Shopping is an integral part of travel. When you go on travel, you are tempted to purchase a few goodies. Purchasing small items like purses or a small handicraft is ok. However, if you plan to purchase bulky items, you need a plan to transport them back to your home. Here are some travel tips for going on a shopping spree during vacations.Shopping before proceeding on travelBefore you proceed on a travel, make a list of items you will need. It includes toiletries, clothes, bag and baggage, non-prescribed medicines, any maps and books. Make sure every thing is as light and small as possible.Shopping at your vacation destination1. While purchasing a handicraft or any other thing, ensure it is unique and you will not get the same in your city handicraft stores. If the item is available in a nearby store, there is no need to purchase it unless it is available in down to earth rates.2. For bulky items, we suggest you to shop the items and ask the merchant to parcel them to you. While purchasing the items confirm if they have a facility to parcel it from the counter itself. Also, analyze if it will be cost effective to purchase an item and get it parceled to your home. Often the international freight charges are too high. So compare the price of your purchase and the shipping cost with the cost of item in local store.3. Always purchase items through your credit card. The advantage of purchasing through a credit card is that you have a proof of purchase and if merchant does not deliver the goods in time or in perfect shape, you can dispute the charge. Consult your credit card customer service about the dispute procedure.4. Make purchases in the last phase of your vacation. It has two benefits. One, you know the money left with you and can decide the budget for your purchase. Two, you need not carry this extra piece of luggage with you everywhere you go. Remember the important thing is to enjoy the vacation and not to purchase items. Most items are available in US at a reasonable price during off-season.5. Travel tips for temporary shopping: Some items you may want to use and throw. There are many things, which are not in fashion in US. However, if you are fascinated with them, purchase, use and part away during vacations. Items like stone jewelry, straw hats, T-shirts, local dress fall in this category. They may be attractive for a while but do not have a long time use.
US Education Rankings: 9 Strategies For Raising Education Rankings Thru Increasing Education’s Value
In researching this article, I noticed stats about economics and education. Yes, we know that the higher the education we have, the more money we make. This doesn’t address the VALUE OF EDUCATION TO THE STUDENT.
Education must hold value for students, whether this be getting an education to get a high paying job, ranking first in our class, feeling the satisfaction of learning, enlightening ourselves, pleasing our families. Value is personal, and we all invest in what has value on our own terms.
When we are young, especially, we need the guidance of our mentors, including educators, family, friends, society and media, any of which can lead us well or not. If we are taught that the most important thing is to spend 15 hours a day studying, we may believe it. If we are taught that education doesn’t matter because the salary per hour of slinging crack depends upon how much time we spend out of school, we still have a good chance of realizing that this is a bad lesson. If we are given a creative array of lessons that will affect how we value education, we have a better shot at building a foundation and understanding the positive nature of education for ourselves than if we are taught rote, unrelated facts.
I recall a running debate I had with a friend about responsibility and teaching. Was it the teacher’s job to do whatever it took to impart the lesson to the student who didn’t understand it the first time along with the others, or was it the student’s responsibility to study to the ends of the earth to understand the lesson?
I was raised in a progressive, nurturing household where learning was pleasurable, and I never felt fear in asking questions, in not understanding a lesson. I just said I needed help and got it. My opposing friend in this debate was raised by foreign parents. His father (by U.S. standards) oppressed him and brought fear to his heart that shook him should he not be first in the class. In this case, it looks like environment had a lot to do with our various sides.
I believe teachers should be willing to morph their methods in such a way that the lesson is understood by each student, also creating an atmosphere where the student loves the knowledge, doesn’t fear failure and blossoms because of it. My opposing friend was sure that any student who could not understand the lesson was not trying hard enough and had on her/his shoulders the responsibility of figuring out the lesson alone. He saw this as the only mark of a true student. He also expected to be physically reprimanded.
What I see is that the best learning comes out of cooperative education and out of creative learning environments where the lesson integrates with life lessons, builds social stature and touches upon current trends.
Here are nine sample lessons that could fit into the technological and creative pace of our current world.
1. Have students make individual videos or one group video showing a segment of history. This leaves the subject matter open and stimulates the imagination. An example of this is to film an ant walking up the building, the falling of a leaf in autumn from tree to ground or some group project that is more involved. If no equipment is available, students can act out the material and record it on paper. Or call a local law firm and ask them to donate or let you borrow a video camera.
2. Take students on a photographic field trip. If there is no means for bus transportation, the field trip can be as far as around the building or on the school grounds. The theme can be about measurement, for example, if it is a math lesson. The photos would show the angles of bridges, the slope of a roof, the uprightness of a telephone pole, the angle of twigs in a bird’s nest. The photos would then be exhibited in a photo gallery where each student would get to invite parents or other meaningful adults. Inviting “others” insures there is a support system so that the event is not traumatic for students whose families don’t usually participate or do not exist. The presence of other significant adults, including other teachers, coaches, clergy, social workers, tutors, would allow for each student to be supported and for no one to feel alone. If there are no cameras available, a local camera store might be willing to provide a loan. Or Canon might participate with a loan or a gift to enhance the lives of your students who could pass on the cameras to every class in the school, if necessary.
3. Create a social issue in the classroom that requires a judge and a jury, such as trying a thief who stole to feed her/his family. Have students act out the parts of each role. Have students take turns being “innocent” and “guilty,” judge and jury. Then, take a field trip to the courthouse or local magistrate. Arrange to sit in on a session or, structure prohibiting that, have the magistrate talk about justice and our American way.
4a. Create a mock central market in the classroom where students buy and sell wares and practice their math skills. Have the money they use in this market be based upon tokens that they have earned through a Good Samaritan program in the classroom. Those who help another during the day get a token. The program develops citizenship, planning and math. Then, take the students out on a field trip and give them each a dollar that you get from petty cash or your pocket. No student money should be used. Only the dollar that you give the student. The mission: see who can bring back the most items for one dollar. Thus, we include budgeting as part of the lesson.
4b. Create a mini stock exchange in the classroom. Use large beans to buy and sell shares. Have a professional trader come to explain basic concepts.
5. Have each student write a poem that rhymes. Then call a local rock star or rap star to come in and turn the poem into a song that the whole class learns. Yes, the music teacher could lead this activity, but celebrity sells in business and education and invites the juices of creativity to flow in the classroom, instills confidence and will involve community celebrities in the betterment of education.
6a. Have a drum circle in the classroom. Call a local drummer to come in and lead. Teach three to five messages from old drum communication. Talk about communication through drumming and have each student drum one message that you have taught during this lesson. Have the others interpret the message.
6b. As a follow-up lesson, have a cell phone tech come in and talk about the method of cell tower transmission. Then talk about the differences in social communication between drumming and cell phones.
7. Have each student think up an example of how we use math in the world. Exclude being able to go buy something in a store, online or on the phone. Call a local app maker to donate an app that has the class photo and an individual photo with each student’s idea as part of an app that pulls up. Then have the app maker talk about the skills s/he had to acquire to learn app making.
8a. Pick a theme including success, education, happiness, for example. Have students create an abstract painting that represents this theme and have them present it. In-school project only, since some parents are not at home to help and some parents do the project for the student. Film the presentations as well as the creative process. Post the art on the classroom website. If there is no classroom website, call a local web person and ask if s/he will donate putting up (online) a page with the students’ presentations.
8b. Go to a local museum or research the art at the museum online and find art that represents the particular theme to each individual person.
9. Have a regular tea time once a week. This will develop unity of community. Call a local tea specialist to start you off with how to have tea and some of the history of tea. This quiet time will give the class a spirit of camaraderie while developing value for quiet reflection and experiencing its benefits.
To summarize, these ideas are samples, for different grades, different social climates. The idea is to give school value to the student, to make the lessons relevant to the life of the student, so that we increase the number of students in school and US educational rankings. How many times do we slack off on a task because it is not pleasing to us? And, yet, we slave away at another task because we like it. I remember working hard for my 6th grade teacher because one of the ways he showed he cared was by letting us get the school piano and wheel it into the classroom on Friday afternoons. Everyone sang; I got to play the piano and sing. This added value to education for everyone.
We even discussed the lyrics, which, I learned 12 years later, getting an M.A. in Music Therapy, had extreme importance in molding us. Which brings us to the next point: how do creative modules such as these fit into the present system? That is a discussion for the article titled Education 2.0: 5 Ways To Make Exceptional Lessons Of Yesterday The Educational Normal Of Today, soon to be published.
The most exhilarating part of teaching comes when the student receives the knowledge. Most of us in the profession enjoy the creativity it takes to teach, motivate and inspire. This is the skill set that builds value in the student.
Singing the education blues won’t work. Looking at charts of where we rank in the world education system can motivate but is not the answer: http://xrl.us/guardian2010educrank. We need in-road builders to make these types of lessons the norm, rather than special events. It is one thing to offer an isolated lesson such as the photography trip in number 2. above. It is quite another to build this structure into our current educational infrastructure. Onward, teachers. Now is the time.
The Small Community of Hutto, Texas
Hutto, Texas is a small community located seven miles east of Round Rock and northeast of Austin, Texas. The current population of Hutto is estimated at around 17k residents, and Hutto has been a very fast-growing city since the construction of State Highway 130, also called the Trans-Texas Corridor.
In the census of 2000, the population of Hutto was just over thousand people, but the recently built toll road has dramatically increased the population and the city is expected to continue expanding in the next few decades, as the highway nears completion.
Hutto was founded in the year 1876 when the International Great Northern Railroad passed through land owned by James Emory Hutto, for whom the city is named. Shortly thereafter, James Hutto sold fifty acres of local land to the New York Land Company for a town site. At the time, Hutto was a wealthy Williamson County landowner and cattleman, but a few years later, he relocated to Waco and entered the hardware business. At roughly the same time, numerous Swedish and German immigrants traveled to the area to begin new lives in the ranching and farming industries, which were becoming very successful in the Hutto area.
In 1915, a circus train stopped in at the Hutto train station and a hippopotamus escaped to nearby Cottonwood Creek, where it caused a commotion as local residents and railroad as well as circus employees tried to recapture the Hippo. The story caused a local legend to emerge, and eventually the Hippo became the mascot for the Hutto High School and its sports teams, as well as various other local businesses.
There are many activities in Hutto for the sports enthusiast as well as the gourmet diner, and some of the popular restaurants in Hutto include Mario’s Mexican Restaurant and El Poblanito’s, another Tex-Mex eatery. If the diner prefers a national chain, Chili’s is sure to please, and there is a popular barbecue joint called Fat Thompson’s as well.As for sports, the aptly named Hippo Stadium is home for the local Bulldogs, and there are many other sports-related facilities as well. The Hutto real estate market is also extremely affordable. It offers a much cheaper alternative than the nearby Pflugerville and Austin real estate markets.
Hutto also has a family-owned general store called Common Spirits which offers a variety of spirits and tobacco products, as well as basic amenities and grocery items at a reasonable price. The store is located on Front Street, and is a local favorite. As the city grows, there are more and more national brand stores and restaurants, but there is still plenty of local charm and family owned venues as well.
The new state toll road is expected to eventually spur the population growth to over 30k residents by 2010. The new toll road is the biggest transportation project currently underway in the entire United States, and the toll road connects the area to metropolitan Austin, and to other major thoroughfares leading to San Antonio and Houston, as well as nearby communities such as Pflugerville and Bastrop, as well as Bryan and college Station to the north.
One of the largest employers in the Hutto area is the T. Don Hutto Correctional Facility in nearby Taylor, Texas, which is just a few miles east of Hutto itself, and a family detention center that houses immigrants and their families. Hutto is also very well represented in the technology industry, with Agisca Technologies as well as Cypress Semiconductor, both of which are situated in or around Hutto.
Hutto is a very centrally located community, with access to many metropolitan areas, but a small town atmosphere and scenic rolling hillsides with parks, rivers and access to many local lakes and rivers.
Fitting Tips For Swim Wear
When buying a suit for competitive or serious swimming, the most important thing to remember is fit. Because you’ll be spending a considerable amount of time in your suit, you want to make sure you’ll be able to move comfortably without hindering your movement through the water. Here is what you should look for to achieve a good, comfortable fit.
The suit should like perfectly flat against your torso making sure there are no puckering or pulling at the seams. Also be sure there is no pulling from the straps or openings. A suit that has a higher spandex content will allow for a flat fit. You are looking for a snug fit that will accommodate a good range of body motion, but not a fit that is too tight.
Make sure you can stretch your body out without any stretching from the leg or neck openings.
The next thing you’ll want to look for is how the leg openings fit. Make sure the elastic in the openings do not dig into your legs or pucker. Move to a larger size if the leg openings are too tight.
Check the back for adequate coverage. If the suit does not provide enough coverage you may want to try a larger size or perhaps a different style.
How do the shoulder straps look and feel on your shoulders? Make sure they do not dig into the skin. A suit with wider straps may work better for you than a narrow one. Rotate your shoulders to determine if the straps will remain comfortable and in place in all arm positions. You want straps that are not too loose which can slow you down if they don’t stay securely on your shoulders as you swim.
When fitting the suit to the chest and bust area you are looking for one that will provide you with sufficient coverage. Lift your arms in front of a mirror to determine if the suit is adequate. Make sure the suit provides ample support without completely flattening the breasts.
If you are a serious swimmer and have considered purchasing a full body suit, be aware these suits can be quite pricey because of all the additional fabric used in making them. They can be great for shaving off fractions of seconds, but are probably not necessary if you are merely swimming for fitness purposes. These suits should fit snuggly against all parts of the body, but not so tight that they are uncomfortable, painful, or cuts off circulation.
Now that you’ve got the tools for correctly fitting competition suit, you are ready to go out and purchase a suit that you feel confident in!
Video As an Engaging Content Marketing Tool
If you are an Internet marketer, blogger, webmaster, and online retailer, you must be turning the Web inside out looking for a strategy to keep your website visitors a few seconds longer on your page. There are a million and one advises or suggestions you can try, but you can save yourself from much trouble by grabbing what seems to be a current trend: video content marketing strategy.
What is video content marketing?
Video content marketing makes use of the video as the heart of the content marketing strategy with the social media being used to support and promote the video content. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube and embedding videos in blog posts offer the most engaging way to share video message to the target audience.
A message that informs, entertains or is useful can foster maximized engagement, spread and conversion by using the content as the message. This can best be achieved by seamlessly integrating the message with the look, feel and flavor of the video. You know you have done well when your message is talked about in forums, discussion boards, and even mainstream media channels.
The use of videos may not really be a new idea. What is novel is the recognition that it can be a very effective vehicle of information and a powerful strategy that prompts immediate action. You have heard about YouTube ranking as the second largest search engine in the Internet and passing the 1 billion monthly users mark. This is equivalent to over 4 billion hours of video viewing each month. With these explosive statistics, it is not surprising to see how it is gaining strength as a source of content marketing.
Will online video be just another over hyped and soon-will-fade craze?
Based on current researches and surveys, it seems unlikely. For instance, consider the data from B2B Demand Generation Benchmark Survey for 2012 entitled Percentage of Marketers Using Each Content or Offer (survey compiled by Eloqua, CMO.com and Software Advice).
What makes video a crown jewel of content marketing?
Video communication is an effective strategy of reaching target market as it pools the pluses of “classic” TV advertising and the Internet’s interactivity. Powerful and compelling videos can more likely motivate viewers to buy on impulse than those who merely read text ads. In a way, it seems like it is irresistible having a “biological” or “human” factor about it. This may be attributed to the fact that videos can simultaneously affect several senses. If you want to understand the science behind web trending towards video, the explanation of Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D. in Forbes’ article Why Online Video Is Vital For Your 2013 Content Marketing Objectives says it all.
According to Dr. Weinschek, there are four major reasons why people are drawn to videos: the fusiform facial area or the face easily catches and holds attention; the voice can effectively convey rich information and meaningful content; the emotions and the body language are pleasing to watch and infectious; and movements grab attention due to the human’s innate power of peripheral motion. For online marketers looking for a way to engage their visitors, the question is: How must you leverage this 100% human connection to video? The answer lies in what innovative option you will use to make a simple, but impactful video.
If video is not a passing fancy among content creators, then how will it affect future content marketing?
In Kissmetrics’ article The Future of Content Marketing Revealed, some ways to get ahead of competing pack are emphasized. There are three major points made; the content becoming big (long blog posts, giving away of free eBooks, and offering multiple lead magnets) and two stressed the importance of visual content such as use of infographics and videos.
In ReelSEO’s 2012 Online Video Marketing Survey Report, 81% of the respondents/online marketers said they used online video in their marketing efforts. Over two thirds of them (67%) use these videos to social networking sites, and about half (52%) used video in email marketing.
Moreover, approximately 64% of these marketers indicated they intend to spend more money in the coming years intended for technologies, platforms and services allied to the use of video for business marketing programs.
There are of course other statistics that may say otherwise, but for now it seems that content marketing is going beyond text.
Where is video content now?
“Video gives us the opportunity to wow our customers and this in turn delivers results. We have tested and proven that when someone watches our video reviews they’re 120.5% more likely to buy, spend 157.2% longer on the site and spend 9.1% more per order… ” (Matt Lawson, Head of Conversion at Appliances Online).
With all these stats, YouTube’s sensational rise to fame and the cheap video technologies, how can you not use it as a marketing tool? Many think that video is still an underused marketing tool at the moment, but not so in the coming days. Those into it are starting to enjoy improved SEO rankings, site engagement and customer conversion. Maybe you just found a way for your visitors to stay little bit longer on your site.
Shopping Cart Loss and Theft – Prevent Loss at Your Store
Shopping carts are provided by a store for customer use. Customers use shopping carts as a convenient way to collect merchandise as they shop around the store. The customers collect the desired merchandise in their cart and continue to the check-out stand to pay for their goods. Once they have gone through the check out line, customers transport the paid merchandise from their shopping cart to their cars. Often times they do not bring their carts back to the appropriate destination, leaving them scattered throughout the parking lot, or even worse they are stolen! Lost shopping carts can add up to an eight to ten thousand dollar drain in your revenue each year. Lost or stolen shopping carts have become such a nuisance that over 200 cities around the United States have implemented ordinances requiring retailers to find ways to keep their carts from leaving their property. Fortunately there are a number of solutions to prevent shopping cart theft. Electronic systems such as locking wheels, the boot or brake shell, and alarm systems are effective in preventing shopping cart theft. Physical limitations such as security guards, vertical pole attachments, and magnetic strips can be effective in preventing shopping cart theft as well.
The most effective way to prevent people from stealing shopping carts is an electronic wheel locking system. This system works with a thin wire embedded below the surface of the perimeter of the stores parking lot. If the wheel is pushed beyond the perimeter it will automatically lock disabling the cart. The wheels can be unlocked by the touch of a button on a remote control.
Alternatively, the boot or braking shell is not inside the wheel but rather a covering. When the shopping cart is taken beyond the stores designated perimeter, the braking shell covers the wheel disabling it from rolling. One drawback to this method is that if any part of the boot breaks, the entire mechanism must be replaced. It is easy for dirt, snow, and other materials to get jammed in the boot and disabling it. Another downside to this method is rather than using a remote control to unlock the wheel like the electronic wheel locking system, one must bend down and unlock the boot manually in order for the cart to be of use again.
Motorized shopping carts are popular among the elderly or shoppers with disabilities. These carts tend to be extremely expensive and therefore highly desired by thieves! Losing just one motorized shopping cart can hit retailers hard financially. To prevent the loss of these assets, a wireless device attached to the back of the motorized cart preventing the cart from working when it reaches the designated invisible barrier. The cart can be reactivated with the touch of a button on the store’s remote control, or by pushing it back into the unlock field.
Another effective way to prevent shopping cart loss and theft is an alarm system. The alarm system has two components: an alarm, and a transmitter perimeter circuit that is installed at the entrances and exits of the store. The shopping cart has a warning signal and an alarm signal. Once the shopping cart crosses the warning line, the warning sound will go off. The alarm is deactivated once the cart is returned to the designated area. If the shopper chooses to ignore the warning signal and continues to cross the line, the shopping cart will sound a higher pitch and louder alarm. While this system may embarrass the customer it does not stop the cart from leaving the premises.
Security guards are people hired to protect property, assets, and people. Shoppers are less likely inclined to steal shopping carts if they know they are being watched. Security guards reduce shopping cart theft tremendously, however hiring additional personnel can become costly. In order for security guards to have a significant impact, one must be placed at each exit way of the parking lot to ensure no one leaves with a shopping cart.
A physical limitation that reduces shopping cart theft is the implementation of the vertical pole. This pole is attached to the shopping carts preventing the carts from leaving the store. The only downside to this method is the inconvenience it may have on customers who have large amounts of groceries or merchandise that they need to transport from the store to their car.
The last method to prevent shopping cart theft is the implementation of a magnetic strip embedded in the concrete of the perimeter of the shopping center. Each shopping cart has a locking device fitted to two wheels and as the cart approaches the magnetic strip, the wheels lock rendering it immovable.
Find Freelance Work With Free Classifieds Online
Are you one of the increasing number of people joining the freelance workforce? Or are in you in the position of either having been made redundant, or facing job cuts at work? If so, then free classifieds online could be one way of finding employment working for yourself.What skills do you have? What kind of service could you offer? If you have a skill that other people could use, then with a bit of help from a free classifieds online service you can build a business that will allow you the freedom of using your skills to build a business.Time is one of the scarcest resources many people have today, and so anyone with a skill that can save someone else time is likely to find themselves being hired. If you place an ad with a free classifieds online site you’ll be able to let people know what you can do for them and how by employing you, they will be able to spend less time doing what they have to do and more time doing what they want to do.For example, are you any good at gardening? Yard work is a chore for most professional people who spend far too many hours in the workplace. They want to spend their weekends relaxing with their partners and children, not tending to the yard. Place an ad that tells these people that the cost of spending time with their family over a weekend without feeling guilty about mowing the lawn is $x – you’re a freelancer, you set the rate! Don’t just think about selling your services, think about selling the idea of free time; remember that’s the commodity people are looking for.Read through the other ads in the free classifieds online site that offer similar services to the ones you’re trying to sell. How have they worded their ads? If you were in need of their services, would you be tempted to ring one of these people? Think about the services you offer. If you needed someone like you, what would attract you to a certain ad? This is the kind of wording you need to put in your own ad. If you wouldn’t hire you based on your ad, why should someone else?Keep your ad short and to the point. Take the time to think out the words that people will search for when looking for your type of service. Think about the things you can offer, not just in terms of your professional expertise, but other important things such as flexibility, customized, free quotes. Are you qualified in the area you’re seeking work? If so, make sure you state you are certified. These are all things that can set you apart from other freelancers.Free classifieds online cost you nothing but the time to focus your mind on selling yourself. Use the time wisely and make the most out of these sites, they could hold the key to your future.
How to Use and Select Stock Photography Services
There are two main types of photography to sell, that is assignment photography and Stock Photography. Assignment photography is taking photographs of a predetermined event, and stock Photography is taking photographs in the hope that you will be able to find a future buyer. Most professional photographers take both types, the weddings and portraits take care of immediate bills, as they command a higher price, because they are generally only of interest to a limited number of people. There are exceptions like being hired for a specific assignment to photograph an Olympic Event, and then being able to sell that photograph Internationally. In general, stock photographs command a lower price, but they are more saleable to a wider base.Stock photographs’ are generally sold on the Internet through what is known as “Stock Libraries”. They generally all work on a very similar system, you take photographs and submit them to a stock library and they sell them to interested parties such as travel brochure companies, advertising agents, book publishers. This way of marketing photographs has distinct advantages, if you are a part time freelancer, or have just started your own business. Either way you are probably too busy making portfolios, and taking pictures to market them. Another factor, which makes this method of marketing advantageous, is that when you are starting you do not have the network of contacts to market your photographs. Added to that there are some people who won’t or can’t perfect their marketing skills.A downside of this marketing method is that there is a little more to it than taking photographs and waiting for the Royalty cheques to come in. Most stock libraries, will want to re-caption your pictures to fit in with their image, this can be a time consuming process and it can take months to get them online. Like many aspects of selling it is a “numbers game”, the more photographs you have available to sell the more you are likely to sell. This is a fairly general aspect of marketing, but it is more specific in this instance, as prospective buyers may look at other images, if they like one particular one. Because of the time factor of getting your work to the buyers or the public, many stock libraries, have insisted on a minimum contract, which means that they typically ask to retain your work for a minimum of two years.Some of the stock libraries are general and some are more specific. Marine Themes obviously specialise in underwater photography, and they scan and correct all their images before sale. They are then color corrected to ensure that any prints will be the best quality. All this takes time, to get the images actually for sale on the Internet. The benefit is that marine photography is highly specialised, and this process does increase your chances to merchandise your work.In the past the market was limited to buyers who were sent colour brochures and made their selection from them, now the market is expanding, as many libraries have widened their sales base by allowing customer’s to make their purchases directly on line. This factor alone has increased the numbers game the more people who have access, the more who are likely to buy. Some stock libraries are general and some are highly specific such as South African images. Some cover specialist areas such as marine photography, or nature.So how do you choose the stock library that will be the most beneficial to you? There are independent reports covering the various strengths and weaknesses. The annual Freelance Photographer’s Market Handbook in the UK features a section on stock libraries and is an excellent reference guide. Some of the stock libraries have been established for ten years. They have hundreds of photographer’s and hundreds of thousands of images. As a result of this they may be reluctant to take on new clients. However if you have a large portfolio available immediately it may be worth trying one of the older companies. However you will be competing with established photographers who have built up a client base. Many of the new companies have less than a hundred photographers and you will start by being a bigger fish in a smaller pond.At the end of the day, the choice has to be your personal decision, and there is nothing to stop you from registering with more than one library. Whilst the market is growing and will continue to grow to encompass on line sales, remember to consider that sales from a printed catalogue will be important for a while, and it may be advantageous for you to choose a library with a well referenced catalogue.Every stock library has different terms and conditions. In general most give you a straight 50% of the earnings. However some do let the images go into the hands of “sub agents”, and they will expect an additional cut from any sales. Read your contract well before you sign and beware of copyright issues. Normally when the photograph is sold the buyer is issued with a license number, which only allows them to use the image the once. You minimise your royalties if you allow a buyer to pay once and then get multiple uses out of it.All in all if you are prepared to look at your market strategy over a long period of time, stock libraries offer you an option. There are forums for professional photographers that do address the issue, and it may be worth you looking into othe peoples style and work. Here are some I recommend you look into and consider selling your stock through:- PhotoStockPlus and Photo.comThere are also available a huge number of royalty free sites. You may question why buyer’s would consider paying for an image whilst they can obtain other’s free? The answer here is that royalty free photographs don’t make them free, you do purchase them, but you have the rights to re-use the stock photos and CDs for as many different projects and clients as you wish without paying further licensing fees.