How To Sell a Website

After you have made an established website, you have many options in which will allow you to turn a profit. If you’re looking for a long term cash flow you can get some money your site using Google Ad Sense or other pay per click companies, cpm advertising companies or by selling links for a monthly fee.

One method of getting quick cash is by selling the website. There are many ways in which you can make your site appeal to other webmasters and help you get a successful fast sale. Often, a quick in and out deal is the way to go.

The first thing you should decide when considering the sale of your website is the amount of money you would be happy with if someone was to offer you a ‘buy it now’ price. You need to consider the time and effort that has gone into the sites production and advertising as well as the sites overall profit on a monthly basis. Obviously the more money your site makes, the more it will be worth to someone. Another major factor that makes the site appealing to others is the amount of effort needed to maintain the website. By using a CMS (content management system) it will make it easier to update as you simply log into a user interface and add the content with out any FTP details being needed. You can also set multiple accounts up so you can have people updating your site without any risk of deletion.

There are many different websites in which you will be able sell your site, it’s always best to add it to as many different ones as possible giving the maximum exposure and more chance of selling. It’s very popular that you auction off your site, you basically set a starting bid and people will look through the description and statistics given and bid accordingly based on how much they are willing to pay for it. You can also set a BIN price (buy it now) so if the bidding wars get a bit too feisty then someone can grab it instantly if they believe it has great potential.

Site point is a great site as it attracts some of best successful sites up for sale and only interested people will bid on your site and not waste your time. You can also advertise your site on certain webmaster forums which sometimes does provide a successful sale but can also give you more trouble then its worth. Unlike on the official sites that sell thousands of sites on a daily basis, the forums will attract many people that are just interested in how you got it successful and intend on copying the content, niche and style which is why you should be careful about the sort and amount of information you give out to people.

When listing your website you should provide a full description about your site giving the age, the approximate amount of back links, any successful search results in the leading search engines, amount of indexed pages, the monthly income and any other information that will strengthen the image of your site. After you have listed your site you will get inundated with emails asking for details and a BIN price if not set. People will always bargain you down as they will never offer the opening asking price so you need to be strong and don’t let your hard work go to waste.

After the sale of your site you still have to be careful, even if you have received the money. There are people who make a living out of scamming people, always use a safe method of payment, although pay pal is widely used people can claim a charge back for up to 60 days after the sale which will be hard to prove if you’re selling electronic good such as a website as you have no psychical delivery. Do it in stages to ensure you will receive the whole amount, first you can send the domain over to their registrar and then once you receive the remaining amount, send them a zip file with all off data for the website and don’t forget to push any databases your website uses.

A recommended method of payment is escrow as they hold the parties payment until both sides are happy that they have received their share of the deal in which the payment will be cleared to the seller with no hassle and no risk to either party.

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How to Add a Contact Form to a Website

If you’re not a coding genius, but want to put a clever contact form on your website, you have few options. Contact forms are almost always a good idea as they allow visitors to communicate with you and send you files and information as you please. A contact form doesn’t require the user to send a separate email or to pick up the phone and call – practically unheard of in this day of online usage.

Pay Someone

If you don’t know how to code a website to add a contact page or the template you’re using doesn’t have one, you can always pay someone to do a site redesign or to create a simple form to use on an existing page. Anytime you require a full-fledged custom service, however, you can expect to pay a pretty penny – especially if you want it done correctly the first time.

Make One Yourself

You might be able to get by with a standard template and a few modifications. If your original site had some sort of contact form or contact information, modifications might be simple to make. You’ll need to dig into your files and pull out a “Coding for Dummies” book or online tutorial to see what changes you need to make, but you might be surprised at how quickly you can piece something together.

Download a Contact Form

A third option is to let someone else do the work for you for far less than you’d have to pay for a custom design. A flash contact form is a simple image that pops up on a particular page of your website after you download it and get it set up correctly. You pay the asking price, get the files and get the form set up. Then it’s ready to go.

If you use this option, you can expand upon the basics, but trying out different kinds of contact forms. If you’re not sure what the best options are for your site, you can start with a basic form and then offer users a place to upload multiple attachments if it seems more practical down the road. You can also upgrade your contact form to the latest style time and time again without much of an additional expense.

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How To Meet Women

When it comes to meeting new people many men are have trouble meeting that perfect woman. There are many different places where you can start your search in order to find the one you are looking for.

Online Dating Sites:
One of the most successful methods in today’s world to meet women is through online dating sites. This enables you to search through local women’s profiles in the comfort of your own home, at your own leisure. Another benefit of this is that you can take the relationship at your own pace, you’re never pressured into anything you don’t want to do.

At first you can simply send emails to various people to get to know them, if you think you found a potential match then you can take it further in the form of instant messaging, phone talk or even meeting up with them in person.

As you will know playing the dating game can be very expensive, if you go out and around the bars and night clubs you can easily spend around $60 a night, do this a few times a month and you are spending a small fortune and are not guaranteed to find anyone. This is where the online dating sites come in, for a fee of around $10 a month or even free in some cases, you can have access to thousands of profiles of local singles in your area. One nice feature is that you can put your profile online and single women can view it and get in contact with you if they would like to get to know you more so you don’t have to do all the work.

People are turning to online dating sites due to the convenience, you can surf day or night in the comfort of your own home. Not everyone has sociable hours of work which may restrict your social life if you work nights so dating online may seem like the only practical solution. You don’t have to impress anyone with your dress sense or spend lots of effort on picking the right outfit for the occasion.

Always be careful what type of information you give out to strangers, although you may have been chatting to someone for a while you still don’t really know them and they may be leading you into a false illusion or misleading you. Never give any personal information such as address, telephone number and especially any credit card details.

It’s recommended that you at least try online dating, you never know you might find the woman of your dreams and hit it off right away. At the very least you will make a fair few good friends.

Local bars and clubs:A popular scene to meet new people is at your local bars, this can be a successful method in order to find potential next girlfriend but can also be very costly in the long run. It can also end up a complete waste of time as you will get talking to many women and trying to get to know them but then find out that you have nothing in common with them. The price also plays a big factor in the dating game as going out a few times a week or month, depending how much free time and active you are can easily cost well over $50 per session.

You have be willing to put the effort into your appearance in order to meet anyone worth meeting again, always take it slow and never rush into anything you may regret after. With the cost put aside the next problem is alcohol, people tend to act differently when alcohol is consumed as it has different effects on different people. It also affects your judgment and makes you choose the type of people that you think or want to get on with but have absolutely nothing in common.

The good thing about meeting new people in the bars and clubs is the fact you will be having a good time with your friends, I personally think if your looking for a long term relationship then this may not be the best method but you can guarantee you will have a good night out with your friends. It’s always best to not consume as much alcohol so you are aware of the people you meet and can make an intelligent decision on what to do next.

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How To Meet a Guy Online

Let’s face it!  Today’s dating world is completely different than it was in the old 1960’s drive-in movie with stale popcorn and your dad’s convertible.  Between working longer and longer hours, after work routines, and family activities, it can be hard to find someone who fits the mold you are looking for.  That is where online dating comes into play and meeting a guy online is the newest and best way to do it.

First, let me tell you that it is time to let go of any stigma you might have about dating online. It’s the 21rst century and it’s time for you to climb aboard and enjoy the ride. Plus, meeting someone online can be much safer for you, if done smartly, than traditional dating.

Here is how you can find a guy online and get your first date. It’s fast, it’s easy and you will be surprised  how effective it is. Start by realizing that you have to go to a dating site to fill out some very basic and non intrusive information about yourself. 

After you have established your own profile:

• Check your profile for any errors. It sounds odd, however, there are many men/women alike who say that a poorly spelled or grammatically incorrect profile is definitely a turn off.  90% of online profiles contain errors, make sure yours does not!
• You also need to make sure that you have a great photo posted with those pearly whites showing.  Everybody loves a good smile and profiles that do not have a picture are usually ignored.
• Don’t be shy. The internet is taking away that first awkward introduction.  You can forget about the communication barriers that have held you back before and let people know who you really are.  In other words, BE OPEN and BE HONEST.

After you have your profile:

• Make sure that you have a great attitude towards those who try to meet you, as well as those you try to meet.  You will have more fun and you’ll meet more people by showing the great attitude that you have. Besides, nobody likes a bore.
• You also need to make sure that you are ready for this type of fun.  Meeting someone online is definitely an easy way for you to find someone who shares your same likes/dislikes in many areas. Be prepared and open to meet someone.
• Like they say, "Good things come to those who wait." Don’t expect to find “The one and only” right away.  Get to know people and go on some fun dates. The more experience you have with meeting people online, the more you will understand what works for you.
• Make yourself a goal to date 100 men. With this goal (which is easy to meet in a year) you avoid setting yourself up for failure and increase the chance of meeting Mr. Right and not just a Mr. Right Now.

Make first contact:

• When you go to search for men, keep your initial search to your town only (you can always increase it later) Try and introduce yourself to at least 5-10 new men per week. Once you have exhausted options in your town you can increase the radius of your search.
• After you have found 5-10 men in your area, you can then try to contact them. Send them and e mail, send them an instant message, send them whatever!  The point here, is to make contact.
• Make a personal email template that you send out to the men you chose.  Honestly, it’s not to hard. Just write up a quick intro email, cut and copy it, then save it to your desktop. This email will help you to save a lot of time when introducing yourself to every guy you might be interested in.
• As soon as you get a response, you need to be on the ball and respond back. Men love women who show that they are interested.  Don’t respond within the first five minutes (you are not desperate, and if you are, you don’t want them to know that) but respond back within a day or two. Ensure that your reply is at least three paragraphs long!
• When you do find someone that you share a great interest in, make sure to set up a phone call and then a date. Do not even think about an online relationship until at least three dates.  Plan to set something up and go on that DATE!  Remember to be you and to have fun.

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How To Meet a Girl Online

Let’s face it!  Today’s dating world is completely different than it was in the old 1960’s drive-in movie with stale popcorn and your dad’s convertible.  Between working longer and longer hours, after work routines, and family activities, it can be hard to find someone who fits the mold you are looking for.  That is where online dating comes into play!

First, let me tell you that it is time to let go of any stigma you might have about dating online. It’s the 21rst century and it’s time for you to climb aboard and enjoy the ride. Plus, meeting someone online can be much safer for you, if done smartly, than traditional dating.

Here is how you can find a Girl online and get your first date. It’s fast, it’s easy and you will be surprised  how effective it is. Start by realizing that you have to go to a dating site to fill out some very basic and non intrusive information about yourself. 

After you have established your own profile:

• Check your profile for any errors. It sounds odd, however, there are many men/women alike who say that a poorly spelled or grammatically incorrect profile is definitely a turn off.  90% of online profiles contain errors, make sure yours does not!
• You also need to make sure that you have a great photo posted with those pearly whites showing.  Everybody loves a good smile and profiles that do not have a picture are usually ignored.
• Don’t be shy. The internet is taking away that first awkward introduction.  You can forget about the communication barriers that have held you back before and let people know who you really are.  In other words, BE OPEN and BE HONEST.

After you have your profile:

• Make sure that you have a great attitude towards those who try to meet you, as well as those you try to meet.  You will have more fun and you’ll meet more people by showing the great attitude that you have. Besides, nobody likes a bore.
• You also need to make sure that you are ready for this type of fun.  Meeting someone online is definitely an easy way for you to find someone who shares your same likes/dislikes in many areas. Be prepared and open to meet someone.
• Like they say, “Good things come to those who wait.”  Don’t expect to find “The one and only” right away.  Get to know people and go on some fun dates. The more experience you have with meeting people online, the more you will understand what works for you.
• Make yourself a goal to date 100 men. With this goal (which is easy to meet in a year) you avoid setting yourself up for failure and increase the chance of meeting Mr. Right and not just a Mr. Right Now.

Make first contact:

• When you go to search for men, keep your initial search to your town only (you can always increase it later) Try and introduce yourself to at least 5-10 new men per week. Once you have exhausted options in your town you can increase the radius of your search.
• After you have found 5-10 men in your area, you can then try to contact them. Send them and e mail, send them an instant message, send them whatever!  The point here, is to make contact.
• Make a personal email template that you send out to the men you chose. Honestly, it’s not to hard. Just write up a quick intro email, cut and copy it, then save it to your desktop. This email will help you to save a lot of time when introducing yourself to every Girl you might be interested in.
• As soon as you get a response, you need to be on the ball and respond back. Men love women who show that they are interested.  Don’t respond within the first five minutes (you are not desperate, and if you are, you don’t want them to know that) but respond back within a day or two. Ensure that your reply is at least three paragraphs long!
• When you do find someone that you share a great interest in, make sure to set up a phone call and then a date. Do not even think about an online relationship until at least three dates.  Plan to set something up and go on that DATE!  Remember to be you and to have fun.

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How to Find a Boyfriend

If you’re out of school, and afraid to taint your reputation at work by dating co-workers, you might find yourself in an awkward situation. There are horror stories about men you meet in bars and if one more friend fixes you up with some weird guy, you’ll probably lose it. If you want a boyfriend, but can’t seem to find one in your current situation, here’s how to land a decent guy – who might just turn out to be the man of your dreams.

Take Advantage of Internet Dating Sites

Internet dating sites had a seedy reputation for a long time, but today they are acknowledged as a legitimate means to finding others looking for love or at least a good time. If you’re going to use a singles dating site, be sure you understand how the site works and protect yourself by keeping your distance from prospective dates until you’re completely comfortable.

For example, go ahead and create a profile on a dating site and read through the profiles of others. If you get any interested responses, read through them carefully and reply through the board careful to not give away any personal details about yourself such as your last name, phone number or personal email address. Continue your conversation through the site, and then use a personal email address you’ve set up separate from your normal account to speak with him further.

Speak with him on the phone a few times to be sure there are no surprises as to his age before meeting him, and your initial meeting should be in the company of others. Meet him in a popular coffeehouse or restaurant and be sure to let a friend know where you’ll be. Hopefully after meeting him all will be well and you can continue getting to know each other.

Take a Class or Join a Club

If you want to meet people outside of work and away from all that “help” offered by friends and family, go where your type of guy will be. If you want an athletic boyfriend, head to the gym for a membership and sign up for a few personal lessons to learn to use the circuit training system or weights. Make eye contact with possibilities, and see if you get a response. If you become a regular gym member, you’ll be seeing a lot of the same people over and over again offering you plenty of opportunities to strike up a conversation or flirt.

If you want a more intellectual man, join a literary society or take a class at the local community college for enrichment. Like sailing? Join a sailing club. Want a religious man? Join a Bible study.

Go to Church and Participate in the Community

Often romance will strike when you’re least expecting it, so stay active in areas that are important to you. That way, men you’ll be around will have the same priorities saving you a lot of headaches down the road. If you are religious, take advantage of the many singles programs offered by churches to meet new people.

Community service projects such as Habitat for Humanity or other hands on projects will let you rub shoulders with others trying to make the world a better place. And you never know, maybe they’ll make your world a better place, too.

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How to Lose Weight

>All of the television commercials and emails we receive make it seem simple to lose weight. Take a pill, buy this book, try this special meal plan and in recent years, have this surgery. Losing weight isn’t necessarily challenging, but it does require effort and a commitment. To change your body, you’ll have to change your routines and possibly your whole lifestyle. Here’s how to lose weight.

Understand Calories

Calories are individual sources of energy. Your body needs energy to perform its daily functions and the number of calories a person actually needs in a day varies by what he does and his size and age. For example, a teenage boy requires thousands of calories a day to keep up with his activities and his body as it grows literally inches a month. A thirty-five year old man is less likely to be playing football or basketball after school and is only growing out at this point, so he needs far less calories. The amount of muscle you have will also increase the number of calories you require.

Excess Calories

If you eat more calories than your body needs to complete its daily tasks, the extra calories are stored in the body as fat. The more calories you consume over your body’s required amount the more fat is stored in the body.

Reducing Calories

The first step to losing weight is to reduce the number of calories you consume on a daily basis. As it is better to burn calories rather than starve them away, you’ll want to reduce calories by no more than 1000 per day over the span of a week or two and increase your activity level.

Activity Level

Calories are designed to be burned. This means that if you continue to sit on the couch but simply stop eating, you will lose weight, but most of that weight won’t be a long-term loss. Your metabolism, or burn rate, will dramatically slow effectively burning fewer calories over time. Then, once you stop the particular diet, your metabolism burns fewer of the calories you’re now consuming again and the weight piles back on.

Instead of a simple diet, increase your activity level to burn 500 or 1000 calories a day. A brisk one hour walk will burn 350 calories. Combine a one hour walk with a slight reduction in calories and you’ll find your weight loss goals much more easily met.

A Weight Loss Plan

If you are serious about losing weight, you should make two changes. The first is to increase the amount of healthy foods you eat and reduce the unhealthy ones. Don’t diet per se, but do replace fattening chips with rice cakes or whole wheat crackers. Skip the ice cream and have sorbet. Track how many calories you’re actually consuming to keep it close to how many your body actually uses on a day without the extra exercise. This will help to keep your metabolism up. By simply switching from high calorie foods to lower ones, you’ll be eliminating hundreds of calories from your diet.

Increase your activity level dramatically. Take the stairs at work and walk when possible. If you can’t get to a gym or take a long walk, try to do short bursts of activities during the day. Get your heart pounding as often as possible. Even standing or stretching while watching television burns far more calories. Walking in place or on a treadmill while you watch your favorite shows burns even more. The more calories you burn and the more muscle you build, the faster the fat will come off.

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How To Write An Email

Email is among the most common forms of communication in businesses and between friends and family. Writing an effective email is different than writing a letter or chatting through a chat room or IM. To be easily read and deliver your message, email must be clean and concise. A good email follows the most basic rules of on screen writing – it must be easy on the eyes and easy to process.

Basic Formatting:
Much of an email follows the basic format of a letter. The first thing you must do is give your email an applicable subject. Avoid non-descriptive subjects like, “Hi!” as these might be overlooked or seem unprofessional. Use a good subject, even for personal emails, to help your recipient know what he’s about to read.

In the body of the email, use an introduction of some kind. A first name will often suffice for simple emails, but business emails should be more formal. “Dear So and So” is standard, or if you don’t know whom to address, you can use, “Dear Sirs.” The greeting can be removed if a conversation springs up between you and the recipient via email, but it should always be used on the initial contact or response.

Be sure to use paragraphs and complete sentences in the body of the email. Punctuation and capitalization is crucial not only to appear educated, but to help convey your message. Paragraphs should be short, often no more than 1-2 sentences to help they eye stay focused. Use an extra line between paragraphs to help break up longer messages.

The end of an email should have a closing or a signature. A signature is a message attached to the bottom of all messages. It usually contains your name, title and contact information. At the very least, you should put your name at the bottom of an email. That will help your recipient identify you and give him an idea of your preferred spelling or contact information for his records.

Email Formatting:

Certain formatting is required for emails that differs from that of print letters. The most important is to AVOID SHOUTING. Typing in all capital letters is shouting online and can be greatly offensive to readers.

Emoticons and text abbreviations are debated in professional emails, but common in personal ones. Be sure to know your audience – they may not know what “ttyl” or “LOL” means. Emoticons and abbreviations are generally accepted in casual style emails among professionals. A smiling face or “j/k” can help clear up meaning and keep the message light. Be sure to limit the use overall as too many symbols or abbreviations can be distracting from your message.

Be aware of your color and font choices. You may love pink, but pink words on a white background are almost impossible for most readers to decipher. Use a clean font and easy-to-read color palette.

Email Messages:

The message in emails is often short and sweet. Ideally, a reader won’t have to scroll through pages of text. A long chatty email is great between friends, but inappropriate in business. Get to the point quickly and use short sentences. Explanations should be simple and follow the main idea. Most professionals skim emails looking for the message and action points – don’t tangle up your reader with too many extra words or an unorganized message.

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How To Write an e-book

If you can write a letter or an email, then you can probably write an ebook. The most important thing to remember about the ebook market is that it is based upon information. An ebook which informs its reader is a successful ebook – you don’t have to be a literary genius, you merely need to either have knowledge or experience you can communicate, or else you need to be able to find some knowledge or information on a subject and communicate that. The best tip is: don’t think of yourself as writing a ‘book’, since that idea seems to intimidate people, think of yourself as writing an informative email; or a series of informative emails.

Think of someone you know who you write easily to then just think of yourself as writing to them. Maybe even write to them – you could always ask a friend if it’s ok to write and tell them about your subject, then do so and use those emails as the body of your ebook. The main point here is: if you can write atall, and you can communicate information, then you can write an informative ebook. It is that simple.

The length of an ebook depends upon the information you are putting in it. There’s no strict length – although if it’s only a few pages then it may be better to call it a ‘report’. The important point I shall stress again is that it is informative to the reader. The reader is the one who pays for this information, if they finish the ebook and feel as if it has informed them, then they are a happy reader, if not, then not. An ebook could be as short as one page if the information on that page were worth the price of the ebook. So decide hat the information is that needs to go into the ebook, and write it for as long as that information is adequately communicated. Sure you can fill i8t out a bit with ‘chat’ but not too much. When ‘chat’ becomes ‘fluff’ readers become impatient – even if the ebook is informing them. If the ebook isn’t informing a reader and they think it’s full of fluff you will have a refund request on your hands and a complaint.

The main principle I am going to stress is ‘delivery’: that is, the delivery of information. This means everything from sitting down to write, to producing your ebook in a finished readable and downloadable format. What is the best, simplest, clearest, most accessible way of delivering this information to the reader?

First, decide what information you are going to deliver to the reader, then write that ebook. Don’t worry, initially, about how many pages it takes up – do your research and decide what to tell your reader and how to tell it. If you think the clearest explanation will include graphs or pictures, then include them, if you think the clearest description requires a step by step tutorial then write it. Deliver the information that the reader wants and expects and they will be happy.

When I wrote earlier about ‘fluff’ I was talking about additional ‘chatty’ or superfluous text which didn’t add to the reader’s enjoyment or experience in any way. I will now say it also includes unnecessary decoration or ‘over-design’. This is a rule for information ebooks as much as it is for any other book – don’t add unnecessary decoration in the form of decorative type faces, multiple colours, coloured backgrounds, borders, unrelated or vaguely related images or anything else which isn’t directly contributing to the communication – the delivery – of the information. If the information is well researched and informative then that is the product and any thing extra just gets in the way of the delivery of that product, and that includes distracting backgrounds and borders and coloured decorative typefaces. All an ebook needs is readable text and informative headings.

Remember also, that just because an ebook can be increased or decreased in size, it doesn’t mean that the size of your text doesn’t matter; it does. Do not be tempted to use big text with wide spaces between the lines to make your ebook appear to have more pages. This gets in the way of the delivery of information. Do not, either, make the text small to give the impression of good value by filling pages upon pages with fine text, this also gets in the way of the delivery of information. When deciding upon the text size and spacing there are two simple things to consider: one is that the reader may print out the ebook and will, therefore, require each page to be formatted to print, without any additional formatting, on an average A4 letter sized page. And the second thing to be aware of is that the ‘optimal’ reading text is about twelve words per line.

‘Optimal’, in terms of reading, means that the reader’s eye is most comfortable when there are about twelve words on each line. If lines are too short then the eye is constantly jumping down to the next line and concentration is lost. If the lines are too long then the eye will often ‘lose’ it’s place in the middle of all the text, and find it difficult identifying the next line down due to the distance between the end of one line and the beginning of the next. If you have taken your time writing an ebook and filling it with good and relevant information, if you have delivered the information in the text then you need to back that up by putting it in the optimal format. For an ebook that tends to mean about 14pt text with about a 1.2 to 1.3 line spacing. One and a half line spacing is far too wide and makes reading uncomfortable. Single line spacing is acceptable but if you want to hit the optimum then go for a little extra.

Finally, don’t put in any blank pages or massive white spaces – this looks bad on the screen, and uses up paper when an ebook is printed out. It won’t, by itself, lose you a sale, but it doesn’t deliver a good experience. With these simple points in mind all you need to do is convert your document to a PDF and you have your finished ebook ready to satisfy your customers.

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How To Keep a Spiritual Journal

Keeping a spiritual journal is something that is usually associated with Bible study. An online search of the topic will pull up a plethora of Christian resources. The intent of this article is to offer suggestions which anyone of any faith can use to begin a habit of keeping a spiritual journal. 

The only tools you will need are a place to record your thoughts and some form of sacred text. I would encourage you to be open to rethinking the traditional interpretation of"sacred text." Most people, when you ask them what a sacred text is, will being listing books such as the Bible, the Quran, the Tao Te Ching, et al. Yet most people can recall moments of epiphany which occurred when not reading the typical sacred text. 

The lyric of a song that touches the heart deeply, a quotation from a movie that has a profound meaning, a painting, a sermon, even the forwarded email that has already been read by hundreds of people before reaching your in box can be experienced in a spiritual way. In other words, do not limit your definition of how you will receive sacred messages.

How you keep your spiritual journal is completely up to you. Whether you choose to write it out longhand or write it out on a computer will depend on what makes you feel most comfortable. What you include in your journal should be as unique as you are. I offer a list of things you may or may not incorporate:

Prayer/Meditation Experiences

Most faiths have some form of prayer or meditation practice, a way for the individual to reconnect with the sacred. A Prayer Journal can be kept to record requests made and answered. A Meditation Journal can be used to track the length or type of meditation as well as any messages the practitioner may have received. Once again, I want to encourage you not to confine your definition of prayer and/or meditation to the times when you consciously quiet yourself for these moments. You may find yourself thanking God as you drive in your car for a near miss on the road that kept your from being involved in an accident. Or you may find yourself having a transcendent moment when you see a beautiful sunset. While you may not be in a position to immediately record the experience, you can try to remember to write about it later, when you are able to do so. 

Messages Received

As stated previously, how you receive spiritual messages will vary. You may read something from a book, hear something in a poem or song, find an interesting quote in a movie, television program. How and when you hear the "still small voice" is not something you dictate. That said, making a habit of going to some form of sacred text to read these messages is a discipline that is well worth the time and effort. This may include your sitting alone with a book, reading and taking notes, or listening to a teacher in some form of public gathering, on video or even recordings. The key is to make it a habit, whether it be daily or weekly. Those who make a habit of listening will find themselves hearing more messages beyond the time set aside for receiving them. It is not unusual for someone who has made a habit of recording messages they receive to find themselves to receiving more at different times and not only when they themselves are sitting down in order to receive them.

Lessons Given

Finally, you may find yourself communicating with another person and say something that is surprisingly wise, something you may even recognize as being beyond yourself. As always, be aware that this can happen at any time: during a conversation, in a letter or email, even during a chat. Although you may not always be able to write about the moment in your journal at that precise moment, you can always record what you remember at a later time. You may even be able to jot down a few key words or phrases on a napkin or notepad you carry with you. Later, when you have some quiet time to write in your journal, do so with as much detail as possible. Try not to wait too long because it is easy to lose the immediacy of the lesson if you procrastinate. It is always best to make the time then hope you will find it later.

This is just a small sampling of what you might choose to do in your own spiritual journal and is not meant to be inclusive. As you can see there are no rules as to what you can or cannot include. The only rules I ever consider imperative for Spiritual Journaling are as follows:

Date all entries.

If you do not keep any other form of journal you may want to include a brief summary of your life or the day’s events. This is especially useful for the Prayer/Meditation Experiences section as well as Lessons Given. These extra notes can offer surprising insight to your spiritual growth when you read these entries later, whether it is a year or even a decade after the entry was originally written.

Record the source.

When journaling about messages received be sure to give credit where credit is due. If you are listening to a teacher/preacher, write down the person’s name and even the location when the teaching was given. If it is a recorded program, whether audio or video, you may not know the specifics but do the best you can with what you know. If the message is drawn from a text, whether a book or movie, poem, song, write down the title, author (scriptwriter, lyricist), and page number where applicable. 

I can say, with the utmost confidence, that if you choose to make a habit of recording your responses to spiritual experiences you will not only be able to trace your journey and growth but will find yourself having deeper and even more frequent experiences than before. Making this commitment to yourself will have benefits beyond your expectations.

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