The beauty of keeping reptiles is that once you've set up their caging requirements and learned a few basic skills, there are many species that can be safely and efficiently kept within the home and should live out a full, healthy life.
Fortunately the vast majority of the suitable snakes one might choose to keep, such as corn snakes, king snakes or milk snakes, require very little special treatment and soon become very low maintenace captives.
Quiet, well-behaved, not requiring regular walks and virtually scent-free whilst being unusual and fascinating, snakes can be an ideal pet for today's ever-busy lifestyle.
At it's simplest, a glass fish tank with a specially-sold reptile hood or one of the specially made reptile cages (such as those available from http://www.petsmart.com) may be used, and these are often available for sale second hand in local papers.
Wooden cages should be avoided unless they are treated so as to avoid any spillage from the water bowl (many snakes like to bathe) and ventilation should be good as moist cages often lead to skin complaints or respiratory problems.
A length of around 30-45 cm is suitable for a hatchling snake whilst an adult will require a length of 60-90 cm so it can stretch out.
The cage should be furnished with one of the reptile-safe substrates such as beech chippings or corn cob granules and should be placed 1/3 - 1/2 over a safe, specially-sold, low-wattage heat mat to gently warm the substrate for the snake.
These cost just pennies to run each day and generate a gentle background warmth for your pet.
In particularly cold situations such as bad weather, during night-time or in a room which doesn't warm up appreciably during the day an additional form of heat is recommended, such as a gauze-encased lightbulb, to warm the warmer end of the cage (the "hot spot") to around 24-26'C.
This temperature should be maintained at one end of the cage throughout the day though this may drop by a few degrees at night without worry of danger to your pet. If using a bulb a thermostat is recommended to enable you to accurately control the temperature and prevent the cage overheating.
A hide should be included as snakes are often quite reclusive and like to hide away for much of the day, showing themselves early in the morning and later in the evening.
This could be a specially-sold reptile hide but I often simply use a box - like an old cereal box - as they're free and easily replaced when they get dirty.
A solid waterbowl - ideally a terracotta dog bowl - large enough for the snake to submerge itself in (bathing is good for the skin) but difficult to tip over should be filled with fresh water and changed daily as in a warm environment plenty of water is likely to evaporate, and in addition many snakes like to deficate in their water bowl.
And apart from some food you're now all set up!
As you can see keeping the smaller, more docile snakes *doesn't* have the break the bank, nor do you these days need to "make do" with substandard products. Companies like ZooMed make high quality, specialist hardware for just this purpose, and make it available for a very reasonable cost.
Now all you need to do is to convince your girlfriend/wife/mother to let you have the snake itself ;-)
Site testing is the scientific way to determine what actually works to make your potential customers jump and heed your call to action. A brief glance into the world of website conversion testing includes some pretty foreign sounding terms -- like Taguchi testing, multivariate testing and split run or A/B testing. Don't let these terms intimidate you. Website conversion testing is fast becoming a "must-do" for e-commerce sites these days, and it's easy to see why.
With the technology available today, no one, from the novice website owner to the expert who runs multiple websites, has an excuse for not optimizing their websites and continually improving their conversion rates.
Many website owners use what is called A/B testing methods, otherwise known as "split testing." A/B testing allows you to direct traffic to two different versions of your web page to determine which page sells better. Whether it's the content, design or copy that proves more attractive, something makes more customers buy from one page than the other.
The process is fairly simple. The first step is to create two different landing pages. You might test different headlines, different versions of your sales copy, even different graphics or colors. Then the traffic is split between the versions, and data is collected that will tell you which page converts better. Good information, certainly, and can definitely help boost conversions when it's done right.
Two more thorough approaches are multivariate testing, and Taguchi testing. With some of the hosted testing solutions in the market today, website owners are no longer limited to the basic A/B split testing methods. Today, multiple elements can be tested at the same time, which allows business owners to determine exactly which phrases, images, content or other variables perform best, and in what combinations.
The multivariate testing solution takes each element and combines it with the other elements in every possible combination. Your site traffic is split between all the various versions. Conversion information is collected for each version, and you'll know which is the best performing version of all the possible combinations. So you can make educated decisions on what to keep and what to change on your site. While this is a much more thorough way to test, it will take longer to get results than an A/B split test, so you need either a pretty heavy stream of traffic, or the patience to wait a few weeks or longer for actionable results.
By far the most effective solution, with the fastest actionable results, is a true Taguchi style testing solution. To create a Taguchi test, the site owner selects which elements to test, and creates several variations of each. The variables may include headlines, promotional banners, buttons, graphics, testimonials, copy blocks, pop-ups...any element on your page that you want to check. This is done in much the same way as the multivariate test, with one major advantage.
The true advantage to using the Taguchi algorithm? Because of the scientific way the test is run, it becomes statistically valid with a much smaller pool of visitors. So you'll get actionable results must faster. And faster results means your site will be making more money, faster.
Website testing is a major part of website optimization these days, one that can not be ignored by any online business owner, no matter how big or small you are.
Ready to start your own testing program? These four things will help you be most successful: 1) determine what your conversion goals are; 2) know your customer base and what they are looking for; 3) be creative and try some "out of the box" ideas; and most of all, 4) test, test, test and optimize, optimize, optimize until you have created and designed the best combination of words, graphics and designs.
Test your site, and learn the best way to squeeze every last ounce of potential out of your site traffic stream.
Both Richard Adams & Ian Mclennan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Richard Adams has sinced written about articles on various topics from Travel and Leisure, Quit Smoking and Computers and The Internet. Richard Adams is the owner and founder of . About Snakes is one of the most popular sources of free reptile information online.. Richard Adams's top article generates over 1830000 views. to your Favourites.
Ian Mclennan has sinced written about articles on various topics from Site Promotion, Pet Snakes. Testing is an important part of any online marketing effort -- but only Fortune 500 companies can afford the expensive, enterprise level testing solutions available today through offermatica.com or taguchinow.com.. Ian Mclennan's top article generates over 2900 views. to your Favourites.