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Hawaii whale-watching is truly a memorable experience. In this article, we will focus on whale-watching off the island of Maui. Whale-watching season starts as early as November, but the largest number of whales travel through Hawaii waters from mid-December to mid-April.

Each year during this time, approximately 1,500 to 2,000 humpback whales migrate south from their summer feeding grounds in the Arctic. Scientists estimate that this 3,000 mile swimming trip takes them from 80 to 100 days.

The whales seem to favor the calmer bays and wide bank areas between the islands of Maui, Molokai and Lanai. With their bulky heads and two blow-holes, they can often be seen cavorting in the warm waters, breaching and slapping the surface of the water. Here they mate, or bear their “calves” conceived the previous winter.

A mature humpback whale is about 45 feet in lenth and can weigh up to 80,000 pounds. Their calves weigh around 3,000 pounds at birth and feed off their mother’s high-fat milk for six to eight months, consuming 100 to 130 gallons per day.

Strangely enough, the adult whales do not eat while in Hawaii, since they are “seasonal” feeders. However, when they return to their Arctic habitat an average humpback whale will consume 4,500 to 5,000 pounds of plankton, krill (small, shrimp-like creatures), and fish per day!

On Maui, the opportunities for whale-watching from land are extensive. A good vantage point for seeing whales from land is basically anywhere you get a pretty a wide ocean view. McGregor Point, at mile marker 9, as you head from Maalaea, toward Lahaina, is a well-known whale watching place. Continuing toward Lahaina, whales can also be seen off the Olowalu Reef–between McGregor Point and the town of Olowalu.

When you head south on the Wailea coast, the Outrigger Wailea Resort provides another excellent viewing spot, with a telescope installed by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. South from Wailea, Puu Olai overlooking Makeena Beach is considered Maui’s best spot for whale-watching.

Whale watching requires patience. Scan the horizon for a cloud of spewing water that rises from 10 to 20 feet above the ocean’s surface. Watch for a good half-hour or so; whales need to breath every 7 to 20 minutes, and their spray is simply water vapor that they exhale from their blow hole. So once you locate that tell-tale spray of water, focus your eyes on the area for another one. Here binoculars are especially helpful.

But the best way to see humpback whales is out in their domain–and you can book a whale-watching cruise for that. Maui is the home of the Pacific Whale Foundation. A non-profit whale research organization, it supports its research by offering whale-watching tours.

In addition, almost every snorkel and dive-boat in the area becomes a whale-watching vessel in winter. Maui whale-watching tours leave Lahaina and Maalaea harbors daily during the winter months. In addition to humpbacks, sperm whales, pilot whales, pygmy killer whales, beaked whales, melon-headed whales and “false” killer whales can often be seen there. You can also view the whales on a rafting expedition. These excursions also leave daily from Lahaina harbor.

The whale may play a little game with you — he will poke his head just above the water’s surface to “scope out the scene.” That kind of behavior is actually called a “spy hop,” meaning it’s his way of showing off (if he feels so inclined). He’ll then leap completely out of the water. If he’s only in the mood to exchange nods, he’ll slap his tail or wave his side fins at you — that’s the humpback whale’s way of saying “Hi!”

Whales communicate underwater through mysterious “songs,” forming a perplexing series of sounds. Most whale-watching charters on Maui have a hydrophone on board, which will enable you to hear and enjoy the complex sounds of these majestic creatures.

Remember that humpback whales are protected by the Marine Mammals Protection Act, and you may come no closer than 100 yards. Even at that distance you will sense the power and beauty of these creatures, and you will come away with memories of a lifetime.

Bob Freer loves to share his experiences of travel. His current passion is Hawaii. He writes about the Hawaiian Islands on his website Hawaii-Travel-Online.com

Moving chronologically through the calendar, January and February are usually
considered off peak months, which means that if you are looking for a little less
crowded theme park experience, this is an ideal time to travel. Lines for major
attractions are short, and often non existent, and the days, although warm and
pleasant are not debilitating.

This is a popular time for seniors to travel to Florida, often to escape the winter
conditions in their home land or state. And these “snowbirds” as they are known,
have been around a while and are savvy enough to know a great vacation
opportunity when it presents itself.

Many families also take the opportunity to travel at this time of year when
accommodation costs, especially in privately rented vacation homes, tend to be at
their lowest. After all, you get all the usual luxury you would expect, but for a lot
less money, so it really makes a lot of sense.

March and April can, dependant upon the year of travel, include the Easter break.
Without exception, Easter is the most popular time to travel to Florida. Many
vacation homes will actually book out Easter and the surrounding weeks up to three
years in advance, so it is important that if you are restricted by school vacation
schedules that you don’t drag your heels. You can expect the theme parks to be
busy, but remember that these places are huge, and well equipped to handle large
crowds and keep them moving throughout the day.

May and June are often considered the respite months after the hustle and bustle of
Easter, and again you will discover the parks are less crowded, excluding the half
term UK vacation slot towards the end of May / beginning of June, which again is
very popular. Temperature wise, things really start to hot up now, as we head into
the full glory of the Floridian summer. However, June marks the official start of the
“rainy season”, which is actually a little less scary than it sounds.

At this transitional time in the meteorological calendar, weather conditions are
rapidly changing from late spring to early summer, and as a result, it is not unusual
to experience a short shower around mid afternoon. The good news however is that
these showers last on average approximately 20 minutes, before returning to the
glorious sunshine for which Florida is famed.

July and August are considered peak months in the vacation calendar, as it is the
time when most folks are granted their annual leave from work. Temperatures can
soar into the high nineties and beyond. It is a busy time for vacation home rentals
and theme parks alike, but also an excellent time to work on getting that gorgeous
bronzed tan !

September slowly begins to lead us out of the summer months and begins to
transition us in preparation for Autumn (or the fall). Temperatures begin to slide to
a luxurious 85 degrees, and the humidity levels drop off too. Once again, the theme
parks take a respite after the events of another fun packed summer period.

By October and November, the temperatures have reached a modest 70 – 80
degrees throughout the day, but you will notice a slightly cooler night time scenario.
Of course by cool, I’m not talking scarves and mittens, this is Florida after all ~ but a
lightweight jacket or sweat shirt will help to keep you comfortable on your nocturnal
travels. Again, another excellent time to visit, as theme parks are a lot less crowded,
(with the exception of the end of October ~ yet another UK half term break), and
ideal if you find the hotter temperatures a little to much to handle.

And so to December. Always a magical time in Florida and this is reflected by the
stunning array of decorations and parades in both the theme parks and in the local
communities. But here is a little known tip for those of you who always thought
travelling at Christmas way out of your league … Between 1st and 15th December
most airlines tickets and vacation homes are available at brilliant rates. The reason ?
Most families are gearing up for Christmas itself, with all that that entails, and so
this two week pre-Christmas slot tends to get overlooked ! So my advice would be
to give the family a pre-Christmas treat and snag a bargain at what is a wonderful
time of year.

Of course, as you would expect, the weeks including Christmas Day and New Years
are extremely popular, and are priced accordingly. However, you haven’t lived until
you have witnessed the New Year firework displays that Disney produces. They are
literally out of this world.

So, in conclusion, when is the best time to visit Florida ? I stand by my original
answer, and say, unreservedly, “Anytime !” Because each and every month of the
year holds something unique and special for anyone travelling to the sunshine state.
Go ahead, stick a pin in a calendar and try it out for yourself ~ I guarantee you won’t
be disappointed !

Chris Neilson is a professional writer and private Villa Owner who has an extensive
knowledge of the Florida Travel Industry. He is also the senior copywriter for the
well known Florida Vacation Rentals web site Online Florida Villas –
http://www.onlinefloridavillas.com

© Copyright Chris Neilson 2005 All Rights Reserved

Videos are a valuable instrument to expose your organisation’s products and services. For sure there are dozens & dozens of other marketing approaches from editorial writing to blogging, from PR to RSS. Although, nothing says “cool, connection, and creativity” like a commercial video.

More and more organisations of different sizes are creating professional videos about their offerings. They are not only posting them on their company websites, but They’re posting them to their blogs. To gain worldwide twenty four seven coverage, commercial videos are being published to dozens of video-sharing sites like You Tube & Google Video. And why not ? it’s economical, easy to undertake, and can have a substantial impact, in a number of cases, on the traffic it sends to your organisations website.

There are many more reasons why Web videos are a terrific way to market your firm.

Video commercials enjoy an extensive distribution: Videos by their very nature are straightforward to “package” which makes them just right to slot into an assortment of different distribution circulations. You can add them on your companies website or blog, if you want you can upload them onto your computer machine & run them again and again at a chosen business show. You can upload them to loads of Internet video-sharing websites. You can copy them onto CDs & give them away or sell them. You can even distribute them via email.

Videos are a wonderful way to advertise. As our knowledge of technology develops, so do the techniques in which firms like to interact with others. Most people are visually oriented meaning that is how they best understand and work with their world. This makes online videos the idyllic marketing strategy to talk with today’s consumers. If your are looking for a creative agency dedicated to empowering your business with high quality online video marketing, visit www.vidify.co.uk today.

These are just a few of the countless reasons why video commercials might be a wonderful way to promote your businesses services. Find out more about this topic to see how you might make use of your precious time, budget, & energy to talk to your target industry in a new and interesting way.

Can you remember when you were a kid and wearing socks and doing the reverse moonwalk on the carpet? Why would you do such a thing? Because it creates static and when you touch someone it causes a shock to the other person. It works best in the winter time when the air is really dry. Some of the things that we used to do as kids were so much fun, the laughs and giggles will never be forgotten.

Static happens most in the cold months and can make your hair stand up a bit and even stick to your clothes. It is not the most fun thing. There is a way to reduce the static in your hair and that is to use a certain type of conditioner. There is the conditioner where you massage it into your hair and scalp and then rinse it out, and then there is the kind where you leave it in. The kind where you leave it in can reduce the amount of static in your hair. There is a polymer in the leave in kind that can help keep the hair from getting a charge on it and becoming static. So next time you have a hot date and it is during a cold winter month being sure to present yourself best. You could lose weight with the Acceletrim product and get your body in the best shape possible and keep the conditioner in your hair to make sure your hair looks its best and there is no static.

Talk to anyone who’s been a part of the body building community for any length of time and they’ll tell you how much work and discipline you need to be successful.

I know. I’ve tried on more than one occasion to become the body builder you see in those muscle and fitness magazines.

My problem is my body doesn’t react well to the extreme training methods needed to achieve the results I want.

I’ve taken my fair share of Body Building Supplements over the years and they DO work! It’s that final step of eating a certain way, all the time, for a long time that I’m having resistance to.

Before my freshmen year of high school, a buddy of mine and I decided we were going to try out for the junior varsity football team.

We both had our reasons why, but I wanted to prove a point to myself that I could do it. Up to then, I was always one of the smallest guys on either the baseball field or the football gridiron.

I was a good athlete, don’t get me wrong, I just needed to add a few pounds in order to be more competitive and to keep me from getting injured.

By using a disciplined weight-lifting program and the right level of Body Building Supplements, I’ll be on my way to football notoriety in no time.

They say that there are more pink flamingoes made in plastic then there are in reality. And where does one find the plastic ones the most? Miami. Welcome to Miami. Will smith sing all the way? They say that party never ends on the Miami beaches. Being on the southern most tip of America it enjoys the maritime climate. So very fit for the other wise cold country. The golden sands on Miami beaches attract millions and you find yourself among the most number of people if you decide to go in the fall. The year was 1895 when the Americans realized that to save the travelers from the intense cold they must move to the southern tip of Florida. And thus came up the biggest state of Florida- Miami.

Known for not only its beaches, it has the biggest of the universities. The city finds its Latin roots come handy when it comes to hospitality. It has finest hotels of whole America and the best beaches too. The American holiday cannot be defined with out the Miami factor. It has reached deep in to the Hollywood and the glory runs too deep. Even the hurricane and the shark threats do not falter the tourist’s faith and no body wants to miss the chance to go to Miami, Florida. The place has wonders in store for the gourmet. The food styles expand from the continental to the seafood extravagance. The effect of the Caribbean food is too extensively seen in the menu cards. The Cuban and the Latin food are also very famous in the city. Mangoes, coconut, rice, fish, crabs and oysters all form important ingredients in the food list.

The beaches give ample space and opportunity for the sports enthusiasts. The beach volleyball events as well as the water sports are found all over the place. The clubs and small set pups provide many options for people to enjoy. The Para-sailing is also picking up at a fast pace. The water scooter is very popular among the youngsters. For the not-so-sporty types the beach is full of serene places to bask in the sunny sands. The tan is lasting and the experience is magical. Apart from these the place is known for its football, baseball, hockey and basketball teams. Major players of these teams come from the universities.

The art and culture of Miami is one of its kinds and is rich with artifacts and regional styles. Apart from these the pop culture has come in a big way for the place by the infusion of many films and television feature shootings in and around the beaches. The regional art too is picking pace and the local museums and art galleries are encouraging the locals to show their talents. These art galleries too form an important part of the Miami travel schedule. The lively nightlife of the place is just electrifying and the people enjoy their lives out on the beaches in the nighttime. Sitting around slowing fires they have the time of their lives.

Mansi gupta writes about miami travel . Learn more at www.miamiorbust.com

With the high cost of fuel and gasoline at present, it would not be very surprising to find out if people started opting to take road trips less this summer. In fact, this kind of assumption has been backed up by a recent survey which was conducted by the National Retail Federation.

According to such a study, around 37 per cent of consumers have already decided to cut back and lessen their travel plans. All these are due to the high cost of fuel that they would be spending on once they take road trips. As per other people still wanting to take that road trip, their answer to the situation would be to actually move past some of their targeted areas and locations and just go straight right to the important ones.

However, the high cost of fuel is not reason for those who are really interested in that road trip to halt all their plans of doing so. In fact, there are ways to fight back against this battle of high gas prices so that you can still enjoy that much-awaited trip.

Know How Much You Are Willing To Spend

This is very simple. You just try to do a budget on how much you are going to spend and just how much are you really willing to spend. You can go back to the latest road trip you were on as your guide as per how much you are going to spend more or less.

Do Not Forget To Plan

With the amount you are going to pay for the whole trip already on hand, this would be the right time to find alternatives on how you are going to lessen all your expenses so you can purchase more gas. Maybe you took high class hotels back then. Well, you can opt to cool inexpensive cabins or motorists hotels. The more you save on other expenses, the more you get to have longer road trips.

China is not merely a haven but a heaven for tourists. It abounds in beauty and beauties, both natural and artificial. When God was creating the earth, he seemed to be in his best and most giving mood as his hands moulded China. He poured his love into the land, filling it with natural beauty – breathtakingly eye-catching mountains in Guangxi Zhuang, the gentle Yangtze that meanders across large parts of the country, bestowing its benevolence on the land; the vast deserts in Xinjiang and wild steppes in the north. Across the country beauty imbues the land with ethereal charm.

What God did well, man tried to better. The beautiful landscape was peppered with even more beautiful buildings and architectural splendour. Smaller rivers and rivulets were linked by ornate arched stone masonry bridges. Mountains and hills were studded with pavilions and other stylistic monuments. And across the vast plains man built a giant wall like a huge necklace.

God paid attention not only to the land but also the people he intended to house there. He gave the women beautiful features and men strong bodies. Chinese women, with their gentle eyes, petite nostrils, slender necks, slim figures and creamy skin look like angels about to pirouette. Chinese men, with their strong shoulders and backs and stout muscular legs look like they can lift the burden of both home and the earth.

The beautiful women became more beautiful as they adorned themselves in the striking Qi Pao’s (for more on Qi Pao’s read ‘Fashion In China – Of Qi Pao’s and Cow’s Breasts’) and the men grew stronger as they worked hard on their fields and enterprises.

Tourists to China can only wonder in amazement at the unique beauty that is China and its people, a beauty made more beautiful by the people’s gentleness, diligence and hard work. And, while they revel in China’s natural and artificial splendours, they can travel cheap by rail, road or air and stay in well-equipped hotels for as little as a hundred to two hundred kuai a night (twelve to twenty-five US dollars). Of course, there are more expensive places to stay as well and travellers with moolah in their pockets can enjoy a more luxurious time there (for more tips on budget hotels etc look out for my future articles).

I have heard many Chinese say, ‘if there is a heaven on earth it is in Hangzhou and Suzhou,’ (two cities in the eastern province of Zhejiang) but if one were to ask me where on earth is there a heaven, I would say, ‘if there is heaven on earth, it is China’.

Rajesh Kanoi (Jack) is a published writer, now living and working in China. Many of his short-stories, poems and articles have been published, including a book of short-stories, ‘From China With Love’ (Lipstick Publishing).
http://www.writingup.com/blog/oneinabillion

http://o3.indiatimes.com/kjack/

One question which should concern all internet marketers is — What are the search engines looking for? Search engines are based on computer logic, which sees information in text or numerical form, and has a hierarchical approach to font sizes, typefaces, and repetition of words or phrases. This article will give details about search engine preferences and explain how website content can be constructed to cater to these preferences to increase ranking on Google and other search engines.

Is Your Site a Template? Google Ranks these Sites Low If your site is a template (mortgage, real estate, etc) and Google reads many sites repeated in the same format on the web, this picky search engine may kick your site from the top to the bottom of the list.

Repetition of Industry Keywords Industry specific keywords can be harvested from website statistics programs or constructed from a strategic plan to draw the right traffic to a site. For example, a realtor would want to repeat the words retirement, relocation, and purchase a second home along with a geographic location to draw long distance homebuyers to their site. By repeating industry specific keywords, a company or organization may increase site ranking in Google. Article writing on a given topic is a very effective tool for placing repetitive keyword text on a home page.

Page Title, Headline, Subhead, Bolded Text Choose your page titles very carefully and be sure that they include your most important keywords. Not only does this increase the relevance of your page to the search engines, but it also looks better in the search results. When your page title looks better in the search results more searchers will choose your page from the list of possibilities, the more searchers choose your page, the higher it will rank. Be sure to use your keywords liberally in a headline, in subheadings, in the first sentence of the page and in bolded text. This will help your page rank well, while at the same time reassuring the internet searcher that they have landed on a page that is pertinent to what they are looking for.

Graphic Name Tags and Keywords If you were designing your web pages just for the search engine spiders you would not use graphics at all, but it is necessary to strike a balance between making a page that is pleasing to look at vs. one that will satisfy the search engines. Choose images for your page that also relate to your keywords and make sure that your keywords are in your image alt tag. Make your image alt text describes what the image actually is. Look at your page with the images turned off to be sure that all of your images have accurate, useful and keyword-rich descriptions.

Link Text Link text is one of the most important ranking criteria. If you want to see how powerful link text is, try a Google search for “miserable failure”. You will find George Bush’s official bio and Michael Moore’s home page at the top of the list even though neither page contains the phrase or even one of these words!

Keywords in Menu Items and other Internal Links Internal links within a website direct users to your other pages. Keywords in menu items and other internal links are critical because search engines read them as another link. Don’t waste links on text like “Click Here” or “This Page”, use your keywords instead. Think of the link text as a vote to the search engines for what your website is about. When you vote make sure to use your keywords, if you won’t vote for your own pages then who will?

Inbound Links How many times is your website mentioned on the web? This is another way search engines rank sites. Each time your site is mentioned on the web, insert keywords to introduce the site instead of “for more information” or “click here”. Also, be aware that when inbound links are embedded on other sites, your site rises in ranking – any link will help, but a link with your keyword(s) is best. Article writing and syndication on the web ensures that inbound links to your site (contained in bios) are resident on many sites. Writing and disseminating national press releases on the web is another way to increase the number of inbound links. Links to the website are repeated in the press release.

Outbound Links Placement of links with websites of prominence is most important. This creates traffic. However, a savvy internet marketer will choose placement of links on web pages selectively, to increase company profits or an organization’s visibility. Use outbound links that help an internet surfer find even more information about your target keywords and you will increase your website’s level of authority for your keywords.

Reciprocal Links The general consensus seems to be that reciprocal links don’t really help your search engine ranking and, in fact, can actually hurt your page rank if you are not careful. Swap links with websites that are already ranked well for your keywords and/or sites that will use your keywords in their link text. This will generate quality traffic to your site even if it does not have an effect on your page rank. Don’t link to sites that have nothing to do with the subject of your keywords and especially do not link to sites that are nothing but a bunch of uncategorized links, links to these free-for-all link farms can do more harm than good.

Planting Invisible or Tiny Text Behind Home Page Uploading massive amounts of invisible keyword writing on the home page was once a favored tool of web designers. It is no longer a good idea to mask keywords on the page in any way. Search engines may be fooled at first and your site may land on top of the list for a while, but once filters are run to detect this, search engines may semi-blacklist your site or remove it from results completely. Avoid trying to trick the search engines and stick to techniques that enhance your website’s usefulness and relevance to its target audience. The rankings, the traffic and the loyalty of your visitors will follow automatically.

Welcome to our website; unless of course you’re blind, dyslexic, using a screen reader, magnification software, text-based browser, webTV, cell phone, or PDA, running Linux, Unix, BEos, Solaris, OS2 or FreeBSD, or haven’t updated your browser in the last year or so. You’re not important to us.

Is that a message you’d proudly display on your company homepage? The truth is, if you’re not using web standards, this is what you’re saying to roughly 20% of internet users.

I know you’re probably asking “what are web standards?” Well, web standards are nothing more than recommendations put forth by the w3c in an attempt to standardize the web. Standards are “best practices” for coding to ensure usability by all modern web browsers, and guarantee forward compatibility.

Often times, converting to standards compliant code requires nothing more than using CSS instead of font tags, writing properly nested HTML, and not using any browser-specific code (like < blink > or .innerHTML).

And the good news is, the w3c offers a code validator at http://validator.w3.org

Still need a reason to write standards compliant code? Lets look at some statistics.

As of June 2005 , only 72% of internet users were browsing with a current version of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Also as of June, there were 203,000,000 internet users in America. Is your IE only website is saying “I don’t want your business” to more than 54 million Americans?

Do you use IE only JavaScript or browser detection in your site, have a flash based intro page, use a popup for content, or font tags? Is your site done in FrontPage? Do you use inline frames?

If so, you’re not only refusing visitors but you’re wasting money too.

By using web standards, the typical FrontPage website can be reduced from 60k to 20k, thus only using 1/3 of your bandwidth.

Simply removing the depreciated font and center tags and switching to an external CSS file can reduce a 30k website down to 15 or 20k. Not only will this drastically increase your website’s speed, but it’ll also save you money on hosting and make your pages more attractive to search engines.

Using ECMAscript instead of the browser specific JavaScript or Jscript will not only assure your code will work in all future browsers, but it will stop you from paying developers to code IE and Netscape specific versions of your website.

What’s that, you haven’t heard of ECMAscript? Chances are your web developer hasn’t either. ECMAscript is the cross browser standard version of JavaScript; it’s been around since 1988.

You don’t see gas stations that only sell gas for Toyotas, so why do we design websites that only work in Internet Explorer?

Much of the problem stems from the fact that we tend to view the web as print. It’s not. Different users will see different things, let them; just make sure your site works in all browsers. I’ve seen a lot of pretty websites in IE that just don’t work at all in Firefox or Lynx.

Are aesthetics so important that they’re worth alienating 20% of your potential customers?