Thursday, August 15, 2013

St Louis Interior Design Specialist Ginger Huff Shares 5 DIY Tips!



As the summer starts to wind down, do you want to give your living room a much-needed makeover without breaking the bank? Here are five easy and innovative ways you can remodel your living space on a budget—or free.

1. Clear the clutter. This seems obvious, but having a clean space will make you feel better while giving your living room a lift. Picking up the living room will immediately make your space more comfortable, elegant, and relaxing. If you are not sure where to start, begin with cleaning off coffee tables, counters, or end tables. If the project is too overwhelming to do at once, clean in fifteen-minute increments. Use an alarm or a timer. Enlist a friend or family member to assist. If you need a bigger incentive, schedule a gathering at your home.

2. Crown your living room walls with crown moulding  Crown moulding is a cost-effective and easy way to add elegance, glamour, and value to your living room. You can do-it-yourself or have crown moulding installed at a reasonable price. You can choose from a variety of different styles and widths to accentuate your space.

3. Decorate with pillows. Pillows are cheap, fun, and simple ways to quickly accentuate your furniture and brighten your room. If you are crafty, you can make your own pillows available in various sizes. You can find inspiration on Pinterest or from craft books. You can also take photographs of favorite people, places, or pets and have them made into pillows. If you prefer to purchase pillows than do it yourself, you can check your favorite brick-and-mortar or online stores for coupons, discounts, and sales.

4. Re-paint the living room. One of the easiest and most dramatic ways to make over your living room is to pull out the brushes and apply two coats of fresh paint. If you are unsure what color to use, whites or neutrals are safe. You can always change your mind because it is only paint! You can always paint over the color. Whites will make a room appear larger; neutrals such as beige will add warmth to a room. As with shopping for pillows, check your favorite stores for sales on paint. If you have questions, visit a chain or local paint store. There are specialists who are there to help you choose the right color.

5. Whiten your living room. Not only will white open up your living room and you’re your living space appear larger; it will also give your room a clean and crisp look. You can add slipcovers to your couches; add white accessories, hang white curtains; and paint your chairs and tables white. The trick to making your room serene rather than stark is not to have the same type of fabric for everything. Ordering custom designed drapes is one cost effective way to liven up a space. Mix up the fabrics and textures.


If you are new at home decorating, or if it has been a long time since you have remodeled, these five tips will help you transform your living room into an amazing space! If you are looking for something a little more extravagant St Louis interior design expert Ginger Huff can help!

If you still want to go it alone, here are some more simple interior design Ideas!

Saturday, August 10, 2013

5 Tips to Improve your Credit Rating from Insta-Credit Auto Mart St Louis

As the economy continues to recover, your credit rating may have taken a hit. Your credit score may need a much-needed boost. Perhaps your credit rating is good, but you want to raise your credit rating even more. Here are 5 tips that will help you achieve your desired credit score.




Tip #1: First things first: find out your current credit score.  Knowledge is power and as painful as it may be, knowing your credit rating is the first step to managing and improving your numbers. Reviewing your report will allow you to check for any errors or inconsistencies. Also, knowing your credit score will help you find out where you are being penalized. Perhaps you may need to pay your bills on time. Maybe you are using too much of your available credit. In order to find out your credit score, there are three reporting agencies you can refer to: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.  You can also request a free copy of your credit report annually.

Tip #2: Automate as many payments as possible. Having a mix of paper and electronic copies can lead to confusion, shuffled papers, and late--or worse--missed payments. Setting up automatic withdrawals from your checking or savings accounts for car, mortgage, and utility payments will save stamps, save trees, and simplify your life by eliminating clutter. Also, making automatic payments will help you avoid additional late fees, and paying your bills on time is an easy way to increase your credit score. You can also have your bank notify you via email or text if your checking account is below a certain amount to avoid overdrafts.

Tip #3: Maintain a low balance on your credit cards. Ideally, using a small percentage of your credit card balance will increase your score. Some experts claim that less than 25 percent is ideal, other reports have mentioned 10 percent or even 4 percent. The idea is that a low balance on your credit card will result in an improved credit score.  Conversely, maxing out your credit cards will result in a lower number on your report, and you will be paying additional interest and overage fees. Also, it is wise to limit the number of credit cards that you have.

Tip #4:  Another way to improve your credit is to take a loan out on your vehicle. This is a simple and easy process. Visit a bank or credit union and check to see if there is a low-interest payment plan. You can transfer a high-interest credit card to a low-interest loan. As a result, you will pay off your debt faster, keep a low credit card balance, and improve your credit score by showing that you have paid off deb. You could also stop by Insta-Credit Auto Mart one of the best buy here pay here dealers st louis has to offer.


Tip #5: Seek credit counseling. If you are confused and unsure where to start, no worries! A credit counselor can provide guidance, hope, and insight in order to manage your credit and raise your score, so you will be on your way to financial freedom. 

Friday, August 2, 2013

Online Marketing and Website Design Services in St Louis Missouri


St Louis is home to a great variety of companies, services, and products. If you are looking for marketing help, St Louis has plenty to offer you in this area. Whether you are looking for  print advertising, or world class website design, you can rest assured that St Louis has exactly what you are looking for.


The focus of our post today is online marketing one of which was kind enough to share some advice with our readers. As you probably know by now, St Louis is home to some of the very best marketing companies in the entire United States and the website design talent is also exception. Expert marketing companies like Stellar SEO and highly skilled web designers such as Frank Spohr over at St Louis Web Design Company Clicked Studios are leading the push into the future of marketing. For today though, we are featuring an article put together by Stellar SEO covering the essentials of pay per click marketing.

Here is what Stellar SEO had to say about PPC marketing:

PPC, or pay-per-click marketing, relies on keywords to be used in effective ways so that readers will pay attention to the advertisement.  Although the initial set-up of PPC marketing is fairly easy, it is the maintenance and strategy of PPC marketing that can be tedious. However, savvy PPC marketing will result in more clicks and more customers. Here are ideas on how to drive your audience to your products or services.

Adding the Price is Right
Although many PPC ads purposely do not add the price, adding the price to an online advertisement  will detract some users from clicking the link. This is strategic because the price will filter out people who are not interested, but will instead attract serious buyers to the link.

Audience Analysis
Although the internet is accessed globally, marketers still need to engage in audience analysis and go where the customers are geographically. For example, if your advertisement is for surfboards in San Diego, California, it would not be effective to use this advertisement for ppc marketing to St Louis.
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Creative Effective Landing Pages
Online Advertising is so competitive that you need to be sure to do something to make your ad stand out from the rest. Create effective landing pages for your advertising, and offer your visitors something that they cannot resist, such as a free download, a free giveaway, or free shipping. Using this method will turn your visitors into customers.

Google Quality Score
Three words: Google Quality Score. The Google Quality Score is the PPC version of your credit rating. Find out your score, and then follow the Google Ad Words rules to the letter in order to keep your score high. Google tends pretty stringent on their rules to ensure quality advertising, so following their rules will keep your advertising ratings high. A rating that Google uses is CTR, which is click-through rate.

Long-tail Keywords
Be specific in your advertisements by utilizing what is called long-tail keywords. These advertisements consist of three or four keywords that accurately describe a product or service. For example, St Louis is a general term. However, if a reader uses ppc marketing St Louis, they will retrieve more specific results. Long-tail keywords can be tricky to use at first, but when you produce the right combination of keywords, the clicks and potential new customers will be worth it.

Increase Bidding on Google
You get what you pay for: increase your bid on Google. However, like effective SEO, make sure the advertisement and the keywords are high-quality and relevant. You can bid high and then adjust accordingly by lowering the bid.

It’s Not Just About Google
Google is the heavy hitter in regards to search engines, but there are others that are overlooked. You do have options for using PPC with search engines such as Bing and Yahoo. In fact, if you are marketing for an Australian market, Bing is the favored search engine.

Running a Negative Campaign
Another method is called running a negative campaign. However, a negative campaign can produce positive results! This is similar in theory to adding the price to an advertisement to deter readers who are not serious about the product or service. Basically, marketers will use keywords that purposely detract ads so that only serious customers will find the advertisement.

Spy on the Competition
Finding out what the competition is up to is common in business and marketing practices, and this includes PPC marketing.  You can spy on the competitor and see what keywords and placements they use for their ppc marketing St Louis.  An example of a program that will find competitor’s keywords and placements is called MixRank.  A side note about generating keywords: although keyword generators do help, do not just rely on them. The readers are human, so you will need to tweak the keywords to best suit your intended audience, even if the competition is not.

Time, Time, Time
 It’s all about the timing. You can find out when your advertisement is getting the most clicks and set them up accordingly. If your ad is not being hit at 6:00 a.m., then choose a better time to place the ad, and monitor it. Fortunately, Google and other search engines allow more than one ad to run, so you can experiment and determine which ad works best at a specific time.

Summing Up
PPC Marketing is a savvy way to advertise and attract potential customers to your product. PPC Marketing is both an art and a science, so the tips listed above will help you perfect your craft and attract potential customers. 

We hope you have learned some simple yet valuable tips here today and we look forward to sharing our next post on local SEO with you soon. Until next time, have a good day ST. Louis.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

5 Easy and Convenient Recycling Tips- Midwest Recycling Center St Louis MO.


Preserving the environment is a pre twenty- first century phenomenon. However, conserving resources is just as important and relevant now.  Here are past and present recycling tips that will help save the planet and save you money.

Tip #1: Recycle rain.
People have been collecting rain in rain barrels to water crops for over 3,000 years. Rain barrels are a great, green cost-effective way to recycle water.  As an additional bonus, rain barrels are usually made from recycled materials. Rain barrels can be made or purchased, and can be elaborate or inexpensive. Using a rain barrel will conserve energy, conserve money, and conserve resources.

Tip #2: Avoid e-waste from electronics like cell phones and computers.
Did you know that the average household in the United States contains approximately 25 electronic items? Imagine all of those items being disposed of improperly. Two million tons of e-waste are discarded every year.  By donating electronics, using them longer, and disposing them at proper electronic recycling places, you will be contributing to the environment. In fact, according to the epa.gov, there are laws in several states concerning proper disposal of electronic waste, as electronic waste contains chemicals that can damage the environment. Therefore, it is important to dispose of them improperly.

Tip #3: Recycling books, magazines, movies, and music.
Donate books, magazines, movies, and music. Rather than throwing away your used paperbacks or back issues of your favorite magazine subscriptions, why not recycle them through donations?  Places like Goodwill and public libraries will accept your donations. Ask for a receipt, because your donated items are tax-deductible. Not only will you clear the clutter on your bookshelf, you will keep the items out of the landfill and into the hands of patrons.

Tip #4: Recycle newspapers.
If you receive copies of the local or national newspapers, binding newspapers with twine is an efficient way to take up less space in your recycle bin. You can donate copies of newspapers to academic and public libraries. If you wish to assist animals, you can also donate newspapers to an animal shelter, pet store, or universities that have veterinary or vet tech programs. Recycling newspapers can help the animals and the environment.

Tip #5: Recycle or reuse glass. 
Glass bowls, jars, water and wine bottles can be recycled at local recycling centers. Glass can be reused an indefinite amount of times. More people are recycling glass: in 2009, consumers recycled four times more glass than in 1980.  Also, glass can be reused as attractive candle holders for candles of various sizes or for flower vases for the home and garden. Recycled glass helps with manufacturer’s costs of creating new glass and helps keeps consumer and environmental costs low.


From the sky to the sand that forms rain and glass, the 5 recycling tips listed above will help you find new places for previously discarded items. You will clear clutter from your home, pass on materials to someone else who will reuse them, and give the earth a well-deserved break. Those of you who live near St Louis, Columbia, Independence or Kansas City Missouri, be sure to visit Midwest Recycling Center to dispose of your electronics properly.