Here are the goals:

You regularly send out relevant and anticipated email newsletters to your ever-growing list. You have a form on your website that asks people to sign up for your email newsletter. When someone signs up, they give you their name and email address and they receive a few automatic and customized emails that you previously crafted while they wait for their first newsletter edition. You have a database that stores each person’s email address and you have a way to send out regular emails to them all, including beautiful HTML newsletters (e-zines). You watch the list grow over time and watch readers turn into customers.

Here are the benefits:

? You are continually building a list of loyal readers that grows over time

? Your readers spread the word that your organization is helpful, knowledgeable and experienced.

? Your readers are regularly reminded of your organization’s continued existence, growth and relevance.

? Some loyal readers will turn into loyal paying customers.

? You learn more about your customers and site visitors by asking them to communicate with you through the newsletter.

? You generate a new income stream by selling advertisement space

? You’ll have a regular source of fresh and original content to add to your website which will help search engine rankings.

There are two distinct, but equally important aspects of starting an email newsletter that need to be addressed for you to accomplish the goals and gain the benefits listed above. First,

The Needed Infrastructure & Functionality for an Email Newsletter

Does getting the infrastructure sound difficult? Does it sound like you have to know a lot about programming? Neither is true. This wheel doesn’t need to be re-invented.

There are a number of websites that offer paid services that provide the entire infrastructure for you. The cost is a fraction of the cost of developing the infrastructure yourself. Two good examples of this type of service are Constant Contact and Aweber. I prefer Aweber and find its interface intuitive and easy to use. I use Aweber for our company email newsletter and suggest it to all our clients.

Using a browser I can log into my Aweber account and create text or HTML email auto-responder messages for people to receive when they visit our site or sign up for our e-zine. I can create a simple HTML form that asks for people’s name and email as well. In fact, the html code for the form is created for me and all I have to do is cut and paste it into my site. No programming needed.

Each person’s information is stored in a database on Aweber’s servers. I can manage my leads list in my browser and sort by different ways. It also allows me to see how many of my auto-responders have been sent already. And every email that we send out has a personalized first name greeting.

There is a place in Aweber where I can manage my messages, whether they are regular emails to part of the list or a newsletter that’s sent to the entire list. And there is a place where I can enter my messages, edit them, check to see if they will trip any sp@m filters, I can test the messages by sending them to my own email address first, and finally I can send them all out at once with one simple click.

The Needed Quality Content for an Email Newsletter

It?s not good enough to just have the infrastructure and functionality. You need content that makes people want to accept and read your newsletters over and over again.

Your newsletter ought to be related to your website and organization. Every person and organization has valuable and unique knowledge and experience to offer others. And you’d be surprised at how many people want your unique knowledge. Sharing this knowledge and experience with your existing and potential customers is what the Web is all about. People use the Web for getting information. So make your newsletters about various aspects of your business or organization, and make them educational, so that your readers come away with more useful information than they had before.

So if you’re a Web design firm, write about Web design in your newsletters. If you’re a small local bookstore, write about how to become an author, or how to start a local bookstore. If you’re a financial advisor, write about how people can make sound investments. If you’re a furniture builder and seller, write about how to fix up old pieces of furniture on your own.

Newsletters that are just extended advertisements don’t cut it. If your newsletter only has announcements of new or improved products or services, or specials that you’re running, then you’re missing the boat completely. There is so much more you can offer.

Creating newsletters that contain useful, relevant and anticipated information for your readers is what to aspire to. You want to give away ideas and concepts for free that can be used to help improve some aspect of your reader’s lives. You obviously don?t want to give away the whole farm since a lot of your expertise is what you charge for in the first place. But giving some information away for free is a win-win.

Most often, your readers don’t care about you or your company or your specific products or deals, they only care about what you can do for them. If they take the time to open your email newsletter and read it, it better provide them with some real value or they won’t bother again and your list will not grow, but eventually wither away into oblivion.

In return for providing useful, original content, you develop a constantly growing list of loyal readers who will spread the word that you are an authority in your field. Your readers may eventually buy from you if they haven’t already. And you can use your list to occasionally sell your products or services, but do this very sparingly. You can use the newsletter for selling advertisement space, but again, use sparingly. Finally, you can use your list to learn more about your customers and site visitors. You can ask the people on your list to fill out an online survey, but be sure to offer them an incentive for their time.

If you don’t know any programming or HTML but want to send out a regular newsletter, you can use Aweber to create text-only messages. If you want to send out professional HTML email newsletters, then either learn HTML and design (which is obviously time-consuming, but certainly possible), or hire a Web firm to do it for you. I would also suggest hiring a firm to help you with writing the content as well if you?re not comfortable with writing.

But as you can see, you don’t need much to get an email newsletter going. If you can regularly create quality content, just sign up for an online service like Aweber and away you go. An internal customer email list is a very valuable asset for any organization. Handle it with loving care. Never sell or rent your list to anyone, try to offer value in your writing, and don’t overuse it as an advertisement medium.

Good luck and happy e-zining!

Jason OConnor

Author Bio

Jason OConnor is president of Oak
Web Works, LLC, a full-service Web firm. Learn more about Aweber’s
service

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Postcards are a great tool for attaining maximum results in your direct marketing programs, and an inexpensive way of fulfilling the following business activities. Ask yourself if you are able to conduct the following actions in a way which is affordable and within your marketing budget:

* stay in touch with prospects

* put your web site URL in print

* update clients about changes to company contact info

* upsell to clients in database

* reactivate dormant clients

* thank your customers

* invite prospects to web seminar or tutorial events

* offer special discounts or a sale

To clean up your database of addresses, mail the post cards First Class mail with address service requested; these endorsements are found beneath the return address on the side which is addressed to the recipient. Visit the www.usps.com site for more info about mailing discounts and service requests for post card mailouts.

By opting for this service request, the postcards will find their way on to the recipient’s new location, and you’ll receive an update about their change of address in the meantime.

Rather than thinking in the context of one specific mail-out, consider your efforts an ongoing campaign. Don’t just measure the number of addresses you send to and the number of sales made. It’s more important to hone in on your best customers, moving them into the next phase of the purchasing cycle.

Direct marketing efforts don’t necessarily need to be expensive. Some companies

By using this form of relationship marketing, keeping in touch with leads lets you make sales which less thorough marketers are leaving unconverted on the table. This sort of effective relationship marketing requires you to nurture the relationship between yourself and your customer instead of concentrating on one single anonymous purchase. Do you understand the needs of your customer throughout the buying cycle?

Provide info to your customers during the whole purchasing cycle to make relationship marketing work for both of your benefit. As the necessary expense of marketing keeps rising, and markets continue to become more competitive, we’ll need to continually find ways to gain results without spending the entire budget, improving return on investment and winning the most valuable relationships.

Companies such as amazingmail.com, modernpostcard.com, and touchpointmail.com are great resources if you’d rather have someone else design and print your cards, rather than doing them in-house. It is often preferable to employ the skills of professionals rather than straining your own business resources trying to do something new, as often this will result in something done poorly. Postcards are an effective tool which still can fit within the parameters of a limited marketing budget. Remember, the best postcards interact with the audience by giving them a reason to respond, and asks questions in order to update information from a potential customer who opts to provide this information.

Mac H McIntosh

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This tutorial will show you a method of web template development that uses a modular approach. This allows for the creation of easily adaptable and maintainable web templates from simple ones right up to the most complicated.

A website template is a framework for a website containing the code for web pages, graphic elements and a styling template. Most people think of a template in terms of it’s visual appearance but this is really the theme.

The two main parts of a template are the content management code and the theme. These should be kept separate so that the theme can easily be changed without affecting the structure. For example, the styles should be defined in an external style sheet and not embedded in the HTML code of the pages.

The structure of a website will be defined by a set of templates. It is good practise to make the templates modular rather than having page templates containing all the code for each page. This allows site-wide changes to be easily applied. For example, the footer may be mostly identical between pages.

We might divide a page template into a header, content, sidebar and footer where these are in separate files. The content will change most between pages, so rather than having a content file, we include the content into a page file which pulls in the individual template files and defines the unique features of that page.

The unique features of a page will be the title, description and article content. We can define these at the start of the page template with say PHP code to set the value

If we directly insert the content, we will create a new page template for each page of the site. But this is fine since we are not duplicating the header, footer and sidebar.

To reduce the number of page templates, we can store our content in a database and use a page ID to identify which page content to insert. This ID is usually appended to our URLs of the website. If we do this, we are creating what is known as a Content Management System (CMS).

Where the theme is likely to be changed often or people are encouraged to design new themes, a separate directory can be created to hold the various themes. A read me file could be included to credit the designer, or this information could be added to the start of the style sheet as a comment section.

For this to work, we now need to create master page templates that pull in the templates from the current theme. The master page templates will power the site. The code that these templates use is best kept in separate files in say an includes directory.

In summary I have covered the concepts of modular website template creation from the simple to a complex CMS.

Chip Hackman

Author Bio

Chip Hackman is the webmaster of a web template site featuring mini site templates and tutorials on web development.

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By: Kenn Schroder
Over the past two months I’ve collected many website questions from various coaches and groups. Your questions and my answers are below.

Your Questions

Q: How much of a computer do I need to start? What will I need five years from now when I have a huge database, shopping cart, etc? If I am looking for a laptop, what are some of the baseline stats and options I should definitely have?

A: I’m the web guy and I’m all over the Internet. I use the baseline Dell model of about three years ago and it’s more than I’ll need for a long time. Data storage is cheap. Using any current model computer, you’ll have no issues with “computing power.” The great thing about computer technology is that it gets better and cheaper every day. Too bad cars don’t run on gigabytes!

I’d focus more on your work/life/office style while keeping things simple. Focus on a fun, productive work environment – a place where you would want to work. For example, I have a nice desk – spacious, clean, and organized for the bulk of my work. I have an old, small, empty laptop for writing and surfing when I want to get out of the house.

As for databases, your email list database would be nicely handled by a third party provider. Your client list would easily be handled by contact management software like Outlook, Act or Eudora. You probably want to focus on building your business and coaching clients while taking advantage of other services to help you.

Q: What top 5 things should I consider if I want a basic website now, and expect it to accommodate excellent growth in my business this year, next year, five years from now?

A: This naturally depends on what your goal/purpose/vision is. There’s no one right way to grow a coaching practice. So, assume you are a new coach just getting out of school. For the next year or two, you want to build a full practice of clients that you can live off full time. I’d suggest:

Make sure your website has a clear, useful purpose for your business. Make sure you fully understand how it will fit into your business and what use you hope to get out of it.

Create email capture/send functionality to keep in touch with people. This means you not only have the functionality on your website, but you should also have some strategy for interaction as well.

Make your site so compelling that every visitor/prospect will want to be part of your business in one way or another.

Make it look professional. A great lawyer in a shabby suit with holes, leaves you with a lot of doubt.

Remember your site is a work-in-progress. Let it serve some useful purpose now (back to #1) and then you can change it in the future as your needs evolve.

Q: If I am working with a graphic designer for my cards and printed materials, and I am working with a web designer for my site, how do I coordinate/share the graphics & vision so that there is continuity between my site and my printed materials?

A: What you can do is come up with the “creatives.” From the creatives, all your graphical needs such as your business cards, brochure, website, stationery, etc, will be derived. Creatives can include:

a description of what people should feel when looking at your business

several adjectives about your business

the vision of your business down the road

description of your target audience

your business mission

desired business colors

how your business differs from others

obviously the name of your business

any desired graphics, patterns, images, or shapes

Once you have your creatives, you can design a logo, design the visual aspect of your website, etc.

Q: How much of my website can I edit and change after a web designer/master sets it up? If I want to have a page or two where I can change text at my discretion, is that possible for me to do directly, or must I go through the designer?

A: Being able to update your own website is something every coach should be able to do. Your web designer will enable you to do what you need in your business, including updating pages to keep your site current.

If it isn’t worth your time to update your own site, say you have a lot of updates often, then you may want to pay a designer or hire a virtual assistant.

Q: What does it cost to build a basic website with several pages, some good graphics, an email capture & newsletter distributor, and maybe one free ebook or e-product promotion? What does it cost to make the most frequently requested changes? What are the costs to changing design or adding pages, vs. the costs for simply changing text on the existing pages?

A: The tough thing about building websites is that there are no standards to go by. I feel bad for people shopping for website help.

You can pay nothing dollar-wise but spend a lot of time, or spend a lot of $$ and little of your time. Sadly, spending a lot of $$ won’t guarantee success … in fact it’s easy to spend a lot of $$ and end up with a site that isn’t very useful. It happens often.

How do I answer this question in a useful and short way? I’m going to throw out some numbers. Hiring a professional web designer who knows your business will save you a lot of time and can put you years ahead, resulting in a good-looking site, and giving you the functional tools you need to market yourself.

Be sure that when you shop, ask a lot of questions. You want to be confident about the web designer’s: graphical skills, sense of your business and how it should be presented, and technical skills to make it all work with the least amount of headaches.

The costs will be in the range of $1500-$5000. I say this with much hesitancy because you still need to deal with the copy writing aspects of your website.

Most importantly, be sure whatever you spend, your time, your money, etc, you are confident that the website you end up with will actually help you … otherwise you will be spending much, much, much more down the road.

Q: As a new coach on a limited budget, what are the top 3 things I should think about doing with my first site?

A: Everyone is on a budget. Don’t let budget be the main factor in choosing your solution. The cheapest dollar solution will help you succeed at minimizing the cost of your website. Your website solution should be one that helps you succeed at, for many new coaches, building a full client load.

Top three things to think about:

1. Where do you want your business to be in the next year or two?

2. What do you want your website to “do” to help you get there?

3. What resources do you have to make that happen?

Q: Do web designers secure the domain name, or does the client do that alone, before hiring?

A: Either way. It’s relatively easy and inexpensive to register a domain name.

Q: Once a domain name is secured, how do you find the right place to have it hosted? What is there to know about shopping around for this?

A: Like technology, hosting is very cheap these days, ranging from a few bucks a month to $10-$20 a month. If you get into e-commerce and newsletters, you will pay more, usually tens of dollars more per month.

You will want a host that is established, reliable, and has good customer support. If your web designer isn’t handling all of the technical aspects for you, good customer support from your host is very important.

Q: If I am currently a one-woman-shop, is there any benefit to having a couple of different email addresses for my company…like for me as coach vs. technical feedback? Or, does technical feedback go to you, the web designer?

A: The complexity added by having multiple email addresses often isn’t worth the hassle. I’d suggest sticking with one, yourname@yourbiz.com.

Q: If I offer a free newsletter and have a way to capture emails, or if I offer a free info-product, will I automatically be able to get ratios of *sales* per visits to the site? Or is it just as simple as comparing number of visitors to number of *sales*? When I get data about number of hits, does this include ratios of new visitors vs. repeats, etc? How do I get this data and who provides it? Are there additional costs?

A: It’s a great idea to keep track of conversion rates that occur at your website. Stats are easy to get and can be provided in various ways. You just need to make sure you are set up with them when you are setting up your website. Be sure to ask your web designer if these stats can be attained.

Q: What should I do to help search engines choose my site?

A: There are a lot of factors that go into getting websites to the top of search engines. Some things you can do to help, and many things you won’t be able to do. The main things are to be sure your website is easy for search engines to access, has your keywords in it often, and gets links pointing to your website.

Q: How do the services work that handle capturing emails ands ending out newsletters and other marketing automated follow-ups? Where is the data stored, and is there any advantage to having that on my own computer for any reason? Are they secure so that I can be confident that they will not share the info with other people, or sell it?

A: I strongly recommend using an email list service. Two services I’ve used include Aweber and Constant Contact. You will want to use them because they are dedicated to getting your email to their destination while making it easy for you to send them out. With all the junk mail you get and the SPAM abuse to deal with, you need these kinds of resources.

The data is stored at their place, so you don’t have to worry about your data. The data gets backed up regularly too.

To answer the question of “How do they work?”- they are user-friendly, intuitive, and come with how-to guides. Essentially you capture email addresses; write a newsletter (in text or html) and click “send” to reach your audience.

Q: I hate the sites where the page is too wide to be viewed without scrolling back and forth horizontally. What do you do to ensure that even people with smaller screens (and for that matter, slower computers or connections) can easily and quickly navigate my site, never having to work hard to see what I want them to see?

A: As time goes on, the percentage of users using smaller screens decreases in favor of bigger screens. This is because unlike other things, computer-related equipment prices generally go down over time. So what I do is to design websites for screens that make up the majority. The minority, those with 15 inch monitors, will be used to horizontal scrolling.

And again, even if everyone had gigantic monitors, there’s just so much information one can absorb on a website without going bonkers. Usually bigger screen users are using bigger screens not to see more of a single website, but to have multiple applications going at once, like having email up while browsing a website and watching for instant messaging. A website built for 17 inch monitors is about where design is right now.

Q: A friend of mine just created his first website using Dreamweaver, working his way through the tutorial to learn how. His finished product is a website that, while not stunning (and I’m sure not found on Google or set up to collect email addresses or send out e-zines, etc), is presentable and gives him a basic website to send folks to. It was free except for his time (and he already had Dreamweaver), and he can now save up for a more professional site when he is financially ready.

My question: If I wanted to do the same thing, would I be able to hire someone like you down the road to add some bells and whistles (like email capture, e-zine signup, info-product sales, and maybe attractors for the Googles of the world)? Would a web designer add to what I had created, or would he have to start from scratch?

A: You can certainly add to a website. A website is like a work in progress that evolves as your business evolves. Some automated software programs or hosts that provide low cost websites may limit your ability to add these additional functions – but there’s alwaysa way to “skin the cat.”

Kenn’s Question to You: Why don’t you have a Website?

Why do you put up with a lazy website? It’s tough enough to sell an invisible service that still many people don’t understand. You should be using everything you have to get clients, and a solid website is essential.

Not sure where to start?

Overwhelmed by the web?

Think you aren’t technical enough?

Not serious about your business? (subconsciously, this is what

prospects think if you lack a good website)

If you are a coach who needs to create a client-attracting website or needs to redesign one, take some time to see if my services are right for you:

Find out more about the types of coaches I help. http://www.coachingsitesthatwork.com

Kenn Schroder

Author Bio

Kenn Schroder, professional web designer for coaches helps you build a magnetic coaching web site to attract clients. Web site design, search engine optimization (SEO), FREE report and FREE newsletter to help you build a practice-growing coaching web site. http://www.CoachingSitesThatWork.com.

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Multimedia is a very wide concept that uses various media and content for creating magic. Many things can be found in multimedia like video, audio, animation, interactive forms, static images and so on.

It gives spicy look and feel to a website adding glamour element into it especially for better online interactivity with the visitors. All concepts described above can be used in combination for making an effective multimedia presentation. The world was never the same after the invention of multimedia services. Just visualize and imagine, and see dreams turn into real images.

For highly competitive field like internet, website designers use new techniques and tools for grabbing customer attention. Multimedia service usage give a polished and hi-tech look to your website, also helps in raising the market value of your website. For this purpose you don?t require to employ a full-time multimedia professional, hire any reliable and well reputed website design company for this purpose, making it a cheaper yet effectual option. These companies take on the project for fixed duration of time and charge accordingly without wasting any time or resources.

This technology also works wonders for websites going for an image makeover, in a positive aspect of course! Multimedia presentations usually create an impression that the website owners are well-versed with technical and latest designing online tools. But use it in a balanced way with the other website elements and do no overdo it.

Businesses requiring training or imparting knowledge can

The approaches towards target customers have become more sophisticated and result-oriented with multimedia usage. They can also be used to set up organized customers? information and database.

Businesses can expect to create their corporate identity through using multimedia technologies. Things that were unimaginable a decade ago is now possible with high-end multimedia designs.

Options for its usage are many depending upon your business requirements and goal. Like online games, tutorial DVDs and CDs, corporate presentations, academic training, product demonstration, etc. Benefits of business development can be experienced through this service.

Well equipped multimedia software company does offer gamut of services like- multimedia planning, designing, development and testing. The websites using this technology must be user friendly and not take much time to load. Site should be innovative and attractive, user-friendly and easily navigable.

Copyright © 2008

Spinx Web Design

Author Bio

SPINX – Web Design Company offers services like website Design CA, Website Design Los Angeles, Website Design Beverly Hills & also across the globe.

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Play online Roulette Systems Winning, finally, the wheels hit Strategies Free. How to win Tips

MMMX-was built on a new MMM platform

MMMX – is based on a new MMM platform called MMMX that will allow you to use up to 18 steps, configurable table bets, custom bets amount, control of won/lost steps, suggest correction feature, create your own roulette system, load and play other roulette systems, real time palette modification ,roulette systems database and real money simulator.

If you want to know more about the new MMMX roulette tool then please download this short tutorial made by RUMENNNN. This short tutorial will help you to understand how works MMMX.

The new release of MMM Network is called MMMX and now it is available for all our customers.

MMMX come to help the player with the automated software that can play like a robot many roulette systems.

All you should do is to select the casino where you want to play and betting palette that represent a roulette system then click on start game button and all other things like betting will be done by MMMX.

While MMMX is making money, the player can watch and enjoy the game.

Right now, this tool is adapted for more than 80 online casinos and it works for every roulette table with starting bets from 1 cent up to 1000$.

By using MMMX you will not have only one roulette system but a lot of roulette systems and you can even write your own roulette system and even to modify an already existing roulette system.

So there are only two steps to do:

1.

2. Select a roulette system you want to play.

Related to second then there you have several options:

1. Load an already existing roulette system.

2. Write your own roulette system or modify an already exiting roulette system.

In one week our members was able to make more then 100 roulette systems so you can select the roulette system you like or to modify an existing into the other that will suit the best your needs.

You must have a look and even to try MMMX with the Real Money Simulator before you will be able to take a decision related to it!

Why to buy others roulette systems while you can buy a roulette tool that will allow you to load and play any roulette systems and even to design your own roulette system and to share it with the other.

Why to pay for a roulette system when you can get all them for free.

We sale only our roulette tool and all our roulette systems are for free.

Never pay for a roulette system and build your own with MMMX.

MMM community pay attention only to open source roulette systems and this mean you will have the whole control under the game and will know how will work your own or other members roulette systems.

For more information visit the official Money Maker Machine website!

If you have any questions at all, just click on the Contact Us link to get in touch with us. We will always reply to every email we receive.

Thank you.

matthew

Author Bio

We are a professional software developing team aiming roulette system tools for online casinos.

Company: Money Maker Machine
Address: http://www.money-maker-machine.com

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Diamond Cut: The Basics – Understanding Technology

Chapter 3

In order to understand the different measurements, tests, and evaluations that diamonds are put through, and what the results of these test mean to the diamonds visual performance, it is necessary to first have a solid grasp on the technologies and techniques used to gather this data.

There are many different tools that are used by gemologists and diamond graders to determine facts about a diamond’s properties. This section is going focus mostly on the more complex and less understood tools, and is also going to focus mostly on tools used to determine cut and light performance.

Non-Contact Scanners

The Sarin machine is the most popular device in a small group of machines called “non-contact measuring devices”. These tools are, in essence, scanners that scan the outside surface of the diamond and measure all the flat surfaces of the stone. They do this by taking many 2 dimensional images of the diamond’s silhouette, and from these images, constructing a 3 dimensional model of the diamond, complete with measurements, that is able to be manipulated by the gemologist. Basically the Sarin is able to reconstruct the diamond in a virtual world with extreme accuracy.

This is extremely useful for gaining measurements on the diamond, examining the cut of the diamond, determining angles, and more. In addition, the computer software is able to simulate light sources, thereby allowing the gemologist to subject the diamond model to different ty

Similar scanners to the Sarin are the Helium Scanner and the OGI Scanner. At Emma Parker & Co. we use the Sarin.

Reflector Devices

A simple yet critical set of tools that is used to study and critique a diamond’s cut and light performance are the “reflector devices”; the most well known of these devices is called the Ideal Scope.

The premise of these tools is quite simple; they show the light that is being reflected by the diamond in a form that is visible to the human eye. This allows a person to observe “light return” vs. “light leakage” in a diamond easily.

Having read the Emma Parker & Co. Diamond Tutorial, you should have a solid grasp of the function of the Ideal scope and other devices such as the AGSL ASET reflector. If you have not yet read the Emma Parker & Co. Diamond Tutorial, please stop here and read that in its entirety before continuing on, as it will be necessary in order to understand the upcoming chapters of this tutorial.

DiamCalc Software

The DiamCalc Software is a wonderful program that is designed to take the diamond models that are generated by a “non-contact measuring device” and put them into a visible model that can be manipulated in a plethora of conditions, angles, lighting, and so on.

It can even take the diamond models and simulate them under “reflector devices” such as the Ideal Scope, ASET, Firescope, and more. This program is able to “skin” the diamond, if you will, with a visual appearance that is very similar to the real life diamond.

One of the strongest features of this program is that it allows the user to enter different parameters for the diamond. For example, if we know that a diamond with proportion set 1 looks good, but we want to see what would happen if the table was a different size, we can change the table in the program, and see the effects of this change on the diamond, both visually, and through a reflector device. This is an incredibly powerful tool for research and demonstration.

GEMEX BrillianceScope

The BrillianceScope was designed to measure the light return/optical performance of a diamond in direct light. The technology is actually a very simple and logical design.

Have a look at Figure 3.1

Figure 3.1

This is a basic diagram of the inner workings of the GEMEX BrillianceScope. The diamond rests on a circular piece of glass.  The cover over the diamond is then closed, creating a completely white environment surrounding the diamond. (See Figure 3.2

Figure 3.2

Courtesy of GEMEX

Light, generated by a fiber-optic ring light is then projected up, through an opening in the white half-sphere, through the glass, into the top of the diamond, as illustrated in Figure 3.1.

The light moves to 5 specific sets of three individual points, stopping briefly at each of the 15 points. For each set of points, a camera, at the bottom of the machine, aiming up through the center of the ring light, triple exposes an image of the diamond, one picture at each point in the set, “laid” one on top of the other, as it were.

Once these images are captured and stored, the software breaks down each image on a pixel by pixel basis, and looks at three distinct items.

1. The amount of White Light being reflected by the stone. This will account for brightness or brilliance to the viewer’s naked eye.

2. The amount of Colored Light being reflected by the stone. This will account for the fire or rainbow colored light to the viewer’s naked eye.

3. The “movement” of light within the diamond, otherwise called Scintillation. This will be seen as sparkle to the viewer’s naked eye.

These results are then compiled, and compared against a controlled database of diamonds that have been tested on the machine, and the results of these tests form the basis for the “grading by comparison” system used by the GEMEX software. The result is a report like the one pictured below.

Figure 3.3

Courtesy of GEMEX.

The results of the GEMEX report, displayed above in Figure 3.3,  are heavily curved; i.e. meaning that from the bottom of the chart to the middle of the “HIGH” grade encompasses up to the 85th percentile of all diamonds tested, while grades from the middle of the “HIGH” mark to the end of the scale at “VERY HIGH” comprise the 86th – 100th percentile of all diamonds tested.

The GEMEX is an interesting tool, and is useful to a point for gaining a perception of how a diamond will perform in direct lighting conditions, such as direct sunlight, direct spotlighting, etc.

The GEMEX is limited by the fact that its results only apply to direct lighting, and that its “grading by comparison” system is a totally subjective grading system which, by its nature, will always be subject to any influences that affected the block of results from the control group upon which the entire basis of the grading schematic rests.

Another drawback to the GEMEX is that results can be manipulated slightly by a crafty user. Something as simple as placing a finger print smudge on the top of the diamond can cause a much higher rating on the White Light performance than the stone would have if it were totally clean. Meticulous cleaning of the diamond and the glass is absolutely necessary to ensure a proper scan. GEMEX inspects each scan before a report is issued and will reject reports that show excessive dirt or smudging, however the ease with which results can be manipulated remains a draw back in our opinion.

Having an enormous amount of experience with the GEMEX BrillianceScope, both as a selling tool and as an analysis tool, I do believe that the technology is by enlarge sound, and the results valid. I have also found that consumers place far too much importance on the report, and often find themselves crippled with “analysis paralysis” and the fear that they should be waiting for a diamond that scores “the perfect 10” on the BrillianceScope, while letting world class diamonds go by on a technicality from a subjective, computerized, “grading by comparison” system. This is foolish and should be avoided. It is important to consider all aspects of a diamonds performance when purchasing a stone. To do this, one must consider a full body of analysis, of which the BrillianceScope is an informative, albeit non-essential piece.

ISEE2

Figure 3.4

Courtesy of ISEE2 Diamonds

The ISEE2 machine is another technology that measures a diamonds Brilliance, Fire, Scintillation, and Symmetry in a controlled light setting using mainly diffused light. The inventor of the ISEE2 states that the machine subjects diamonds to 48 different lighting conditions. The ISEE2 takes 15 images a second, and analyzes these images, breaking them down to analyze White Light, Colored Light, Light Movement (Scintillation), and Optical Symmetry (the pattern cut into the stone, in this case the machine is looking for the hearts and arrows pattern that is most commonly displayed in a properly cut 57 facet, traditional pattern round diamond).

Having extensively used the ISEE2 machine for both the sale and analysis of diamonds, I can say that the results of the ISEE2 are consistent with other technologies, and are valid for consideration, provided that they are not overly weighted by a consumer in making their decision.

As with the BrillianceScope, the rating system used by the software program is proprietary and unknown to anyone other than the developer. As with the BrillianceScope, this would not normally be a reason for concern, as the results have been shown to coincide with scientifically established measurements for “ideal light performance”, save for one critical piece of information; the ISEE2 machine was developed by the manufacturer of ISEE2 Diamonds specifically for the sale and marketing of their own ISEE2 Branded Diamond, which is a 57 facet Ideal Cut Hearts and Arrows Diamond.

This fact does not invalidate the ISEE2 as a technology, nor yield its results as void, it merely casts a rebuttable shadow of doubt on a technology that has tested positively in private lab tests with both ISEE2 Diamonds and non-ISEE2 diamonds. The problem lies within the subjective “grading by comparison” standard that is employed by the software, which is proprietary, and therefore not discernable by consumers. So far, independent testing, including my own extensive use of the ISEE2 seems to show that the grading put forth by this technology is consistent and relatively accurate when compared to the current positions, in regards to cut, of the major gemological laboratories, such as GIA and AGS.

As with the Brilliance Scope, the ISEE2 is an interesting, albeit non-essential source of information that can be considered when purchasing a diamond. The most prominent danger posed by this technology is the overemphasis that is often placed by the consumer on the importance of its results.

GIA Diamond Dock

Figure 3.5

Courtesy of GIA 

The GIA Diamond Dock is a lighting source that is used to evaluate diamonds. (Figure 3.5) This lighting environment is intended to simulate true “daylight” as closely as possible. Using a combination of diffused fluorescent lighting and L.E.D. direct lighting, it is able to simulate daylight fairly accurately.

This is very useful for observation, photography, and “naked eye” light performance analysis of a diamond.

The Diamond Dock also doubles as a color grading environment.

TECHNOLOGIES THAT DO NOT PRETAIN TO “CUT GRADE ANALYSIS”

Traditional Jeweler’s Triplet Loupe

Figure 3.6

Courtesy of Kassoy.com

A traditional jewelers “triplet” loupe is a simple tool that you will find in almost any good jewelry store. This is a simple, hand-held magnifying lens that allows a viewer to inspect the diamond under magnification fairly easily and in almost any location and situation. The standard magnification for these loupes is 10x, however different loupes are available for 20x and 30x as well.

This particular kind of loupe is referred to as a “triplet” because the magnifier is actually made up of three different lenses in order to provide the highest clarity to the viewer.

At first, using a loupe can be tricky, however with a little bit of practice, it is possible to gather a vast amount of information about a diamond simply by taking a good, long look at it through a loupe.

High Power Microscope with High-Definition Camera

Figure 3.7

Courtesy of Kassoy.com

A good source of high magnification is critical to the proper analysis of any diamond. While observing a diamond through a 10x triplet loupe is good, having the ability to zoom in to 50x or 60x magnification allows a jeweler to learn much more about a diamond and its imperfections, as well as its cut. In addition, having the ability to share this information with a customer is vital to ensuring that the customer feels confident in the diamond they are looking to purchase.

At Emma Parker & Co., we use the microscope pictured above. It is a 50x magnification microscope, with glass lenses produced by the company Leica, a leader in the optical glass industry. The microscope also has a high definition camera mounted on it, through which images of inclusions can be taken, and live video of the magnified diamond can be streamed.

The pictures taken by this microscope allow customers to see, in remarkable detail, the characteristics of the diamond magnified. See examples below…

Figure 3.8

The red arrows point to the “grading inclusions” in the diamond. These are the imperfections that contributed towards the diamonds clarity grade, as given by the grading laboratory, such as GIA or AGS.

At Emma Parker & Co., we point out these inclusions with red arrows in a picture taken under the microscope so our customers can easily locate the incusions in their diamonds.

Colorimeter

Figure 3.9

Courtesy of Kassoy.com

In today’s advanced technological market, advanced and accurate tools have emerged for determining the color of a diamond. The tools, called “colorimeters” have advanced to such a point that they are quite accurate and sophisticated. These are fantastically costly machines, and are not used by everyone in the industry.

Like many of our fellow colleagues, we here at Emma Parker & Co. prefer the old fashion way of color grading, the way that GIA and AGS still use to grade diamonds, a white tray, a color grading light, and set of master stones.

We feel that some things are better left to the human eye and trained observation.

Written by Timothy Andre, Emma Parker & Co.     www.emmaparkerdiamonds.com

Timothy Andre

Author Bio

I am a person who is passionate about diamonds…I suppose that is why they are my profession. I am also a non-practicing lawyer, which makes for an interesting combination. As the President of Emma Parker & Co. I get to help people through the wonderful and joyous process of selecting gifts for people that they love. I absolutely love what I do, and would never, by choice, do anything else.

Personally, I love to ski, play baseball, and spend time with my family.

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Wow.. I paid almost $400 dollars for this software program for windows, and I’m not complaining really. It’s certainly packed with features for creating and designing dynamic websites, but unless you are already experienced with Microsoft’s programming language or Php/Mysql, or the previous Dreamweaver versions, you are going to be riding a very high learning curve. Plan on buying some tutorial books!

That said, Adobe’s version CS3 of the Dreamweaver software is impressive. Unfortunately, the script is still more about asp than php (although it’s php support is better), and you still have to install some local version of php on your computer to program dynamic scripts. If you’ve owned the previous versions of Dreamweaver, this isn’t a surprize though, and it’s just another thing to add to your learning curve if you haven’t used Dreamweaver before.

For those that have never used Dreamweaver, it’s a complete Windows software for creating, designing and redesigning websites from start to finish. You can create asp, html, css javascript & Php pages (along with database connections), flash, XML and it includes many tools for the design work, which you can do on your computer as a complete website, and then upload to yours or your client’s host.

You can see examples of the frontend and what it can do at the adobe site.

I bought CS3 right before they released CS4, so it looks like I’ll have to pony up an additional $199.00 to upgrade from CS3. This is probably my biggest grip

So, I guess what this review comes down to is that if you aren’t a top Internet Web site programmer/designer making tons of money, you could probably do just as well with a less expensive program to create, design your own websites.

If you are interested or have the experience in creating complete dynamic websites for hire, then you probably won’t go wrong purchasing Adobe’s latest version of Dreamweaver.

I give this software a thumbs up for professional web programmers, but caution beginners to look elsewhere for a less expensive tool for working on web pages.

Author Bio

You can see more honest software and script reviews for the masses at Mr. Reviewer Or check out the best article publishing script for php & Mysql at Article Friendly Submitted By ArticleUnited.com

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If you work in the areas of product and system designs, you apply your considerable creativity and training to the research, response, solutions, and sustainability of your design ideas. You never know when great ideas will come to you, and when it comes to documenting your new designs, you need a flexible system that can keep up with whatever ideas you conceive. Microsoft Visio, a superior drawing software application, can be customized to meet the specific requirements of all your new product and system designs for every stage of the design process.

The first step in the design process is to conduct research. You will not only need to research the unique and specific parameters of the problem you need to solve, but also think outside the box for all the solution options that will best meet your needs. Once the research is completed, you will devote your attention to your response to the research. There are several disparate aspects of design that must be taken into consideration, including the business and technical factors, in order to conclude with the best solution to meet your company’s needs. The visio drawing tools and visio templates

perfectly suited for this environment.

At this point you will come up with a working model of your solution, and put it through a battery of tests and get feedback. This critical information is used to make modifications to improve the product, and to determine how sustainable the product will be over time.

This is a lot to ask of one software platform, but Microsoft Visio does not d

Visio’s flexibility will soon become apparent as you begin working on design solutions. You will create your drawings on a Visio template, using Visio stencils that contain Visio shapes. You can modify both the templates and the shapes to best reflect the information you wish to communicate. Appropriate diagrams are crucial throughout the design process. You need a clear way to communicate every step in your design and processes you are using, and you will have to communicate it to important individuals that find it difficult to understand the complex and technical aspects of your product and system design. Visio diagrams provide the necessary medium to help you share your ideas quickly and easily.

You can visualize the trends displayed in testing data readily. Data in Excel, Powerpoint, and Project applications, among others, can be used in conjunction with Visio to create customized visual representations and comparisons of the data, making many evaluations quick as a glance.

Jonathon Blocker is a visio developer who has a mastery of the skills required of an expert visio programmer. visio software is his area of expertise and he writes detailed articles on the visio drawing application. Providing fresh insight into learning, he demonstrates the wide array of tools included within the visio software package.

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By: Vibegraphic
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Logo Design Tools & best logo design software:- Construction of

a logo depends on the creative ability and designing sense of the skilled personals. They are none other than graphic and web

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Thanks

VibeGraphics

Vibegraphic

Author Bio

Logo Design Tools & best logo design software:- Construction of

a logo depends on the creative ability and designing sense of the skilled personals. They are none other than graphic and web

designers as well as developers who have the ability to utilize all the aspects of designing in a proper way and create

something which proves to be beneficial for the company and would be able to fulfill all the advertising needs of the

co

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