Early March the evening sky is dominated by the planet Mars shining brightly in the constellation of Cancer.  Mars is named after the god of war because of it’s reddish colour, which can be clearly seen this month.

Mars is one of the ‘wandering stars’;  i.e a planet which moves in the night sky and sometimes appears to reverse direction and go backwards. This is an optical illusion caused by Mars having a much slower orbit of the sun.

A year on Mars takes 687 days, so when Earth ‘overtakes’ this planet, Mars seems to go backwards in the sky.

1) Kathy Dobson The first of the fabulous five looks at getting everything for  a fiver. Kathy Dobson examines the benefits of outsourcing, and looks at a site where everything costs $5. A bit like the pound shops that are on our high streets, but with a higher cost.

2) Zahid Yakoob  If you submit articles to eZine articles (and if you don’t, why not?) you need to read this latest post by Zahid. In it he outlines recent rule changes at eZine Articles and the effects they could have on you.

I’ve never understood why people choose to run on a treadmill? If you want to lose weight, there are plenty of places to run, outside in the fresh air.

Outside is free. Inside a gym costs money. Why do people choose a gym? I don’t get it? Is it because they are scared of the weather? Getting wet for example.

Let me tell you something you may find hard to believe. I run 6 days a week, sometimes twice a day, and I very rarely run in the rain. I live in England which is notorious for it’s regular rainfall, but I rarely get wet.

I must admit I’m totally confused about which web hosting company I should use?  Who offers a reliable service at the cheapest price?

Web Hosting companies I have used include UK2.net, D9 and 1and1, however I’m not sure which is the cheapest?

I moved companies for reasons of convenience. I’m with 1and1 now because my techie friend was also with them, and he was happier working with 1and1.

The Masterclass recommends D9 hosting and for the first year of my course I was paying for two hosting accounts D9 and 1and1.

If you want information on traffic to your blog or website you need two free tools installed, Google Analytics and the Alexa Toolbar.

Once you get the Alexa toolbar installed, watching your traffic rankings can become addictive, especially if the ranking improves every day.

Google and Alexa both measure traffic but in slightly different ways, Google gives a more accurate picture of absolute traffic. Alexa only gives a ranking for sites with their toolbar installed, and compares them to other sites with the toolbar. This can lead to strange effects.

1) Terry Conti  discloses how we all could be losing free blog traffic. He puts his techie hat on and worries about ‘pings’. There is a problem with editing blog posts after publication.But Terry has found the solution. Click here for a free plugin link…

2) Bill Murney gets a second showing in the Fabulous Five because he has written a post about my favourite comedy double act; Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Half the humour is produced by watching Pete and Dud trying, and failing, to keep a straight face while telling their tall stories.

I’m a great fan of Get Rich Quick schemes, especially when the sales letter arrives the old fashioned way, through my letter box.

I must have bought around 25 different schemes over a period of 40 years, so I feel I have restrained my urge to buy. But nevertheless some people are a little bit better off due to my gullibility. I don’t mind, the sales letter must have been good, and the get rich quick scheme kept me out of mischief for a while.

Always have a Plan B in your endeavours. This is a fall back position should your Plan A get into trouble. I have already written about New Year’s Resolutions and the reason you should embrace failure. If you have a Plan B already prepared, then there is no failure involved in your planning, you have merely switched goals and targets.

Running marathons is a mental, as well as a physical challenge, particularly after the 20 mile mark. In the last 6 miles of a marathon every fibre in your body is saying stop, stop, but you have to overcome those messages and stay focused on continuing your run.

This ordinary, boring galaxy is just one of 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. This galaxy is called NGC 2841, (there are just too many to give each a name,  like our own Milky way).

NGC 2841 is 45 million light years away (Just one light year equals 10 trillion kilometres) and contains 100 billion stars and probably 5 hundred billion planets (some just like Earth).

We all know that shortcuts take longer, but I wonder why that’s the case? Is it because shortcuts are cheating? If that is the case, who is the head master administering the rule?

I’m only talking about new shortcuts here. Obviously long established shortcuts are different, they’re shorter for a start. A shortcut is only reused and taken again if it has proven to save time.

Why do so many new shortcuts, take longer? I often take shortcuts home under the influence of alcohol. Although they take longer, I don’t seem to mind. So maybe long shortcuts are only a problem to sober people.