Joan’s Boomer Blog

We never eat out anymore without some sort of restaurant deal or freebie in hand. One way to get free appetizers, discounts on meals or even a free birthday dinner is to go to each restaurant’s website and sign up for their online “club” or email listing.

It’s easier to find a big listing of freebies if you live in a larger area but almost everyone has access to a Red Lobster or TGIFridays. Even if you live in a smaller area, though, and have a local favorite, check to see if they have a website and an e-club. Many restaurants are catching on to using the Internet to build a loyal following and offer special discounts to customers.

Most of these restaurants send you a discount coupon or free appetizer just for signing up. Then you get a birthday freebie of some sort and, of course, they send emails to let you know about specials - some of which also offer some sort of deal or discount.

Red Lobster - Nearly everyone has a Red Lobster in the area and, while their food is very good, dinner can be pricey. Get a free appetizer for signing up and a birthday freebie as well. Plus Red Lobster will email you about dinner specials as well.

Mimi’s Cafe - Mimi’s is located in all the lower US states, from California to Florida, all the way up to Virginia and Maryland. Mimi’s offers you a birthday freebie but they also send out emails each week with specials. Just yesterday, I got a buy one get one free breakfast coupon at Mimi’s. They have free muffins sometimes too and these are delicious!

Genghis Grill - Serves Mongolian Grill style offers discount coupons and a free dinner on your birthday for signing up with their reward’s club.

TGIFridays - Their “Give me more Stripes” club offers a free dessert or appetizer on your birthday, plus you earn reward points every time you eat there.

Panera Bread - Lots of healthy eating options here. You get a card and a key chain fob at Panera Bread which you register easily online. The automatically loads a free pastry or other goodies for your next visit.

O’Charley’s which is located in the Eastern half of the US, gives you a free dessert or appetizer for signing up, plus a birthday freebie and specials throughout the rest of the year as well.

Texas Roadhouse is a great steak house and contrary to its name, is located in pretty much every state of the US. Texas Roadhouse also offers a freebie for signing up with their Texas Roadie VIP club and special deals throughout the year.

Buca di Beppo serves Italian food family style. Their food is delicious! Get a freebie dessert for signing up for their e-club, a free appetizer for your birthday, plus something for your anniversary too! Get their restaurant deals totaling $150 a year by joining their club, according to their website.

P.F. Chang’s mails you a rewards card which, when presented at the restaurant, will give you a 10% discount on your bill. I just signed up for this one while writing this articles so not sure what other sort of freebies they might offer.

Red Robin a premier burger restaurant offers a free burger on your birthday for joining their eclub. I just signed up for this one as well so not sure what else you get. I’m not a burger person but my son-in-law just loves Red Robin.

Outback Steakhouse - Their rewards club offers points which can be redeemed for restaurant freebies, such as $10 off two entrees. You get 250 points just for signing up.

Besides signing up for restaurant deals via their eclubs, check your credit card freebies as well. One of our credit cards offers points which can be redeemed for gift cards to restaurants or retailers such as Sears or Home Depot.

To look for other restaurant deals and freebies, just think of places you like to dine, or restaurants you’d love to try and look up their website. You’re sure to find birthday freebies, free desserts, discount coupons and more.

Brain games are becoming more popular as baby boomers start to have more “senior moments.” Let’s face it, as we get older, we start to lose some of our brain function. We forget things. We lose things. We sometimes feel like we are slipping - just a little - mentally.

The good news is that by doing brain teasers and brain games, we can actually improve our brain function and keep those old wheels turning in our head. As a rule, I don’t go in for playing games, unless it’s a rousing game of Scrabble or Apple. I see friends and relatives, old and young, with their eyes glued to their iPhones, playing some game or other and I think “What a waste of time.” For me to play a game like that, it has to have a purpose. Improving brain function is a pretty good purpose, I think.

There are quite a few sites out there for brain games. Some charge a subscription fee but I’ve found some free brain games online that are fun and they help improve language skills, problem solving, analytical skills, memory and concentration among other things.

Brain Training 101 offers free games and a newsletter , plus you can sign up for a “free brain training power Pack” which includes a braining training guide and a brain booster audio. The free games include memory power games and brain teasers and puzzles.

Senior Ark is a great site I just recently discovered. If you go to the home page and scroll down past all of their interesting topics for seniors, you’ll find a list of free brain games for seniors.

AARP - Of course AARP offers many resources for seniors and brain games is no exception. There are five categories of games and puzzles, for analytic skills, problem solving, keeping your brain sharp, language skills and improving memory and concentration.

These brain training games come from Parade Magazine. The six different games here each tell you what they do for your, ie improve problem solving and processing speed, and then gives you easy to follow directions. Parade also has other areas of interest if you like browsing, such as health and fitness.

Games for the Brain offers over 40 brain games of different kinds. You can even get them sent to your mobile device here.

If you’re one of the millions of iPhone and other mobile device users, I’m sure there are also dozens of brain game apps you can download. I’ll have to ask my kids about that one-lol

If you don’t mind spending a little money for brain games, here are a couple of good puzzle and game teaser books from Amazon.

Entertain Your Brain: More than 850 Puzzles! Math problems, lateral-thinking conundrums, brain teasers, whodunits, IQ tests, trivia quizzes…as well as an assortment of baffling optical illusions and amazing stunts using paper, scissors, and other items found around the house.

The Total Brain Workout In all, there are 450 puzzles for you to solve in this book. They are organized into nine chapters, each containing fifty puzzles that have a specific brain-based objective built into them. The fifty puzzles in Chapter 1 are designed to help activate the language areas of the brain, for example, whereas those in Chapter 2 are designed to stimulate visual thinking areas.

The Big Book of Brain Games: 1,000 PlayThinks of Art, Mathematics & Science is a collection of 1,000 challenges, puzzles, riddles, illusions. Ranks difficulty from 1 to 10.

I know there are many more resources out there as brain games gain in popularity. If you know of any you’d like to see included, or if you’re an old hand at brain games, I’d love for you to comment.

Create Retirement Income with Affiliate Marketing

Have you ever thought about starting your own blog or website, dreaming of piles of cash you could earn?

The Super Affiliate Handbook

Perhaps you already have a blog and you’ve considered affiliate marketing as a way to bring in extra income. Rosalind Gardener’s ebook, The Super Affiliate Handbook, describes how she made nearly $500,000 a year with affiliate marketing. Will everyone have this type of success if they read her book? No, they won’t. But if you are new to affiliate marketing, this book can give you all the basics you need to send you on your way.

I bought this handbook because, although I’ve had my own blogs and websites for several years, and I do have affiliate products on them, I’m certainly not making $500,000 a year. I was hoping I could take my business to the next level with The Super Affiliate Handbook’s information.

So let me begin by saying, after I read the handbook, I asked for a refund (and got it promptly and pleasantly). I did decide, however, that I wanted to promote this book because I think if you are just starting out in affiliate marketing, or if you are considering it for extra income, or if you’re really struggling and wondering why you aren’t making more money as an affiliate, this book will save you time and frustration. It does contain valuable tips and I have to say, if I’d read it starting out, I would probably be much more successful now.

Rosalind’s clear, concise style is very easy to read and understand, even if you’re new to affiliate marketing and building an internet business. Her focus is on choosing affiliate programs carefully, building simple but professional sites, writing compelling text and building trust from your visitors. As an ebook, it is available for instant download too.

So what does the Super Affiliate Handbook cover?

• Overview of affiliate marketing and the many ways you can earn money with it
• How to set up your own website or blog - include everything from how to choose a domain name to how to install a Wordpress blog and design tips.
• Search engine optimization tips and how to add valuable content to your site.
• Then - detailed, step by step information about how to monetize your site. Where to find affiliate programs, how to choose the right ones for your site, how to set up accounts and install the ads on your site.
• Mistakes and how to avoid them-I have to admit I was doing some of these and promptly changed course!
• How to write reviews to sell products and other sales tools.
• 31 ways to promote your website - traffic equals sales and earnings.
• How to organize, manage and grow your business.

The Super Affiliate handbook makes it very clear that you have to get the details right first time, every time – which is how she’s generating over $1,000 a day in affiliate income.

This book isn’t about magic tricks or get rich quick schemes. What you will find is a detailed and precise process that has worked for the author, and it could make all the difference for you.

They used to say, everybody has at least one good book in them. Nowadays, that has probably been amended to “everybody has at least one good blog in them.” If you’d like to take a passion of yours and turn it into profits to fund your retirement, the the Super Affiliate Handbook is a great place to start.

Learn more about The Super Affiliate Handbook

If you’re interested in reducing those lines and wrinkles, maybe it’s time to start making your own natural skin care recipes. You can choose the very best anti-aging skin care ingredients and easily combine them into a totally natural, even organic, lotion, cream or under eye treatment. It’s easier than you think.

With the aging of the Baby Boomer generation, the anti-aging skincare industry has been booming too! I recently did some research on the best anti-aging skincare products and was astounded to see products like Lifecell, rated the best in antiaging skincare by some, costs a whopping $189 for a two month supply. All of these expensive products contain chemicals and preservatives, which can be toxic to our bodies over the long term.

I’m certainly interested in the promises of more youthful skin that these companies advertise but somehow I choke at paying $80 to $100 a month to look younger. I discovered I could make my own natural, anti-aging skin care lotions, creams and toners for just pennies a day - many with ingredients from my own kitchen.

One investment I did make was to buy Sue Dolan’s ebook, Naturally Sensational - Rejuvenating Skin Care Recipes. Fifty-four year old Sue, featured in Real Simple Magazine, is an expert and researcher in antiaging skincare. Here ebook is chock full of recipes for facial scrubs, masks, toners, moisturizers, under eye treatments, facial mists and more - all made quickly and easily with natural ingredients found in your own kitchen.

Besides the recipes, Sue added lots of tips for sensational skin and how each skin care recipe works to create more youthful skin. There is also a great resource section which lists natural ingredients and what each one does for your skin when added to a recipe.

Here’s one recipe for a natural skin enriching mask, made with common ingredients you probably have on hand:

Skin Enriching Mask

• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon yogurt

Whisk the honey, egg yolk and yogurt together thoroughly. Slowly
drizzle in the olive oil while whisking briskly.

Apply to skin for 15 to 20 minutes. Rinse well with warm water.

Natural moisturizing treatments, especially for aging skin, commonly include natural oils, honey or aloe vera. Natural oils could include olive oil, walnut oil or almond oil. Don’t forget too, if you want organic skin care products, nearly any ingredient is available as organic.

Where to get natural skin care recipe ingredients:

• Your local grocery store or supermarket
• Health Food stores which carry many essential oils and herbs which you’d want to include in your recipes
• Order online from places like Amazon.com. Many of their products offer free shipping too. Here are just a few of Amazon’s natural skin care ingredients;

100% Unrefined Certified Grade A Shea Butter which is offers UV protection, softens skin and has antioxidant properties.

Organic Argan Oil which reduces wrinkles, improves skin’s elasticity and reduces scarring and stretch marks - plus you can use it on your hair to restore shine and promote hair growth.

Lavender Oil Properties include being antiseptic, antibacterial, stimulant, healing, promotes cell activity and regeneration.

Another informative book to get you started on creating your own natural skin care recipes-The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy: Over 600 Natural, Non-Toxic and Fragrant Recipes to Create Health - Beauty - a Safe Home Environment

Don’t worry about needing special tools to make your skin care recipes either. Mostly all you need is a pan for heating, a blender of some sort and clean, air tight containers, plus whatever ingredients you want to use. Make a little at a time and store the rest of your ingredients for months.

Try a few natural skin care recipes and test for yourself if they perform as well as the expensive varieties. You may just discover younger looking skin at a fraction of the price.

Check out my new AntiAging SkinCare tips blog. I’d love your comments.

Starting your own blog or website can be a great source of retirement income. Take a hobby or passion and turn it into a stream of income. This article, by my friend, Eunice Coughlin, explains more about how you can use small business web services to help.

Small business web services are desperately needed for business owners who want a website that will work for them.

Back in the day, when the internet first took hold of small business, it was believed that everyone needed a website. No one knew why, exactly, other than the fact that everyone was doing it. The prevailing wisdom was if you wanted your business to be relevant, you needed to have a web site because “that’s the future, dang it!”

Fast forward about 15 years later and people still believe in the necessity of having a small business web site but still not sure why, except that everyone’s doing it.

There are still some hold-outs, though, who refuse to give in and get one, either because they can’t afford the high prices web designers charge or they just don’t see a need for it.

There are a small number of small business owners who understand the value of a well-promoted web site and demand more than just design; they’re looking for small business web services.

Your business web site should be a major marketing tool for you that can bring a huge return on investment if you do it right. It should bring you sales leads that are ready to buy your product or service because you’ve pre-sold them through your website.

There are millions of websites in cyberspace competing for the attention of your customer. How do you get the kind of traffic to your web site that will result in a sale for you?

People are online looking for information about your product or service. You’ve got to develop an online promotional plan that will draw people to your site, provide the information they’re looking for and then develop a relationship with them so that they trust you and are ready to buy your product or service.

It’s not as complicated as it sounds. It just takes time to do it. Social networking is a major part of web site promotion. Most business owners don’t have the time or knowledge to do it on their own but it is the wave of the future for small businesses who want to capture the business that’s available to them online.

The 2 main players in social networking are Facebook and Twitter. As a “bricks and mortar” type of small business where your product or service is limited by geography, use Facebook and Twitter to connect with prospects in your city or regional area.

For example, if you are a cake designer, you would want to follow people in the 20-something age group that might be considering marriage sometime in the future. Offer incentives in your “tweets” and status posts for people to like you or follow you. Every once in a while, post a link to your website or a specific page on your website that you’d like to promote.

As your posts appear on your followers walls and Twitter streams, people will begin to follow you and check out what you’re posting. It begins to have a “viral” effect and the next thing you know, you have a huge list of followers and a steady stream of visitors to your website. Google and the other search engines like Bing takes note of all this online activity that’s directing traffic to your website so that when someone searches for your business in your area or region, your website will pop up in the search engines first. The result is more customers and more sales for your small business.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/how-small-business-web-services-can-help-you-reach-customers-in-your-area-3986623.html

About the Author

Eunice Coughlin, Online Marketing Specialist, started Simple Internet Strategies in 2010 to help the small business owner attract more customers and make more money with their website. To see how she can help you, sign up for a free evaluation of your website here.

Group buying websites have exploded this past year, with sites like Groupon, Eversave and Living Social gaining in popularity. The idea behind group buying sites is that different businesses offer daily deals in your city, such as $50 worth of food at a restaurant for $25 or unlimited yoga classes for one month for $20. When and if enough people buy the deal, it “goes through” and everybody gets a coupon to print out.

The daily deals are all different so you never know what will pop up. You sign up for free with the various websites and they email you the deal of the day. If you want it, all you do is click and buy. Some of the daily deals are also Online stores, for instance I got $30 worth of tea for $10 from a site where I just ordered the tea and used my coupon code.

More and more people are using clipping coupons these days and group buying websites are just an updated extension of old fashioned coupons.

I’ve gotten the aforementioned yoga classes, several restaurant deals, $25 worth of popcorn for $15 at the Popcorn Factory and various other things. I’m lucky that I live near 2 large cities so there are plenty of deals for our area. If you live in a smaller area, group buying may not be available yet. But they are constantly adding new cities and areas to Groupon and Eversave.

I’ve signed up for several of the group buying sites, although Groupon is the one I buy the most from. Here’s a run down on them:

Eversave - Get $5 credit just for signing up. Gave a $10 credit for the holidays too. Also offers a related coupon website for checking out coupons and printing them. Eversave offers more than one deal a day and you also have more than one day to get the “daily deal.”

Eversave tends to have more Online deals than Groupon. Today I got $30 worth of

Groupon - Groupon was the first and is currently the largest group buying website and is in 91 cities and 23 different countries. Recent deals include massages, tickets to college football games, lots of restaurant deals. Besides the daily deal for your city, there are also deals for nearby cities and, while most expire in 24 hours, they are beginning to add new ones with a few days to purchase.

Seize the Deal - Some of their recent daily group buys include massages, tickets to the Nutcracker ballet, restaurant deals and tickets to the Texas Motor Speedway. Some of their deals are up for several days before closing. I haven’t purchased anything from this one yet but I like seeing what they offer every day.

Urban Dealight - is newer on the group buying scene. I haven’t bought anything from them yet either. Their deals seem to be fewer and farther between at this point but they will probably grow over time.

Living Social is in 89 cities. This one is new to me and I haven’t purchased anything here yet.

Dealster is in 50 cities in the US. I just recently signed up for this group buying site but some recent deals are as much as 95% off what you’re purchasing.

With each of these sites, when you click on the daily deal, it gives you a link to the website and describes in detail just what the deal covers. You also have an account so all of the daily deals are stored there and you can either print them out and mark them as used or keep them until you’d like to use them. You can also purchase them as a gift for a friend.

These days, I like to save money any way I can and I always love a good deal. Group buying sites are here to stay and offering more and more great deals all the time.