Curious about how prices differ in Toronto vs. Vancouver? Or Ottawa vs Montreal? This fun infographic shows the prices of various basic living expenses in 5 of the most popular cities in Canada. Whether you’re looking to move to the land of Maple Syrup or just vacation there, you’ll need to have at least a couple of these costs covered before you start looking for cool things to do or fun attractions to check out.
Source: Unsplash
Email marketing used to be among the most popular internet marketing strategies. Email addresses collected by companies are a gold mine because they can send information using these emails. They can provide updates, send newsletters and continue engaging with their previous and target customers.
Nowadays, it seems like email marketing is not the first option for many business owners anymore. They have moved on to other campaign strategies online that are more effective in targeting a lot of people. Besides, the rise of social media allowed business owners to talk to their audience in a single post directly.
If you are a business owner, should you still rely on email marketing? Is it still a strategy worth pushing?
If you wish to continue this strategy, it might still work because you are reaching out to people through their email. For professionals and young adults, their emails are useful to carry out their daily communications. It is possible that they will read any update you send through this method.
Another benefit is that you can reach a lot of people at once by typing several emails. If you do not want to do things that way, it is also possible to personalise your message and send it to individual emails.
Conversely, email marketing is also a strategy many people deem as outdated. It does not appeal to them anymore. If anything, they see all these updates as spam. Instead of believing in the company, they start to feel turned off.
Another downside is that people get updates through other means. Social media could quickly tell people what is going on through notifications. It might take time before they decide to open their email and get updates.
Considering that email marketing does not work, you might want to try different marketing strategies that some people think are a thing of the past but are still relevant. Rollerbanners are among them. The good thing about this print media is that it allows you to reach local audiences and update them about your business. You can post information regarding exclusive deals and discounts offered by your company. If you intend to launch a new product and you are having a significant event, you can also inform everyone through these banners.
Banners might seem like a strategy used several years ago, but even significant brands still use them. It is a testament to how effective banner campaigns are. Therefore, if you decide to use one, you will not worry about the results. As long as you include the right message and you place the banners in the best locations, they will work well.
Email marketing is old and useless for many companies, but some old strategies could still be effective. You need to remain cautious in determining which campaign to use in the future. You also need to check the results and decide whether changes in the strategy are required before the next campaign is launched.
While you’re busy preparing for your upcoming trip and making sure everything is packed, checking flights and hotel bookings, and arranging transportation – don’t forget to prepare your kids too. Traveling can be a stressful and even scary experience for kids, especially if you’re stressed out too. Also especially where a road trip is intended, the actual way to survive the burden of traveling is to keep it entertaining all the way. However, this isn’t easy where little kids are included – They get all kinds of irritant feelings in so it is important to prepare them ahead, and of-cause don’t forget to download one of those lovely children songs youtube hosts which your kids can sing along to.
To help you to prepare your kids for a trip, there are a few tips that you should definitely try out:
Let your kids know that you’re all going to be going on a trip – and start a countdown. For toddlers it may be best to wait until the day itself and start counting down by the hour while explaining to them what will happen after that.
If you have kids that are old enough to understand the trip however, starting the countdown a week in advance can help build up the excitement. That will alleviate any apprehension they may feel about it, and get them pumped instead.
It is important that your kids understand exactly what is going on, and you should try to explain it to them as clearly as possible. Take them through it step by step, such as: We’ll get in the car, drive to the airport, take out the luggage, put it through the security check, get on the plane, etc.
Try to act out each step so that your kids understand what is going to happen, and then remind them of the steps periodically until you depart.
One of the best ways to get kids excited is to let them know a bit more about the place you’re visiting and what makes it special. Nowadays there are lots of kid-friendly travel videos that can help, or you could choose a video that is similarly-themed.
If you do find a good video that your kids enjoy you may want to use Online Video Converter to convert it, put it on your smartphone and take it with you. It will make it easy to convert MTS to MP4 online or to any other format you need.
Kids tend to feel more comfortable about things that they’re involved in – so make it a point to involve them in some way. The exact way in which you do so can vary based on their age.
For school-aged kids you should even involve them in the planning of the trip and float ideas of the places that you’re going to visit past them. For younger kids you can get them involved in the packing, and ask them to pass you things or find stuff for you.
While you’re actually traveling you can look into ways to keep your kids calm. If you’ve taken the tips listed above to heart, odds are they’ll be excited and looking forward to getting to their destination – which should make your job a whole lot easier.
Before your memories fade, consider gathering your pictures into a unique book where they will last for generations. Not only will they last, but they will also tell a creative story in more than photos.
Scrapbooking relays the story of your life in pictures, but there are also great ways to embellish the photos with art and scrapbooking supplies to help the pictures pop off the page.
Here are 15 Fresh and Fun Scrapbooking Ideas for Your Next Project:
Invest in a good quality stamp kit. Choose one that has stamps for every holiday and season. You will want to purchase ink pads separately, so you get the colors you really like.
Stamps on the pages of your scrapbook are easy and add a fun dimension to what is in the picture. Fishing trips, the first day of school, home from the hospital, each of these deserve their own page in a scrapbook, and having the perfect stamp to go on the page is priceless.
Even if you don’t paint, using watercolors to highlight a photo or paint a few stripes, zigzags, and/or spots on the side of the page, will help to make the photo come alive.
Look in your sewing stash for different colors, textures, and lengths of ribbon. You can create a background of different ribbons, you can braid them or overlap the ribbon for a variety of effects.
Create flowers out of ribbon, although they should be small to be able to close the book or you can decorate the outside of the scrapbook with small clusters of ribbon flowers.
Look around your home for things with patterns. The kitchen probably has several different items that contain repeating patterns that can be duplicated on the page. Take a strainer and enlarge the pattern of holes so you can place several different pictures in them.
Some patterns make sense, while others seem to have no rhythm or reason. These are the best kind to put photos in.
Use different colors of glue in your glue gun or bottle. There are many colors available in glue and they don’t have to be regulated to the back of a photo. Create swirls and other designs with glitter and colorful glues.
Again, look around your home for different shapes you can outline on the paper and then put a photo inside. Use the standard circle, square, triangle, but find a Hexagon, Trapezoid, a Rhombus (a diamond) and anything that would highlight a picture well on the page.
No need to spend lots of money on fancy paper. Use the fancy paper for the fancy photos, but use everyday household items for your backgrounds.
Use a bunch of recipe cards from a family book to make a background for a photo of the kids making cookies. Use a newspaper as the background for the day someone was born or passed away. Use an old map as your travel pages and outline in a bright color the path you took to get to your destination.
Old takeout menus are another great background for travel pages or cooking pages.
You probably have a drawer full of small scraps of different fabric. Take them out and match them to different photos. The fabric doesn’t have to match the picture, and it doesn’t have to be big or smooth. The fabric will give your page texture.
Have a page or two of black and white photos and designs. Use a black and white checkered pattern behind a photo of your dog in a field or kids playing board games. There are so many options when it comes to black and white, where less is always more.
Use pockets or envelopes to keep small mementoes inside. Baby’s first missing tooth or haircut. These are things that are important and shouldn’t be lost in a drawer. Use clear plastic to create the envelope so the item becomes part of the page.
When someone takes the time to pick or send you flowers, you want to save one or two as a lasting memory. Press flowers in larger books for a few days before adding them to scrapbook pages. You could also place a flower inside a clear pocket so it will not get damaged.
Sew directly on the paper. You may have to purchase a thicker card stock paper but treat it like an embroidery project and outline whatever design you can come up with. Use thread, yard or funky shoelaces.
Use an old coloring book with different animals or items as a template for sewing on the page.
Use old books and puzzle books to create a unique background for different pictures.
Break out an old puzzle or pick one up at the thrift store. There are bound to be so many different shapes that can be traced on the paper and then cut small photos to put in them.
You can also glue pictures directly to several connected puzzle pieces, then slice them apart and glue them into the book, either as one piece or with some distance between the pieces.
When creating a page about your dog or cat, take a non-toxic ink pad and press their paw on it. Immediately place the paw on the paper for a lasting memory next to a photo of the animal having fun.
The same can be done with hand and foot prints of babies and children. Be sure to use non-toxic ink and paints.
Many websites, like Pinterest, will give you more idea on what to use when creating a beautiful and unique scrapbook. Memories in a scrapbook are great gifts for your entire family. They also make wonderful wedding presents as you can chronicle the evolution of the happy couple’s journey to each other at the end of the isle.
Plumbing is one of those things that we often don’t think about because it’s hidden. With the major pipes behind walls, under cabinets, and running across the ceiling of the basement, it’s easy to forget completely about it.
Until, of course, there’s a problem.
That’s when you need to take action. Of course, it’s much better if you can discover a problem before it causes significant damage. Sometimes there’s a drip or knocking pipes to clue you in, but not always.
Here are five silent signs that your home has plumbing issues you should handle as soon as possible.
When you go to your basement, take a moment to look at the water pipes you can see. The next time you need to open your kitchen or bathroom cabinets, do the same. Do you notice any odd coloration? Be sure to check especially around joints.
If you notice an odd colour, rust, or any kind of gunk building up, that’s a sure sign there is a leak. It’s possible the leak is from the supply line, which could cause a huge mess if it bursts. Contact a plumber right away to get help.
It may not make noise, but you’ll certainly notice it. If you notice a nasty sewer smell in your home, check and see if it’s coming from outside. If you step out of your home and don’t smell the same thing, you probably have a problem with your plumbing.
Drains and vents are designed to keep sewer gas vented outside of your home, so if you can smell it, there’s something wrong with that system. A vent line may be cracked or a drain may not be working properly. Either way, you’ll want to take action.
If it’s been quite cold and you notice a drop in water pressure or you simply have no water at all, it’s possible your pipes have frozen. This is a major concern and has to be handled right away.
Unfortunately, thawing the pipes is the least of your concerns. You have the most danger of an incident after the pipes thaw and the water suddenly returns at high pressure. Any splits or leaks that have occurred as a result of the pressure of the freeze will suddenly be very noticeable, and you may even have a pipe burst.
Do your best to keep your pipes from freezing in the first place, but if it happens, you may want a professional to help you fix it safely.
If you notice problems with paint bubbling from the inside, it’s a sure sign that there’s moisture behind the wall. Unfortunately, this can lead to a host of problems, from mould and mildew to pests and damage to your home’s structure.
It’s possible there’s a leak from the roof, a nearby window, or even a plumbing pipe that’s nearby. You’ll have to do some investigation to discover what’s wrong, as these kinds of plumbing leaks can be a bit sneaky and hard to find.
Once you do fix the issue, you’ll want to work with a company that provides waterproofing in Toronto so that you can ensure that no moisture will find its way into your walls again.
You know how much your water bill is most months. If you have a sudden spike, you should immediately look into what’s going on.
Of course, water rates change over time, but they don’t usually cause a huge change from one month to the next. First, consider if you have done anything that would increase your water usage significantly. Did you install irrigation in the yard? Did you fill a pool for the season?
If you haven’t done anything differently, it’s likely there’s a leak or problem in your plumbing system instead. A running toilet, for instance, can cause hundreds of dollars of extra water usage. You should fix your running toilet or address whatever leak is happening right away.
One of the most silent but deadly things about water leaks is that they promote the growth of germs, bacteria, mould, and mildew. These things can significantly impact the health of you and your family. Younger children and older adults are especially at risk.
If you keep an eye on your plumbing issues and help make sure everything is up to date and working well, you’ll be promoting great health in your home. Your air quality and water quality will be better, and you’ll avoid provoking allergies or other illnesses.
Of course, it’s always best to have professional help with your plumbing issues. They know exactly how to identify problems and fix them safely. If you notice a problem, call a plumber right away!