The Best Articles

by Gary Tooth

You know, there are those of us that are photogenic and those who are not. Alas, I fall into the latter category. There's just something about looking at myself in photographs that makes me want to wear a balaclava. Whenever there's that dreaded family photo shoot looming at a function or get-together, I run for the hills. Okay, so it's perhaps a little over the top, but I really don't like to see myself in any picture frame, let alone the family photos that are spread around to the relatives. Anyhow, after studying a little on the subject of portraiture, I now have a better understanding of how to make the best out of a bad mug shot.

Gary's article is continued after the jump, but please let me remind you that UFC Results will have full UFC 81 Results on February 2nd

Have you ever found yourself wanting to watch a UFC pay per view event but just couldn't justify the cost? Or how about if you're at work and you need to know the results live, before your friends? I came across this great site in my travels recently UFC Results.

Check out UFC Results for yourself. I know I'll check them out, especially for the upcoming UFC 81 card in February.

I sure hope they are still posting live like the last time.

For UFC 81 Results, see UFC Results

Jon Murray is an editor at UFC Results Live

One of the most anticipated fights in the short history of mixed martial arts is Chuck Liddell versus Wanderlei Silva. Since 2003 this on again, off again match up has teased fans of both the UFC and Pride fighting championships, but now it looks like the fight may be on again.

UFC 79 on December 29th, 2007 is the rumored date for the fight to take place. The venue is in Las Vegas and the anticipation could not be any higher. It's true that both Wanderlei and Chuck are coming off back to back losses, but when you look at those losses and the quality of opposition it's clear that both of these guys are still at the top of their game.

Wanderlei Silva has fought an absolute who's who of 205lb mixed martial artists and won the vast majority of those battles. He's defeated Quinton Jackson twice in dominant fashion, defeated Dan Henderson, Ricardo Arona, Kazushi Sakuraba, but has yet to face the best of the "new" UFC. How will Wanderlei match up against Chuck Liddell, Keith Jardine, Houston Alexander or Forrest Griffin? I personally think that Wanderlei's strength, power and aggression is difficult for any fighter to deal with. He has a wild style that could either make it a very easy night for Chuck, or the worst night of Chuck Liddell's career.

Wanderlei likes to throw looping heavy punches, much like Chuck does, although Chuck's are just a touch straighter. The difference is in the clinch and ground game where I believe that Wanderlei Silva has a distinct advantage over Liddell. If Wanderlei gets Chuck in at close quarters it will be a very tough night for Liddell and three losses in a row may spell retirement for the "Ice Man".

Chuck Liddell needs no introduction to mixed martial arts and especially UFC fans. He has defeated two legends of the sport twice each. With big wins over Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell established himself as the UFC's top light heavyweight player for much of the last three years. However, Chuck is coming off of two losses. The first was a flash knockout loss to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, with that loss the belt changed hands and Quinton became the new light heavyweight champ.

Chuck's second loss is more interesting. It came to Keith Jardine, now most MMA fans would argue that Jardine is strong and tough, but Chuck went into that fight as the favorite. The fight was close and the judges gave the decision to Jardine. There wasn't a single take down in the fight meaning that Chuck, formerly the most feared striker at 205lbs has been beaten twice in a row, both time on his feet.

In the fight with Wanderlei Silva, if Chuck can keep his composure and land some big straight shots inside of Wandy's wild looping punches he can make a short night's work. Chuck hits very hard, but most of his really hard shots seem to be looping overhand rights, I don't think those will be particularly effective against Wanderlei Silva; Chuck needs to throw straight. Also, Chuck Liddell should avoid the clinch with Wanderlei at all costs, if he needs more incentive he should watch Wandy's two fights with Quinton Jackson.

Let's all just hope that this fight happens as the rumors state on December 29th. I'm not picking a winner or a favorite in this fight, I just want to see it happen.



Jon is the web master at many successful web sites including his North Pole Christmas web site at featuring Christmas Wallpaper Open Source Depot software web directory. For free software and open source software listings visit Open Source Depot.

Article Source: http://www.articlechimp.com

Stacey runs a couple of successful web sites including Best Ever Recipes, home of the best recipes on the internet.

Well, the time has come again. We've hit the end of August, so summer is over and I guess my son feels he needs to have something to look forward to. And that's not going back to school. So as we sit and chat about what we are going to do the last couple of days before school starts, he pops up with, "mommy, can I have another Halloween party this year. Yes, you heard me right, he is already asking about Halloween. On one hand I can't believe what I'm hearing, however, on the other hand I too love Halloween. Actually our whole family loves Halloween. My two kids actually talk about what they are going to ware throughout the whole year. And as soon as the stores come out with Halloween stuff we're there.

Back to the party, I say "ok lets have a Halloween party". We sit down and make a list of guests. I'm fortunate as a lot of my sons friends, their parents are friends of mine, so I get have have a little party of my own as well. And some help as well. Once we have our list done, we talk about the costumes. We have to have this little talk, as we had a Halloween party two years ago, and a lot of the little guests wore costumes that had accessories with them. And as we all know, the accessoies these days may not be appropriate to have at a kids Halloween party with 20 of them running around. So I say "there will be no kind of weapons allowed" and of course I get the ahhhhhhh. But that's where it ends. We talk about what we should have to eat and drink and decorations. OH decorations now that is the fun part.

Now we can hardly wait until the end of September. We'll make up same invitations, or you can buy them, and well give them out to the guests. We'll decorate the house the last weekend is September. Yes, I said "We'll" the whole family gets involved, it's actually turns into a great day, you're spending time together and preparing for something that you all enjoy. I know you're probably thinking on my gosh that's early. My feeling is, if you're going to take all that time to decorate you should enjoy it for awhile. So out comes the decorations for inside the house and out. Oh yes, you have to decorate the outside as well. That's one of the best parts.

When the day arrives we'll have some kid appropriate music, some yummy "scary" snacks, and games to play. I'll only plan a few things for them to do, because as we all know, they'll just want to hang out and make their own fun. We'll have pizza, and blood punch (any kind of red juice) with Jello hands and eyeballs floating in it. Cup cakes that look like spiders, and just the usually Halloween candy. I'll try to make it easy, in reality at this point my kids don't really care about what they eat, they just want their friends around. Now for me and my friends. We care about the food, so I'll make some delicious appetizers, such as my Cheddar Bacon Dip. One thing is for sure, your kids will remember your Halloween party for years to come.

Stacey runs a web site called Halloween Village where you can find Halloween Wallpaper , Halloween Costumes and other Halloween goodies

[ArticleChimp Info] This is an absolutely enchaning article submitted this week by one of our expert travel authors. Each week Article Chimp features a different article by a different author. Only the best articles make it to this page. If you'd like to put this article on your web site or blog, please Click Here once you are at that page, click on the eZine Ready link on the right side. This will give you the html which you can just cut and paste into your web page or blog.



Let Me Take you On A Sea Cruise by Ann Childs

For those of you who are uninitiated out there let me inform you that Disney is not just a theme park and the Disney Wonder is not just a cruise ship. The Disney Wonder was built in 1999 and holds about 1700 passengers. It is 83,000 tons of family oriented fun. There is also a dining venue, swimming pool and nightclub for adults only. The only down side to a Disney cruise is that there is no casino on board as gambling does not fit into the Disney image . Other than that as usual Disney does it best.

The major difference in Disney Cruise dining compared to all the other lines is rotational dining. This means that each evening you will eat in a different restaurant but your table mates rotate with you and the same staff will serve you for the length of your cruise. Just to clarify because I found the idea a little confusing at first, here is how it works. The first night you may eat at Triton a restaurant decorated in the theme of the little mermaid. Say you table mates are Bob and Carol and your servers are Ted and Alice. On evening number two you will eat at Animator's Palate along with Bob and Carol and your servers will once again be Ted and Alice. On the third night you will dine at Parrot Cay and your dining companions will once again accompany you along with your servers.

Animator's Palate will leave you wondering what happened here. Upon entering the restaurant the walls are filled with black and white sketches and the wait staff are wearing black and white uniforms. At some point when you are engrossed in the Disney magic of it all the sketches fill in with color and the waiters change into colored vests. Triton is the most formal of the dining venues and Parrot Cay serves up Caribbean fare with a Disney flare. For those who prefer to dine in their shorts and T-shirts there is the Beach Blanket Buffet. For grill food like hamburgers and French fries you may visit Pluto's Dog House. Pizza is served up at Pinocchio's Pizzeria. The adults only restaurant is an Italian eatery named Palo's and the atmosphere is elegant.

Disney folk have a way of thinking of things you need before you do. The bathrooms on the Disney Wonder are an example of this. The bathroom is split with the tub/shower and a sink in one room and another sink with vanity and the toilet in another. The only cabins that do not sport this neat design are the standard inside cabins. There is a cabin size and configuration to fit your situation. Even the smallest cabins accommodate three people easily with a queen size bed and sofa bed. If you have struck it rich or are traveling with a group the Royal Suite will sleep up to 8 people and are over 1000 square feet.

All Disney cruises call at Disney's private island of Castaway Cay. Disney constructed their own pier so there is no tendering in therefore it is unlikely to be a missed port of your itinerary. On the island there is a family beach area called Scuttle's Cove that is reached by a shuttle that runs every five minutes. There are snorkeling areas in the sea with planted shipwrecks for you to explore. serenity Bay is the adults only beach area where alcohol and massages are available.

It just would not be Disney without a musical show. Disney Dreams is a sweet concoction showcasing most of the famous Disney characters. Children and adults alike love this production. Other pursuits are available to keep the younger set busy. There is a nursery where you can leave the babe for an extra charge if you need some adult time. There is also a teen only club called Aloft where teens are served from the soda bar and arcade games can be played.

In short a Disney cruise will please all but the most dedicated gamblers in the family. There is something for everyone. The decor of the ship is more like an early twentieth century ocean liner than Disney World. While sailing the Disney Wonder there is no question in your mind that you are experiencing a Disney production but you will never wish you were somewhere else. In fact you may wish you could back again soon. Especially when the fog horn blows to the tune of When you wish upon a star.



Ann Childs is a freelance writer and travel consultant. Her specialty is Caribbean travel including beach vacations and cruises. She is the editor and featured writer at Cruise and Travel Review See our Carnival Sensation pictures at Cruise and Travel Review.

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by Oran

Determining whether or not your Affiliated Article marketing campaign is working for you is a very important part of the advertising process. This is so important because while there is a great deal of Article marketing which can be done without a great deal of expense, other types of Article marketing do have financial costs associated with them. Also, in both cases there is a time and energy burden to orchestrating the Article marketing. For all of these reasons it is important for business owners to continuously evaluate their marketing techniques and strategies to determine what is working and what is not. This will help the business owner to focus his efforts on marketing strategies which are providing positive results as opposed to those which are either not providing results or are only providing lackluster results. This article will examine a few different marketing strategies as well as how business owners can evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies.

Article Affiliate marketing is certainly one of the most cost effective online marketing strategies available. This marketing strategy involves having other website owners known as affiliates post an advertisement on their websites to direct Article traffic to your website. This marketing strategy is cost effective because in most cases the affiliate is only paid when he produces a desired result such as enticing an Article user to click through the advertisement or to purchase a product or service once they click through the ad. While the business owner is only paying for the advertisement when it produces a desired effect, it is still worthwhile to evaluate the effectiveness of these ads to determine whether or not they are working well.

Fortunately affiliate marketing ads have a natural feedback mechanism which makes it easy to evaluate how well the ad is working. This feedback is provided in the form of code imbedded in the advertisement which specifies which affiliate generated the website visitors. This information is provided for the purposes of issuing payment to the affiliate but it can also provide the business owner with useful information on which affiliate ads are the most effective. This information is especially useful when the affiliates are posting different ads. The business owner may conclude the ads posted by the more successful affiliates are more appealing to potential customers and may opt to use this style of ad for all of their affiliates.

Business owners who use Article marketing strategies such as posting on message boards to promote their business might want to consider asking customers to complete a short survey when making a purchase. This survey can include useful demographic information which is always helpful for marketing as well as information regarding where the customer learned of the products or services you offer. Including the message board web address as one of the responses will give you a good indication of whether or not the message boards are helping to drive customers to your website. You may also have some unofficial feedback in terms of the response to your postings on the message board. If the general consensus is in support of your posts, you may infer you are generating some interest in your business or website through this tactic.

Finally, an Article marketing strategy can be evaluated by studying website traffic results as well as sales receipts. Anytime you implement a new Article marketing strategy or technique it is worthwhile to study your website traffic reports and sales receipts carefully to determine whether or not there is a spike in either traffic or sales immediately after the marketing effort. For example, if you send out an e-newsletter to those who have requested additional information about your products or services, you may notice there is an increase in traffic or sales soon afterwards. This is a good indication the e-newsletter was well received and effective. However, if there is not a marked increase in traffic or sales subsequent to the e-newsletter it indicates the marketing effort was not effective.

Do you need that little knowledge that will make a cash difference for you. Al Dillard @ http://www.onlineinfo365days.com will share that knowledge with you through his web site landing page and blog post.

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How To Create A Profitable Ezine From Scratch by Omar Johnson

One of oldest, most well-know marketing techniques is newsletters, or as they are referred to on the Web, e-zines.

What's an e-zine? It's an electronic newsletter or magazine that you publish on a set schedule to a group of subscribers. You can publish it on a Web site or via e-mail; you can charge for a subscription or offer it for free; you can sell advertising space or keep it ad-free.

Whichever way you decide to do it, an e-zine can make you a substantial amount of money through sales or other services.

Just like any other business, the first step to launching an e-zine is to create a basic plan for the product.

What are you planning to offer your subscribers? Are you trying to sell a physical product? Do you need to drive traffic to your Web site? Are you offering your advice and expertise to a mass audience?

By defining your goals at the outset of the project, you will be helping yourself clarify the possible outcomes and pitfalls involved in the process.

Who's Your Competition?

If you do a quick search on e-zines, you will find that there are thousands of them out on the Net. So it's best to use this planning process to scope out the competition.

Do a simple competitive analysis. Identify who your top competitors might be, and subscribe to their e-zines. Take note of what they do and how you might be able to differ from their approach.

Who Will Your Readers Be?

The next step is to identify your target market. The readers who will subscribe to your e-zine.

If you currently sell a physical product, you could survey customers. Ask what topics they would want to hear from you. Possible subjects could include new products, product updates, sales, and more.

If you are going to offer your expertise to your subscribers, frequent message boards and e-mail groups that discuss similar topics.

For instance, say you have had great success in selling CDs that teach consumers how to own their own business.

In order to see what potential subscribers might be interested in, you could frequent home business bulletin boards, chat rooms, or even attend a virtual seminar or trade show that focuses on that topic.

The more market research that you gather, the easier your implementation will be.

Publishing Frequency

While you are in the planning process, you should decide the frequency of your e-zine. Will you send it out weekly, or monthly?

Some e-zines, like dictionary.com's "Word of the Day," are sent out on a daily basis. However, research has shown that most consumers don't want to see an e-zine more than once or twice a month.

Be sure to heavily research this topic before launching, because retaining your subscribers is going to be very important to your bottom line. You don't want to irritate the buyers!

Creating a Sales Strategy

The next step is to decide how your e-zine is going to generate a profit for you. There are three general ways that e-zines make money for their owners:

Subscription Model: With this business model, you sell your content for a flat fee or a monthly fee. Readers sign up for your list and pay money prior to receiving your content.

Advertising Model: With this model, you will sell advertising on your e-zine. If you have a Web based e-zine, you can sell banner ads. If you have an e-mail based e-zine, you can sell various sizes of text ads that will be placed within the copy. With this model, you can also sell sponsorships which is a more expensive ad that would appear in every issue of the e-zine.

Affiliate Model: With this business model, you will be advertising products and services from business owners with whom you have cultivated a relationship with.

Omar Johnson is author of the homestudy course "How to Make Money On the Internet While You are Asleep" for a free report click here


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It's now January 15th, which makes it about 1 month between when I decided to undertake an article directory and when my site was up and running (and I had time to do this post).

What kinds of things can you expect in this blog?

My idea is to feature outstanding articles from Article Chimp in this blog. This works as double duty.

1) It shows the power of article marketing, the writers of these outstanding articles get links back to their site from the original Article Chimp directory and also from this blog.

2) It highlights work which should really be appreciate. I know that a lot of articles are not exactly Pulitzer stuff, but there are some real gems out there.

Here we go.