Women Blog

This is my week two using Unique Article Wizard in my home office to submit unique articles to my new niche sites and I’m rather pleased with the results. One thing for sure, my backlinks are increasing for my niche sites and my traffic is showing improvement too. Also, my home office has a couple of new gadgets on my home office table.

Finally, I have a new MSI wind netbook to aid in my lightweight traveling and DH got me a 20″ LCD monitor so that I can work better in the home office. With my new netbook, I can lead my new article writing software and write content for my niche sites at quicker speeds. Some people think that you need to be a superb writer to start niche sites and profit in internet marketing. But seriously, how many of us can write superbly or with lightning speed? With my new article writing software, I can research references relevant to my niche, organize them and get new articles or content quickly and efficiently. This is one good investment I had made for my home office business or rather my online business. Even friends of mine who left their finance jobs have found this article writing software powerful and useful. For a monthly subscription of $27, I think it is cheaper than sending writing projects to elancers. Did I mention that you only need to pay $7 for the first month to try out this fabulous instant article writing software?

A little investment is necessary to get your online business going, even if it’s just working in your home office. Always ask yourself how much is your time worth and you will find that the little investment that increases your productivity is well worth it.

A large new study provides evidence that longer exposure to the body’s own hormones may protect women from Parkinson’s disease. The study was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 61st Annual Meeting in Seattle, April 25 to May 2, 2009.

The study found that women who have more years of fertile lifespan (number of years from first menstruation to menopause) had a lower risk of developing the disease than women with fewer years of fertile lifespan. The fertile lifespan is a marker for the body’s own sex hormone levels. In addition, women with four or more pregnancies were at greater risk of developing the disease than women with fewer pregnancies. Separately, the risk of Parkinson’s disease was increased in women who had hysterectomies and had also previously taken hormone replacement therapy compared to those who never took hormone therapy, but it was not increased in women who took the hormones but had not had hysterectomies.

“These findings suggest that longer duration of exposure to the body’s own (endogenous) hormones may help protect the brain cells that are affected by Parkinson’s disease. Further investigation is necessary to explain why women with four or more pregnancies are at increased risk compared with those with fewer pregnancies. This study does not support a role for treatment with hormone therapy in Parkinson’s, but there are still many unanswered questions,” said study author Rachel Saunders-Pullman, MD, MPH, MS, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY, and Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, NY, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, researchers analyzed the records of the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study to determine who developed Parkinson’s disease. The study involved about 74,000 women who underwent natural menopause and about 7,800 women who underwent surgical menopause.

Among women with natural menopause, those who had a fertile lifespan of more than 39 years, which is a time associated with higher levels of the body’s own sex hormones, had about a 25-percent lower risk of developing the disease than women with a fertile lifespan shorter than 33 years. Researchers also looked at the number of pregnancies, and women who had four or more pregnancies were about 20 percent more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than women who had three or fewer pregnancies.

Women who had menopause from surgery had almost twice the risk of developing the disease if they had previously taken hormone therapy and stopped than if they had never taken hormone therapy. Taking hormones did not have any effect on Parkinson’s risk for women who had natural menopause.

Because Parkinson’s disease is more common in men than in women, researchers have long hypothesized about the role of hormones in the disease.

The study was supported by the Thomas Hartman Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the National Institutes of Health.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 21,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as multiple sclerosis, restless legs syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, narcolepsy, and stroke.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit www.aan.com.

The AAN 61st Annual Meeting, the world’s largest gathering of neurology professionals, takes place April 25 to May 2, 2009, in Seattle.

Visit www.aan.com/am for more information.

American Idol Contestant Teams up with SendOutCards.com to Raise Money for Struggling Single Parents

Megan Joy, the 23 year-old Utah native turned American Idol sensation, is already proving herself to be an on-stage favorite this season. But for many, it’s her recent off-stage performance that is truly winning over America’s heart. Known initially for her powerful, Amy Winehouse-like jazzy vocals, it was when Megan’s strong single-mother status began to gain media attention that she found a creative way to help others in her situation - she turned her incoming fan-mail into non-profit, cash donations for struggling single-parents like herself.

Megan recently began receiving hundreds of support cards from members of Utah based SendOutCards.com, a company she and her family have been closely involved with for years. Touched by such an overwhelming response, Megan shortly found herself on the phone with the group helping to spearhead a fundraising effort for single parent programs like the national non-profit, Parents Without Partners Inc.

Taking the company mantra literally, “Changing Lives One Card at a Time,” SendOutCards has rallied their network of more than 60,000 card senders to participate in the fundraising activity. Set up under the non-profit ‘SOC Gives’ division of the company, senders are now able to donate on a one-time or weekly basis for as long as they choose.

“When we started working with Megan, you could see this was an issue she felt strongly about,” says Kody Bateman, founder and CEO of SendOutCards. “She has so much on her plate right now, but her dedication to do what she can while still in the contest continues to inspire us. We were blown away last week when she told us she was still researching non-profits to find where the money might be used best.”

Megan will find out after tonight’s performance whether she’ll be moving on to the next round, but says despite the outcome she plans to continue her outreach. Through the help of Megan, the kindness of strangers, and support from the more than 60,000 people across the SendOutCards network, the group hopes to make a positive impact on as many people they can.

Source: SendOutCards.com

As genetic tests become more affordable and advanced, consumers have access to personalized medical information that can help them manage their health and make good choices for prevention and treatment. But not all genetic tests are created equal.

For consumers purchasing a genetic test that provides any type of health risk assessment or medical diagnosis, the non-profit American Clinical Laboratory Association and its educational campaign “Results for Life,” suggests that consumers ask themselves the six questions below:

1. Is the test done in a medical lab certified under CLIA?

This is the law, called the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, which requires medical laboratories to meet standards for quality, accuracy, safety and validity of the tests they perform.

2. Is a genetic counselor, physician or other knowledgeable health professional available to assist you in selecting tests and interpreting results?

Does your 0.5% chance of getting esophageal cancer at some point in your life, for example, mean anything, or is it irrelevant? A knowledgeable health care provider should be available to assist you in deciding which tests are appropriate and understanding the test results.

3. Do the claims seem hard to believe?

Genetic testing is a remarkable science — but it isn’t a guarantee that you will, for example, find the ideal mate or achieve perfect health. If the claim seems too good to be true, it probably is.

4. Are other products, such as nutritional supplements, being sold along with the test?

If they are, caution. That could be a sign that the company’s profit — not your health — is the real concern. Genetic tests should provide information. They should be viewed with caution when they are an adjunct to marketing nutritional supplements or other products.

5. Are you willing to be “an informed” consumer — that is, take the time to understand what genetic testing tells you?

Genetic testing includes a broad array of tests, and the science is advancing so fast that new tests seem to be developed daily. They will change the future of health care — with better disease detection and personalized therapy. But you need to be informed about what they are, what they do, what they don’t do, and what you need to know to make informed decisions. Just as you judge carefully in purchasing houses or cars or shampoo, you need to understand what genetic testing is and how to use it.

6. Does the provider of the service offer adequate assurances that your genetic information will be kept private and secure?

Depending on who is offering the service, the purpose for which the information is sought and the manner in which the provider conducts its business, State and Federal privacy and security laws may be applicable. You should be satisfied with the level of protection offered for your genetic information before requesting the service.

The American Clinical Laboratory Association is a non-profit group representing the nation’s clinical reference laboratories. The group’s educational campaign, Results for Life, reflects a collaboration of laboratory professionals, clinical labs, and lab test makers. It is focused on communicating the value of laboratory medicine. Visit www.labresultsforlife.org.

If you are a work at home mom who is serious about making your online business work, read on…

All internet marketers can tell you that whether you are marketing a product, selling an affiliate program or conducting any kind of marketing campaign, the one crucial thing you need is TRAFFIC. After a few coaching sessions with my internet marketing coach, I’m still asking the same question: How to drive more traffic to my niche sites?

So, what is the easiest, most reliable, and cheapest way to get traffic to your website? (Want the quick answer? CLICK HERE).

While my internet marketing coach can offer me lots of advice and tips, I’m still left to do the necessary to bring the traffic in. I must admit that I’m very thankful to be a work at home mom because it does take time and efforts to bring in the traffic. While many internet marketers are jumping onto the bandwagon of social bookmarking and social networking, there are still many other ways to drive traffic to your online business.

Besides the old school of article submission and directory submission, there are other costly ways to build links. Some work at home moms may be thinking: How many articles can I write a day? Or “I can’t write a 300+ words article for nuts!” And even if you can, you can’t be submitting your one article to all the directories out there and getting enough backlinks for your niche sites.

If that’s you, then you should check out this useful unique article submission program I have been using the last couple of weeks. I have to admit that I can’t explain very well in full details how fantastic this unique article submission program is, so I would invite you to CLICK here to find out more. The program has helped me to submit my unique article to hundreds of websites including article directories and this has helped me to be a more productive work at home mom!

Well, the truth is this. Whether you are a Seattle injury lawyer wanting more business or a work at home mom trying to market some affiliate products, your business success is dependent on bringing the right target audience to your business. And in simple terms, traffic is the name of the game.

What is the easiest, most reliable, and cheapest way to get traffic to your website? Want the quick answer? CLICK HERE.

A new action plan to make fashion more sustainable and less environmentally damaging was launched today at the start of London Fashion Week, by Defra Minister Lord Hunt.

The Sustainable Clothing Roadmap has brought together over 300 organisations, from high street retailers, to designers and textile manufacturers to battle the environmental impacts of ‘throw away fashion’. Companies and some of the biggest names in fashion have signed up to take actions to make a significant difference to the environmental footprint and social inequalities which blight some of the production and retail processes of consumer fashion.

While having many economic benefits, clothing has a significant environmental and ethical impact ranging from increased carbon emissions, waste, water usage and pollution to child labour and unfair trading conditions. The clothing and textiles sector in the UK alone produces around 3.1 million tonnes of CO2, 2 million tonnes of waste and 70 million tonnes of waste water per year - with 1.5 million tonnes of unwanted clothing ultimately ending up in landfill.

Lord Philip Hunt, Minister for Sustainability said:”This action plan represents a concerted effort from the fashion industry, including top names in the high street and manufacturers to change the face  of fashion. “Retailers have a big role to play in ensuring fashion is sustainable. We should all be able to walk into a shop and feel that the clothes we buy have been produced without damaging the environment or using poor labour practices, and that we will be able to reuse and recycle them when we no longer want them.  “I’m delighted that so many fashion companies have signed up to the sustainable clothing action plan and I look forward to seeing these actions come to fruition.”

Action takers for the roadmap will be concentrating on the following key areas:
1. Improving environmental performance across the supply chain, including: sustainable design; fibres and fabrics; maximising reuse, recycling and end of life management; and clothes cleaning.
2. Awareness, media, education and networks for the sustainability of clothes.
3. Promoting markets for sustainable clothing.
4. Improving traceability along the supply chain (environmental, ethical, and trade).

Actions that retailers are taking include:

• Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury - all of these have signed up to a range of actions on increasing their ranges of Fair Trade and Organic, increasing take back and recovery of unwanted clothing and supporting fibres/fabrics that enable clothing recycling.

• In addition M&S and Tesco are supporting green clothing factories, improving animal welfare across their supply chain and increasing consumer awareness on washing at 30 degrees centigrade.

• Tesco - are extending their traceability programme across cotton supply chains to ban cotton from countries known to use child labour as well as carbon labelling of Tesco laundry detergents.

• Nike - applying their Considered Design ethos to improving the sustainability performance and innovation of all their product ranges

• Adili and Continental Clothing - Continental Clothing have measured and reduced the carbon footprint of their clothing products. They are now working with sustainable online retailer Adili to promote carbon labelling to consumers.

• T Shirt and Sons - already using organic cotton to manufacture their T Shirts, T Shirt and Sons are now developing the first Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified system for eco printing on Organic cotton.

• Association of Charity Shops, Oxfam, Salvation Army Trading and Textile Recycling Association - increasing consumer awareness on the environmental benefits of clothing reuse as well as increasing clothing recovery infrastructure in the UK. They will open more “sustainable clothing” boutiques of high quality second-hand clothing and new sustainably designed garments.

• Fair Trade Foundation UK - will increase the volume of Fairtrade cotton products to be in at least 10 per cent of cotton clothing in the UK by 2012.

• Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion - setting up this centre to provide practical business supports to the clothing sector on sustainability and fashion.

Source: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Mouth cancer (also called oral cancer) is a malignant growth which can occur in any part of the mouth including the lips and tongue. Mouth cancers often appear as a painless mouth ulcer that does not heal normally or, less often, as a red or white patch in the mouth. Dental Authorities seek to encourage people to understand their level of risk for the disease and to advise dentists to be vigilant in their examination procedures.

Anyone can be affected by mouth cancer, whether they have their own teeth or not. Smoking, or chewing tobacco (or betel quid/paan/gutkha), greatly increases your chances of getting mouth cancer. Heavy drinking is also a risk. If you do both, your chances of getting mouth cancer are much greater. This cancer is more common in men than women and more likely to occur in people aged over 40 years. Experts today, however, are concerned about rising numbers of this cancer in younger age groups.

In the UK, the numbers of new cases have risen by nearly 30 per cent over the last ten years. About 5,000 people get cancer of the mouth each year and the disease kills one person every five hours. Treated in its early stages, mouth cancer is curable but it if not detected early, it kills around one in two sufferers. A dentist is trained and in the best position to examine for early signs of this disease.

The routine dental examination procedure is quick, simple, completely painless and requires no injection. The dentist carefully examines the inside of the mouth with the help of a small mirror. Remember, the dentist is able to see parts of your mouth that you cannot see easily yourself.

Many UK dental practices now offer a mouth cancer screening service which aims to increase your awareness of your own level of risk for the disease and to help you reduce that risk by changing your lifestyle habits.

In addition to this awareness counselling and regular comprehensive head, neck and mouth examination procedures, dental practices can now offer patients an extended test using a new mouth cancer screening system which highlights any abnormal area of the mouth, identifying areas of potential risk even before they become visible. The latest system is called ViziLite Plus which is used extensively in the USA as an aid to early detection and has recently been introduced to the UK.

If you drink heavily, smoke or use tobacco in any form, you may be at risk. You are advised to contact your dentist, doctor or pharmacist if you have any concerns. If in doubt - get checked out.

For more information visit http://www.mouthcancer.org

Source: Scope Dental Professional Relations

New Clothing Bridges the Racial Divides Among Women and Aids Single Mothers

Jackie Christie, multi-talented, fashion designer, author and model, is set to release her new clothing line, ‘Colored Girl’, on May 9, 2009, just before her third book debuts “Proud to Be a Colored Girl”. The approach of this double launch and much anticipated clothing line is to instill the feelings of self worth, beauty and equality in all women.

Jackie’s line will launch first with designer eco friendly 100% organic cotton t-shirts and accessories, and later followed by a hip relaxed and fun denim collection. Her line will be available initially on-line and in stores located in Seattle WA, Los Angeles CA, and Atlanta GA. This limited release is done by design to ensure that women will come together more to get my pieces if my clothes are not widely available at first, Jackie comments.

Christie’s line will be competitive with other designers such as Free People and Ed Hardy and environmentally conscious.

“I design with my heart and emotions, whatever I am feeling. I start there and I move with the vibe, not against it,” says Jackie Christie.

The motivation behind ‘Colored Girl’ clothing is to instill a strong sense of pride, self love and equality in women, of all ages. The age old stereotype, is that colored stands for just African American women but in actuality every nationality of women the world over; has a color to their skin, no matter what that color is, a colored girl can be someone viewed as beautiful, I want to remove the stigma.

The proceeds from her clothing line as well as her new book will serve to support single mothers and impoverished families all over the world, through her and her husband NBA star Doug Christie’s infinite love foundation. As well as, to benefit the literacy programs in Seattle Washington.

“There are so many causes I’m involved with my true mission in life is to lend support to the underprivileged, and suffering. To try to bring about positive change in not just the world, but also the environment. To be honest it is very difficult to narrow it down to just one cause,” expresses Jackie Christie.

More information on Jackie’s upcoming events for her clothing line/book can be found at www.jackiechristie.com

Jackie Christie, a multi talented Seattle Washington native, designer and author of two very popular books, heads the successful record label, Jean Rah Fya Records, home to some of the hottest new talent in the business. The label’s roster includes new teen sensation Chani as well as R&B heart throb Bobby Tinsley, and the dynamic teen singing group Small Change, to name a few.

I can’t tell you how much I look forward to the weekends again. The thing about being a work at home mom is that you tend to slip into your home office and read emails, do some work instead of taking a total break. I admit that this is not what I like to do.

Working from home is great but it is important to strike a balance and take time off for the children and family on the weekends. This has been a very busy week for me. I’ve been creating new niche sites, building backlinks for my new niche sites and checking out a few other internet business software. Like I said before, the schedule of a work at home mom is always full!

I still managed to take time off once a week to attend my pilates fitness class and soon, I’ll be starting my swimming class. I am excited!

This week, I’ll be building another niche site with the Revolution themes I bought and working on more link building for my home business. There are also some official duties for the home office like getting a toll free number, signing up for an article generation site, write more articles for my niche sites and doing more internet marketing research.

If you are a work at home mom who are searching for great wordpress themes for your niche sites, take a look at the professional themes by Brian Gardner. I bought the all-themes package and can’t tell you how much I enjoy working with the themes. (Click here to view more details) Plus, the support and tutorials have been fantastic and they are accessible once you bought any one of the professional wordpress themes.

So get going and start building your home business!

First Ladies and Royalty from Seven Nations Collaborate on the Global Problems of Missing and Sexually Exploited Children

Her Excellency Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of the Arab Republic of Egypt and President of the Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement (SMWIPM) in partnership with the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) convened an historic child protection conference today in Cairo. The theme of the conference was “Crossing Borders to Protect the Children of the World.”

The conference coincided with the first meeting of the Honorary Board of ICMEC to be scheduled in the Middle East and Africa region. The meeting of the Honorary Board and the child protection conference were both hosted in Cairo by H.E. Mrs. Mubarak.

Honorary Board members attending the conference included:

• H.E. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of the Arab Republic of Egypt
• Her Majesty, The Queen of the Belgians
• Her Royal Highness, Princess Lalla Meryem of the Kingdom of Morocco
• Her Highness, Shaikha Sabeeka Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Wife of the King of Bahrain
• Mrs. Margarida Sousa Uva Barroso, Wife of the President of the European Commission
• Mrs. Bernadette Chirac, Former First Lady of the French Republic
• The Honorable Valentina Matvienko, Governor of Saint Petersburg

H.E. Mrs. Mubarak convened the Honorary Board in Cairo, saying “the problem of abused and exploited children has remained in the shadows for too long. This issue is a global phenomenon. If not attended to, it may reach epidemic proportions.”

Approximately two hundred child protection officials attended the conference which focused three issues: Cyber Safety and the global epidemic of child pornography on the internet; Effective Legislation against Child Pornography and ongoing efforts to adopt legislation around the world to prevent the exploitation of children; and Cooperation and Respect between Legal Systems and the need to work in a collaborative manner to develop jurisdictional approaches to protect children on a global basis.

Baron Daniel Cardon de Lichtbuer, Chairman of the ICMEC Board of Directors, said, “our challenge is not just to increase awareness and persuade individual governments to act, if we are to truly be successful, we must launch a global movement.”

The conference culminated with the Honorary Board members releasing a Cairo Declaration urging global leaders and leading international business organizations and technology leaders to take immediate steps in six areas:

• Enact new and improved legislation and review existing laws periodically to ensure effective redress of any form of exploitation of children.
• Join with ICMEC in a global movement to protect children, including expanding efforts to build new national and regional centers around the world to better address the problems of child abduction and exploitation.
• Explore bilateral and multilateral approaches to resolving family disputes, including mediation, in order to ensure that the children are not the victims.
• Make eradication of child exploitation a top priority.
• Join together in a global campaign to build greater awareness and to stimulate concerted action to protect the world’s children.
• Develop new tools and technologies to protect children and to redouble efforts to ensure that technology is not used as tool to exploit and victimize children.

Ernie Allen, ICMEC’s President & CEO, said, “Crossing Borders to Protect Children is the perfect theme for this historic meeting. No person, no nation, no organization can do independently what all people, all nations and all organizations must do together.”

This was the third meeting of the ICMEC Honorary Board. Former First Lady Bernadette Chirac hosted the previous meeting in 2007 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. At that meeting the board was described by “Le Figaro” as the “G-8 for Children.” The first meeting of the Honorary Board was hosted by Her Majesty Queen Paola of Belgium in 2004.

The Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement is a non-profit, non-governmental international association whose principal goal is to advocate and work towards peace and human security, and empower women and youth to participate as key influencers, change agents and active partners in peace processes. For more information, visit www.womenforpeaceinternational.org

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization. It is the leading agency working on a global basis to combat child abduction and exploitation. It is the sister organization of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. For more information, visit www.ICMEC.org.

Source: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children