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Energy efficient homes that go easy on the environment are turning heads in Georgia with their low-maintenance appeal, cost efficiency and natural good looks. With Georgia Tech’s recent success in the 2007 Solar Decathlon and world-class community projects like Atlantic Station, Metro Atlanta is well on its way to being a model of eco-building in the Southeast.

Georgia’s green power was most recently demonstrated by Georgia Tech at the 2007 Solar Decathlon. The innovative contest, sponsored by the US department of energy, is a green building competition with an emphasis on solar energy. Twenty teams from universities all over the world were handed the task of building the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home they could imagine.

Over the five day judging period, the Decathlon Homes had to demonstrate the ability to use nothing but solar energy to power a washer dryer, oven, TV, computer and generate hot water. The homes also had to be architecturally sound, marketable and they had to look good.

Though it was their first year to participate in the contest, the Georgia Tech team won 6th place for their innovative light-house, a completely off-the-grid solar powered home. First place went to a team from Darmstadt Tech in Germany. Though the Georgia Tech team didn’t take home first place this year, the house is part of the significant contribution that that Atlanta’s architects and engineers are making to what we know about building smart.

“Many of the advances that are demonstrated in this house will come to the mainstream,” said associate professor Russell Gentry of the Georgia Tech house, “they will have to come to the mainstream if we’re going to save the energy that we promised to.”

The innovations in the Georgia Tech house set a new standard for energy efficiency and eco- friendliness for Atlanta homes. Atlanta already has a number of model solar projects like the EcoManor, the Southern Living Idea House, and the Brookhaven Zero Energy Home.

“35% of the energy consumed in the US is consumed in buildings. It’s important for us to develop technologies that save that energy,” says Gentry. “Everything we do here is about making buildings more energy efficient and smarter.”

The Georgia Tech Light House is steel and wood construction with a modern open floor plan, hardwood flooring, and a semi-transparent solar roof that subtly lets lights into every room in the house while it insulates and generates power. Designed to be easy to build, expandable and accessible, the plans accommodate from one to three bedrooms and up to two baths. The cost of the prototype is $280K.

World Wide Web has given us a great opportunity and free enterprise around the world from a behavior, we can only happen with the connection to the Internet. These same benefits are also available to billions of other people selling all kinds of products and services, many of which will sell to be similar. Competition, therefore, hard and thin, because the scope is the web, unless your site stand out and make their presence known, your company be doomed to mediocrity for the best, if not failed, but very good your product or services possible.

For your business to succeed, it will need to differenciate itself in some way from others. You need to take serious and drastic measures to promote your website. Mercifully, advertising online can be done in many ways, the best of which are listed below:

E-Zines: The Magazines of the Online World

The themes are on specific subjects which are read by those interested in that particular subject. These readers are, therefore, potential customer for that product/service. Advertising your website in E-zines that are related to your business/product will almost guarantee to drive traffic to your website and help increase sales for your services/products. When advertising in E-zines, ensure that you do not advertise alongside competitors. Enquire beforehand whether there is a policy concerning posting competing advertisements. It would be a good preparatory measure to subscribe to the E-zine first prior to making a decision whether or not to advertise there. An E-zine that runs fewer advertisements is a better choice than one that runs many. To find publications that are relevant to your business, look at the Online Directory of Ezines.

Pay-Per-Click Programs

This is an excellent method to advertise your business without the risk of having advertised in the wrong place. With this method, you advertise your website, and only pay for those clicks on the links to it.

Pay-Per-Lead

Here, you pay only for those who download a trial, fill out a form, or enter a sweepstake, or  whatever you choose.

Pay-Per-Click Banner Ads

With this method, you place a banner on an advertising site and you will only be charged for every click that your banner receives.

Opt-In Email

This is an ultra excellent way to advertise your business/website. With this method, you submit your sales copy to your chosen company that will, in turn, email it out to those on its mailing list. You should exercise caution in your choice of which companies to use as some of the companies advertising their mailing lists as opt-in email service are sometimes really SPAM. An effective sales letter is essential when using opt-in mailing lists as, in their absence, your money, time and effort will be totally wasted.