A property website developed by a North-East Internet marketing company is proving a big hit with house buyers and sellers throughout the UK. 1click2keys.com is seeing an average 50% growth in visitors each month and looks set to eclipse most of its big brand and longer established independent rivals before the end of 2003. The Government-inspired, UK On-line For Business, last week announced that the website has been shortlisted for their 2003 E-Commerce Awards.

Its popularity is partly explained by its strategy of localisation โ€” there’s a 1click2keys website for every major town in the UK โ€” making 200 unique listings of houses covering all areas. This means that visitors to the company’s www.houses-in-newcastle.co.uk site for example, will see only properties that they are interested in from Newcastle and the surrounding area, while in Darlington people see their localised version of the same site. It’s really that simple!

The incentive to sellers is that they can add their property to the 1click2keys database themselves, by filling in an on-line form and emailing a digital photo. The free service can maximise the potential audience of buyers, either in support of local estate agents efforts, or for the increasing number of home sellers going it alone. This offer has proved so tempting that local estate agents are now also adding their own lists of properties in an effort to raise their marketing profile through the 1click2keys.com network.

The company behind the idea is Intermedia Solutions, an entrepreneurial, Darlington-based, Internet development company who have already had major success with on-line package holidays. Their Holidays-In-Heaven.com website was sold to Co-op Travel Direct in 2002, leaving them to concentrate on property and other on-line consumer markets.

โ€œThe strategy and innovative technology contained in Intermedia’s IMPRES software system is invisible to the end userโ€, commented 1click2keys Operations Director, Sally Bird. โ€œPeople are finding us by simply using search engines to look for a particular type of property in specific towns and villages. This is where we win over the big Internet estate agents who need to fund expensive advertising to maintain their on-line profile. 1click2keys delivers just what it promises โ€” 1 click to a website of local properties. It couldn’t be easier to use. As Intermedia already have proved in the travel industry, people search for the specific product or service they want and do not look for brand names first. Indeed, people moving into the region are unlikely to be even aware of any particular local estate agent.โ€

Mortgages and legal services are also available through the sites which were launched earlier this year. All the sites use the formula www.houses-in-(town).co.uk i.e. www.houses-in-yarm.co.uk but they can also be accessed from the central portal at www.1click2keys.com

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

The IMPRES software system โ€˜powering’ 1click2keys has been developed by Intermedia Solutions of Darlington – see www.intermed.co.uk/pages/impres. 1click2keys is a โ€˜spin-off’ company from Intermedia and follows a similar and highly successful venture into on-line travel. Based on the same business model and basic technology, Holidays-in-Heaven was spun-off from Intermedia three years ago and then sold to the travel division of the Co-op just a year later.

www.1click2keys.co.uk sites in the North-East include:

houses-in-alnwick

houses-in-bishop-auckland

houses-in-chester-le-street

houses-in-darlington

houses-in-durham

houses-in-gateshead

houses-in-gosforth

houses-in-hartlepool

houses-in-hexham

houses-in-ingleby-barwick

houses-in-jesmond

houses-in-middlesbrough

houses-in-morpeth

houses-in-newcastle

houses-in-north-shields

houses-in-north-yorkshire

houses-in-northumberland

houses-in-northallerton

houses-in-peterlee

houses-in-redcar

houses-in-south-shields

houses-in-stockton

houses-in-sunderland

houses-in-thirsk

houses-in-tynemouth

houses-in-washington

houses-in-whitby

houses-in-yarm

Because of the high costs involved in planning and having a wedding and not to mention a honeymoon, many couples are asking how can we ask for money to go towards our honeymoon without showing a total disregard for wedding etiquette? Additionally, many couples are already living together prior to getting married. For some, it may be a second marriage. As a result, the need for the usual household items as wedding gifts is not a need. The natural solution to the wedding “gift giving” dilemma is the popular and growing trend toward honeymoon registries.
The traditional way of gift giving has been to rely on the bridal registry. The honeymoon registry communicates to guests and well wishers where the couple would like to go on their honeymoon, the activities and extra amenities they would enjoy that would make their dream honeymoon a reality.
A honeymoon registry is much like a wedding registry. When you join a honeymoon registry, your chosen destination package is broken down into affordable “pieces” and listed just like a normal gift registry. What’s so great and unique about the honeymoon registry is that it enables your wedding guests to purchase portions of your honeymoon. Yes, your guests can contribute toward your honeymoon, but in some cases giving a particular portion of the honeymoon–dinner at a nice restaurant, or a carriage ride, for example–is more meaningful.
There are three basic kinds of honeymoon registries:
*Registries that require you to book your travel through the travel agency offering the registry.
*Registries that allow you to book your travel either through the sponsoring travel agency (or other affiliated travel agencies), through the travel agency of your choice, or on your own. Usually these registries charge an extra fee or higher service charge if you choose not to book travel through the registry’s parent travel agency.
*Registries that are not affiliated with any travel agencies, requiring you to make travel arrangements on your own or through a travel agency of your choice.
If a honeymoon registry sounds like the perfect solution for you, here is a quick guide to choosing, creating, and using one. Different registries offer various mixes of features and costs. Think about what is most important to you. Take a “virtual tour” of several different registries. Start by looking at a few examples of honeymoon registries. Look for professionalism. Does the site provide a thorough explanation of its services, including all fees and service charges? Does it explain who you can contact or what you can do if you run into problems? If the honeymoon registry is run by a travel agency, does the FAQ explain the company’s policy for cancelled or delayed travel?
Consider contacting couples who have used the registry. You can find couples by looking up old honeymoon registries and doing a web search for their e-mail addresses. Or look for e-mail addresses associated with wedding home pages hosted by the registry service. Send a friendly e-mail explaining your situation and ask for advice; most couples will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Talk to someone from the registry service, either by phone or e-mail. If the registry service falls short on customer service when you’re signing up, don’t expect better service if a problem arises.
To create your honeymoon, you must first submit basic personal information such as your names, the date of the wedding, contact information, and so on. Then you create your registry, which is an itemized list of all your honeymoon expenses. Some registries charge a setup fee, which is usually between $100-$150; others charge nothing to the wedding couple, but charge wedding guests a “service fee” when they buy part of the honeymoon. Most honeymoon registry websites allow you to create your registry right away over the web. Other sites put you in touch with a representative who will assist you in creating your registry.
What can you list on your registry? If you can buy it, you can list it. Typical registries list transportation, lodging, activities, special amenities, and meals. Expensive items are usually broken down so guests can choose to pay only a portion of the item. For example, a honeymoon registry might list ten gifts of $100 each toward your $1,000 airfare expense.
Some honeymoon registries allow you to personalize your registry with a message to your guests and descriptions of the different parts of your honeymoon, perhaps even allowing you to upload pictures.
Once your registry is set up, you need to let your wedding guests know that it exists. Many registries will provide you with printed cards announcing the registry and its web address; you can either mail them with the wedding invitation or separately. Some registries will email your wedding guests if you provide their email addresses.
The more tactful approach is to let your guests know about your registry indirectly. Let your parents, close friends, or wedding party members know that you have a honeymoon registry; they can pass the word along to other guests and well wishers. You can also create a wedding web page with up-to-date information for guests, and include a link to your registry on that page and list the address of your wedding web page in your invitation without directly bringing up the issue of gifts.
Wedding guests can look up your registry by typing in your last name into a search box on the registry website. After reading what you want, they click on the item they want to purchase and pay for the items on the website. Most registries also allow guests to purchase items by phone.
The gift-giver usually receives a certificate that is either sent to the wedding couple or to the purchaser to deliver personally the couple. Some registries charge a fee to mail this certificate. Other registries notify the couple of the gift by e-mail. On any registry, you can track how many gifts you have received simply by logging into the registry.
It’s important to note that most registries require guests to pay a service charge for the privilege of contributing to your honeymoon. The service charge is a percentage of the cost of the gift ranging from 3.5% to 15%. So if a guest wants to pay $100 toward your airfare and the honeymoon registry website imposes a 10% service charge, the guest will end up spending $110.
The wedding couple is ultimately responsible for paying for their honeymoon expenses which means any portion of the honeymoon that needs to be paid prior to the wedding will be at the wedding couple’s expense. Some or all of those expenses could be purchased by your guests however; some of the honeymoon expenses are not completely covered by the registry. It’s wise not to plan an extravagant honeymoon that you cannot pay for yourself.
Whatever money wedding guests contribute toward the honeymoon is placed in a holding account. The registry sends the couple a check (or electronically deposits the funds into their account) on a predetermined date, usually a week before the wedding. Even though the wedding guests paid for certain parts of the honeymoon, the couple can use the money for anything they want.
Janice Willingham is a travel enthusiast that likes exploring innovative ways to travel or in this case sharing information about the honeymoon registry option in wedding gifts. You can enjoy reading tips, articles and other information about travel at http://wealthpath.wordpress.com

First of all, let me assure you that there are ways to fly with your pets cross country, and even out-of-country, without any damage. You can relax, well, at least a bit anyway. From the research we have done about pet travel and specifically about flying with pets, it seems that most pets are completely safe and unharmed while traveling by airplane.

Still not convinced? Then you should take a look at two great pet air travel websites: Petflight and PetAir. Pet flight is a great site about pet-friendly flights and safe shipping of your pets. It was inspired by a special dog named Brent. Brent and his “pet Dad” discuss how they moved to Hawaii from the USA and they provide invaluable air travel and flight information for flying with pets.

Be sure to read the Pet Travel Reports . Petflight provides monthly reports on the loss, injury, and death of pets during air travel. In addition, you will find great pet travel tips and hard-to-find airline information. We highly recommend Brent’s website as a resource when planning to fly with your pets.

Pet Air is another great resource you could tap into. Pet Air has a 28 -year reputation for transporting animals safely. They deal with both wild as well as domesticated animals. We hope studying the information on these 2 websites and any others you may come across, will help to convince you that it should be perfectly safe to fly with pets IF you arm yourself with all the relevant information and use the right channels.

And if you really don’t like the idea of the cargo hold for your “babies” then hiring a private jet might be the way to go!

Knowing all the rules of pet travel can be confusing since not all airlines allow pets to fly in the cabin. Do your research and contact the airlines directly for all relevant pet air travel information, since pet travel policies vary from airline to airline, and the different policies can be confusing.

Lots of pet travel information is available on the internet, so you can easily acquaint yourself with the rules of pet friendly travel. There are some basic rules that both you and the airlines must follow such as:

-your pet must be at least 8 weeks old and under 100 pounds

-your pet will not be allowed to be outside of its pet carrier

-non traditional pets are not allowed ( sorry, you’ll have to leave your pet snake with his favorite sitter)

-you will need a health certificate from a vet that is no more than 10 days old if your animal will travel in the cargo hold.

These are just a few pet travel rules to keep in mind, but there are many more pet travel tips and resources to help make your pet travel experiences pleasurable for you, the airlines, and above all, for your beloved pet.

The wedding ring is the final gift a couple will give each other prior to marriage. Some might say that the very first gift a couple gives each other is a promise ring – which most consider a pre-engagement ring. Then as a couple gets more serious they then give engagement rings to each other.

Many couples look forward to the moment when they’ll slip a ring on their beloved. The look of love in their eyes, that moment when the ring is on their finger and they realize that they are theirs forever. What most don’t realize is that these moments with wedding rings have been happening for centuries. The meaning and symbolism behind a wedding ring is rich and as intricate as its own love story. It deserves to be told so that couples know exactly why they use wedding rings.

This wedding ring is a symbol and throughout time this symbol has stood for love, devotion and at times simply for an arrangement between families. The physical structure of the wedding ring has changed and adapted as different cultures have fashioned it into different forms to make it look beautiful. Some materials are more plentiful in different areas – and other materials or precious metals are considered to be more valuable in other areas. But the meaning behind the symbol has remained the same throughout time and over continents. “I love you” “I want to be with you forever” and “You are mine.”

A ring in its simplest forms is a circle: meaning ‘eternity.’ What more could every couple want than the pure desire to spend eternity together? Most couples choose to have a sentiment or romantic saying engraved inside their wedding rings. This makes that universal symbol so much more personal for each couple.

Symbols exist throughout our culture. Even the materials the wedding ring is made out of can be seen as symbols of love and devotion. Most wedding rings include diamonds. Diamonds are literally indestructible; they are the “forever” stone you want to select to represent your love. Rubies are another choice that represents love, passion and preciousness. While the wedding ring itself is seen as valuable – the symbolism of the wedding ring shows that your beloved is valuable to you. By giving them a valuable ring – you are showing the world just how valuable they are to you. In older days – you might also be protecting your ‘property’ (when women were considered property and possessions).

The wedding ring was worn in later times just as it is today, on the left hand, third finger. This is because of the strong-held belief that the vein in this finger travels directly from the heart. This belief was affirmed as women began wearing their wedding rings closer to their hand and then their engagement ring on that same hand – affirming this belief about this hand being so close to your heart.

Wedding rings have been worn in many traditions. While the traditions may be slightly different – the sentiment and meaning – to love, treasure and honor one another forever – remains very much the same. In Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians, rings are exchanged not at the wedding service – but at the betrothal. The groom’s ring is gold and the bride’s ring is silver. In Greece rings are exchanged by couples as they are engaged they are worn on the left hand, fourth finger – and at the wedding they are switched to the right hand. In England, a wedding ring has traditionally always been exchanged. This appears to come from the long-standing belief that marriages were made as arrangements to exchange not just love and honor – but goods or property as well. This belief holds true for most European countries.

During World War II and the Korean War it became popular for men to wear wedding rings. This reminded them of the wonderful wife they had waiting at home for them. After these wars, men began to wear wedding rings to show their faithfulness, devotion and love. Now most men wear wedding rings in many cultures around the world.

Jill Renee – This article is provided by DanforthDiamond.com a leading authority on wedding rings, engagement rings and fine jewelry. Danforth Diamond provides wisdom and advice to help you choose the right ring at the right price. Visit DanforthDiamond.com or call 877.404.RING

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:

Ms. Olivia Lamon

Market-Ability

990, Moraga Road, Suite C

Lafayette, CA 94549

The International Drivers License Allows You to Drive Legally In Over 200 Foreign Countries

LAFAYETTE, CA ??” February 28, 2002: Market-Ability announces its brand new product The International Drivers License.

Back in the 1950’s, the United Nations noticed a trend in international travel. They found that traveling and driving between countries was increasing dramatically. Because of this they decided to create the International Drivers License.

The International Driver License (or IDL) is a document in a booklet form (it resembles a passport) which translates the information on your current, valid drivers license into the language of the country you are traveling in. As long as you carry both your driver’s license and your IDL while driving in another country, you are driving legally.

In order to receive an International Drivers License all you need to do is forward a copy of your current valid, drivers license, a passport type picture and a completed application. In just two weeks you will receive your International Drivers License in the mail.

This is a perfect item for people who do a lot of international travel either for business or pleasure and even for the first time traveler. It is good for five years and will allow you to not only drive legally, but also assist you in renting cars and purchasing insurance.

The product showcase presentation will be held on Monday March 4, 2002 at 990 Moraga Road, Suite C, Lafayette CA 94549. Call for times and reservation. Northern California based Market-Ability, LLC is a joint-venture firm that partners with new product inventors and distributors and markets their products and services through direct response television, radio, catalogs, direct mail and more. A complete listing of their line can be seen by calling 800-434-6275.

For Additional Information, Please Contact:

Olivia Lamon

Market-ability

http://www.market-ability.com

800-434-6275

mproduct@pacbell.net