First impressions are extremely important. This rule also applies to first dates. People generally formulate an opinion about someone within the first few minutes of meeting them. Beyond appearance, one of the most important things to consider when preparing for a first date, is how you smell. Scent plays a large role in a first impression. If the cologne is overpowering or does not appeal to the other person, it may turn them off completely. A man’s cologne that is subtle, but appealing, may in fact help improve your chances of making a good impression. In addition, looking and smelling good will boost your self-confidence and allow you to be yourself on the date.

When choosing a cologne, you should find something that will reflect the mood that you are looking to create on your date. Also, it is best to try out the scent before you wear it. Due to body chemistry, some cologne may smell different on you than they do on someone else or even in the bottle. The best way to try out a new cologne is to wear it around at work, or out with friends. If it is the right cologne for you, people will notice.

A weblog (or simply blog) is a website that ‘publishes’ or features articles (which are called ‘blog posts’, ‘posts’, or ‘entries’), written by an individual or a group that make use of any or a combination of the following:

· Straight texts
· Photographs or images (photoblog)
· Video (videoblog)
· Audio files (audioblog)
· Hyperlinks

Usually presented and arranged in reverse chronological order, blogs are essentially used for the following purposes:

· Online journal or a web diary
· Content managament system
· Online publishing platform

A typical blog has the following components:

· Post date -the date and time of the blog entry

· Category - the category that the blog belongs to

· Title - the title of the blog

· Main body - the main content of the blog

· RSS and trackback - links the blog back from other sites

· Comments - commentaries that are added by readers

· Permalinks - the URL of the full article

· Other optional items - calendar, archives, blogrolls, and add-ons or plug-ins
(more…)

Referrer logging is used to allow web servers and websites to identify where people are visiting them either for promotional or security purposes. You can find out which search engine they used to find your site and whether your customer has come from a ‘linked site’. It is basically the URL of the previous webpage from which your link was followed.

By default, most hosting accounts don’t include referrer logs but may be subscribedd for an extra monthly fee. If your web host does not provide a graphic report of your log files, you can still view the referrer logs for your website by logging into the host server using free or low-cost FTP software, like these:

FTP Explorer: http://www.ftpx.com/
LogMeIn: http://secure.logmein.com/dmcq/103/support.asp
SmartFTP: http://www.smartftp.com/
FTP Voyager: http://www.ftpvoyager.com/

The log file is available on your web server which can be download into your computer later. You can use a log analysis tool, like those mentioned below, to create a graphic report from your log files so that the files are easier to understand.

Abacre Advanced Log Analyzer http://www.abacre.com/ala/
Referrer Soft http://www.softplatz.com/software/referrer/
Log Analyzer http://www.loganalyzer.net

You can view the files using Word, Word Perfect, txt or WordPad files even if you don’t have the right tool. This information is very crucial to your business and marketing plans and is not advisable to neglect it.

In addition to identifying the search engine or linked site from where your visitor arrived, referrer logs can also tell you what keywords or keyword phrases your client used for searching.

As referrer information can sometimes violate privacy, some browsers allow the user to disable the sending of referrer information. Proxy and Firewall software can also filter out referrer information, to avoid leaking the location of private websites. This can result in other problems, as some servers block parts of their site to browsers that don’t send the right referrer information, in an attempt to prevent deep linking or unauthorized use of bandwidth. Some proxy software gives the top-level address of the target site itself as the referrer, which prevents these problems and still not divulging the user’s last visited site.

Since the referrer can easily be spoofed or faked, however, it is of limited use in this regard except on a casual basis.

So now you’ve found several auto dealers in your area that have the car you are interested in. This is great because it means when you start contacting the dealers you don’t feel any pressure to buy right there. If they don’t offer a good price, you can simply contact the next dealer. This is the most important part of your negotiation tactics. Be ready to walk out of any deal!

No dealer will let you walk out of the showroom until you’ve really driven the price down. So you know that these steps will assure you get a good deal. But what about paying for the car? Do you know your credit score? Do you know how much to sell your trade for? Once again, the internet helps out a bunch here. In fact, while researching and writing this article I noticed that one of the sites I landed on actually had a great resource on understanding your credit and negotiating with car dealers. I’d suggest checking out that article as it really covers the same concepts here but in a lot more detail. It will explain how to get pre-financed, how to value your current vehicle and the proper tactics for closing the deal. I noticed the site even has a useful Legal Resources section that covers Lemon Laws, Recalls and TSB’s.

Well I hope that helps you navigate the car buying process a bit better. Trust me, the steps I outlined the past few days work, and will save you tons of money!

In the first part of this series we discussed how to quickly use search engines to generate a list of auto dealers you want to get in touch with. The next step is to do a bit of research about the vehicles themselves. In our first post we took the examples of searching for a Toyota Camry in New York or a Ford Mustang in Houston. This time, lets say you want to research a 2007 Honda Accord Coupe. Do a search for that term and you’ll probably get a page full of reviews, ratings and comparisons.

Print out the information you get, and visit sites like NADA or Edmunds to research the appropriate prices for the car you are interested in. Once you’ve educated yourself well on the car you are interested in, start doing searches combining the dealerships you found in Step 1, and cross referencing to the information you just found out. Here’s a listing we found : Frederick Dodge Honda is auto dealer in Hershey PA that has a 2007 Accord Coupe. Perfect!

Now do that 3-5 times so you have several dealers in the area that have the specific car you want. On to step 3!

Most people are scared of walking into a car dealership to buy a new car. They should be! Car dealers are very skilled negotiators, and the dealership is their home turf. But there are ways to be prepared. The auto industry is one of the many that have been transformed by the information revolution. The world wide web has really equalized the information gap that most dealers have used for decades to make a big profit. Face it, car dealers are basically a commodity. So use that to your advantage to get the best deal!

This post is the first of a 3 part series that really quickly explains how to make sure you are getting a good deal on your car. The first step is very simple and only requires a few minutes at your computer!

Simply search for the brand of car you are interested in and your location. For instance, if you live in Manhattan and are looking for a Toyota Camry, you could do a google search for New York Toyota Dealers. Or maybe you live in Texas and would like a Mustang. Just search for Houston Ford. Pretty simple right?

Once you do those searches, click on the links that come up and copy down the contact information for each dealer. Do a bunch of searches to make sure you’ve found ALL the dealers near you who might have the car you want. We’ll cover how to get ready to contact them next.