With the current housing market making it much more difficult for owners to sell their property, some realtors have been creatively resetting the “days on market” meter for their clients on their local multiple listing service (MLS). Though many have done so out of good intentions, perhaps not realizing that this is a violation of many multiple listing services, buyers should beware and ask their realtor to take steps to ensure the home they are interested in is not a relisted property.

The targeted homes usually have sat on the market for several months, no longer attracting potential buyers. There are many reasons a home may sit on the market too long. Generally, the reason has nothing to do with the value of the home to a potential buyer. Here are just a few reasons:

• There are currently so many homes on the market across the nation. The competition and falling home prices are making it difficult to sell homes, regardless of price and value offered;

• Most realtors show clients the new listings first. That means that a truly good home will not get the same attention as it did when newly listed, making selling it even more difficult; and

• New listings can command higher prices. Once a home has been on the market for a while, many buyers and their realtors make lowball offers. Seldom do owners accept these too-low offers, leaving the home on the market even longer.

Some realtors, wishing to help their clients sell their homes, have come up with ways to manipulate their multiple listing service’s computerized tracking features. By pulling the home off the multiple listing service and immediately relisting it, these realtors do several things:

• They reset the “days on market” tracking to zero, obscuring how long it has been for sale;

• Realtors, who also zero out the property ID and tweak the address a bit, ensure that the database cannot track the home as a relisted property;

• Even if the days on market continue to track, many multiple listing services put newly listed (including relisted) properties on their “hot sheets”, making them appear new;

• They can disguise that the previous listing was at a higher price, alleviating the perceived sign of seller weakness by buyers and their realtors;

• Relisting means a seller may not need to lower their asking price, since new listings command higher selling prices; and

• The realtor is ensuring the seller gets another run at competing in the market on a level playing field, since new listings get higher prices and most of the attention of potential buyers.

All of these factors are in the best interest of the seller. Unfortunately, a false sales history puts the buyer on an unequal playing field.

The days on market alerts the buyer and his/her realtor to possible problems with the property. Though many reasons for market longevity have nothing to do with the property, some homes have flaws and issues that make them unattractive to potential buyers. It is easier for realtor’s to show newly listed homes than to research homes for problems that have been on the market for some time.

To protect yourself, ensure your realtor digs a little deeper when researching the newly listed homes. The agent should investigate the sales history of each home before showing it to you. A diligent and experienced realtor will know what to look for and can spot relisted homes.

John Harris is an expert researcher and writer on real estate topics such as economics, credit improvement tips, home selling advice and home buying preparations. For more information please visit Real Estate San Diego

Bodybuilding requires strength, a balanced diet, endurance, and proper training. A proper diet will ensure that the person doing bodybuilding will increase her muscle mass while keeping a general good health. The overall diet of a bodybuilder should be balanced and avoid fast food.

When undergoing a bodybuilding program, a person should eat generously and frequently quality food rich in protein. It is common for a serious bodybuilder to eat 5 to 7 meals or snacks per day. This amount of food provides their bodies with the proper nutrients and energy to perform during the day. The food intake should be taken every 2 or 3 hours. Professional bodybuilders have understood this fact and respect it to insure they feel good.
Often people undergoing serious bodybuilding will ask for a professional trainer’s assistance. It then gets easier to balance everything required to have a healthy bodybuilding program. Eating frequently quality meals rich in protein will insure the bodybuilder a healthy transformation. It will also help keep their blood sugar levels at a normal level.

Bodybuilding involves regular and serious training as much as a specific diet. While involved in bodybuilding, a person will see her overall body fat decrease and being replaced by lean muscle. Effective bodybuilding will be achieved by a balanced combination of healthy eating, regular training and proper rest.
.
Bodybuilders participating in competitions have to be free of drug and illegal substance abuse. Rules and regulations and drug testing has been tightened recently as a result of past abuses. In many competitions, each bodybuilder must have 2 letters of reference stating they have not used any type of illicit drugs during the past 5 years. A bodybuilder caught testing positive for drug enhancement can face a two year ban from all competitions.

Successful bodybuilders are passionate about the sport. They eat, breath and sleep bodybuilding. They are committed to improving their general health and increase their muscular mass. Those who are the most successful at it don’t see it as work. They enjoy the workouts and the diets. They look forward to getting up and spending that time in the gym. Successful bodybuilders enjoy working out and challenging themselves physically and mentally. They often look for new ways to enhance their performance.

Any teenager interested in bodybuilding should consult a qualified physician before undertaking a program. They need the proper training and diet rich in protein and in accordance to their growing needs. Since their bodies are still growing it is important not to lift too heavy in order to avoid injuries. A person can seriously hurt herself by lifting weights that are too heavy or pushing herself too much. Often, the interest for bodybuilding in teenagers starts in school or a t home. When done properly, bodybuilding can prove to be a healthy habit and greatly increase the teenager’s self-confidence.

For more information now go to: http://myalpha-power.com/your_physical_health.htm,
http://www.yourownhomegym.com/index.html, http://www.yourownhomegym.com/Total-Fitness-Home-Gym.html

Home homeowners choose a loan from their bank when it’s time to refinancing their Los Angeles mortgage. While bank mortgage loans are convenient, they are not the most affordable option for your new California mortgage. Here are several reasons why you should avoid bank loan when refinancing your Los Angeles mortgage loan.

Banks fall into a special category of mortgage lender because they typically fund mortgages with the banks money instead of using a wholesale mortgage lender. Because the bank bypasses the wholesaler, banks set their own mortgage interest rates. Do banks compete with wholesale lenders providing competitive mortgage rates? The answer might surprise you.

Banks make the majority of their profits by selling their loans to investors on the secondary mortgage market. The higher the mortgage rate you pay, the more money your bank makes form the sale. Banks know the wholesale mortgage rate you would qualify for; however, bank rate sheets include markup to boost their profit when your California mortgage is sold. This markup of your mortgage interest rate is called Service Release Premium; if you agree to pay it you will pay thousands of dollars every year unnecessarily for your Los Angeles Home loan.

Another reason to avoid banks completely when refinancing your California mortgage is that they are exempt from the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. In 1999 the banking lobby spent millions of dollars to have the laws changed so your bank is not required to disclose their profits on your mortgage. Banks can charge whatever they like and the only people that will ever know are the bankers. You can learn more about refinancing your Los Angeles home loan while avoiding costly mistakes with a free mortgage tutorial.

To get your FREE six-part Mortgage Refinancing Tutorial, visit RefiAdvisor.com using the link below.

Louie Latour specializes in showing homeowners how to avoid costly mortgage mistakes and predatory lenders. To get your hands on this free video tutorial: “Mortgage Refinancing - What You Need to Know,” which teaches strategies for finding the best mortgage and saving thousands of dollars in the process, visit Refiadvisor.com.

Claim your free mortgage refinancing tutorial today at: http://www.refiadvisor.com

Los Angeles Mortgage Refinancing

This song can be played with two chords on your ukulele. You will learn this song in a few minutes time without the interference of sheet music. Here are the chords!

The first chord we will learn is C-major:

C: 0/4 0/3 0/2 3/1

I have to explain how to read this tablature notation. 3/1 means that you press down the third fret on the first string.

What then is the first string?

The first string is the string nearest the floor when you hold your ukulele the ordinary way.

The first string should be tuned to an A for the chord names to be correct.

The tuning of the ukulele will be:

First string: A

Second string: E

Third string: C

Fourth string: G

The next chord to learn is G7:

G7: 0/4 2/3 1/2 2/1

Now it is time to take a look at the lyrics of the first verse:

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley

Hang down your head and cry

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley

Poor boy, you’re bound to die

I will put the chords in parenthesis before the word you shall play the chord or change to a new chord.

Here are the lyrics with the chords attached:

(C)Hang down your head, Tom Dooley

Hang down your head and (G7)cry

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley

Poor boy, you’re bound to (C)die

This song was not too hard to play, I guess. With these chords you will start the melody as you sing on the note G. It is on 3/2 on your ukulele but maybe not in the same octave.

Maybe you feel that the song is a little bit low pitched. Some people like to sing in a low key because it can be comfortable if you are not a professional singer.

We will now transpose the whole song to a higher pitch. Let us try the key of F. Here are the chords to use:

F: 2/4 0/0 1/2 0/1

C7: 0/4 0/3 0/2 3/1

The song will start on the note C(0/3)

Here are the song in the key of F:

(F)Hang down your head, Tom Dooley

Hang down your head and (C7)cry

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley

Poor boy, you’re bound to (F)die

The hardest thing is not to hold the chords. The difficult part is to change chords without losing the tempo. For example practice strumming four times on C and four times on G7 and start over again. Strum in an even but slow pace trying to change chords without losing tempo.

Another thing that can help you change chords is to use a left hand fingering that will help you shift between the chords smoothly. Here is a suggestion for the chords C and G7:

C: 0/4 0/3 0/2 3/1(ring finger)

G7: 0/4 2/3(middle finger) 1/2(index) 2/1(ring finger)

To change chords from C to G7 just slide your ring finger from fret 3 on the first string to fret 2 and then place the rest of the fingers in place.

Peter Edvinsson invites you to download your free ukulele sheet music, ukulele tabs, ebooks, music lessons and read his music blog at Capotasto Music.

With the current housing market, homes have gotten harder to sell. As a seller of a homes for sale, you will need to do more preparation for the sale before you list to ensure your home stands out amongst the competition.

Sellers of homes for sale must adjust their expectations. No longer does a home sell within a month of listing it on the market. Prices have dropped drastically, since the housing bubble has deflated, making it even more important than ever to present your homes for sale to its best advantage.

Professional Staging. Consider having your homes for sale professionally staged. I watched a show a few months ago, where a professional decorator not only restaged the interior of the home but also the second floor deck. Where the deck was once an uninviting, Spartan area with a couple of folding chairs, it became a warm, cozy and inviting retreat. It had wooden benches with soft cushions lining the deck rails, a copper fire pit (kept lit during showings for ambiance), wooden end tables, large floor plants in every corner, plants hanging from the new lattice deck overhang. At the open house after being relisted, everyone liked the interior but fell in love with the deck. It sold within a month, after having sit for months at its original listing.

Hiring a designer to spruce up and restage your home can cost a little as $150 for the initial consultation. For a few hundred more, a professional stager will bring in plants, art and furniture, while you place your belongings in storage. Showing your homes for sale to its best advantage lets potential buyers see all the possibilities your home has, increasing buyer interest.

Environmentally Friendly. With energy costs on the rise and people taking a new interest in the environment, many buyers are looking for environmentally friendly features without having to incur the upfront costs. Be sure to ask the professional stager for some ideas on adding such features. Some inexpensive things you can do are to add energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs, replacing the wasteful incandescent bulbs. Put a compost bin in the backyard and filters on faucets. Ensure your realtor points out the energy efficient, yellow stickers on the hot water heater and furnace.

Fix It Up. If you wish to sell your homes for sale quickly, you cannot expect potential buyers to “fix up” the house, selling it “as is”. In today’s market, it is cheaper to fix a few things than take a great loss on the selling price. While fixing things, give the home a more contemporary look by replacing old kitchen and bathroom fixtures, cabinet knobs, ceiling light fixtures, and so on. Remove wallpaper, mirrored walls, and paneling from bygone eras, replacing them with painted walls. Paint all walls taupe (white is now passé).

Use the Internet. According to Errol Samuelson, president of realtor.com, more than 80 percent of potential homes for sale buyers check online listings. That means you have more exposure for your homes for sale, if your realtor has it posted on a popular real estate web site. Samuelson says that listings with at least six great photos of the homes for sale and a video tour get 300 percent more online viewers. The more viewers who see your homes for sale, the more buyer interest is generated. The more buyer interest, the faster your home will sell. Ensure you are taking advantages of this technology for your homes for sale.

Price Appropriately. I have seen many articles on how innovative sellers of homes for sale have become in order to ensure a quicker sale and better price. Incentives have been paid vacations to free gym memberships — you name it, a seller somewhere has probably offered it. Developer Robert Sheridan, owner of the Lakeshore Condomiums in the Andersen Springs community in Phoenix, found selling incentives an unsuccessful strategy. He offered free kitchen upgrades and financing incentives to no avail. In the end, he slashed prices by ten percent and sold his condos.

Many homes for sale owners are pricing their homes at last year’s prices, while potential buyers are looking for better deals. Unfortunately, the current housing market is supporting the buyers, not the sellers. You must be realistic when pricing your homes for sale. Listen to the advice from your realtor, who has the pulse of the current market. If necessary, check out current listings in your area for comparison. In the end, if your homes for sale is priced too high, it will not sell.

John Harris is an expert researcher and writer on real estate topics such as economics, credit improvement tips, home selling advice and home buying preparations. For more information please visit San Marcos Real Estate

Residents of Georgia and surrounding areas, with an interest in gaining an education in massage therapy, will find several quality Georgia massage therapy schools to choose from. Excellent massage therapy schools in Georgia are located in Atlanta, Morrow, Norcross, Augusta, Gainesville, Jonesboro, Macon, and Marietta. There may be other massage therapy programs offered by local vocational and technical schools and community colleges.

The top massage therapy schools in Georgia provide comprehensive courses and intensive hands-on clinical massage therapy instruction. Students will receive massage therapy training that will qualify them for professional employment in one or more areas of massage therapy. They will acquire skills for providing treatment to clients with stress-, injury-, and pain-related illnesses. Graduates will be ready for the responsibilities of entry-level chiropractics, fitness, sports, and sports medicine therapies.

To ensure a quality education, students should seek out only those Georgia massage therapy schools that are accredited by state and national organizations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Information about Georgia massage therapy schools and state requirements can be requested in writing from the Georgia Board of Massage Therapy or from the Georgia state government website.

Massage therapy students can start their education with courses leading to diplomas, certificates, or Associate of Science (AS) degrees in massage therapy. Some four-year colleges and universities also house massage therapy schools with the advanced training that leads to an Associate of Science degree and culminates in a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree.

In the state of Georgia, massage therapists are required to have 500 hours of education in massage therapy before qualifying for certification exams. Graduates should be prepared to take the NCETMB examination, which is required of massage therapists in Georgia. Periodic courses may be required to maintain certification, and those maintenance courses are readily offered by most massage therapy schools in Georgia.

If you would like to learn more about Georgia Massage Therapy Schools and other educational opportunities, we invite you to visit our website today and submit a request to some of the quality schools you will find. Before long, you will have the information you need to make an informed choice that could greatly improve your career potential.

If necessary, you may wish to widen your search to include massage therapy schools in other states, such as:

- Colorado Massage Therapy Schools

- Arizona Massage Therapy Schools

- Michigan Massage Therapy Schools

- Pennsylvania Massage Therapy Schools

- Minnesota Massage Therapy Schools

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on SchoolsGalore.com.

Copyright 2007 - All rights reserved by Media Positive Communications, Inc.

Notice: Publishers are free to use this article on an ezine or website, provided the article is reprinted in its entirety, including copyright and disclaimer, and ALL links remain intact and active.

Michael Bustamante is a staff writer for Media Positive Communications, Inc. Find Massage Therapy Schools in Georgia and other states, such as Florida Massage Therapy Schools, at SchoolsGalore.com.

ATTN: Patients who believe they deserve better!

Surveys on medical office practice reveal that the average office visit with the doctor is 8 minutes. Every patient would like to know how to make that visit count and get better health care out of the deal. The old ways don’t work!

The business of medicine requires positive efforts by patients to take responsibility for how beneficial their own health care becomes. How do patients do that?—–By learning techniques and strategies for using every second of those 8 minutes wisely.

After all this time—someone is finally going to tell you!

Take a look at the problems if you don’t do something:

• Frustration with incomplete attention to your medical needs every time?

• Forced into extra office visits to get all the medical issues resolved, when it could have all been handled on the first visit?

• Required to fork over a new co-pay fee each time—costing you more “out of pocket” in the long run?

• Knowing that if the doctor doesn’t have time to manage all of your medical problems on that visit—will that delay harm you?

• Knowing that if you aren’t allowed time enough to tell the doctor about your serious medical problems—will it harm you?

• Concern that with the short time allowed and speed of the visit—some important problem might be missed?

• Understanding that the quality of your care is compromised to some degree because of inadequate time with the doctor?

If you aren’t afraid of these factors—you should be!

10 easy ways to improve your health care and avoid being shortchanged:

1. Arrive early for appointments: The patient ahead of you may have cancelled and now you have much more time available with the doctor. Offices using “wave” scheduling (everyone given the same appointment time) is on a first there, the first served basis.

2. Make appointments for mid-morning or mid-afternoon: Doctors are always in a hurry at the beginning of appointment schedules to catch up, and at the end of the schedule to get to noon or evening meetings.

3. Make appointments mid-week: Mondays and Fridays are always crowded with fit-in and urgent appointments that weren’t scheduled—and guess who has to wait for those to be seen? And also guess who gets a shorter time than usual with the doctor? Avoid appointments just before holidays.

4. Make a list: List every issue or symptom you need to tell the doctor. Have that list in your hand in the exam room. List the brand name of every medication you take, the doses, and the schedules—and have that in your hand also.

5. Dressing: Always be sure to do your dressing and undressing when the doctor is not in the room. Having to disrobe further to examine a “just remembered” symptom when the doctor is there uses up time needlessly.

6. No children: Make every effort to find a babysitter or chaperone to watch the kids. Any child in the exam room is distracting to the patient and the doctor. Distractions mean less time getting your medical problems attended to.

7. Timing for questions: The best time to get medical problems discussed, and to have the doctor advise you is after the exam is done, late in the visit. If you get into those at the beginning, the doctor will likely have to revise and repeat his comments after the exam.

8. Chummy talk: You can’t have both—a friendly chat with the doctor about your vacation, and have enough time in those 8 minutes to manage your medical problems.

9. Medication info: This is usually the first issue in the exam room. Hopefully the nurse will scan and repair your list before you see the doctor. Having your medication list in your hand speeds up the process with the nurse, and avoids having the doctor spend time scanning your medical record for that information.

10. Bonuses: Yes, they do exist! There are 3 that stand out and are of great benefit—but you have to make it happen.

a. Handouts: Ask for any and all written information about your concerns—saves surfing the Internet for answers.

b. Extracurricular Advice: Office staff will often answer questions and give advice quietly and privately to you. ASK!

c. Samples: Free medication samples are often available in the drug closet. Ask for samples, as no one will volunteer to give any to you. They simply don’t remember what’s in the closet.

Summary: Each one of these strategies will save you precious time, and allow you much more time to interact with the doctor. The white blur that whipped past you in the exam room probably was the doctor. Your eyes are not failing. Use the advice above to bring the doctor into focus—or at least into a slow-motion pattern.

The author, Curt Graham, is a retired medical doctor who has written extensively on many topics over his 35 plus years in active medical practice as a specialist in OB-GYN. He has been published in MODERN PHYSICIAN, an elite publication for physician executives, and is credited as a “Platinum Expert Author” by EzineArticles.com Internet Directory.

Learn hundreds of easy to use techniques and strategies that will slam your healthcare into high gear and save time and money at the same time. Yes, here’s where you start.

http://www.HealthCare-Toolbox.com

Please feel free to copy, send, or distribute this article as long as the article is not changed, and the author bio resource box is included with the article as written.

Copyright 2005, L & C Internet Enterprises, Inc., Curt Graham, All Rights Reserved.

Don Imus - “nappy-headed hos”
April 10, 2007

Don Imus characterized the winning women’s basketball team of Rutgers as “nappy-headed hos.” That is going way too far in my opinion.

Why do guys like Don Imus go too far? Is it to stir people up so that he will be in the spotlight and gain even more publicity? How can such remarks come out of a person’s mouth if they are not planted deep inside?

You know in my opinion whatever joy and sense of achievement the women felt for their hard work and dedication needed to become winners is now overshadowed by the hurtful remark by Don Imus. I would not want to be responsible for that shift from joy to hurt. An apology cannot take that away.

Just when we think we live in a country where people are equal, someone like Don Imus comes along and we realize, we do not. Groups of people and individuals are singled out because of their race or religion or where they live. I can relate to this because I live in West Virginia, Appalachia, where we are often referred to as “hillbillies” in a negative way.

Those slurs are hard to overcome. First of all, you don’t really understand why people have separated you from others and what gives them the right to judge what makes you different? Are they insulting you because of your appearance, the way you dress, the color of your skin, texture of your hair or your dialect? What gives these people the right to single you out for any of these reasons? What about them?

People who hold the public’s attention have an important role. Lou Dobbs on Good Morning America this morning, April 10, 2007, seems to think an apology may be good enough since Don Imus does charity work for children. So does charity work cancel out racial slurs? I suppose money is the deciding factor. If and when people stop supporting those who sponsor Don Imus, then, “no” charity work does not cancel out the remark “nappy-headed hos.”

I remember a very hurtful remark made to me one time by an important, winning coach at my high school. I’m sure the remark was forgotten a few minutes after it was uttered by the girls’ basketball coach but it has stayed with me all these years. I was in the 9th grade and big-boned and tall for my age. It seems the girls were shorter and of slighter build then. I was not overweight but a healthy size and 5′8″ in the 9th grade. I was not very athletic, I assume from the remark which was, “You should be able to do a lot more than the others on the basketball court, after all, you are a big, healthy, country girl.” I was raised in the country, healthy and tall - three things I wanted so desperately to deny, he brought out in front of 50 of my peers. I have not forgotten those words.

But those words are not the worse thing that has happened to me, you see, I live in West Virginia. I live in Appalachia. When those words are uttered outside the region, a red flag goes up at least in people’s minds. For some reason, the people of West Virginia and Appalachia are singled out for insults on a regular basis. When you leave this region, you automatically shift into the fight mode to defend your region and your people. I have yet to understand why people outside this region feel they have the right to insult and put down a group of people based on where they live. That brings me back to the remark by Don Imus calling the women’s basketball team at Rutgers “nappy-headed hos.” That insult applies to a group of people much like “hillbillies” is applied to people who live in West Virginia and Appalachia.

By
B. L. Dotson-Lewis, author
Sago Mine Disaster (Featured Story) Appalachian Coalfield Stories

Appalachia: Spirit Triumphant (a cultural odyssey of Appalachia

website: http://www.appalachiacoal.com

Has anyone ever had success by calling all of those leads? I sure have. I have really had it with all the negative talk about leads. Everyone seems give lead marketing a bad rap. Yes it can be tedious to dial 100 leads in a day which is what was recommended to me in the beginning days of my getting on the phone to promote my business. It can also be very intimidating and scary to talk to all those strangers and try to sell them something that they had no idea they were wanting. And imagine that familiar feeling that comes from your very first hang up. Pretty darn painful; I sure remember it that way.

These are all just people you know, just like you and me. If you can’t talk to them, your chances of having a successful business of your own are going to be limited.

My opinion, calling leads is the very best way for the thousands of up and coming internet and network marketers to get their feet wet in the extremely lucrative business of network marketing. If you spend any portion of your day dialing leads to promote your business, you are going to be miles ahead of the rest of the pack in the two most important areas for network marketing success. Those areas are in ACTION and EXPERIENCE.

Calling leads is taking action and the experience you will get communicating and fine tuning your marketing approach is invaluable. Not to say you will do this for ever, maybe not even for a month. But by taking action and learning how to connect and communicate with others, you will learn exactly what you need to know to take your business to the next level of success.

The internet is a very impersonal environment. What it is lacking is the personal connection which can begin to be developed over the telephone. Once you begin to learn the skills that allow people to trust you, have confidence in what you are selling or offering and to even develop a friendship or business partnership with you, you will be well on your way to a very successful life and business.

Personal fulfilling relationships are where we all get many of our needs met in life. When we can create an honest connection on the phone with a client, a prospect or our own down line, we have a strong foundation to build upon. When we simply jump on board that latest quick money deal that shows up in our inbox, there is generally no connection, especially not with a human (usually just auto responders). Take your time, make it fun, educate yourself, be honest and connect with people. Don’t try to just sell something. That’s boring!

As far as the leads go, buy a bunch, generate them for free if you know how and start calling and never stop until you are certain that you have had some success. If you stop from a place of frustration or excuses as to why it is not working, you are only giving into your own failure. Call, call, call, be funny, act happy even if you are broke, make a friend, talk like a human not like a robot and by taking all this action, you will be lead down a path of success that is perfect for you.

Calling leads makes you strong, keeps you honest (if you want success) and helps you learn how to truly give something of value to others. If you are one of the millions of people that have given up on direct, on the phone, lead marketing, remember this: You have only given into a part of you that will always find a way to keep you from getting what you want out of life. It is only you in your brain making excuses. I have struggled through it all and have found some great successes. If you need some motivation, feel free to contact me. I have a lot of great tools and ideas to get you moving in a direction that works for you.

Call some leads and make it work. It’s up to you.

Contact Me!

R.J. Kaminsky 707-395-0585

www.financial-freedom-guide.com

I’ve been online developing my marketing skills for 10 years now. What a rollercoaster ride. I’ve marketed everything from vitamins to houses and all kinds of education which is where I find myself today. My successes have had me making $1500 sales in a day to
learning great lead generating strategies that have allowed me to continue growing.

Presently I own my own business known as Taskmasters “Wealth Education and
Investment Strategies”. I show you how to keep more of your hard earned money,
protect your assets and how to have your money working hard for you rather than working hard for the rest of your life. See http://www.financial-freedom-guide.com

The iPod is the fastest selling music player, selling over 100,000,000 iPods in the last 5 years! In fact just in the last 3 months of 2006 Apple sold 21 million iPod players. So it is no real surprise that 48% Apple’s $7.1 billion in revenue is comprised of iPod sales. Wow quite an accomplishment! There is downside to this and that is the 100 million people who bought an iPod will at one point or another need to have their iPod battery replaced.

The good news about replacing your iPod battery is that iPod battery replacements can be done relatively easily and costs right around $10. iPod battery replacements kits come with tools and you can find your iPod’s battery online or at retailer’s like Batteryship.

However since so many people have purchased an iPod and since the demand for iPod batteries is quite high it is my curiosity to take a quick peek inside the iPod battery to find out what inside makes it work!

All iPod Batteries will ultimately fail, stop working, and cease to operate, and or otherwise end their useful life. It is the nature of the ipod battery’s design. iPod battery’s are designed to power iPods for a specific amount of time and are also designed with a certain number of battery charge cycles before the battery will not hold enough charge to power your iPod.

But let’s take a step back for just a moment and look at how iPod batteries work and why? First of all iPod batteries are in effect a device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy. iPod batteries have two electrodes, an anode and a cathode and running in between the two nodes runs an electrical current caused primarily from a voltage differential between the anode and cathode. The voltage runs through a chemical called an electrolyte (which can be either liquid or solid).

The most common cause of battery failure is not really a battery failure but normal internal battery wear or use. This is technically classified as declining capacity, increasing internal resistance, elevated self-discharge, and or premature voltage cut-off on discharge. Of these normal battery wear and tear factors the most common is declining capacity caused by the creation, transfer, and eventual reduction of chemical energy into electrical energy.

The chemical used to create electrical energy is lithium polymer. Lithium polymer is used as a battery anode material in dry cells and storage batteries. In fact the energy of some lithium-based cells can be five times greater than an equivalent-sized lead-acid cell and three times greater than alkaline batteries. Lithium cells often have a starting voltage of 3.0 V. This means that batteries can be lighter in weight, have lower per-use costs, and have higher and more stable voltage profiles. Some specific benefits of the lithium polymer chemical includes:

• Lithium polymer chemistry uses a plastic-like electrolyte film that does not conduct electricity but allows ion exchange - electrically charged atoms or groups of atoms.
• The dry polymer design offers simplifications with respect to fabrication, ruggedness, safety and thin-profile geometry.
• Cell thickness measures as little as one millimeter (0.039 inches).
• Can be formed and shaped in any way imagined.
• Lithium polymer offers a safer design – it is more resistant to overcharge; and is less prone to electrolyte leakage.

In addition to the iPod battery’s cell chemistry there are other specific hardware components that makeup the iPod battery and that together, working in concert with the battery cell that allow the iPod battery to push electrical current to your iPod. These specialized hardware components include:

• the iPod battery connector
• the iPod battery fuse
• the iPod battery charge and discharge FETs
• the iPod battery cell pack
• the iPod battery sense resistor
• the iPod battery primary and secondary protection ICs
• the iPod battery fuel-gauge IC
• the iPod battery thermistor
• the iPod battery pc board

© Dan Hagopian
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included with link. Dan Hagopian of http://www.batteryship.com is a known electronics author that specializes in portable power gadgets. His work can be found on the BatteryShip blog at http://www.batteryeducation.com He frequently writes about pda batteries, ipod batteries, general battery technology for our mobile world, new fuel cell technology and interesting power related inventions. For further information please visit http://www.batteryship.com where you can also find PDA battery replacement kits, smartphone batteries, twoway radio batteries, barcode scanner batteries, camera batteries, and camcorder batteries.