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If you live in a major metropolitan area, your local newspaper is the first place to look for a firefighting job. And the best day to find ads for firefighting jobs is the paper’s Sunday edition - as this is the day when most fire departments post their openings.

If you do not live in a major metro area, you can go to your local library on Monday, where you will most likely find Sunday newspapers from major metro areas. For example, if you were to live in Limon, Colorado, your best bet would be the Sunday edition of the Denver Post.

Where else can you look?

If, for some reason, your local library does not subscribe to Sunday newspapers from nearby major cities, you can try news stands or bookstores, such as Borders, or Barnes & Noble as they will often have the Sunday editions of major newspapers.

Expand your horizons

Next, there is a Firehouse website which has a jobs section. FireCareers is another website with nationwide ads for firefighting jobs. However, before you go to sources like these, you need to ask yourself whether or not you would be willing to relocate and, if so, how far you would be willing to move. The fact is, if you are flexible and willing to relocate, your chances of landing a firefighter position increase dramatically. For example, when this article was written, the website Firehouse had openings posted for a firefighter/paramedic in Toledo, Ohio; for a firefighter/paramedic in Texas; a firefighter in Kansas; and for a firefighter in Boston.

Take a course

Another good source of information about firefighting jobs is to take a firefighting course at your local community college or a seminar related to firefighting. This is because most of these courses and seminars are taught by people still working in fire departments. As such they may be aware of openings and testing opportunities. Just as important, these classes and seminars give you the opportunity to network with other people looking for firefighter jobs and they may be able to provide you with helpful information. Also, these classes and seminars can increase your level of education and add important information to your resume.

Read a magazine.

There are trade publications written specifically for fire departments and firefighters. One of these is Firehouse Magazine which occasionally lists entry-level firefighter jobs. Subscribe to one or more of these publications and you will not only find advertised positions, you will also learn more about firefighting.

Who gives the examinations?

You may not be aware of this, but fire departments in most cities do not give firefighter examinations. In fact, these tests are usually given by city or county human resource (HR) or personnel offices. Almost all cities and counties have offices that handle the testing for the agencies within their jurisdictions, including fire departments. The way it works is that the fire department tells the HR department or Personnel office that it has openings for fire fighters and that an exam needs to be scheduled. The HR or Personnel office will then schedule and administer the testing.

Contact each department individually.

While you should be sure to contact your local HR or personnel department, you should also contact each fire department in your area individually as some of them may not use the city or county personnel department for testing. Instead of this, they may have their own personnel services manager to handle testing and recruitment.

Be patient and persistent.

There is so much competition for firefighter jobs these days, the odds are that you will not be successful the first time you apply. Today’s firefighter exams typically take three to 3 1/2 hours and consist of 100 or more questions. If you do not post a very high score, you will be out of luck until the next examination is held. However, don’t become discouraged. Many firefighters have taken the examination two, three, four or more times before succeeding. In fact, they will tell you that taking the exam several times, makes it more likely that you will score very well the third or fourth time you try.

Good luck

In the meantime, good luck on becoming a firefighter. It is a challenging, interesting and rewarding career.

Douglas Hanna is the publisher of the popular web site, http://www.howtobecomeafirefighter101.com. He is the author of nearly 200 ezine articles on a variety of subjects and publishes the web site http://www.hd-radio-home.com which offers a wealth of information about this new technology.

Starting a new business requires a marketing plan. You must decide how you will advertise your site before you launch a new business. This article shows you how to launch a new business with articles to build sales and revenue from the get-go.

Use Articles to Promote Your Site
There’s only so much that word-of-mouth advertising can do for a new business. Tell everyone you know about the business and share the link to your website with every business acquaintance and new person you meet. Talk about your new business till you’re blue in the face. That will only go so far to help you build your business, though.

A better and more effective method is to use articles to promote your site. Don’t confuse article marketing with providing quality content for your site, though. Sure, your site needs content. One way to stay on top of the search engine results pages and to get a higher ranking is to provide well researched, informative articles on your website. Providing content on your site grows your business based on people finding you in the search engines.

To reach a larger audience, however, article marketing is the way to go. Basically what you do is write an article that is directly related to your site. You won’t post it on your own site, though. Submit this article to an article distribution site. Once the article makes it through the editing process, it becomes available for websites across the net to pick up and use as content on their sites.

The benefit of distributing your article across the Internet is huge for you as a business owner. It creates a ton of back links to your site. These back links do two things. They send targeted traffic to your site and they improve your search engine ranking. This is good news and a lot of exposure for someone who is launching a new business.

Using Article Marketing to Launch a New Business
Article marketing is a great way to launch a new business. Draw a large number of readers and customers to your web page right from the beginning using these simple steps.

Step 1. Create a website for your new business. Make sure your website is aesthetically pleasing and it is filled with informative content to draw new readers in.

Step 2. Write (or hire someone to write) a search engine optimized article based on the topic of your new business.

Step 3. Submit your informative article to an article distribution service. Pair your article with an effective title that draws people in. Build in a little teaser to lure readers to click on your article. Your business’ web page link appears in the author box.

Step 4. Continue to add content to your website and submit articles through article distribution sites to promote your site and have a successful launch for your new business.

Now you know how to market with articles. Article marketing is a simple and effective way to get word out about your new business. It’s easy once you understand what publishers are looking for and you can tailor your articles to their needs.

Brad McGovern is the Marketing Manager at Article Marketer, and offers advice and news of note to article marketers. Watch for more from Brad in the coming days!

If anyone is thinking about buying a late used BMW car then pay attention to the following information as it may save you a serious amount of money.

A close friend purchased an 18 month old BMW 325i M Sport recently from a private seller and did not pay close attention to the tyres which were quite worn. After a couple of months further wear he realised they were looking a little low although still quite legal so he took the car into a leading tyre companies garage over Christmas to get a new set put on.

After half an hour he was told that the company could not get the tyre’s, this was because only one manufacturer made the approved tyres which were a certain type of run flat sports tyre. Though run flat tyres are common in many other BMW models these tyre’s were extremely hard to source without going to the nearest BMW dealership.

Now the second problem was the cost, a complete set of tyres fitted was going to cost 1,300 pounds inclusive and so what seemed like a bargain at the time of purchase very quickly turned out to be no bargain at all. With the new tyre’s fitted the car was merrily on its way back from Bristol when the low air pressure warning light flashed.

After pulling off the motorway, a quick check revealed that the new rear nearside tyre indeed had a puncture, the fact that the car had run flat tyre’s means of course that there is no spare. After ringing a number of emergency callout tyre companies and using the very limited run flat ability to reach a tyre fitting company after leaving the next junction a certain reality dawned.

Not only could the companies not get a replacement tyre (soonest was 5 days) it became apparent that a run flat tyre cannot be repaired, in fact one national distributer said it was against the law to repair a run flat tyre.

At this point what are the options, the car is still 4 hours from home, it has a puncture that cannot be fixed and a tyre that cannot be replaced. A trip to a nearby Halfords and 25 pounds later an electric pump was deployed that worked from the lighter plug, the only way home was to use the back roads with regular stops to re-inflate the tyre each time the low pressure warning came on, the warning had to be re-set each time the tyre was re-inflated.

Some 11 hours later with many stops and diversions the car was on the drive back at his house and the next morning a call to the local BMW dealership was made to arrange the replacement. It still took a day to get the tyres in and the stop and pump procedure was used to get the car to the dealership. Another 350 pounds later and the car was back on the road again.

I guess there are a number of lessons to learn here, one of course is the issue and sensibility of run flat tyres which are being rolled out across many types of car now, secondly of course is whether it is wise for the everyday person to purchase cars privately anymore.

Of course the puncture could not be foreseen but then being stranded at a motorway service station and then stopping to re-inflate a tyre for 11 hours is not a very sensible and fulfilling experience either.

But what if the car had been purchased from an approved BMW dealer, first of all the tyres would have been in top condition, the downside is that the price would be more to start with but then this can be offset by the potential for reduced depreciation due to the cars approved dealer status.

Furthermore, at the service station the owner could invoke the BMW emergency recovery service and driven home in a replacement car, safer and far more convenient. Looking further, what about the complexity of electronics and components, most people would not have a clue as to whether these are in good order or about to malfunction (frighteningly expensive).

Therefore as cars become ever more complex can everyday motorists put themselves at risk like this, is it not a false economy and a flawed outlook on personal safety to purchase privately rather than through a dealership.

BMW expert Catherine Harvey looks at the experiences of one man who bought a used BMW from a private seller. To find out more please visit http://www.cooperbmw.co.uk/