If you’re looking for something special for your someone special, here’s two recipes that will win over any heart. These romantic Valentine’s Day recipes are just the ticket!
Salad: 1 heart of Romaine lettuce 1 heart of Bibb lettuce 3 quartered artichoke hearts 8 slices of hearts of palm 1/4 cup raspberries 4 sliced strawberries 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts
Mix all the dressing ingredients except the olive oil. Place in the refrigerator for one hour. Remove from refrigerator and slow whisk in the olive oil. Set dressing aside. Break up lettuce into bite sized pieces. Place all the other ingredients in a separate bowl and toss with the dressing. To serve, place lettuce pieces on a plate and spoon over the dressed other ingredients.
Molten Chocolate Cake 1/4 cup sugar 6 tablespoons butter 4 ounces semisweet chocolate 1/4 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs 2 egg yolks
Grease eight 6-ounce ramekins or custard cups with butter and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons of sugar. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate over low heat until smooth, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and whisk in the flour and vanilla until well blended. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, egg yolks, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until very thick, about 10 minutes. With a rubber spatula, gently fold egg mixture into chocolate mixture, one-third at a time, until blended. Pour the batter into the greased ramekins to about three-fourths full. Place ramekins on a sheet pan and place in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. The edges of the cakes should be set, with the center still slightly loose. Cool for five minutes. Run a small knife around the side of the cakes and invert onto dessert plates. Serve immediately. You can assemble the cakes ahead and refrigerate them in the ramekins for 24 hours. They can also be frozen for up to two weeks before baking. If frozen, they should be baked for 15 to 16 minutes.
Let's face it. You're a busy person. You've got real estate clients to meet up with, homes to show, appointments to attend to and family matters to take care of. Who has time to filter through all the junk emails coming through their inbox every day? Technology is supposed to help make our lives easier. And, in many ways, it does. But it seems that, sometimes, technology can interfere with productivity. To stay focused, you need to organize and optimize your email, eliminating clutter and directing your attention to those things that matter.
Studies show that most people have an almost compulsive need to check and answer every single email that comes in at the moment it comes in. While you may think this shows that you're on top of things, it actually can be counter-productive. It takes your attention away from the tasks in front of you. Once you return to finish the project you started, your mind can take several seconds to jump back on track. When you factor that in to every time you check your email, you could lose several hours of time over the course of a month. Instead of jumping on your email several times a day, schedule two or three times throughout the day to check and answer emails.
Use your email signature to relay important information, such as your name (obviously), your company's name, your direct phone number, your website and links to your social media (such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook). WiseStamp is an email app generator that creates icons you can integrate right into your email signature. You can link the icons to your social media accounts so that anyone reading your email can access them directly with just one click.
The key to organizing your email is to reduce the amount you receive. I spoke about Unsubscribe.com, a free download that helps you reduce SPAM to your inbox, a few weeks ago. I use it and have already seen a huge reduction in my junk emails. Google Alerts are also a great way to keep track of who's saying what about your business or name. You can set it to receive alerts once a day, once a week or as they happen. It's up to you. Otherinbox allows you to set up incoming emails to be directed into specific folders, such as "shopping", "business", "clients", "buyers", "sellers", "personal", etc. That way you can tackle the most important emails now and save the rest for when you have more time.
Finally, use your email filters. Just about every email program offers some kind of filters. It may take a little time in the beginning. But, as you designate which emails are SPAM and which are actual emails you want to receive, the filters are programmed to recognize potential SPAM in future emails. This helps reduce the junk and keep the good stuff coming through.
I'm trying to reduce the clutter in my life so that I can stay focused on the important things: my family, my friends and my clients. Organizing and optimizing my email is one way to get rid of the junk. These free tools can help you as well. Please let me know if you need help organizing your real estate business so you can continue to be productive and prosperous in 2012.
I am on a mission to find ways to save money. (Maybe it's from watching Suze Orman's Money Class.) Yesterday I told you about a free online coupon clipper service.
After doing some more research, I found one that's even better!
Here's How It Works:
It's called Saving Star and it is the first national, fully digital, grocery eCoupon service, available for free. Includes iPhone and Android mobile apps. There’s nothing to clip, nothing to print.
Select the eCoupons you want and Savings Star will automatically link them to your store loyalty cards.
Once your savings have reached $5.00, you will have the option of receiving your savings directly to your bank or PayPal account, use the savings on a gift card or donate the savings to a charity.
Win! Win! Win!
If you decide to use this service, please let me know how it works out for you.
As many of you know, in my spare time, I work on the foodie website that my sister and I started about a year ago. We recently did a facelift on it. In the process, we found an awesome free coupon clipping site where you can save money on food, household items, restaurants and a ton of other stuff.
I want to share that site with you.
Click here to go directly to the coupon clipping site.
All you do is go to the site, choose which money-saving coupons you want to "clip". Print them off, take them to the store and start saving.
By the way, I wrote a tutorial about the site. So, if you want to learn more about it before you start clipping, click here to read the tutorial.
We can all agree that videos make great advertisements. Whether it's for a property, an event or even showcasing your real estate skills, videos have surpassed still pictures and even slideshows in helping market you and your listings online. YouTube has become the second most used search engine (behind Google and in front of Yahoo! and Bing) on the internet today. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a place to upload the video of your client's real estate listing without having it compete with cats playing the piano, stunts gone wrong and startled baby faces? Well, there is. It's called Property Tube.
Property Tube was created exclusively for private sellers and renters as well as professional real estate agents and offices as a marketing platform for their properties. They give exposure of your clients' properties to a world-wide audience. All you have to do is take any video you've created or had created by a professional and upload it to your free Property Tube account like you would with a YouTube video. In just two easy steps, you can map the location of the property, upload the video, add a catchy headline and provide details of the property in question, including adding a link back to your website or blog right in the description.
Just like YouTube, you can even create your own real estate channel. Keep your data base updated on what's happening with your office, what's going on around your neighborhood, new listings that need to be seen to be believed and general real estate news that everyone can use with your own branded real estate channel. This is a great way to engage an audience and keep them asking for more. And all this is absolutely FREE!
If you don't fancy yourself a cinematographer, don't fret. Property Tube can help you find a videographer near you to shoot an amazing, professional quality video. However, anyone with a Flip camera and some imagination can put together something truly special on Property Tube.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is just about priceless. And, with Property Tube, your priceless video can be advertised to millions of potential buyers all across the world for FREE! Just think of Property Tube as the YouTube of real estate listings.
Having the gang over for the big game? Give yourself a break this year, so you can enjoy the day too! These dips are crowd-pleasing and are the easiest snack you can make.
Hot Stuff - Blend one 8-ounce package of softened cream cheese and a half a bottle of hot chili sauce together in a blender or food processor. Serve with crackers.
Baked Onion Dip - Lightly grease a 1-quart baking dish. In a bowl, mix one 8-ounce package of shredded Cheddar cheese, 2 cups of mayonnaise, and 2 cups of chopped onion. Place in the baking dish and sprinkle the top with 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the onions are tender and the top is lightly browned. Serve with crackers.
Beer Cheese Dip - With a mixer, whip together one 8-ounce package of softened cream cheese, one 8-ounce package of diced processed cheese food (like Velveeta), a half a can of room temperature beer, and one peeled and crushed clove of garlic. Continue whipping until smooth. Serve with crackers.
Tex Mex Dip - In a bowl, combine one cup of shredded Cheddar cheese, one 16-ounce container of sour cream, one 4-ounce can of chopped green chile peppers, and one 1-ounce package of taco seasoning mix. Chill in the refrigerator for two hours before serving.
Cheesecake Dip - In a bowl, combine 3-ounces of cream cheese, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 3 tablespoons of milk. Mix until smooth and well mixed. Gently fold in 2 cups of whipped topping and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Serve chilled with graham crackers and fruit.
Serve one or all of these recipes with crackers, chips and veggies. You'll have your own cheering squad.
While content is critical to creating an amazing real estate website or blog that internet users will want to visit again and again, there is more work to be had behind the scenes...primarily keywords. Keywords are the specific words or phrases that internet users type into the search field when looking up information. Each search engine uses their own algorithm to determine what websites will provide the best information that the searcher is looking for based on these keywords. When it comes to keywords, though, stuffing's for turkeys, not websites!
Search engines frown upon the practice of adding thousands of keywords to a website or blog (known as "keyword stuffing"). You can actually be penalized for this. Instead, it is recommended that you find a few key words or phrases that you want to focus on.
When narrowing your choices, think of how you typically search for things online. For example, let's say you heard about a balloon festival in Sonoma and want to know more about it. You wouldn't just type in "balloons" or even "balloon festival", would you? That would give you tons of extra websites ranging from party balloons to the annual Albuquerque Balloon Festival, none of which is what you are actually looking for. You would instead type in something more specific like "Sonoma balloon festival" in your search engine's search field and hit enter. Then, your search engine would look through all the sites it had in its database to list the best sites for you to visit to find the information you are seeking.
Most people get as specific as they can when typing in the search field. Searchers typically look for a specific thing (person, company, event...in this case, "balloon festival") and then a specific location (in this case, "Sonoma"). Instead of focusing on a generic term for your site, such as "real estate", you want to get specific so that you get those people really looking for your services in your particular area. These terms may be searched less, but they increase the likelihood of a cold prospect turning into a hot lead.
There are several tools available to help you create a list of keywords to focus on your real estate site or blog. One of my personal favorites is Soovle.com. Soovle allows you to compare top keyword searches on multiple search engines at one time. You can choose the search engines you want to compare (anywhere from 7 to 15 at one time). All you have to do is start typing in the keywords you would like to use and you will instantly see the most searched words/phrases on each search engine. You don't even have to finish your word before Soovle begins offering suggestions. This can help you optimize the keywords on your site/blog so you can find your audience and they can find you.
Don't fall for the "if one is good, more is better" way of thinking. Stuffing's for turkeys, not websites...or blogs. Keep a few key words or phrases in mind when working on your real estate website or blog and you'll find yourself at the top of the search engines soon enough. Best of all, potential clients will find their way to you, too.
Just so you know, I'm standing on my soapbox right now, getting ready to speak about a subject that sparks outrage and anger. For those of you who haven’t seen Bobby Flay’s documentary featuring perfectly good food going to waste, then pleasewatch it for yourselves.
It is my intention to inform as many people as I can to this daily practice of throwing food away, when we have so many kids and families going hungry. I hope to motivate as many people as possible to get involved. Even if it means standing next to the dumpster, waiting to retrieve the food before it gets thrown away. We have individual city tasks forces, food banks, churches, all who could use this food.
If you’re not sure who to contact, in your area, then call your local Chamber of Commerce. I've emailed Food Network to see what we can do to help prevent such shameful waste in our communities. Hopefully, I'll hear a great recommendation from them.
Please get involved in any capacity you can. Just think, someone’s next meal may be provided by you…
Originally written and posted on my website at www.foodandrecipesblog.com
Creating an interesting, interactive website used to cost thousands of dollars a year. Even if you went the "do-it-yourself" route, you ran the risk of looking like many other real estate sites out there by using the same old limited freebie themes. However, websites have come a long way, baby. Most real estate professionals are ditching their old expensive websites for a hosted WordPress site. They are much more affordable, offer a wide variety of plugins and widgets to completely customize your site, and, most importantly, they are completely user-friendly. Even computer novices can look like geniuses with WordPress.
Theme Shock is a great program I have found to help my real estate clients create a truly impressive WordPress site. Through Theme Shock, you can download your own free bundle of WordPress themes to use on your hosted site. Each free bundle includes your choice of 99 different WordPress themes (you can use 10 different ones at a time for free), 750 free high quality icons and more. For a fee, you can download the premium Shock Bundle. This includes 102 Premium WordPress themes, icons for Android and iPhone, credit card icons, social media icons, logo templates and so much more. The following are just a few examples of Word Press sites using Theme Shock my clients are currently using:
Don't delay. Stop spending thousands of dollars on your real estate website. Get Theme Shock now and make a true impression on future clients. Just let me know if you need any help getting started.
The internet has become a way of life for most people. You can go online to do just about anything: shop, socialize, pay your taxes, find real estate clients, look up how long George Jetson's work week was (or is that just me?), etc. It's very convenient to have the wealth of knowledge you used to have to go to the library to find now available at your fingertips. The downside of all this convenience, however, is SPAM...the other four letter word that sends shudders up your spine. It can clog up your inbox and take forever to clear up. I've found a solution to reduce SPAM as well as managing your own contact list absolutely FREE! Unsubscribe.com.
Unsubscribe.com is offered as a free download that integrates with most email programs, including Outlook, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. In essence, Unsubscribe.com becomes your SPAM blocker. All you need to do is click the "Unsubscribe" button next to an email you know is unsolicited and you will never receive emails from that source again. As you continue to "unsubscribe", the program learns what to identify as SPAM so that future SPAM will never make it into your inbox ever again.
Another neat feature of this free program is the Social Monitor. With the simple click of a button, Unsubscribe.com is downloaded as an add-on to your toolbar. Social Monitor helps you find out who is accessing your information on any of your social networking sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Remove any connections you may have to applications you don't use, applications you aren't sure you can trust and applications you know to be unsafe. When you find unsafe applications, quickly and easily let your friends and followers know about them through Unsubscribe.com so that they can protect themselves as well. With the recent Ramnit worm that infected thousands of Facebook accounts overseas recently, stealing more than 45,000 login credentials from users in the UK and France, you can never be vigilant enough.
Real estate professionals can also use Unsubscribe.com to manage their contacts. When you download the Safe Send program, an extra button will be installed in your email program. With Safe Send, an "unsubscribe" link will automatically be added to the bottom of all of your emails. If someone receives an email from you, all they have to do is click the link and their email will automatically be removed from your contact list so they never receive an email from you again. That way, YOU don't look like annoying SPAM to your contacts. All you have to do to activate the Safe Send is to click that button rather than your regular "send" button.
Unsubscribe.com has several other features, too. I encourage you to visit their website to see how amazing this program is. In my vocabulary, SPAM is a four letter word. Wash out your inbox's mouth with Unsubscribe.com today. You'll be so happy you did!
Being a Virtual Assistant for real estate professionals is a great job! We provide website, marketing, search engine optimization, online listing service, Blogs, ghostwriting, contact management and a lot more.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
Berries and Hearts Salad
Molten Chocolate Cake
Let's face it. You're a busy person. You've got 
Having the gang over for the big game? Give yourself a break this year, so you can enjoy the day too! These dips are crowd-pleasing and are the easiest snack you can make.
While content is critical to creating an amazing 
The internet has become a way of life for most people. You can go online to do just about anything: shop, socialize, pay your taxes, find 
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