Home and Garden Advice from ArcaMax

Parents, gardeners, pet owners and chefs can find all the information they need for their favorite hobbies from ArcaMax Publishing's Home & Garden channel.

The family-friendly publisher, which also distributes ezines (e-mail newsletters) on topics ranging from breaking news to travel tips, offers a variety of daily news, syndicated columns, and tips for every homeowner.

The site is designed "not only to offer basic information, but also to help our readers have some extra fun," says ArcaMax CEO Scott Wolf. "Our content is very innovative and varied. For example, we don't simply have one basic Recipes section. We offer several different formats and categories, so readers can choose what's best for them."

Among the Recipes ezines are a weekly family menu planner, healthy choices, the comic strip "Cheap Thrills Cuisne" (which offers simple recipes in a visual format), and recipes and food trivia from Chef James. The site also boasts a database of all recipes featured in the ezines, so visitors can search for a specific dish or browse the database.

The site offers home tips reaching outside the kitchen, as well. Parents can subscribe to a Parenting ezine featuring syndicated columns from Sylvia Rimm, James Dobson, and John Rosemond, as well as safety tips and parenting advice. For those more interested in the outdoors, the Gardening section has a similar database for gardening tips. An interactive map offers regional gardening reports, and regular news features offer tips and news for those looking to improve their garden.

One of the most popular features of Home & Garden is the Cats & Dogs feature. This section offers the reliable advice readers have come to expect of ArcaMax, but also allows for reader participation with their Subscriber Pet Pics. Readers have the opportunity to send in photos of their pets to show off to their fellow subscribers, and these photos become part of ArcaMax's Pet Gallery, featuring more than 500 reader-submitted photos.

ArcaMax also will be offering a similar service for baby photos in the coming days. "We're very excited about that," Wolf says. "It's going to be a great way for parents and grandparents to show off their baby pictures not only to their friends and family, but to other newsletter readers."

The ArcaMax Home & Garden ezine package is just part of more than 40 family-friendly newsletters offered, including "Garfield," entertainment news, Bible verses, and an online book club featuring more than 600 free classic books available to read by e-mail. For more information or to subscribe, visit the ArcaMax subscription page at http://www.arcamax.com/cgi-bin/reg .