News's Blog

4 Steps To Flip a Website Successfully

2011-03-05T00:42:00.000-08:00

Determining a profitable website is not easy especially if you are looking to flip it for higher profit within a short time frame. However, with the correct steps and procedures, it is possible even for a beginner to pick up a good site with great potential to start off.

The first step to determine if a website is worth the investment is by the number of income streams it has. Most websites have more than one income channel such as Pay-Per-Click advertisement (Google Adsense etc), Pay-Per-Action programs (AzoogleAds, ClickBank etc) or selling of own products. Basically, this step is to analyze the current profitable channels and see if you can expand or add in other sources of income. Never rely only on one income source for a website.

The second step is to find out where are the traffic coming from. Most websites should have a healthy amount of constant traffic from the search engines followed by social bookmarking sites or regular visitors. If the majority of the traffic is coming from the search engines, proceed to ask the owner what are the keywords that brought in the traffic. Try out the keywords in the search engines and check out the search engine rankings of the site.

You should also check with the owner what are the top search engines that direct the traffic to the site. With these information, check the on-page optimization effort of the site and you may have more ideas for improvements after you have bought it.
The next step is to highlight the areas of possible improvements of the site. If you can come out with at least two quick fixes to the site that can increase the value created to the visitors, the traffic to the site will increase to the next higher level eventually. For example, if you can include an online tool to calculate the financial networth of a person in a financial blog, that would most likely benefit all your readers in a long run.

The fourth step is to check for back links to the site that you are interested to purchase. It is highly recommended to use Yahoo backlink analyzer to check for backlinks since it displays almost all the pages that linked to the site. You may want to use the Yahoo powered analyzer at USESEO.com.

With the above four steps, you should have no problems choosing a profitable website that can generate a stable income for some time. You are advised to check on the seller's history as well to know more about the seller's background before confirming the transaction.

Backgammon Rules: Learn How to Play Backgammon

2011-03-05T00:26:00.000-08:00

The board game backgammon is one of the most ancient games known to man. It is believed that early variations of the game were played in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Ancient Rome. Since then, the game has evolved, changed several names and spread to different parts of the world. It is currently a popular pastime all over the US, East Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

In order to play backgammon all you need is a partner, two dice and a special backgammon board with checkers. The backgammon board is divided into two sides with each one is the mirror reflection of the other. Each side contains 12 triangles called points numbered from 1 to 24.
Points 1 to 6: Home Board or Inner Board
Points 7 to 12: Outer Board
7 point: Bar Point
13 point: Mid Point

At the starting position of the game, each player has 2 checkers on the 24 point, 3 checkers on the 8 point and 5 on the 13 and 6 point. Each player moves from his home board through the outer board towards the opponent home board.

The object of backgammon, then, is to move your checkers towards your opponent home board and remove them off the board before your opponent moves his checkers towards your home board. The speed of the progress of each move is determined by the outcome of the dice roll.

The backgammon play begins with both players tossing one die. The player whose outcome is the highest, makes the first move using both his and his opponents number. If the outcome of the dice toss is even, the players toss the dice again until an uneven outcome appears. From now on, each player tosses both dice on his turn.

After each toss of dice, you should move your checkers forward the number of steps appears on both dice. You can move either one checker the number of steps summed up by both die or move two checkers. To make it clearer: if the outcome of the dice roll is 5 and 4, you can either move one checker 9 steps forward or move one checker 5 steps forward and then move the other piece 4 steps forward

If the dice rolls a double, which means an even number on both dice, you can move double the number appears on the dice. For example, if you roll double 2, you can move 2 points four times. In that case, you can either move one checker 8 steps forward; move two checkers a total of 4 steps; move two checkers a total of 2 steps each plus a total of 4 steps; move one checker a total of 6 steps plus 2 steps; or move four checkers 2 steps.

You can move a checker to a point where there is another one of your checkers or no more than one checker of your opponent, called blot. When you hit a blot, it is moved to the middle of the board to the part divided between the home board and the outer boards, called the bar.

The checkers placed on the bar are kept out of play until the bar can be entered by a dice roll in the opponent's home boards. For example, if you roll 2, you can enter a checker to the 23 point and enter the opponents home board and re enter the bar checkers into the game. You cannot move the other checkers unless your entire bar checkers are at your opponents home board.

By the time your checkers are in your home board, you must remove the checkers from the board, to bear off, using a roll of dice. For example, if you roll 1, you can bear off one checker from the 1 point; if you roll 2, you can move a checker form the 2 point, and so on.

If your opponent has not borne off any checkers while you have borne off 15 checkers, you win the gammon. If your opponent has not borne off any checkers and still some of his checkers are placed on the bar, while you have borne off 15 checkers, then you win the backgammon.

Credit Card Danger

2011-03-05T00:15:00.000-08:00

What I call the, "I want it NOW" syndrome, is something that we expect from children. The problem being that many adults never mature enough to grow out of this syndrome. People should get credit counseling at a very young age - it should be a required curriculum in our school system.

There are many theories as to why people feel such a strong need to go deeply into debt in order to fill their lives with material things. Credit cards are a required necessity in today's modern world; however without responsible use of these credit cards, a consumer can soon find themselves choking in debt. Consumers find themselves in a vicious cycle: first they start by only making the minimum payment required (which often does not even cover the accumulating interest), next the consumer finds it necessary to make a payment late, or skip a payment. This strategy causes a boomerang effect as it usually triggers a huge jump in the interest rate you are paying. Credit card companies are really smiling when you miss a payment, the late fees seem to be getting bigger and bigger, the fee alone may be $35, $50, or even $75 or more - that fee is pure profit for the credit card company. To add insult to injury, on top of that fee, you will find your interest rate has doubled or tripled.

Most credit card owners probably get several letters in the mail offering them a cash advance "to use in any way you want", it usually mentions some dream vacation, or other expensive item that we all dream about. The letter will mention an extremely attractive interest rate, sometimes even zero interest for a specified period of time. How many people read the find print on the back of these offers - where it explains that if you violate any terms of the agreement - your interest rate will soar to the highest allowable by law.

The stress of dealing with debt collectors, and other consequences related to poor credit can take its toll on your family life and can lead to more serious issues like divorce and many turn to drugs or alcohol to ease the stress.

Consumers often need credit counseling and should reach out to professionals to help them improve their credit rating and repair bad credit. Credit card interest rates along with late fee penalties can get out of control; thereby creating a deadly trap where making even the minimum payments won't be enough to get your head above the water. An experienced consumer credit counselor can help you find a solution, and perhaps reduce your debt significantly. Consumer credit counseling services can help negotiate reduced payment amounts with lower interest and monthly payments by standing behind you and reinforcing your commitment to paying off your debts.

The first step is to recognize that you have a problem. The next step is to seek out an experienced professional credit counselor. Check out several potential credit counselors. Get references and ask for recommendations from friends. Choose your credit counselor wisely and ALWAYS read the fine print. Don't be embarrassed to seek help; you are not the only person who has found themselves deep in debt, the sooner you acknowledge and deal with the problem the sooner you can move on with your life.

Mortgage CRM 101

2011-03-04T23:57:00.000-08:00

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, has always been an essential part of the mortgage industry, as the customers are the primary source of earnings. A good relationship with each individual customer is the beating heart of any mortgage company. Offering the best, useable programs available to them and finding other ways of fulfilling their needs is the basis for retaining current customers while being referred to new ones.

Lead management is one of the toughest, time-consuming, but highly important parts of any company, as it is crucial to obtaining new customers. Mortgage leads within the lending industry are especially significant, for if managed properly and efficiently, an agent or broker can turn the information obtained into a loyal (and profitable) customer. Good mortgage lead management software is a shortcut to improving CRM within the firm.

For starters, the right mortgage lead management system mediums, like software and websites, will offer pre-sorted mortgage leads to the lending industry, including any prospects who are more likely to buy a home, have an adjustable rate mortgage that is about to expire, etc. Through a number of ways, genuine leads from credible sources can easily increase a lender's closings by 20% or more, as employees of the mortgage industry will spend less time searching for leads and referrals and more time on customer service. With the focus on customer service, more available programs will be found to meet the customer's needs. In addition to newly delighted customers, you will gain referrals from them.

Secondly, with a good lead management system in place, not only will you be able to act upon only 'hot' current leads, but they can be generated into specific categories such as credit history, zip and/or area codes, type or size of mortgage needed, etc. Now a company's agents and brokers can prepare ahead of time for such leads, creating a new level of CRM while making your customers feel at ease.

Next, a proven track record with a faster response time will help win the customers before they can even think about finding another company to do business with. Potential customers typically do not enjoy the mortgage process. A quick start followed by a smooth finish is the best way to retain your customers' mortgage needs for life.

Security is the final check for proper lead management. By granting access of company files and potential customer's valuable information to only well-qualified employees, your security risk will decrease.

As you can easily see, lead management is crucial to the success of any business in the lending industry. Mortgage CRM follows closely behind. By implementing the right lead management program, a healthy bottom line and a returning client base will ensure your company's success for years to come.

Now buy all your concert as well as sports tickets online from Ticketbrokerpro

2011-03-04T23:32:00.000-08:00

When you visit the site Ticketbrokerpro.com, you will be pleased to see a very user friendly welcome page. You can easily navigate through the site to find out what you are searching for. Ticketbrokerpro is today one of the best online ticket sale sites in the US. On the site you will find tickets being sold for major events such as mega shows, musical shows, dramas, theaters, concerts and sports events such as NASCAR race tickets as well as NHL tickets. So now you don't have to stand in line for tickets. You can just log on to the site and purchase tickets online with a single click.

On the home page you will find the events for which the tickets are being sold and the category under which the events fall. For example, you will find an event like the Mary Poppins Show alongside the category Theater. If you want to see tickets by categories you can simply click on a particular category and all the forthcoming events under that category will be listed. You can even search for events by the city in which they are taking place. So if you click on Atlanta, all the upcoming events in that city will be displayed.

The event is explained in two or three lines so that you know what the event is exactly about. Then there are also the fan favorite events listed which are also known as the most popular events. You can even look for a particular event by entering text in the powerful search feature. Once you book your tickets online, the tickets will be delivered to your place in the stipulated time. So you can now book tickets online from the comforts of your home without any hassles of waiting in long lines.

Ticketbrokerpro actually acts as an agent for the seller and sells tickets on the behalf of the seller. A reasonable amount of commission is charged by the site for handling ticket sales as well as shipping the tickets. The best part of booking through the site is that you get confirmed tickets in your hand once you purchase them. Also the site sells different categories of tickets as as result of which you don't have to run to different sources to get tickets for different events. You can find all the tickets for theater, drama and sports at one site. There are many people who would like to attend events but they don't do so because they find it a big hassle to physically go at the venue and buy tickets. In fact, ticket sales have surged manifold when people are getting the inconvenience of buying tickets online. However its best to reserve your tickets well in advance.

Choosing a Domain Name for Your Domain Hosting

2011-03-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

Your domain hosting name is not something to be chosen lightly. Your domain hosting name is your front line in your branding campaign for your online business (or your offline business's online presence). Careful consideration needs to go into choosing just the right domain hosting name to represent your business. The following are some key points to consider:

The Right Extension for the Right Site
Each type of site you want domain hosting for may serve a different market. Make sure the extension you use -- .com, .net, .org, .biz, etc. -- is the right extension for your market. If you are a business and there is no reason you cannot do it, get domain hosting for a .com. If you are a non-profit organization, consider .org. If you are building a personal website and are on a budget, consider .us or some of the other lesser-known extensions. When in doubt, however, go for .com. The part of a URL people most often first forget is the extension. And when they're in doubt, .com's what they type in: .biz and .net should only be considered if you're completely attached to a particular domain hosting name and the .com variant isn't available. But our best suggestion for that scenario is to vary the domain hosting name and get the .com extension.

The Shorter the Better
When picking domain hosting names for your website consider that people have to remember it to visit it. Not everyone is going to get to your website by clicking on a listing or an ad or a reciprocal link. Word of mouth leads increase when your domain hosting site's name is short and sweet. And people make less spelling mistakes and typos when trying to type in your URL directly.

Stay Away from What Doesn't Belong to You
Big companies with trademarked names seem like tempting targets for domain hosting names that generate loads of free (albeit unintentional) traffic. Heck, you could even sell the domain hosting name back to them for a hefty sum. More than likely, however, you'll just get sued. And chances are, if you're reading this article, they have better lawyers than you.

The More the Merrier
Admittedly this catchy tag line is a little misleading. Considering registering a group of domain hosting names in order to cover yourself for the inevitably of interested visitors typing in the wrong URL is an excellent idea. Try, if possible, to get the .com and .net variant of your domain hosting name, or a variant with hyphens as well as the one without (always go for without hyphens first). But don't buy more than you can afford or more than you need. Once you own the domain hosting names, whatever they are and of whatever number, you still have to get people to visit them.

U R a *, but Your Domain Name Can't Be
You can use neither symbols nor spaces in your domain hosting name (our apologies to "the artist formerly known as Prince"). And URLs are not case sensitive. So don't waste your time.

Do it Now
Have you ever heard the concept that if you have an idea then at least one other someone else somewhere else in the world is having or has had the same idea? Well that's certainly the case with domain hosting names, which is why you need to make all due haste in nabbing your ideal domain hosting name. Otherwise, you may wind up compromising with an alternate far inferior.

Profitable Investing Goals - The Number One Tip for Making Profitable Investments

2011-03-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, and Tiger Woods were great for a reason, they had goals. The same is true of those entering the investment field, have a goal in your career and set your mind to reach that goal. Before even making your first transaction in the world of stock investing you should ask yourself, what are you expecting to achieve?

Everybody likes to be charitable, but it has a place and a time and neither is found in the world of stock investing.

Most investors simply want a good return on their investment. But what is considered a good return? Enough for retirement? If it is based on what they want for retirement the question becomes how long is it until retirement age? If it is in two years your investment strategy will be much different than for those who are retiring in 15 years time.

As an example, let's use me as a typical investor. 40 years old with a decent income and the ability to invest $300 per month. We'll have to change my circumstances just a bit and imagine I have nothing in my portfolio but I want the ultimate dream - I want $1 million dollars to retire with. The question is, if I have the $300 available right now, is my target something I can hit?

Assuming that I can match - if not better - a stock index return wich is running at 10.4% annually, my sum would be worth roughly $380,000 by the time I get to retiring at 65 years young.

Damn - missed my $1,000,000 target!

To hit that level - I need to invest more than $300 per month. (To hit that I'd need a return of at least 17 - 18% pa.
Okay - an index fund isn't going to do it for me, especially as the history of these shws it won't better much more than the 10.5% mark!)

Okay - let's look at another scenario for me shall we?

Let's imagine that I've actually been working away at my investments and funds for a while (must have listened to my dad!!) and I have a touch over $100,000 saved away.

Can I hit the target million with that amount as a lump sum starter?

Well, if I am set in using the index funds as my investment vehicle of choice, the answer is Yes!

So long as no major market upheaval hits and remains (ignoring the standard fluctuations you'll get over an extended period of investing) I should have over the $1,000,000 mark by the time I retire - and I won't have to add a cent more to my savings either.

But what makes this ossible for me to hit my target? The fact that I HAD a target.

Goals - targets - aims, they all help us to focus on getting to the end of the race with the result we want.

Goals to help you focus on your investment are what help you design your investment plan.

Do you need to be aggressive and look for a major return or can you simply protect your savings and earn a more modest return to reach your goal?

Set yourself a (realistic) towards it, keeping it in mind always.

Be modest and be focused.

Using Bug Detectors to Guard Against Spying

2011-02-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

If you need to secure your office, home or hotel room from wireless microphones and transmitters, there are bug detectors that can pinpoint the location of these concealed transmitters using an audio alarm or a LED display.

Did you know that bugging and eavesdropping is a common practice? And it is not just the police, FBI or CIA who are doing the bugging. When you use special bug detectors on your telephone lines, you can easily determine virtually any type of equipment that is being use to bug your telephone, whether your phone is off or on the hook.

There are such nifty, hidden bug detectors that they can even look like an innocuous smoke alarm, yet, should anyone enter your presence carrying a hidden radio transmitter, these pretend smoke alarms will alert you to their presence by flashing a red LED two times per second.

Other bug detectors come very compact, and can tell you if someone is carrying a hidden spy camera. It can also tell you if one is hidden on the premises. Such devices were formally only sold to the U.S. government, but now are available for public use and can guarantee you and others, who may have that concern, peace of mind.

Other bug detectors come with a 2.5 inch monitor display that not only finds multiple hidden cameras, but will show you exactly what is being displayed on them, and the time it takes to scan for these hidden cameras is only five seconds. These devices run on double A batteries, too.

Greed And Fear

2011-02-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

Greed and fear are the major players in the stock market. These two emotions are the
driving force behind almost all market participants - Institutional mangers, stockbrokers,
Investors, traders and yourself.

You might be saying to yourself that greed and fear will never get in the way of my trading,
but believe it or not they will be. It is not something to be ashamed of. It is something you
have to admit to, come face to face with, If you are to become a successful stock trader or
investor.

What do greed and fear look like in the stock market trading arena?

You have been watching a particular stock for some time now. It has set up perfectly, so you pull the trigger. You bought it at the perfect price and now it is moving higher just as you thought it would.

Now greed steps up to the plate and says to you, this is going to be a rocket ship. So you buy some more shares. Or your stock moves a few points and goes passed the price that you decided to get out. Greed tells you this baby is going higher tomorrow so you hang on.

When stocks make strong moves to the upside greed from all the cumulative market participants joins the move.

Stock prices usually fall faster then they go up, and when this happens, fear now steps up to the plate.

Lets look at the example above, where your stock went through your get out price and you held on because greed was by your side. The next morning the stock price gaps down. Their is heavy selling all morning long. Greed is telling you to hang in there the price will come back. The price keeps going down, now you get a knot in your gut, and your knuckles are turning white. Fear is now by your side, but by now it is to late, your nice profit has turned into a loss.

Everyone goes through this until they have mastered the ugly faces of greed and fear. Master this and you are well on your way to becoming a successful stock trader
.

Wireless Satellite - It's Not Just For TV Anymore

2011-02-17T21:03:00.000-08:00

As technology advanced forward, many of the things we've taken for granted for years are being reborn under the banner of wireless or wireless satellite Internet. Of course, we're talking about a lot more than just receiving the Internet from a satellite connection. Many other technologies have also obtained new life through the use of "sky birds."

Some of the most visible changes in technologies has been in communications and entertainment. Cellular telephones use satellite services to bounce signals literally around the world. Although cell phone service is typically within a 2 mile radius of a cellular tower, by using the power of stationary satellites, a signal or connection on a cell phone can be routed to wherever another cell tower can be found. This is especially good news for those people who tend to be in more remote areas.

Wireless satellite Internet is a connection to the web that's available anywhere the sky can be seen. Using a satellite to make the connection into the web holds the promise of all the web all the time, anytime. The always on no matter where you are can be a major benefit for many people. This feature is especially promising for serious followers of sports, sport teams, news, weather junkies, stock reports, etc. Imagine anytime, all the time, whenever there's a computer to be able to log into you Internet connection using wireless satellite Internet services.

Another technology that falls under the umbrella of wireless satellite Internet is the whole television genre. Companies like Direct Way and Dish Network are rapidly building infrastructure that replaces traditional antennae or cable television reception options. For about the same price as cable-TV a clear view of the southern sky will deliver crystal clear television with all popular channels.

Movies on Demand is an up and coming technology that will literally allow you to order movies to watch whenever you want. No more being tied to the start times of the networks, cable companies or even the satellite entertainment providers. All movies, whenever, all the time is the driving force behind the wave of growth in this fast paced industry.

How to Plan a Great Vacation

2011-02-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

Making sure your vacation goes according to plan is not difficult to do, but it does need to be planed carefully.

First you need to decide where to go, this year I have decided to go to Holland for my vacation. Once you have decided where you want to go on vacation you can start to plan the things you want to see and do. In Holland I am interested in the Van Gogh museum, the Rembrandt museum and the Casino.

I have always enjoyed casinos, so this is going to be my first chance to go to a casino in Europe, so how can I pass up the chance to play some European Roulette, and I have been practicing at an online casino, ok I have to admit I have also been "practicing" poker and blackjack, please don't tell my wife.

After you have figure out where you want to go and what you want to do when you are there you can get a feel for where you want your hotel to be.

There are many different websites that offer the best prices on hotels, so make sure to check several of them before making a final decision. Most of these sites will offer pictures of the hotel facilities and the different rooms.

After looking at the hotels pick the top 3 and do a search on the internet for them. Try to find reviews from people that have stayed there before. The hotels site is always going to tell you how great the hotel is, but if someone were annoyed enough to trash a place or tell you how great it was, then you can be pretty sure they are telling you the truth.

The first hotel I was looking at for my Amsterdam trip said it was close to the center of the city, in a nice area, but reading reviews from former patrons told me the area was filled with drug addicts and homeless, and this is not really what I want to see on my vacation, so I found a much nicer location. It is a little farther from the city center but it is near the museums we want to go to, so by being closer to them we can get up early walk to the museums and spend the rest of the time walking around looking at the shops and attractions inside the city's center.

Now all that is left is packing the right clothes. Unless you are going to someplace where the weather is always a constant, make sure to pack clothes for both good and bad weather. My trip is in a week and the weather is expected to me mostly sunny and in the 50's but there is a chance of rain so I will be packing a coat for the rain, ad extra socks just in case.

If you are gong to be in Europe and plan to visit a casino you should know that in Europe casinos are more upscale then in the USA. They will not let you in wearing your shorts a T shirt and sandals, most casinos require men to wear a tie and jacket or a turtleneck.

It is also always helpful to buy a travel guide for where ever you are going. Besides having helpful recommendations for things to see and places to eat, many of them offer discounts for attractions.

Well the only thing left is to go and have a good time, I know I will.

Can You Make Money Online? (Debunking The Myths)

2011-02-17T01:55:00.000-08:00

Millions have tried, millions are trying right now and millions will continue to try in the years ahead. There is so much misinformation out there regarding making money online, that you can easily be forgiven for thinking that all these millions are enjoying unbridled success.

The real truth of course is that the vast majority are failing. Their hopes of earning a healthy living from home are usually shattered before they have even begun. There is no single reason for this. It's usually down to a combination of factors, and I intend to look at some of the reasons for the now infamous quote, "95% of people fail in their online business". Some of the things I list below will doubtless be contested by many people but the harsh facts are that making money online, whilst entirely possible, is not the cakewalk that a lot of people will try to convince you it is.

So, let's get down to debunking some of the nonsense - hopefully this will save a lot of people a lot of time and frustration.

1) Affiliate Marketing - so much rubbish is spouted by so many people who have never made an affiliate sale in their lives. The affiliate marketing model is indeed a powerful one and has made a number of people very wealthy. However, you are very unlikely to succeed with affiliate marketing without going through an arduous and sometimes lengthy learning process.

A huge swathe of articles you read about affiliate marketing are no more than rehashed PLR articles being used by lame hopefuls who are incapable of writing anything original on a subject that they are hoping to convince you they know all about. You can spot these peddlers of fifth hand information easily enough - look at the sites they link to, check their traffic rankings. Ninety Nine times out of a hundred you will find a cookie cutter website just like thousands of others or a direct link to an affiliate program that they foolishly believe you will sign up for having read their blindingly convincing pitch.

Are they the people to look to for advice? Think before you answer.......

2) Freebie Seekers and Freeloaders - this encompasses so many people it's laughable. They talk about their "business" and seriously expect others to follow their blind lead. The term "business", at least to my mind, indicates some sort of investment on behalf of the owner of that business - both in terms of time and money. Those most guilty of this faux pas are usually those who sign up to a free program, usually in the network marketing or MLM arena, and use every useless and pointless form of promotion as long as it's free.

Much is said regarding failure rates in MLM schemes being so high, but one of the biggest is the freebie mentality. Don't get sucked into believing you will ever make money online this way. The freeloaders are kidding themselves, but don't let them kid you. The programs they sign up to for free often offer a paid upgrade and they live in hope (if they ever manage to recruit a single person of course) that they will grow fat on the subscriptions of others. Naturally this rarely happens, simply because they advertise to other freeloaders who have no intention of spending any money on their "business" either, and so the vicious circle continues.

If you don't believe me, visit any free traffic exchange and look at some of the webpages circulating there. These people are dreamers - they will never make money online until they accept that they are eventually going to have to spend money to make money. Let's get real here - when you're looking for potions or energy drinks or some other latest greatest product that is no more than a copy of an already well established brand, is the first place you think to look going to be a free classified site on the internet? Maybe you'd head for the closest traffic exchange? Think - you don't have to do it for more than a few seconds to see why these things do not work!

3) Throwing up a blog on a free platform and filling it up with Adsense or other PPC ads is unlikely to deliver much success. This applies whether we are talking one blog or fifty blogs. Adsense is great, but it's also a numbers game - you need big numbers in terms of pages and visitors to make big returns. By big, I mean big - tens of thousands of pages receiving tens of thousands of visitors and you will probably start making a nice income. Throwing up fifty, a hundred or more useless blogs or splogs won't work even if some people tell you that all you need are a couple of Adsense clicks a day on each one and you'll be raking in the money. Great theory, but you won't get the traffic to even generate those occasional clicks in the first place. Throwing up such poor quality free pages will achieve nothing - in fact, you're more likely to get banned from Blogger and Adsense to boot if you're not careful. Oh, and don't think you'll be smart and use auto surf sites to rack up huge numbers of impressions - using any kind of traffic exchange in conjunction with Adsense will get you banned very quickly.

Our freebie seekers of course will tell you otherwise, expecting you to believe that their PR0 blog with no comments is really generating a thosand dollars for them every month, and that all you need to do is visit this or that site, where you can learn to do exactly the same. You will naturally be directed to a page through an affiliate link - Clickbank or similar - to purchase an ebook that the freebie seeker has naturally never laid eyes on, let alone read.

4) Making millions with PPC advertising. This is a no brainer - all you have to do is pick some keywords, write a snappy ad, link to an affiliate program and gve your credit card details to Google, Yahoo, MSN or whoever. You will wake up rich beyond your wildest dreams.

OK, maybe too heavy on the sarcasm, but it's really not that easy. Ask anyone who has rushed blindly into PPC and lost their shirt in the process, paying for a truckload of clicks but generating nary a sale. I have a little more sympathy for these types than the freeloaders; after all, they have accepted that they need to spend money to make money, but unless you do your homework, it's likely to prove costly. Even if you do your research beforehand, there are no guarantees that PPC campaigns will work for your business. Having said all that, PPC can be a very profitable tool, just don't believe overly hyped claims from the totally inexperienced.

5) Start a blog and you will soon be collecting checks on a regular basis. Don't believe this one either. There is a lot to be said for blogs as a marketing tool, don't get me wrong. Blogs can and do increase your exposure tremendously, but apart from an elite few, blogs are usually not their direct revenue generators. A blog is a tool, and used wisely it will help an online business to grow, but it's unlikely to pay the bills all by itself.

6) Article marketing - another area where a lot of ill informed and overly hyped prose is written. As a long term strategy, carried out correctly, article marketing can be hugely beneficial to a business of any kind, but it takes time to see results and there is a learning curve to go through.

I actually saw someone advocating the tactic of blanket bombing article directories with PLR articles and slapping affiliate links into the resource box. This was in an article submitted to one of my directories. They even went as far as to claim that this would guarantee a huge number of hits and sales. This is just one piece of foolish nonsense from a clueless fool, who, no doubt is wondering why article marketing is so useless, whilst trying to tell others how rich it will make them. It is a fact that most article directories do not permit linking directly to affiliate programs in the resource box! It follows that this is hardly the way to proceed.

7) Work from home opportunities have become a breeding ground for scams and hucksters the world over. Global oppportunities for peddlers of schemes and tricks to make themselves rich have never been more plentiful.

There are several "opportunities" circulating at the moment that are borderline illegal and when they disappear into the ether there will no doubt be plenty to replace them.

Promises of overnight riches rarely hold much water if you examine them even superficially. Just because you see a video of someone opening envelopes full of cash does not make it so. One "gifting" program of this nature has obviously sucked in a fair number of gullible souls who really believe that people will be queuing up to send them three thousand dollars just because they show them a poor quality video on a traffic exchange.

Have you ever managed to sell a product online for three thousand dollars or more? I'm guessing the answer in most cases is - probably not. If you fall for this kind of scam, you probably deserve to get rooked - after all, how difficult is it for someone to get three thousand in cash (there are plenty of ways), go to FedEx, mail it to themselves and then film it's arrival and subsequent opening on a webcam. If that's all the proof it takes to convince you, you have some painful lessons to learn.

Whenever you read outlandish claims offering boatloads of money and retirement before you've even started working, in conjunction with proclamations that you don't have to sell anything, don't have to advertise, don't have to do anything at all really, other than sit back and watch the money roll in.....and you find yourself believing it - my advice is to seek professional help.

8) Making money with sites that pay you to read ads, emails, visit sites, sign up for free offers etc etc etc I'm not saying that none of them work but in terms of time expended set against financial reward, they are usually a dismal prospect. Would you go and do a job for $20 a month?

There you have just eight of countless things that you should not believe. Trust me there are plenty more.

If you are serious about making money online, you are going to need a plan. You are going to have to spend some money to get yourself set up to do business. You will need a website of your own for starters (unless you intend to buy a hundred ebooks and courses telling you how to succeed without even this most basic of needs). This means hosting fees. If you are starting from a position of very little technical knowledge, you will have to dedicate a lot of time to learning the ropes or you will have to pay for the services of others. With most things online, the sooner you bow to the inevitability of having to lay out a little cash as you go along, the sooner you will start to open up some real possibilities.

There are countless ways to make money online, there are many people who are living proof of this, but try not to get caught up in the rubbish.

I have not mentioned things like stock or currency trading simply because they are not scams. Trading online can be lucrative and you won't need a website of your own for this kind of venture but you will need capital, and you need to understand the risks, which are not insignificant.

However that's all a subject for another day. As grandpa said, free advice is often pretty much worth what you pay for it. Just be careful what you believe in your quest for online wealth and you'll avoid a lot of wasted time and disappointments.

There IS plenty of free information on the internet and there are also plenty of free tools and software and services that may help you - but - you are starting a business and business means you will need some business capital to get off the ground. If you think otherwise and persist in looking for the elusive, no cost magic bullet, you are destined to fail and I don't care what any rehashed nonsense some self help book tells you about irrefutable laws of nature or anything else. You need to do a lot more than just dream about online success if you wish to achieve it.

A closing thought - money may well make the world go round. If nobody spends any, nobody receives any. If you can find me something that disproves that 100%, tell me where to sign up.

Simple Techniques to Get around Agonizing Rheumatism

2011-02-17T01:48:00.000-08:00

Simply put, rheumatism is swelling. It is characterized by swelling and pain found on the muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons. The term is used for a variety of related ailments in the past. Yet recently, rheumatism was subdivided into several conditions, which gave rise to more specific ailments.

The most common symptoms of the onset of rheumatism are sudden fever, intense soreness, pain and stiffness of the muscles and the affected body components.

For acute muscular rheumatism, the affected area experiences elevated sensitivity that even the lightest of the bed covers may cause excruciating pain. Rheumatism usually starts acutely which means that the onset is rapid and may go quickly as well. However, with a wrong mode of treatment, rheumatism and its effects may aggravate and will most likely develop into chronic rheumatism.

Rheumatic pain is often tormenting but may also advance to a delibitating state. So it is important to give initial relief before any symptoms develop. Provided below are some of the prevalently employed homeophatic techniques to heal rheumatism and to delay its development.

Treatment by means of Potato Juice
What more could be effective than using potato for preventing the onset and aggravation of rheumatism? For the juice, one or two teaspoons taken before every meal may be sufficient. This is helpful in relieving pain and in minimizing the toxic wastes in the body. The potato skin on the other hand, contains salt minerals that are typically used for rheumatism treatment. The minerals found in the potato peel may be extracted by means of boiling. This decoction can also be taken in the same manner.

Treatment by means of Bitter Gourd
It is by far, easier to extract the juice form the bitter gourd than with potato. A cup of this juice combined with a teaspoon of honey must be taken daily to treat rheumatism. To provide more effective relief, this treatment must be used over a period of three months.

Treatment By means of Celery
It is more convenient to extract the juice of the vegetable itself for treating rheumatism but the more effective way of doing it is by means of extracting the seeds. This has a tonic effect on the stomach and the kidneys. To achieve the desired relief from rheumatism, it is best to drink a hot liquid containing 5 to 10 drops of the seed extract. But you may also use powdered celery seeds as an alternative.

Treatment by means of Lemon Juice
For more efficient result, the sufferer will have to drink the juice of three lemons everyday.

Treatment by means of Walnuts
Walnuts must be thoroughly eaten to arrive to its beneficial effects. Half a dozen each day may be sufficient in treating rheumatism

Treatment by means of Rhubarb
Remedy using this herb seldom fails and may prove very beneficial for the sufferer. The stalk of rhubarb must be pounded along with an equal amount of sugar. One teaspoon of this solution must be taken daily.

These well recognized home remedies for rheumatism have been passed down from ages to ages. Though many will dispute their effectivity over the ailment, the proponents of these remedies will say otherwise. Whatever the conflict between modern medicine and homeophatic treatment there may be, the fact still remains to be that people recognized the capacity of these methods to heal. And so they are still in existence up to this date.

What is the PayPal forum for?

2011-02-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

The Internet offers a large variety of payment systems used by thousands of people everyday: PayPal, E-Gold, 2Checkout…These powerful tools have to be used wisely because scams are everywhere and, unless you are aware of some basic rules, you risk loosing your money. If you don't want to read an article or two and listen to advertising, the best thing is to become a member of a PayPal forum or an ePayment system forum. These are the places where you will find objectivity, discuss the best options and learn all about the available services.

Knowing what a PayPal account is, how to create one, using subscriptions, finding out about advantages and disadvantages are basics that you can easily discover by simply asking someone on a PayPal forum. Why bother reading many articles and finding out only half of the story when you can talk to real people and learn from their experience? The ePayment system forum can help persons make the right decisions regarding what method of online payment they should use, which is faster and safer, the dos and don'ts when using online services. It is very easy to receive clarifying answers to specific questions than to walk blind folded through a huge mass of information. The PayPal forum is very accessible and helpful to both beginners and experienced because sharing will open up your eyes to details you might not have noticed before.
But, be careful! Not everything you hear or discuss on the PayPal forum is true. Check everything before and ask for second opinions.

The PayPal forum is full of interesting information. Discussions on the ePayment system forum don't refer solely to signing up or using PayPal. People discuss their newest ideas on how to make money fast in a legal way, if what they heard was effective and how it worked for them, the news in the financial field and the impact it had on them. Many people use the PayPal forum just to keep in touch with what's new. For example, a message someone left on the ePayment system forum regarding an investigative report of the Melbourne (Fla.) office of e-gold's parent company, Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. created many interesting comments. The FBI pursuit was ironically disconsidered by the PayPal forum members who have opposite opinions. So, you see interesting subjects bring together a lot of people with common interests and enrich their horizon with the newest information available.

Another interesting aspect of the PayPal forum is that scamming is tried everywhere, especially on the Internet. The ePayment system forums are looking to avoid scams by discussion. There are all sorts of persons looking to scam or take advantage of your trustfulness. Some will try to convince with seemingly honest messages on the ePayment system forum, underlining the fact that their method is very legal. Don't be fooled! And also don't worry! These messages are on PayPal forums, so there will always be someone with the courage to contradict. However, it is up to you to decide who is wrong and who is right and do what ever it is best for yourself. That's why the ePayment system forum is recommended: because various opinions help you make the best choice…

The Internet is a world full of possibilities that can make our life easier, but it is also dangerous because of speculation and scams. For the safety of the financial transactions it is better to investigate all possibilities and aspects of online transfers. The PayPal forum or the ePayment system forum can be very helpful for those who want to ask questions, discuss certain problems and find out information without special searches or loosing precious time.

Harvard Drug Research Fraud and Cover-up: How Off-Label Profiteering Works

2011-02-16T17:20:00.001-08:00

Harvard Drug Research Fraud and Cover-up: How Off-Label Profiteering Works

Drug company money influences and corrupts research. That is a given.

What is less understood is why drug manufacturers spend billions for research on off-label uses for their products - uses that were never cleared with the FDA when the drug was submitted for approval.

Off-label use allows drug companies to get "through the back door" what they could never, and I mean never, get away with by going directly to the FDA for approval for a new use of a product - what is known today as an off-label use.

You would hope that researchers wouldn't corrupt the commercial experimentation of a new, or off-label, use of a drug to treat children by covering up their consulting fees from Big Pharma. But that's what happened.

More important than what happened is why it happened and at the bottom of all this is a terrible mistake the U.S. has made in allowing the exploitation of off-label use.

The devil is in the details, so here is the story as it has unfolded.

Leading Harvard professors studying off-label uses, the gold mine of the drug industry, have violated National Institute of Health reporting requirements when more than $10,000 has been received from a subject company, according to the New York Times, "Researchers Fail to Reveal Drug Pay" June 8, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/08conflict.html?em&ex=1213070400&en=9971013dfd33290a&ei=508720say20are%20sorry&st=cse isn't enough.

If Harvard doesn't fire them, it will be complicit in the cover-up.

Throw them off campus. Ring the bell loud and clear that no matter how renown or stellar, if you don't play by the rules, you can't play at all. And the NIH should forever ban them from receiving grants.

Don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Once appropriate punishment has been served, give these researchers a chance to polish their tarnished reputations. Allow them to conduct research under the supervision of a responsible administrator who knows that "veritas," means truth, accuracy, honesty, and uprightness and that it's more than just a motto.

Onward.

Teeth Whitening Gels

2011-02-16T17:18:00.000-08:00

Teeth Whitening Gels have been proven to be one of the best chemicals to whiten teeth. Teeth whitening gels come in many different levels of concentration. Concentration levels for teeth whitening gels ranges from 5% to 36%. The higher the concentration for the teeth whitening gels, the better and quicker the results. The most popular form of teeth whitening gels is the 22% carbamide peroxide gel, which is used in most dental offices nationwide and at home individuals. The level of concentration you use depends on the level of strength your gums and mouth can handle. High levels of concentration can make your teeth very irritated. The level of irritation is the main reason why professionals recommend 22% carbamide peroxide gels. That level of teeth whitening gel is safe and efficient and in most cases pain free.

Another Form of teeth whitening gel is hydrogen peroxide. This is the tooth whitening gel used in place of carbamide peroxide. A popular form of hydrogen peroxide is a white strip, which comes in many brands and can be purchased at any retail store nationwide. Professionals and individuals nationwide recommend carbamide peroxide over any other form of teeth whitening gel.

Tips For Successfully Outsourcing Services To Freelancers Or Outsourcing Service Providers

2011-02-16T17:14:00.000-08:00

Small businesses and entrepreneurs always benefit by outsourcing their services to professional service providers or freelancers as this saves them time and money. The money saved due to outsourcing can be effectively and successfully utilized to focus more on strategic and core business functions.

This article will help small businesses and entrepreneurs in making the right decision in choosing the correct service provider for them and managing their projects.

Tips for Finding and Choosing the Right Freelancer or Service Provider for your Services

1. Where to find a Service Provider

You can find service providers or freelancers through online outsourcing marketplaces. All you need to do is submit your requirements. Service providers whose skills match your criteria will submit bids/proposals. Alternatively, you can search for providers through search engines and directories – this step is more time consuming.

2. Confidentiality Agreement

If your requirements contain some confidential information, then do not give all the requirements to the service providers. You can give them a short description of your requirements and ask them to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before you provide them all the information.

3. Provide clear Scope, Schedule, and Deliverables

Clearly define the scope, schedule, and deliverables for your project. It is recommended that you give service providers as much information as you can in order to allow them to submit realistic proposals with reasonable rates.

4. Evaluate Proposals

Evaluate service providers' proposals against your evaluation criteria. An evaluation criterion is a measure that you will use to evaluate proposals, e.g., experience in similar projects, approach and methodology, price, etc. Always find the key differentiators between all competitive proposals. Feel free to ask them any questions to learn more about them. One of the important questions can be about what kind of support will be available during and after the project is finished.

5. Review Portfolios/Sample Work and Feedback from Previous Clients

Short-list the service providers whose proposals satisfy your evaluation criteria (cost, approach, etc). Check their references and get feedback from their clients. View their samples and completed projects or portfolios to understand their quality standards and work capability. Do not choose a service provider based solely on price: you need to take overall quality apart from price into consideration.

6. Choose a Service Provider

Finally, compare the competitive bids to make the right decision.

What next after you have chosen a Service Provider

1. Service-Level Agreement

It's good practice to get everything in writing from the service provider, who will provide the agreement and project plan. The agreement must have the project plan attached which outlines a project's scope, deliverables, timeline, and payment terms. This will help in avoiding disputes during the project. You should also ask the service provider to give you a list of deliverables/milestones with tentative dates of completion.
Ownership of work must be stated and included in the agreement.

2. Releasing Payment

Service providers always demand advance payment. This should be 20–30 percent. The rest of the payment should be dependent on agreed deliverables. Only release payment when a deliverable/milestone is met.

Tips on Managing your Project

1.When a project starts, introduce yourself or your team members to the development team. Specify meeting, reporting, and feedback timings.

2.Project scope, deliverables, and price can change during the course of a project: it is highly recommended that all these changes be agreed upon, documented, and signed by both the service provider and you.

3.If your service provider is located offshore, the greatest challenges of successfully managing offshore projects are overcoming differences of language, culture, and geography. All the processes must be well documented to avoid any confusion. These processes may include: resolution of problems, reports, feedback, discussion timings, etc.

4.Depending on your flexibility, ask the service provider to submit daily or weekly progress reports to see the actual performance in comparison to the plan initially submitted.

5.Make sure the service provider understands how you intend to use the deliverables that they are agreeing to provide. It must be clear about who owns the final work.

6.Save all information from the chats, emails, messages and discussions between you and your service provider. It may be helpful in resolving disputes.

You Can Double Your Website Traffic And Sales Using Relationalship Forum Marketing

2011-02-16T17:12:00.000-08:00

Do you need more traffic to your web site, and more sales? If you do, then you need to consider an often neglected side of web site promotion which is called forum marketing.

Most web sites make use of forums to provide the element of response from user to owner and vice versa. These forums take many forms, and include the standard forums, discussion boards, bulletin boards and currently blogs where the visitors to the web site can leave their comments on the site.

Marketing has always revolved around relationships. The basic element of relationship from the aspect of online marketing is to weave an element of trust between the potential purchaser and the vendor or web site owner. Once there is this element of trust, even the tiniest bond that has been sown between the potential buyer and seller, it becomes easier for the potential buyer to take a further step to buy the product. That is why many marketers are establishing forum boards and blogs to interact with clients and to provide support and to answer queries.

These forum boards provide a fertile ground for you to test out forum marketing for your products.

You need to compile a list of the discussion boards and blogs that are related to your product or service line that you are going to market. Then on a daily basis, visit these forums to read their postings. These forums are the best sites where newbies to internet marketing would congregate to seek free resources, or request information or advice from more experienced forumers. When you see a post where you can respond, make a brief informative post, and more importantly make sure you leave a reference to your web site in your signature line. This confers on you two advantages. Firstly, you gain a backlink to your site when you leave your website address in a much visited forum, and secondly, forumers who read your post will tend to visit your web site by following the link in your post

Some internet marketers channel all their visitors to a squeeze page and not to a sales website directly. This squeeze page is a sign up page where you get the email address of the visitor in return for a free download of a ebook or report or software. By using this squeeze page, you gain targeted leads.

Statistics show a potential buyer would need to be exposed at least 3 to 5 times before he becomes interested to take the next step to purchase anything from you. By getting his email, you can email him on a regular schedule or use an autoresponder to channel your marketing message across.

The most important part of forum marketing is to identify a group of marketing forums and blogs related to your product or services that you are selling, from which you can then launch off. Once you have the list of forums and discussion boards, it becomes a daily affair to spend enough time to visit these forums and to post to them. Beware though, forum reading can be addictive, and you can be spending a whole lot of time on reading and posting to forums. Track your leads, and as you continue to do your forum posting daily, you will see a steady increase in your web site traffic and your sales.

Beware Of Malware-Infected Blogs

2011-02-16T05:40:00.000-08:00

Internet users and blog-browsing addicts beware! As weblogs come free and are quite easy to use, they continue to gain popularity. Hence, criminals operating on the Internet are becoming more aware and are taking advantage of the use of these online personal journals to ensnare unwitting victims. Not long ago, spyware and malware were spread mostly through email and file-sharing, and system infection was prevented by spam blockers and email scanners. Nowadays, clicking on a seemingly harmless link can make you vulnerable to those with shady intentions in an instant.

A common practice of computer crooks involves making up phony weblogs that look harmless or genuine. They then embed viral codes or keylogging programs within the site, and send out the blog's url address through spam e-mail, chat rooms or instant messenger. Even innocent blogs that allow comments that are not moderated may fall be victimized through comment spam leading to infected blogs. The trick lies in convincing the potential victim to click on a link that activates the malware embedded in the blog site, or leading them to input valuable information within the fraudulent blog, such as credit card details and account passwords, which the keylogging program then records and automatically sends to the site owner.

In computer and information technology, "malware" is a term that generally refers to software that is intended by the creator to cause damage or break into a computer system, often without the knowledge or informed assent of the owner. The different types of malware include computer viruses, Trojan horses, adware, worms, and spyware. On a more specific level, spyware is a type of malware that is primarily used for profit. Produced commercially, these programs are used for collecting information about the users of a computer system. It does this by activating pop-up advertisements, as well as changing the normal activity of a system's web browser in such a way that the creator of the spyware benefits financially.

A typical sign that a spyware is in effect, is when a standard search engine query is redirected to a different page filled with paid-for ads. A certain type of spyware, at times referred to as stealware, does as its name implies; it steals from a genuine business or website owner by overwriting relevant marketing codes, such that the income value goes to the spyware author instead. Malware can also be used to thieve directly from the infected computer's user, by installing keyloggers that record specific keystrokes as the user types in passwords, or other valuable information like credit card numbers. The malicious program then sends this information to the spyware creator, and that's how the stealing begins.

In the case of a malware-infected blog, the site itself deceitfully serves as host to the malicious program. The setup is one that often allows malware to get past detection and filtering systems unnoticed. Furthermore, having a somewhat permanent place in the world wide web, it is always accessible to Internet users-all they have to do is click on an active link to be lured into the trap. As such, it posts a greater danger to those who are unaware that malware-infected blogs abound and how they can become victims.
Today, there may be hundreds of these malware-infected blogs that still continue to spread malicious software. The spread of these malware and spyware infected blogs may be due in part to the increased availability of malware and spyware to online crooks. Recent reports have it that certain search engines like Google are dealing with exposure of a special search capability in their system that allows end-users to locate and download malware files on the web. This feature was previously hidden and served as a device utilized and known only to security research and anti virus companies. The bad news is, these supposedly secreted features are by now known to hackers and profiteering Internet criminals. They don't need to create these malicious programs to cause damage to other people's computer systems or steal valuable data; hundreds of them are just a download away.

For one to find malware with the use of Google, it is essential to have the specific signature of a certain malware program. These signatures are now being shared on the Internet by hackers, and that causes greater ease for other online bandits to carry out the search for a particular malware program using its unique signature. In some pro-hacking web sites, the signatures are even indexed in an online database, such that users only need to input the name of the malware and it instantly returns the corresponding signature. End-users are even asked to share fresh malware to the site so that the site moderators are able to produce a signature for it fast, to be made available to other users. This way, hackers, even bloggers who are unskilled in hacking but nonetheless have a tainted intention, will be able to make use of any malware of their choice, and spread it through different blogs.

Probably the most important thing to do in order to protect your computer from malware is to install a trusted anti-virus program and to keep it updated. Scan computers on a regular basis, and also keep patches up to date. Keeping a firewall up should also help. Next is to be cautious when opening and reading email and instant messages, especially those that are unwanted, or come from email addresses you don't recognize.

Furthermore, when using an instant messenger, beware of active links that even your trusted contacts send. Before you even consider clicking on any link, be sure to ask first what site it leads to. Better yet, you may even consider holding off on clicking the link until you're able to personally talk to the person sending it to verify its authenticity. Ignoring the message is yet another option, if the message does not seem that important at all.

There is hope, however, as leading IT and Internet firms are coming up with ways to disable these web scammers. Information sites, as well as blog code improvements like Google's "nofollow" tag, are up and running to help bloggers and other users protect their computer systems. While more advanced means are yet to make it to the greater public's knowledge, staying informed and vigilant is the main defense against malware-infected blogs.

Corporate Social Responsibility:By Dr Shanker Adawal

2011-02-16T05:15:00.000-08:00

There are customers, employees, shareholders and the neighbours. The business class should render their support to the general people. If they will be uplifted socially and economically, the productivity of the corporate is also bound to increase.

The corporate sector in India very often blames the government for poor governance and lack of farsightedness. The question that comes every time into mind is, do the corporate sector performs its duty to contribute to the overall growth of the country? Does it have right to blame the government for poor governance? Does it contribute to nation building?

In India, most of the corporate do not have a clear policy on social responsibility. While developed countries like England have separate ministries to look after the issue of corporate social responsibility, in India, the government does not have a clear policy on the issue. Out of very few companies who contribute to the social development, the basic intention was not to ensure the good of the nation, rather a business policy to stay away from the tax net.

The corporate and the government should try to build up a relationship between the business and the society. The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has so far failed to take deep root in India because the nomenclature is not properly defined. The CSR is in a nascent stage. Much needs to be done to bring changes in attitude towards CSR and bring awareness among the corporate about their social responsibilities. The corporate should be made aware about the changing nature of business due to globalization, transformation of market environment and deepening of competition. The market economy has paved the way for enterprise-led development and a new cultural perspective is taking place in Indian business environment that has a strong bearing on social responsibilities.

Social responsibility encompasses the sectors like health, education, employment, income and quality of life. It should be binding on the corporate sector to work on the above aspects, which are thought to be primary social indicators. They have enough money to serve the nation on the above segments of the society. They should not forget that if general health of the mass were good, they would have better bying capacity.

In 1970, Milton Friedman of New York Times rightly wrote: " the social responsibility of business is to increase profits." This view is often held and propounded by those who do not see much merit in companies being engaged in issues of Social Responsibility other than the making of profit. However, increasingly, the profit case, evident indicators that are tangible and the altruistic/ philanthropic/ ethical case, evident in the intangibles are getting blurred. In this context the purpose is to highlight the need for a paradigm shift in the importance of greater investment in intangibles to enhance corporate value.

Significance of CSR for India
The ideal corporate citizenship has ethical and philosophical dimension, particularly in India here wide gap exists between people in terms of income and living standards as well as social status.

A latest survey by the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) called 'Altered Images: the 2001 State of Corporate Responsibility in India Poll' Traces Back The History Of CSR In India and suggests that there are four models of CSR.

Ethical model
The origin of the first ethical model of corporate responsibility lie in the pioneering efforts of 19 th century corporate philanthropists such as the Cadbury brothers in England and the Tata family in India. The pressure on Indian industrialists to demonstrate their commitment to social development increased during the independence movement, when Mahatma Gandhi
developed the notion of 'trusteeship', whereby the owners of property would voluntarily manage their wealth on behalf of the people.

Gandhi's influence prompted various Indian companies to play active roles in nation building and promoting socio-economic development during the 20th century. The history of Indian corporate philanthropy has encompassed cash or kind donations, community investment in trusts and provision of essential services such as schools, libraries, hospitals, etc. Many firms, particularly 'family-run businesses', continue to support such philanthropic initiatives.

Statist model
A second model of CSR emerged in India after independence in 1947, when India adopted the socialist and mixed economy framework, with a large public sector and state-owned companies. The boundaries between the state and society were clearly defined for the state enterprises. Elements of corporate responsibility, especially those relating to community and worker relationships, were enshrined in labour laws and management principles. This state sponsored corporate philosophy still operates in the numerous public sector companies that have survived the wave of privatization of the early 1990s.

Liberal Model
Indeed, the worldwide trend towards privatization and deregulation can be said to be underpinned by a third model of corporate responsibility – that companies are solely responsible to their owners. This approach was encapsulated by the American economist Milton Fried-man, who in 1958 challenged the very notion of corporate responsibility for anything other than the economic bottom line.

Many in the corporate world and elsewhere would agree with this concept, arguing that it is sufficient for business to obey the law and generate wealth, which through taxation and private charitable choices can be directed to social ends.

Stakeholder Model
The rise of globalisation has brought with it a growing consensus that with increasing economic rights, business also has a growing range of social obligations. Citizen campaigns against irresponsible corporate behaviour along with consumer action and increasing shareholder pressure have given rise to the stakeholder model of corporate responsibility. This view is often
associated with R. Edward Freeman, whose seminal analysis of the stakeholder approach to strategic management in 1984 brought stake holding into the mainstream of management literature (Freeman, 1984). Ac-cording to Freeman, 'a stakeholder in an organisation is any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organisation's objectives.'

Perception and practices of CSR in India
A survey was conducted by ORG-MARG for TERI-Europe in several cities of India in 2001. The basic purpose of the survey was to capture perceptions and expectations (related to corporate responsibility) of the following three sets of stakeholders such as general public, workers (skilled, semiskilled and un-skilled) and corporate executives (head of corporate relation, labour relations, welfare dept. and manufacturing dept. in MNCs, large and medium sized Indian companies).The poll gathered that people believe that companies should be actively engaged in social matters.
A majority of the general public feels that companies should be held fully responsible for roles over which they have direct control. These include providing good products and cheaper prices, ensuring that operations are environment friendly, treating employees fairly without any discrimination based on gender, race or religion and applying labour standards globally. More than 60% of the general public felt that the companies should also be held responsible for bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, reducing human rights abuses, solving social problems and increasing economic stability.

CSR as business success
CSR is considered to be an important aspect of business success– through efficient resource management, environment protection, employment, eco-friendly atmosphere, etc.

Ashok Khosla, President of Development Alternatives, an Indian NGO, is of the view that sustainability includes sustainable consumption and sustainable production and is thus the responsibility of both procedures and consumers. The CSR is not a one size fits all. The NGOs, citizens and governments must look at sizes, types and locations of companies to explore how
CSR can be brought to bear on companies.

The civil society is good for business and a tool for advancing corporate take-up of CSR. Therefore, the business should view civil society as being the CSR auditors for business and a friend to business, much like traditional auditors. There are lessons for business to learn from their interactions with civil society that cannot only re-duce risk but improve overall competitive
advantage.

Conclusion
The business of the 21-st century will have no choice but to implement CSR. The sooner corporate houses realize this and aggressively pursue this process, the better off they will be. The laws need to be formulated to help in reinforcing CSR practices.

Indian CSR has traditionally been a matter of classical paternalistic philanthropy, financially supporting schools, hospitals and culture institutions. However, far from being an add-on motivated by altruism and personal glory, the philanthropic drive has been driven by business necessity. With minimal state welfare and infrastructure provision in many areas, companies had to ensure that their workforce had adequate housing, healthcare and education and simultaneously the country grows at a fast pace.

The CSR should not be merely a statement of intent. It should be made compulsory for the corporate operating in India. This will definitely help in upholding human rights. In this context, the following measures may be made mandatory to ensure participation of the corporate in social development:
• Incorporation of a section on social actions in annual reports of companies
• Appointment of an independent social accounting committee to measure, monitor, evaluate and report impact of CSR in annual reports
• Separate department to look after the CSR
• Periodic training programmes and awareness camps to train personnel on CSR
• Linkage between CSR and financial success should be established
• A certain percentage of profit should be earmarked for social development that should reflect
in the annual balance sheets of companies.

Do you know where your career is going?

2011-02-12T20:01:00.000-08:00

Do you know where your career is going? As staying with the same company for life becomes rarer, more and more people aren't sure. If you're one of them, then maybe it's time to take time out, sit back, and have a think.

It's all too common to find that you've got into your job through a series of coincidences, each one taking you a little further away from where you were aiming to go when you started. There is simply a huge gap between the jobs that people get and the jobs they wanted. No-one aspires to work at a paper company, but someone's got to do it. Once you've been there a few years, you suddenly realise that your only options are to either move sideways into a similar job somewhere else, or move upwards in the hierarchy and become a manager.

So what do you do. The answer is to finally answer to yourself that most elusive of questions: what do you want to be doing five years from now? Ten? Twenty? If the answer isn't "what I'm doing now" or "I want to be a high-level manager", then what you need is drastic action.

What you might not realise, though, is that forging out a career path isn't as difficult as you might think. If you can free yourself from the day-to-day struggle to survive by living below your means for a year or so and accumulating some savings, you suddenly have some time to get where you want to be in the job market. Whatever your ambition is, the chances are that there's an entry-level job going somewhere, or a community of enthusiastic amateurs.

If it's really what you've wanted to do all your life, then it should be as simple as getting started and getting noticed. And if it doesn't work out, then you've always got the other job to fall back on. Whether you succeed or fail, it's always better to try, and it's not as hard to do as you think. Take the plunge.

Making a Difference with Cash Back Credit Cards

2011-02-12T19:55:00.000-08:00

Getting cash back while using your credit card makes all the difference in the world, especially as high as prices are today. Cash back providers can provide cardholders with cash rewards/rebates and more while employing the credit card. Cardholders make purchases using the credit card, and in exchange, the card providers will add points per purchase made on the card. Cardholders can take advantage of the cards, since some cards make it easy to build up cash rebates, based on dollar amounts. The industry average per rebates is 1%; however, cash rebates differ, depending on the credit card and provider.

How does it work? The cash back card providers will charge the business where the card was utilized a fee. The card provider then provides the cardholder a portion of that fee in the form of a cash rebate.

It is important to shop around while considering cash back or rewards credit cards. Some credit card lenders will charge higher than average Annual Percentage Rates (APR's), in an effort to recoup some of the fees paid out. The annuals fees can range from $25 up to $100 yearly and some lenders will charge more.

Rebates and Balance Transfers

Card issuers can also offer certain cardholders superior rebate percentages providing the card is utilized often. Other lenders may offer superior rebates, while making purchases at supermarkets, gas stations, and selected retailers. Balance transfers or cash advances are often excluded from the rebate deals, i.e. you will not receive cash back per cash advance or Balance Transfer made.
Over the Internet there are various cards offered, which include the cash back cards. Potential cardholders should apply for suitable cards with cash back rebates, especially cardholders who will not carry a balance monthly.

Interest Rates and Rebates

Standard platinum credit cards often have lower APR's, and most often will be lower than cash back credit cards. Therefore, if the interest rates are high on cash back cards, it will counterbalance the rebates received. This means you will repay the credit card lenders, paying back the rebates through interest payments.

As you can see, if you are not vigilant about paying your monthly balance on the cash back credit cards before the grace period, you will pay more on the cards via interest rates and will more than likely be paying more in interest charges than receiving in reward point benefits.

The Chase Cash Plus Rewards card offer offers 5% cash back for purchases at drugstores, gas stations, or grocery stores. The cards offer 1% cash back on all other purchases made with the card. The introductory fees are 0% up to one year on APR and balance transfers, purchases, and there is no annual fee. And remember, typically you must have very good credit to get approval for cash back credit cards.

Speculators and Speculation

2011-02-12T19:37:00.000-08:00

Speculators get a bad rap. Speculation in stocks, currecies and commodities futures is a necessary part of our economy. Many people have the idea that there is no added value in people "gambling" on commodities prices, for example. The truth is, most people just don't understand of the role of speculators and speculation.

The Truth About 'Speculation'

Speculative trading is crucial to a modern economy. Let's use corn for an example. A farmer can plant his corn, and then see the price drop so low by harvest time that he loses his investment, and possibly goes bankrupt. How can he prevent this?

By selling some of his future production now, at a set price, he can plan ahead safely. The contracts he creates and sells will go up and down with the price of corn, but the risk is all in the hands of the speculators who buy them. They profit by re-selling them if the price goes up, and they lose money if it goes down. Our farmer, though, has his price, and can plan his business now.

Now, on the other side, a cereal company needs predictability in the prices of their basic commodities, in order to plan future production. They can't hire new employees and buy new equipment, only to see the price of corn triple, making consumers unwilling to buy their expensive corn flakes. Buy a contract for future delivery at a set price, and they can plan, and again, the speculators take on the risk. They sell a contract, planning to buy the corn necessary for delivery. They make money if the price drops, and lose if it goes up, because they have to deliver at a set price.
Not just farmers, but all industries based on basic commodities would go through terrible swings in fortune if it weren't for these "gamblers," who take on the risk. Without them, there would be more bankruptcies, and more dramatic swings in consumer prices. In all markets with speculation, speculators provide the liquidity and ability to plan ahead that is needed.

New Ideas In Speculation

Maybe we need more speculation, not less. Wouldn't it be nice if businesses and even individuals could guarantee that gas for their cars would be near the same price next year? Speculators could provide that guarantee, and some businesses would love that kind of predictability.

You buy a contract, for example, to get your next 1000 gallons of gas at $2.20 per gallon. You put down a small deposit, and pay as you go, but you know that the next 1000 gallons will be $2,200, guaranteed.

A speculators role is to back the other side of the contract (to sell it). He is the one guaranteeing your price, so if the average price for the next 1000 gallons is $1.80, you still pay $2,200 in the end, but his cost is $1,800, so he makes $400 on the contract. Now if the price averages $3.30, he pays $3,300. You still pay $2,200, so he gambled and lost $1,100.

Speculators, like most gamblers, will probably bet on almost anything. We need to find more ways for them to take on our risks. Just imagine the many contracts could be invented, based on speculation.

Welcome to Desiclassifieds: Free Classifieds, Free Ads, Free advertisement

2011-02-12T11:06:00.000-08:00

The modern world is in a continuous movement and people everywhere are looking for quick, safe means of accessing accurate information. Prompt information is vital for people who want to keep the pace with a constantly evolving society, and many people are turning to the Internet for help in their quest for knowledge.

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Developing a Standard AUP

2011-02-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

Developing an Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP) requires organizations to utilize a process that can ensure their AUP, once implemented, is as effective as possible. One popular method for this sort of Management Assessment is called RISK, an acronym that stands for requirements, identify, select and know. Employing RISK to build an effective AUP is important whether an organization is publicly or privately held. Even family-owned businesses need an AUP if their employees have access to the Internet.

RISK

The requirement of their RISK policy includes understanding that the company's reputation and assets could be endangered by employee abuse or misuse of the company's network or computers. When a company understands that email, instant messaging, peer-to-peer and web surfing technology can leave them vulnerable to exploitation or network and system damage, they have identified the key elements around which they must design their AUP.

Once the basic requirements have been identified, the next step is to construct a policy that will protect both their network security and the company's reputation. Since breaches in computer network security can lead to substantial regulatory fines judicial settlements that can cost billions and negative media attention that can seriously damage a company's reputation, the design of a comprehensive and relevant AUP is more important than ever.

Design & Educate

First of all, the AUP should be explicitly written and clearly presented to all employees. It should be comprehensive, covering all rules, polices and procedures appertaining to P2P, Internet, Instant Messaging and email activities. The use of any vague language should be strictly avoided in an effective AUP. For example, stating that email is to be used for business purposes can leaves wiggle room for an employee to state he was using his email for business when he actually means "personal" business rather than correspondence pertaining to his job.

Instead, the AUP should detail exact use and abuse terms. For example, the company should detail that downloading music, video and other copyrighted materials is expressly forbidden. Employees should be notified that all communications whether of a personal or business nature are monitored and stored. The need for such monitoring should be explained as well as the penalty for employee abuse. Employees should be made to understand that use of company computers and protocols such as email, IM and P2P are not rights, but rather privilege given to them by the company.

Penalties ranging from written warnings all the way up to termination should be clearly explained. The comprehensive nature of the policies and procedures should be updated regularly in order to govern developing concerns such as blogging. New technologies and communication protocols are appearing daily – a company's best acceptable usage policy should be flexible enough to accommodate these emerging threats.
Monitor & Enforce

Developing the AUP and educating employees is only the first step. The implementation system should also include how the company will monitor and enforce their internal AUP. In an ideal world, simply telling an employee to not exercise bad judgment might be enough. But employees can be mislead themselves and endanger a host network security system despite good intentions.

Whether a company chooses a hardware or software solution will affect how well they are able to monitor and enforce their AUP. Although the education of employees will assist in the enforcement of the AUP because the judicial system could find that a corporation has made a reasonable effort to keep their corporation free of hostility, harassment and other abusive behaviors, it will not be enough to keep your networks safe from outside intrusion, whether intentional or not

The AUP will reduce the vicarious liability that a company may endure but the vicarious liability factor is further protected when the written AUP is enforced through disciplinary actions and filtering solutions. A filtering solution can prevent employees from accessing sites, software and other connections that may violate the company's AUP and endanger its networks and systems. This will eliminate employee error on many levels.

Whatever the chosen filtering solution, it should also monitor behavior in order to provide for disciplinary action on the part of the company as needed. As previously mentioned, disciplinary action can be applied in stages from written warnings to suspensions to termination of employment. These rules should be detailed specifically in the AUP and presented clearly to the employees so that expectations and rulings are clearly defined prior to any action being taken.

The Solution is the Solution

Defining the AUP requires identifying the risk management issues, key software vulnerabilities and required employee behavior. When an effective AUP is combined with disciplinary action that is clearly stated and effectively enforced, companies are protecting their employees, networks and finances. However, an AUP's ultimate success will hinge a great deal on the type of filtering solution a company chooses.

A filter that not only enforces the AUP, but also monitors the behavior of the employees provides a double layer of protection.. A powerful and effective filtering solution is the final piece of the puzzle to developing, maintaining and enforcing the company AUP.