What Kind of Web Content Is Best, Text or Multimedia?

When it comes to the content of your website, there’s a multitude of different kinds of content you can choose from. But which is best? Choosing the right web content can make or break your website. Here are some easy tips for helping you out.

Text Web Content

This is your written content, and can be located inside both images and in text blocks. The best textual website content is something that is expressly written for that page, rather than something simply copied and pasted from another source. This links back to the importance of fresh web page content for your website.

Textual content will contain internal links in the HTML that will give readers more information. Not only that, but internal links will also keep their eyes on a focal point throughout the text. For instance, if your keyword was “dog food” you could link that to your associated dog food store.

You should remember that text content can be read by anyone all over the world. Unless you are catering specifically to a local group alone, and can only offer services to one locality, remember that almost anyone could land on your site. Whether that’s a visitor from the Netherlands or from Jamaica, make sure your content can easily be read and understood by the majority of English speaking people.

Multimedia Web Content

More and more, we’re in an age of the video, the animation, and the graphic. People would rather stare a picture, it seems, than read a whole bunch of content. A short:50 video on a homepage encourages the visitor to click play so they can watch instead of read.

Sound, animation, images, and video make up the majority of multimedia content. The best animations for your website are those in moderation. You don’t want your homepage filled up with too many cluttered moving graphics. Images should be optimized for web so that they can be downloaded fast by your visitor. Sound should be available to be controlled by the viewer, as it can get annoying otherwise.

What’s The Best?

Text website content and multimedia content certainly each offer great options. Text content is especially good, however, for building SEO keywords directly inside the text. You can’t do that with multimedia web content; but multimedia is great for instant gratification of your visitors.

In the long run, it’s best to have both on your website. Include colorful pictures, graphics…but also a lot of text. In the very long run, your text web content will be the backbone of your presence in the search engines, and can rank you high according to the search term you can optimize in your text web content.

Healthcare Marketing Agencies Recommend Combination Of Traditional And Online Marketing For Success

In the past, most medical companies and their suppliers focused on traditional avenues of advertising to achieve results. Television ads, print media, and conventional PRs were all mainstays of most plans; but successful campaigns could be very expensive. The advent of the internet has completely changed advertising for hospitals, medical companies, and suppliers. Most find combining traditional healthcare marketing with internet marketing strategies reduce costs and produce better results than traditional methods alone.

Healthcare Online Marketing Requires Less Production Time And Cost

One of the most expensive elements of traditional advertising is the cost of creating the commercials and print media. It takes both money and time to successfully create even a 30-second ad spot to be shown on TV, and obtaining airtime is often tricky and expensive.

To reduce costs, companies can pay a nominal monthly fee for website hosting, a yearly fee for domain name ownership, and much smaller sums to the healthcare internet marketing agencies that they work with. Producing a webpage and using online media can reduce the number of commercial and print ads you will need throughout the year to advertise your hospital or healthcare establishment.

Search Engine Optimization Provides An Easy Boost

Search engine optimization, or SEO. SEO agencies can produce optimized content on their own, often in a few days. This content requires specialized skill to produce and does require companies to spend a bit of money for it, but it provides a quick and easy boost in marketing with less money spent in the long run.

Search engine optimization relies upon handpicked keywords to grab the attention of search engines, making your company rank higher for your chosen terms. The higher you are in the rankings, the more likely you are to be found by people seeking your service. SEO is a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, yet many companies find it dramatically more effective.

Some Techniques Have No Cost At All

Unlike conventional methods, some elements of web promotion are completely cost-free. Companies don’t have to pay for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or many other resources that are common in healthcare internet marketing. While they may choose to pay for the guidance of an experienced promotion agency, the resulting program is much more cost effective because the actual operating cost is nonexistent. In addition, small companies will often try out these free techniques for themselves even before they can afford professional guidance. When it’s zero cost, it’s universally affordable.

Online and Offline Healthcare Marketing Provides Better Results At Lower Costs

The ultimate reason why many in the industry are switching from conventional advertising alone to a combination of traditional and internet healthcare marketing is, it’s simply more cost effective and the return on their investment is better, because they are able to reach more people. For most businesses, there are great advantages for making sure they are utilizing every bit of advertising space available.

For your next big healthcare campaign, make sure to support all of your traditional healthcare marketing tactics with internet based strategies for optimal results!

Learning to Cook With Online Culinary Schools

Online culinary schools are quickly gaining popularity with those who are looking to learn some basic cooking or want to enhance the cooking skills they already have. While you may not be in direct contact with the instructor, you have the ability to work and learn at your own pace. You still are able to ask questions and gain assistance as you attend.In this article we will be taking a look at excerpts of how to cook three popular dishes you will learn to cook in an online culinary school.

1. How long does it take to cook meatloaf?

Meatloaf does not have to be a boring dish. When cooked properly, meatloaf can be a taste sensation at your dining table. It will take approximately 15 minutes to mix the ingredients for your meatloaf and one hour to cook it. Meatloaf is an easy and economical dish to prepare.

2. How long do I cook a roast beef?

Roast beef is an elegant main dish that is relatively easy to prepare. Depending on the doneness of the roast beef and your oven cooking temperature and times; it can be take awhile to cook a roast beef. Other factors that will determine the cooking time is the size of the roast beef you are cooking. Cooking times can vary from one hour to six hours.

3. How to cook hamburgers on the stove?

Hamburgers are a great American classic that are simple to prepare on the stove. The secret to a superb hamburger is choosing a lean good quality ground beef and not squishing the burger while you cook it. If you smash your hamburger with a spatula it will push the juices out of the patty; resulting in a dry hamburger.

These are just a few of the delicious food items you can learn to prepare in an online culinary school.

There are a variety of reasons and benefits to choosing an online course of study. Some of them include:

• The ability to attend classes at your leisure.

• You do not have to drive anywhere to attend; you can attend form the comfort of your own home.

• You can work at your own pace, working ahead if you like

• Less stress, since you are not among a group of students.

Before you sign up for an online school you should have a few skills to ensure you success. You should be comfortable with basic computer skills including emailing and word processing. You should also have a basic knowledge of the workings of the internet. If you do not feel you have the skills to do these things, you may want to check with your local library or community college for a basic computer skills course. At the very least, you could familiarize yourself on your own.You will want to be careful when choosing online culinary schools. There are many scams on the internet that offer courses, take your money and do not offer the support or instruction you will be expecting from a school. Check the school’s reputation, credentials and it probably wouldn’t hurt to talk with previous students if possible.

Getting the Ideal Real Estate Broker

No matter whether you want to buy or sell, it makes sense to hire a real estate broker. Alongside many other functions, they can help you appraise any property, market your property, negotiate a price for you, help with paperwork, and even get you a mortgage.

Finding the perfect broker for you is not that hard. Here is a set of guidelines for making sure that you make the right choice.

For starters, getting someone who has been on the job for a reasonable time is a really good idea. The more experience they have had the better they will be with all the tasks required.

Also, it is useful if they have experience selling properties similar to yours, so it pays to look at their current and past listings. Check what their frequency of transactions are as this is a good indicator of success.

They need to have all the correct licenses and qualifications also. As well as the general license, many will have further experience and qualifications in particular areas of real estate, such as traditional homes.

Another indicator of the quality of broker is if they have received any types of award or have some particular standing with the community. Likewise, check with the local licensing authority to see whether they have had any grievances laid about them in the past, as this is illuminating.

Ask around amongst friends and family to see if anyone has experience with a broker. Alternatively, you could ask around about recommendations for a good broker, as a personal testimony is often the most trustworthy.

If you are moving somewhere new, the best thing to do is to find someone who has lived there for a decent amount of time. This will ensure that they have local knowledge and will be able to help you the most.

Choosing High Speed Internet Access

Cable, DSL, Fixed Wireless, Mobile, and legacy connections. It’s tough to decipher the differences between these types of high speed internet connections and even tougher to weed through the useless information to find real-life useful reviews on the topic (not to mention the internet providers themselves). We’re going to show you what you need to know to make the right decision in purchasing high speed internet access.

The Speed

Cable and DSL internet providers love to battle one another over who has the faster network speeds. You can’t sit down to watch a show without noticing at least one ISP (internet service provider) showing a commercial with planes flying overhead or fancy 3D graphics illustrating their blazing fast speeds. While Cable internet providers have the upper hand in this respect, it’s important to discuss whether it is really necessary to purchase a 105mbps internet connection for $300+ a month (We’re going to assume a family of four living in a suburban home for our example case).

It’s important to note that you’re not always passing large amounts of data through your connection. While you may have a 12mbps internet connection at home you’re definitely not always downloading a file or streaming video. You complete these tasks in short bursts (relative to the whole day) and retrieve the information you want at a predetermined speed. That speed is your available bandwidth designated, as such, by the carrier. Most ISPs purchase dedicated internet access and resell this connection to you. You, in turn, are sharing your available bandwidth with others on the same local network as something referred to as the oversubscription ratio. It really doesn’t matter what carrier you pick as this will occur regardless of provider. Some carriers oversubscribe less than others. For every 12mbps of dedicated internet access, 10 others can receive the same residential-grade connection on the principle that not everyone will be using this connection at the same time. It’s the same idea that telecommunication companies use to provide telephone service.

What does this mean for your family? Well… you’re going to want to “oversubscribe” the right amount for your family as well. Here are some recommended minimum numbers for a single user:

256k to stream audio

512k to stream HD audio

2mbps to stream video

4mbps to stream HD video

If you’re a single person in an apartment living along with nobody else using the internet connection then you can use the ballpark numbers above as a guide to bandwidth purchasing. If you have a family or live with others then you need to heed the following advice: double the numbers above as your minimum for a family of four. Triple the numbers if you live with teenagers (I’m not kidding!).

Note: Some wireless carriers impose low bandwidth caps on residential connections as low as 2GB. While 12mbps is “capped” speed at which you can transmit data… the data “cap” is the total amount of information that you can cumulatively send or receive per month. How a carrier deals with this depends on the carrier’s policies. Some charge large amounts for small amounts of data exceeding the imposed amount while some throttle back speeds to 256k or lower.

The Technology

Cable – Uses the cable TV connection, known as coaxial, to run the internet connection over wire. It won’t interfere with your television service and is relatively easy to install as most homes are wired for cable. Cable has been known to oversubscribe their users at ranges of 30-1 or even 50-1 in some areas. Ask your neighbors how their internet access functions at peak times, 3pm-9pm, to gauge the overall quality of the connection.

Streaming Movies Recommended: Yes

Speed: 1.5mbps – 105mbps

Cost: $20 – $200/mo

DSL – Uses copper phone wires to transmit data digitally using a direct line back to the carrier’s hub. DSL uses higher frequency bands for transmitting data so it won’t interfere with your home phone. You’ll just need to attach very simple filters to your phones which most carriers provide (they literally just plug in). DSL has the limitation of distance and can sometimes be difficult to attain faster speeds in more rural areas.

Streaming Movies Recommended: Yes

Speed: 256k – 40mbps

Cost: $20 – $70/mo

Fixed Wireless Internet- This technology uses wireless modules installed at the user’s home to communicate back to an access point which is then routed to long-haul transport. Wireless ISPs (WISPs) are sometimes the only option for last-mile users in rural settings other than mobile providers. Wireless internet providers tend to oversubscribe at lesser ratios than wired providers but must be able to maintain wireless links between many wireless modules. One nice touch to a WISP is that they are usually run as a small business and customer service can be more friendly. You may run in to issues with latency, lower speeds, or bandwidth caps in some areas where bandwidth is scarce. Expect speed choices of 256k to 20mbps.

Streaming Movies Recommended: No

Speed: 256k – 20mbps

Cost: $20 – $200/mo

Mobile – For some folks this is their only option. No cable, no DSL, no fixed wireless… who wants to sit around and wait for dial-up? The major carriers all have some sort of data cap or bandwidth throttling. If you are considering streaming video then think again. A single 2-hour HD movie is about 1.8GB in size. If your data is capped at 5GB per month then you’re going to be able to watch two total movies. If you’re checking email and generally surfing the net then you will simply not go over your data limit. If you do it while listening to music, you might. Be wary of the policy your cellular wireless internet carrier has toward data overages before entering in to a contract. Expect 4G speeds of up to 20mbps, 3G speeds of 2mbps, and legacy speeds of 256k in rural areas.

Streaming Movies Recommended: No

Speed: 256k – 20mbps

Cost: $35 – $65/moLegacy – Also known as dial-up, is your last-ditch option for internet access. This connection ties up your phone line when using the internet, provides horribly slow speeds, and gets you nowhere quick. If you’re currently using dial-up internet access we recommend that you either search for a wireless provider in your area or consider satellite internet.

Struggling With Pinterest Traffic

The days of quick and easy Pinterest traffic for your blog or website appear to be over. Once a go-to place for referral traffic, the platform has recently been through some intense changes. This has caused a lot of red-faced bloggers to have to seriously consider their traffic strategies.

So does this mean the Pinterest traffic dream is over?

Or is their light at the end of the tunnel?

Pinterest Changes
The blogging Facebook groups are full of complaints from frustrated content creators. Not only is the platform failing to deliver the same sort of numbers it used to, but many have even been caught up in a spam filter – completely obliterating their profiles performance.

Pinterest Virtual Assistants across the blogging world are asking ‘how can this be fixed?” And the answer, although not easy, has actually been clearly defined by Pinterest themselves.

The platform now demands fresh content above all. And only by feeding the beast with what it wants will your pins gain maximum exposure.

But what does fresh content actually mean? And how can it be sustainably delivered?

Recommended article: Becoming a Pinterest Virtual Assistant

Fresh Content
Pinterest defines fresh content in a very straightforward way. Firstly, the ultimate hierarchical type of content that the platform deems fresh is a new URL (one that has never been posted to Pinterest before) combined with a totally new pin image. This is the ideal type of content that the new algorithm is craving.

But fear not bloggers, you don’t need to write 5 new blog posts a day just to have actual stuff to pin. They also consider a new pin image to an old URL as new content.

This means we have to get busy creating new images for our old posts and using either the manual pinning method, Pinterest native scheduler, or Tailwind; get them out to the world. I have personally seen massive increases in impressions and click-throughs by delivering exactly what Pinterest has asked for.

Recommended article: Is Tailwind Worth It?

Moving Forward
It may not be the powerhouse it once was, but Pinterest is still possibly the best, easiest and quickest way to get free traffic to your blog or website. Also, it is worth noting that the new changes are still being fazed in, and the teething problems may well get sorted.

Finally, many well known big names in the Pinterest marketing world have noted that it is taking 20-40 weeks for pins to start generating traffic. So it might be that Pinterest can deliver the goods, it’s just now a long term game as apposed to a quick win.

There are a number of ways you can quickly generate quick pins that adhere to the new requirements:

Use actual different images from free and paid stock photo sites.
Swap the main focus point of images you use on your pins. For example, if you have a chair in your pin and it is far away, consider zooming in for another pin.
Change the titles and highlight different phrases.
Change the colors and main focus colors. This can be for large sections or minor ones. As long as there is a significant difference.
Add small subtitles in text bubbles or shapes.
Rotate the text and change the alignment of text as well.
Use text effects for focus keywords.
Add borders to the pin image.
Add relatable elements, e.g dollar signs for money related pins.
Remove elements and change focus.
Change the size and dimensions of pins
Either way, if you want to win at the game of Pinterest, you need to play, and play fresh!

Understanding iBeacon Technology

iBeacon or Beacon as its sometimes known as, is a technology that allows mobile App users to listen for signals from beacons in the physical world. The iBeacon technology allows mobile Apps to deliver hyper-contextual content to users based on a location. This technology makes use of Bluetooth low energy.

Bluetooth Low Technology

This is technology that is used for transmitting data over short distances. From its name, this technology consumes very low energy. According to the creators of the App, the Bluetooth low technology can last up to 3 years on a single coin cell battery.

When it comes to cost, the technology is 60-80% cheaper than traditional Bluetooth.

Bluetooth low energy is ideal for simple applications that require small periodic transfers of data. Classic Bluetooth is the most preferred type of Bluetooth.

How iBeacon Works

As mentioned, the beacons installed in your phone listen to transmitted signals and respond accordingly when the phone comes into range. For example, if you pass a beacon in a shop, the retailer’s shop will display a special offer alert for you. If you visit a museum, the museum’s app will provide you with special information about the closest display.

iBeacon is a big deal as it allows brands, apps, and retailers to understand where the customers are in the brick and mortar environment. Since the involved parties know where the customers are, they are able to send valuable messages and advertisements in the customer’s phone.

How The Technology Differs From Other Technologies

There are a number of ways in which iBeacon differs from other location-based technologies. One of the differences is that iBeacon is a one way transmitter to the receiving device. You also must have installed the iBeacons app in your device for you to interact with the beacons.

Points To Note

Although, the iBeacon technology is designed to pass advertisements, the adverts won’t be a bother to you as the technology doesn’t send useless messages. Also, the technology won’t deliver notifications until a given threshold is attained.

If you are receiving a lot of notifications, you can stop them by changing the permissions. You can also stop the notifications by switching off Bluetooth or by uninstalling the iBeacon app.

Conclusion

This is what you need to know about iBeacon. Although, the technology was started with the aim of sending adverts and letting consumers know about available offers, it’s now being used for other functions such as money transfer.

Business Branding and Moving Your Business Online

If you are currently enjoying success as a business owner in the tangible world, you may also consider reaping the benefits that moving your business online can present. Business branding is crucial to anyone in an industry of selling products or services. You must develop a name for yourself in your niche. As important as developing that brand is in the business world, the virtual world must also recognize your business brand. We are living in a very virtual world. Technology is changing and growing by leaps and bounds. If you’ve ever considered moving your business online and branding your business on the Internet, then you’ve come to the right place.

First, advertising your business brand in cyberspace is not as difficult as it may seem. Business branding on the Internet can occur rather seamlessly, especially for offline business owners already enjoying success. If you have developed that perfect business branding technique, then bringing your name to the World Wide Web won’t be too trying. By following some steps, you’ll soon enjoy success in business branding online.

First, you’ll want to establish a content-rich website. You’ll want your clients to be able to reference your information easily on the Internet. By developing a web page with material that is optimized for key word searches, you’ll enjoy success. For instance, if someone types in some common search terms associated with your niche into a popular search engine like Google or Yahoo, you will want your web page to pop up first on those search engines. Of course, a content-rich website with attention to key words commonly searched in essential to making your business brand known on the Internet.

Of course, business branding doesn’t just stop with a well-developed website. Like any form of advertising, it is essential that you point your consumers to your site. There are a number of creative tactics you can use online. For example, article writing is one form of Internet marketing. By writing short articles about your niche, and submitting these articles for free to article directories commonly searched on the Internet, you can enjoy some advertising, credibility, and visibility on the Internet. When consumers search your niche, they will be able to view articles about your industry. You’ll also have a link back to your own website on every article you submit. Thus, your consumers will be able to click on the link and be taken directly to your web page. You’ll enjoy a heavier traffic volume, along with credibility. If you write enough articles, you’ll be viewed as a leader in your industry. Thus, you’ll really be utilizing some excellent business branding techniques online.

Though going online can be a little daunting for business owners used to navigating the business world offline, it is essential to get your name on the World Wide Web. Because we are living in a virtual world, where everyone seems to have access to the Internet, good business branding techniques involve learning how to utilize Internet marketing tactics. With a little practice, you’ll be enjoying success both offline and online!

Importance of Online Reviews For Automotive Dealership Sales

Online reviews on automotive dealer’s website are valued features and play a key role in influencing the customer’s automotive buying decision. Online reviews are sought after by customers using Internet at every stage of car buying process, as they offer existing customer experiences on vehicle models, services, policies etc of particular automotive dealers. It is important to include online reviews and testimonials in dealer websites as they help in retaining the existing customers and builds initial trust among potential customers. It helps to increase sales as prospective customers prefer to deal with dealers they can trust.

Positive Impacts:
Online reviews positively impact the dealership sales by increasing the confidence among both existing and potential customers.

Credibility
Potential customers perceive online reviews as authentic, genuine opinions from other customers and feel that they are receiving accurate information. They provide an effective way for dealers to communicate with customers. A good number of positive reviews on dealer website mentioning satisfactory experiences of customers are likely to instill confidence among potential customers. The potential customer can feel more comfortable and satisfied when reading a comprehensive evaluation of the dealer from a large number of customers. Even, the way dealers handle negative reviews by customers by quickly and efficiently resolving problems increases the trustworthiness of the dealers. It is likely that such unhappy customers will revert back to the same dealer.

Included In Consideration Set
The customers usually have a pre-defined set of vehicles that they prefer to buy. The automotive dealers in order to increase their sales needs to persuade the customers to alter their consideration set. The customer generated content like vehicle ratings and reviews, consumer ratings and reviews, dealer ratings and reviews can be effectively used by automotive dealers to alter the consideration set of these automotive internet users. The information given through dealer ratings and reviews can effectively target the new-vehicle buying customer segment. The reviews enhance dealer consideration among customers as both positive and negative reviews increases awareness level of the particular dealer. Also, positive reviews improve the attitude of customers towards dealers. Thus, expanding the consideration set helps to increase automotive dealership sales.

Reassurance
The online reviews and testimonials at automotive dealer website provide reassurance to the new customers that the dealer stands for professionalism, quality, credibility, and security. Reviews by previous customers reassure the potential customers that it is safe to deal with this dealer and there is commitment to customer’s privacy. Providing reviews on dealership website also increases conversion rates as it increases trust and confidence among first time visitors. Thus, existing and new customers will confide upon the dealership that helps to increase sales.

Negative Impacts If Not Monitored:
The negative online reviews can have impact on the attitude of customers towards automotive dealers.

Left Out From Consideration Set
Online reviews influence the purchasing decisions of automotive internet users. Also, they are checked while researching for a particular car on the Internet. Thus, ignoring or not monitoring the online reviews means failing to effectively target the large segment of automotive internet users and getting left out from user’s consideration. Poor online reviews and testimonials can fail to persuade, build confidence and trust among first time visitors and lose out on important prospective customers.

Needs More Time To Convince The Buyer
Online reviews and testimonials indicate the satisfaction of other customers due to better services and quality offered by dealer. Potential customers reading improperly monitored reviews are likely to view the dealer as less reliable and not trustable. Thus, the dealers may have to put in more efforts and time to convince the customers.

As online reviews are like online conversations between customers, automotive dealers need to actively get involved in them that can result in sales growth. The automotive dealers can leverage online reviews and testimonials by existing customers to generate new customers by efficiently targeting them at each step of car buying process.

Natural Ethnic Skin Care: What You Need to Know

Long known, is the fact that there are very few natural ethnic skin care products in the mainstream cosmetics industry to address skin of color properly. Seems almost everything formulated for our skin in the ethnic market is either too drying, too irritating, too greasy, or just plain too ineffective.

What makes some formulators of these products think these type of products are going to help our skin? One would wonder what they were thinking. Is there any hope?

It is extremely pleasing to say ‘indeed yes’, there is. Start using natural ethnic skin care products. Stop using toxic products. We know just how sensitive our skin is, so the first thing we need to do is avoid chemical-laden skin care and personal care products like the plague.

These types of products can prove to be devastating to our skin in many ways. Unfortunately, these products were saturating and even dominating the cosmetics industry for quite some time.

In both the ethnic personal care market as well as the mainstream personal care market, there’s a lot left to be desired. By now, you probably have a good idea why it is not recommended to use most mainstream personal care products for sensitive skin of color. Not to worry, natural personal care products are the answer.

Natural Skin Care: Herbs Make the Difference for Ethnic Skin

When it comes to natural skin care, herbs contained in products can have a very positive impact on ethnic skin. There is a fundamental difference in the way herbal skin care and conventional skin care works.

Herbs themselves, contain not only single active constituents, but many active constituents that provide necessary nutrients to the skin. These multiple compounds acting together, can more effectively address skin problems from every angle.

Remember, plant cells and human cells are very compatible. What does all this mean? It means that herbals treat not just the symptoms, but the underlying cause of any existing skin or health condition more effectively.

It is well-known that herbs are more gentle in nature, on not only the skin, but the body as a whole. This can be attributed to the fact that herbs have been extracted as naturally occurring substances. Herbs are gentle and do not produce any major, toxic side effects on skin.

This is especially beneficial for skin of color, as it is more reactive by nature than most other skin types and needs both the gentlest, and most effective treatment. Make no mistake about it, herbal skin care may be gentler, but this does not mean it is less effective. You’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Remember, 60-70% of what you put on your skin has the ability to penetrate your pores and eventually end up in your blood stream. If you are going to use products to address your skin condition, why not use something naturally healthy as well?

Natural products either purchased or home-made from natural ingredients, should be the preferred choice before conventional personal care products are sought after from the mainstream cosmetics industry.

Herbals vs. Modern Drugs in the Skin Care Industry

Modern drugs contained in mainstream or conventional skin care products (including benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, kojic acid, etc.) are manufactured in laboratories and then produced in mass quantities in factories.

Before reaching the general public, these drugs are tested on a large number of users. The knowledge that forms the basis of the conventional or mainstream skin care industry is based on experimental findings and observations.

To that extent, herbal treatments are also supported through years of fact-based evidence that has accumulated over generations and across cultures, thus their value is well-known.

The unfortunate fact is that the approach to testing herbal beauty remedies has not been as thorough and rigorous as the testing that is seen in the mainstream beauty industry.

So much money has been put into funding the analysis of modern drugs (also contained in many skin care products) that they should be able to produce evidence for the benefits of herbal treatments. In the modern drug and personal care markets, it’s all about the money.

It is much less cost-effective for mainstream cosmetic and skin care makers to produce active, natural and organic skin care products than to produce unnatural and even unsafe ones.

Remember that herbal treatments are different in that they are a complex mixture of a variety of active compounds. These active compounds work together to heal skin more effectively and are difficult to separate making duplication and measurement a difficult task for the mainstream formulator.

One Word of Caution

When selecting herbal ethnic skin care products for our dark skin, we must still be cautious for our skin’s sake. Beware of companies who tout themselves as offering you so-called ‘natural’, ‘herbal’ and ‘organic’ skin or hair care products and they really are not!

When it comes down to it, there may be tiny amounts of only one, two or maybe even three organic and/or natural ingredients in the entire product followed or preceded by a host of chemical ingredients such as coloring agents, preservatives, stabilizers, thickeners, PH balancers, fragrance and such. Please read labels carefully. Avoid these products. Your skin will thank you.

The Bottom Line

Dark skin types should be treated with the thorough understanding of our skin’s characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. Once we understand this, we can treat it more effectively with natural herbs and avoid the recurrence of excessive skin problems. We can start by becoming more educated about our beautiful dark skin (you are because you’re reading this article).

First, avoid unhealthy and unnatural skin care products, incorporate more fresh, nutrient rich foods in our diets, and use natural ethnic skin care products designed for ‘us’ (even if you have to make your own). You’re on your way!