Church is in many ways akin to website. What is true about one is, similarly, regularly true about the other. Let me briefly highlight three aspects of a successful website:

1) the content of the site needs to be of high quality - meeting the needs of the visitor to the site, and encouraging visitors to return;
2) the quality of website presentation needs to be very good - so that people find the presentation attractive, easy to explore, and find what one wants;
3) the site must be promoted so that people actually know about the site - especially through links to the site - often placed by people who find the site significant and want to share this with others.

Each of these elements needs to be present. High quality material on a site that cannot easily be navigated or poorly presented is not going to be satisfactory. A beautifully presented and well-organised site with excellent material - but no one knows about it and no new visitors ever come - is not what most webmasters are hoping for. Links leading to a site with uninteresting and well-out-of-date material, or poor end-user experience, only leads to frustration - and certainly no re-visiting.

There are lessons here for webmasters as well as church pastors.

How often is our church experience a shoddy, second-rate experience? As if we might be embarrassed by striving for the excellence we would expect in other spheres. As if casual, make-it-up-as-one-goes-along somehow manifests God more. As if God can only work through the spontaneous and as if God is absent in prayerful, careful preparation. And what connection is being made with real people’s lives and needs? Erudite sermons with careful explanations of biblical background and even references back to the original languages and cultures - but with nothing for a teenager, or a person in a midlife or other crisis, to actually do.

How often is the experience for new-comers a bewildering embarrassment? How often are they either pretty-much completely ignored, or, at the other extreme, pounced upon by an over-enthusiastic person who has personal issues (let us give thanks these find a home in our communities - but how many communities watch out that these do not scare away new-comers?) Who ascertains discreetly how much help they need to feel comfortable as new-comers in this community? ["Would our visitor Mrs Smith please stand up" - to the woman who has arrived for the first time at church because her husband has just walked out on her...]

Finally, I am sure we can all think of church communities or organizations that are wonderfully, well-organised machines, with great internal communications, and wonderful programs, teaching, and experiences for those “in the fold”. But there is no connection to those “outside the fold” either promotion or service.

Three legs on which the stool will stand: (1) high-quality, significant content; (2) attractively, meaningfully presented; (3) promotion to encourage visiting. True for pastors and webmasters.

Bosco Peters is an Anglican priest relatively new at producing his own website on liturgy, Christian worship, and spirituality. He is currently following his own advice and rebuilding that site from the ground up.

To make sure your wedding plans and budget stay on track, you’ll want to source the best suppliers for the job. Making sure you get the most for your money is important and selecting the right supplier is part of the process. This article outlines some tips to find a supplier that’s right for you, and your budget.

Getting accurate quotes, so you can compare suppliers like-for-like

When asking for quotes, make sure you give the same information to each supplier. Break the information down clearly for them, so they can quote on each element separately. Give the same information to all the suppliers you speak to, so that you can compare each quote easily when they come in.

Always shop around
Always, always shop around. This can’t be stressed enough. By shopping around and asking several different suppliers for quotes, you will end up with a better price for your wedding budget.

Always, get three quotes for everything. This is a golden rule! With three quotes you can easily compare supplier’s services.

For big purchases, have a face-to-face meeting
For the more costly or more important items, such as the venue or wedding dress, you’ll probably need to visit the supplier for a face-to-face meeting. You shouldn’t just go on price for the high wedding budget items, because levels of service here will be important too.

Rule out suppliers based cost and service
When the quotes come in, start to rule out certain suppliers. You can do this based on cost or service. For my wedding, many of the quotes were similar, so we ruled out suppliers based on service and friendliness. It worked well and we ended up with a great venue.

With these points in mind, you should get the best suppliers for your wedding.

Nicola Ray is the owner of Cheap Wedding Success, a website dedicated to planning and creating the perfect cheap wedding. With lots of advice, tips and ideas to lower the cost of your wedding, Cheap Wedding Success is the perfect place to start. You can find more articles like this in the Planning and Budgeting section.

Ashley used to be so happy about going to piano lessons, and now she just grumbles. Jason hates even looking at his skates now, so getting him to put them on and hit the ice is almost impossible. How did this happen to such enthusiastic children? Parents can become disturbed by the confusing and conflicting messages they get from their kids, who seem to lose interest in something you thought they would do for the rest of their lives.

When a child starts showing signs of losing interest in an activity, parents should listen and ask them questions instead of becoming frustrated. You must become detectives instead. What does your child do in the class or activity? Ask them. Ask the teachers as well. You may find out some important answers. Sometimes it’s just that a child thought an activity would be all fun and no effort. Then when they realize it isn’t all social or playtime, they start to balk. This may mean that the activity or program is too structured for their age group. If there is too much discipline or the activity is painful, as in some martial arts classes, the child may also resist. Use your knowledge of your child to make your decision. Ask yourself if you would want to attend the program, and if there is enough motivation for the child.

The ration of students to teachers is also important, and if there are just enough teachers to keep the class going your child may not be getting proper instruction of attention. Government recommendations are usually one teacher for every 15 students, and ideally there will be more.

If a child can’t solve a problem, generally he or she will avoid it entirely. If you can’t figure out if there are problems with the teacher or class, then maybe it lies elsewhere. Ask your child if the activity is interesting enough. If so, perhaps social pressures are making the child uncomfortable. If he or she has no friends or even has problems with someone in the class, there may be some social issues to overcome. Help your child find a friend and he or she will be more likely to attend the class.

Even if you put forth your very best in this regard, you still may not be able to recover the situation. Your child may still resist the activity. If so, it’s probably time to try something else. If the child is still interested in the subject yet resists, perhaps it’s simply time to change classes or teachers. But you should never force your child to continue in the situation where he or she is disinterested or uncomfortable. These are extra-curricular activities, and the “extra” should apply to happiness and fun as well as activity.

Check out Dean’s outdoors summer camps website

The perfect vegan weight loss diet is going to consist of a food combination that is balanced with vegetables, fruits, and nuts, (or other sources of “good fat” which will aid in energy and feeling full). Be weary of vegan weight loss diets which promote heavy use of breads and pasta’s. While these may fall under the definition of a ‘vegetarian diet’, they generally do not promote weight loss, rather this type of vegan weight loss diet can prevent weight loss from happening while actually increasing fat. High glycemic carbs, such as white bread and refined sugar foods should also be avoided. They can stimulate insulin surges and cause people to eat 60 - 70% more calories at the following meal. Again, they may fall under the umbrella of vegetarian but they are far from a real vegan weight loss diet.

A vegan weight loss diet ideally should consist of a large amount of vegetables, a moderate to minimal amount of fruit, and a moderate to minimal amount of vegetarian foods that contain healthy fats such as nuts, avocados, or certain oils like flax seed. The moderate to minimal recommendations all depend on how one personally reacts to fruit sugars and healthy fats. Some individuals do better on a vegan weight loss diet when they cut down a bit on their fruit intake, replacing them with instead with more vegetables.

When including grains and complex carbohydrates, again one should start with moderate to minimal amounts and gauge there vegan weight loss diet progress, and always be careful not to overeat these foods.

Again, the main elements to a successful vegan weight loss diet are high vegetable intake, and moderate to minimal fruits and healthy fats. There are many delicious, satisfying and filling vegan weight loss diet recipes available on the internet that center around these food combining elements.

The perfect vegan weight loss diet? http://www.squidoo.com/anti-aging-exercise/ Chess discusses both weight loss and anti aging in his blog and directs the reader to real life examples of the perfect vegan weight loss diet. Feel free to visit http://www.squidoo.com/anti-aging-exercise/ and thanks for reading!

With the help of my good friend I was beginning to get my golf game together, a fiercely technical game involving lengthy checklists and physical adjustments in pursuit of a perfect swing hitting the ball in the sweet spot.

While all of us have the capacity to make the necessary adjustments, our mind tends to look at this accumulation and arrangements as a strenuous task. Significant doubt enters us and we collapse completely or over compensate and usually end up duffing the shot. Stanford graduate, Micheal Murphy says in his book ‘Golf in The Kingdom’ “You try too hard and think too much”

Golf, like any other game is easy once you have perfected the basics - and so our game is lost mostly in the mind. When we are relaxed, our body naturally achieves optimum muscular and skeletal motions in what ever activity we undertake; in running - lean forward and let gravity do the work, in swimming - keep your head down and let the water carry you body. In the same way, use the laws of nature with your golf swing. Many times, I have watched wanabee golfers choking the golf club, grimacing, wincing and tensing up with such fear as if they were facing a ferocious lion in the Coliseum. Murphy remembers a Scottish pro telling him “Why don’t ye go wi’ your pretty swing? Let nothingness enter into your shots”

One of golf’s all time greats, Ben Hogan once said ‘the slower the back swing the greater the distance’. In other words - relax and don’t go to kill the ball.

In his book, The inner game of Golf, Gallwey says “Our muscles don’t understand English”, and “The secret to increasing control over our bodies lies in gaining some measure of control over our minds”. Gallwey’s book illustrates as to how our minds approach to hitting the ball runs counter to the natural process.

Theory is great and at times, we can talk up great shots and super golf, however practice is something else. On one occasion, I went to the driving range where I spent the afternoon hitting a large bucket of golf balls from ‘in the zone’. I.e. being completely relaxed and not thinking or analysing my every movement. Our awareness should be so developed that we should be able to hit a ball with our eyes shut, however, that’s another day for me. On this particular day, I parked to oneside my ‘pilot in the cockpit’ checklist and instead focused my attention on being aware at all times where the club head was and its path through the air from addressing the ball, back swing, down swing, contact and follow through. Coaches call this the “plane”. The revelation for me was nothing to do with my stance, handgrip and so on but allowing my body to naturally flow from beginning to the end of the shot and allowing the golf club do what it was designed to do - not forcing anything.

That afternoon of joy and delight, shot after shot, effortless - staying ‘In the zone’ is altogether another story and this is where the mind comes into play, or more to the point should ‘go out of the play’.

Sri Chinmoy, the world renowned and accomplished sportsman and meditation teacher says that “if we can quieten the mind, our awareness of our body and environment increases immensely”. Having meditated for a number of years as a student of Sri Chinmoy, I quickly understood the benefits of meditation and found this task reasonably easy to achieve. He also says that we should not focus all of our attention on the result of our action but on the process itself. In looking ahead to the result, our mind creates doubt, fear and anxiety to the point where we doubt our own abilities. Similarly, in golf a common mistake with beginners is where we look up too early to see the result of our shot. As we hit the ball our head comes up immediately to see that ‘great shot we’ve just hit’. What’s more likely to have happened is we lifted our left shoulder causing us to lean back slightly which shortens the flight path of the club head and so we top the ball, which then bumps and runs a few meters in front of us.

Be it golf or any other endeavour, when we relax, turn off the mind, and by becoming aware of every moment of our actions, we will enjoy the process. If we forget about the result, our mind does not get the opportunity to throw psychological banana skins in front of us.

Ambarish Keenan is an architect by profession. An avid sportsman, he enjoys combining is sporting and artistic endeavours with meditation, which he is learning under the guidance of noted teacher Sri Chinmoy

With thousands of all inclusive wedding packages available, your options are endless. From grand country house hotels to some of the larger hotel chains, virtually all hotels will offer some kind of great value wedding package.

There are many great reasons to use an all inclusive wedding package from a hotel for your reception. But where do you start, how do you decide which is right for you and what should you be looking out for?

Location, location, location
The first thing to start thinking about is where you want your reception. The obvious choices are near your home, your parents home, your fiance’s home or somewhere in between. If there are no places that strike a chord and you don’t mind travelling, then perhaps select a pretty English county and start there.

The internet showcases venues
The next step is to get online and start searching. Most hotels these days have a website to showcase their facilities. You’ll also get the low-down on their wedding services and be able to request a wedding pack. Select up to 10 hotels (any more will just be bewildering) and start talking to them.

Talk to the hotels
When you begin to talk to the hotels, there are several things you need to have in mind. First and foremost, think about whether they are within your budget!

Ask whether they have a minimum spend or a minimum number of guests that you need to invite. This will allow you to quickly and easily filter which are suitable.

If they don’t have these minimum requirements, then try and find out some sample prices for their weddings. Hotels often use a ´cost per head´ charge, so multiply this by your number of guests and you’ll have a rough idea of their charges and whether or not they fit within your budget.

If they’re not likely to fall within your budget, move on fast and go down your list until you find one that is!

Don’t be put off by a 5 star hotel. Just because it’s 5 start luxury, doesn’t mean they won’t have a package to suit you - keep an open mind.

Ask about packages
There are often different packages available or you can create a tailored package. Each element you include will vary the cost significantly, so you can flex the package as necessary to keep within your budget.

Make sure you ask about the different options available and find out exactly what’s included. By changing a few small elements of your reception, you may be able to have that dream location at a price you’re happy with.

Meet the hotel wedding planner
Most hotels have a member of staff dedicated to ensuring that your wedding goes without a hitch. If you go down the route of a hotel reception, then the hotel wedding planner is going to be your best friend for the next year.

Since this is the case, you need to make sure you trust them to make your big day perfect, they can manage your budget, they’re open and honest with you, they’re flexible with your arrangements and most importantly you have a good relationship with them.

After all, you’re just about to entrust them with a load of your hard earned cash and so a good relationship with the planner is critical to choosing your venue.

Check out the catering
Finally, it’s worthwhile asking about the catering at this stage as well. The hotels should be able to supply you with sample menus and costs for each. Think about whether you like the sound of the dishes and of course if the prices are to your taste.

If you’re thinking about supplying your own drinks, it’s essential to ask about corkage costs at this stage - you’ll be surprised how high these costs can be!

The last word
By asking about these few things when selecting a hotel for your wedding reception, you should be able to quickly rule out which venues are right for your all inclusive wedding package and which are not.

Nicola Ray is the owner of Cheap Wedding Success, a website dedicated to planning and creating the perfect cheap wedding. With lots of advice, tips and ideas to lower the cost of your wedding, Cheap Wedding Success is the perfect place to start. You can find more articles like this one in the Wedding Packages section.

Question: I just moved into my aunts house where she has this blue heeler. He loves to constantly come by and lick my legs. I was told maybe its the salt that we carry. He not only does it to me but everyone he can lick. Why does he do this?

Answer: Dogs are normally oral. They use their mouth to taste things, check out texture, carry stuff, pick things up, groom themselves, and love on you. Licking is equivalent to kissing, and some dogs are more affectionate than others.

Dogs particularly like salty things - like sweat - and lotions, soaps, perfumes, and oils. Coming out of the shower and staying clean and dry is always hard if your dog gets a whiff of you first. Chances are he’ll be all over you trying to lick the soap, water, oil, lotion or what have you.

Licking his own body parts could be part of his grooming, or trying to cure an affliction, but it can also mean love or submission.

You’ll notice that a more dominant dog - or even a person - will put a dog in his place by yelling or growling, and the dog will respond by submitting, cowering, and trying to lick the muzzle of the aggressor.

The cause for licking, as you see, varies, but if the licking bothers you, you can always train your dog not to lick. Keep in mind though that if it’s a sign of affection, you’ll have to allow him some outlet like sitting close to you, jumping up to you (that’s like a hug), etc. so you don’t turn him away completely. A dog that is just trying to be nice or is super submissive could have much worse habits like urinating every time he sees you!

Do you have a Dog Health Question?

Stop by Pet-Guides.com and ask our experts any question about your dog’s health condition!

Many chiropractors in the market today understand the importance of having a website. Allowing people to learn about your practice and contact you via the internet is a cheap and effective way to build your practice. The problem comes when a chiropractor with limited knowledge about websites starts looking for a solution. The information can become overwhelming very quickly so here are the top 3 pitfalls a chiropractor can make when trying to get started.

1 - Building it yourself. Avoid doing the work yourself unless you have previous website experience. The end result of your first try can look like a disaster. Your website must look professional to help build credibility in your patients. Shop around and hire a website design firm or some local talent that can build you a website. You will pay a little bit more for the design but will be glad that you did.

2 - Don’t have the content on your website provided for you. If you don’t write your own content you will be getting wording that is on many other websites as well as your own. Search engines hate copied content and they will disregard your site as a mirror image of another site already online. This means the potential for you to get listed on search engines drops down to zero. Write your own content!

3 - Understand the difference between Pay Per Click marketing and natural search engine optimization. Many companies will provide you with a marketing package that will help your website show up on search engines. 99% of these firms simply use a the Pay Per Click method to expose your site on search engines. Pay Per Click is a quick fix to getting on search engines and you must pay for ALL traffic. When you pay for your clicks you show in the sponsored results area not in the normal search results.
If you have your company do natural search engine optimization your website will show up in the regular search engine results and your clicks cost nothing. This strategy takes longer but is far more effective in building sustainable search engine traffic. If your website design company can’t provide natural search engine rankings simply find someone that will.

Be careful about the company you decide to use to help you get online. Make sure your content is original and tailored to your practice. Don’t think that just because you have a website means you can be found in Google. You must market the website to show up in the search results.

Please visit Scott Larsen’s website http://www.chiropracticpromotion.com for more information about chiropractic websites and chiropractic marketing.

Weight loss drugs might sound like the easy option to take to lose weight. But you should consider other methods before using weight loss drugs. The best way of losing weight is the natural way - through dieting and exercise. However, some people struggle to lose weight. They do all the right things, but the weight does not come off.

If you are one of these people, then you might consider weight loss drugs to help achieve a clinical significant weight loss. Weight loss drugs are not meant to be used by the Jacks and Jills who just want to lose a few pounds for cosmetic reasons. You can benefit from weight loss drugs if you are obese, and this obesity is causing health problems.

Weight-loss drugs should not replace the need for changes in your eating habits or activity level.

Practitioners may recommend weight loss drugs to different classes of people including:

1. Patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more,
2. Overweight patients with a BMI of 27 or more who either lack “good” HDL cholesterol, have too much “bad” LDL cholesterol, are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, have a high blood pressure, or have sleep apnea
3. People who have tried other weight loss methods, and failed

Common drugs available on the market

Some commonly available drugs are listed below. This list is by no means exhaustive. The first two are available on the NHS, if you meet their criteria.

1. Sibutramine (Meridia (US) /Reductil (UK)). This drug changes your brain chemistry, making you feel full more quickly. Typical dosage is 10 milligrams (mg) once a day. Possible side-effects include increased blood pressure, headache, dry mouth, constipation and insomnia.
2. Orlistat (Xenical). Prevents the absorption of fat in your intestines. Normal dosage is 120 mg three times a day. Possible side effects include frequent oily bowel movements, diarrhea, bloating and abdominal pain.
3. Rimonabant (Acomplia). Works by blocking the endocannabinoid system in the brain which regulates hunger. This stifles hunger and cravings. You take 1 pill a day. Possible side effects include dizziness, nausea, anxiety, diarrhea and insomnia.

During tests sibutramine and orlistat users typically achieved weight losses of 3-4 percent over a year. Rimonabant users typically achieved 5-10%, with almost 40% achieving 10% weight loss. Rimonabant is not expected to be on the NHS within the next two years due to its cost (£55 per patient per month).

The downside to weight loss drugs

Once you start taking a weight-loss drug, you’ll likely need to take it indefinitely. When you stop drug treatment, however, much or all of the lost weight generally returns, unless you have changed your lifestyle.

The dilemma with taking the drugs indefinitely is that the most common weight-loss drugs are so new that possible long-term effects are unknown.

The author is the webmaster of katsande.com. You can find more tips and interesting stuff in the blogs section.

Further Reading

• Britain gets fat-busting drug that cuts weight by a tenth
• Pill that tricks you into losing weight
• Obesity

Question: We have noticed a brown discoloration on our dog’s back molars, should we try and brush his teeth?

Answer: Your dog is only a year old and should generally have healthy teeth.

There are certain early signs of teeth problems that need to be mentioned. Some of these problems started in the teeth, but some can cause infections in other parts of the body or can be the first sign that your dog is sick. Here are some early signs:

o yellowing of the teeth
o redness on the gums
o bad breath
o swelling of the gums
o trouble chewing or even drinking
o certain temperatures in food or water
o plaque and tartar build up

What can these signs mean?

The problem can be as simple as needing to start brushing his teeth, or getting your doctor to do a good cleaning.

Dogs rarely have cavities, but if there is tartar buildup, this can lead to periodontal disease which is much worse. Periodontal disease can lead to kidney failure, heart infections and other diseases as well. Bad breath (fish like smell) is sometimes a sign of liver problems.

The problem can be as simple as a need to start brushing or buying chew toys to avoid tartar and plaque buildup, but can also mean other things as well. Observe, pay attention, and report the problem to your doctor if things get worse.

It is really simple to brush your dogs teeth. Simply go to your local pet store and they will have many options for toothbrushes and dog tooth paste.

Do you have a Dog Health Question?

Stop by Pet-Guides.com and ask our experts any question about your dog’s health condition!