Urine Stains In Carpet - Get Them Out

First the bad news: Not all urine stains are removable. The types of damage caused vary according to the urine content. This is determined by the pet's diet, age, sex, and any medications being taken. If it is removable, the following steps may get it out.

1. Blot up the urine as soon as you discover it. Use plain white paper towels to avoid dye transfer.

2. Mix 1/4 teaspoon liquid dishwashing detergent (non-bleach and non-lanolin) in a cup of warm water. Apply this to the spot.

3. Blot up the moisture, rinse with warm water, and apply more of the detergent mixture. Rinse, and continue the process until you don't see any urine transfer to the paper towels.

4. Mix two tablespoons of ammonia in a cup of water. Apply this to the spot, blot it up, rinse with warm water, and repeat. Blot the area dry.

5. Mix one cup of white vinegar with two cups of water. Apply this to the spot, blot it up, rinse, and repeat. Rinse well when you are done, and blot the area to remove as much moisture as possible.

6. Put a stack of plain white paper towels on the spot and weigh them down with something flat and heavy (something that won't lose its color if it gets wet). Change the paper towels occasionally, until the spot is dry.

The faster you get to the spot, the more likely it is that it can be removed. When urine spots develop over time, and are not noticed right away, the dyes and carpet fibers may be permanently damaged. In beige carpet, the stains will appear red, yellow or orange. Color can sometimes be restored by treating with a solution of two tablespoons of clear, non-sudsy ammonia in a cup of water.

Getting Urine Odor Out Of Carpet

To get urine odor out, it's often necessary to remove virtually all the urine - especially in the case of cat urine. Many products simply mask the odor, and fail even at that during times of high humidity. Some pet stores and veterinary offices now have enzyme treatments that work better, and professional carpet cleaners can apply these for you if you aren't sure how to do it.

If odor persists, you may have to remove that section of carpet. You can replace it with scraps if you have saved them, or cut a piece from an area that isn't visible. Unfortunately, sometimes the padding and even a section of flooring has to be removed to totally eliminate odor from old urine stains. Try the simple steps above before you lose hope though, and good luck.

Steve Gillman has worked in the carpet cleaning industry for years. For more carpet-care information, and specific stain-by-stain removal instructions, visit http://www.HowToRemoveCarpetStains.com.

How to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Search EnginesHow to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Search Engines

By Kevin P. Richardson
Online Marketing Consultant

There's nothing more frustrating for a Web surfer than not being able to find something on the Internet. You just know that it has to be "out there" somewhere -- but where?

Put yourself in your prospects' shoes for a moment...

You're using a favorite search engine to locate information on "weight-control exercise programs." You quickly scan through the first page or two of search results and click on a link that looks promising. People rarely go beyond the second page of results.

Now if your site appeared in those first two pages and caught the Web surfer's eye -- home run! Otherwise, you've been shut out.

You see, this is really bad news if you were counting on search engines to deliver tons of visitors to your site. And it's especially disappointing for health sites, because that's how most people will arrive at your virtual doorstep.

A Harris Interactive study revealed that most of the 100 million people who seek online health information use a portal or search engine. In fact, only 24 percent go directly to a health site. Obviously we need to be doing some things proactively to help out the search engines so people can find us easily.

Rolling Out the Red Carpet for Search Engines

If you want to send your page hit counter spinning into the stratosphere, we should take a lesson in service from five-star hotels:

Anticipate the needs of guests and they'll return again and again; ignore their needs and they'll go elsewhere.

Just replace "guests" with "search engines" and you get the picture of why this is important. Search engines have unique needs. It's our task to find out what they needs and give it to them.

Master some of the search engine positioning techniques in this article, and you'll be rolling out the red carpet for search engines in no time. That should translate to increased visibility for your Web site in the search engine rankings.

Let's look at six ways to catch the attention of search engines and give them what they want and need.

1. Select Targeted Keyword Phrases

Keywords, or search terms, are the way most people will initially find your Web site out of the bazillions of pages indexed by the search engines. They represent the most important concepts, services, and topics associated with your Web site.

Your keywords actually should be "key phrases" not single words. If you enter a single-word search term in a search engine, you'll likely get about a zillion matches. Most people know this and now use two- or three-word search phrases to get better results.

So instead of searching for "exercise", they might use "muscle- building exercises."

This is important to know. Single-word keywords -- unless it's your company name -- will never bring you targeted traffic. There's just too much competition. If this is the case, then why are marketers still using them?

* Gather the Likely Suspects *

Brainstorm keyword phrases with a group of people. Ask them what words and phrases best describe your organization or Web site. Make a list and keep track of the ones that come up repeatedly.

Another place to look for search phrases is in the referrer logs on your Web server. These tell you where Web traffic came from before arriving at your site. While this will tell you what search terms people used to find your site, it doesn't tell you what terms other people used who *didn't* find your site.

A typical referrer log entry might look like this:

www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=online healthcare
marketing&btnG=Google Search

This tells us that someone used the Google search engine and entered "online healthcare marketing" to locate the Web site. So extract those terms and add them to your list of potential keyword phrases.

* Use These Online Tools for More Keywords *

To discover the frequency of searches for each term, take each of the phrases on your keyword list and use:

the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

or the 7Search related Keywords Tool
http://www.7search.com/scripts/advertiser/sample_get.asp

You'll also be given suggestions for related terms.

You want to pick keyword phrases that are unique, have a good number of searches each month in the search engines, but not so many that you'll be competing with many other sites for the same phrase. After all this you might end up with 10 to 25 keyword phrases that you'll use to optimize and promote your site.

A word of warning. You may be tempted to include keyword phrases that are frequently searched, but unrelated to the content or theme on your site. Don't do it. The search engines will get wise and kick you out of the party.

2. Write Keyword-Rich Content Pages

Keyword-rich content makes the World Wide Web go round. The search engines love it, so it's important to learn how to write it. Even if you don't put any additional effort into creating meta tags, or optimizing this or that page, you definitely should do this.

First of all, the text on your Web pages should be real content, not just a list of keywords. After all, valuable content is what the search engines and Web surfers are looking for. If you don't provide it, someone else will.

So write your text with care and incorporate your most important keywords right up front. Include a couple of key phrases at the end of the page, too, for good measure.

When you're finished, a useful tool for counting the frequency of keywords on your pages is the Keyword Counter at keywordcount.com http://www.keywordcount.com/.

The free tool has an easy-to-use interface that will analyze the keyword occurrences on any Web page address you give it. You can also enter another address at the same time, such as the URL of a competitor's site, and you'll see a comparison. Very handy.

3. Use Meta-tags in Your Source Code

Meta tags are the descriptors found in the head section of your HTML code. They provide information on the focus of your content to the search engines. Not all search engines use them anymore, but enough of them still do, so it's worthwhile to create them for each of your Web pages.

There are more than a dozen different meta tags, but only a couple are really important: the title, description, and keywords meta tags.

Meta tags are placed between the head/head tags in the HTML code for the page. If you want to take a look at the HTML code for a page in your Web browser, select View / Source.

The general format for these three meta tags is:

title Put the title of the site here /title

META name="description" content="The description of your web site"

META name="keywords" content="keywords,for the web site separated by commas"

* Stick This in Your Meta Tags *

The title of your Web page should not be "Welcome" or even the name of your company. It should be a phrase that includes the most targeted keyword phrases that you've identified.

Keep rewriting it until it's packed with keywords, makes sense when read, and is 60 - 80 characters in length. Search engines place a lot of weight on the title, so choose your title carefully.

The description meta tag provides search engines with a brief description of the Web page. Keep the description to 200 characters or fewer, and like the title, pack it with keywords.

Don't waste valuable space with fluff and hyperbole -- "ABC Company is the premier provider of widgets in the Midwest". You don't even have to mention your company name. Instead, write a powerful benefit-oriented description chock-full of keywords.

Then comes the keywords tag. Many search engines ignore this completely because some people abused it, stuffing it full of irrelevant words or repeating words over and over. But some search engines like it, so include it in your pages.

Place in this tag all of the keyword phrases that you have identified, but don't repeat the same word more than three times -- even if it's part of a phrase. Limit your total keywords to 1000 characters in length, including commas.

* Call the Meta Medic to Check Your Meta Tags *

After you've developed a Web page and incorporated your meta tags, upload it to the server and then cruise over to the Meta Medic at http://www.northernwebs.com/set/setsimjr.html .

The free Meta Medic is a combination web spider and syntax checker. It'll help you fine-tune the length and content of your meta tags for that page.

Just go to the bottom of the Meta Medic page, enter the URL into the text field, and click "Process URL." The application will generate a report on your meta tags.

4. Optimize Your Web Pages

Here are a few ways you can use your keyword phrases to optimize your Web pages and make them more attractive to search engines:

* Use keywords in the "ALT" tags of images. Search engines will read the tags and index them as hot content.

* Include keywords in hyperlinks and link text on your pages. Hyperlinks with keywords in the text or URL carry weight with the search engines.

* Place keyword-rich headlines in H1 tags instead of just using a large font size. Headlines are given greater importance than other text on the page, so keywords inside of the H1 headline tags may help out your ranking.

* Name your page files using keywords, such as "online_marketing.html" Domain names and file names containing keywords are an under-used technique for improving rankings. Directory names with keywords may not have the same effect.

* Change the amount of copy on some of your pages every month. Search engines may rank you higher or they see that your content is updated frequently and therefore "fresher".

5. Increase Link Popularity by Trading Links

Your search engine ranking is influenced by the link "popularity" of your site. The more sites that link to your pages, the greater the popularity index that your site achieves.

Don't sign up for those free for all (FFA) link pages or link farms. You'll only be on a FFA page for a couple of hours or a day, then you'll be pushed off as more pages are added.

You need quality, permanent links. Seek out and contact sites with which you'd like to create a reciprocal link. In most cases they'll gladly oblige.

Check you link popularity for certain pages on your site with some of the search engines.

On AltaVista or Google, you'd type in the search box:

link:www.mydomain.com

This will show you how many links exist pointing to that particular page on your site.

6. Use Custom Doorway Pages for Specific Keyword Phrases

Say you have a special keyword phrase that you'd really like to get more mileage from. But there's too much competition for the phrase, and according to your referrer logs it's not sending you any traffic.

You need to promote the keyword phase more effectively -- and a doorway or gateway page may be just the answer.

Doorways are highly optimized pages for a single keyword phrase. Sometimes people also optimize for a particular search engine, as well.

However doorways or gateways have been controversial, because some people abuse the use of them. In their worst form, they contain no real content, just lists of key words to deceive the search engines.

The doorway page technique that I'm referring to is a content-rich page that focuses on your special keyword.

If you think the keyword phrase "muscle-building exercises" has great potential, then you'd create a page that has 500-750 words of quality content about the topic. Make sure to include the key phrase and parts and its parts throughout the text -- between 3% and 10% of the total text is about right.

* Putting Your Doorway into Action*

You'll use all of the techniques previously discussed to optimize your doorway page and build your meta tags. Create a powerful title and page headlines filled with the keyword phrase and words from it.

Can you guess what the name of the page should be?
That's right: "muscle_building_exercises.html".

Use the online tools to check the frequency of keywords on the page. Aim for five to seven mentions of the phrase in various forms.

Then include descriptions and links to other pages of your site that have content relating to muscle-building exercises. Do you see how this is set up? Most of the links connected to this page should be going "out" into other pages of your site.

Now, create a link from another page of your site pointing *to* this doorway page. Then submit the pointer page to all of the major search engines. The search engines will spider the pointer page and follow the link to your new doorway page.

Search engines are an independent bunch. They take great pride in finding valuable sources of content on their own -- e.g. your keyword-rich doorway. In fact, they'll probably rank the page higher than if you submitted it by itself. Just a hunch.

Register Your Site the Right Way

Sure, there are services that will automatically submit your site to 500-plus search engines. However it's much better to register by hand with the engines and directories that account for most of the search volume: MSN, Altavista, Google, Yahoo, and DMOZ (the Open Directory Project). Whether you pay someone to do it, or do it yourself, it really doesn't matter.

Registration at some sites, such as AltaVista, has to be done manually. As do other sites, such as Inktomi or Overture, which are pay-for-placement. Since each search engine has its own algorithm and preferences for what it likes to see in a Web page -- and these change frequently -- keep up on the latest news by visiting Search Engine Watch at http://www.searchenginewatch.com/.

Often it takes several weeks or months for a site to appear in the listings. If you don't see your listing right away, don't just keep submitting it every week lest you anger the search engines. Have patience, and do your best to roll out the red carpet for them. After all, we need them.

Copyright (c) 2002, MedRocket, Inc.

Kevin Richardson is a healthcare marketing consultant, executive coach, and writer who provides fresh perspectives and expertise about online healthcare marketing.

Sign up for his FREE "MedRocket Ezine" newsletter and discover how to profitably attract and serve healthcare consumers online. Subscribe at: http://www.medrocket.com/

How To Ruin Good Customer Relations...In Two Easy Steps.Roger J. Burke

This article may be freely used in ezines, on websites or in e-books, as long as the by-line is left intact.

Notification of publication would be greatly appreciated, and if possible, a copy of the relevant ezine or newsletter.
Please send notification to: webmaster@online-wealth.com

I didn't make this story up, I promise you. I didn't have to, because truth is *always* better than fiction.

The other day, I was waiting in line (for once, I was first, can you believe it!) for a local store to open so that I could exchange a defective Christmas present.

As is sometimes the case, I got to talking with another fellow, also waiting patiently (have you noticed how often customers have to wait, even to *buy* something these days? But, that's another story!)

Jim (he introduced himself) and I started to exchange horror stories, of the type that *every* shopper encounters just about every day, y'know what I mean?

Seems like Jim had just come from the freeway and had turned into one of those very famous fast-food chains, on the service road.

You've seen 'em, but no need to mention names here.

Now, this was at quarter to eight in the morning, so all the shops were pretty much deserted (I live in a pretty quiet town, a ways north of Brisbane), except for this big hamburger joint. It also *looked* unattended, but had a big sign - "NOW OPEN" - up high, and stretched between two large poles placed at each end of the store - easily seen for a hundred yards or more.

Jim needed a bite to eat, so what more was needed?

He turned his car into the drive-thru and went to the order window. "We're not open" the woman replied when Jim tried to place his order.

Well, he looked at her, looked up at the big sign, and asked her to define "NOW OPEN", seeing as how she was telling him that the place wasn't. "Lookit, it's a new location here, for us, so, yeah, we're NOW OPEN for business, but not until 9AM, OK!"

(Actually, I *knew* that the place had been NOW OPEN for three weeks or more, but I didn't interrupt Jim's account).

Jim ponders that for a few moments, then asks her, "Well, y'see, me and the wife here have been travelling a ways to get here, couldn't you make an exception?" He could see inside that the staff were getting ready for the day's operations.

The manager (for that's was she was *supposed* to be) shook her head, "No, you'll have to come back later, when we're open." She shakes her emphatically, obviously trying to get Jim out of her mind. Jim looked up at the big sign again, and decided to give her another chance.

"OK, how about this - you give me a voucher for a little freebie, and I'll be back at 9AM?" Now, Jim wasn't at all sure that he'd be in the running, but thought he'd try it on, y'know. Well, the manager just shook her head like it was fit to fall off. "No way, sir, I'm afraid I can't do that, you'll just have to get back here later, like everybody else, hmmhmm!"

When Jim finished telling me this, we had a good chuckle about how people so easily ruin a good business, and all because so many take the short term view. That manager could have had a customer for life if she'd even offered Jim *personal* service at 9AM. He was prepared to return for good service, but *only* good service!

(Hey, hamburger joints are practically viral, right?)

"Heck", said Jim, "she didn't even have to throw in a freebie, but if she'd said that she would have personally attended to my wants, I would've gone back there, yessir!" He grinned, "But, now of course, I've told you about this experience - would you go there for a hamburger now?"

I didn't muddy the waters by telling Jim that I detested all hamburgers, but I did readily agree that there are so many lost opportunities in customer relations.

For starters, that burger manager didn't quite have the right information on display; the information was too easily misinterpreted or wrong. Secondly, she had a golden opportunity for a lifetime customer, when Jim persisted in trying to buy her product. And, finally, not content with *one* refusal, she *totally* deep-sixes her credibility when Jim tried - a second time - to change her mind.

Ultimately to no avail, leaving Jim shaking his head as he drove away...

Now remember, this is a *service* industry we're talking about here, where the customer is *always* right...right? Would you deal with a company that had the wrong information and the wrong attitude?

Maybe Jim *did* hit the burger stand at a bad(?) time, but it doesn't matter what time a customer fronts up: you'd better be ready to send that customer away satisfied *and* begging to come back again. If you don't, you're just wasting your time.

And, now that *you* have a website - or you're preparing one - your golden opportunities have just increased a million fold or more! You won't win all the customers, but just try to make sure that the ones you *do* win always want to come back for more.

(Oh, yeah - Jim went down the road a bit further to the competition, of course.)

Roger Burke has been involved with computers since 1967, and has managed to break quite a few, over the years. He, and his wife Sherry, are now actively engaged in online self-publishing and promoting specific affiliate programs at http://online-wealth.com . If you have any comments or questions about this article, please send emails to mailto:webmaster@online-wealth.com .
Copyright 2001, Online-Wealth. All rights reserved.

10 reasons why consumer opinion is low for carpet cleaners and other service professionals

Too many service professionals believe and rely on the common adage "50% of success is just showing up."

In fact, they seem to act that, "If half of my success is just showing up, I don't really have to do anything and will get by just fine."

You may be thinking that's totally insane! But what else could they be thinking? For, here are the 10 reasons why people distrust, hate, and avoid in-home service professionals like the bubonic plague:

REASON #1: THEY DON'T RETURN PHONE CALLS--well, hey. Maybe that's even too generous. Half the time you can't even get someone to answer the phone. You'll find that only 90% of service business don't even answer their business phone. Most rely purely on voice mail or answering machines to take your calls. And you'll be lucky if ANY of those even return your call!

Just a few weeks ago I was in need of a new lawn mowing service. I called EVERY lawn mowing service in the yellow pages. I got an answering machine for every phone number except one. On each answering machine, I left the message that I need weekly lawn service for my home and to call me to set up a time or let me know if they needed to see the place first.

Did I get a call back? NO. Not one of them called me back and it's been over two weeks.

And then, the one that I did get a "live" person--you know how that went? I called the number and got a "hello?" I thought maybe I had the wrong number. So, I asked if this was such and such business. The lady acted like she never heard of it. I double checked the phone number with her and it was the right number. I apologized and told her I was calling from the yellow pages and that they had the wrong number listed.

"Oh." She said. "He be back soon."

You've got to be kidding me. Needless to say, I didn't invite them out to my home. But any other service that would have just CALLED ME BACK would have gotten my business. That's a shame.

So, I decided to my service industry: carpet cleaning. I started down the list of 98 carpet cleaners in my area--after 20 answering machines. I just gave up.

Why should anyone put with that? And for those that do finally call you back, why should they be PAID for such rude, inconsiderate, selfish, "I-Know-You-Need-Me-So-I'll-Call-You-If-And-When-I-Feel-Like-It" attitude?

REASON #2: THEY DON'T SHOW UP ON TIME
When's the last time you had a service professional show up on time? After all, aren't you the one that re-arranged your whole schedule--had to take off work, have someone else pick up the kids from school, or whatever--just so you could have the "honor" of having them show up at your home when it's convenient for them?

After all, that's how they act. Like it's somehow a privilege for you to have their service; rather than how it should be--a privilege for THEM to be serving YOU.

But, again, I've been too generous. It's hard to even GET an exact appointment time for someone to show up on time.

Don't you just love it when you call someone for service, and they say, "O.K. We'll be there between 1-5 p.m. on Tuesday." Geez, like you have nothing to do but take a whole unpaid day off just to get your stuff taken care of?

My cable company--which happens to be the ONLY cable company in Anchorage--told me this when I needed service for a repair that was a problem with THEIR cable box in my home: "The tech will be there between 10a.m.-5p.m., so you'll need to be there when he arrives or you'll have to reschedule your appt." So, on the day appointed--I had to run to the store real quick. A 10 minute trip. I even called the cable company to let them know that I would be back in 20 min. Still, I returned home to find a tag on my door that I had missed service and to call to reschedule. I WAS TICKED!

For all the money you pay, why should you have to but up with that?

REASON #3: THEY DON'T SHOW UP AT ALL
I'm sure that exact thing has happened to you more times that you can count on your finger and toes--even if you have four sets of each.

Nothing is more aggravating than to go through all you have to just to be home for the appointment--and they never show up!!

I bet this one has happened to you like it has me. You buy new carpet. You schedule with the installer for Tuesday--sometime during the day mind you, no specific time--and he never shows up.

So you call at the end of Tuesday. After 5 tries, you finally get to him on his cell phone. "Oh," he explains. "This job took me much longer than I expected and I'll be there tomorrow for sure." No apology. No specific time for the next day.

What, are you supposed to give your two weeks notice at work just to have service done?

REASON #4: THEY SHOW UP LOOKING LIKE A 'JUST RELEASED' PRISON INMATE
Let's face it. Most women end up scheduling service appointments because they tend to take care of the stuff in the home. But the man is present at the appointment 99% of the time. Why? Because most service professionals look gnarly and untrustworthy. Women just don't feel safe being alone in their home with them.

And since so many professionals show up looking like felons, TWO people have to take off work. The woman so she can show what she wants done and make sure it gets done to her satisfaction; and the man to act as the most advanced "protection" and "anti-scam" technology.

Again, why should you have to PAY someone to look and act like that in YOUR home?

REASON #5: THEY DON'T DO A GOOD JOB
Now you can take away all your extra finger and toes and you probably can't even fill up your fingers with professionals that actually do a Good job. What about EXCELLENT work? No. We have to put up with less than good. Barely passable work.

What happened to taking pride in work? What happened to honesty and integrity? Apparently it's becoming a thing of the past.

Service Professionals do such a poor job at their work that they can't offer a guarantee of any kind. They'd go broke if they did that. They simply do a poor job, feeding on your necessity; forcing you to move on to someone else and "hope" for better next time.

REASON #6: THEY LEAVE A MESS
You know, like the painter that doesn't bring a drop cloth, gets paint on your carpet, takes your money, and leaves...

The plumber that fixes the leaky pipe in your crawl space, comes out, tracks mud and dirt on your carpet, takes your money and leaves...

The cable installer that walks with shoes on in your home, drills a hole in your wall, goes back outside to hook things up, comes back inside, leaves sheetrock and dirt on your carpet, takes your money, and leaves.

Maybe they must think their mess magically disappears or something. No. Obviously they expect you to clean up after them or they'd clean up themselves, right?

You shouldn't have to pay for a service and then clean up their mess. But it happens over and over.

REASON #7: THEY PLAY LOUD MUSIC, CUSS, AND MAKE A LOT OF NOISE
How someone can do that in your home is beyond me.

It's YOUR home, and maybe you've even got small children. But they act like your stuff is theirs or that your not even around.

Cleaners are especially guilty of this. Sure. I like to have music playing when I'm working; but what gives them the right to turn on your stereo--with or without asking--while working in your home?

They are there as a paid employee to provide a service and leave. Not to be provided with every comfort that belongs to you.

And what about your children? How dare someone use filthy language or off-color jokes that will poison the minds of the ones you so carefully molding? They should be kicked out of your home.

And, how many times have you been on YOUR phone in YOUR home but can't hear because of the worker's noise or the cleaner turning on the vacuum right next to you? Really. That's just too much.

REASON #8: THEY ARE UNPROFESSIONAL AND CAN'T COMMUNICATE
They're called "service professionals" because they're supposed to be professional. But they aren't. Maybe that's why we call them "workers"--just using the word "professional" in regards to them degrades the term.

To deserve the honor of "professional", one should be clean-cut, polite, competent, credentialed, and literate.

You may wonder if you know any "professionals" at all? Obviously most service workers don't look the part; and to add insult to injury, they can't talk it either.

They can't talk in terms you understand
They can't even repeat the concerns you express
They can't tell you what to expect from their service
They don't know the meaning of everyday words you use
You can't expect anything satisfactory from someone who can't even communicate on a rudimentary level.

REASON #9: THEY SMOKE AND SMELL OF SMOKE
If you smoke, then this probably doesn't bother you. And so it may be news to you that most of us DON'T smoke and can't stand to have it blown in our face or even smell it on your clothes.

And not only that, but those of us who DON'T smoke avoid it for our health. And breathing your 2nd hand smoke is downright UNHEALTHY--so we don't want to be around it.

Really, I personally think this should be the #1 reason why service professionals are avoided like the bubonic plague. Because tobacco smoke kills you--just not as quickly.

REASON #10: THEY USE 'BAIT AND SWITCH' SALES TACTICS
Or sleezy ones, or dis-honest ones...whatever you want to call it.

"Bait and Switch" is probably the most common one. You know. The promise of one price--even from an estimate or coupon--and then being told the price will be higher because of...whatever.

Like the carpet cleaning coupon you get for $9.95 a room. You clean 3 rooms, expecting a bill of $29.85; but you are handed one for $480.23.

"What's the deal?" you ask.

And then you get the run-around that the $9.95 a room was only for rooms under 25 square feet and only for rooms that were cleaned with the basic process. And since all your rooms were over 25 square feet, and since all your rooms required more than the basic process, your rooms were cleaned at the rate of $1.25 per square foot.

CONCLUSION:
It's a wonder at all that their is an industry for service professionals. There probably only is due to the public need for it.

But what if you were provided with a simple tool that let you avoid the service industry, you'd grab it, wouldn't you?

Well, you have the opportunity to avoid the carpet cleaning industry. You don't have to give any carpet cleaner the opportunity to pull even one of the these 10 on you when you clean your carpet yourself!

Visit http://www.cleanmyowncarpet.com right now!

Laura is an advocate for ethical services and consumer education. She teaches people how to clean their own carpet at http://www.cleanmyowncarpet.com and is available for questions at laura@cleanmyowncarpet.com

HOW TO PURCHASE A MURAL ONLINE FOR YOUR CHILDRachel Goldstein

So you are thinking of having a mural installed or painted in your child's room? What a perfect addition to your little one's room. A mural is a beautiful gift to give to any child. I have a mural in each of my 3 children's bedrooms and I can't tell you how much joy it has brought to them over the years. If you could only see the look on little kids' eyes when they see my children's rooms. There are several options open for you online. Lets take a look:

CANVAS

Canvas is my favorite option. The muralist can work off premises and paint a beautiful custom mural without ever entering your home. The best part is that the mural can be removed and saved for other children in your family or to take with you when you move. The mural can be adhered to your wall with heavy wallpaper paste, and once attached to the wall it appears as if it was painted directly on the wall surface. Here is one artist who paints on canvas:

AllKidsMurals.com - http://www.allkidsmurals.com/ - All Kids Murals specializes in custom child murals, and starting at $500 per wall, this is the cheapest around.

PAINT BY NUMBER MURALS AND KITS

There are kits available that allow you to be the artist. The detail level of a custom painted mural is not available but there are some nice designs that I think your child will love:

Wall Art - http://www.wallartdesigns.com/ - Each mural comes with a color guide and acrylic paint, so you dont have to worry about getting the colors right. You can be sure your mural will look just like the ones you see here.

Wall Nutz - http://www.wallnutz.com/ - Paint-By-Number Mural Kits and even more kid decor!

Mural Magic - http://www.dreamroomcreations.com/ - With our kits and some simple instructions you don't have to be very artistic to create a work-of-art... anyone can do it.

Mural Design - http://www.muraldesign.com/kits/index.shtml - The kit includes easy-to-use patterns which you can trace and paint onto any wall, headboard, or canvas.

WALLPAPER

Wallpaper is the most inexpensive option, but it is also the least creative. However, there are some options out there that are pretty nice. Take a look at the below sites:

USA Wallpaper - http://www.usawallpaper.com/wallcoverings.html - Their collection of wallpaper murals includes windows, boats, port holes, dolphins, dinosaurs and much more!

Wallpaper Guide - http://www.wallpaperguide.com/site/server/pages/index.asp - Mostly a collection of adult murals, but you might be able to find something for your child.

Leland's Wallpaper - http://www.lelandswallpaper.com/index.htm - They have a collection of wallpaper that when put together can look like a mural.

Internet Wallpaper Store - http://www.wallpaperstore.com/Murals.htm - A selection of over 200 murals.

MURALISTS IN YOUR AREA

If you would prefer to have a custom mural painted directly on your wall, you would be better off with a local artist. You can look for a local artist in many ways via the internet.

1. Search Engines - Search engines, especially Google.com, do a search for 'muralists NJ' or whatever state you live in. You might also try searches like - 'kids murals NJ', 'Children's murals NJ', etc.

2. Yellow Pages Online - http://yellowpages.superpages.com/ - Do a search for 'murals' and enter your state name.

3. Faux Directory - http://www.fauxdirectory.com/ - A listing of Faux artists and muralists

So how are you supposed to know which muralist is right for you and your family? As with any employer, you will want to ask a lot of questions before signing any contracts.

1. Make sure you take a look at the artists' portfolio. Do the samples match your tastes?

2. What is the price? Have you compared the price to other artists?

3. How long is is going to take the artist?

4. Does the artist have positive testimonials from other clients?

5. Does the artist provide a sketch for you before making you sign a contract?

6. What quality paint will the artist be using?

7. Does the artist seem to have a personality that is pleasant and matches you and your family?

Having a mural installed can help brighten up your child's youth. Make sure that you get your money's worth. Good luck!

Rachel is owner of AllKidsMurals.com - http://www.allkidsmurals.com -
Custom hand-painted canvas murals that you and your child will love. Your mural can be hung like wallpaper and taken down to be saved and passed down through the family.

Rachel is owner of AllKidsMurals.com - http://www.allkidsmurals.com -
Custom hand-painted canvas murals that you and your child will love. Your mural can be hung like wallpaper and taken down to be saved and passed down through the family.