Speakers quote

Nigerian Army open Job applications for Direct, Short Service Commission

2018-10-19T14:53:00.001-07:00

Nigerian Army job vacancy

The Nigerian Army has invited eligible Nigerians, to apply for the Short Service Combatant (SSC) Commission course 45/2019 and Direct Short Service Commission (DSSC) course 24/2019.

The application is open to only serving military personnel (sponsored by any of the services of the Nigerian Armed Forces to civil institutions) and civilians.

It began 19 October, 2018.

Submission of all applications are expected to end on 30 November, 2018

For more information, call 08179269294 and 08118881694 or check the DSSC/SSC section on www.army.mil.ng.

Job Vacancy: For Youth Corps As A Senior Member Of A Team

2018-10-18T20:37:00.001-07:00

Job Vacancy

Good morning fellow professionals. Please, I'm looking to engage the services of a smart youth corps member to work with a senior member of my team.

Role specification include:

Administrative functions

Record keeping

Acting as an Executive Assistant to the Acting GM

Person specification:

- A smart individual with a can do attitude

- Ability to use the computer is very key - Ms word, Excel & PowerPoint packages.

- Candidate should live within Ikeja environs and be willing to join the team immediately.

Qualification:

A degree in Agric Economics/ Food Technology & Biochemistry would be an added

A monthly allowance would be paid to successful candidate.

Kindly refer candidates for this position

CVs / Resume should be forwarded to careers@sehaifoods.com cc. e.aguddah@sehaifoods.com

*cc.eaguddah@sehaifoods.com

10 Hints to Enhance Your Business Sales Execution 2018

2018-10-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

10 Hints to Enhance Your Business Sales Execution 2018

No matter what industry you’re in, what worked well a few years ago isn’t good enough today. This is no time for trial and error or order taking; this is a time to sell, make sales and use proper sales promotion techniques. Here are some basic steps you can take to improve your sales performance, reduce your cost of selling, and ensure your survival.

1. Clarify your mission.

Begin by understanding your business niche. What do you do best? Who needs what you do? How do you best approach these prospects? How much are they willing to pay? If these questions are not answered easily, campaign at the top for clarity and vision.

2. Break the mission into specific goals.

Write down the activity goals (calls per day, proposals per month, referrals per call, etc.) that you can control. Set results goals (sales per month, amount per sale, profit per sale, etc.) to measure your progress, and track them closely. Increase your activity and measure the results. Goals focus your attention and energize your action.

3. Sell to customer needs.

Always assume your prospects will buy only what they need. How can you convince them of that need? Emphasize the features of your product or service that reduce costs and solve problems for the customer. Sometimes you can reposition your wares. For example, you sold wool uniforms for their look and feel; now stress wool’s durability and lasting value. Be creative in your sales and marketing.

4. Create and maintain favorable attention.

Effective marketing, referrals, strong sales skills, and strategic questions are the keys to creating favorable attention. Diligent follow-through and above-and-beyond customer service are the keys to maintaining it.

5. Sell on purpose.

Know both what to do and why you’re doing it at every step along the way. Who are you targeting and why? What are you going to tell them and why? What are you going to ask them and why? What is your proposal going to look like and why? When are you going to ask for the order? If you don’t feel sure of yourself at every step of the selling process, get some training or guidance.

6. Ask, listen, and act.

Better than any others, these three words summarize success in sales. Your questions must be creative, planned, relevant, and direct. Your listening skills must be highly developed. You must respond and take action that proves that you listened to the customer and want the sale.

7. Take the responsibility but not the credit.

Realize that you are the team leader. The company looks to you for direction and supports your effort. To build a strong support team willing to go the extra mile when you need it, give your team the credit for everything that goes right, and take the blame when it goes wrong.

8. Work on the basics.

Even the best of the best have room for improvement. Make a decision to improve your weaknesses, and set goals to force yourself to do the things you don’t like to do. Be more creative in your prospecting, fact finding, and presentation skills. Imagine the perfect salesperson and compare yourself to the ideal.

9. Develop your attitude.

Your attitude is controllable. Conquer your fears. Change the beliefs that limit your success. Your thought habits control your commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, resilience, happiness, and confidence. Be aware of them, decide which ones are unproductive, and then make a commitment to change. With time and effort, you can become the person you want to be.

10. Maximize your time.

Focus on your goals. Test every activity for its importance and urgency. Create an ideal schedule, and test your actual time use against it daily. Remember, just one hour a day used more productively adds up to more than six extra weeks of productive time a year.

Are you planning a sales promotion event?
Or would you like to embark upon a Brand Activation campaign?
Do you want to launch a new product or ask customers to engage with your business in a new way?
You’d like to boost business during slow hours, weekdays or particular seasons…Right?
Entice people to buy more from you?
Or maybe want customers to purchase more frequently, buy in greater volumes, or be attracted to new or different offerings?
Sure you would want to attract new customers to your business and grow your revenue…Right?
Or want lapsed customers to give your business another try?
Engage your clients on what is new in your business?
Create compelling sales promotion messages, Concepts, Material, and gift items?
As well as explore testing opportunities and undertake Marketing Surveys for your great ideas?
Or maybe you’d like us to build you a dedicated marketing team?

OUR SERVICES

Speakers Den Merchandise Is A Platform Where Training, Sales, Sales Promotion, Digital Marketing, Graphic Design, Handbills And Banner Printing, Email Marketing, Social Media Campaigns, Blog And Website Creations, Content Writing, Script Writing, Project Writing And Research, CV Writing And Editing Using Current Formats Of Which Is Reckoned With To Crave Impact Globally.

CONTACT US4th Avenue, A close, plot 1557 Festac town Lagos
BRANCHNo 4, Majeck Kembo street, off quarry road, Abeokuta Ogun StatePhone No: 08061154825, 081-828-61649IG: Speakersden_Merchandise

https://speakersden2.blogspot.com

2018 formula to increase your blog, website traffic, insight or page views

2018-10-18T20:05:00.001-07:00

MY BlOG GOT 1515 VIEWS IN A DAY TRYING THIS, VIEW SCREEN SHOT

blog traffic

How to increase blog traffic is a topic that basically all bloggers should learn more about. Here’s what I mean: Given the growth in recent years, there are probably more than 250 million blogs online right now.

Of those, only around 50% of all blog posts get more than 8 shares.

Even 42% of professionally marketed blog posts receive less than 10 interactions!

And it looks like less than 1% of articles hit 1000 shares.

But I’ll let you in on a little secret…

Most people, even professionals, really suck at marketing their posts. They just aren’t taking the right steps or building the right relationships.

Which is why I’m writing this post.

You’re about to learn how to increase blog traffic in 2 straightforward steps. Let’s get started.

How to Increase Blog Traffic: Two Strategies You Need to Follow

I’ll begin with a quick overview of the strategies, then we’ll break them down further – step by step.

Here they are:

The Long-Term Game: SEO
Sharing on Social Media (The Right Way)

If you’re ready to start getting real blog traffic, real fast, then keep reading. You won’t be disappointed.

Strategy #1: Start With SEO

If you’re starting a blog, every single blog post you write should have a keyword in mind.

Yes, there are exceptions – like writing a news piece that’s only pertinent because of some event or writing an update about your services – but for the most part, you want tooptimize every post around a keyword.

There are a few reasons for this:

SEO takes a while, so if you’re optimized from the start, you’ll get there faster.
Organic traffic is at the top of the list of marketing channels on the web, being responsible for hundreds of thousands of visitors to top blogs in every niche.
There’s no reason not to do it. As long as you’re not keyword stuffing, you’ll benefit in the long run and eventually learn how to increase blog traffic.

It’s not super difficult, either. Some people even believe (myself included) that SEO is still low-hanging fruit for many bloggers. It’s because SEO seems complicated, so most people avoid it – lessening the competition.

Let me break it down really quickly, and give you some resources to get started:

1. SEO starts with keyword research.

Obviously, if you want to rank on Google, you need to know what keyword you want to rank for. I’ve written extensively about how to find great keywords before. But it pretty much comes down to using the right tools:

Ahrefs (paid tool) to spy on competitor’s keywords.
Google Keyword Planner (free) to find related keywords for a seed keyword.

Just take a seed keyword (such as “low carb recipes” if that’s what you write about) and plug it in one of the tools. You can also google that keyword and look at the autofill and related searches at the bottom of the page:

Then, take all those related keywords and plug them into one of the keyword research tools above. When you find one with a low keyword difficulty, create a post around that topic, including your primary keyword and its related keywords. This is your first step to learning how to increase blog traffic.

If you’re using GKP, you can get a rough idea of the difficulty based on the domain authority (DA) of the search results when you Google that keyword. You can find DA withMoz Open Site Explorer. As a rule of thumb, if a lot of the posts have a DA of over 40 or 50, it’s probably going to be tough to outrank them. But using Ahrefs or SEMrush will give you a better picture.

2. Once you’ve written a post, optimize it for your target keyword.

Optimizing a page for a certain keyword is called on-page SIEO. It’s actually pretty simple.

3. For maximum results, build some links.

Link-building is a major part of SEO these days and a crucial element to learning how to increase blog traffic – plus, the #1 reason SEO is a low-hanging fruit. Most people simply skip this step entirely.

Strategy #2: Do social media the right way.

Most people are using social media as a platform to push out their content. This is completely, 100% wrong!

Gary Vee, one of the world’s most well-known social media marketing experts, believes in the “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” method. In other words, you need to put out at least three posts or updates that are completely free value to your followers before trying to get anything in return.

Involve your community in your blog content.

Link to other blogger’s content, get influencers to give you quotes to include in your posts and share other people’s content. When you do, tag them in it – and make them look really friggin good. Compliment their work and drop thoughtful insights within your post.

Get involved in social media groups.

There are Facebook groups for every niche out there. You also have Google+ communities, LinkedIn groups, and Twitter chats.

OUR SERVICES

Speakers Den Merchandise Is A Platform Where Training, Sales, Sales Promotion, Digital Marketing, Graphic Design, Handbills And Banner Printing, Email Marketing, Social Media Campaigns, Blog And Website Creations, Content Writing, Script Writing, Project Writing And Research, CV Writing And Editing Using Current Formats Of Which Is Reckoned With To Crave Impact Globally.

CONTACT US4th Avenue, A close, plot 1557 Festac town Lagos
BRANCHNo 4, Majeck Kembo street, off quarry road, Abeokuta Ogun StatePhone No: 08061154825, 081-828-61649IG: Speakersden_Merchandise

https://speakersden2.blogspot.com

Costa Rica gets 100 illegal immigrants

2016-09-23T17:46:00.001-07:00

more than 100 illegal immigrants are entering the small crucial american usa of costa rica each day, seeking out "coyotes" to take them throughout the nicaraguan border and on towards america, president luis solis stated on friday.

eighty-5 percent of the brand new arrivals are from haiti through manner of brazil, wherein many settled after haiti's 2010 earthquake however whose production jobs have disappeared now that the rio olympics are over and the country wallows in recession, solis said on the sidelines of the united nations widespread assembly.

"the phenomenon has shifted quite drastically," solis stated.

his authorities has set up centers that provide the migrants simple shelter and meals, earlier than they take the day-long bus journey via costa rica to the nicaraguan frontier. nicaragua does not allow the migrants to enter, so they're compelled into the arena of "coyotes," or unlawful courses, frequently connected to criminal gangs.

solis stated the 15 percent of arrivals who are not haitians are cubans as well as africans and asians who make their manner throughout the atlantic to brazil and then trudge through colombia and panama to get to costa rica.

"migration is a global phenomenon and it is not new. but something sudden is taking place, a refurbished flow of migrants is at the pass in latin the us," solis stated.

so far, solis said, costa rica can manage the influx and outflow of immigrants passing through the country.

the united states, however, responding to a surge in haitian immigrants, will end unique protections for them relationship lower back to the devastating 2010 earthquake, the department of place of origin protection stated on thursday.

"what if they begin finding out to stay on costa rica after listening to that the usa has modified its tolerance coverage and is going to start deporting them?" solis said. "it really is a subject."

more than 5,000 haitians have entered the usa without visas this monetary 12 months via oct. 1, in keeping with branch of native land safety officers, up from 339 in economic year 2015.

panama's president, juan carlos varela, stated this week that haiti's economic system and democracy have to be fortified with a purpose to stanch the fast outflow of human beings from the impoverished island nation.

in february, michel martelly stepped down as president of haiti with out a successor. new elections are scheduled for oct. 9.

US: president barack obama vetoes 9-11 bill

2016-09-23T17:24:00.001-07:00

obama said the bill would be "unfavourable to us national pastimes" [Joshua Roberts/Reuters]

us president barack obama has vetoed a invoice that could have allowed the households of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults to sue the authorities of saudi arabia.

in a statement accompanying his veto message, obama stated on friday he had "deep sympathy" for the 9-11 victims' families and their choice to look justice for their relatives.

the president said, however, that the invoice could be "damaging to us national interests" and will cause proceedings in opposition to the united states or american officers for moves taken by means of corporations armed, skilled or supported by using the us.

"if any of these litigants had been to win judgments - based on foreign home legal guidelines as applied with the aid of foreign courts - they would start to look to the assets of the united states government held abroad to satisfy the ones judgments, with probably extreme economic results for the united states," obama stated.

PINION: 9/11 then and now - Terror, militarism, war and fear

saudi arabia denies involvement inside the assaults on the arena change center and the pentagon 15 years ago, and has strongly objected to the invoice.

the justice against sponsors of terrorism act (jasta) cleared congress in advance this month just ahead of the fifteenth anniversary of the attacks.

congress ought to override the veto with -thirds majorities in both chambers, that's possible because of the degree's large bipartisan aid. the white residence has been running to persuade politicians not to attempt this sort of circulate.

big apple senator chuck schumer, a democrat, issued a declaration within moments of receiving the veto promising that it would be "swiftly and soundly overturned".

a group of survivors and families additionally pressed congress to uphold the law, calling obama's veto explanation "unconvincing and unsupportable".

"this is just the today's snub of saudi arabia from the us congress," al jazeera's white house correspondent patty culhane, reporting from washington, stated in advance of obama's veto.

"two months ago it launched the so-called '28 pages' - files from an research that have been categorised for a decade. the ones papers traced a link between some saudi diplomats and citizens and the hijackers before the attack. the saudi authorities has denied it was involved."

fifteen of the nineteen men who finished the attacks have been saudi nationals.

in a 2003 file, america government's September 11 commission stated there has been no evidence saudi arabia had funded al-qaeda.

source: al jazeera information and information companies

How Many Assets Do You Have in Your Network?

2016-09-22T17:38:00.001-07:00

Last week, I had a Strategy Session with an accomplished author, consultant and speaker in Europe.

His goal over the coming year is to increase the amount of paid speaking engagements he gets because being on stage naturally leads him to more consulting gigs as well.

First, we looked at what he is currently doing.

Almost every time he is getting booked for speaking, it’s because the event organizer found him by doing research or through a referral.

So every time he gets booked, it’s because the decision maker needs him right now. That’s good of course.

However, the challenge is that there is no control he has over that. The decision maker does the research, comes up with several people to call and then compares his choices.

So we started working on a different approach

We looked at his existing network.

When I asked him how many event organizers and creators he has in his network, he said that he had neglected connecting with them in the past. He had mainly focused on connecting with peers. So we started there.

Now, as you know, a referral is one of the most powerful ways to win new business.

So we mapped out a referral trust building sequence.

Because he had no systematic approach in the past, he neglected keeping up the relationships with his peers and did not nurture them.

So we started with brainstorming what a re-connection sequence could look like.

A re-connection sequence is designed to re-establish a relationship or re-initiate it. This can be done with anyone from a good friend you haven't’ talked to in a long time, to a LinkedIn connection you never really talked to.

The speaker told me that he had recently developed some simple tools to make his life as a speaker a lot easier. So he could share these tools with his peers because that would add tremendous value to their lives.

Great. Now we even had some content to start with.

At the end of our conversation, we got to a place where we had a very clear idea about what kinds of trust building stages his peers need to go through in order to remember him as the very first person when somebody asks about great speakers on his topic.

We even mapped out some of the content he could share with his peers to make that happen.

As the next step in our relationship, we need to identify the right people in his network, categorize them and then design the actual messages in the trust building sequence that will evolve his peers from one stage to the next. This will ensure that the network he has already built, is actually working for him and he’s not just wasting this asset.

Now I want you to think about your network

Where are your relationship assets? And how do you currently nurture these relationships to create win-win situations?

Chances are that you already have lots of relationship assets.

The question is, how do you leverage those assets in a way that feels authentic to you?

Maybe the reason you haven’t nurtured these relationships enough is because you’re afraid you come over as pushy.

Or maybe it’s because there are simply too many small decisions to make and too little time in the day.

Here’s my suggestion.

Think about nurturing these relationships in a systematic way that feels completely authentic to you and people in your network.

Because when you combine the systematic side and the authentic side, you’ve got the key to making it effortless and effective.

If you want to chat more about this, I’m happy to connect on LinkedIn and start a conversation.

How to Fix A Broken Culture

2016-09-22T16:56:00.001-07:00

Have you ever seen what happens when gasoline goes bad? Spoiler alert: It's not good. In fact, if you don't have the right fuel in your tank, the consequences are disastrous. Just like car fuel, if you don't have the right company culture in place, you can find yourself broken-down on the side of the road. And overcoming a broken down anything--whether it be a car or company culture--is never easy.

So, do you have the right fuel in your tank? If you're broken down due to bad culture, or if you're merely looking to get better, this is a question you've got to answer--and often. Then once you have the answer, be prepared to take some difficult steps to get better. Because no matter how bad things may be, finding and using the right fuel is going to get you up and running toward your goals.

Below are six steps to improve your culture. The first three steps are specifically for the broken-down cultures. Just like you need a tow truck to bring your car to the shop, there are additional tasks required when your culture breaks down (But don't worry, fixing a culture doesn't involve sitting in the front seat of the tow truck and wondering what that smell is). Steps four, five and six are relevant to everyone, no matter how smoothly your engine is running.

1. Rebuild with best principles in mind, not just best practices. Believe it or not, an automobile can run on bad fuel. You can even put diesel fuel into a gas engine (or vice versa) and it'll work for a while. The problem is the car won't perform very well, and eventually it will break down. It's the same with bad culture.

So, filling your time with activities designed to build culture isn't necessarily helpful to you if those activities don't build the rightculture. For example, if you determine you're a company that cares a great deal about being friendly to the environment, going to a monster truck rally for a company party may not make sense. Even if the event is a rip-roaring blast.

When you rebuild a culture, you have to figure out exactly what kind of fuel you need before planning specific activities. This means focusing on principles, not practices. Take the time to identify your organization's DNA. Honestly evaluate who you are. Figure out what it is about your product or service that will inspire the type of employees you want (besides a paycheck), and write down your company values.

Once your values are in place, clearly and accurately define your mission and vision statements (a mission statement explains your reason for existing and a vision statement describes who you want to eventually become). Setting these principles in place establishes a firm foundation for the rest of your culture. Now, instead of a truck rally, you can go plant trees at a local park or make hammocks out of recycled six-pack rings.

2. Be humble and open. Rebuilding a culture is hard; there are no two ways about it. And it requires everyone to be better, beginning with leaders. When your company culture goes bad--just like when your car breaks down--it can be embarrassing. When it happens, leadership has to show genuine humility, acknowledging any shortcomings and being honest about the organization's failings. Otherwise, how can you learn from prior mistakes? A simple email or speech at a company meeting from the CEO might be all it takes, but it has to be sincere and heartfelt. And it must be followed up with consistent actions that prove they meant it.

From there, you must strive for better--more open--communication throughout the company. Culture should be discussed on a regular basis. Employee's opinions should be considered when making major culture changes, whether they come from performance reviews or surveys or conversation (or overheard chatter in the break room). In the end, everybody on the team should feel like they were part of the culture overhaul. It needs to feel like a team project. Not only will this ensure that everyone is on board, but everyone will know exactly what is expected of them.

3. Rip and replace. When fixing a broken culture, you can't always afford to spend your time tweaking failed strategies and initiatives. Sometimes you need to find the elements of your organization that aren't working, and simply eliminate them. Rip them out of the fabric of your company and replace them entirely.

For example, you might have a rewards program that your sales team has never been satisfied with. Instead of band-aiding the problem by throwing money at it, you might consider scrapping the whole thing altogether and starting from scratch. Dig deep and figure out what exactly motivates your team--not just financially, but psychologically as well.

Sometimes the thing that needs replaced is a member of your staff. Obviously, this is an especially hard thing to do. But if you've defined your mission, vision and values and still have staff members who refuse to comply to those critical building blocks of your organization, it's best for you (and frankly, for them as well) to let go and move on. Your team needs to be united, or past failures will continue to creep into the culture and ruin your best intentions.

4. Implement your values into regular activities. The values you define for your organization will mean nothing if you don't intertwine them into everyday work. Otherwise, your culture will evolve on its own, and whether it continues to match your values or not will be a tossup. Start by finding ways to incorporate your values into the following activities:

One-on-ones - It will be a lot easier for managers to know how to manage their employees when they can use company values as a guide. For example, let's say an employee is having a hard time getting to work on time, and one of your values is "Be dependable." Rather than saying, "You're tardy and I'm sick of it," a manager can refer to the value and set goals with the employee to achieve it.
Company meetings - By discussing company values with everyone, not only can you ensure the whole company is on the same page, but you can also stress to the whole team just how important your values are. This is also a good time to educate your people about your mission and vision. As soon as an employee loses sight of the why, the how and what will start to suffer too.
Recruiting efforts - Most companies try to recruit for culture fits, but being a culture fit is more than just sharing similar personalities or interests with current employees ("Hey, I like Led Zeppelin, too!"). It's about sharing common values. By gauging candidates on their values, you'll be able to find the right people and, perhaps equally important, weed out those who would become thorns in the workplace.

5. Use the right technologies to jumpstart your efforts. You have a product or service that you provide, so sometimes it can be difficult to spend the amount of time you'd like to improve your culture. With the help of technology you can automate time-consuming tasks and free yourself to work on culture.

For example, there are onboarding automation tools that allow you to spend less time doing paperwork on first days andmore time initiating people into your culture. There are also performance management tools that are turningtraditional performance reviews on their heads, making them more useful in quickly identifying employees who are hurting the culture and giving direction on how to get them back on board.

6. Keep your eye on the fuel gauge.Remember that, just like a car, your culture will need constant fuel to thrive. Don't look at rebuilding (or building or improving) your culture like it's an ad hoc project--because it's not. Maintaining a great culture is an ongoing process that requires constant attention and care. You just have to always be honest with yourself and be prepared to make the necessary improvements, whether you're broken down on the side of the road, or merely looking to speed up the journey to your ultimate goal

Deals to boost Singapore's role in One Belt, One Road initiative

2016-09-20T18:34:00.001-07:00

China's largest bank is throwing its weight behind Singapore organisations and companies to join in the One Belt, One Road initiative.

A raft of agreements to increase Sino-Singapore cooperation was signed yesterday between the Singapore branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and five local parties.

One agreement was inked with the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), extending up to 50 billion yuan ($10.2 billion) in funding to SBF members for infrastructure investments under the initiative.

This brings total financing available for Singapore companies to at least $100 billion, including International Enterprise (IE) Singapore's deals with three Chinese banks that provide over $90 billion in funding.

The figure is significant, considering that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has US$100 billion (S$136 billion) in capital, which could support lending of between US$200 billion and US$500 billion, according to a European Commission estimate.

$10.2b
Funding to Singapore Business Federation members for infrastructure investments under the initiative.
$100b
Minimum total financing available for Singapore firms at the moment.

Memorandums of understanding were also signed by Singapore Press Holdings, Singapore Exchange (SGX), Surbana Jurong and Sinochem International Corporation at an inaugural forum on financing for One Belt, One Road infrastructure projects yesterday.

Surbana Jurong chairman Liew Mun Leong said its agreement would allow the firm to offer its clients a full suite of financial and engineering expertise for urban infrastructure projects."Our expertise in urban planning, engineering, project management and facilities management services fully complement ICBC's financial-related services," said Mr Liew, who also chairs Changi Airport Group.

ICBC chairman Yi Huiman said the bank's Singapore branch has 20 Belt and Road projects in reserve that involve about US$3 billion of financing. It also has more than 200 projects in reserve globally, with a total investment of more than US$200 billion. "We will provide enterprises with 'one-stop' financial services including international settlement... that reflect Singapore's market characteristics and build on ICBC Group's resources," he said.

The bank, which organised the forum with Surbana Jurong, will also create a one-stop service system that includes information consulting and project matchmaking.

Mr Lim Hng Kiang, Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade), noted that the Asean region will need an estimated US$60 billion annually until 2022 for infrastructure. He said Singapore and Chinese companies share complementary strengths and can work together in third-country markets.

Mr Lim cited the partnership of Singaporean engineering company ISDN with China Huadian Engineering, one ofChina's largest industrial players, to develop mini-hydropower projects across Indonesia. "I would like to encourage more of such fruitful partnerships between Singapore and China," he added.

In a separate panel on infrastructure financing, Mr Kow Juan Tiang, group director of environment and infrastructure solutions at IE Singapore, emphasised the "tremendous demand for infrastructure", countering the claim that policy banks like the AIIB are crowding out commercial banks. "Forget all the numbers, what is needed is one Singapore to be developed every week for the next five years... that's the magnitude we are talking about," he said.

Mr Kenneth Loo, president of the Singapore Contractors Association, said the Belt and Road initiative would provide a "good start" for local contractors to move into the region, but added that it would be challenging for individual Singaporean companies to get financing for such projects on their own.

Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission

Making the Most of the Gift

2016-09-20T18:24:00.003-07:00

Making the Most of the Gift - John Maxwell

Just about everyone has experienced being on a team where people had to take on roles that didn't suit them: an accountant forced to work with people all day, a basketball forward forced to play center, a guitarist filling in on keyboard, a teacher stuck doing paperwork, a spouse who hates the kitchen taking on the role of cook.

What happens to a team when members constantly play "out of position"? First, morale erodes because the team isn't playing up to its capability. Then people become resentful. The people working in an area of weakness resent that their best is untapped. And other people on the team who know that they could better fill a mismatched position on the team resent that their skills are being overlooked. Before long, people become unwilling to work as a team. When people aren't where they do things well, things don't turn out well.

Personal Branding: Persona Is In Your DNA

2016-09-20T18:14:00.001-07:00

The hot buzz now is creating your personal brand and standing out in the social world. Because our challenge is through the web, computer, and the written word, it requires a different approach than meeting in person.

So, you are invited to a business party or event. You walk in and pretty much everyone is dressed in some form of black, blue, gray, brown, or beige. Then, your eyes catch someone wearing a royal blue, cherry red, banana yellow, and lavender something. Your eyes naturally go to that vivid color.

This concept is similar to how people communicate. Most people are standing a few feet from each other speaking to each other with the mouth moving but little else energy or emotion. One person you notice has a crowd around them and is using their hands, smiling, animated, having fun and engaging others to have fun and participate, too. Their energy is stimulating others energy.

We all have the potential to be this and do this.

Your Personal Brand, Personal Branding, Unique Selling Principle, and Brand Essence are really all the same name and description for who you already are. Our given genetic DNA personalities give us everything we need to tap into this.

Our “persona” is both internal and external. For some it comes easier than others.

Some of the things we can do to develop this internal and external persona is:

Develop a professional appearance and image
Develop a positive mindset and attitude
Discover your communication style
Nurture and manage relationships
Mentor others
Advocate and support others
Volunteer and give back

I love this post from Seth Godin’s blog, Finding Your Brand Essence. It really resonated with me.

“Clothes don’t make the man, the man makes the man. Clothes (and the brand) just amplify that.”

How are you discovering and creating your internal and external persona?

LeadHERship: Position Yourself for Pay Raises, Promotions, Positions, Projects

2016-09-20T16:53:00.001-07:00

“Anyone who waits for recognition is criminally naïve.” – Congresswoman Barbara Jordan

Years ago, I had an opportunity to speak for the women’s leadership program for a well-known Silicon Valley company. My session was on Personal Branding, in particular how the women in this male-dominated company and industry could be more pro-active about fulfilling their potential; earning the respect they want, need and deserve; and positioning themselves for pay raises, promotions, projects and positions.

I had an opportunity to interview one of their senior executives to get his input on what I could cover in my presentation to make it maximally timely, relevant and useful. He shared an insightful story about how some women sabotage themselves when it comes to maintaining the visibility necessary to be considered for career advancement.

He said, “Sam, I try to be a champion for women, but sometimes they don’t help themselves.”

I asked, “What’s an example?”

He said, “Last year, we opened an office in Paris. A woman in my department had lived in France as a foreign exchange student and speaks French fluently. I thought she would be a real addition to our team there so I threw her hat in the ring when we were discussing possible staff selections.

The other executives at the table just looked at me with puzzled expressions. No one knew who she was. I went to bat for her and tried to explain why I thought she could help us ramp up this new location.

One of my colleagues finally recognized her name. He said, “Okay, I know who you’re talking about now. She’s sat in on some of my meetings. But she never says anything.’

She ended up NOT getting that position, and it wasn’t because she didn’t deserve it or wouldn’t have done a good job. It was because those decision-makers hadn’t witnessed her adding value and weren’t willing to take a risk on someone they didn’t know.”

I asked, “Did you talk to her about this missed opportunity?”

“I did. And when I asked why she didn’t speak up in those meetings, she said, ‘I tried to, but everyone just talked over me. I suggested a way to streamline some of our procedures, but no one listened. In fact, a few minutes later one of the men said pretty much the same thing and everyone went, ‘Great idea!’ I finally just gave up.’

I told her, ‘Don’t you realize, if you don’t say anything at meetings, you make no mark? The people there conclude you don’t have anything to contribute.”

I shared his input during my presentation and suggested several ways women could speak up at meetings so participants experience them adding value and have first-hand evidence of their LeadHership ability. Here are those six tips.

Six Ways to Add Value at Meetings so People Experience your LeadHership

1. Promise yourself you'll contribute at least one ACTION-oriented suggestion at every meeting. Notice, I did not say anopinion, I said an action. Instead of simply sharing what you think or feel,contribute specific options of what can bedone to move a project forward, turn an idea into reality, or achieve a company objective.

2. Never point out what’s NOT working – unless you immediately follow up with how this can be replaced with something more efficient and effective. In other words, instead of focusing on a problem and what’s wrong, focus on a solution and how this can be done right.

3. Do not defer compliments, graciously honor them. If someone praises you, instead of saying, “It was nothing.” or “My team deserves the credit.” say “Thank you. Your feedback means a lot.” Then, add a detail, e.g., “Our goal was to exceed our sales quota this quarter, so we identified three high-profile clients, reached out to them, and we’re pleased to land three new major accounts.” Then, talk about your nextgoal or upcoming initiative so people are aware of how you’re continuing to add value.

4. Keep your comments to two minutes or less. No one likes a windbag. Richard Branson said, “Time is the new money.” In today’s rush-rush, impatient world of INFObesity, time is the new TRUST. By keeping your remarks succinct, purposeful, pro-active and to the point, people will always want to hear what you say because you're always a good use of their time and mind.

5. If someone interrupts, speak up instead of suffering in silence as they talk over you. Look at the person, use his or her name, and say, “Mark, let me finish” or “Elizabeth, I want to hear what you have to say right after I wrap up my report,” or “Bev, one more minute and then it’s your turn." Then, be brief, but conclude your remarks. You're not being rude, just clear and confident that you have the right to speak.

6. SIT TALL. If you slouch, tuck your chin in, or use a tentative, high-pitched voice, people will doubt your clout. Instead, roll your shoulders up and back and sit up straight. Think “Tower, don’t cower.” Speak with a warm, firm, lower-pitched voice of authority that projects so every single person can hear every single word.

A program participant chased me down in the parking lot after that Silicon Valley talk to thank me.

She said, “Sam, I was on the verge of quitting this company. I wasn’t getting credit for all my hard work and overtime, and I’d become really resentful. I’ve been putting out fires, saving the day, and no one seemed to notice or care. You helped me realize that I can’t blame my boss for not giving me the recognition I think I deserve if I'm not giving him evidence of all the ways I'm making a difference for our clients and company.”

Her feedback made my day because it reinforced the premise of my LeadHership program. It is idealistic and unrealistic to expect organizational decision-makers to know all the ways we’re contributing and to initiate on our behalf. They’ve got enough on their plate without taking responsibility for our career advancement.

It’s up to us to, diplomatically, give organizational decision-makers evidence of how we’re contributing so they experience our LeadHership first-hand. Only then will they be motivated to give us the promotions, positions, projects and pay raises we deserve. Only then will they know we're "up to the task" and can be trusted to add tangible, real-world value because they've personally experienced us doing just that.

The career ball is in your court. How will you be a LeadHer at your next meeting?

Sam Horn, Founder/CEO of the Intrigue Agency, is the author of Tongue Fu!, What's Holding You Back? andWashington Post bestseller Got Your Attention? Her work has been featured inNew York Times, Forbes, INC, NPR and MSNBC. Want Sam to inspire your group? Contact Cheri@IntrigueAgency.com to discuss your goals and ask how Sam can contribute to the success of your professional women's group or event.

Silence is Killing Us

2016-09-20T16:41:00.001-07:00

It was early one morning and I was on a press tour, just about to launch my now New York Times bestselling Book, SELF MADE: Becoming Empowered, Self Reliant and Rich in Every Way. My first scheduled appearance was on the Fox News morning show, Fox and Friends, because according to my publicist, “that’s a show that sells books.”

Anyone who knows me, knows that privately I am very opinionated; but it’s another thing altogether to step into the national press circuit, which then gets picked up on social media, and potentially have your words haunt you for a long time, particularly when you are not a political pundit.

I went on the show and spoke about my book, about the opportunities for women entrepreneurs, about a nonpartisan, private sector approach to growing the economy, and helping women achieve their self-reliance. Everything was going smoothly until I was suddenly asked the question about “illegal aliens.”

The term itself stung my ears, and I felt I had no choice but to correct the news anchors. “That’s not what they are called,” I said, with all the courage I could muster—“They are undocumented.”

My appearance on Fox News went viral. I received love mail and hate mail alike, and guess what? I lived. Not only did I survive the enormous backlash, but I also walked away feeling so empowered and proud for speaking my mind and standing up for undocumented Latinos. Thank God for a journalist like Jorge Ramos, who has spoken up loudly himself, and has helped me to become so much braver.

But the experience left me wondering why it seems we, as a culture, don’t speak up as much as we should and why we aren’t mobilizing peaceful demonstrations, just as we did in support of immigrant rights in 2006, in response to one particular candidate who continues to berate our community. And while there are a few individuals in our community, other than political pundits, speaking up and against him, I strongly believe that it won’t be until we go beyond our $1.3 trillion purchasing power and actually VOTE we will ever be taken seriously.

Consider what I wrote in my book about this being the greatest time in history for Latinos financially, specifically for Latinas who are the number one emerging market and the number one purchasers in this country, and that our numbers and our birth rates are greater than every other group by a long shot. So why, I ask, do we seem to lack real political clout?

We should be taking cues from the African American, Jewish and LGBT communities, all groups who continually fight for their rights, who speak up when they are maligned or mistreated. Let’s defend ourselves and people in our community who can’t speak for themselves. Let’s not let our silence get the better of us. By not speaking up, we damage our power base and our ability to be part of the national narrative.

We Latinos need to come together and try to fully understand each other. We share a common language but our individual communities are different and it often feels difficult to comprehend and relate to each other’s respective plight. For example, Mexican and Central Americans are facing difficult immigration issues; Puerto Ricans are contending with the prospect of their country’s bankruptcy; Cuban Americans, not all, are disappointed that our nation is doing business with a communist and totalitarian regime; and most of us don’t understand what the future of Venezuela will be following Chavez’s death. With such markedly different circumstances, it’s no wonder we haven’t been able to find a common thread. But there is a common thread: WE ARE ALL LATINOS.

As a Latina immigrant, I will speak up for other Latinos in my community, especially those who aren’t able to speak for themselves. And I’ll do this because I want my son, Lukas, to see what a person should do for people from his same culture even though we may not all think the same or have the same ideology, even though we may not be from the same race or religion, even though we may not share the same sexual orientation and gender identity. I want Lukas to understand that history has shown us when people don’t speak up and stand up for each other, the darkness that lies in our nature can cause atrocities to occur. I will show my son that silence is the greatest perpetrator of hate.

Some of us may believe that we have nothing to do with those undocumented immigrants who many want to keep out by building a wall, but we don’t have to go very far back to remember that they are us and we are them. Smart minds can figure out what is right for this country and right for human beings, but as Latinos, we should be leading this conversation and not allowing others to determine that for us.

So I ask: is there something we can agree on, is there a common denominator that we can get behind that unites us and allows us to finally bring our potential power into the light, into action and into results that help us as a group? I believe that voting is one way, are there others?

How can each one of us be braver, be louder? How we can show our children that they are Latino, that their lives matter and we are willing to fight for their futures?

Who is going to pick up the baton and pass the torch of power and possibility to our children? The answer has to be: WE ARE. WE ALL ARE.

Roles in Sales Negotiating – Got to Keep ‘Em Separated

2016-09-20T16:29:00.001-07:00

It really doesn’t matter if you are negotiating to buy a car, buy a house, buy a new email system for your company, or just where you and your significant other will go out to dinner on Friday night. In every negotiating situation, you need to realize that there are different roles to be played and they need to be kept separate. If you are a team of one doing the negotiating, then you need to keep this in mind and switch roles as needed. What are the roles you ask? Why that’s simple:

The Commander: this is the person who makes the final decisions. At work this may be your boss. In a negotiation, this is the person who needs to sign off on your side of the deal. If you are buying a car, this may be your significant other who you have to run the deal by to get final approval.

The Negotiator: this is the person who does most of the talking. The negotiator does not have the authority to make final decisions; however, he/she is the one who puts the deal together by talking with the other side. The relationship that the other side forms with the negotiator is the key to determining how the negotiations go.

The Scribe: this is the person who takes down notes throughout the negotiations. Negotiations can stretch on for hours/days/months. It can be very difficult to remember what was agreed to or what was said in the past hour or day or month. The scribe takes careful notes and makes sure that the negotiator can easily find the information that they need.

The Floater: Negotiations always require more information than is currently available. The floater is the person who gets things, checks things, and confirms things. The floaters’ activities are designed to allow the negotiator to focus on the negotiations without having to constantly go searching for additional material.

Needless to say, all too often we find ourselves playing all four roles. Just be aware that you are playing these separate roles and make sure that they other side knows this too. This way when the other side starts to pressure your negotiator role to agree to something, you can push back by saying “I need some time to think about this.” In this way you can buy your Commander role some time to make a good decision.

Are You Coachable? Change This One Thing for Better Results

2016-09-20T16:18:00.001-07:00

Do you know what makes an effective coaching relationship?

It’s not necessarily a good coach. Youneed to be coachable.

Being coachable is a surprisingly uncommon skill. The truth is that many people don’t want help changing – they want a coach to tell them they’re fine as they are, or to agree with their versions of why things are going wrong in their lives.

The problem with this attitude is that most of us have blind spots that are seriously holding us back when it comes to our lives and our careers. The role of a coach is to turn your attention to those spots, but if you won’t listen, you can’t overcome them.

How to know if you’re resisting being coached

Of course, one big blind spot many people have is about how coachable they are. You may think you’re the model coaching client or mentee – but are you?

Listen for these phrases next time someone gives you advice or criticism. (You may either speak them aloud, or hear them inside your own head).

I already know all this
That won’t make a difference
He/she doesn’t understand what I’m trying to do
That worked for him/her, but it won’t work for me
I don’t need to listen to this

If any of these phrases pop into your head or out of your mouth, you’re not making yourself open to advice. Instead, next time you’re in a coaching situation, make the decision to have a truly open mind.

The biggest trait of coachable people: A growth mindset

In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck talks about the difference between people who have a “growth” mindset versus a “fixed” mindset.

The former, she writes, see their skills and abilities as something they can change and develop. The latter see them as a fixed trait.

For example, a student with a growth mindset believes she can become better at math by studying harder, whereas someone with a fixed mindset believes she is simply bad at math and stops trying.

Asking for help with math becomes difficult for the student with the fixed mindset, because she believes it reflects poorly on her personally to “not be good at math.” The student with the growth mindset, on the other hand, has little trouble asking for help. In her mind, a willingness to learn and grow is an asset, not an admission of failure.

When you approach coaching with a growth mindset, you’re removing pride from the equation. Instead of letting your ego be wrapped up in whether or not you know it all, you’ll make yourself be open to asking insightful questions, receiving honest feedback, and making positive changes.

Being coachable is a vulnerable, humble state. But choosing a growth mindset and receiving feedback without pride will help you grow by leaps and bounds.

How To Spot A Jerk Boss During An Interview

2016-09-18T19:24:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time, you nailed that interview. You put into practice all the tips you’ve read on the web on how to control your body language, how to answer all those sneaky interview questions, and you really felt as if you left a pretty good impression on your interviewer.

Related: 6 Traits Of Bad Bosses

You get the call after an eternity of sleepless nights and anxious walks with your phone glued to your hand. In the end, you do get the job and… bang! Only a month later, you realize your boss is a bad person. A real jerk, if you have to be honest.

Does this sound familiar?

The question is – how do you spot that jerk boss right on the spot, so that you save everyone’s time by acknowledging the fact that you wouldn’t fit in that company right during the interview?

Here are a few points to get you started with, when YOU assess your future boss during your next interview:

They are too nice with you.

Yes, you’ve read it – too nice. (Well, first of all – nice and boss don’t go that well together.) Jokes aside, during your first encounter with the manager, the connection should come naturally and authentically. Don’t get me wrong, there might be many bosses out there who would really be nice because that’s who they are.

In most cases, however, it either means they are hiding something under that perfectly polished body language (or their office desk) or they are too desperate to have you on board, as they are faced with fluctuation of labor in the company. In other words, beware if you hear phrases like, “We are flexible with the working hours, you might come and leave as you like, as long as the job is done!”

They don’t listen.

If you want to be a good communicator, then you should be able to listen – especially, if you are a leader. If you catch your future boss checking their laptop/computer/iPad too often, then it either means that you are doing a really bad job during that interview, or that he/she is a self-centered jerk. These types of managers also tend to forget asking if you have any particular questions about the position and the conditions in general, while they go on boasting about how successful their company is.

They take all the credit.

These managers would brag about how they magically revived the company after it had been almost destroyed by the previous owners, or how they went from 20 to 100 employees in just over a year, all because of THEM. You see, it is more than adorable that the company is growing like a sponge. As the company grows, you will, too – which is quite good news.

However, if you hear them say, “I had my first office in a garage and now look where I am now,” it means they most probably haven’t yet realized what one of their most crucial roles as an entrepreneur is – to value their subordinates and all the hard work they have done.

They bad mouth other job seekers like you, or even their own subordinates.

Saying things like, “You can’t even imagine the type of person I interviewed earlier today…” or “The Marketing Manager is going to have a lot to explain about the situation she put me in!” is, and should always remain, a bad sign!

A leader, who is meant to see the value in people, cannot analyze the behavior of others in front of a potential job candidate. Unless they are psychologists, they are not allowed to do that. This type of talk should alert you that, as talented and skillful you are, your manager might be talking about you next time.

Their office says it all: Signs are everywhere.

Some entrepreneurs are so good at their ‘social game,’ that you will never know who they really are and how they really treat their subordinates, until you pay attention to their office space. I think that the more lavish the office space is, the tougher the boss will be.

Pay attention to details in the interior, such as too many photos of your future boss shaking hands with important people (politicians, writers etc.), or too many statues of things you can’t even name, or strange figures with clocks hanging from them, or a desk wide enough to fit your bathroom. If you have the feeling you are in a palace, rather than an office, then chances are that this boss tends to do things their way.

Practice says it all: The déjà vu.

If you feel like you’ve gone back in time when stepping into the office and their attitude resembles an ex-boss, who you weren’t much fond of, then most probably you would be right in turning the offer down. I recently was at an interview, where the manager and the office space were so familiar to me that I was planning to run half-way through the interview. There is a small chance I might have been wrong but I decided I would pass, considering the fact that they even looked alike.

Don’t forget to take this list with you on your next interview, just in case you forget any of the points. And, do make sure your future boss doesn’t see it, or you won’t have to make a decision at all!

This post was originally published at an earlier date.

Here’s how founders are projecting their startup’s growth rate

2016-09-18T18:20:00.001-07:00

Creating and presenting revenue forecasts to investors is always tricky for startup founders. Forecast too high, and they won’t believe you, forecast too conservatively, and they may lose interest.

To get a sense of how the average startup is assessing its growth potential, my company, Equidam, has collected financial projections for more than 15,000 early-stage ventures across 78 countries. We looked at the latest year of financials plus the next three years of forecasted revenues.

What we found is that, on average, founders are forecasting 120 percent revenue growth for their first year, 83 percent for the second, and 60 percent for the third.

So a company that grossed $500,000 year-to-date (YTD) will forecast $1,100,000 for next year, 2,013,000 for the following one, and $3,220,800 for the third one.

Growth rate projections, however, vary widely by industry, country, and stage of development of the venture. Companies that start from scratch will, of course, find it easier to grow their revenues at higher percentage rates since a small number is easier to double than a large one.

On top of that, different sectors have different setup times, adoption speeds, sales cycles, and market opportunities. Finally, countries have different home-market sizes, access to funding, and talent etc.

To benchmark the companies against the size factor, we divided them into three classes of YTD revenues: $1k to $50k in starting annual revenues make up the “small” group, $50k to $250k the “medium,” and above $250k the “large.”

Not surprisingly, US “small” companies are the most ambitious, forecasting 740 percent growth in their first year.

They do, however, align with other countries for the following years, growing more conservative as they grow larger.

The medium and large groups tell a different story. Once the company is slightly more established, the ambition mostly comes form India and Israel, which outproject their American counterparts.

The sector with the highest growth expectations is …

And what about the different sectors?

Well, the sector that projects the highest growth rates is financial services, with a 308 percent average growth projection for the first year, 143 percent for the second, and 86 percent for the third.

If you look only at the small class, financial services startups project a whopping 900 percent during the first year.

Barack Obama hits at 'unfair' criticism of Hillary Clinton

2016-09-13T20:14:00.001-07:00

PHILADELPHIA: President Barack Obama made his 2016 solo debut in support of Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, hitting out at "unfair" criticism of the pneumonia-stricken Democratic presidential nominee.

After an extremely rough few days for Clinton, Obama used a fiery appearance before a crowd of 6,000 in Philadelphia to try to turn the tables on Donald Trump.

Obama insisted that Clinton had "been subjected to more scrutiny and... more unfair criticism than anybody out here," while accusing the media of giving her Republican opponent a pass.

"Our standards for what's normal have changed," Obama said.

"Donald Trump says stuff everyday that used to be considered as disqualifying for being president. And yet because he says it over and over and over again the press just gives up."

Clinton has just suffered perhaps the worst week of her 15-month quest to become America's first female president.

On Friday, she sparked a firestorm when she called half of Trump's supporters "deplorables."

The 68-year-old was then sidelined from the campaign trail by a bout of pneumonia that has raised broader questions about her health.

She was forced to leave a 9/11 memorial event at the Pentagon on Sunday and was seen stumbling limp-legged into a secret service vehicle.

Despite leading in the polls, she remains deeply disliked by a swath of the electorate.

Obama was appearing in a city that will be pivotal in deciding the presidential race in Pennsylvania -- a virtual must-win state for Trump on November 8.

Nick-named "Pennsyltucky" for its conservative hinterland, the state is often described as being "Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west and Alabama in the middle."

The race there could come down to whether the Obama coalition, young, black and Hispanic voters, turn out to vote.

This is a high-stakes election for the 44th president, who could see much of his legacy, from climate deals to health care, eroded by a Republican-run White House.

"It is good to be back on the campaign trail" Obama told the crowd.

"This not just me going through the motions, I really, really, really want to elect Hillary Clinton."

Clinton is set to return to the fray later this week after some rest.

In the meantime, her husband Bill takes over for her in California, attending a fundraiser in Los Angeles while his wife rests at their home in Chappaqua, New York per her doctor's orders.

He also will campaign for her Wednesday in Las Vegas.

Clinton's stumble, captured on amateur video, gave Trump, 70, a new opening to question the former secretary of state's fitness for the nation's highest office as the race intensifies.

"While my opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable, I call you hardworking American patriots who love your country and want a better future for all of our people," Trump said in Iowa.

Trump's running mate Mike Pence, the Indiana governor and a former congressman, met with House Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and said he and the nominee were "grateful" for the support from GOP lawmakers.

But he also turned to Clinton's Friday remark that "half" of Trump's supporters were in a so-called "basket of deplorables" because they were racist, misogynistic and xenophobic.

"This was a catastrophic insult to the American people," Pence told reporters as he again demanded Clinton "retract those offensive statements and apologize."

Clinton has expressed regret for saying "half" but also said she would not back down from calling out "racist rhetoric" on the campaign trail.

Pence also rejected accusations that Trump's campaign was courting white supremacists including former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who has endorsed Trump.

"Donald Trump and I have denounced David Duke repeatedly," Pence said. "We have said that we do not want his support, and we do not want the support of people who think like him."

The brash billionaire's campaign has courted controversy from the start, and sporadic clashes have erupted at his rallies between supporters and anti-Trump protesters.

An altercation erupted Monday night at a Trump rally in Asheville, North Carolina, where video shows a Trump supporter, his fists raised, yelling at and pushing a protester before slapping his face.

APC, PDP Playing Politics With Recession

2016-09-13T19:44:00.001-07:00

For many Nigerians, the announcement that the country is in recession was a major setback for the nation’s economy. But for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it’s a time to settle political scores. WALE ELEGBEDE reports

The recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that confirmed that the nation’s economy is in recession was a damning verdict, especially to average Nigerians. According to the NBS, the Nigerian economy has gone into full recession after posting negative growth in the first two quarters of 2016.

The Bureau also stated that the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 2.06 per cent. According to the report: “During the reference period, the number of unemployed in the labour force increased by 1,158,700 persons, resulting in an increase in the national unemployment rate to 13.3 per cent in Q2 (second quarter) 2016 from 12.1 in Q1 (first quarter) 2016; 10.4 per cent in Q4 2015 from 9.9 per cent in Q3 2015 and from 8.2 per cent in Q2 2015.

“In view of this, there were a total of 26.06 million persons in the Nigerian labour force in Q2 2016 that were either unemployed or under-employed compared to 24.5 million in Q1 2016 and 22.6 million in Q4 2015. “The pace of the increase in the headline index was however weighed upon by a slower increase in three divisions, namely health, transport, and recreation and culture divisions.”

Although some analysts have long averred that the nation’s economy was already in recession, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, had, however, in July, said the country was only in “technical recession.” Regardless of the economics semantics, the plunge in revenue occasioned by the low prices of oil which is the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy, the activities of Niger Delta Avengers blowing up oil installations and facilities thereby reducing the volume of the country’s crude sale, the tumbling of Naira to foreign currencies, have given many Nigerians a harrowing experience.

Aside the NBS report, the gloomy picture of the nation’s external reserves was also painted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its recent report.

According to the apex bank, the nation’s external reserves fell by 2.86 per cent to $25.45billion on August 29, 2016. Making a detour from her initial stance of technical recession, Adeosun, while aligning with the NBS figures, admitted that the nation is in recession but noted that “we can come out of a recession as soon as possible by sticking to the prescription which is, we must be disciplined in our expenditure.”

Also reacting to the report, Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Adeyemi Dipeolu, said: “The just recently released data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Gross Domestic Product declined by -2.06 per cent in the second quarter of 2016 on a year-on-year basis. “A close look at the data shows that this outcome was mostly due to a sharp contraction in the oil sector, due to huge losses of crude oil production as a result of vandalisation and sabotage.

“However, the rest of the Q2 data is beginning to tell a different story. There was growth in the agricultural and solid minerals sectors, which are the areas in which the Federal Government has placed particular priority.”

With the report on the downward state of the economy, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), decided to use the economic outlook to continue brickbats. The PDP, in a statement signed by the spokesman of it National Caretaker Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said the APC government should face the challenge of putting the economy in a good shape instead of “crying like a helpless baby.”

While stating that the PDP had noticed that some governors of the APC are blaming the former ruling party and ex-President Goodluck Jonathan for the current hardship in the country, the former minister specifically mentioned the governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru, as one of those he was referring to.

Adeyeye said: “It is really disappointing that a notable personality as highly-placed as a state governor could be drawn into making idle and pedestrian claims without the benefit of facts. It is either he does not realise the obligation of speaking responsibly in that position or he is grossly ill-informed. In which case, we could only try to put the facts before him, and hoping he would recognise them. “In the first place, this blame is misplaced because our elementary understanding of economics teaches us that the major cause of recession is inflation and poor handling of the economy given that the higher the rate of inflation, the more impoverished people become, industrial production and GDP decline resulting in massive job losses.

“Perhaps, we should quote those who should know and tell Governor Badaru that wrong economic policies of the APC-led government caused the current stagnation and recession in the country. However, beyond that, we make bold to tell Governor Badaru that Jonathan and the PDP government saw this coming since 2011, and wanted to deregulate the sale of hydrocarbons in 2012, but Badaru and his co-travellers who are now in the APC frustrated the effort.”

While calling on the APC-led government to look inward and stop the blame game, Adeyeye advised the Federal Government to invite economic experts irrespective of their political leaning to join hands with the administration at these trying times.

“They should be reminded that great leaders take over countries either in recession or war and still succeed in turning them around; quite unlike the prevailing situation where a ruling party plunges the economy into an avoidable recession, only to turn round and begin to whine helplessly like a baby,” he said. Not ready to have any of PDP’s sermon, the APC, expectedly, said in a statement by its National Secretary, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, that the former ruling party lacks the moral basis and credibility to comment or condemn the government on the economy after the mess it left behind, stating that instead of lecturing it, the PDP must apologize to Nigerians.

His words: “The statement by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the latest in the party’s insensitive plot to deflect attention from the voodoo economics and reckless fiscal policies the country was subjected to during its 16-year rule.

“The warning signs were glaring to the immediate-past administration but it chose the path of economic sabotage by looking the other way and squandering the country’s commonwealth – a reckless decision that has brought the country to its knees.

“Nigerians will recall that even the immediate-past finance minister and coordinating minister of the economy, confessed that the zero political will to save under the immediate-past administration is responsible for the challenges facing the country.” Buni further noted that “happily, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has embarked on well- thought economic agendas, policy actions, appropriate fiscal, governance, and socio-political reforms to revamp the economy and tackle the nation’s current challenges in the short to long term.

“Under the new flexible foreign exchange policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in June 2016, we now have a single market-determined exchange rate which enables suppliers of foreign currencies to bring in their money and take the same out at market-determined rates. The new foreign exchange policy being implemented will ensure our economy recovers in the medium to long term.

“As contained in the assented 2016 National Budget, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is aggressively formulating and implementing policies aimed at diversifying Nigeria’s economy from oil to other sectors such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing. “The administration is also proactively tackling increased attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta region which has led to disruptions in crude production.

“The President’s shuttle diplomacy has yielded positive effects on the country’s economic policies. As a result, several agreements concluded during the visits are positively impacting on key sectors of the Nigerian economy including power, solid minerals, agriculture, housing and rail transportation. “The fight against corruption remains a top priority for the President Buhari APC-led administration.

In spite of desperate attempts by some partisans to discredit anti-corruption efforts in some quarters, the war against corruption is being won and has been well-received and supported. The generality of Nigerians agree that the days of impunity are over.

“Through the full implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the President Muhammadu Buhari APC-led administration, revenue leakages have been greatly plugged.

“The new petroleum products supply and pricing framework which eliminated corruption- tainted subsidy payments has among others greatly solved fuel scarcities by ensuring availability of products at all locations in the country; reduced hoarding, smuggling and diversion substantially and stabilise price at the actual product price; encouraged investments in both Refineries and Retails; provided Government more revenue to address social and infrastructural needs of the country.

“In line with the critical infrastructural focus of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, an unprecedented 30 per cent of 2016 budgetary provision has been committed to capital projects.

“As the administration works assiduously to build a new solid foundation, credible image and pull the country out of the present hardships, the APC appeals for patience and cooperation from Nigerians.” As the economic situation continues to deteriorate, many Nigerians appear not interested in the political angle of recession and the blame game between the APC and PDP, but their concern is to see the economy rebound.

Physical activity curbs some harmful effects of drinking alcohol

2016-09-10T17:57:00.001-07:00

Exercise can help keep medical costs down

Adhering to the recommended physical activity guidelines may offset some of the cancer and all-cause mortality risk associated with drinking alcohol, reports a first-of-its-kind study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Risk of death increased or decreased depending on the level of participants’ physical activity.

Excessive alcohol use leads to deaths and shortens the life of those that die by almost 30 years.

Drinking too much alcohol has immediate effects that increase the risk of many harmful health conditions and are usually as a result of binge drinking.

Over time, excessive alcohol use can lead to the development of chronic diseases, such as heart disease and stroke and several types of cancer – including breast cancer, liver cancer, and colorectal cancer. High alcohol intake has been linked to a heightened risk of death from all causes.

Also, patients with heart disease who met weekly guidelines for moderate to vigorous exercise saved on average more than $2,500 in annual healthcare costs.

Healthy patients, and those with cardiovascular risk factors, who exercised as recommended also had lower average medical costs.

Getting recommended levels of exercise weekly may help keep down annual medical costs both for people with and without cardiovascular disease, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

Meanwhile, some research indicates that alcohol consumption and physical activity may be associated with chronic diseases through shared common biological pathways that act in opposite directions. For example, the biological pathways through which cancer formation begins (carcinogenesis) are similar to those by which physical activity may prevent cancer.

Researchers aimed to determine whether physical activity reduces the risk of death from all causes, and from cancer and cardiovascular diseases induced by alcohol intake.

Data examined was from responses to nationally representative health surveys in England and Scotland – each linked to cause-specific mortality – for the years 1994, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, and 2006.

The survey asked questions on daily, weekly, and monthly alcohol consumption and frequency of physical activity among individuals age 40 or above.

Associate Prof. Emmanuel Stamatakis, of the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia, and team identified six sex-specific categories of alcohol intake from the surveys including “never drunk,” “ex-drinkers,” “occasional drinkers” (no alcohol in the past week) within United Kingdom government guidelines, “hazardous drinking,” and “harmful drinking.”
One-quarter of study participants were classed as inactive

Occasional drinkers were classified as having an intake of up to 14 units for women and 21 units for men, hazardous drinkers up to 35 units for women and 49 units for men, and harmful drinkers more than 35 and 49 units, respectively.

Of the people who responded to the surveys, 36,370 adults between the ages of 40-102 years were included in the study. A total of 14.6 percent (5,307) of survey responders who reported no alcohol intake were made up of lifelong abstainers from the “never drunk” category and former drinkers from the “ex-drinkers” category.

Group targets fresh FDI from Canada

2016-09-10T17:34:00.001-07:00

The Federal Government’s efforts to diversify the economy away from oil has received a major boost from some private individuals who have set machinery in motion to bring fresh crop of investors from Canada.

As part of efforts to achieve this laudable objective, these group of individuals hope to organise a summit in Canada later in November.

Tagged: ‘Canada-Nigeria Synergy for Improving Bilateral Trade, Investment and Partnership Opportunities in the new Nigeria’ the summit, the organisers are hopeful, will serve as a veritable tool to bring new set of investors into the country.

Addressing a joint press conference at the weekend, members of the organising team including Mr. Wale Adesanya, who also doubles as the President of Etcetera International Interactive Limited, Bode Thompson, President, JMT Integrated Limited and Prince Akinwale Ojo, Chief Engagement Officer/CEO, Diaspora Innovation Institute, said ‘Canibus 2016’ will help to galvanise the much sought after foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country.

Justifying the need for the summit, which is scheduled to hold from Nov 2-5 at the International Plaza Hotel and Conference Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the organisers said the Canada/Nigeria intergovernmental business summit is timely especially at this point in time the government is determined to develop new streams of income to boost its revenue much of which has been eroded by the dwindling oil receipts due to falling oil prices around the globe.

“The primary aim is to attract investors in the key areas of power, agriculture, solid minerals, ICT, oil and gas, transportation and housing,” they said.

“What informed the whole idea of Canibus 2016 is the need to help the country achieve its optimum in terms of boosting non oil sector. Canada is the better in mining and other sectors compared to other parts of the world.”

The summit, the organisers noted, is specifically targeted at Nigerian private sector businesses, especially the organised private sector as well as the small and medium scale entrepreneurs.

“We hope to take Nigerian business entities to Canada so that they can forge a synergy of cooperation with their counterparts over there and see how that can mutually affect businesses across the board.

“Hopefully, we think at the end of the summit, fresh pool of investors will come into the country through our efforts. In choosing the target areas we considered the specific sectors where Canada has comparative advantage over Nigeria.”

Pressed further, the group emphasised that “Alot of our potentials are yet untapped and we hope that the would-be investors from Canada will be persuaded to come and invest in the country if they hear from those companies already domiciled here. We want to be able to market Nigeria to prospective investors out there in Canada.”

The summit which is being organised in partnership with the the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment through the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission has also received the nod of the Deputy High Commission in Nigeria and Nigeria High Commission in Canada among other stakeholders.

Over 30,000 Women Have Taken a Pledge to Stop Donald Trump

2016-09-09T07:51:00.001-07:00

Guerrero, Zoë Amber Tamblyn, Diane Guerrero, Zoë Kravitz, and other celebs star in a PSA warning women about Trump.

Actresses Amber Tamblyn (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants), Diane Guerrero (OITNB), Zoë Kravitz (Divergent), and others are joining over 30,000 women who have pledged to vote against Donald Trump. The celebs appear in a new PSA, unveiled Friday, for EMILY's List's "Women Can Stop Trump" campaign, which warns voters of Trump's anti-woman policies and informs them about the sexist slurs he's made throughout his career.

SEC adopts new measure to tackle unclaimed dividend in capital market

2016-09-09T05:54:00.001-07:00

Roy Naaman; Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Oscar Onyema; Chief Counsel/Company Secretary, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Fola Akande, and Head, Domestic Primary Markets, NSE, Tony Ibeziako, during a courtesy visit to Cadbury Nigeria Plc.

Inaugurates e-dividend champions for banks, registrars

As part of its commitment to reduce to the barest minimum, hurdles associated with electronic dividend registration in the market, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has inaugurated the e-dividend champions for banks and registrars at its Lagos Zonal office.

Already, the Commission has issued directive mandating registrars operating in the Nigerian capital market to end issuance of dividend warrant to investors by June 31, 2017.

E-dividend is an electronic dividend payment platform, which will enable an investor’s account to be credited after 24 hours that dividend is paid.

The new scheme, according to Commission, would ease the challenges associated with payment of dividends and reduce the volume of unclaimed dividends in the country.

“The e-dividend champion would help ease shareholders’ difficulties during registration, as they would handle the operations of each bank on the registration.

“Furthermore, where there are issues on the registration, the champions would have the responsibility of forwarding all shareholders complaint on registration to Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), to give clarifications on the issues within three days,” it stated.

For smooth implementation of the new scheme, According to the Commission has commenced trainning for the operators and sensitise stakeholders on the dynamics of the e-Dividend Mandate Management System (e-DMMS) Portal.

“In a deft move to fortify the on-going e-dividend registration campaign, SEC noted that it held a crucial e-dividend technical committee review meeting, on Monday, which was chaired by the Director-General of SEC, Mounir Gwarzo. Banks and Registrars were directed to nominate e-dividend champions that would be responsible for information dissemination to their branches and for easy contact at the meeting,” it said.

The apex regulator listed the objectives of the inauguration to include; driving information dissemination to all banks and registrars branches nationwide, providing means of easy contact/feedback to and from various branches nationwide, ensure only the approved and standardised mandate form is used by all registrars and banks,

Others include: to drive the establishment of e-dividend desk, in all their branches nationwide, to facilitate the escalation of issues between their individual organisation, NIBSS, SEC, and CSCS, to ensure every uploaded mandate form is approved within 72 hours and to share user experience.

The Commission however, encouraged investors to go to their banks or registrars to register and enjoy the free registration that will last up to the end of the year 2016.

Gwarzo, at the post-Capital Market Committee (CMC) second quarter press briefing, held in Lagos recently, bemoaned poor investors’ patronage on e-dividend registration in the market, noting that only 6,000 investors have accessed the platform.

The SEC boss, at the meeting, issued a directive mandating registrars operating in the Nigerian capital market to end issuance of dividend warrant to investors by June 31, 2017.

This, according to him, would compel retail investors to embrace the e-dividend registration exercise, increase the low level of patronage and stem the rising unclaimed dividend figure in the capital market which is currently put at N80 billion.

He explained that the CMC has agreed that all banks should appoint an e-dividend champion that would interface with retail investors to ensure a seamless registration.

Gwarzo added that the SEC has also extended the write-off period for free registration process from September 14th to December 31, 2017, to enable more investors to partake on the exercise.

“With all efforts to encourage participation on e-dividend, only 6,000 retail investors have registered and this is not encouraging.

“People are frustrated with the misunderstanding between the banks and registration and at the meeting, we agreed that banks should appoint e-dividend champion to handle the operations of each bank on the registration.

“We also agreed that henceforth, by the end of June 31st 2017, no registrar will issue e-dividend warrant to any investor to enable them embrace the exercise.”

Gender-segregated social life is hurting today’s college students

2016-09-08T20:27:00.001-07:00

As Harvard University students kick off a new school year, they find themselves at the center of a heated debate about one of higher education’s longest-standing traditions: gender-segregated social life.

The university announced in May that, starting with Harvard’s class of 2021, it will effectively ban students from participating in clubs that exclude people of other genders. The move is intended primarily to force the integration of women into Harvard’s finals clubs, the exclusive groups that dominate much of campus social life and serve as powerful networks for members and alumni.

But the new policy will apply to sororities, fraternities, and other single-gender clubs as well. That’s upset some critics, who argue that the decision will end up penalizing women-only spaces, which offer young female students unique sources of support and community.

Such concerns are understandable. But there are good reasons for both men and women to support the university administration’s ban—not least because we might all be better off if we stop dividing our social lives along gender lines.

Separating groups by gender inevitably affects the way we perceive each other and ourselves, according to Lise Eliot, a neuroscientist and the author of Pink Brain Blue Brain, a book on how society shapes differences between young girls and boys.

“It’s simple math; the more time you spend with people of the same gender, the more similar you will become to each other and the more different you will become from the other,” Eliot says.

Research has shown that men and women do not fundamentally differ in personality, cognitive ability or leadership skills. Boys and girls begin development with equivalent ability in math and exhibit similar levels of assertiveness and competitiveness. But differences become more profound as children are socialized to exhibit contrasting characteristics, says Eliot.

According to one meta-analysis, boys and girls test equally high in math until high school, when boys begin to slightly out-perform girls. This difference has less to do with innate ability, and more to do with the way female and male students are treated in middle and high school, according to many psychologists.

“Nature is just a little tip, a little bias in one direction,” Eliot says. “Most of the gender differences are learned, are societal and shaped through culture, and a huge part of that culture is gender-specific grouping.”

The fact that we consistently divide people along gender lines creates powerful biases, according to psychologist Rebecca Bigler of the University of Texas, who has been studying gender for two decades. In one study, Bigler had teachers split students into red and blue shirt categories to simulate the arbitrary ways in which gender differentiates girls from boys. Bigler found that, after four weeks, students had formed powerful alliances according to their separate factions. Reds were more likely to have a high opinion of reds, and blues were more likely to have a high opinion of blues.

“We found that when the teachers labeled those groups, just like in the case of gender, the kids became biased,”Bigler told Michigan Radio.

The process of gender socializationdoesn’t stop as we get older. While coed colleges are now the norm in the US, some social spaces on campus remain gender-segregated. Sororities and fraternities in particular have proved to be an enduring tradition.

Many loyal Greek members note that their individual fraternities and sororities defy stereotypes. But in the popular imagination and pop culture, fraternity brothers are boisterous, rowdy, beer-swigging paragons of masculinity. Think Animal House and Old School.Sorority sisters, meanwhile, have a reputation for being peppy, flirty, and concerned with traditionally feminine pursuits like makeup and fashion.

These stereotypes are not based on innate gender traits, and many college students involved in Greek life buck such conventions. But the very act of dividing young men and women into separate groups may push them—sometimes unintentionally—to conform to prescribed gender norms.

Moreover, psychology suggests that the more people identify with characteristics associated with their gender, the more likely they are to think of the other gender as profoundly different—reinforcing the idea that men and women cannot hope to understand one another. As psychologist Janet Shibley Hyde notes, communication between men and women is often hampered by the belief they have irreconcilable points of view. This problem has major repercussions for the success of personal relationships or workplace equality.

If other schools follow Harvard’s lead and do away with single-gender social clubs, they may well put students on the path to better understanding and empathizing with one another. The policy could help combat on-campus rape and sexual assault, too. As neuroscientist Eliot writes in a recent op-ed for The New York Times, “If your pledged ‘siblings’ include both brothers and sisters, chances are greater you won’t objectify and molest each other than if the other sex is some distant, deeply different species to be conquered by the end of a wild evening.”

Mixed-gender groups may also be moreeffective at promoting women’s issues. Peggy Klaus, an executive coach and leader of corporate training programs, makes such a case in another recent Times op-ed. Klaus argues that women’s leadership conferences often wind up being futile when they exclude men. That’s because, particularly in traditionally male-dominated industries, men are more likely to be in the kinds of powerful positions that could facilitate greater gender equality.

“Expecting biases and policies to change based on occasional training and motivational speeches is simply ridiculous,” Klaus writes. “So is making women the sole torchbearers for changing the culture.”

The same logic could apply to women’s leadership groups such as Harvard’s Seneca, for example, a group founded in 1999 with the explicit purpose of creating a strong network of female students and helping them to pursue leadership roles on campus. Undoubtedly, many women benefit immensely from this kind of atmosphere. But it’s also possible that an organization with a mission to challenge sexist standards may benefit from having men around.

It’s unrealistic and ineffective—not to mention unfair—to expect female students to shoulder the entire burden of changing culture norms on campus. Male students can and should help the effort by holding themselves and others to higher standards.

None of this is meant to diminish the importance of women’s spaces. But it’s also true that gender-segregated groups do not reflect the realities of the world we live in. And they also frequently fail to make room for individuals who fall somewhere along the gender spectrum, instead confining campus communities to a binary system.

Consciously or not, college groups based on gender can wind up emphasizing and reinforcing differences. If we want real gender equality, we could start by spending more time together rather than apart.

Syria: US, Turkey plan assault on ISIS

2016-09-08T20:04:00.001-07:00

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday disclosed that he and the United States are ready to drive ISIS from its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.

Erdogan said US counterpart Barack Obama floated the idea of joint action against the militants when they met at the G20 summit in China.

“Turkey will have no problem with such action,” Erdogan said.

Last month Turkey launched an operation inside Syria, targeting both ISIS and Kurdish rebels.

Turkish-backed militia drove ISIS from the border town of Jarablus, but Turkey has also been concerned with checking the advance of Kurdish forces whom it regarded as terrorists.

The offensive continues, and Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said Turkish forces might push deeper into Syria after securing a stretch of land along the border.

Canikli also said 110 Islamic State and Kurdish militia fighters had been killed since the operation began.

Russia, who is allied to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said it was deeply concerned by the Turkish advance.

Erdogan’s comments on Raqqa were published in Turkish media, but there has been no confirmation from the US.

“Obama wants to do some things jointly concerning Raqqa. We said this would not be a problem from our perspective,’’ he said, stressing, “More discussions would follow.”

Raqqa’s fall was a key point in the rise of IS as it seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, and is now considered the jihadists’ de facto capital.

Between 250, 000 and 500, 000 people are still thought to live there, with brutal stories emerging of the treatment of civilians.

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2018 formula to increase your blog, website traffic, insight or page views

MY BlOG GOT 1515 VIEWS IN A DAY TRYING THIS, VIEW SCREEN SHOT

blog traffic

How to increase blog traffic is a topic that basically all bloggers should learn more about. Here’s what I mean: Given the growth in recent years, there are probably more than 250 million blogs online right now.

How to Increase Blog Traffic: Two Strategies You Need to Follow

Strategy #1: Start With SEO

1. SEO starts with keyword research.

2. Once you’ve written a post, optimize it for your target keyword.

3. For maximum results, build some links.

Involve your community in your blog content.

Get involved in social media groups.

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