Web of Knowledge

Using Your Web Camera Effectively for Video Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:09:00 +0000

Internet has been revolutionized over the past few years. Video conferencing and Youtube has transformed the future vision of internet as a rest place for static text content only. And internet marketers have been using videos very effectively to create a personalized and monetized source of engagement for their audience for quite some time now.

Image: courtesy of inprofitblogging.com

This post is all about the importance of your web camera, how to create a dazzling video of yourself and its impact upon your blog. Although you may not see videos on Etutslive.com, but it is equally important for any blogger to run a personal video once in a while, breaking the anonymity and delivering a one-on-one experience for the users.

But you may not use your web camera to shoot yourself only. Modern cameras eventually allow you to even create video portfolios and documentaries using simple to operate editing software.

Rest of the post deals with very basic details about setting up a small DIY studio to effectively create your first video post. I will like to explain it through my professional photography experience.

How to Blog for Money? 3 Simple Techniques to Change Your Fortune

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:05:00 +0000

Blogging looks like a very easy job. Sitting in the comfort of your own home, reading, typing, converting your thoughts into words and letting everybody know what you think, and most of all making a lot of money to get rich overnight, looks like a perfect idea for a perfect living. Quite fascinating indeed!

But it is not as easy and attractive as it looks. Many blogs are created and dumped on regular basis in the online world. Simply because they are not as lucrative practically as they seem to be in theory.

A successful blog requires dedication, commitment and a lot of expert knowledge on the subject as basics for being a successful blogger.

Other complications come follow.

However, this article, as the title suggests, is not about issues and complications involved in running an online blog. On the other hand, it deals with the possible opportunities that a blogger may consider lucrative in order to convert his blog into a huge success.

So, how to blog for money?

I have 3 purely simple suggestions for you to get started.

1- Advertising

This is a very organic option indeed. More the number of visitors, higher are the earnings. I personally consider advertising as core of the earning strategy for your blog and a challenge as well. This is because I am constantly hungry for more users. For this I keep on finding ways to improve quality of navigation and content both on my blog.

You can get help from following ad networks and start displaying ads on your blog to earn some money.

Adsense
Chitika
ContextAds Network
Clicksor

2- Affiliate Marketing

You may have some luck through affiliate marketing. Support your affiliate marketing campaigns through your blog and social network presence and you will start getting results.

CommissionJunction is one of the top Affiliate marketing network available online. Register with CJ to get top campaigns from top internet brands.

3- Paid Blog Articles and Product Reviews.

A dirty trick in the game but will get you off with some income to quickly. Try the following sites for an early breakthrough.

Sponsored Reviews
Link Post
Review Me

Blog for Money Original Article

What is SEO all about? 10 Quick Tips to Get You Started

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:41:00 +0000

This is an interesting question.

What is SEO all about?

As SEO is an abbreviation of Search Engine Optimization, it can generally be defined as a set of strategies to rank applied to any website to get high search engine rankings.

Allow me to give you a base to start your research to further elaborate SEO. There are no defined strategies to pull out an answer to this question. Everyone has got certain tricks to hide under his sleeves to get some results. But not everyone gets to the top.

This myth can be solved through considering the following 10 points. Therefore, while SEO directly deals with search engine rankings, you may find it challenging to optimize your website in a proper way so that it is displayed at top of search results. However, following tips can get you started in a better way about understanding SEO.

1- Search engines have become intelligent over the period of last 10 years. People working behind them are constantly working on the techniques to bring more relevant content to the user.

Therefore, do not get too much excited about keyword optimization. A little attention will suffice.

2- Search engines do not like autopilots.

So, your page rankings may fall tumbling down once you start using copied content extensively into your website.

3- Search engines are not a great fan of paid link directories.

You can already imagine what impact a paid listing can have on your search rankings.

4- Everyone loves social media. Search engines are not an exception!

Search engines love viral content. Therefore, any SEO strategy today without Social media focus is a dead fish in a pond of sharks.

5- Readability

You have published your article/content on internet for people to read it. Better the readability of your website, better it is going to perform on search engines.

6- Navigation

If your website navigation resembles a maze, immediately revise your navigation to get it more simple for users to access it. It is a critical part of any modern SEO strategy now a days.

7- Comparison

Identify your target websites at the start of your strategy. And make sure that you try to get the same level of optimization as a few of your competitors.

8- Do not worry about Sandbox.

There is no sandbox in the SEO world.

9- Avoid Wikipedia or Yahoo Answers as linking partners

Emphasize on high quality websites other than Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers. If you find any high quality website setting a nofollow tag with its outbound link, immediately rule it out of your SEO campaign. You will have “ZERO” benefit from nofollow tag on that website.

10- Patientce, my friend is a virtue

Last but not the least, patience is a virtue. Optimize your website to the best of your knowledge and wait for the results.

Do You Believe in Google Sandbox Effect?

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:11:00 +0000

Let us consider a scenario.

You started a new website a month back and submitted to Google. After posting 50 or so articles, and optimizing them to best of your knowledge, you kept fingers crossed as when your website would be ranked at the top page for your search terms.

Instead of getting favorable results, you find out after a month that you are unable to get even on the 5th page for your targeted search queries. What in the world went wrong?

In quest of searching for the answer, you hit a striking blog post by an expert talking about “Google Sandbox”. And that is it. After reading it, you find that all your effort has gone down the drain and in fact you start thinking about how much time you have wasted on your content without knowing anything about how google treated your new website. May be you should have taken your website casually in the beginning rather than pursuing it aggressively.

Importantly, you should have considered hiring a top notch SEO expert, rather than experimenting on your own and becoming a DIY SEO Expert through opting hit and trial method.

But then you try to give it a second attempt and you do not loose hope. You start to find ways of getting more information on sandbox. And again instead of finding some optimistic information, you finally draw a conclusive statement that it is worthless to worry about Google rankings before a certain amount of time, because your website has been dumped into a sandbox. And no one knows when it will be out of that damn box in the near future to come. Period.

But wait!

You need to rethink about your conclusive statement.

Facebook Timeline for Recording Healthcare Issues

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:30:00 +0000

Facebook responded strongly to Google+. In contrast to my previous post titled: Is Google+ the New Social Layer? Is Facebook Outdated? , I was forced to rethink about my opinion after some significant weeks of changes introduced by the social networking giant.

The company was able to roll out an awesome set of brand new features to engage the already engaged audience. Everyone was anticipating reaction to Google+ but no one was expecting it to be above par and in a way that it happened. It almost nullified the impact of Google+. The changes were constant and brought a better user experience than expected.

One of those changes was the introduction of timeline feature.

Although Facebook launched timeline to be an activity log of your life encouraging to note something that happened very early, in the middle or recently, I came across a whole new thought about timeline application.

A few weeks ago, I was working on a database project for a client in states who wanted to have a feature built in the db to record and show his daily sickness log. It included his BP, Pulse, or any other physical condition that he might had observed during any particular period of time to later show to his physician.

When I saw Facebook timeline, I immediately stumbled upon the thought of its use as an effective health issues recorder for any one.

For instance, a person could even upload his test reports, vital statistics or any other conditions on a particular day during his/her sickness. Timeline could offer the ability to create an online log of one’s healthcare related issues for ever and for free.

This record would be available globally without any need of carrying files, prescriptions or x-rays for checkups. Physicians could simply get connected with patients to find about periodic activity and alerts. This would save much time and hassle for everyone.

In summary, I can already think of Timeline as a huge service to healthcare providers and patients.

If anyone among the readers has already implemented that concept, please share your experiences.

Original Post at: http://www.etutslive.com/2011/10/11/facebook-timeline-for-recording-healthcar...

Christopher Columbus and Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:29:00 +0000

As the history has it, Christopher Columbus was one of the voyagers to set first few European feet on American soil instead of finding a new route to Indian continent through sailing west rather than going to the east. Although, he was not the only one to discover America, his continuous expeditions led the way for Europeans to discover alien lands and strengthen their colonial rule in the centuries to come.

And that is it. We should not convert this post into a pure history lesson. Much more on the subject can be found through Google and Wikipedia (if you are interested).

Do Links from Wikipedia or Yahoo Groups Increase Your Website PR?

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 02:37:00 +0000

Backlinking is a continuous process. Every website on the internet strives to get high PR through creating inbound links from credible web sources having high PR and search engine rankings. And often writers and experts talk about creating links through answering questions in Yahoo Groups or creating pages in Wikipedia to increase PR for your website.

But does that really help?

A simple answer is “NO”.

Question arises, “Why?”

Well! here is a simple explanation.

Each outbound link from Wikipedia or Yahoo groups is wrapped in a <rel=”nofollow”> tag for search spiders. Which explicitly tells a search engine to not to follow a link, busting your effort to create an inbound link from wikipedia to increase your site PR.

If you find this information doubtful, go to any web page on Wikipedia and view source of that webpage. All outbound links will be tagged with <rel=”nofollow”>. This simply means that even if you have 100 pages in Wikipedia linked to your website or article. Your PR will not be affected. And same goes with the Yahoo Groups.

Need further evidence? Click to watch Google’s Matt Cutts’ version on nofollow links.

Therefore, noble advice is to leave Wikipedia or Yahoo Groups out of your link building campaign and concentrate upon the quality of your content. Chances are very high that even though you get an inbound link from a very high PR website, your own PR will not be affected. This happens when <rel=”nofollow”> plays its role in ignoring that link pointing to your website.

Happy Link Building

Original Article here...

Untitled

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:38:00 +0000

It is a very challenging question. I certainly admit that I am not an expert on commenting upon economic downturns and suggesting way-outs or bail-outs. Certainly not as genius as the advisers in the Obama administration or else where. But with such huge knowledge and experience, why these advisers have failed to change the scenario? In a scenario when a person like me, having a reasonably short banking tenure can easily understand where the trouble is.

I may be too narrow in my approach, but I am of the view that our current banking system should be abolished in order to bring some momentum back to the economy and job market.

And as an ex-banker myself, I have my reasons to believe as why the fresh stimulus has failed to boost the economy.

1- Central Bank must not be the primary lender of the Federal Government. This is because when a currency printing authority is directly in charge of negotiating a loan with the government, it prints more currency in order to meet borrower demands, in turn increasing inflation and creating pressure on consumer markets.

2- Currency has to be backed by a physical commodity. Why in the world currency is backed by promises and bonds? Promises backed by promises? Nothing practical to deliver and redeem in case of collateral damage? America lost its rating because it showed its inability to keep its promise of paying back. And last time it was willing to pay, but had no capacity to pay. That is why bonds lost their value. Even smallest of the banks keep collateral in shape of gold or land or something else against a loan. Backing a currency against a commodity eventually kills any chances of unnatural change in currency rate.

3- Our banking system believes that lending money to anyone else allows them to sit back and enjoy profits. While they can simply multiply their profits, they are not helping in building economy, they are simply destroying it through creating more pressure on the borrowers to pay back more than something they borrowed originally. Wrong Idea!

4- Profits can be calculated through a simple formula i.e. Labor x Capital = Products/services -> Profits. Which means that Capital alone cannot create profit. If it is 10 dollars today, it will remain 10 dollars tomorrow unless there is no labor involved. This is where the Job market plays its role.

5- Point number 4 establishes another fact. Interest based banking is a killing machine. Why do I have to pay 103 dollars, when I borrowed 100 dollars for my personal use. And the bank knows that I have no intention of doing any business with that money. I just want to buy a new gadget for my personal use. Although loans disbursed by any bank are considered as bank’s asset, but these assets have to be tangible in nature – not on balance sheet only. Even if I cannot repay my loan, bank can take the item back to sell it and redeem its loss rather than degrading my credit rating. This will enable genuine business activity in the market.

6- Why banks simply lend the money and let the borrowers enjoy? Poor monitoring of loans cannot create a healthy business activity. Easy lending must be followed by strong monitoring. And the profit/loss should be calculated realistically. There can be several changes adopted for monitoring. Above all, banks should hire competent individuals to work in collaboration with the borrower’s management to make the loans available for more productive use. Again, terms should be revised from interest based banking to profit/loss based banking. This shall eventually create more pressure on the banks to monitor and take care of their money.

7- Jobs are vital for any economy. When the government is bailing out banks and financial institutions, it is not considering actual players. It is noteworthy that banks face trouble when there is a liquidity problem. Which essentially means that loans are not being repaid as swiftly as banks anticipated. Rather than bailing out a bank, government should check the list of borrowers who face the downturn. We must know that when banks do bad lending, they play with depositors’ money, creating a liquidity problem and hurting depositors’ interest. Therefore, those institutions must be held responsible for their own mistakes. Chapter 11 bankruptcy should not be applicable on banks and financial institutions. In fact management should be prosecuted under applicable criminal laws.

8- Wall Street itself is not a problem. It is a symbol of strength for American nation. But the fact of the matter is that powerful men and women at Wall Street often forget a quote, “With great power, comes great responsibility”. Don’t you feel that stock market can get you bankrupt in 10 minutes? So just thinking for a minute; What is wrong with creating a mechanism that allows you to trade shares only after holding them for a certain period of time? What is wrong with buying a commodity and getting its possession before selling it? What troubles you to avoid dealing in futures? Nothing. It will almost nullify the impact of speculation over trading and will bring business and jobs in the economy.

9- Government has a right to collect tax. But what if that tax money is being used for unproductive projects? Wars cannot simply get an economy rolling. It can only destroy economies. Same is happening to US economy – under huge pressure of 3 wars.

10- Mortgages should not be swappable. If I own a house and I have it mortgaged through a bank, the property should only be sold to any potential buyer in case of consecutive repayment failures so that the loss can be recovered. Swapped mortgages create no benefit for any of the parties.

Original Post at: http://www.etutslive.com/2011/10/07/what-is-wrong-with-us-economy-ethically-a...

How to Build Quality One-Way Links (Backlinks) for Your Blog in 15 Minutes

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:39:00 +0000

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 What are Backlinks?

Wikipedia defines backlinks as follows:
Backlinks, also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links, are incoming links to a website or web page. In basic link terminology, a backlink is any link received by a web node (web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another web node.

The Myth

Today, Backlinks are considered as backbone of SEO strategy for any website. This is primarily because a high number of backlinks to any particular website gives a perception that there is some relevant information present on a website, which others have considered of high value for their readers to know and talk about, thus making it “popular”. Therefore, a high number of links for a website/webpage ensures that it will be ranked high in search engines in response to targeted queries. And this is why SEO experts heavily rely upon building strong and high quality links as part of their SEO strategy to increase the search rankings for any website.

Top 3 Resources to Find Online Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:35:00 +0000

I know you must be thinking that this post is just another attempt to gain some attention in the crowd. And that you are already aware of enough scam websites and online resources that claim of making you a millionaire overnight through offering surprisingly easy online jobs.

But Wait!

I am not offering you any opportunity to become an overnight millionaire or gain easy money. There are no online jobs in the market which offer you wealth in return of nothing. You have to work hard to earn some cash as well as respect. And this is what online world is all about. It is about persistence, continuity and knowledge. In fact, whole of the World Wide Web is an information junkyard. Isn’t it?

img, #cubbies-overlay{ -moz-transition-property: margin, box-shadow, z-index; -moz-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-property: margin, box-shadow, z-index; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; } .cubbies-selected{ z-index: 9999; box-shadow: 3px 3px 8px -1px blue !important; cursor: pointer !important; margin: -3px 3px 3px -3px; } .cubbies-selected:active{ box-shadow: 2px 2px 5px -1px darkblue !important; margin: -1px 1px 1px -1px; } #cubbies-overlay{ position: fixed; z-index: 9999; bottom: 30px; left: 30px; box-shadow: 0 2px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.8); border: none; } #cubbies-overlay:hover{ box-shadow: 0 2px 3px rgb(0,0,0); }

Why Would You Want to Join and Stay on Diaspora?

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:31:00 +0000

Earlier, I wrote about my request for an invitation to join Diaspora. Although, I joined on the 4th day as a result of the invite sent by Josem but had to face a couple of errors (which I do not remember now) while signing up. An immediate thought came to my mind, “It is too early…” and after signing up, I closed the window to get back after indefinite period of time. That indefinite period ended today and I visited the site again to see a remarkable set of features. The best thing I liked, I was not lonely at the first place like the way it happened the time I joined Facebook. Read more at: http://www.etutslive.com/2011/09/30/why-would-you-want-to-join-and-stay-on-di...

We have moved!! Etutslive.com

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:59:00 +0000

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I finally convinced one of emerging freelancers to join hands with me and start our own blog at Etutslive.com
Further posts may be discontinued on this blog and I request all of you to bookmark the new location as stated above.
Many thanks.
See you at Etutslive

How to Hack Twitter? or even Facebook?

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:56:00 +0000

Are you onto hacking my Twitter or Facebook? It really puts you on no.1 on my terrorist list. But on the other hand, it is true that as even more people are switching to wireless/wifi devices and networks for tweets, emails, Facebook status updates, there are serious security implications associated to them. Notice how easy it is to hack into someone's social networking account and scare him or her.

This technique is known as HTTP session hijacking attack.

1- Make yourself comfortable in a crowded place, where you are sure to find some wireless/wifi networks on the loose (An airport or a bus station, or may be a tube station).
2- Fire up your Firefox 3.0.6 or higher (excluding 4.0 +) with Firesheep extension installed (Note there are already around 2 million downloads as I write this post).
3- And sit back and relax while you will have access to all open sessions for various services including Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and not to mention Twitter or Facebook.

Workarounds: Service providers have been incorporating the use of SSL in their applications and make sure that your browser uses the link starting from https: rather than http:

Disclaimer: This post is for education purposes only. And I request you to not to harm any user if you get access to his/her personal service account. And perhaps it is your duty as a responsible citizen to warn users of the dangers associated with using insecure wireless networks.

PHP: Watermark an Image

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:55:00 +0000

I recently came across a project in which I had to use text overlay to watermark an image with PHP GD. As it was an interesting project, therefore, I decided to share the technique.

$text = "© Copyright 2011"; // Text you will like to place as a watermark.

$file = "images/jpg/image1.JPG"; // path to actual image with full filename (in this case image1.JPG)

    $filew = 'image2'.'JPG'; // intended name of the new image file with watermark enabled

    $dim = getimagesize($file); // function to get dimensions of our original image

    $imagewidth  = $dim[0]; // get the width of the original image

    $imageheight = $dim[1]; // get the height of the original image

    $image = imagecreatefromjpeg($file); //create a new resource from our original image

    $black = imagecolorallocate($image, 0, 0, 0); // color of the copyright text to place on the image

    $grey = imagecolorallocate($image, 128, 128, 128); // I used the grey color to create a shadow

    $font = 'arial.ttf'; // font file. I copied the arial.ttf in the root folder. Use the full path to the file.

    imagettftext($image, 12, 0, 5, 20, $black, $font, $text); // function to copy text on the image.

    imagettftext($image, 12, 0, 6, 21, $grey, $font, $text); // function to copy text to create shadow

    $fpath = "_stamped/"; // my new path for the altered image

$filec = $fpath .$filew; // create a full new path for the altered image

imagejpeg($image, $filec ); // copy the image to the new path
imagedestroy($image); // free the memory

In order to use it in your HTML, use the following code:
echo "<p><img class='image' src=\"$filec\"></p>";

Output Result will be quite similar to that as follows:

Web Marketing: Basics

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 21:31:00 +0000

Whether you are looking to launch your online business or to handle an already existing and doomed website, there are some general rules that you must take in account.

Web 3.0
Gear up for lethal and uncompromising online world. Success and failure are closely related to user experience and message available for them on your website. World Wide Web is a fast and dynamic place to survive in. Do not try to mix it up with any other simple and traditional advertising medium. It is an electronic medium which requires eye catching experiences and fast transitions to captivate customers and convert prospects into clients. Perhaps, the internet requires altogether different and a well worked out approach to adopt as far as marketing is considered. You have to provide users a richer experience for them to stay on course with your philosophy. And perhaps you have to create the need for them to listen to your message.

SWOT is your SWAT.
Position your online presence against other competitors. Spend some time doing some work on your newly established list of competitors. Analyze each site, content and and their target audience. Any special medium or user rich experience they are providing on their website to captivate their users, etc.

Internet business plan is pivotal for your success. Before starting on the project, measurable goals and objectives should be set for the website. This may seem obvious in a bird's eye view, but it has been observed that ultimate planning is not available for most of the internet websites and projects.

Rent-An-Email List to become a Spammer.
There is a difference between emailing and spamming. Once you start working on the rented email lists, you can be sure of yourself to be thrown into the list of spammers. It is always better to build your own email lists rather than renting ones. And YES! frequency of email messages matter. Isn't it a good idea to let your subscribers know about the frequency of email exchanges between you and them? Relevancy plays a very important role in keeping your audience intact. Keep your email content relevant to your audience.

Although it is clear that internet is not a traditional communication medium, but there is a connection between online and offline activities. If you find that your online activities are not synchronized with your offline activities as far as advertising, marketing and campaigning is concerned, you may find yourself strangled in a variety of ways. People advertise online about their radio appearances. Companies post success stories about their road shows. You have to do the same. You are trying to create an audience for your online presence, you have to tell them that you are as social in your daily life as you are on your website. Remember; original always sells!!

Make your site an information resource for its target audience. Becoming a trusted resource of high quality information for your devoted followers or stumblers is of tremendous value to your online presence, in addition, it can help win your website free press and word-of-mouth/mouse.

Usability and eye catching experiences are key factors in converting stumblers into your subscribers. You need to always have your focus on getting real people to subscribe to your website. Real people not figures (fake fan page likes, twitter followings without followers) are essential for your survival. Sometimes it may take an extra slide in window to capture a stumbler.

Importantly, you need to assess the value of your investments and ROI. Just for an example slide in window accessible here may cost you $1, but it has the potential of creating faithful subscribers which will provide you value of more than 500% in the future. Critical and analytical decision making is a key factor in continued online success.

Furthermore, you need to understand that being jack of all trades does not serve the purpose some time. It really does not matter if you are just like me - a technology professional with 10 years of experience, an ex-banker, a local business man and a successful 5 star BPO professional. You will have need to outsource some specific tasks to the right person. Vworker.com and Odesk.com are top online resources to get your job done beautifully by top online professionals.

In the end, I will reiterate the fact that create a simple and effective message delivery system and do not forget to promote your website. Does not matter if you chose Adsense or local newspaper for your future campaigns, make sure that you are sending clear messages inline with your marketing and website objectives.

Credit Risk Management: Overview of Credit Process

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:57:00 +0000

Due to my curiosity to hunt down online resources for Credit Risk Management, I came across this small 3 page ebook. Perhaps there are going to be further editions in this series. It is a handy tool for any student preparing his basic assignment on credit risk management or any professional looking for an overview of credit process with reference to banking operational models and required documentation.

Credit Risk Management in 100 Hours (PDF Version)
Credit Risk Management in 100 Hours (Kindle Version)

Microsoft Access: Adding Live CNN RSS Feeds to Database

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:22:00 +0000

Recently, while experimenting with RSS feeds, I came across a very interesting technique to integrate RSS feeds into MS Access 2007 and I could not stop myself from sharing it.

In this demonstration, I will be adding CNN RSS feed to my Access 2007 database.

1- Go to CNN.com and select an RSS feed of your choice. In my case, I chose Middle East News (http://rss.cnn.com/rss/edition_meast.rss)

2- Open your MS Access 2007 software and Click on XML File in the Import Tab (External Data) on the Ribbon and paste the URL of the RSS feed in the File Name text box as shown below.

3- Access will open an interface as follows for you to select among different choices regarding import of XML data. In my case, I did not have any tables in the database, therefore, I selected Structures and Data. Click OK to proceed.

4- Upon clicking OK, Access will tell you that all of the data is not imported and there are some errors in your import operation. Click OK again and continue.

5- After completing above steps, you will find following tables in the database.
channel, image, ImportErrors, and Item.

6- The latest news imported into the database will be available in Item table as shown below.

And that is it. Notice how easy it is to harness the power of RSS feeds into your Access databases. In my next post, I will discuss in details the errors encountered during this import operation and as mentioned in ImportErrors table and also slight help of VBA to keep the database constantly updated with fresh news from the web sources.

Effect of Change in Demand, Cost Estimates and Lot Sizes on EOQ

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 10:14:00 +0000

For people among us, who are not aware of sensitivity analysis, it is a technique for systematically changing crucial parameters to determine the effects of change.

Considering the factors involved in EOQ estimation, when we substitute different values into numerator or denominator of the formula, different results may arise.

Change in Demand Rate

When demand rises, Lot size shall also increase. But in smaller proportions then actual demand.

Change in the Setup Cost or Ordering Cost

An increase in setup costs causes an increase in EOQ as well and vice versa.

Change in the Holding Cost

This relationship is inversely proportional. If holding cost of an item increases, EOQ decreases. Conversely a decrease in holding cost will allow us to have increased lot sizes. Larger lot sizes are justified by lower handling costs.

How to Calculate EOQ

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:15:00 +0000

Considering that all the assumptions discussed in previous post to calculate EOQ are being satisfied, a cycle begins with Q units held in inventory, which happens when a new order is received. During the cycle, on-hand inventory is consumed at a constant rate because demand is known with certainty. As the lead time is a constant, a new lot can be ordered so that inventory falls to 0 precisely when the new order is received.

Formula for calculating EOQ (Q*) is as follows:

Where

D = annual demand (units per year)

S = cost of ordering or setting up one lot (in currency)

H = cost of handling one unit in inventory for a year

EOQ: Economic Order Quantity

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 19:12:00 +0000

When we know about the challenges faced by an inventory controller or manager, we know that he/she has to face conflicting pressures to keep inventories low enough to avoid excess inventory holding costs but high enough to reduce the frequency of orders and setups

In order to balance these conflicting pressures and determining the best cycle inventory level for an item, we have to find the EOQ (Economic Order Quantity), which minimizes the annual handling costs as well as ordering costs. But yet again, we have to make certain assumptions in this imperfect world to calculate a deadly accurate economic order quantity.

Those assumptions are as follows:

1- Demand rate being constant and known with certainity
2- We do not have to limit lot sizes due to transportation capacity problems
3- Only, inventory holding costs and setup costs are incorporated in calculations.
4- Items don't really have to be interdependent. Which means if more than 1 item is ordered, no additional benefit is obtained while ordering to the same supplier.
5- There is no uncertainty in lead time.

I personally think that very few real world scenarios offer above 5 assumptions. Therefore, EOQ may be taken as very first step in approximation of lot sizes, even when any one or two of the above assumptions don't really apply.

80 20 Rule or Pareto's Concept

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 14:48:00 +0000

80-20 Rule is also known as Pareto's Concept. It may be simply stated as 80% of the activity is caused by 20% of the factors. Therefore, allowing managers to attack 80% of the problems.

This was proposed by an Italian scientist named Vilfredo Pareto in nineteenth century. His work focused on the inequalities in data and he proposed that most of an "activity" is caused by relatively "few" of its factors.

Pareto Chart drawn during ABC Analysis, is a bar chart on which the "Percentage of Items" is plotted in along the x-axis and "Percentage of Dollar Value" is plotted against the y-axis.

A conceptual diagram of ABC Analysis using Pareto Chart is as follows:

Also, Below is a Pareto Chart generated through a computer program computing results of ABC Analysis. As you can see below, 2 factors are used:
1- Annual Cumulative Sales on Y-Axis
2- Cumulative Number of Items on X-Axis

In order to download an excel template developed by American Society for Quality, please click on the following link:
Download Excel File

How to Classify Items During ABC Analysis and Inventory Reduction Measures

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 18:48:00 +0000

In my previous post, I briefly defined ABC analysis and a general concept as to how much of Class A, B, and C items may constitute in the inventory.

An analyst can classify items into ABC through calculating dollar usage. Dollar usage is calculated by multiplying the annual demand rate by dollar value (cost) of a particular item.

After ranking items according to dollar usage and creating "Pareto Chart" (Which I will share in my next posts to come. If its urgent, you can search wikipedia for Pareto Chart.), the analyst may look for natural changes in slope.

And after classifying the items appropriately, a manager may direct that class A items be reviewed daily/frequently to reduce the average lot size and keep inventory records current.

In the same way, Class C items can be observed under loose control. Although stockouts of Class C can be as lethal as that of A, but the inventory holding costs of Class C items tend to be low as compared to Class A items. Which allow a manager to increase safety stocks, have larger lot sizes while ordering etc.

ABC Analysis and Critical Inventory Items

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:52:00 +0000

ABC Analysis may be defined as follows:
ABC Analysis is the process of dividing items into three classes according to their dollar usage so that managers can focus on items that have the highest dollar value.

The goal of this analysis is to identify the inventory levels of Class A items and allow the management to control them tightly by using levers as discussed in the previous post. These are the items which normally account for 20% of the inventory items but 80% of the dollar usage. Similarly, Class B items account for 30% of the inventory but 15% of the dollar usage. Finally, 50% of the rest of the inventory is categorized as Class C which only accounts for remaining 5% of the dollar usage.

What may be Your Options to Reduce Inventory Prudently?

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:43:00 +0000

So you are a manager and you are in search of cost-effective ways to reduce inventory?
We term these tactics as levers for reducing inventory.

Cycle Inventory/Pipeline Inventory
The primary lever is to reduce the lot size. JIT (Just in Time) Systems use extremely small lot sizes. But again, making only changes in Q (Lot Size) and neglecting other modifications of business processes can result in devastating scenarios. For example, setup cost can shoot visibly, leading us to use secondary levers.

1- Streamline methods of placing orders and making setups, so that costs proportionate to decrease Q may also be reduced

2- Increase Repeatability; it may include flexible automation, one worker - multiple tasks concepts or group technology, devoting resources to a product exclusively.

Safety Stock Inventory
The primary lever to reduce safety stock inventory is to place orders closer to the time when they must be received. But this approach can lead to undesirable customer service scenarios and stockouts. Four secondary levers can be used in this case:

1- Improve demand forecast so that there may be little surprises through using judgments or statistical tools available (we will discuss about them in times to come)

2- Cut lead times through using efficient sources of transportation. Also local alternate suppliers can also be used to cut lead times exponentially.

3- Suppliers can be reliable if demand forecast may be shared with them.

4- Always keeping an account of capacity cushion and labor buffers (cross-trained workers)

Anticipation Inventory
The primary lever to reduce anticipation inventory is to simple match demand rate with production rate (in vendor/manufacturer communication)
Secondary levers may be as follows to reduce anticipation inventory

1- Add new products with different demand cycles.

2- Provide off-seasonal promotional campaigns

3- Offer seasonal pricing plans

Classification of Inventory

noreply@blogger.com (i AM NOT ME) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:02:00 +0000

Classification of inventory is very critical.
It is probably easy for us to classify inventory in context to how it is created. Although, it is almost impossible for an inventory manager to physically classify an inventory. But conceptually it is very important for him to know as in what phase the inventory lies at a particular point in time to reduce the overheads involved.

Cycle Inventory
The portion of total inventory that varies directly with lot size is called cycle inventory. Determining how frequently to order, and in what quantity, is called lot sizing. Following principles apply.

1- The lot size, typically termed as Q, varies directly with the elapsed time between orders. If a lot is ordered every five weeks, the average lot size must equal five weeks' demand.

2- The longer the time between orders for a given item, the greater the cycle inventory must be.

To calculate average cycle inventory, once an order or lot is received, cycle inventory drops to 0 (minimum). However, at the time of placing an order, cycle inventory is at its maximum. Average cycle inventory is the average of above mentioned two extreme states of ordering.

Average Cycle Inventory = (Q + 0)/2

When the demand rate is constant and uniform, you can take help of above formula. But, if you are unsure of growing demand, you can check if Q (lot size) multiplied by 1.5 satisfies your demand needs.

In case of uncertain growing demand, Average Cycle Inventory = ((Qx1.5) + 0)/2

Safety Stock Inventory
Safety stock inventory protects against uncertainties in demand, lead time, and supply. Safety stocks are desirable when suppliers fail to deliver the desired quantity on the specified date with acceptable quality or when manufactured items have significant amounts of scrap or rework. Safety stock inventory ensures that operations are not disrupted.

Anticipation Inventory
Inventory used to absorb uneven rates of demand or supply, which businesses often face, is referred to as anticipation inventory. Uneven future demands are always anticipated up to certain extent. And due to anticipation, managers always have an account of anticipation inventory. Specially in case of seasonal demands.

Pipeline Inventory
Pipeline inventory consists of items for which orders have been placed but not yet received in warehouse.
It can be calculated as follows:
Pipeline Inventory = Demand during Lead time (DL) x Lead Time (L)