Some Things about Shopping Addiction

Shopping addiction has much in common with better-known addiction such as drugs or alcohol. It may not have the same catastrophic consequences on health as substance abuse, shopping addiction or Oniomania (to give it its medical name) is a serious condition that can have huge ramifications of the sufferers’ personal and financial well-being.

A shopaholic may experience craving to shop whenever they are feeling anxious, disappointed, lonely, and we are depressed. The shopping addict may feel the need to buy something whether or not they need it. Shopping addiction is far more commonplace in women than men are. This addiction is often classed as compulsive disorder. Whether it is an addiction or a compulsion, the effects of the same and the person suffering from shopping addiction will feel powerless over their habits. Compulsive behavior may cause the sufferer to act out character or act in a spontaneous way. Shopping addiction can be a vicious cycle as feelings of guilt and shame about yet another spending spree sinking in, the shopping addict may try and counteract these feelings with another bout of spending. While list may temporarily soothe and comfort them, all too soon the pangs of disgust and regret will set in creating a destructive trap that is very difficult to escape from.

Shopping addicts, will often shop whether or not they have the funds to do so many borrow money from friends or rack up thousands of pounds worth of credit card bills as they seek to feed their habit. Shopping addicts do not shop out of necessity all for item, essential to everyday life. They may not easy and look at their purchases again after they have but then, hiding them away on the backs of cupboards away from site so others do not find out about their shopping addiction.

Like Any Addiction, many shopping addicts try to conduct their habit in secret. They may shop alone, fearing judgement from friends about their spending habits. They may also be trying to hide the frequency of their shopping sprees to. Quite often, someone suffering from Oniomania may try to hide bank statements, receipts and will lie about how much their purchases cost. The shopping addict may spend a long time in denial, as they tried to deny that there shopping addiction is a problem and may be hostile to anyone who deals to bring up the subject, even if it is out of concern and trying to help them.

Finances can become very difficult when someone suffering from shopping addiction. They may neglect everyday bills and necessary costs in favor of reckless spending. They may even find that they face problems at work as there shopping eats into work time. The shopping addict often ends up in a spiral of debt that they can become powerless over. Hiding letters from debt companies along with the bank statements, they can simple into a bottomless pit of debts that is very difficult to escape from. Shopping addiction can be helped and personal as well as financial counselling may be needed.

Why Your Website Will Make Or Break Your Business

When running a business, there are a number of different factors that you must take into account in order to make your business both a short and long term success. Out of all these factors, one which is continually overlooked is the functionality of your website, not only though a desktop computer, but also via mobile devices such as phones and tablets.

In the early stages of a business, many tend to focus on just getting the site up and running as soon as possible, rather than looking to optimise integral aspects that are going to make your business a success. This can result in you not only losing out on some initial sales, but also damaging your brand image. An early hit to your brand could cause irreparable damage that may be difficult to come back from.

Mobile Commerce

Previously you would have created a website, checked to make sure it worked correctly in all desktop browsers and then put it out there for customers to visit. With the changes in technology comes a need to also enhance your website. Due to the influx of people using their mobile phones and tablets to browse the internet, it’s important to cater for these individuals when they visit your site. When running an ecommerce store you will usually find that around one-third of people visiting your website are doing so via one of these mobile devices. If you do not have a mobile friendly website, it will significantly reduce the chances of turning these visitors into customers.

If your website displays the same on a mobile device as it would on a desktop, it means that customer is going to have to scroll and zoom in order to click on the necessary buttons. This is a much more time consuming process and one which is probably going to annoy the user long before they reach the end stage.

A mobile friendly website has a much simpler display, using larger buttons as well as a much more efficient process, allowing customers to select their products and checkout with ease. Once implemented, you will quickly begin to see a rise in the number of completed transactions through mobile devices.

Layout

When someone lands on any website, they will make up their minds within the first few seconds whether they like the site or not. Particularly if they are searching across a number of different sites for particular products or services, a customer leaving your site at this tender stage will most likely result in them never coming back.

While the layout will vary depending on what you sell and what your brand image is, there are a number of aspects that should always be carried out no matter what.  While your home page is seen as the first port of call for most visiting customers, a lot of them will enter your site through various other landing pages. This stresses the importance for you to ensure that not only your home page, but all landing pages, have enticing images and informative text that is going to compel a customer to continue their journey through your website.

Although you want to provide visitors with as much information as you can, too much information is going to make your website looking cramped and unprofessional. Placing too much information on a page is just going to counteract your original intentions, making it difficult for customers to pick out key information they need. To make your website as appealing as possible, you should look to keep your website clean, spacing out your products and information accordingly, using as little text as possible.

Banners

They say pictures paint a thousand words and this phrase is never truer than when it comes to ecommerce. In addition to a strong, professional layout they provide, images are the key components in enticing customers to certain pages and products. A banner image allows you to provide your customers with a plethora of information without taking up the sort of space that text would require. However, the strength of the banner images comes not in the lack of text, but the instant exposure it provides. The trouble with text based information is that to be fully exposed, a customer is going to have to sit there and take the time to read all the necessary details. Image banners allow a customer to instantly take in information in a matter of seconds that would have taken minutes via text.

When selecting banners for your website, you should look at aspects that a customer is going to be interested in. For most customers, this comes in the form of new products, offers and other promotions you are running.

Checkout Process

While all other aspects of your website are designed to bring a customer to this process, how efficiently your customers can checkout is going to be the deciding factor as to whether you make the sale.

The quicker you can make the checkout process the happier the customer is going to be. While you generally need to take in as much information as possible for the purposes of taking payment and delivery, many websites offer an express checkout process allowing customers to instantly checkout much quicker. Rather than taking in a large amount of information, through an express checkout you would only require the key information such as address and card details, rather than other more miscellaneous details.

This efficiency in the checkout process not only benefits first time customers, but also repeat business. As a customer would have previously purchased from you, all of their account details should already be saved on your system. This means that when they next come to make a purchase, you are going to be able to automatically populate all of their details, saving them a large amount of time.

In order to cater for a wide customer base, you should look to try and be as flexible as your business can allow. In terms of the checkout process, this comes in the form of payment and delivery options. The more options you provide visiting customers, the happier they are going to be.

Social Commerce

The success of a business comes in not only being able to entice customers to purchase a product, but also providing a platform by which these customers can then promote their purchase. None do this better than social commerce. If a customer comes across a product they like on your website, you should look to have social sharing buttons on each of your product pages. This then allows the customer to share the product on their own profile pages or Facebook, Twitter and other key social media platforms.

The benefit of social commerce comes in the ability to promote your products and brand to a wider audience, while also increasing the opportunity for you to generate traffic and sales. If a customer shares a product on their wall, it means that your product has then been exposed to their followers. These are people you have reached with your brand and product that you may not have reached via other marketing methods. What’s more, this exposure has come at no cost for you in terms of money or time as this has been shared entirely by the customer.

As a purchasing customer generally has similar interests and tastes to their friends, if they share a product on their social media accounts, there is a possibility that one of their friends may also like the product and follow in their friend’s footsteps by purchasing the item. This is a sale you would never have achieved had you not had the social commerce function implemented.

Retention

Though a large part of a business’ success comes in being able to bring those first time buyers through to your website, the real long term success becomes in being able to retain those individual to become repeat purchasers. As your customers are a diverse group, it is going to take different strategies to constantly engage them all.

Retaining customers can come in a number of different forms such as social media engagement, email marketing, as well as newsletters and other content. Creating this engagement allows you constantly expose past customers to new products and offers, enabling you to entice them to your website.

However, this retention not only comes in reaching past customers, but also turning people with an interest in your site into first time buyers. Often, a number of people will visit your store as part of a research process looking for the best price for a particular product.  While they are on your site, you should look to try and engage them through a number of different methods such as an enquiry form or newsletter sign up section. This not only allows them to engage with you, but also gives you their personal details, particularly their email address. Now that you have this information you can look to help them through answering their question or sending promotional content to their subscribed email address with hope of helping to transition them into a buyer.

When sending out this content for the purposes of retention, it’s important not to overdo it. Sending out too much content over a short space of time will reduce the impact your marketing material has, as well as the likelihood of a customer coming through to your website for another purchase.

The Best Way to Start a Garden

Most people have thought about planting their own garden. Who doesn't love fresh vegetables and herbs? The only thing keeping you from your own juicy tomatoes is that you don’t have the time or start it or don’t know the first steps to take. Here’s some guidance on the easiest way to get started.

Choosing the Right Spot and The Right Seeds
First you need to decide on where you will have the garden and how big you want it to be. Pick a spot that is flat and is in the sun during most of the day. Break up the soil and add some compost to the fresh dirt. Be sure to remove any rocks or roots.  Try to stay away from other big plants or trees so they don’t steal all the nutrients in the ground.  A good beginner size garden is about 16x10 feet.

Picking what you will grow depends first on how much space you have. Every plant needs a different size area to grow to its full potential. Be sure to research each plant you are considering and measure how much space they will need. If your garden is only four feet long, you wouldn’t choose to grow pumpkins because just one would take up the whole space. Be sure to utilize as much of your ground as you can to get the most out of your garden! Most of that information will be on the seed packets. If you are limited on space, try to plant things that can grow horizontally like beans, tomatoes and cucumbers.

To get the most out of your gardening efforts choose plants that your family will enjoy, that are healthy and produce more than one crop per season.

Organic or Not
Since you control your own garden, you have the option of growing your vegetables to be organic. Basically what this means is if you choose to go organic, which is healthier for you and your family, you won’t be using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.  That means it’s up to you to ward off the pests so your plants can grow healthy. The seeds you choose will have to be from plants raised without chemical fertilizer and pesticides, try your local farmers market.  Or you can look for organic gardening products specifically.  From my own personal experience, I've used SaferBrand’s Organic Gardening Products, and put in a couple of their partner company, Havahart’s, humane animal traps to protect it.

Protect your plants naturally, if you choose to go the organic route. This can be done by fostering natural predators like frogs, toads, birds and bats around your garden. So if you see them, don’t scare them away, they can get rid of the other bugs that may harm your plants. It’s a good idea to leave a small source of water out to help attract friendly predators. You can use nets and row covers as well.

Keep Up With It
Do all of your weeding by hand. To try and reduce the amount of weeds you have, some people suggest using organic mulch to protect the soil. Weeding is a great way to work in your garden, get some fresh air and it can actually be relaxing!

Be sure to harvest your plants when it is time. The more you harvest, the more you’ll have growing. If you have herbs growing pick them right before you want to use them or dry them out and store them. If you have too much produce, give it away as gifts, freeze or can them.

When winter comes, let the plants be, it will make it easier for you during the next season.

Whatever your reason for not starting a garden has been, put it aside and get out there. You’re green thumb is waiting to be discovered and your family is craving fresh and healthy vegetables. 

CMJ University - Most Chosen By Students

CMJ University is a beautiful college that is located in Guwahati. The college was established in the year 2009, and since then it has helped thousands of students to build their career in different fields. Students can check the details of the course offered by them by visiting their official website. The institute manages high standards of education and helps their students to excel the course, in the best possible manner. The professors here believe in imbibing practical and theoretical knowledge, which is required for improving their knowledge. Students can also enroll for online or distinct education program and fulfill their dream of persuading their studies, even while working.

The college offers different types of graduate and undergraduate programs for their students such as management, fashion designing, law, engineering, and many other courses. All their admission details and fee charges are clearly mentioned on their website. Also, you can find the details of the date when the admission process will start and the process for filling the form. For distance education the students can apply or seek admission through online mode. Also you can find the details of the exam and centers close to you, from their website. The CMJ is recognized by the UGC of India. The college has a wide campus, which is located in the lush green environment. It has special dormitory for the students, and well equipped library, laboratory, stadium, and all other things that are required for improving the study quality of the students. They have tailored made courses that will help you in improving their practical knowledge that will make them capable of handling different practical situations in their professional life.

The professors here are trained and work hard on every student. They also have special scholarship for needy students, especially those who want to study but don’t have enough cash to support their academic fees. The selection is done on merit basis, and every deserving student is given equal opportunity to prove their potentiality. Their online studies are meant to provide better education to the working adults, and others who are quite busy. All the topics are updated on a regular basis, and are meant to upgrade the knowledge of the students. The materials are sent to the students, and all other important details about the exam are updated via email. The online tutors will promptly answer your questions and help you in preparing well for the exam.

CMJ University has attracted many students from all the over country. You can have a look at the short term or long term courses that will help you in improving your knowledge about the particular course that you have chosen for your studies. The best thing is that the students get flexibility to complete their studies and appear for the exam as per their convenience. You can visit their website and check the options of the exam centers. You can choose one that is close to you. The CMJ also updates their students with the newsletter, on a regular basis, which gives them all the required details of the course.

NTSE Held for Finding the Best Students

NTSE is an exam organized for identifying the best students who are excellent in their studies. National Talent Search Examination was initiated in the year 1963, and since then it has successfully selected hundreds of talented students from all over the country. Students who are on the 8th grade are allowed to participate in this exam. This test is considered to be one of the toughest exams of the country. Students are expected to prepare for this exam well in advance, so that they can score well in this exam.

Until couple of years, this exam was organized only for students in 10th standard. The exam is mainly classified into two levels. The first level is conducted by the State authorities. The students scoring well on this exam are then permitted to attend the next level of the exam which is organized at the National Level. The exam is organized by the DSERT, and is mainly conducted in the month of May of every year. They are again divided into Part I, which consists of subjects like Mental Ability also known as MAT and the Part II consists of subjects like social science, mathematics, and science. The students are expected to score well on all the subjects, so that they get scholarship. All those students who score well in this exam become eligible for enter into the next NTSE exam.  The details of the exam can be accessed from the net, which is uploaded by the authorities every year.

The exam result is declared the same year, and will help the students to plan their further studies. The syllabus is the same, however if there is any change then the authorities will let you know about the same. Students can refer to the CBSE text books, which will help them to prepare well for the exam. Also the students are recommended to refer to the text books from the 8th, 9th, and 10th standard. All these text books will help you to prepare well for this exam. The whole purpose of conducting this exam is to choose the best students, who are given financial assistance of successfully clearing the exam. The scholarship amount at present is Rs 500 per month. The scholarship will be provided to the students from 8th standard onwards. However, the benefit is not given to students who intend to pursue their PhD and other such services that are mentioned on the form.

Students can get the details of the reference books and studies materials from their official NTSE website. Also there are many classes that help such students in scoring well in their exams.  Some schools also arrange special classes for students who are appearing for this exam. Whatever method you choose, it’s necessary that students plan their studies well. It will help them to score well in their exams. Also it is advised to refer to the question papers that will help them to understand the question trend of the exam. It will help them to understand their weak points and score well on their exams.

Best Hatley Raincoat Collection for Kids in 2013

Don’t be scared of rains because it can’t hold you home this monsoon. It’s pretty time to try the most exciting monsoon trends. If you have been searching for some really cool monsoon raincoats for kids like mine then well we found some good in style, fashionable, branded and different stuff listed here.

Hatley has an exclusive rainwear collection for kids are available in the UK for the 2013 monsoon. The pricing is brilliant pretty close to the original pricing and the collection is amazing. Below are listed the features of the raincoat Designed for Kids by the Hatley:

1. Soft outer waterproof shell
2. Two fronts fold over pockets
3. Long sleeve
4. Full popper button closure
5. Spacious hood

Following are a few proposals for those who have a spirit for the monsoon fashion trends:

Scribble dot Raincoat in Pink: 
In this raincoat, there is the design of rabbit print to give a new look to your kids. This raincoat design is fully suitable to your little princess and she will be happy with this girly coloured raincoat.

Fire Trucks Raincoat in Yellow: 
On this raincoat, there is the design of the fire truck print. kids look very cute by wearing this Fire Trucks Raincoat in Yellow. Especially children who are mad for the trucks and car toys they will feel great to wear this fire truck designed raincoat.

Features: 

• Full popper button closure
• Contrast inner fleece lining
• Fire Truck print design
• Two front pockets
• Hooded
• Soft outer shell
• Waterproof

Crazy Lizard’s Raincoat in Green: 
In this raincoat design of lizard is printed to give a new look to kids. this raincoat can be the favourite for those kids who are the insect lover.

Features: 

• Full popper button closure
• Long sleeve
• Lizard print design
• Two front foldover pockets
• Contrast inner fleece striped lining
• Soft outer waterproof shell
• Hood

Cupcakes Raincoat in Turquoise: 
On this raincoat, cupcakes are printed to give attractive looks to kids in monsoon. Generally kids like the cakes and cupcakes, so they will be very happy to wear this raincoat having the designs of cupcakes on their clothes. This can be the favourite who like blue colour the most.

Farmer Jack Raincoat with Lining in Blue:
Farmer jack raincoat with lining in blue is cute printed boy’s raincoat with design of tractors printed on it. who are interested in farm, or tractors they will surely like this raincoat which have the cute cap joined with the raincoat permanently.

Thus, these all raincoats are designed by Hatley’s expert designer in the UK. By wearing the raincoat, people can change their wardrobes accordingly, so go out and enjoy by moving around instead of staying at home in the season of monsoon with your kids.You can purchase the Hatley branded raincoats for your kids and give a new look to your child also in the rain. Hope that this article will help you to select the best raincoat for your children to make them happy with their choice.

Vital Clothes for the Male Wardrobe

Unless you read a wide variety of fashion magazines and study the latest catwalk trends, you can be forgiven for finding it difficult to know how to select your clothes. It sometimes seems that women have considerably more advice available to them on such subjects.

As a result, many men make use of the safety net that’s offered by jeans and a T-shirt. I think that’s quite unfortunate, simply because so much more can be achieved. If you’re intent on looking fashionable, then think about some pretty simple changes that can allow you to stand out from the crowd.

Kevin N Murphy

Getting Away from Jeans

Whenever I find myself suggesting to others that they may wish to consider escaping from jeans, it feels like I am complaining about choosing to wear denim, as if there is something inherently wrong about wearing jeans.

I don’t actually believe that to be true. In fact, my main issue is that jeans represent such a safe and boring choice. I understand that they are comfortable to wear and I know that many people see them as being a good choice for most circumstances.

If you’re looking to show that you really understand fashion, however, then I really think that you need to have the confidence to escape from jeans. It’s not as hard as it may seem, but getting away from the ubiquitous jeans can really allow you to make a statement.

You might want to ease yourself into such a course of action by selecting chinos, which certainly offer considerable flexibility. Greens For Him have a good selection of trousers, enabling you to see what some rising designers have come up with.

Understanding Flexibility

Most of us end up planning what to wear each day, even if that only means spending a few seconds considering what’s already present in the wardrobe. My own approach involves ensuring that it’s almost impossible to make bad choices.

This can be achieved by buying clothes that actually go with each other. Rather than buying individual garments, I like to create an overall wardrobe of items that complement each other.

This gives me an added level of flexibility, meaning that I’m never reliant on having a single shirt or pair of trousers available to me. Instead, I can mix and match, safe in the knowledge that I’ll still have a complete outfit that looks good.

Extended Flexibility

But flexibility is about more than making it easier to get dressed in the morning. It’s also about being prepared for a multitude of eventualities.

Let me give you an example of what I mean by this. There are occasions when I find myself out with friends and I may be wearing chinos, a white shirt and some brown shoes. That’s a comfortable selection and I’d recommend purchasing all of those.

But what happens if someone suggests heading off to a nice restaurant? Rather than finding myself in the position of having to rush home to find something smarter, I will usually just grab a navy blazer, which I take with me anywhere.

The addition of that blazer quickly transforms my appearance from casual to smart. That’s what flexible clothing is all about. It ensures that you are never caught out and that you are always looking stylish.