Patriots can now enjoy treats for being a loyal citizen of the States. All you need to do is just vote, and get an “I voted” sticker to make yourself eligible for the offers.

KrispyKreme Stores is offering free donuts to its retail customers. If you are a regular retail customer, your “I voted” sticker entitles you to one FREE star-shaped, patriotically colored donut.

With your “I voted” sticker, you also get to enjoy a free serving of brewed coffee from Starbucks Stores. For every person with an “I voted” sticker gets a 12-oz cup of brewed coffee.

Chick-Fil-A restaurants also reward their customers for simply exercising the right to vote on November 4th. By simply showing them your “I voted” sticker, you get a Chick-Fil-A sandwich in addition to your lunch order.

When evening falls, you still get to enjoy treats in exchange for voting.

Ben & Jerry will give out one free extra scoop of ice cream from 5 in the afternoon until 8 in the evening. Voters and non-voters can participate.

If you dine in at Pat & Oscar’s, your “I voted sticker” gets you 20% off the total price of your meal on November 4th.

Daily Grill also rewards voters with free appetizers with their meal from 4 pm until 11 pm on November the 4th.

So, vote and enjoy these treats for being a patriot!

You must have heard about “article directory”, “viral marketing”, “pay per click”, “pay per impression”, “organic traffic”, “referral traffic”, etc. Here I am going to give you a stat of article directory site (Ezinearticles.com) and its advantage over ppc and ppi. I advised my friend to donate some quality articles to ezinearticles.com before 9 months and here is the result which clearly shows its power for pulling traffic and referring to the donator’s website later.

Article donated: 5 (300 Words Each)
Total cost in donating articles: 15 USD
Total duration since the articles are published: 9 Months
Pagerank of these pages: 0-3
Total referrals from ezinearticles.com in 9 Months: 2519
Pages visit per visitor: 3.44
New visitors: 92.81%
Average referrals per month: 280
Average earning of the website from a visitor: 5.5 cents
Total earning: $138.6
Total adjusted earning: $110.88
Net profit: $95.88
Net profit in percentage: 850% per annum

What you see at the end is the net profit after 1 year is 850%, isn’t it awesome? My friend just invested $15 and what he got in return is $110.88 through pay per click ads and little page juice after 9 months. I adjusted the net earning by reducing 20% because the average page view is 3.44 and the net average page view per user of the site is 2, hence the CTR will be low for these visitors. However, if you invest in PPC ads then you will have to pay at least 5 cents per click but here you have to pay .6 cents, around 1/10th of the PPC ads. Remember you will hardly get any traffic if you configure your max pay per click to be 5 cents.

Let me clearly write all the benefits of donating articles to ezinearticles.com

1. Cheapest way to get traffic to your site.
2. Ezinearticles.com has dofollow links so you will get page juice to your website.
3. More follow backlinks to your site will increase your chances of doing better in serp.
4. It helps in branding of your website.

Disadvantages of submitting articles to article directories like ezinearticles.com 

1. People will copy it and use it all over the places.
2. Mods at ezinearticles.com will take at least 1 week to validate and publish the article.

There is a fuss for discounting the strength of article directory sites by the search engines but I have not seen it getting true with ezinearticles.com. As you have seen over the time search engines discounted the website directory sites so there are chances that the article directory sites will be discounted but remember still dir.yahoo.com, dmoz.org and botw.org are not at all affected. If you ask me then I will surely suggest you to donate quality articles to ezinearticles.com as it is the leader of this trade and they do a great job in keeping the quality up. I don’t think ezinearticles.com is going to be discounted over the time.

Simple and straight answer to this question is NO, you should never buy a link. Don’t worry I just wrote the first line for Matt (You know who is he). If you look on the internet then you will see tons of websites giving free advices on building back links on which search engines count heavily. If you are already exhausted from those tricks and still your low pr (pagerank) is bothering you then YES, go ahead and buy links. You should buy links even though Google and other search engines hate it and a website caught doing this will be heavily penalized but if done smartly then there will be a low chance left for robots to figure out which are paid and which are natural links.

I am suggesting you to buy a link because I know almost every webmaster is involved in this process. It doesn’t mean if a backlink is paid means unfair and all other trading is reasonable. No, search engine heavily count on back links to a page to decide the authority and rank of the page for any search phrase so any strategy followed to get a back link is not fair. How many people in this world are there who just write and stay idle, don’t market their content, I guess very negligible. Either he/she doesn’t know about the power of backlink or he is list bothered.

I know you are bothered so you are reading this page, here are few pointers to consider while buying links.

How much of a worth is the page from where you are buying the link?

• Is the page is on your niche? You should always try to buy a link from your niche only.
• What is the PR? PR above 3 is a worth to buy.
• How old is the page? It is not good to buy links from a young page which just evolved before couple of days or weeks.
• How many back links and who all are they? Check the back links of the page and browse through the sites to know who all are they linking it. Are they all organic? Organic bank link pages are better to buy.
• What is the traffic to that page? Ask the seller for the expected traffic to the page so that you can get a glance over your referral from the page.
• What is the content size and how many out going links are already on the page? Content size more than 500 words are better, lesser number of out going links from the page is more suitable.
• Where your link will be placed? Is it in the footer or sidebar? Link placed in the content and in the top 200 words is better.
  How much of a worth is the site from where you are getting a paid back link?
• What is the PR of the website? PR more than 3 is better.
• Who owns the website and how long he/she has been running the site. If the person running the site is the owner and he also created the website then it is better.
• How old is the site? Older sites are good.
• Make a google search on “domain” to check the track record and what people are talking about it. Also check with internet archive website to know more about the site.
• You should check if the website has a bad neighborhood. Every result displayed is not correct, you have to understand the report in a greater form.
• What is the TLD of the site? .gov, .edu, .org are the better TLDs to buy from.
• How many back links for the site? More back links will be better for you, check for the authority back links as well.
• How many years the domain is registered from now. More number of years is always better.

Should you buy temporary or permanent link?
- You must try to buy permanent link and avoid temporary links.

Should you buy a site wide or page level link?
- Today site wide links are evaluated more but in future it will be discounted and the root page will be considered and site wide links also look spamy so avoid it.

How much to pay for a link?
- This is a tricky question and it depends on all these factors stated above. You need little experience in figuring the right price for a backlink.

Should you buy from a link vendor or from a webmaster? How to know if the seller is a vendor or not?
- It is always better to deal directly with a webmaster and in order to know the seller is a vendor or not, you need to ask him couple of questions like when a link can come live after the payment is made. If the seller owns it then he/she will reply in 2 minutes else in hours.

Keep a track of your all the links and the contacts from where you just bought. You need to crosscheck if that is still live in every 3-6 months of interval. You never know a site might get handed over to a new webmaster and due to inexperience he/she might sell links to some bad neighborhood. You need to remain vigilant and ask the webmaster to remove your link at least, it doesn’t matter what you paid for that link but it is more of a worth to take your link off else you get penalized from google.

Well, I just switched on my Canon 40D and saw this error “ERR 06: Self Cleaning Sensor Unit Malfunction. Consult with Canon Service Center” on the screen. Wait a minute, what is that I did wrong which lead me to this error. I tried to recall everything that I did in past. On Sunday I took almost 1300 pictures from Chicago Marathon 2008 and while downloading those to my laptop I didn’t follow the instructions given by Canon. Canon says whenever you use the usb cable to connect your PC/Laptop then turn off the camera before plugging-in and turn off before plugging-out. Turn the camera on only after you plug-in the usb cable. I guess I didn’t follow the instructions properly. I am not a master in photography or in using this camera. I am just a novice so committed to make mistakes here but each lesson will make me better as a photographer.

Here is a solution which I found from this forum, it is a long posting there so follow my instructions and see if it works for you.

• Turn off Canon 40D Camera.
• Remove the main battery, it is also advised by the pros from the forum to remove the time battery as well.
• Turn on the Canon camera after you remove the battery, keep it like that for 5 minutes. Try to take couple of snaps. Motive behind this is to flush all the remaining power in the camera.
• Turn off the camera and put the battery back.
• Turn on your Canon 40D and it works now.

Good luck guys! Let me know if this works for you.

You must have heard about the famous temple of India called Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams where lord Balaji is worshiped, Balaji temple in greater Chicago is just a replica of that. This temple is in suburbs, Aurora is around 40 miles away from Chicago downtown and it takes around 1 hour to get there from Chicago downtown with moderate traffic.

Official website of Sri Venkateswara Swami temple is not that well designed or user friendly but if you spend some time on the site you will find lots of information about the lord Balaji. Here is also the address of the temple in-case you need it.
1145 Sullivan Rd
Aurora, IL 60506
(630) 844-2252

What I liked about the Chicago Venkateswara Balaji temple?

• This temple is far away from the main city and at a quite place.
• This temple is build by the richest community so Prasad is free to everyone, if you reach there then you are destined to get the Prasad not like other places where you have to buy every time.
• I love south Indian food and here it is available at low price. The quality of food is really good and affordable. I love to eat my lunch or dinner when I visit this temple.

What I didn’t like about Sri Venkateswara temple Chicago?

• Once the authority of the temple asked my friend to stay out as she was not in proper dress code. I don’t know why is it so, why someone will have to be in a temple in Chicago with a salwar suit but not with a jean on. I guess the committee might have valid reasons to that but I didn’t like it. My bad, this complain was for Chicago BAPS temple not for Balaji temple. Let me know if you have something which you don’t like about Chicago Venkateswara temple.

Let me know here if you liked or disliked something about this temple.

This movie got a buzz in and around Indian community for a while; I was excited to watch it for the same reason. I knew there are couples of veteran actors in movie A Wednesday like Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah who can really make a movie blockbuster on their effort. They don’t need marketing, advertising and all those tricks followed by latest stars to make their movie a hit. I was not getting enough time to watch A Wednesday as I was packed with few of my prior commitments.

Naseeruddin Shah has given few of the quality movies that Bollywood has ever produced and you must see Iqbal, Bombay Boys, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro from his huge collection.. You can go through the list of movies by Naseeruddin Shah in IMDB website and watch few of them to know his skills.

Anupam Kher is also a veteran actor that India has ever produced. This man is simply talented and he fits into all kinds of role that is been offered to him. He gives the best out of him to the character and makes the movie justified. Here are few of his movies which I liked, Khosla Ka Ghosla!, Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara, Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, etc.

This movie has few flaws like, Anupam Kher called it a serious call from the very first one and tried to contact CM to resolve the issue, there were only 1 news channel representative till the last clip was taken even if there was broadcasting going on from UTV for last 4-5 hours. At the end this low budget movie has a remarkable script and acting is terrific. Go and watch it..

Technically speaking yes, I can lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. Now it is more important how I plan and commit it to achieve this weight loss. I know if I lose 1 Pound every week by burning more 3500 Calories more than my requirement, I will meet my goal. I always wanted to get in to the best BMI since last year when I was training for Chicago Marathon but couldn’t hold too long for being injured during my San Francisco Marathon training. Now I have a clear schedule with my current stats to consider for the goal.

Current Stats:

• Height: 5’5.5”
• Weight: 140 Pounds
• BMI: 22.9
• Waist: 28
• Love Handles: 31
• Abs: 2 packs

Goal:

• Height: 5’5.5”
• Weight: 130 Pounds
• BMI: 21.3
• Waist: 28
• Love Handles: 29
• Abs: 4 packs

Training Plan:

I personally think there are 3 most essential things to be taken care when it is something to deal with health, these are:

Food – This is very important to keep your diet in control when you are planning to reduce your weight. I will also not suggest losing your fat by only dieting; you should also workout in order to achieve your target. Here I have to burn 2300 Calories per day so I will keep my food in a range of 1300-1500 Calories so that I will burn the remaining from my existing fats. Don’t get duped with the calculation, you might be thinking about balance 800 calories multiplied with 7 days will reduce 1.6 pounds per week but in reality I am not going to workout 7 days a week and can’t keep my daily diet in 1300-1500 calories. I am taking the benefit of doubt that I might not restrict myself that much so in order to achieve the targeted weight loss I have to take fewer calories on any average day.

• Morning – I always take tea with a cookie (200-250 Calories) and a coffee later so all comes to 300-350 calories. If you are following my routine then try to have a banana or apple with a cup juice by restricting to 300-350 calories.
• Lunch – I am Indian so I love to eat rice with spicy curries so it is hard for me to restrict this below 600 calories but I guess I have to do it at any cost. I will have either a 6” sub from subway or my regular meal with reduced quantity. I always drink a lot of water which you can do as well to reduce your food intake.
• Evening – I am still having 350 to 600 calories in hand, I either take a cup of juice or a tea in evening. Either of the case this will not be more than 100-150 calories. You can do the same and keep it under 150 calories.
• Dinner – I can have my food in a range of 200 to 500 calories for my dinner, I always prefer to eat less in dinner as I don’t get enough time to burn it later in the evening. Just eat something before 1-2 hours of your sleep and restrict it to 500 calories as I am doing here.Finally I will end a day with maximum of 1500 calories and my daily requirement will be 2300. Remember I am quitting all fat foods like pizza, cheese, sweets, and snacks so you also do the same. I am also quitting beer/pops/cold drinks as that adds more calories for no valid reason.

Exercise – This will be the second most important factor in order to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks so I planed accordingly. I also consulted experts from body building forum and they said everything seems to be fine other than my diet limitation.

• Monday – Run 4 Miles, lower and side abdominal exercises for 40 minutes.
• Tuesday – Run 4 Miles, upper and side abdominal exercises for 50 minutes.
• Wednesday – Rest
• Thursday – Run 4 Miles, lower and side abdominal exercises for 40 minutes.
• Friday - Run 4 Miles, upper and side abdominal exercises for 50 minutes.
• Saturday - Run 4 Miles, lower and side abdominal exercises for 40 minutes.
• Sunday – Rest

Rest – This is also equally important as stress might get you some injuries which will just spoil your whole plan. For me this plan is in control and I need to sleep 6.5 to 7 hours a day. Here I am trying to sleep more 1 hour everyday.

Let me know here if you think I should change my plan for some reason or you have scheduled a better plan to reduce 10 pounds in 10 weeks.

I visited BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (temple) many times, this is a beautiful temple near to Chicago land and only 35 miles from Downtown. To let you know this is a Desi temple and majority of the visitors are Hindu. All the major Hindu functions are celebrated here so this is a nice place to visit on special Indian occasions.

If you like to know about Indian culture, heritage, people, practice then please visit this mandir on a special function day so that you can enjoy the day and gain some knowledge.

What I like about BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (temple)

• Free food on special occasions, how can you hate this?
• The design of this mandir is stunning, the interiors are in wood and marvel carving which I loved the most.
• I love temple that practices silence and this is the one so I like it.
• Love to see lots of Desi crowd at one place and chat with them.

What I didn’t like about the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

• The management people should speak in Hindi (national language of India) or English (international language), not in Gujurati (local language of Gujurat, India) at least.
• Still to find one more issue to add here. I found more complains now. (update: 10/16/2008)
• Girls don’t visit this temple wearing a sleeveless salwar, once the authority of this temple asked my friend to stay out because she was not in proper dress code that can be a jean and top but not a sleeveless salwar. This does surprises me.
• Married women can’t hold their husband’s hand and walk in the temple building, wow, what’s wrong in this? The guards shout when they see such things, I am shocked.

If you guys visited any great temple in North America then share with us what you liked and disliked about the place/management.

Well, everyone will have to go through this phase at least once in a life span. If not then the handling of issues and problems is totally different for you. You belong to a category where I and max people don’t land in. I have gone through this phase and figured out the ways to handle the situation when nothing seems to work.

This situation occurs typically when you land on a place where every step you take gets you more problems or doesn’t get better at all. I will clearly describe couple of steps to follow when you land in such situation.

• Sit back, take some rest, this means keep your brain off from all the problems. Best way to go for a short vacation, watch couple of comedy movies, visit your mom, get quality food by visiting the best restaurant, spend some time with kids(if you like them), spend some time at sea shore.
• Now flush your memory, forget whatever happened to you and start it all over. Think you are totally new or novice at achieving your goal.
• Make very small goals, as small like a cancer patient makes to live happily for a day. Yes, make goals as I made to run only 3 miles after my knee injury when I ran a marathon in past. If you lost everything then recall where you started and set a goal to reach your starting point.
• Keep evaluating your success and modify your goals accordingly. Have your patience intact and keep doing the things which you are needed to do.
• End of everything is to become happy on successfully completing your goals. I know these are very small in front of your achievements in the past but don’t worry and be happy as you are on the right track which leads to the same or better position where you got your setbacks.

This post I wrote targeting a friend of mine and today he is getting 30, he thinks he has done nothing in his 30 years of life and something to do now. My dear you should know people achieve in few days which are not achieved by others in years also. Good luck and get your better future, don’t wait or cry for it just go, get it.

How do I start my blog? This question was asked by my friend before couple of days, he also added this “don’t tell me various things that are associated with blogging but just describe in few steps how I get in to my first post without doing any major mistake”.

Well, it is very tough to comprehend and sink a range of things associated with blogging to one small article with few steps only. Somehow I figured out you have to follow at least these 4 steps to start your blog with wordpress.

1. Buying a top-level Domain
You need your own domain so I will suggest selecting your name as your domain with “com” as TLD. Remember we are talking here about personal blog so try to pick a domain name that is related to your name not optimized for any other keyword. If you find that is already registered by someone else then try “org” or shuffle your first and last name to finalize one.
read more…