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Choosing Elementary School Photographers – Part I

If you look on the wall of any mother’s home you will find cherished memories framed for every year. No matter how silly the photo, school photographs are remembered for a lifetime. Like most things that have a deep rooted tradition, technology has made elementary school pictures much more exciting. Many schools go with the traditional school pose for their fall program. But did you know a lot of schools use spring pictures as a fundraiser and have fun doing it?

Things to Consider when Choosing an Elementary School Photographer

Before you can think about how school photography can be a great fundraiser, you first have to choose the right photographer. For school photographers in San Diego, most decisions are made by the administrative staff, while others are left to the PTO or PTA. However, with school staffs being spread so thin these days, many schools are leaving the decision to the PTO.

There are so many school photographers available today that the decision to choose a school photographer can be a difficult one. A school photographer in San Diego is going to have a different program than a local company in a small town.

Listen to word of mouth. Good school photographers will have people talking about them. They will also have a good selection of experienced, professional school photographers to run your school picture day. It is always good to take a look at the company’s website to see their overall philosophy.

Something else to consider when choosing a photographer is who is actually taking the school pictures. You might want to ask for sample pictures taken by the actual photographers who will be at your school picture day. Many schools ask to meet the photographers who will be working at their school, which isn’t a bad idea. You want a photographer who will allow the kids to relax, because when kids are relaxed they take better pictures. This in turn leads to parents who are satisfied with their school pictures.

Another consideration when selecting a photography company is how much work will be required of the school. Many companies provide all the staff needed for picture day and require no volunteers from the school. When a company takes most of the work off of the school they are well valued.

Other photographers prefer teacher and parent volunteer involvement on picture day. There is a rational explanation for this, that the parents and staff know the students better. However, if your photographer is experienced in taking elementary school pictures, the kids will warm up to them very quickly. Plus, parents are not experienced in running a school picture day, that should be the job of the school photographer.

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Writing For The Web-Ten Ways To Make Money

The Web is a writer’s medium. If you’re looking for your next writing gig, look on the Web. Hundreds of thousands of Web sites are only too eager to pay writers to write for them, so finding buyers for your writing is easy.

One point: while there are many paying gigs for writers online, and you should (usually) aim to be paid for your writing, there are also many sites which will ask you to write for “exposure”. In some circumstances, this can work – perhaps you’re promoting a Web site or a book, and want to be published by a particular site because it’s a great credit.

In general though, if you want to be paid for writing for the Web, ignore those who want you to write for free. There’s an easy way to find paying gigs. Just type “pay” into the search query field in any search engine (Yahoo, Google, MSN), with the kind of writing you want to do. For example, if you want to be paid for writing reviews, enter “paid reviews” with quotes, into your favorite search engine.

Let’s look at ten EASY ways to make money writing for the Web:

One: Articles And Essays

Whatever your interests, you can get paid to write articles and essays about those interests online. When you write an article for the online world, remember that you’re writing for the Web, so your writing should be less dense than it would be for print.

Two: Reviews

You can review books, DVDs, services, electronics, vacations – whatever your interests, you’ll find sites which will happily pay you for reviews.

Three: Blogs

If you haven’t yet discovered the wonderful world of instant publishing, get acquainted with blogs. Some blogging gigs pay very well. Freelance bloggers, also known as pro bloggers, make great incomes blogging for a variety of sites – I’ve heard of a couple of bloggers with 30 blogs for which they write. Their income? Excellent.

Four: Ebooks

From a slow start in around 2000, ebooks have become a commodity that’s in high demand in 2007. Most ebooks are short, around 30 pages, although some can be 150 pages. In word length, they vary between 5000 and 25,000 words.

Everyone wants ebooks – companies, marketers, Web site owners… If you enjoy writing longer projects, get into the ebook writing marketplace.

Five: Reports

Reports are baby cousins to ebooks. They’re shorter, usually only two to three thousand words in length, and are easy to write. As with ebooks, reports are in high demand.

Six: Short Stories

A variety of sites publish short stories for their site visitors. If you like writing fiction, you can write stories which are published in full, or stories which run as episodes, and which will be sent out to readers.

Seven: Tutorials

What do you know how to do? Whatever your skills, you can teach them to others by creating tutorials. The sky’s the limit here, so let your inspiration be your guide.

Eight: Tips

Some sites publish thousands of tips, others send out tips as email messages. As with tutorials, whatever your skills, package them as tips and sell them to eager buyers.

Nine: Affiliate Sales Materials

Affiliate marketing is big online. (Google the term if it’s new to you.) Because it’s such a big industry, Internet marketers hire writers to write marketing materials, ebooks and reports.

Ten: Opinions

Got an opinion about something? You can express your opinions online and be paid for the privilege.

There you have it – ten EASY ways you can make money writing for the Web. I’ve only scratched the surface here. I haven’t touched on those Web writing gigs which require copywriting expertise, like writing Web site content and Web sales pages. The above are gigs that any writer can scoop up.

The gigs are out there. Go get them.

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Why Buy Educational Toys For My Child?

Maybe the first question that we need to answer is “What is an educational toy?” In my mind an educational toy is that which will teach my child something that is necessary for life. That sounds like a big statement for a toy, but think about it. Don’t you want something that will give your child a head start, or extra confidence, about, oh, I don’t know, spelling words, counting numbers, geography, the world.

Life is difficult, no one has ever said it was easy to get along in this world. Sure, lots of money can make things easier, at times, but in this world we are all equal when we are born. Babies are like little sponges, they learn ‘things’ from the time they are born, as they grow into toddlers, and pre-schoolers. Then along comes school! By the time a child begins Kindergarten, until graduation from 8th, 12th, college and post graduate studies, the majority of his/her time is spent ‘learning’, i.e. being educated. Is it not better to fill a child’s world with toys and games that, along with being fun, teach something. Is it not more fun to watch ants working and interacting in a colony, than, for example, play with a toy gun? I think so!

Why should I buy educational toys for my child? All children want to learn, whether they show it or not. Having educational toys and games available to them helps make learning fun and entertaining, and what is not good about that. Your child will be fascinated to watch tadpoles turn into frogs; see the night sky projected on the ceiling and walls of a room in their very own house; become a candidate running for President of the United States of America; discover great vacation spots while learning about the states and what they have to offer. I could go on an on and on, but I won’t.

The difference between ‘educational toys’ and ‘non-educational toys’ as I see it, is this: Educational games and toys are not only fun and entertaining, but also, make learning fun and interesting, while the ‘non-educational toys’ are just fun. There is a place for both, I guess, but, in my mind I would much rather have my child have fun and learn something too. Don’t you agree?