Vivastreet blog

Mom deserves something special. To help you find it, we’ve released our new Mother’s Day Gift Category so you can find that perfect Mother’s Day present.

Here are some amazing deals to spoil your mum this Mother’s Day.

• Glasgow – Award winning, professional make-up artist offers make-up lesson gift vouchers. Each voucher is £75 and comes in a gorgeous gift box, tied with ribbon and can be mailed to any location.

• Cheshire – Italian Restaurant in Cheshire presents exclusive Mother’s day adoration lunch and dinner. Each Mother will be spoiled by an exquisite glass of Bellini cocktail or their legendary Sicilian Emporio red or white wine!

• Cambridge – Very unique flat tree aromatic candles in four different scents: ocean, apple, orange and lemon.

• South Shields - Spoil your mum with a private chauffeur driven Alfa Romeo and a free bottle of champagne.

• Croydon – Brand new vintage silk scarves from only £5.

How Automatic Renewal works?

1. By selecting the automatic renewal feature, your classified ad plan will be renewed automatically on its expiration date – so you don’t have to worry about your classified ad plan expiring!
2. You will be automatically charged by your last selected classified ad plan and by using your last payment method. A separate invoice will be sent to you for confirmation every time your classified ad plan gets renewed. You will also be notified prior to any changes in prices of the selected plans.
3. You may cancel the automatic renewal feature at any time by following the instructions contained on the Vivastreet website and in your order confirmation email.

The recession has taken its toll on millions of families across the UK, but the Brits are nothing if not resourceful. According to free classifieds website, Vivastreet.co.uk, more people than ever are turning to the Work from Home section of the website to boost their salaries, replace lost income or keep on top of their debts.

Vivastreet.co.uk figures show that last year the number of people searching for work they could carry out in their own homes increased by 142% compared to 2008. This trend is expected to continue this year as people look for ways to supplement their income to help keep on top of their finances.

In fact, January 2010 has already seen almost 150,000 people visiting the Work from Home section of the website making it one of the more popular categories in the part-time jobs section and 62% more people searched for ‘work from home’ jobs last month than did in December 2009. Traffic levels in January 2010 were also a staggering 412% higher than traffic levels in the corresponding month in 2009.

Currently, the most popular types of jobs on the Vivastreet.co.uk website that people can do from the comfort of their front room include data entry clerks, remote typists, online survey respondents, online sales consultants, part-time PAs and translators.

With millions of people struggling to cope with mounting debt and worries about job security, the option to earn additional income after work and at weekends has proved a life-saver. With the country expected to languish in the economic doldrums until at least the beginning of 2011, the number of home workers is likely to grow significantly in 2010.

The attraction of working from home has also benefited from the home communications revolution, with the majority of households now having access to fast speed broadband. This has provided a wealth of new opportunities to make money armed simply with a computer and a phone.

Inevitably, with more people looking for work they can carry out at home, Vivastreet.co.uk, a website for free classified ads listings, has also seen an explosion in ‘work from home’ ads being posted on the site during the past 12 months. January 2010 actually saw the highest number of ads uploaded to the site in any one month since the section launched five years ago. The number of new Work from Home job ads placed in 2009 was double (98%) the number of new ads placed during 2008.

Yannick Pons, CEO, Vivastreet.co.uk, commented:

“The Work from Home section has been one of the most popular sections on the site over the past year, but we’ve noticed a massive spike in page views during the first month- and-a-half of 2010. Traffic has been growing month on month, and the number of news ads has also risen sharply.

“Not only are people looking for ways to bolster their incomes, it seems businesses are beginning to see home working as a more cost-effective resource than having staff on-site, particular at a time when they need to cut spending to the bone. With a lot of the jobs people can take up requiring just an internet connection and phone, it’s no surprise this segment of the market is beginning to appeal to consumers and businesses alike.”

- Ends -

We would like to inform you that in response to our user feedback, we are constantly improving the content quality of our site and our service.  For this reason, we have introduced a new rule, which will no longer permit posting of naturist/nude massages in the Services section (Massage-Beauty-Spa category).

Due to the nature of these massages, from now on the posting will be possible only in the Erotic massages category in the 18+ section.

We regret any inconvenience this might cause and we hope this will not discourage you from using Vivastreet either for your personal or business needs.

If you have any further question, do not hesitate to contact us via our onsite Contact us form or e-mail us directly to: team-uk@vivastreet.com

Like promised, we’ve added a brand new set of photos for tagging. This time you have an opportunity to tag yourself or your friends in Motorcycles, Vacation Rentals or Property for Sale and enter the draw for an iPod Nano.

What you need to do:

1. Be a fan of our Vivastreet Facebook page, and be a resident of the UK.
2. Tag yourself or your friends on ONE of the photos. Whichever one. The winner will be picked from the list of “Tagged in this album” names, so in the end whether you are tagged in once or 20 times you will only appear once on the list and have as many chances to win as anyone else. This is to keep the competition fair, we don’t want someone tagging all the photos and then other fans can’t enter.

Good Luck!

Once you have found a property that meets your requirements, it is important to inspect the following:

• Time – Take your time looking round the property
• Ask Questions – Don’t be afraid to ask direct and blunt questions about the property
• Photos – Take pictures of the property so that you can look over them later with fresh eyes.
• Measuring up – Take a tape measure with you to calculate the size of each room, or get a rough idea of floor space in a room with furniture by looking at the ceiling size.
• Bills – Find out what is the cost of Council Tax and the average costs of other utility bills such as electricity, gas and water.
• Damp – Is there a smell of damp or any other sign such as the walls feeling damp, wallpaper peeling, paint bubbling, watermarks or mould.
• Power – Make sure there enough power points - how old do they look?
• Internet & Phone – Ask if the property has a phone and internet connection and where are the connection points.
• Electrics, plumbing and heating – Ask the agent or the owner to confirm that the boiler, electrics and plumbing in the property are all in decent working condition, and to see copies of guarantees and service certificates. Have there been any problems with the boiler; when was it last serviced by a Gas Safe engineer?
• Planning permission – Ask if permission has been granted in principle for an extension or other home improvement. Can you put up pictures or redecorate?
• Exterior – Don’t forget to examine pipes, drainage and the condition of the roof.
• Insurance – Check if there have been any recent claims on the property’s buildings insurance – including flooding – and ask for details.
• Neighbours – What are the neighbours like – are they noisy