Creating Your Passive Income!

By Christian Fea in Business

Business owners have to do much more than offer a quality product or service today. With a market that continues to increase in competition, thanks to the global ramifications of the Internet, successful businesspeople will also be characterized by certain qualities that get them noticed in their industry.
If you thought psychology classes were strictly for the health care professionals, think again. There’s plenty of psychology that goes into the effective running of a business, particularly when joint venture marketing comes into play.

Relationship Building

Successful business owners must know how to form relationships both with potential customers and prospective JV marketing partners. Relationships with joint venture business partners must be professional, but they must also inspire trust and creativity between the two of you. When a JV marketing partnership is healthy and thriving, both businesses benefit.

Make sure your communication with your partner is used to build up rather than tear down the other individual. Offer positive feedback and show enthusiasm for your joint business venture. When you make others feel good about their contributions and their relationship with you, they are more likely to stick around for the long haul.

Networking

Networking is an important part of building a successful business, whether you are interacting with other business owners or potential customers. Networking events are an excellent place to meet other like-minded individuals who might be interested in building a JV partnership with you.
However, these occasions may cause shy individuals to shiver with anxiety and may even result in you missing out on valuable business opportunities because your fears prohibit you from attending. If social networking makes you nervous, take a class on interpersonal communication that can provide you with the skills you need to handle these events with confidence.

Team Playing

An effective business is a team of individuals, all working together toward a common goal. If you want your business to be successful, you will need to learn to play nicely with others. This includes other business owners in your field that might be lucrative JV partners, as well as those who work directly in your business with you. Cooperation, contribution and positive encouragement are all traits that make individuals effective team builders.

If you are lacking in any of these traits, team-building classes will show you how to work well with others. Learning specific techniques like active listening and group brainstorming can also show you how to make the most of the creativity and enthusiasm within your staff to make your business run more smoothly.

Psychology plays an important role in a successful business, whether you are forming JV partnerships with other business owners, working with your staff, or interacting with your customers.

If you feel your interpersonal skills are lacking, now is the time to get educated on the finer points of networking and team building. Professional classes are available in psychology, communication and interpersonal skills through community colleges and professional training forums. The money you invest in building your professional skills will go a long way in helping you run your business more effectively.

Lessons from Yuan

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:35:00 PDT

China's trade'>trade balance is on course for another bumper surplus this year. Meanwhile, concern about the health of the United States recovery continues to mount. Both developments suggest that China will be under renewed pressure to nudge its currency sharply upward.

The conflict with the US may well come to a head during Congressional hearings on the yuan this month, when many voices will urge the Obama administration to threaten punitive measures if Beijing does not act.

Discussion of China's currency focuses on the need to shrink the country's trade'>trade surplus and correct global macroeconomic imbalances. With a less competitive currency, many analysts hope, China will export less and import more, making a positive contribution to the recovery of the US and other economies.

In all this discussion, the yuan is viewed largely as a US-China issue, and the interests of poor countries get scarcely a hearing, even in multilateral fora.

Yet a noticeable rise in the yuan's value may have significant implications for developing countries. Whether they stand to gain or lose from a yuan revaluation, however, is hotly contested.

On one side stands Arvind Subramanian, from the Peterson Institute and the Centre for Global Development. He argues that developing countries have suffered greatly from China's policy of undervaluing its currency, which has made it more difficult for them to compete with Chinese goods in world markets, retarded their industrialisation, and set back their growth.

If the yuan were to gain in value, poor countries' exports would become more competitive, and their economies would become better positioned to reap the benefits of globalisation. Hence, Mr Subramanian argues, poor countries must make common cause with the US and other advanced economies in pressuring China to alter its currency policies.

On the other side stands Helmut Reisen and his colleagues at the OECD's Development Centre, who conclude that developing countries, and especially the poorest among them, would be hurt if the yuan were to rise sharply. Their reasoning is that currency appreciation would almost certainly slow China's growth, and that anything which does that must be bad news for other poor countries as well.

They buttress their argument with empirical work that suggests that growth in developing countries has become progressively more dependent on China's economic performance. They estimate that a slowdown of 1 percentage point in China's annual growth rate would reduce the growth rates of low-income countries by 0.3 percentage point - almost a third as much.

To make sense of these two contrasting perspectives, we need to step back and consider the fundamental drivers of growth. Strip away the technicalities, and the debate boils down to one fundamental question: what is the best, most sustainable growth model for low-income countries?

Historically, poor regions of the world have often relied on what is called a 'vent-for-surplus' model. This model entails exporting to other parts of the world primary products and natural resources such as agricultural produce or minerals.

This is how Argentina grew rich in the 19th century, and how oil states have become wealthy during the last 40 years. The rapid growth that many developing countries experienced prior to the crisis was largely the result of the same model. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, were propelled forward by the growing demand for their natural resources from other countries - China chief among them.

But this model suffers from two fatal weaknesses. First, it depends heavily on rapid growth in foreign demand. When such demand falters, developing countries find themselves with collapsing export prices, and, too often, a protracted domestic crisis. Second, it does not stimulate economic diversification. Economies hooked on this model find themselves excessively specialised in primary products that promise little productivity growth.

Indeed, the central challenge of economic development is not foreign demand, but domestic structural change. The problem for poor countries is that they are not producing the right kinds of goods. They need to restructure away from traditional primary products to higher-productivity activities, mainly manufactures and modern services.

The real exchange rate is of paramount importance here, as it determines the competitiveness and profitability of modern tradable activities. When developing nations are forced into overvalued currencies, entrepreneurship and investment in those activities are depressed.

From this perspective, China's currency policies not only undercut the competitiveness of African and other poor regions' industries, but they also undermine those regions' fundamental growth engines. What poor nations get out of Chinese mercantilism is, at best, temporary growth of the wrong kind.

Lest we blame China too much, though, we should remember that there is little that prevents developing countries from replicating the essentials of the Chinese model. They, too, could have used their exchange rates more actively in order to stimulate industrialisation and growth. True, all countries in the world cannot simultaneously undervalue their currencies. But poor nations could have shifted the 'burden' onto rich countries, where, economic logic suggests, it ought to be placed.

Instead, too many developing countries have allowed their currencies to become overvalued, relying on booming commodity demand or financial inflows. And they have made little systematic use of explicit industrial policies that could act as a substitute for undervaluation.

Given this, perhaps we should not hold China responsible for taking care of its own economic interests, even if it has aggravated in the process the costs of other countries' misguided currency policies.

What's With the Sudden Rise of YEN?

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:45:00 PDT

In Japan's case, it is almost two decades' worth of negligible or no economic growth!

And Now, while the economy is sinking, Japan's currency is skyrocketing. While at face value it may seem like a good thing, the rising yen is spelling doom for Japan's crucial export sector.

What is the yen doing to Japan's manufacturing sector? Well, it's just killing it.

According to a number of government-sponsored surveys, about 40% of Japanese manufacturers fear that, unless the yen stops rising, they might be forced to shift their production lines abroad where labor and facilities are cheaper at least.

Is there anything that can stop the yen?

Not much, other than pulling together a massive government stimulus package together with
similar in size and intention stimulus packages from other central banks.

Before the yen started its new rise to infamy, Japan had considerable trade surpluses and one of the highest domestic savings rates in the world. That made the country one of the few remaining providers of real capital in the world, not just printed paper money.

As a result, during the recession of 2008/2009, Japan's currency, along with the Swiss franc and the greenback, was considered a safe haven, to which many investors flocked.

Even the Chinese have started diversifying away from U.S. bonds and have been stocking up on Japanese bonds.

What on earth is pushing the yen so high all of a sudden?

Japan is getting older and fewer babies are born into that part of the world. At the same time, Japan is exporting more, because the domestic demand is shrinking. Adding to the pile is Japan's hoarding of
foreign assets, including bonds and equities, although recently Japan started repatriating some of the capital back into Japan.

Singapore SIBOR VS U.S Fed Fund Rate

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:05:00 PDT

Clean Energy

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:34:00 PDT

According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, total new investment in sustainable energy worldwide reached $162 billion in 2009, nearly four times of 2004.

With $65 billion worth of new financial investment in clean energy already registered in the first half of 2010, some 22 percent up on the same six months of 2009, the market seems to be on an upswing.

What is significant is the distinct shift in focus from Europe and North America to Asia-Pacific, with a sharp increase in financial investment from $31.3 billion in 2008 to $40.8 billion in 2009.

Some $188 billion in government stimulus packages was also allocated to greening and climate change measures in 15 major economies between the autumn of 2008 and early 2010, with Asia-Pacific accounting for over 45 percent of this spending.

Improving Business using Wordpress

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:49:00 PDT

More than ever before, many people have started up their own online businesses, and many other people have taken their offline brick and mortar businesses into the online domain as well. No matter what stage you’re in, you can create a blog through a system such as WordPress and reap some truly great benefits. Here’s how you can improve your online business with a WordPress blog.

You might be thinking to yourself, why do I need a blog if I already have a website? The answer is that having a blog in addition to your regular website is a great way to gain more exposure and traffic, and create new prospects and customers. With the right kind of system in place, you can easily gain a far greater reach than you would have ever otherwise enjoyed.

With WordPress, you can host a blog on a separate domain that you purchase, in a section or folder of your existing website domain, or on the WordPress.com website without your own domain name. Either way, what you’re doing is creating an additional platform for you to reach out to potential customers and prospects.

Using your blog, you can create lots of great, short posts and other kinds of content that helps to bring people to your website and inform them about who you are, what you’re all about and how you can help them. By spending just a few minutes per week developing informal, engaging content for your blog, you can greatly expand your audience.

If your blog is hosted on a separate domain, then you will be able to link to your own website and gain some great search engine benefits from the incoming links. Even when it’s hosted in your own site’s domain, you can still enjoy some great advantages. With this setup, you will be bringing in new visitors with your content directly to your main site, where they can easily access your other pages and products, and make a purchase or contact you for more information.

One key when working with a blog is to make sure that you create frequent posts and updates. A blog that isn’t updated very often isn’t really a blog at all. Two to three short posts per week should be your target. The great thing is that with WordPress, you can even write them all up at once and then space them out with scheduled publishing. This way you can stay updated and fresh without always having to work on the blog.

Adding a blog into your online arsenal of tools and tricks can go a very long way, and this includes for individuals who already have an existing website. You’ll gain much more exposure and enjoy a larger reach and presence, and you can potentially see some great SEO benefits too. Use WordPress for a hassle-free, convenient and capable blog platform and you’ll really be able to hit the ground running.

Maximizing Wordpress

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:48:00 PDT

Creating a website means that you’ll have to put time and effort into thinking and planning how you’re going to create it, set it up and what content will be placed on it. Much of the time, this means that you’ll be choosing whom to hire to actually perform the tasks of creating and setting up the site. On the other hand, using WordPress for your website means that all of these tasks are practically taken care of by themselves.

You can profit, save money and benefit your website and business by using WordPress as the solution for your website in many ways.

Saving Money through WordPress

WordPress is an open-source content management system that sets up your entire website on its own. As a content management system, WordPress holds all the content of your site, including its pictures and images, blogs and articles, videos and music and whatever other elements you would like on your website.

When using WordPress, you don’t need to create web pages from scratch and don’t need to even bother looking at any HTML or website coding languages at all unless you want to tweak the site’s design. Furthermore, changing your site’s design is simple if you’re using WordPress. In other words, WordPress saves you money on the elaborate and expensive web designer and jump right to the setup of your website.

How to Install WordPress

Perhaps the only important thing you need to do before you set up your WordPress website is to choose a domain name and web hosting server. You should choose a domain name related to your business and register it through a web hosting service such as Go Daddy, Fatcow Web Hosting or Host Gator.

After you’ve purchased a domain name and hosting package, you need to install WordPress. Go to the back-end administration or control panel of your website and find the web host’s automatic-installation program. Select WordPress from a list of web tools or other content management systems, click the “upload” button and create a username and password for managing your WordPress-installed website.

Easily Changing your Website Design

WordPress gives you the ability to change your website design instantly, without the need to know website design codes or hire an outsourcer. You can change your WordPress website design through free or premium WordPress “themes.” Themes are pre-designed structures and overlays that are installed on your site. All you have to do is find the design you want, upload the folder to your website and select the theme you’ve now uploaded through your WordPress control panel.

Making Money with your WordPress Site

You can make money with a site that has been designed with WordPress in numerous ways. You can easily promote your site, give your website added functionality and an easy to use platform for visitors. For starters, WordPress makes site promotion easy; you can add plug-ins that integrates social bookmarking websites like Digg and social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also add search engine optimization (SEO) plug-ins that optimize the site’s design and make it easier for search engines to crawl and find. If you’re selling products or services, you can find plug-ins that turn your website into a complete, easy-to-use shopping cart.

As you can see, there are plenty of benefits to using WordPress for your website. Whether you’re just starting out in business or need to revamp your current website with a clean design and need to get the job done with the least out-of-pocket expense possible, WordPress can certainly help you out. It’s not only easy to install through your web hosting package, but it’s also easy to both save and make money with the built-in tools that WordPress offers and added functionality you can give your website.

Using Linkedin To attract new customers

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:46:00 PDT

LinkedIn is generally used as a means of making and maintaining work connections. However, don’t just limit yourself by considering LinkedIn a networking site. Businesses can (and should!) use LinkedIn to seek out and attract new customers.

Start by doing an advanced search, using your list of prospects as a guide. This is a great way to make get a foot in the door with potential customers. Introduce yourself through LinkedIn. See what their interests are. Mention any commonalities you may have. Only do this if you have contacts in common. Your contact can function as an intermediary for connecting.

Using the advanced search option again, you can also define certain parameters using specific key words pertaining to your business. Those with SEO businesses may want to use terms like “SEO marketer” or “SEO director” while performing a search.

Search through your contacts and find others who sell products or services similar to yours. Target the followers this other company has, and again, ask for your connection to connect the two of you. This is far more personal than outreaching on your own with a common contact.

Be sure to check your “Network Updates” on a regular basis. Discovering that a client of yours has suddenly become connected to another company may be an indicator that they’re unhappy with your services. Also, check these to see any change in positions or companies. This may provide opportunity to initiate business.

Don’t underestimate the power of LinkedIn. It can serve as a robust tool for keeping and attracting new business.

Bing is now the 2nd Place!

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:45:00 PDT

Move over Yahoo, Bing has officially taken second place for search market share!

According to Chitika, Google is still top-dog when it comes to search engine traffic. That’s no big surprise.

Google is everywhere. How many times have you heard someone say, “Oh, I’ll just Google it…?” But Yahoo has maintained second place for quite some time now, in the search engine world.

That is, until July 2009, when Microsoft relaunched it’s original search engine, Live Search, as Bing. Thanks to an advertising blitz and a steady push for more users, Bing finally overtook Yahoo at the number two spot in January 2010.

It’s important to remember that most US-based rating services companies still list Yahoo in second place.

Why?

Chitika goes about their ratings a little bit differently. They measure the number of visitors how many visitors leave a search engine and come to sites in its own network. That’s now how it’s usually done. Other US-based rating companies measure activity at the search engine sites themselves.

There is much speculation over the difference in how these place-settings are determined. But what’s clear is that Bing is making a name for itself in the search engine market share at a very fast pace.

Official "tweet Button" by Tweeter

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:42:00 PDT

Attention web site owners!

Sharing your content with the world just got a lot more simple. With Twitter’s launch of the Tweet Button, users can now share links directly from the page they’re on. Instead of copying and pasting the link into Twitter’s website, or shortening links, users only have to click the Tweet Button, which prompts a Tweet Box to appear.

In this box is a shortened version of the link that will be tweeted. A click of the button and BAM! A tweet is born.

This simplified process means that Twitter users will be even more likely to share web content with all of their followers. Which, in turn, means even more traffic for web site owners. And don’t think this option is only available to corporate giants.

Bloggers and small businesses, as well as those corporate giants, all have the same access to the Tweet Button. Copy and paste a few lines of code into your website and voila. You have a Tweet Button.

A Tweet Button may be a web site owner’s answer to the traffic they’re looking for. Each time a web site is tweeted, other “suggested websites” appear for the user. Yours may be among those suggested websites.

Yet another way to spread the word on your web site quickly and cheaply. Twitter has a growing list of websites which has adopted the Tweet Button. Make yours one of them.

40 Commandments of Trading:

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:01:00 PDT

1. The market is God. This means that the market is always right, even if its wrong. If you think the market should be in a double dip and it isn't, then that's your problem — not the market's. Your theory is wrong. You missed something. Blaming the market never made anyone any money.

2. Buy the crisis. When a political or economic crisis occurs in a country, the best thing to do is to go to www.adr.com and find the bank, telecom, or brewery that has sold off the most and buy it. When Wall Street fund managers sell ETFs and country funds, they sell these large stocks that act as a proxy for the country as a whole. When the money comes back, it comes back into the blue chips.

3. Vancouver is full of liars, cutthroats, and thieves. When investing in Canadian resource companies, assume they are scams unless proven otherwise.

4. Wall Street's Hippocratic Oath: First do no harm. In other words, it is better not to make money than to lose it.

5. Never apologize for a profit. The goal in investing is to make money. If you make 5% and the stock goes up another 1,000%, it doesn't matter. You still made money, and that's a good thing.

6. There is no success like success. When you make a winning trade, make it again. This means that if you trade dividend announcements, or you trade MACD crossovers, or whatever you do... If it works, keep going back to it until it doesn't. One of the best years I ever had was shorting recent IPOs after the insider-shares unlocked. This worked like a dream until it became too popular and IPOs started staggering their unlock dates.

7. Never put money in a hope. If you don't have a clear investment strategy with a simple catalyst for share price appreciation, don't buy the stock.

8. Be your own man. Do your own research and stick to your guns. You know more about the trade than they do.

9. Never step in front of a freight train. This is also known as the "don't catch a falling knife" rule. There are bottom signs in the market; know them and wait for them.

10. Buy big in stocks that trade less than cash. Every once in a great while, you will come across stocks that, due to margin calls or market crashes, have an income, zero debt, and more cash than their current market value. I found four of these in November 2009 after hedge funds sold all their gold stocks.

How to Make Google Like your Website?

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:25:00 PDT

Make no mistake; the Google means business!

If the Googlebot doesn't like what it finds when it visits your site
then you're in serious trouble! Your website will be on page 273 of
Google Search and you will be losing customers and money; there's no
doubt about it!

To keep your website ahead of the competition, we've prepared 10 pieces
of very important information to keep the noble Googlebot happy.

Click the link below to learn How To Make the Googlebot Love Ya!

http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=IkhoF&m=1a7RnvAYIA1yh1&b=C3KIQxmZMEeYyljL2W9Nmw

Social Web Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:06:00 PDT

If you don't use Social/Web 2.0 sites to promote
your business, you're getting left in the dust.

Plain and simple, you're really missing out... on
EASY traffic and sales.

Now you can grab the Quick-Start Social Marketing
Kit - 2 ebooks, Twitter for Twits and MyBlogLog
Traffic - for the price of lunch at your favorite
fast food joint.

These 2 ebooks walk you through setting up your
account and show you how to use these sites to
cash in BIG time from all the traffic they get.

http://vur.me/To/11608/23743.htm

There are a lot of social sites out there that
you should be using, but Twitter and MyBlogLog
are two of the fastest growing sites right now,
and marketers are raking in the cash left and
right...

http://vur.me/To/11609/23743.htm

If you can type your thoughts onto your computer,
you can use these sites to find targeted
prospects and make sales. It's really as simple
as that.

http://vur.me/To/11610/23743.htm

EDUCATION, REPETITION AND VARIETY

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:55:00 PDT

****************************************************

Most small businesses market their products and services like this:

Step 1: Buy a bunch of leads or generate leads with a mailer or other campaign
Step 2: Distribute leads to sales reps
Step 3: Reps call on the leads to find the "hot" ones who are ready now
Step 4: Reps work with hot leads to close a quick deal
Step 5: Throw away, postpone or neglect the leads that aren't "hot"
Step 6: Repeat the process

Just about every business on the planet does this. And it's not bad... until you realize how much money you're leaving on the table. The fact is, for every deal you close using this common process, there's another 2 - 3 deals (or more!) you COULD close.

So, how do you do that? Well, that's what Secret #6 is all about--How to properly follow up using EDUCATION, REPETITION AND VARIETY.

You see, over 99% of small businesses don't properly follow up. Why? Because they don't have a system, they don't have time, they don't know how valuable it is, and the truth is, they don't know how to follow up! But...a few simple secrets could make you a "follow-up master."

Effective follow-up must take a combined approach that incorporates these three elements:

1) EDUCATION.

Your follow-ups must inform your prospects. You need to provide valuable information. You need to communicate to your prospect that you are on their side and deserve to be trusted. You'll accomplish this if you provide them with accurate, insightful information. The sales process is confusing and intimidating for your customers. They WANT to trust you. Give them the information they need and you'll earn their trust.

2) REPETITION.

It's a proven fact that human beings have to hear the same thing over and over before it sinks in. Marketing and Sales is no different. YOU know your products and services like the back of your hand, but your customers don't "get it" the first time they hear the message. Don't make the mistake of thinking that if a prospect heard the pitch once, they understood it. Chances are, they didn't. Tell them again, and again and again.

3) VARIETY.

This doesn't mean you vary your message!!! You need to consistently tell your message, but your follow-up DELIVERY needs variety. To maximize your sales, you must use multi-step follow-up sequences that incorporate direct mail, phone, email, fax, voice broadcasts, and other media! There is serious power that comes when you contact your prospects using multiple methods.

However, I can't tell you how many times I've heard the argument that this kind of follow up is tedious, it's time-consuming, it's overkill, it's belittling to the customer, it's... whatever.

Guess what? It might be all of those things. But it works. Period. When you begin to properly follow up with your leads and customers using Education, Repetition and Variety, your numbers will absolutely shoot through the roof. You will be completely amazed!

Do you have a Wordpress blog?

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:37:00 PDT

Do you have a Wordpress blog?

If yes, then you're going to be as
excited as I was when I discovered
this really cool Wordpress plugin
that makes it "3rd grade simple"
to make your posts and pages
SEO ready for search engines.

It's really, really cool.

Check it out the video and info on this page:

http://hunteridge.com/a/seop.htm

If you're really into blogging, or even
just a little, this is a must-have plugin.

The Trade Deficit with China is a Problem of U.S. Consumption

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:11:00 PDT

From: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

On June 19, the People's Bank of China indicated–once again–that it would loosen its grip on the renminbi-dollar exchange rate and allow the renminbi to appreciate against the dollar. Since then, the renminbi has appreciated a meager 0.7 percent against the dollar.

All else constant, a renminbi appreciation should raise the dollar price of Chinese goods, lower the renminbi price of U.S. goods, and whittle away at our trade deficit with that country.

Still, unless the exchange rate moves by a substantial amount, we probably will not see much of an effect.

Between mid 2005 and mid 2009, when the People's Bank of China previously loosened its grip on the renminbi-dollar exchange rate, the renminbi appreciated approximately 20 percent on both a nominal and a real basis against the dollar. (The real basis is what matters for assessing competitive patterns, because it accounts for price pressures in both the United States and China.)

If this appreciation had any effect on the U.S. merchandise trade deficit, it is imperceptible in the data. The U.S. merchandise trade deficit with China continued to grow from $17.6 billion in June 2005 to around $21 billion as the global economic slump settled in and dampened worldwide trade.

Malaysia relies heavily on imported coal for generating electricity and Indonesia supplies the bulk of this coal demand.”

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:10:00 PDT

Despite the backdrop of high oil prices, the demand for coal in the South East Asian region is expected to remain firm.

This is expected to turn in buoyant demand for tugboats and barges to ferry coal continuously within the Indonesia and Malaysia.

Malaysia needs coal to power their electricity, Indonesia has tons of them. So Tugboats and Barges needed to transport them!

How Small Companies Get Listed on the Biggest Indexes

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:16:00 PDT

It doesn't take a finance degree to figure out how small cap companies get listed on the Russell. They publish this information publicly, and for the most part, it's a straightforward process.

These are the four basic criteria:

1. Be in the top 4,000 of U.S. companies by market cap, and have market cap over

$30 million

2. Trade on major U.S. exchanges – over-the-counter and pink sheets excluded

3. Meet Russell's growth and price-to-book style criteria

4. Have a minimum $1 stock price at the end of May

Every year, thousands of small cap stocks vie for what turns out to be hundreds of spots on the Russell. The trick in picking the winners isn't any more difficult than knowing the above four criteria and going through each possible candidate to find the companies with the best chances.

So why don't more people do it? Because it's time consuming, and takes a lot of attention to detail that most people don't have the time or energy to muster.

But it can be extremely profitable if done correctly.

Killa blogging SEO Tip #1

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:55:00 PDT

Get your Wordpress blogs to
rocket up the search engines...

Today I'm sharing tip #1

It's a (no-cost) 'plugin' called
'All In One SEO Pack'.

It will do stuff like automatically
give you optimized titles,
descriptions and keywords etc.

You may soon be getting some extra
traffic from the keywords it will help
optimize your posts for.

Very cool!

Anyway you can grab it from here:

http://tinyurl.com/27uyg6

Enjoy :-)

Also you can still get your own
'premium' done for you blog here:

http://www.davegaleonline.com/get-your-blog.php

They will set everything up for
you from scratch and will even
provide hosting. You get:

* Blog fully set up for you

* Monetization. This includes banners,
links etc. with your affiliate link
so you get paid!

* Regular content written and posted
to your blog for you every week

* Ongoing management all done for you!

So not only do you save yourself
a ton of time but you don't even
touch anything technical!

Ready to have an instant business
set up for you?

Ecommerce: 7 steps to enticing product descriptions

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:50:00 PDT

1.Familiarize yourself with the target audience

Amazingly, most people completely ignore their target customer when writing product descriptions. However, the site visitor is the key to how the copy is shaped, the tone it takes and which angle is used to communicate the benefits. For example, let's look at a box of gourmet chocolates.

If your target audience consists of gourmet chocolate lovers, you'll want to focus on the distinctiveness of your flavors, the quality of the ingredients or perhaps the luxurious texture. What if, on the other hand, your target audience consists - in part or in whole - of those seeking gluten-free treats?

It's not uncommon to find chocolates on the open market that are gluten-free. However, the added ingredients in gourmet chocolates may cause problems for those with celiac disease. They are regularly forced to stick with ordinary, plain chocolate candies and bars due to their condition. Since gluten-free items are the most popular, up-and-coming grocery products, you'll want to make certain this segment of your gourmet site visitors understands you have something that meets their dietary needs.

Knowing your audience as a whole, and understanding each segment is imperative to creating ecommerce copy that hits the mark every time.

2. List the biggest benefits of the product

The steps in this process are progressive. So, while still keeping your target audience and its needs in mind, make a list of the benefits which are most important to your customers. You may want to include various segments in your list.

Continuing with the example above, let's create a mini-list for a boxed collection of international chocolates.

Gourmet chocolate lovers - distinctive ingredients imported from across the globe.
Health conscious - organic ingredients, premium dark chocolate, high quality nuts.
Special dietary needs- gluten-free. Other collections available that are sugar-free, vegetarian, vegan and kosher.
All customers - 100% pure ingredients, no artificial colors, flavors or additives.
Gift givers - attractive, boutique-style gift boxes wrapped in a silk bow. Gift card included at no additional cost. Appropriate for both personal and business gifting.

3. Predict the future

Good copywriters look past the buying experience toward the future. After the customer purchases this product, how will his/her life be different and/or better? What will the specific end result of their purchase be?

In the case of gourmet chocolates, the end result for those purchasing for themselves might be breathing a sigh of satisfaction as these divine confections melt in their mouths. For gift givers, the end result could be impressing the recipients (whether business or personal) with a truly distinctive collection unlike any they have ever received.

Whatever the end result, it is important to give your site visitors a glimpse into the future so they can see how purchasing from your company will make their lives better.

4. Know the limits of your CMS

Content management systems (CMSs) can be frustrating at times. Before you set out to write product copy that's 150 words long with a catchy headline, you'll want to verify what can and cannot be accomplished within your system. Some have limited room in the copy field. Others force the headline, pulling from information you enter into the product specifications. For example, the headline on each product page would be automatically fed from the title of the product.

Knowing what quirks must be overcome will make the process of writing copy much easier. A few common areas to check include:

Maximum word or character count in the product copy field.
Additional fields below the fold (if you run out of space in the product copy field, then you can add a link for "more information" that drops the reader to a space further down the page.)
Forced information (headlines that are automatically inserted, product copy automatically fed to the category pages, etc.)

5. Incorporate search engine keyphrases

Depending on your site design and your CMS, your product descriptions could conceivably be hundreds of words long. Generally speaking, however, you're most likely looking at around 60–80. That doesn't leave much room to incorporate keyphrases.

While longer web pages benefit from the use of multiple search terms, I recommend sticking to one keyphrase for short product descriptions. Start with the framework of your page including the title tag, description META tag, file name, page name in the navigational structure, breadcrumb trail, forced page headline and other elements. Then move on to the content.

Use search phrases in the:

Headline - if your headline isn't forced by your CMS, make a point to include your keyphrase provided it doesn't detract from the message. It is usually very simple to incorporate a keyphrase into a headline, but - if for some reason it just doesn't flow - leave it out.

Product image caption - too many ecommerce sites simply shove "Product #12345" below graphics. Instead, underneath the hero shot of your product, enter a short, keyword-rich sentence that briefly describes the item. This assists your visitors with learning about your product and gives a little nudge to your rankings.

Product copy - even within 60–80 words, you should be able to comfortably work your search term in two or perhaps three times. Read the text out loud. If it sounds redundant, take out one instance of your keyphrase.

6. Write the copy

It's time to put all the pieces together. Look back over the previous five steps. We have our target customer, benefits, end results and keyphrase. Combine everything you have to create a compelling product description that will capture lots of clicks.

While there are dozens of ways to write copy for any given product, here is one version of sample copy for our gourmet chocolate product above. Our keyphrase is gourmet chocolates.

Tour the World with International Gourmet Chocolates

Do a little culinary globetrotting with our collection of gourmet chocolates. Only 100% pure ingredients from across the globe are used. Organic Hawaiian coconut, Australian macadamia nuts and other exceptional treats blend with the richest dark cocoa from West Africa for distinctive gourmet chocolates that truly indulge the senses. This assortment of 16 truffles is gluten-free, elegantly packaged for personal or business gifting, and wrapped with a silk bow.

7. Tweak, test & track

Satisfied? You shouldn't be. There is always room for improvement. Change a word or two in the headline. Alter the focus to one particular segment of your audience. Gradually make small tweaks to your product descriptions and test them against the original version of the copy. Track your results in order to gain the best conversion ratio possible. This is an all-too-often skipped step that - when done correctly - frequently brings about tremendous gains.

Once you understand the components of good product copy, it's easier than you think to put together descriptions that garner more sales. Keep this simple outline handy and you'll quickly gain speed when writing high-converting ecommerce copy.

Karon Thackston is author of the newest e-book in the Wordtracker Masterclass series: Ecommerce Copywriting, available now. Get yours today at www.wordtracker.com/ebooks/ecommerce-book and discover the proven strategies for boosting sales and search rankings on ecommerce sites.

How To Achieve Low Risk AND Low Return

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:06:00 PDT

While many financial experts preach the concept of having to take
high risks in order to make high returns, master investors like
Warren Buffett believe that it does not take high risks to make
high returns. Instead, it takes a high level of financial and
business competence to make high returns!

In fact, he will only make an investment when there is a very low
risk of loss and a very high probability of gain. He does this by
only investing in companies that are selling way below their true
value. In this way, he gives himself a wide margin of error. Which
means even if his calculations are off, he will still be making
money.

==============================

=========================
Invest Only When There Is A High Probability of Success
=======================================================

The trouble with professional managers of mutual funds is that they
are pressured to invest 80% of their cash into the market, even
when there is nothing attractive to buy. This happens after a
prolonged bull-run when stock prices are so high that companies are
way overvalued.

On the other hand, Buffett would happily keep all his money in cash
and only invest when there is a golden opportunity. This is exactly
what happened in 1999-2000 (stock prices were insanely overvalued)
when Buffett was criticized for not making a single investment and
keeping all his money in cash.

Buffett only moved in to buy after 2001, when stock prices had
crashed and companies could be bought for a steal. So, if you want
to be able to consistently beat the market and make higher returns
that anyone else, shouldn't you begin by adopting the beliefs of
the world's greatest investor?

Warren Buffett VS Wall Street

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:03:00 PDT

Before you can successfully model a person's investment strategy,
you must first model their beliefs. It is a person's beliefs about
investing that shape their decisions, their actions and their
results.

Let's us now compare the beliefs of the average investor or fund
manager to the beliefs of Warrant Buffett.

===========
Wall Street
============

* Believes in broad diversification into numerous financial
instruments.

* Short-term performance focused. Buys when a stock's price is
rising (good news) & sells when a stock is falling (bad news).

* Prejudice against companies who don't pay dividends.

* Pressured to invest funds

* Believes that in order to achieve higher returns, you must take
higher risks

==============
Warren Buffett
==============

* Believes in concentrating his funds in a few core businesses that
he understands very well.

* Long-term value focused. Buys good stocks when the price is
falling (bad news) & sells when the price is rising (good news).

* Prefers company to retain its earnings & allow his wealth to
compound tax-free

* Invest only when there is a high probability of profits.

* Believes it is possible to achieve high returns with very low
risks.

The reason why Warren Buffett is able to consistently beat the
market of average investors & money managers is because he holds
very different beliefs and philosophies about how the markets work.

Through studying these differences, one can see clearly how Warren
Buffett invests and you can do the same too.

Do As Expected and You Will Soon Be Out of Business

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 04:58:00 PDT

As an entrepreneur today, you must do a lot more than expected in
order to run a successful business and create wealth! In the past,
economies were a lot less competitive.

In the past, when a business performed below customer's
expectations, they would be struggling to break even.

If a business met their customer's expectations, they would make
good profits. If a business exceeded their customer's expectations,
they would become a market leader and would earn huge profits!

Why do over 90% of businesses fail today? It's because markets have
become so much more competitive. If you start a retail store, you
are competing with hundreds of others, both locally and
internationally!

Today, if you perform below customer's expectations, customers will
never come back and you will go bust! Today, if you meet customer
expectations, you will still be struggling to survive! Why?

This is because hundreds of other businesses can also meet your
client's expectations, and some of them do so at half your cost.

You will find that you will be competing on price most of the time
and will earn so little that it is hardly worth your while.

I have seen so many business owners struggling to break even simply
because what they offer is the same as every other business in
their industry.

In today's marketplace, if you exceed your client's expectations,
you will only earn nominal profits because many businesses already
do their best to add more value to their clients.

So how do you make huge profits and become a millionaire in
business today?

The answer is that you have to go way beyond your client's
expectations. You have to give them an unbelievable experience
where they will keep coming back to your business and tell all
their friends about you.

You must set your standards so high that they will never go to
anyone else for that particular product or service.

When you highly exceed your client's expectations, you can charge a
premium and make huge profits. This has been my secret of success
for all my businesses and I want you to learn this same secret
right now!

Your own Full time Programmer?

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:14:00 PDT

Imagine having your own full time
programmer doing all the "techie" stuff for
you so you could implement things fast.

So you can hit the ground running on Day 1
of your project.

So you can focus on the activities that
*actually* make you money.

So you can can implement right away
everything you know and learned from the
ebooks and courses you bought.

We have 2 dedicated programmers
available that will work for you full time
here, in-house in the Philippines:

http://www.carlocab.com/dedicated-programmer/

Yes, a *real* person, programmer working
for you FULL TIME 8 hours a day...

And for a very very (how could I emphasize it
more?) cheap price.

Here's just some of the stuff your own
dedicated programmer can do:

* Create squeeze pages and customize your
optin forms from aweber, getresponse, 1sc,
icontact, etc. for better conversions!

* Create search engine optimized WordPress
theme or customize a current WordPress theme

* Embed videos to your sites

* Build custom scripts for your own specific
needs - they are the one who's built my own
custom support system

http://www.carlocab.com/dedicated-programmer/

Two Ways to Trade Fear and Greed

noreply@blogger.com (shaunling) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 22:20:00 PDT

Landing with all the force of a feather, Quantitative Easing (QE) 1.5 might as well have been QE Nothing.

A day after being announced, the Fed's latest attempt to goose the economy sent the markets into a tailspin as the Dow dropped 265 points yesterday.

And for those of you scoring at home, the decliners led advancers by the magical ratio of 9 to 1 signaling a major reversal is at hand.

From the relatively placid days of July, market volatility made a gigantic comeback as the dollar jumped, Treasury yields plummeted and the VIX Indicator shot up by 14%.

Recently, I released a special expose on a tiny Mongolian oil company.

I predicted this little-known company was going to go absolutely ballistic once drilling got underway.

And boy was I right. As I write this, the share price has exploded, climbing 618% in no time at all.

As I see it, this is just the beginning of what could be a legendary run... so I strongly urge you to check out the report today if you haven't already received a copy.

But as any trader will tell you, it is at the exact moment the markets become complacent that they take one in the ear.

After all, the last time the VIX had fallen this low (21.36) was May 3, just three days before the infamous "flash crash". In the aftermath of that gut-wrenching plunge, the VIX doubled in the span of just a few days.

That's one of the reasons why every trader on Wall Street keeps an eye on the VIX as they speculate on the market's next move. More often than not, it is the action in the VIX that signals major market tops and bottoms.

That's because the VIX is one of the so-called contrarian indicators. That is, it tells you whether or not the markets have reached an extreme level of sentiment - either bullish or bearish.

If so, that tends to be a sure sign the markets are about to stage a reversal. Because let's face it, "the crowd" hardly ever gets it right.

So, the smart money simply uses the VIX indicator as a sign to bet against them all.

The VIX Indicator Explained

Developed by the Chicago Board Options Exchange in 1993, the CBOE Volatility Index (Chicago Options: ^VIX) is one of the Street's most widely accepted methods of gauging stock market volatility.

Using short-term near-the-money call and put options, the index measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options over the next 30 day period.

But because it is basically a derivative of a derivative, it acts more like a market thermometer than anything else.

And like a thermometer, there are specific numbers that tell the market's story.

A level below 20 is generally considered to be bearish, indicating that investors have become overly complacent. Meanwhile, a reading of greater than 30 implies a high level of investor fear, which is bullish from a contrarian point of view.

In fact, the old saying with the VIX is, "When the VIX is high, it's time to buy."

That's because when volatility is high and rising, it means "the herd" is stampeding to the exits, leaving bargains for money-making traders.

That's why successful technical analysts often rely on the VIX indicator to assess whether or not the current market sentiment is either excessively bullish or bearish in order to plot their next move.

How to Play Market Volatility

But it's not just a reading of "under 20" or "over 30" that works with the VIX. That's a bit too simple.

On top of those levels, smart traders also add the price movement within the Bollinger Bands into the mix. Of late, that has been one of the key tells in predicting the market action.

So what are Bollinger Bands you ask?...

My pal and super-trader Ian Copper explains them this way:

Bollinger Bands are a popular technical indicator for traders to determine overbought and oversold conditions. In a range-bound market, for example, it works even better as prices travel between two "rubber bands," or like balls bouncing off the walls of a racquetball game.

For instance, in the VIX chart below you can actually see these "rubber bands" in action...

Check it out: As the VIX trades, volatility rises or falls as it bounces off of the upper or lower bands. It's these extremes that have marked the major market turning points from a contrarian perspective.

So as the summer relief rally begins to fade, the VIX is back in the headlines. That's because as months go, September and October tend to be rocky ones for the stock market.

In fact, historically, September has been the worst month of all time for stocks, while October is remembered as the month of epic crashes.

That likely means more market volatility in the months ahead - not less.

One way to play these market moves is by trading between these two exchange traded funds (ETFs) that Ian recommend to readers a few weeks ago.

Go Long the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSE: VXX) as the VIX falls to the bottom of the bollinger bands. This ETF rises as broader markets top and begin to fall.
Go Long the Barclays Inverse S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSE: XXV) as the VIX rises to the top of the bollinger bands. This ETF rises as broader markets bottom and begin to head higher.

These and other winning options strategies can help you put fear and greed in their place, earning you big profits as you trade the extremes in market sentiment.

Afterall, when Ben Bernanke admits the economic outlook is "unusually uncertain", you can bet that market volatility is not that far behind.

By Steve Christ | Thursday, August 12th, 2010 Wealth Daily

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Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PDT

Creating Your Passive Income!: What's the #1 Fear in the World?