Everyone knows by now you can clean with baking soda and vinegar, but often people don't think about hydrogen peroxide as an ingredient for cleaning. This stuff is frugal, Eco-friendly, and really can produce amazing results for both your laundry and for cleaning around your home.
Hydrogen peroxide is a type of oxygen bleach, which means as you'll see from the uses listed below, it's got a lot of laundry uses, as well as cleaning uses.
It is typically color safe, just like other oxygen bleaches like oxiclean. That concentration is 3% solution which you can find in the brown bottle in your drugstore, typically in the first aid aisle.
Uses For Hydrogen Peroxide
1. Brighten clothes as alternative to bleach. Instead of adding either chlorine or oxygen bleach, you can add 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide to your washing machine as a natural, Eco-friendly bleach.
2. Versatile DIY pretreat stain remover. If you enjoy making your own laundry products don't forget this easy recipe for a versatile stain remover--2 parts hydrogen peroxide to 1 part dish soap. You can mix this recipe together and keep in an opaque spray bottle and use in a similar fashion to any other laundry pretreater.
3. Remove red wine stains. Red wine is known as a quite difficult stain to remove, but a simple recipe that works extremely well to remove these tough stains is equal parts hydrogen peroxide and dish soap. Spray the mixture on the stain and allow it to sit for three hours, and then wash with cool water.
You can read similar articles online at www.echomeinspection.com/our-blog.html
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Small Repairs You Can Do Yourself
Small Repairs You Can Do Yourself
Broken tiles? Leaky faucet? Don't hire a professional for a small repair -- fix it yourself! We'll show you how
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Problem: Torn Vinyl
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Problem: Scratches in a Wood Cabinet
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Problem: Loose Laminate Countertops
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Problem: Worn-Out or Dried Caulk
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Problem: Stains in Grout
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Problem: Drippy Faucet
The Top 8 Native Plants Of Southern California
Top Native Plants of Southern California
These tough, beautiful plants can take hot, dry conditions with ease. They're among the best easy-care plants for gardeners in this region.
Matilija poppy
Lemonade berry
Toyon
Hoary California fuchsia
Chalk liveforever
VA Loans Vs. Conventional Loans
VA loans are home mortgages guaranteed by the federal government through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Both active-duty military and military veterans are eligible to use the VA loan program to finance the purchase of a home. VA loans have key advantages over conventional mortgage loans.
You can read similar articles online at www.echomeinspection.com/our-blog.html
Significance
VA loans are one of the few sources for 100 percent financing of a home purchase. Veterans can buy a home using VA funding without making a down payment. A conventional mortgage requires a minimum 5 percent down payment in most circumstances. Bankrate.com reports that more than 90 percent of veterans using VA loans purchase a home with 100 percent financing.Private Mortgage Insurance
Conventional mortgages require the payment of private mortgage insurance--PMI--if the home buyer makes less than a 20 percent down payment. PMI can add $80 or more per $100,000 of the loan amount to the monthly payment for a buyer using a conventional loan and 5 percent down payment. The VA prohibits lenders from charging mortgage insurance on VA loans.Credit Qualifications
The VA will allow a loan applicant to have some credit problems and still qualify for a mortgage. The VA looks at individual applicants and is willing to take special circumstances into account when approving a mortgage for a veteran. Conventional mortgage lenders are tied to specific credit scores and have stricter underwriting standards when an applicant has had credit problems in the past.Types
The VA offers guarantees on several types of mortgage loans. Fixed-rate loans are available with terms of 15 or 30 years. Adjustable-rate VA loans can have an initial interest-rate period of one, three or five years with annual rate adjustments after that. Conventional loans are available in similar types. The difference is that the VA dictates the terms of the loans to prevent abuses. This is especially important in ARM loans, where the VA sets the rates and limits of the rate adjustments.Features
VA loans cannot have prepayment penalties, and they are all assumable loans. Both of these features can make it easier to sell a home financed with a VA loan, since most conventional mortgages are not assumable and have a paid-in-full clause if the home is sold. An assumable loan can be transferred to someone buying the home, allowing the new homeowner to take over the current mortgage on the home and not have to take out a new mortgage for the purchase. Prepayment penalties can be placed on conventional loans, charging the homeowner extra fees if he or she wants to refinance or sell the home in the early years of the loan.You can read similar articles online at www.echomeinspection.com/our-blog.html
5 Small Business Marketing Tips
1. Don't Advertise Like a Big Business
2. Offer a Cheaper Version
Some prospective customers are not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.
3. Offer a Premium Version
Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service ...or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.
4. Try Some Unusual Marketing Methods
Look for some unconventional marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.
5. Trim Your Ads
Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. You may even be surprised to find that some of your short ads generate a better response than their longer versions.
You can read similar articles online at www.echomeinspection.com/our-blog.html
Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business can't afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales... now. One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising - and an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.
2. Offer a Cheaper Version
Some prospective customers are not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.
3. Offer a Premium Version
Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service ...or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.
4. Try Some Unusual Marketing Methods
Look for some unconventional marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.
5. Trim Your Ads
Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. You may even be surprised to find that some of your short ads generate a better response than their longer versions.
You can read similar articles online at www.echomeinspection.com/our-blog.html
Creating An Effective Social Media Strategy
Do you have a social media strategy for your business yet?
If you don’t, you could be missing out on game-changing results.
According to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 78% of marketers saw increased traffic with just six hours a week invested in social media.
The businesses that do social media marketing well will see even bigger wins in 2012, as the gap between who “gets it” and who doesn’t grows wider by the minute.
The good news? You don’t need to be everything to everyone anymore. Chances are your strategy will be more effective if you keep it simple.
As Michael Stelzner predicted, “The old mantra of ‘be everywhere’ will quickly be replaced with ‘be where it matters to our business.’ …It will be essential to focus on where you’ll see results.”
Below is a three-step plan designed to help you develop an effective, streamlined road map for social media success.
Put Your Audience First
First things first: You need to clarify your audience’s needs, wants and challenges—not to mention where they’re spending time online. Use tools like Survey Monkey or Google Docs to quickly and inexpensively survey your customers
The five major benefits of knowing your audience are considerable:
In their book, The Now Revolution, authors Jay Baer and Amber Naslund explain the importance of defining your theme. Since you’ve identified your audience, the next step is to ask yourself what you want them to do . What’s your theme? It’s usually one of three things:
Now it’s time to get really specific. This might be the hardest piece in the assessment process, and yet it’s critical to your success. Ask yourself, what does my business actually do? What do my fans say when they’re happy? What is at the core?
Talk it out with your team. Together you can hone in on what Jay Baer calls your “One Thing”—the heart and soul of your brand. Your “One Thing” will affect every content and posting decision you make.
To borrow Jay’s examples, if Disney = magic and Apple = innovation, what do you equal?
Your “One Thing” is the voice of your strategy across every network.
Identify Metrics and Monitoring Opportunities
How will you measure your strategy’s success? Depending on your theme, the metrics may change. For example:
And if you’re new to data measurement, take baby steps. Start with a simple free tool like Google Alerts.
Don’t wait for an emergency to nail down your communication policies. For example, what happens when there are negative comments? How should the company’s social sites be used? Are there guidelines for what fans and followers can post to a company Facebook page?
Drill down on the answers in a written editorial guide tailored to your business, team and goals. A good guide will address:
Create a Content Calendar
Now that you have an editorial guide, it’s time to translate policy into concrete actions—preferably on an editorial calendar. The more information and detail you include, the better you can measure effectiveness. Consider:
There are literally hundreds of ways to get your team promoting and sharing on the key social media sites you plan to use. Here are a few to get you started:
Showcase your expertise. Drive traffic (and build a reputation) by offering webinars and training programs, interviewing experts and guest blogging, to name a few.
Promote your networks consistently. Add networks to letterhead, email signatures and business cards.
Identify Core Sales Campaigns
Yes, social media is about relationships first. But the fact is, once you’ve built solid, genuine relationships online, you’re going to want to use your influence to grow your business. That doesn’t mean shoving it down fans’ throats or putting sales above the relationship. It simply means that you can and should promote what you offer to the people who believe in your mission.
Establish an action plan for the core campaigns you’ll use to collect and nurture leads, like:
Schedule an Evaluation Session
Don’t put off analyzing your results. Schedule your first evaluation meeting when you start phase one. I recommend scheduling a meeting about two or three months out from your start date. That’s just enough time to start seeing results and identifying weak spots.
Make sure you or your team members bring numbers and data to the table and are prepared to discuss them. Metrics, no matter how simplistic, will help you figure out what’s working and what’s not. Include time for brainstorming new ideas, too.
Take Advantage of the Momentum
If you’re seeing traction with your strategy at this first evaluation milestone, consider mixing it up and adding some more advanced strategies into your plan. You have momentum building—run with it!
Here are ideas for some “next steps” to take:
You can read similar articles online at www.echomeinspection.com/our-blog.html
If you don’t, you could be missing out on game-changing results.
According to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 78% of marketers saw increased traffic with just six hours a week invested in social media.
The businesses that do social media marketing well will see even bigger wins in 2012, as the gap between who “gets it” and who doesn’t grows wider by the minute.
The good news? You don’t need to be everything to everyone anymore. Chances are your strategy will be more effective if you keep it simple.
As Michael Stelzner predicted, “The old mantra of ‘be everywhere’ will quickly be replaced with ‘be where it matters to our business.’ …It will be essential to focus on where you’ll see results.”
Below is a three-step plan designed to help you develop an effective, streamlined road map for social media success.
Step #1: Assessment
Start with a single question: “Why social media?” The answer will dictate everything you do in this first phase. Assessment is to evaluate where you are, where you want to go and what the wins will be along the way.Put Your Audience First
First things first: You need to clarify your audience’s needs, wants and challenges—not to mention where they’re spending time online. Use tools like Survey Monkey or Google Docs to quickly and inexpensively survey your customers
The five major benefits of knowing your audience are considerable:
- Laser focus: You can create content that resonates instantly.
- Break barriers: Confront pain points head-on to build trust.
- Language: Increase engagement by being a person your audience relates to.
- Empathy: The more you listen, the better you can respond to specific needs.
- Positioning: You can become the go-to source in your niche.
In their book, The Now Revolution, authors Jay Baer and Amber Naslund explain the importance of defining your theme. Since you’ve identified your audience, the next step is to ask yourself what you want them to do . What’s your theme? It’s usually one of three things:
- Awareness
- Sales
- Loyalty
Now it’s time to get really specific. This might be the hardest piece in the assessment process, and yet it’s critical to your success. Ask yourself, what does my business actually do? What do my fans say when they’re happy? What is at the core?
Talk it out with your team. Together you can hone in on what Jay Baer calls your “One Thing”—the heart and soul of your brand. Your “One Thing” will affect every content and posting decision you make.
To borrow Jay’s examples, if Disney = magic and Apple = innovation, what do you equal?
Your “One Thing” is the voice of your strategy across every network.
Identify Metrics and Monitoring Opportunities
How will you measure your strategy’s success? Depending on your theme, the metrics may change. For example:
- If your theme is awareness, you’ll want to measure growth, engagement, brand awareness, sharability, likes and subscribes.
- If it’s sales, look at click rates, social e-commerce sales and conversion rates.
- For loyalty, look at engagement, sentiment and influence (HINT: Klout and EdgeRank Checker are good sentiment-measuring tools).
And if you’re new to data measurement, take baby steps. Start with a simple free tool like Google Alerts.
Don’t wait for an emergency to nail down your communication policies. For example, what happens when there are negative comments? How should the company’s social sites be used? Are there guidelines for what fans and followers can post to a company Facebook page?
Drill down on the answers in a written editorial guide tailored to your business, team and goals. A good guide will address:
- Who is your team? Who is responsible for what?
- What’s the point? Identify why you’re using social media, and what you want to track.
- Where? Identify the networks you want to focus on.
- When? Be as specific as possible; e.g., blog at 8 am, post it to Facebook at 10 am.
- How—identify team tools and platforms. Including examples is great, especially when it comes to formatting of content. Your guide should enable anyone new on the team to know what’s going on.
Step #2: Implementation
Next up: execution. The implementation phase is all about zeroing in on the details and day-to-day tasks you and your team are now responsible for.Create a Content Calendar
Now that you have an editorial guide, it’s time to translate policy into concrete actions—preferably on an editorial calendar. The more information and detail you include, the better you can measure effectiveness. Consider:
- What is the theme or essence of your content?
- Who will create it?
- When and where will it be shared?
- How often will you create content versus share third-party content?
- How will you deliver content—as eBooks? Blogs? Video? All of the above?
There are literally hundreds of ways to get your team promoting and sharing on the key social media sites you plan to use. Here are a few to get you started:
- Integrate social mediaon your website with plugins and icons.
Yes, social media is about relationships first. But the fact is, once you’ve built solid, genuine relationships online, you’re going to want to use your influence to grow your business. That doesn’t mean shoving it down fans’ throats or putting sales above the relationship. It simply means that you can and should promote what you offer to the people who believe in your mission.
Establish an action plan for the core campaigns you’ll use to collect and nurture leads, like:
- Outline promotional policy—what is acceptable, and what is not allowed?
- Identify and implement opt-in opportunities—like a custom welcome tab on your Facebook page.
- Determine where to direct leads—for example, will you create an eCommerce platform on Facebook with a custom tab, or sell only on your site?
Step #3: Monitor, Measure and Get Momentum
After about two months of running your brand-new social media strategy, it’s time to hunker down with your team, evaluate your progress and fine-tune the details.Schedule an Evaluation Session
Don’t put off analyzing your results. Schedule your first evaluation meeting when you start phase one. I recommend scheduling a meeting about two or three months out from your start date. That’s just enough time to start seeing results and identifying weak spots.
Make sure you or your team members bring numbers and data to the table and are prepared to discuss them. Metrics, no matter how simplistic, will help you figure out what’s working and what’s not. Include time for brainstorming new ideas, too.
Take Advantage of the Momentum
If you’re seeing traction with your strategy at this first evaluation milestone, consider mixing it up and adding some more advanced strategies into your plan. You have momentum building—run with it!
Here are ideas for some “next steps” to take:
- Facebook ads are a good, inexpensive way to grow your fan base, increase engagement and collect leads. Try mixing up different ad types and destinations.
- Run a multi-level contest integrating multiple channels (like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). Use a promotion, event or reward that will resonate with your audience. Word-of-mouth is a powerful way to leverage momentum.
- Live Q&As on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ hangouts.
Now It’s Your Turn
Does your business have a social media strategy in place? What tips do you have for someone putting a strategy together for the first time? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.You can read similar articles online at www.echomeinspection.com/our-blog.html
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Eaves And Fascia Board: How (Not) To Fix Them
Eaves are a vulnerable part of your house, exposed to weather and damage by falling limbs. Luckily, they aren't too hard to repair when the inevitable happens and repair is needed. So, if your eaves are wooden, and you have some damage to your fascia board to deal with and if not why are you reading this?
Fascia? That's the name for the vertical board or panel on the front of your eaves. It's complement is the "soffit"- the board that forms the bottom of the structure.
The first thing is getting to the eaves, which means using a ladder. That's the dangerous part, especially if the ground where you need to work is uneven or sloping. It's important to find or create an even, level surface for the ladder.
Once you are up there, you need to remove the damaged part of the board. In this case it was easy because the damaged section of board was already short. But if you have damage to a long section of fascia board, you may choose to replace just the damaged portion. That's not easy because the need to protect the roof deck of itself makes it hard to make a complete cut across the fascia board. A reciprocating saw, sometimes referred to as a "Sawzall" is probably your best option.
Once the damaged board is removed, you are ready to begin fabricating the replacement pieces. Often that will just mean the main fascia board itself. The common board in use for this purpose in North America is a 1x6.
If you're replacing a corner piece, the easiest way to measure the angle you need is to use the old board as a template. You can do this even if the old board doesn't have a clean, complete edge due to the damage suffered. Just use a straightedge to create the straight line you need, as shown below.
Once the board is cut to fit, paint it. I believe in painting both faves of the board to better protect it from moisture and insects, though contractors will usually just paint the outside.
The next step is to replace the fillet. You can use a cardboard template or pattern to fill the space. I actually drew directly on the scrap piece of plywood used for the repair. Paint the piece as you did for the fascia board, and then install it.
Seal joints with a paintable sealant, both for a smooth finish appearance and to keep moisture out. I used a good quality latex product.
You can read similar articles online at www.echomeinspection.com/our-blog.html
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