brother (the same one I had surprised) spotted my uncle first. He was totally floored when he realized who my uncle was. At first all he could do was laugh and smile and said “Lord have mercy, is that who I think it is?”

Then he said, Oh Lord it sure is. It’s Uncle Chester! He then gave him a big bear hug.

He then yelled to the family. Hey everybody, look who else is here! Lord have mercy, its Uncle Chester!

When the family turned and saw him they were totally shocked, surprised and in disbelief. However, they were all very happy to see him and began to greet, hug, kiss and welcome him.

The more touching and heart fulfilling moments for me was when my mother realized that her brother who hadn’t been home in over 20 years was actually there.

He was standing right there in front of her and she was able to physically hold him and give him a big hug and a kiss, then she cried.

That scene brought tears to my eyes as I know how close they are, how much they love one another and what that moment meant to them.

I was so happy that my uncle and I we were able to make that precious moment happen and become a lasting memory.

You see, my uncle is our oldest living relative.

I hope that I will be able to attend many more family reunions. However, if I never get to attend another one, that family reunion will be the one that I will always treasure and hold dearly in my heart.

Regards,
Angela

Successful, Full-Time Internet Marketing Expert John Thornhill has written a Special Report that shows you how you can become a success with article marketing.

The product, Auto Article Profits, claims it can show you how you can earn between $10 and $500 per month from a single article.

I don’t blame you if you’re skeptical of these claims. I most certainly was. I was very skeptical at these bold claims so I decided to purchase the report so that I could investigate further.

The fact that there was no risk involved as the report only cost $10 and has a full 60 day refund policy got my attention and alleviated my skepticism.

The report itself is only a few thousand words long but let me assure you, it is full of golden nuggets. There’s no fluff involved, and the fact that it only took me 15 minutes or so to read it was great as the information is straight and to the point.

As with nearly everything written by John, the content is solid and your head will be spinning with the ideas the report generates.

You will be amazed at how most of what you think you know about article marketing will be dispelled once you read this special report.

What I also love about Auto Article Profits is the fact it covers a technique that involves no out of pocket monies.

You can read this report and literally be putting the information it contains to good use within a matter of hours and at no cost.

How many products do you know of that can make that claim?

Is the information contained in Auto Article Profits life changing? Perhaps not, but for a small invest of only $10 you really can’t go wrong.

I’ve seen courses that cost anywhere from 10 to 50 times more than the cost of this report yet they contain only a fraction of the useful information that you’ll find in this report.

So…if you want to earn extra income by learning how to successfully market articles, John has exactly what you need to help you get started or improve upon what you’re already doing so that you can achieve that goal.

This Special Report receives my highest recommendation and I urge you (before you leave this website) to hurry over to Auto Article Profits immediately and not only check it out but pick up a copy for yourself.

You’ll be more than happy that you did. After all, what have you got to lose?

Regards,

Angela

Though blogging has been around for years and many people blog for personal reasons and as a way to express their ideas and emotions, recently it has become one of the fastest growing internet marketing methods for entrepreneurs and professional internet marketers to promote their products and services.

People start to blog for numerous reasons. However, really savvy internet marketers have become keenly aware that blogging is the best and most inexpensive method to promote their product or service because they can get started for FREE.

Blogging is very popular today, however there are some people who have no idea what blogging is.

To put it simply, blogging is basically an online journal.

There are several blogging websites that allow you to set up and host your own blog free of charge with no fees involved so you can get started right away.

Free blogging websites entice and encourage people to start blogging because it’s affordable, you don’t need any money to get started, and they even provide you with the instructions and tools you need to get started and up and running quickly.

You can also include different links on your blog to improve your search engine rankings, and to be able to earn even more extra income you can also add Affiliate links to your blog.

When you sign up with a free blogging website you can get listed in the search engines much faster and easier than if you started from scratch somewhere else.

One of your main objectives when you’re blogging is to develop a large audience of readers by attracting people to your blog.

Here are a few ways to do that:

Go into chat rooms. Join in forum discussions relative to your niche, and where allowed, leave you blog address or email signature to promote your blog website.

Some people who were never attracted to the computer, and who never thought of having their own website, let alone a blog website, are blogging today.

And…because blogging is so popular, they are blogging daily.

Over time, you will build your blog and attract a large audience of readers.

Once you’ve built a large enough reading audience and your blog becomes more high profile with lots of traffic you might want to consider changing to a paid Web hosting Service because it would be more appropriate.

There are two Web Hosting services that I’ve used, (one of them I still use), and can highly recommend because of their excellent service and they are
D9 Hosting and 1&1 Web Hosting.

In addition to a Web Hosting Service, you will also need a domain name.

The best domain name you could possibly have is your own name because it is totally unique to you. So…If you haven’t already secured your name as a domain name, I suggest you stop whatever you’re doing right now and go secure your name immediately.

As a matter of fact, you should secure your name as a domain name when you first begin to blog.

In that way when you are ready to change over to paid web hosting, you will have already secured your name.

Domain names are very cheap to purchase. 1&1 Web Hosting is also a great place to look for and purchase your domain name.

Having your own domain name and paid web hosting gives you the flexibility of being able to make your blog more attractive and professional looking by editing it any way you want.

Once you have a large enough audience of readers you can also sell advertising space on your blog to help pay for cost of your web hosting.

So…Use a free blogging website to get started and to build a large audience of readers before you invest in paid web hosting.

Secure you name as a domain name immediately, and later, when the time is right for you and your audience of readers is large enough, invest in paid web hosting.

Don’t worry about your readers. They will follow you to the new domain.

They will also thank you for taking the time to upgrade and provide them with a more pleasant and professional looking website for them to visit.

Regards,
Angela

Today millions of people have their own website or blog. Many of them promote their own products and services and or the products and services of others on those websites and blogs.

However, there are also millions of people who don’t know how to promote their website or blog.

When you promote your website free of charge, these days you can gain a huge amount of traffic to your website in record time.

You will need to reach a targeted group of people.

In order to reach that group of people, make sure you do your research and get to know that audience of people in your chosen niche before you start.

Though there are several different ways to promote your website for free or for a very low cost, here are a few suggestions:

1. Write articles

One of the easiest ways to promote your website and drive traffic to it is to write good quality, well written articles and submit them to article directories.

Write these articles for publications in e-Reports and ezines to locate and grab the interest of publishers who are focusing on the same niche market that you are.

In most cases the submission is free. You get an extra bonus as well because you not only get free advertising, you can set it up so that you can build an opt-in list at the same time.

Keep the word count between 400 and 600 words long, make sure it’s about your website topic and make it key-word rich.

Always check each article directory rules as not all article directories have the same rules concerning article length.

When you submit your article(s) to the different article directories promote your website in the Resource Box by including some information about yourself and a link to your website.

2. Join Forums

Search the internet for forums that are related to your chosen niche. When leaving the forum, always leave the URL of your website or blog in the forum if allowed. (Always read the Terms of Service of each forum as not all forums will allow you to leave a URL).

3. Leave the URL of your website and blog in all of your emails to let everyone know about them

4. When promoting your blog, join blog directories and leave your blog URL in the directories (where allowed)

Remember to always provide good, fresh, solid content and information that your readers can use and not a lot of fluff.

The more content you provide on you blog the more visitors you will get.

5. Read other people’s blogs that are complimentary to yours

Comment on those blogs and leave the URL to your blog at the end of the comment if allowed (some webmaster’s don’t allow this).

6. Offer Your Readers FREE Reports

Giving something away for free is a tactic used by many webmasters today and it’s also a great way to generate traffic to your website.

When you give away a free report to your readers, place it at the very top of the page if at all possible. This will ensure that it is not overlooked.

7. Swap Banner Ads with other webmasters

8. Form Relationships with other webmasters and use Link Exchanges

9. Write a Press Release

Writing a press release is something you can do whenever you choose.

All you have to do is type a paragraph or two that advertises your website and email it to newspapers, your colleagues, friends, internet ezines and other media outlets.

10. Use other low cost website promotion that really works such as Classified Ads, Search Engine Submission and Ranking and Text Links

Never forget to be courteous online and to build a positive rapport with other webmasters and your subscribers as well.

When writing always write like you speak. Write as if you’re having a conversation with a friend and you’ll be able to use your writing talent to express your ideas and show the world how knowledgeable you are on your chosen topic.

Promote your website and blog everywhere you can.

Regards,
Angela

Vendors and publishers advertise and promote their products and services in many different ways.

However, today more and more vendors and publishers promote numerous products and services via the worldwide web and affiliate marketing on the worldwide web.

When someone decides to become an affiliate and promote a product or service of a vendor and publisher or other marketer, it helps to create a win-win situation for all involved.

Affiliate programs work very well due to the efforts of both the affiliate and the vendors and publishers.

The affiliate programs that seem to work best are the ones where vendors and publishers provide all or as many of the necessary tools as possible to help the affiliate be successful in promoting the product or service.

Whenever an affiliate marketer promotes a product or service for a vendor or publisher they are rewarded for every sale they make as well as for every visitor, customer or subscriber they send to the vendor and publisher.

In order for the affiliate program to work the products and services being offered must work and must be something that people want and can use.

Affiliate programs also work well because they make a connection between commerce and content and offer numerous marketing strategies that manage to rake in and retain sales.

There are thousands of internet marketers who started out as a part time affiliate marketer.

As their internet businesses grew and they became successful affiliate marketers for a myriad of products and services, they turned their part time affiliate marketing businesses into a full time affiliate marketing business.

Some entrepreneurs have been so successful in their marketing efforts until they turned their part time affiliate marketing business into a full blown affiliate marketer’s paradise.

In order to generate traffic to their websites and be able to make great profits, many vendors and publishers reveal how creative they can be by creating very unique products and services that are in demand.

Marketers wishing to promote affiliate products and services should not just look for or find any affiliate product to promote.

They need to be careful and make sure they check out the products and services they plan to promote before they promote them.

They should make sure they have either actually used the product or service themselves or have someone they trust who has used the product or service who can give a positive review of that product or service.

There is one thing any marketer who is planning to promote products and services using affiliate marketing must make sure they do:

They must make sure any product or service they promote compliments their website or blog and that the product will benefit their customers.

Marketers who don’t take the time to check out the affiliate products they plan to promote or look out for their own customers are setting themselves up for failure as an affiliate marketer.

Many affiliate marketers are so anxious to drive traffic to their website or blog until they make the mistake of signing up for numerous affiliate programs just for the sake of it.

They don’t take the time to check out or make sure the product or service compliments their website or blog or take into consideration whether or not the product will benefit their customers.

That is one of the biggest mistakes any affiliate marketer could make.

If you decide to become an affiliate marketer make sure you keep your own customers in mind when choosing products and services to promote.

Regards,
Angela