While wishing everyone well, there are a few we want to point out as especially deserving of your consideration for volunteer efforts, donations, or _____????

• Armstrong Habitat for Humanity – it’s been 8 years since I was elected to their Board of Directors and, according to the rulebook, I have to take a year off.  As of today, AHFH still has a couple of seats open on their new Board and there’s always a lot of ways you can help as a volunteer.  When their ReStore opens in downtown Kittanning, there will also be a place where you can buy building materials for CHEAP and proceeds go to a good cause.  Website:  www.armstronghfh.org
• Allegheny Valley HFH – Best wishes for a great 2010 for Diane Belitskus and her volunteers, staff, and partner organizations.  An EXCELLENT place for college students to help out in an ‘alternative spring break’.  I met students from Buffalo, NY, last year.  website: www.habitatav.org
  

  Allegheny Valley Habitat for Humanity, a good organization

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  HomEXPO - come see us there

  StrongLand Chamber of Commerce – Working to help not just member businesses but the Kiski Valley and surrounding region as a whole.  From a survey of the members that is still ongoing, it seems that their student incentive program, the Math League, and Quiz Bowl are popular ways for the Chamber to interact with our region’s future, one teen at a time.  Volunteer opportunity:  You can sit in on Economic Development Committee or other committee meetings if you really want to help us help the Kiski region get going again.

• Our Local4All partner restaurants – you can see a list at placemats.local4all.com.  Know a good family-style restaurant that’s not on our list?  Check our service area map and earn a $20 finder’s fee if you can help us get our placemats on their tables.
• Our Local4All advertisers – thank you for your loyalty and please let us know how we can serve you better.   To newcomers, did you know about our free tools for self-publishing?  Check out http://free4all.local4all.com and let me know if you need help with anything.  New ideas on how we can improve are always welcome.
  

  Posting on Local4All is 100% free, almost always as simple as 1-2-3

• Our Local4All volunteers – to Darla, Neill, and everyone else, thank you for helping us get the word out about local organizations, their events, and success stories. Darla publishes information for Armstrong Co Mem Hospital, the Ford City Library, and her church.  Neill covers the Roaring Run Watershed Assoc, F.L.A.G, StrongLand Chamber events, his own business River’s Edge Canoe & Kayak, has posted photos from River’s Edge Bait Shop and more.  Many thanks to ALL volunteers everywhere!

Darla is without a doubt our most valuable player when it comes to posting events.  She volunteers for her church, the Ford City Library, and Armstrong County Memorial Hospital and most, if not all, of their events show up on the Local4All calendar.

Thank you, Darla… Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and God Bless.

Carl

Kiski Area reminder card aka cheat sheet

Starting with the placemats delivered to the Alle-Kiski area in Sept 2009, patrons at our participating restaurants will have the opportunity to clip the lower left hand corner off the placemat and have seven distinct URLs that are relevant to the area.

• kiski.local4all.com – has links to four communities in this area plus links to the “cheat sheet”, also the template where you can make your own personal “cheat sheet” and print ten at a time for you and your friends.  Tip: Watch local4all pages for the shortcut URLs just like ‘kiski.local4all.com’.  Every event has one, every map has one, every business profile has one, every nonprofit profile has one.  Make the substitution, print, cut, and hand them out.  Easy!
• m29.local4all.com – map of the Wilder Business Park where two lots are available for sale and development.  Help us find businesses and it means more local jobs.
• e34480.local4all.com – an event posted to the Local4All calendar (the ‘e’ is a clue).  In this case, it’s the Fishing Derby being held by the Roaring Run Watershed Association in Apollo, PA.  Events can be posted for free.  On any event page, click the link at the bottom of the page to get started.
• 15613.local4all.com – the Apollo zip code is one of 42,000+ supported.  Pass the word, Local4All takes you anywhere in the USA.
• shay.local4all.com – a heart-tugging story of a young man with a passion for baseball.
• m258.local4all.com – after the story of Shay, a link to a map for the StrongLand Chamber of Commerce seems trivial BUT… it’s quite important to the person who wants to drive there.
• strongland.local4all.com – I’d have to guess this points to the StrongLand Chamber website but, then again, does it?  It might be a special page that they want you to read first.
• and finally, just create your own…  In only a few minutes, you can print out and cut a sheet of ten reminder card “cheat sheets” that you can pass out to your friends.  Start by downloading the template –> http://makemyowncheatsheet.local4all.com

Kiski Area reminder card (aka cheat sheet)

Help wanted, are you the one?

Is it tough out there? You bet. That’s why we need help and you can pick any of three areas to start in.  Details are given below.

As more and more workers are laid off, the best are turning to self-employment as a way to make ends meet. Hanging out a shingle in today’s busy world is more likely to be noticed on the Internet than along the street, depending on how you do it and where. What we are looking for are a few good people in different neighborhoods and online groups to help themselves and others use the free Local4All tools for self-promotion.

Do it well and they will be willing to pay you.

Virtual Assistants fill an area of increasing need

Opportunity #1: Virtual assistant – The busiest people you know don’t have time to do everything themselves so they do what makes sense, they hire someone. While online advertising has the lowest net cost per delivered message (sometimes FREE), it takes imagination, know-how, and time to put it all together right.  We have the imagination and know-how, do you have time to learn?  You may want to dust off those skills, rev up your imagination, and let’s make some money together.

V.Asst. Option 2:  If you’re interested in becoming a virtual assistant with us doing the selling for you, email your resume to carl [AT] local4all.com.  Pronto!

Teach or tutor local businesses and nonprofits

Opportunity #2: Teaching – Local4All has some very neat online tools including a custom mapmaker tool.  MapQuest gets you lost?  Bad mapping costs customers time and increases frustration.  Get around that and teach your friends how to use our  custom Local4All tools.  You can even hire your friends to help you.  Link:  http://forms.local4all.com

Local4All sales - you decide where and when

Opportunity #3: PT Sales – Help us boost our circulation and sales  in all service areas but especially Butler and Indiana, PA.  Within this opportunity are 3  potential incomes.

1. We pay a $20 commission for setting up restaurants to receive our high-quality free placemats.  Guidelines apply, check with us for details.  See our list at placemats.local4all.com -> Click on the link “Restaurants”
2. We pay $40 commission for sales of placemat ads.  Discounts apply for multiple ads on the same contract but we take the hit – the commission stays the same.  Details:  placemats.local4all.com -> Click on the link “Rates”
3. We also have online advertising options that are very low cost + USA-zipcode-sorted + Google-friendly.  Commissions range from $10 to $60 per ad.  Read more about advertising options you can sell at b2.local4all.com.

Although the new Crooked Creek Triathlon brochure doesn’t include a link to this web page, I still have the course maps and location map online at cc.local4all.com.

Carl Bromley
Race Director
2002-2008

PS:  If you need a simple or not-so-simple web page to save TONS of your time, consider doing what I did… create a Local4All  events page and then add/edit content each year.  Just the online map helping athletes find Crooked Creek Park  saved a huge number of hours.  Hundreds?  Thousands?  How can you tell when nobody ever called for directions?

List of forms:  -> forms.local4all.com

Here is a list of some of the Fairs and Festivals in southwestern PA this summer.  They are some of the best family-friendly events possible.

That being said, the two where you will most likely run into me are in bold font…

Kaleidoscope Arts Festival – Apr 15-26

Vandergrift Fine Arts Festival – May 30-June 14

Ford City Heritage Days – June 30-July 5

Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival – July 2-5

Butler Fair – July 3-11

Derry Township Agricultural Fair – July 12-18

Lyndora Carnival/Bazaar – July 18th.  Read Comment #1 for details  THANKS, DAWN!

Sewickley Township Community Fair – July 27-Aug 1

Fort Armstrong Folk Festival – July 30-Aug 2

Butler Farm Show – Aug 10-15

Dayton Fair – Aug 17-22

Westmoreland Fair – Aug 21-29

Indiana County Fair – Aug 30-Sept 5

The Great Stoneboro Fair – Sept 2-7

Ox Hill Community Fair – Sept 7-12

Green Township Community Fair – Sept 14-19

Lower Burrell 50th Anniversary Harvest Festival – Sept 19

More…

I will be glad to add yours if you post details to our website ->> http://PostEvents.local4all.com

Following are a list of links for individual community pages in the CSLB placemat area:

• cheswick.pa.local4all.com
• harmar.pa.local4all.com
• newkensington.pa.local4all.com – includes Arnold, Lower Burrell, and Parnassus
• tarentum.pa.local4all.com

You can find local information on each page and post information, too.

Assigned Shortcut URL:  CSLB.local4all.com

Want a way to remember and share shortcuts?  Try a cheatsheet…. business card size, you can create your own content and then create a cheatsheet with the unique shortcut URLs to the web pages you create. 

Get the CSLB cheatsheet.

Use this template in MS Word to create your own.

Welcome to Carl’s new blog.  About me, I get a kick out of helping where I can, when I can.  I’m WAAAYYYY overdue in putting together a special page for kids and their parents, www.goodforkids.local4all.com.  Please say a little prayer for me that my head doesn’t turn to mush before I get it published, ok?

THANKS!