Helping Your Kids Use Social Networking Websites Safely

As an involved parent, you probably already know that keeping an online journal or a rapidly updating 'profile page' on popular social networking sites (MySpace, Bebo, LiveSpaces or Facebook) is common practice amongst teens and preteens. Often, these websites can be viewed by any person with Internet access and this can put your child at risk.

On most social networking websites, children can post profiles that include videos, photos, and personal information such as their address, phone number, birthday, and full names. Kids use these sites to connect with others, whether they're halfway around the world or right next door. The sites often allow for instant messaging, games, and other communication tools.

Unfortunately, some of the information posted on social networking sites could make your child vulnerable to predators. Keep reading for five great ways to help your child use social networking websites safely.

1. Don't use full names. If you're going to allow your child to use social networking sites, have them use a nickname or their first name, but never full names.

2. Monitor your child's profile. Insist on access to view and monitor your child's public page. Check for any private personal information, such as addresses or cell numbers, that could pose a security risk to your child.

3. Never allow your child to meet anyone in person who they've only met online. Children can be in serious danger if they go to meet people whom they've only met through the Internet.

4. Consider setting site restrictions. Most social networking sites allow users to set privacy settings, therefore making their profiles available only to certain approved users. This is a good way to limit access to your child's information.

5. Remove the page. If your child refuses to abide by your safety rules, consider contacting the web site and having the page removed or investigating the use of Internet filtering tools to block access to the site.

1 Simple Secret For Small Busines Owners

This article is from your MYB Consultancy for small business owners, in fact any business owner

Online Business Education – Operational Risk Management Training

All you need to get going is 1 Simple Secret that gets you started towards achieving your goals…

Small business Owners - Can you see what you want?
Too many business owners just can’t see it…
Do you see what happens to a business owner when they don’t know what they want?
You wonder where they see the business going? Who is there anywhere that can lead them forward if they can’t see where they want to go.

As a business consultant I have found that secret!!

If you knew a very, very simple secret would you use it? I just bet you would…

Here it is! ...See your business picture...

You must be able to see your very own business picture.

You need to know what your business, your life looks like to you. How else do you know what you want or if in fact you actually get to where you want to go???? How will you know when you get there?

We all do it – consciously and sub consciously – we visualise, we create that picture in our minds. Anything you have ever really wanted you could actually see it clearly in your mind, before you got it. That’s what drove you to getting it. Part of knowing what you want is being able to see what you want.

If you can’t see it, you can’t reach for it….its so, so important to create that business picture. Sit there quietly, close your eyes and look for it. Create it if you haven’t already.

Everything that you do is a product of what you see – like it or not. If you don’t see it you will be flat, without purpose and scattered. When the going gets a bit tough as it surely will at times, search your mind for your very own success picture and keep it in focus. It’s a great pick-me-up. But more than that – you have something to reach for. If your picture is somewhat blurred – tidy it up, make it smart and desirable.

Ask any successful business owner to tell you about their PICTURE, and they can and will tell you.

In business it is called VISION – this is the very first step on your pathway to success.

1 Simple Secret - Make your picture a beautiful one

Take advantage of FREE online business coaching and masimise your Operational Risk Management Training Opportunity.

More tips for becoming a successful small business owner can be found at my website: http://www.businesscoachingsite.com

Know Your Business "Picture"
Elaine Masters
Business Consultant & Coach
Master Your Business
Online Business Education
Operational Risk Management Training
http://www.businesscoachingsite.com

"Who Loves Money" Review

"Making Money Online is Easy Right? It Can Be if You Know What You're Doing"

"Who Loves Money" will teach you how to earn money online, and best of all, it's free. We've reviewed all of the top "making money" programs online and have created this site to help you determine which products and services will actually help you make money online!

Lesson #1: How Does Someone Make Money Online?

There are many ways to make money online, but the most common, and most lucrative way to make money online is to sell products for companies willing to share the profits with you. The process of marketing to people online is called "Internet Marketing" and it is a multi billion dollar industry. Hundreds of thousands of people, just like yourself, are making money online everyday by partnering with companies who pay commissions based on sales that you help generate.

This sounds difficult but it's not because these companies have "Affiliate Programs" setup for their partners (Affiliates). You can partner with thousands of companies online and start selling their products in literally minutes. So how do you start selling a companies products as an Affiliate? Simple, all you need to do is send visitors to their websites. This sounds simple, and it is, but finding the right kind of traffic and enough of it is more difficult. Products like "Who Loves Money" can teach you how to find high converting traffic for VERY low cost and can actually teach you how to get started with Internet Marketing for nearly ZERO investment.

Lesson #2: What If I have No Experience?

The most common misconception about Internet Marketing is that only people with good computer knowledge and marketing skills can take part. This is NOT the case.

You DO NOT NEED a website
You DO NOT NEED your own product
You DO NOT NEED any previous experience (none)
What you will need is a guide to help you learn how to get started.

Lesson #3: Be careful who you choose to learn from

Everyone has heard of being "Scammed" on the Internet, and although this is only somewhat true, many people have learned about making money online from companies who do not have good reputations in the Internet Marketing world.

There are many products out there tha offer old, rehased, and plajorized material that WILL NOT help you make money online. Anyone can tell you how to put up an advertisement on Google Adwords, but few people can tell you how to connect with the right customers. The problem with these so called "Guru's" is that they don't use the techniques they write about on their own Internet Marketing endeavors so they cannot explain how the techniques work. That's the sad truth.

There is no such thing as "Getting Rich Quick" on the Internet. It doesn't matter what you hear, you will never make money on the Internet overnight. Internet Marketing is a real business and it takes time to grow your business to a point where you are earning $500 / day. If you are dedicated to learning the correct techniques and are willing to put in the work, you WILL achieve your goals of making big money online.

'Tis The Season!

‘Tis the season to begin gift shopping once again. But, rather than battle crowds, weather and fatigue, we have the greatest invention of our generation—online shopping!

I love online shopping. I love the convenience of sitting in my robe, with a snack and drink close by, the TV on or a CD playing, and being able to choose any hour of the day or night to shop. And best of all, not having to battle traffic, rude crowds, or SNOW!

I love pretty much all online shopping, but one of my favorites is gift baskets. Gift baskets have been around for a long time, but seem to have really come into their own with the popularity of online shopping. They are the ultimate in easy gifting! And they make it easy with secure checkouts, personalized gift cards, and time-sensitive to-the-door delivery.

Whatever the occasion; whoever the intended recipient, there’s a fun and appropriate gift basket to be found. And for those of us with the spirit of adventure, some sites even offer customizable baskets. Many of the gift basket sites are really one-stop gift shopping—offering flowers and plants, wines, food baskets, corporate gifts and special gifts for kids.

I spent about an hour recently on one of my favorites, and managed to clear my list of a birthday gift for my 10-year old niece; an anniversary gift for my sister and brother-in-law; flowers for my “adopted mom” who recently underwent knee-replacement surgery; and a congratulations basket for a dear friend who recently had twins!

Being the frugal person that I am, one year I decided I would make and mail my own gift baskets. It was very time consuming, very expensive, but fun for a one-time activity. I created a home entertainment basket with microwave popcorn, Milk Duds and Raisinets, a few well-chosen video tapes (before DVDs became the in-thing!) and a few other items. Being of Italian descent, my favorite home-spun basket is called “A Taste of Italy.” It includes pasta, sauce, good Romano cheese, bread sticks, olive oil, wine and some delicious traditional Italian cookies!

Probably the only thing more fun than shopping for or creating gift baskets is receiving one. Several years ago I received this huge basket of the most incredible English muffins. Thick, exquisite muffins in every possible flavor. Needless to say I shared my bounty – and the next year went to the site and ordered several baskets for folks on my list. Another basket that really impressed me was the one our realtor sent after we bought a house. It had all the fixings for an intimate housewarming party, including a lovely bottle of wine.

I have to admit, the “gift box” from a well-known cheese company left me a little flat. I couldn’t get over that the entire box, which I know was not inexpensive, consisted of about four of those 2 ounce bars of cheese, a small jar of mustard, small package of crackers and a few hard candies. Definitely less-than impressive!

I really do LOVE online shopping. And I really love the ease and convenience of gift baskets! So next month, you’re likely to find me in front of the fireplace with my laptop busily choosing and sending out lots of holiday greetings around the country without having to put on shoes!

If you haven’t already joined the ranks of online shoppers, do yourself a favor and try going the online shopping/gift basket route. I guarantee you’ll enjoy the holiday season a whole lot more!

"stop Educating Your Prospect!"

Companies spend thousands of dollars every year building product knowledge "Universities". They send their sales people to these product schools to learn the features and benefits of their products. They have them go through the process of becoming "product" experts, with the hope that the expertise they gain will propel them to sales success.

Unwittingly, they promote and fund a process that ends up creating "non supportive beliefs" in the minds of their sales people that can actually inhibit their success and lose them both sales revenue and profit margins. Those beliefs include the following:

Disseminating product knowledge to my prospect will build my credibility and make sales.

In order for the prospect to understand the value of my offer I must educate them.

Unfortunately, we have found this type of thinking, or "non supportive beliefs", end up creating very difficult selling problems. Once we understand the problems these non supportive beliefs create we can begin to change both our thinking and behavior that will lead us to greater success in sales.

Although being credible to your prospect is important , we believe that having them trust you to provide a solution that will limit the risk they take in making a decision to buy from you is much more important. The way you build that trust is by demonstrating to your prospect, through a complete understanding of their problems, that you reduce the chance of making a mistake in the recommendation you make.

Logically, to gain an understanding of what your prospect needs, would require us to ask questions. Through your questions, you gain a greater understanding of their situation and thereby lower the risk of making a recommendation that is inconsistent with what they need. Asking questions about typical problems and understanding the impact they have on your prospect is much more important than giving out information.

Also, we have found that educating your prospect about your value allows them to use your information and recommendations as a way to "shop" you against the competition, frequently building RFP's and RFQ's around the unique value you have educated them about. This "shopping" model allows them to get competitive bids built around your recommendations that literally extinguish your value and end up creating sameness. This "free consulting" is particularly frustrating and damaging to our technology and intangible service customers.

Educating your prospect may make you feel good but it will end up being your downfall. It's a dead end street that will force you to define your difference by a low price!

"The Secret" To Working From Home

By now, you have probably heard about “The Secret.” Oprah Winfrey and Larry King have interviewed the people who contributed to the creation of “The Secret” DVD and book.

So if you do not know what “The Secret” is, I am going to tell you. “The Secret” is the “Law of Attraction.” This means that everything that happens to you, good or bad, occurs because you have attracted it by your thoughts. In other words, you will attract what you think about most. For example, if you think that you are going to fail at something, you most certainly will. These thoughts also cause our feelings. So if we think negatively, we will also feel this way. This attracts more negative experiences and more negative people into our lives. But if we feel good, we will attract more things that make us feel good. Therefore, whatever you are thinking and feeling today, is creating your current and future situations. Unfortunately, what most people do not realize is that what they are thinking about most is what they do not want.

Now, you may be asking yourself what this has to do with your life. The answer is that it allows you to control your life’s destiny, rather than life’s events controlling you. So if your goal is to be a work-at-home mom, there is a way to do this. Instead of thinking that you have to go to a job that you do not like, begin to think about what you do want. Stop focusing on what you don’t want. Then, believe that what you want has already come to pass, even if you do not yet know HOW it will. Then imagine how it would feel to be a successful work-at-home mom. Focus on the feeling of walking away from your job and what it would feel like to attend your daughter’s first day of preschool, for example.

Another important concept is that you need to take on an “attitude of gratitude,” in being grateful for all that you already have. Until this occurs, the creators of “The Secret” say that nothing new can come into your life. You need to see your past as a positive experience of things learned, before you can move on to fulfilling your goals and dreams. This is especially true if you have tried other work-from-home endeavors that were not successful.

As quoted by James Ray when interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, “Success is when you’re living the gifts and talents within yourself.”

In summary, success is not for the elite. It’s for everyone. And if your dream is to work from home, you can do it too by applying the principles from “The Secret.”

"Please" & "Thank You" . . . Still The Realtor's Best Tools

The gurus vary a bit on the exact statistic, but all will tell you: Top salespeople in virtually every industry become that way because they have developed the habit of sending personal, heart-felt "Thank You" cards to their customers. As a result -- they get more referrals (a lot more referrals) -- and consistently out perform their competitors by as much as 10 to 1.

Most Realtors (and Lenders, Insurance Agents, & Financial Advisors for that matter) know this -- but fewer than 5% do it consistently. Fewer still, actually use this simple strategy to ask for referrals.

For these categories particularly, REFERRALS are the lifeblood of their business. In my town (Atlanta), the President of any given networking organization (BNI, Le' Tip, Power Core, Freedom Builders . . . you name it), is almost always from one of these fields. It's a good strategy. It works. But that's just it -- It's one good strategy.

One good strategy -- that can easily be 10X more effective by putting a new twist on the proven discipline of sending "Thank You" cards.

STEP ONE: Re-dedicate yourself to consistently sending "Thank You" cards to your customers. Even if you do it the old fashioned way (There's a better way -- a completely automated, yet incredibly personalized way -- and it costs a great deal less) . . . but even if you do this the old fashioned way of going to the local card store, sitting at your desk to write each note, stuff and stamp the envelope . . . the ROI is phenomenal.

STEP TWO: Send "Thank You" Cards to the people you buy from.

ALMOST NO ONE DOES THIS (maybe 5% of the 5% who do anything with "Thank You" cards at all) -- and it's Pure Gold !!!

STEP THREE: Send "Thank You" cards to people from your networking groups when they give you referrals. (I sometimes include a Starbucks gift card.)

STEP FOUR: Use personalized greeting cards for "cross promotion" with your networking group members -- to their expanded network.

Buy cards that are blank on the inside (or use the "better way" Referral System my clients & I do). On one side: a note from you, briefly explaining that (Jerry) suggested (Don) might be interested in knowing about you and your product / service. On the other side: a brief note from (Jerry) endorsing you. The card is addressed from (Jerry) and sent to people he knows and likes . . . people who know & trust him.

This costs you next to nothing, and will generate referrals for you and Jerry both. Include Jerry's picture above his note, and this card will live on his friend's desk or refrigerator indefinitely. People don't throw away cards with their friends' pictures in them.

STEP FIVE: Send just 2 unexpected cards a year (Thank You, Congratulations, Happy New Year **, whatever) to each customer, vendor, and networking contact in your database.

** I sent Happy New Year's cards this year -- with Stone's 2007 Resolutions . . . Huge Hit !!! Several in-bound phone calls, often starting with "Thanks for the card, I've been meaning to call you . . ."

FINAL TIP: If you periodically attend those more general networking events (like Chamber and Association meetings) -- you can (and should) let the other person do all the talking. All you need is their business card after the conversation. (Sometimes I'll write a little note on the back -- one specific thing from the conversation.) Send them a "Nice Meeting" you card. Again, precious few in your field or any other do this. Include your picture, and you'll be amazed at the response.

Yeah -- Great Ideas, but now the cat's out of the bag. Everyone will start doing this.

Think again . . .

No, what "everyone" will be doing (if anything) is the same old tired company sponsored newsletter / postcard program (I get 'em every week).

Fewer than 5% -- the 5% who consistently source articles like this to explore ideas for growing their business -- will see this article. Fewer still will take the actions I'm recommending. (For some, it's just too simple and too inexpensive to work.)

That leaves you . . . the less than 1/4 of 1% of Realtors who will start applying this simple, effective 5 point strategy -- and begin generating more referrals than you can handle.

Enjoy ! . . . and please share your Success Stories with me.

"Phishing" On The "Pharm": How Thieves Combine Two Techniques To Steal Your Identity

Bob squinted at the email and began to read:

“Dear eBay User, as part of our security measures, eBay Inc. has developed a security program against fraudulent attempts and account thefts. Therefore, our system requires further account verification…”

Security Measures. A threat to suspend his account to prevent “fraudulent activity”. The email went on to say that there were “procedural safeguards with federal regulations to protect the information you provide for us.”

Bob clicked the link and was confronted with an authentic looking logon page, just waiting for him to input his user name and password and confirm what ebay supposedly didn’t know.

He almost did it. The page looked absolutely authentic, and he had already been “set up” by the email message. His fingers were poised over the keyboard when he happened to glance at the URL.

There was something very, very wrong with it.

“PHARMING” TO FLEECE SHEEP

The art of “pharming” involves setting up an illegitimate website that is identical with its legitimate prototype, for example the ebay page Bob was almost suckered into using, and redirecting traffic to it.

“Pharmers” can do it in two ways:

1.By altering the “Hosts” file on your computer. The Hosts file stores the IP address of websites you have been accessing. By inserting a new IP address into the database field corresponding to a website, your own computer can be redirected to the pharmer’s website. Any information you give the bogus site is immediately hijacked by the pharmer.

2.Hijacking the DNS (Dynamic Name Server) itself. A DNS matches the names of address with their IP addresses. If this server can be coerced into assigning new IP addresses to traditional names, all computers using the name resolution provided by the DNS server will be redirected to the hijacker’s web site.

Once that happens, it’s time to be fleeced.

DOWN ON THE PHARM

“Pharmers” hijack your “hosts” file or DNS servers using Spyware, Adware, Viruses or Trojans. One of the most dangerous things you can do is to run your computer without some form of Internet Security installed on it.

Your security software should be continually updating its virus definitions, and be capable of warning you if something has been downloaded from a web site or through email. It should be able to remove it, “quarantine it”, or tell you where it is so that you can remove it by hand.

You should also have Spyware and Adware programs installed, and be aware of any change in Internet browsing patterns. If your home page suddenly changes, or you experience advertising pop ups (which may pop up even when you are not hooked up to the Internet), you should run a Virus, Spyware or Adware scan.

Thanks to the efficacy of these protection programs, pharming is a lot more difficult than it used to be. It isn’t as easy to hijack a computer as it once was.

So, the “pharmers” have teamed up with the “phishermen” to get you to visit the bogus web page yourself, and enter all the information they need.

PHISHING TO CATCH YOU ON THE PHARM

As Bob discovered, the page he had been taken to by the bogus email message was identical to the ebay logon page. Identical in every way except for the URL.

Out of curiosity, he checked the URL for the ebay logon by accessing ebay directly and clicking on the logon link. The two URL’s were nothing alike, except the bogus one did have the word “ebay” in it twice – just enough to make it look authentic.

By combining the two techniques, the phishermen/pharmers had avoided the high tech problems associated with downloading a Virus that could get past his protection software. They had gone straight for the throat.

Bob’s throat.

YOUR ONLY REAL IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION AND PROTECTION

The only real protection against the pharmers and phishermen is YOU. There are three things you must consider when you read any email demanding information:

• Why do they want it? Be extremely skeptical when they say they have to “update their records”, “comply with federal regulations”, or prevent fraud. They are the ones initiating the fraud.

• Why can’t this be done at the website? Why not invite you to access the website directly and provide this information? The answer is because the bonafide company doesn’t need an update.

• What does the URL look like? Is it a series of subdomains some of which have the name of the bonafide company? Most likely the subdomain is set up with a free hosting company.

• Have they provided partial information about you as a guarantee that the email authentically comes from the legitimate source? Be very careful of this one. This technique is effective for “pretexting”, impersonating a person or company, and was used in the Hewlett Packard scandal to collect information. Just because they know your first and last name (and any other information – known only to the legitimate source) doesn’t mean the email is legitimate. They probably hijacked the information off the server.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The bottom line is: don’t provide any information at the behest of an email, no matter how authentic it looks, or how authentic the page it directs you to looks. If you must log in, do so at the parent site itself.

Your Identity Theft prevention and protection is, in the final analysis, up to you.

Don’t be the next sheep fleeced by the pharmers who caught you with the phisherman’s hook. Being dropped naked into their frying pan is NOT a fate you want.

"Pay-Per Click" Ad Campaign: Earn More by Spending Less"

What is "Pay-Per Click"? "Pay-Per Click", is an easy to understand advertising strategy. There are around 300 million searches at major search engines everyday. This causes 80% of internet traffic. Placing your websites on these search engines is very important in reaching as many potential customers as possible. But in order to be seen and clicked most frequently, your website should be viewed at the top most of the search list. Most people only reach up to the third page of a search engine so the lower your rank, the lesser the chance you will be clicked. In "Pay-Per Click" advertising, you pay to be always visible on the internet. You select keywords or key phrases about your website, and the highest bidder ranks the best. There is no upfront cost. You only pay after a visitor clicks your link. This is why it is called "Pay-Per Click".

Everyday millions of people around the world click on Pay-Per Click Advertising Campaign. With the booming internet industry and the ever growing online business, an ad of virtually anybody on the planet can be seen on the internet anywhere in the world.

The "Pay-Per Click" advertising campaign is the premier growth area in online marketing. Last year, an estimated $741.2 million was spent on "Pay-Per Click" advertising. The usual search engine optimization can take weeks or even months to produce results. "Pay-Per Click" advertising can attract customers at an instant. Why? Because, this cutting edge ad campaign can be placed on any website and can be viewed by potential online customers, anywhere, anytime and all the time. The only challenge is placing the ads on proper websites that will attract possible customers for a specific product or services.

"Pay-Per Click" advertising campaign attracts the right consumers at the shortest possible time. This is the most cost effective way of marketing products or services. You can also monitor the customers who visit your site, what they are looking for and what they are buying. With the right creativity on using the right search-phrases, we can direct the right people who are willing to do business with us.
"Pay-Per Click" advertising can easily be managed 24 hours per day and 7 days a week through the internet. This allows you improve the campaign strategy by effectively responding to the activities of both customers and competitors.

So what are you waiting for? "Pay-Per Click" now and let your business take the fast route to success.

“learn To Play” Musical Instrument Sets

We all have a few of those childhood dreams that fell to the wayside as we grew up. We were either too busy or too involved in something else or were too poor or just kept forgetting about it. It doesn’t matter why we never learned to play the instruments that we wanted to, what matters is that now that we’re adults, are we going to learn to play the musical instruments we dreamed of?

While shopping for the musical instruments of our dreams, we keep running across the “learn to play” instruments and book sets. They look like they were probably designed for kids, but the instruments look like they are almost high quality enough to get away with playing. So can anyone really learn to play a musical instrument from the “learn to play” series?

To be honest, those who learned to play at least one musical instrument as a child most likely can learn to play another musical instrument form the “learn to play” series provided we at least learned the basics of reading music. Being able to at least read the basic scale from sheet music will help tremendously when trying to learn to plat a musical instrument from a book.

Some people do very well learning to play musical instruments from a book, but the people who do very well all have one thing in common, they are self learners. Those of us who were born in the mid to late seventies and beyond grew up in a system of education that everything was handfed to us, thus the majority of us do not learn very well on our own. We need someone to hold our hands and teach us note by note to play a musical instrument, not to mention trying to learn other things. Learning to play a musical instrument from a book requires a certain amount of self teaching ability.

Without the ability to “figure things out along the way,” learning to play a musical instrument from a book will prove to be quite frustrating, although it can most certainly be done. If our desire is strong enough and our patience can run fairly deep, then yes, we can learn to play a musical instrument from a book.

There are few things quite as satisfying as accomplishing something like the challenge of learning to play a musical instrument from a book. As we learn to play any musical instrument without the guidance of someone else, just like kids, our confidence grows. For adults, learning to play a musical instrument from a book may very well be the realization of a childhood dream, and there’s nothing but pure magic in that.

“flashy” Video Advertising

Whether you wish to promote your business, or as YouTube says “Broadcast Yourself,” video content beats text adverts hands down. First, the viewer gets to see the merits of your products and services instead of being told about them. Second, videos say more in less time so it’s more convenient to the people you want to advertise your business or yourself, too.

Obstacles to Video Advertising through the Net

There are obstacles, however, to maximizing the benefits of video content. The large file size of video content is incompatible with the typically limited bandwidth that visitors to your site have. The inability of the author to enhance visitors’ viewing experience by the use of interactive video navigation controls is also a problem. Different playback standards also present a problem. Furthermore, there is difficulty integrating other data types (text, music, graphics, and other web content) with video adverts.

Flash Videos from Adobe

It is a good thing for internet marketing professionals who wish to use video content for advertising purposes that Adobe has designed a platform for delivering seamlessly integrated and universally accessible Flash Live Video (FLV) content over the internet. By using Adobe’s video delivery options, you can easily put videos on your web site for your site’s visitors or you can readily make video emails and deliver your advertising content to your targeted clients. Adobe has also revolutionized the video sharing industry over the net.

Flash Video Delivery Platform

As the author of the video, you can easily use this platform to advertise your business or to post video for recreational and video sharing purposes over the internet. All you need to do is to create your own video with a high quality video or web camera and microphone then capture and encode it into FLV format using Flash Professional tools.

Once you have your Flash Video ready, delivery is easy. You can embed or link your FLV file in SWF for video email delivery or for integration on your web site. However, this method of internet video delivery is optimal only for very short clips, say 5 seconds of playback time. For longer videos, there will be audio and video synchronization issues.

If you have a longer video clip, and you only expect a few people to watch it, you can deliver your FLV file through progressive downloading. This is a vast improvement over sending your video file embedded into the SWF player. You just need to embed a short preview clip of the entire video. When it is clicked, the user is connected to the Flash Communications Server and the full video is downloaded. Your viewers can play the video as it is being downloaded because FLV downloading is done by segments. There’s no file size limitation and audio-video synchronization problems.

The most wonderful Flash Video delivery innovation, however, is live video streaming, where the entire video need not be downloaded so your viewers are not limited by available disk size, the video is not cached so you protect copyright of the video, you can feed viewers video as you record them to your server, and you can track traffic better using your Flash Communications Server Utilities. This is by far the fastest and most convenient means of delivering live video to the web.

Truly, with skilled video editing and producing and a reliable flash Communications server, promoting yourself, and event or your business through internet video has never been easier.

'Father' Of The Internet

Tim Berners-Lee, while working as an independent consultant at a nuclear research laboratory in 1980, developed an innovative way of storing information in a program named Enquire.

That work was later used as the foundation for the development of a global hypertext system - popularly known as the Internet or the World Wide Web.

The WWW was developed to increase the ease with which people could exchange information. This became a reality with the introduction of the first WYSWIG (What You See Is What You Get) hypertext web browser which was written by Tim Berners-Lee.

The advantage of the WWW over previous systems was the lack of a need for a centralized server. In short, this meant that it was just as easy to retrieve, as well as link to, a document that was down the hall as across the world.

This was a huge breakthrough in computing science.

The Web and the first web server were released to the hypertext communities in mid 1991, after being released within CERN in late 1990. In order to achieve a coherent standard for the WWW, specifications for URLs, HTML and HTTP were published.

The universality forced by these specifications, the non-dependence on a central server and decision by Berners-Lee not to profit from the WWW led to a high level of adoption of the technology between 1991-94. A ten fold increase in annual traffic was recorded on the first Web server during this period.

With the advent of the Web, a number of spin-off technologies have emerged. A vast array of server side, client side and database languages have been created to fulfill needs of businesses and individuals.

There are two types of programming languages used on the WWW: client-side and server-side.

A client-side language is executed in the users' browser and is not dependent upon the Web server. Client-side programming is done almost exclusively with JavaScript.

A server-side language executes on the Web server. In recent years server-side programming has become more popular than client-side programming because it is independent of the type of browser that the surfer is using. Programmers refer to this as being 'cross-platform'. Perl, PHP, ASP and JSP are popular client-side programming languages.

Databases have been developed to allow for 'dynamic' websites.

Dynamic websites allow for a high level of personalization when retrieving information.

Whenever you type in values in a form on a web page - whether those values are for a user id and password, the characteristics of your ideal partner or an author's name - it's a 'dynamic' web site. That is just a way of saying that there is a database being used to run the website.

Popular databases used include MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle.

An area of the WWW that Berners-Lee has direct involvement is in his role as the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3) which has existed since 1994.

The aim of the WC3 is to achieve coherent standards between all companies using web technologies such as HTML, CSS and XML. Prior to the creation of the standards detailed by the WC3, companies used different standards, which led to potential incompatibilities. The WC3 remedied this by creating an open forum - allowing companies to agree on core standards for WWW technologies.

The future of Berners-Lee's influence on modern computing is in the context of the Semantic Web. 'Semantic' means 'meaning'.

A semantic web is one where elements that appear in a document hold some meaning that can be automatically processed by a machine in some form of data gathering. Currently, documents on the WWW written in HTML hold no meaning ­ they're presentation based.

Tim Berners-Lee laid the conceptual foundation for the World Wide Web. It was his initial idea to create a way where information could be freely and easily exchanged. The standards associated with it and the lack of reliance upon a central server, gave the Web a cross platform advantage and independence, which led to its meteoric rise in popularity.

In turn, its popularity spawned and popularized many different programming languages, databases, markup standards, servers - as well as - viruses and worms.

However, while Tim Berners-Lee is the 'father' of the Internet, its development over the years is a result of the efforts of an extraordinary number of individuals. There is little question that 500 or 1,000 years from now, historians will look at the invention of the Internet as one of those rare, seminal historical events - much like Gutenberg's printing press.

$24,000 In 13 Days With Passport To Wealth

I wanted to cover some common questions about a new online business opportunity called Passport to Wealth and how you can use it to generate a serious passive income for yourself.

What is Passport to Wealth?

Passport to Wealth is an online marketing system that is designed to find people for you that are currently interested in joining an online business opportunity. The key to the Passport to Wealth Marketing System is that you can join it, set it and let it do the work for you.

How much can I make with Passport to Wealth?

You receive 100% commissions of $997 for each Passport to Wealth sale that is made for you. I've been making 2-5 sales a day and the money is paid directly into my account. We made over $27,000 in 3 weeks and while we were away on a vacation, another $9,000 came in.

What is the product being sold with Passport to Wealth?

You get Instant access to over $75,000 worth of amazing software, wealth-creation resources and an e-Learning library. All accessible directly from your own computer. It’s the most comprehensive package ever offered in one place. Just download, use and benefit.

There is never any obligation to join Passport to Wealth. From my discussion with PTW, 47% of site visitors that have taken the tour will sign-up as a Passport to Wealth member. That's a very impressive conversion ratio.

The comprehensive marketing information in Passport to Wealth is what attracted me to join. This automated system is very unique in this impersonal internet age.

""The system sorts, sells and closes your prospects for you.” - Tim, Colorado

What is the best strategy to use with Passport to Wealth?

When I was first looking into Passport to Wealth I interviewed 9 different sponsors. I was looking for someone that was highly successful and would share exactly what they were doing with me. I chose an internet marketing expert from Texas and he showed me how to make sales right away.

To speed-up my results I use a system where all I do is copy and paste ads to proven online advertising companies that are all laid out for me. This is a fully automated system that involves no contact from yourself.

For every 100 visits to my site I make a least one or two sales. So for a low $190 investment I earn between
$3000 and $8000.

I'm finding that people want to join Passport to Wealth with me because I am offering something different. Most PTW members are promoting their standard web page and getting 1 or 2 sales a month. I try to add something extra, like this highly lucrative marketing system.

When you join Passport to Wealth with me I can set you up with the same system I use. At the end of the day PTW is an "easy to understand" business. So you don't have to learn much once you get started. It really depends on your goals and how much time you have. Most of my group spend about 20 minutes a day and let the system work its magic.

"I went out of town for 3 days. Today I checked my balance and found that I received $4,985! I never spoke to any of them." - Gina, Canada.

What do I get by joining Passport to Wealth with your team?

When you join Passport to Wealth with me you will receive the step by step approach that I used to make $24,000 in 13 days. I will also be available via email if you need any help or support.

I have been making over $30,000 a month with Passport since I first joined using the exact techniques that I will share with you when you join. How much does Passport to Wealth cost to join?

The cost to get started with Passport to Wealth is $997 which provides the quickest profit timeline. The payment plan that PTW offers is very interesting. It's called a two-up payment plan.

The way it works is this, the first two people that join you in PTW are considered your qualifying sales and are given to your sponsor. From then on each sale will generate $997 for you. But this is where the fun starts...

Because of the two-up pay plan, the first two sales that one of your members makes goes to you!

So if you have 3 members and each of them makes 2 sales, then you will get 6 sales without lifting a finger! That's 6 x $1000 to you = $6,000.

If you have 10 members and each of them makes 2 sales (their qualifying sales), then you will get 20 sales without doing a thing. That's 20 x $1000 = $20,000!

So as you can see, once your PTW marketing business kicks off, it grows from within. And that's what I'll help you do when you join Passport to Wealth with me: Kick start your PTW business quickly!

“This really is as simple as it looks and sounds! I got the complete P2W program, web fee, marketing system, small advertising budget and I’m actually in profit within 7 days without having to talk to anyone?

I was shown the exact wording and where to place my ads so they worked. Thanks.” - Steve, Colorado.

How do I get started?

When you take the PTW tour you can see exactly how the system will work for you and look over the products at the same time.

I recommend you sign-in as this is unique to this system from my experience. It's really the main ingredient that drew me to join Passport to Wealth from the beginning.

When you enter your name and email into the form you will instantly have access to the main site. You will also have a chance to check out the same marketing system that is making 2-5 sales a day for me right now. This is the system that I'll be giving you when you get started.

So I highly recommend that you sign-in and lookover the marketing system as this will give you an idea of what's being offered here.

As always I'm available if you need to contact me. Call me if you need anything. (1-212-990-6886)

$1,167.00

The first thing I would like to do is share with you an email that I recently received that provided the inspiration for this article.

Mr. Calvert,

Hello, my name is Tanya Jameson. I met you a few months ago at the Bunny Slipper Boot Camp you spoke at in Las Vegas. I am the one that spoke to you after the Boot Camp and told you I was going to invest in your “How to Create a $5,000 Monthly Income with Ebay and Online Auctions Course” after I had a couple of yard sales.

I knew at the time, you probably didn’t believe me, but I did go to www.OnlineAuctionU.com and purchase your course. Anyway I just wanted to let you know that I have followed your course step-by-step and last month I have my first month of over $5,000.00 in profits, $5,233.70 to be exact and I am having a blast. My 5 year old daughter helps me in my business and because of your course; I never have to worry about taking a job outside the home again.

Now for my question, at the seminar you said that you personally spend over $15,000 a year on books, tapes, seminars, and other personal development courses.

My question is why?

You have a net worth of millions of dollars, you speak all over the world at seminars, and have dozens of training programs, why do you still invest so much money? I am just curious; please respond when you have an opportunity.

Thank you for helping me change my life!

Tanya Jameson


Here is my response:

Tanya,

Congratulations on your first $5,000 month! You now have developed the skills and knowledge to be able to write your own pay check every month with Ebay and online auctions. I am proud of you and I appreciate you taking the time to send me an email.

Now regarding your question and why I spend so much money on personal education.

My definition of success is not how much cash, or how many toys you have. To me “Success is living your life working towards worthy Goals” When I was broke, living in a small 600 foot square home and driving a beat up Chevette, I was as successful then as I am now, because I had worthy goals that I was working towards daily.

Now here is the “brain tweak” once I reached those goals, I was no longer a success. Think about that one for a minute. The only way I could maintain my success is to set new goals!

When I was financially broke, I developed the habit of spending 10% of my income on my own personal education. Jim Rohn says “Formal education will make you a living; if you become self-educated you can create a fortune”

That is one of the things I absolutely enjoy about the Internet, it is a constantly evolving marketing medium. There are always new ideas to learn and concepts and methods to test and put into practice.

Thankfully, my income got to a point, where I could no longer spend 10% on courses, books and tapes. So I was able to buy books and training programs for other people, and at one point provide the book “Think and Grow Rich” to the entire graduating class at our local high school.

However today, I am constantly learning and working towards worthy goals, and I hope you will continue to do the same.

I wish you much success, and as always let me know what I can do to support and help you. I appreciate your support, and again thanks for taking the time to send the email.


Dale Calvert
www.DaleCalvert.com


I sincerely hope that my response to Tanya has resonated in your mind. If you are broke, but working towards worthy goals, YOU ARE A SUCCESS. Today’s world is full of self educated marketing masters that offer an endless supply of books, tapes, and training programs to help us all become better at what we do.

Oh yeah, before I forget, why is the title of this article $1,167.00? That is what I spent last month for personal educational and training programs. Become “self educated” and I will see you on the never ending road to success!

"...what Makes You Better?"

Sales people are frequently confronted by this question on sales calls, along with some others like "why should I buy from you/your company?" or "what makes you different?". In fact, as identified in my last post, they have probably spent a lot of time at "Product Knowledge U" learning exactly how to answer these questions. In reality, answering questions like these usually end up putting you on the defensive and will not give you the advantage you are hoping for.

Think about it for a minute... if you answer that question you immediately sound like all of the sales people that have come before you, as well as those who will follow you. By answering the question you create "sameness" and a belief in the mind of the prospect that you are just like everyone else. You must also consider that everything you say will be considered as "sales fodder" and is often listened to with skepticism and from an "oh sure" perspective.

Obviously, there are many different situations in which this questions can be asked. Are they currently buying this product from someone else. Is this a product they have bought in the past, or is it a product they have never bought? Knowing which situation you are in will help you determine how best to proceed. Rather than answer the question, you might want to say "I'd be happy to tell you but I'm curious, is this a product that you have used in the past or are currently buying?". Their answer will be a valuable piece of information from which we can plan our next question.

If they are currently using or have had past experience, it would make a lot more sense to find out what they have used in the past. If they are looking to make a change "what would they like to see different?" This is a questions that would get us information that would begin to form our offer, or identify that we don't have what they want. Remember too, if they are not buying or have not used before, giving away your information can now become a shopping list that will allow them to compare you to the competition and "commoditize" your offer.

Not always, but often times the best answer to a question is another question. By not answering the question but rather asking:

"Was there something that you were hoping would be better?", or

"if we could offer something different or better what were you hoping for?"

With these questions you end up with the chance of finding out exactly what they are looking for and can craft your response based on the feedback you get.

It takes some courage and emotional control to respond this way but you'll find it will put you in an entirely different light with your prospect. Stop answering "what makes you better" and you'll get better information that will help you make more sales!

...Is Network Marketing Easy??...

I personally believe we do a dis-service to the industry and ourselves if we openly state...or even allude...that NWM is easy. It's not. Nor is any business....WAH or brick & mortar. Anyone who does say different is not being wholly truthful. I find that to be a shame.

NWM requires 3 main ingredients....time, effort, and yes - money. Time is just a matter of redirecting your habits. Not easy but doable. Time directly impacts your efficiency. Effort is entirely controllable by the individual....and directly impacts your effectiveness. Money is self limiting and directly affects both efficiency and effectiveness. An individual must find the best combination of the three that works for them. Someone else can't tell you what that combination is....but can help you find it (for example a good sponsor).

The new mlmer faces a daunting task...and competition...when it comes to "advertising". Finding that "best combination" of time, effort, and money is a growth experience. Rarely will it just appear... education (self and provided) plus mentoring (if available) are important factors and hopefully a fact of life. However, "advertising" is not impossible.

In my mind advertising is just whatever method you choose to "reach" people. It might be the traditional newspaper or ezine ad or the simple greeting and sharing with a friend. How you "advertise" or "share" can take many forms.

There are free and inexpensive methods that do work. It's a matter of finding those that work for you.

For example:

1. Writing and submitting ezine articles is an excellent method. It requires time & effort...but no money. The benefits include increased link popularity for the url used in your sig box (important for search engine ranking), branding, and reach (you can "reach" more with an article than an ezine ad). Plus it's viral. Often your article is archived by publishers and directories.....available well after it was originally offered. Plus publishers and web masters will often "pick up" your article...again well after you originally submitted it.

2. Business cards are always a good method...and more inexpensive than one realizes. You can even make your own. Just pass them out like candy....stores, church, ball games, local events, restaurants (leave 1 with your bill), businesses you frequent, networking meetings, local Chamber Of Commerce. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

3. Flyers, posters, post cards, brochures, etc. can also be done very inexpensively. You can make your own on your PC or purchase custom or ready made templates from numerous online providers. You could even strike up a joint venture with a local community provider. They print it for you and include their "advert" somewhere...you distribute. You both win, you pay less, and maybe influence that partner to be involved in your business.

4. Web decals on your vehicle(s) is another inexpensive method. I have one on each of our family cars (back window) with a short "catch line" and my url. Cost was ~ $40 each but the visibility is priceless.

5. Newspaper/magazine ads can be found that aren't going to cost an arm and a leg. Local publications are a good place to start. http://nationwidenewspapers.com is an excellent source. For some of my services I've found College student newspapers and alumni magazines to be good performers.

These are just a few examples.

Of course there are the traditional ezine ads, leads programs, Forum participation (sig line - branding reputation), search engines, "3 foot rule", etc. Most of these will cost you money...all will cost you time & effort.

The key I believe is in being creative and sticking to what best fits your time, effort, money combination. It is and should be a personal choice. If the dollar "cost" doesn't give you the dollar "value" you hope for....keep looking. But don't EVER give up.

Plus...diversify. Use multiple methods. Why limit yourself to just "one path"?

Should we just sponsor those willing to waste $1,000's advertising? Heck no!! We should sponsor anyone interested and teach them how to advertise in a manner best suited for them. Don't mislead them with false expectations or pressure them into uncomfortable actions. Lead them to solutions which best fit their expectations & abilities (time, effort, money).

John Milton Fogg's answer to the question is priceless......"It is simple, but it isn't easy."

Captures it pretty well I'd say. That's the message. It's not hard to understand...should/is fun.....but does take some effort.

Sending any message to prospects that denies effort is involved or necessary....misleads folks into becoming part of the "failed or quit" statistics.

It leads to false expectations.

They start to think they can sit on the couch with beer & potatoe chips watching Oprah on TV all day....and the money will roll in by itself.

Lays, Coronas, and Dr. Phil aren't going to build your business.

YOU are.

In my mind (OK...my opinion)....that's the core of any message they should receive.

If you really care...that's what you'll tell them.

Be honest....

What do YOU think????

It's My Game Dad!

1.Do have your child to practice and games on time. The coach is not the taxi driver. If you can't drive your child , make other arrangements to see your son gets to his practice and games.

2. When the game is over ,it is the parent's place to see their child returns home safe. The coach can't and won't leave any player on the field after practice.

3. The coach need parents to help him out. Coaching is a tough job.

4. Do take the time to see that your son gets his exercise training done at home. Dads this is bonding time for you and your son.

5. Do be there at your child's game to cheer his team on.

6. Do volunteer parents to help in the concession stands or in maintaining the field.

Parents can really be a blessing to the coach or his worst nightmare grouch.

Parents don't do any of these terrible things.

1. Don't put pressure on your child to succeed in baseball.

2. Don't fuss with your child about what he didn't do right in the game. Parents remember this is a journey your son wanted to try out. It won't be his final destination in life.

3. Don't let your child hear you cheering for the opposing side. He is on the field trying to impress his parents.

4. Don't yell at the umpire if you disagree with him. You may embarrass your son.

5. Don't coach from your seat in the stands. This is for the coach to do. Parents , you may face having the coach call you out and embarrass you.

6. Don't tell the coach when the best time is to have a game. Parents , you have no say in how the coach runs his ball team.

7. Don't interfere when the coach calls your son out. This is a sure way to help your child learn responsibility. When he starts to work , you can't control his life or his boss.

After reading this list , parents it should be clear how you need to act when attending your son's baseball game. Praise your son for the hard work he performed on the field. This will really help your son's convenience grow. Children need to know their parents care and love them. That is the main proble in the world today with children.Take time out of your schedule to attend your son's game.

Which Way Is The Right Way?

Relax! When you make your first hit , it is important for you to position your hand on the

Try letting your bat hit the top of the inside of the ball. It will be amazing where the ball will travel and the distance.

When you approach a baseball on the top inside , you will gain more ground balls and line drives. You will be avoiding the fly balls that the outfield will be trying to catch to put you out.

Try to focus.

Look at the ball field. Do you see the fence? Focus on hitting that ball so hard that it goes through the fence, not over it. You may laugh at this idea, but it works for ball players.

Remember that a baseball returns to the area it came from.

Concentrate on the ground and line balls. Avoid hitting air balls. The fly ball will put you out.

Out of a score of ten , keep track of how many hard balls you hit. Your average batting rate will come later.

Off Speed Balls

Off speed balls are designed to throw you off balance. Learn the off speed balls. Learn how to approach them. Don't be an all arms hitter. This will tire you out fast. Fast balls are designed for the aggressive baseball hitters . They still face problems when facing the off speed balls.

Judging Off Speed Balls

Focusing is the main thing when it comes to judging off speed balls. Focus on the baseball from the time it leaves the pitchers hand. Can you determine if it is a fast ball or a straight fastball. If you determine the ball is off pitch, it is likely to be a strike.

Some of the best ball players , including the pros make perfect swings every time. In baseball every swing has to be the same. It makes no difference how many times you stand on the infield plate and swing that bat, your swing has to remain the same. Learning to focus mentally will help you to succeed to this point.

Never give up on your goals. If playing baseball is your goal or dream in life, don't give up. Practice makes perfect athletes. One day you could have the word Pro in front of your name. Continue to practice and you will go far in the baseball sport. Reach for the sky. Dreams have been known to come true.

Internet Marketing: "A Fool With A Tool Is Still A Fool"

If you are a mediocre violinist and buy a Stradivarius violin, you will not become a better violinist. All you will do is waste the beautiful capabilities of a fine and rare musical tool and put it into ineffective use.

It’s the same thing in Internet Marketing. If you buy 100s of ads but have poor sales copy you will get no results. If you write and submit 100s of articles of poor quality and don’t have a specific objective you want them to achieve, you will get no results. If you buy the best optimization software available but don’t understand the principles and theory behind optimization, you will get no results. If you spend thousands of dollars on inferior business leads, questionable advice, and questionable “Get Rich Schemes”, you will get no results.

Internet Newbies get bombarded with all kinds of advice to generate traffic using tools like optimization, writing articles, pay per click, etc. One of the biggest mistakes they make is trying to do them all using the theory: “The more I do the better results I will get.” They use each of the tools suggested and use them ineffectively because they never mastered them. The result is: they get no results, they get discouraged, and they give up.

The principle to learn and apply is: It’s not how much you do, but how much you do well.

If you lack focus and try to do everything, you will work yourself into exhaustion doing all the wrong things. The best result is you wasted time, energy and money. The worst result is you lose credibility by distributing products and services that are of poor quality.

What’s the solution? Determine what your strengths are and use the tools that maximize those strengths. If you have a knack for writing, focus on writing blogs and articles to generate traffic. If you have sales skills, focus on writing short and catchy sales ads and bar ads. If you are a techie, focus on optimization. If you have none of the above skills but are a hard and disciplined worker, focus on getting links through link exchanges and forums. Remember, it’s not how much you do, its how much you do right.

Considering The Various Available Online Business Opportunities

If you spend enough time online, you will no doubt run across a huge amount of online business opportunities. The trouble is that you don’t know what you are getting into in most cases. There are plenty of great offers out there, but you have to realize that not all of the online business opportunities you find are quite legitimate. In fact, there are quite a few that will take your money, and then disappear. Do not let this stop you if you are looking for an online business, this just means you have to be careful and take your time.

There are all kinds of online business opportunities from which to select. You can have your own store, you can become a freelance writer, or you can build your own websites in hopes of making money from Google Adsense. These are all great endeavors, and most of them are growing in size and audience each day. You just have to read the fine print. If you see an ad offering you fifteen thousand dollars a day, you really have to consider if that is to be believed or not.

One of the top tools you have for deciding if online business opportunities are legitimate or not, is ironically, the Internet itself. Perform an exhaustive search on a company you are considering going with, and then read everything you can about the subject. If you feel there is something fishy going on, you are going to learn about it in this manner. You should also use the Better Business Bureau’s website to find out if there have been any complaints against that company. If you find complaints, find out if they have been rectified, or if the company seems to not care.

Don’t forget you can also create your own online business opportunities. This may mean you have your own hobby that you want to bring to the world. This might be good if you make candles or soaps, and want to sell them online. Sites like eBay also afford a great place to find online business opportunities for you. Take some time, as with any venture, to see if that is truly the right business opportunity for you.

Writing Articles Doesn't Work!

If you've been on the web for any length of time I'm sure you've seen the headlines on websites or in your email inbox stating things like, "Writing Articles is the Best Way to promote your website and get laser targeted traffic to your site" or "If your not writing articles to promote your site there's something wrong with you" and my favorite "Writing Articles is Free and only requires a bit of time to Write Them". My response to these statements is, "HOGWASH"

Like most of us on a limited budget I set about the task of writing articles. I spent hours upon hours writing and submitting articles to every directory I could find. After several months I concluded there was something very very wrong.

My taffic had not increased, I had not built a list of thousands of subscribers and I was no better off financialy since my affiliate links were not bringing me any sales.

So I gave up and decided those headlines I'd read were internet hype and not having any experience at writing and I'd been duped into believing that this form of marketing was a valid one.

But...

...what I was about to discover would turn my article writing upside down and change the way I would approach my article writing forever.

First I learned my articles didn’t have great titles: They did little to make the reader want to even read the article.

Second, My article didn't flow well. The reader would never finish the article get to the bio box and never get to my site.

Third, The article gave way too much information and gave the reader no incentive to look for more information, never getting to the bio box, never getting to my site.

These are just a few of the mistakes I had been making consequently causing my article marketing efforts to fail.

The above article was written in just under 20 minutes including research. The techniques used to write this article were a direct result of the information recieved from Andrew Hansen's Article Speed Writing ebook.

Because of this information my article writing has taken a definite upward turn and I cannot Thank Andrew enough!

Getting The Right Office Furniture For Computing

Having the right furniture in your office can not only help you to be more productive, but it can also provide the correct support for your body as well, especially if you spend a good majority of your time in front of the computer. And whether you’re at home or the office, you most likely know that there are proper and improper methods and heights for sitting while you work. But did you also know that the wrong office furniture can lead to Repetitive Stress Injuries that include chronic back and neck pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, eye strain and a variety of other health problems? Let’s take a look at the best methods for avoiding these issues.

Chairs
Sitting in an ergonomically correct chair is one of the best things you can do for yourself. The right chair should be easily adjustable to provide proper support for the small of your back and your lumbar curve overall. It should also be ‘user friendly’ so as to fit well with your body type. And when sitting, your feet should be comfortably flat on the floor or on a footrest in front of you.

Desk
Whether your keyboard sits on top of your desk or on a pull-out keyboard tray underneath it (which is actually the recommendation), it should be a comfortable level of between 27 and 29 inches from the floor depending on how tall you are. There should be sufficient distance between your shoulders and the keyboard so as to prevent any stress or strain in that area, as well as in your elbows and wrists as you type.

Lighting
The lighting you choose can greatly affect the quality the work you produce. The computer screen is quite bright in itself and adding even more intensity to that with the wrong lighting can cause headaches as well as eye strain. A good idea is to utilize a lamp that has a dimmer mechanism so that you can adjust it to your personal preference.

And don’t forget to take regular breaks from the computer! Sometimes we get so caught up in what we’re working on that we forget to do this. But getting up and stretching your back and muscles as well as giving your eyes a rest will greatly help you in the long run.

4 Top Search Engine Optimization (seo) Tips To Try

Search engine optimization (SEO) tips from successful Internet marketers can offer popular means of bringing more search engines and people to your websites. And more search engines plus more people is a simple formula for more clicks and sales, a win-win for online marketers in all niches.

So let’s cut to the chase, here are some top SEO tips form those who’ve been there, done that, with successful results:

1. Select a Keyword Rich Domain Name

This may not always be possible in many niche markets for the more popular keywords. Therefore you can focus on creating mini-sites that are keyword based. For example, if your website is about web hosting, you can create mini-sites about web hosting but with a lesser known keyword such as "low cost web hosting".

2. Choose Search Engine Friendly URLs

Use search engine friendly URLs when possible. You want to be sure to use hyphens and underscores in all your URLs and preferably have the URLs be the keyword that relates to the page. For example, if the web page is about web hosting, then the URL could be web-hosting or web_hosting.

3. Check out your IP Address

For the websites you believe to be most important, ensure that they have unique ip addresses for each site. The reason this is important is many sites on a "shared" hosting service share the same ip address. If any of these sites have been banned by the search engines, it could affect your site's ranking or even result in your site being banned as well, since it is sharing the same ip address.

4. Do some Keyword research

It's important to do thorough research before deciding what keywords you'll focus on when optimizing your website. A popular tool you can use is Good Keywords, a free keyword research software application.


Give these SEO tips a try and check your own results. See what works best for your products and services, and then repeat accordingly with new campaigns all year long to keep a healthy flow of traffic, clicks and sales coming your way.

Which Ebay Checkout Program Is For You?

Finding a good eBay checkout program can be difficult, if you don’t know what’s out there. If you live in Australia and are looking for a special eBay checkout program, there are a variety of different options that are available for you. Here, through this informative article, we will take a closer look at some of these checkout programs and what they have to offer you. Read on to find out more.

Marketworks

If you are looking for a great checkout program which will save you some money, you should consider Marketworks. Unlike eBay, with this eBay checkout program, you will be able to pay your fees as you sell your products. This will save you the cost of having to pay even when you do not make a sale, which is why Marketworks is so beneficial. It is also great if you are looking for a checkout program which does not require you to download or install anything, or pay any type of yearly licenses. Overall, Marketworks is the perfect eBay checkout program solution for anyone looking to save some money.

AuctionBlox

If you are looking for a great eBay checkout program which will give you a variety of options to choose from, you should pick AuctionBlox. With three different types of checkout program solutions for you to choose from at three different low monthly prices, there is no doubt that AuctionBlox has something that you are looking for. Another one of the main benefits of using AuctionBlox as your checkout program include the fact that it is simple to use.

ChannelAdvisor

If you are looking for a great eBay checkout program which will be able to ensure you a sale, you should consider using ChannelAdvisor. This checkout program uses it Keyword Term Generator to get customers interested in buying your products. With this checkout program, you pay once you get results (such as leads, sales, clicks, etc).

As you can see, there are a number of great eBay checkout programs available for you to use if you live in Australia. Finding one which is suitable to the needs of you and your business is the main key.

Home Business Success With Bulk Wholesale Distributors

Big companies with decent brand name products are hard for any home business manager to scout. You can find drop shipping suppliers at nearly every corner you turn on the web. The reason for this is simple as you will notice that you can hardly find any bulk wholesale distributors.

The number one reason for this is that most people who have contacts with a bulk wholesale distributor will build membership sites and offer their own drop shipping services in an attempt to sell more products from their inventory. This is a rip off for any home business because if you use drop shipping services, chances are that you are buying from someone who buys products from a bulk wholesale distributor and marks them up which makes it harder for you to sell.

You need to be buying at the same price as the person buying the products from the bulk wholesale distributor to be able to compete in the market place, to sell more products, and to turn a higher profit. Home business success starts at the supply and demand curve, so unless you are buying products from a bulk wholesale distributor and stocking your own inventory, chances are your profit margin is very small and your drop shipping supplier is the one making the real money for all your hard work.

Product sourcing research is a very dark road for most running a home business. Finding quality name brand products and rock bottom prices is key to a successful home business. You can find out more about product sourcing bulk wholesale distributors along with light bulk wholesale distributors from my website.

Light bulk wholesale distributors can offer any home business a decent benefit to obtaining great brand name bulk wholesale products at a very low minimum order. This is ideal for anyone selling a few products on auction sites.

Working with a bulk wholesale distributor will really give you room to grow. Being able to compete in the internet’s heavily saturated market is important. Buying from a bulk wholesale distributor is essential to home business success.

Get Listed On Chinese Search Engines

Almost everyone knows that China is th world’s most polulous nation. But how many people knowe that China’s urban middle class is projected to soon exceed the entire population of the US?. China is No.2 in the world in total Internet usage and growing fast. Its economy is roaring along at 7-10% GDP growth every year. It’s easy to understand why Western business people have been salivating over the Chinese “big, juiicy piece of meat” for a couple of decades now.

Here are two more important trends: (1) the percentage of Chinese who can speak and/or read the English language (especially read!) is increasing rapidly (leading to many positions for Westerners as English teachers), and (2) the number of Chinese “chuppies” who carry MasterCard, Visa, Discover and other international credit cards (in US dollars, no less) is also rapidly expanding. What this all adds up to is a large and growing segment of the Chinese population that can now purchase your product or service over the web. Chinese are well-known for its appetite for Western goods and services (check out Vegas if you don’t believe me!), especially luxury goods.

Is your site listed on China’s major search engines? Well, these search engines may have already picked up your listing, but why not be sure? Give the Chinese search engines a boot by listing your website with them.

Following are website submission URLs for the major Chinese web search engines. Unfortunatlely, these web pages are written in Chinese, so get some help from a Chinese:

Top 5 Chinese Search Engines

1. Baidu: http://baidu.com/search/url_submit.htm

2. Sohu: http://db.sohu.com/regurl/regform.asp?Step=REGFORM&class=

3. Sobao: http://search.sobao.com/Computers_and_Internet/Personal/

4. Tianwang: http://home.tianwang.com/denglu.htm

5. Sina: http://iask.com/guest/add_url.php

THE FINE PRINT: Baidu, Sobao, and Sohu are the big players in the Chinese search engine market, with Baidu being the Google of China. The rest of these search engines may be closed down by the time you read this –or one of them may have overtaken Baidu.

Earning Money Online - The Truth About Opportunities Abound

We all have to earn money in order to buy the things that we want and need, right? There will always be the Rockefellers of the world, who are fortunately blessed from birth. As for the rest of us mere mortals, an income of some sort is imperative. Of course it would be sweet if we could all just have what ever we want, when we want them. Then we'd have tons of time to travel the world and kick back our heels. However, it is still truly important to find something that you enjoy doing. Because you will likely be doing it for 30 or 40 years. Fortunately the opportunity spectrum is not quite so limited these days. Take the current business earn money online opportunity. It has become a trend amongst many today, to take the unknown route forward.

Typically I mingle with other parents while waiting for my daughter after school. They often ask me if I work second or third shift. I snicker and tell them I work from home. Apparently the business earn money online opportunity is not so prominent of a concept in my neck of the woods. I would be willing to bet they wouldn't even ask me this if I were a woman.

Regardless of this standard, folks are shocked when I tell them that I work from home. Haven't these people discovered the Internet yet? Even men I talk to will generally respond with, "Wow I would like to work from home too..." Well I've got news for them. Get on your computers and research contemporary business earn money online opportunity. It's not like it's some exclusive club for the divine ones. Anyone with the right skill set CAN work online AND make a comfortable living if they just know how.

A business earn money online opportunity is probably just around the corner if you do your research properly. Hop on the web and do a little investigative work. Look into your particular area of expertise and see if it can be done from home. Or maybe you want to look into other lines of employment that relate to your degree and/or experience. That business earn money online opportunity is feasible. You just have to go after it.

How To Maximize Home Business Website Sales

Many of the visitors to your home business website will remain just that: visitors. What is it about a home business website that keeps potential customers returning and eventually beginning to buy your products? Here are a few ways you can make the most of your home business website.

The most important part of your home business website is making the site very easy to navigate. All of your home business information should be easily accessible to site visitors. If the home business website is confusing or even slightly complicated, this will turn away many potential customers right away. Slightly less crucial, but still very important, is your home business website design. Have you laid out the home business website with colors that work well together and don't blind the eye? Is your font easy for anyone to read, and professional looking? These are the very first important questions to ask yourself when assessing your home business website, or your plans for a home business website.

Also, be aware that information from your site visitors is crucial for your success. Find out how customers found your home business website, because this will enable you to advertise your home business in a more directly targeted way. It is also beneficial to get the names and addresses of your website visitors. Provide a sign up form on your home business website that allows customers or potential customers to receive email messages from you. You may want to offer some sort of contest or drawing in order to encourage customers to sign up for your home business email list. Be sure to make them aware of how often you plan to email them. In other words, if you send out only one or two home business emails per month, this information would help put people at ease, knowing they will not be receiving an inbox full of messages.

Additionally, your home business website can also provide testimonials from previously satisfied customers. You can help give credibility to these testimonials by adding pictures, website addresses, etc. of the businesses and people your home business has helped in the past.

Understanding And Using Myspace Privacy Settings

There are moments that each person needs an amount of privacy. This is applicable to online privacy and also to MySpace profile. The next section will talk about several privacy options with your free MySpace account and on how to apply these certain features.

You must be logged into your own MySpace account first in order to modify the privacy option of you profile and to make sure that all features will be available for you. Do this by choosing “Sign In” from www.myspace.com or check your MySpace profile then click “Home” at the top the page. This will bring you to MySpace log in page and let you have a full access of your account and you can now have a look at possible privacy options for you.

You will notice a list of links on the right side of the profile picture of your MySpace home page.
These links include:

• edit profile
• account settings
• add/edit photos
• add/change videos
• manage blog

There are more links also. Click the link that says “Account Settings” to check your privacy options. You will be directed to a page where there will be more choices including explore/change your privacy settings.

While looking around your MySpace settings, you will notice a part marked “privacy setting”.
You must see a red colored linked next to it that says “Change Settings”, you may need to click this link.

You are now set to explore and change your MySpace privacy settings. You will find the things needed for you to change your privacy settings. Selections include:

• require email address or last name in order for other members to make an add friend request
• require approval before other members' comments post on your profile
• check to hide your online status from other users.
• block users who are not added to my friends
• set your profile to private

Setting your profile to private is one of the most used privacy option used in MySpace. This means nobody can check you profile without your approval. Since other members won’t be able to view your profile, you may have less add friend request as a result.

The Danger Of Spyware

Nothing has transformed the way in which we live our life like the computer. Gone are the traditional ways in which we worked, shopped, played, and were entertained. Today, the computer has become our hub of all our daily function and we have become enormously dependent on its function. But along with this tremendous functionality comes the work of many criminal minds that are using this technology against us. One such sinister program, designed to steal our personal information from us is Spyware.

Spyware is just one of the programs infiltrating our computers today, but it is by far the most dangerous. Rather than seeping into our system like a virus, Spyware comes attached to the myriad of software that we download on a yearly basis. This is the way in which Spyware gets into our computer and, once there, it is very difficult to eradicate.

Once integrated into our computer system, Spyware then goes about collecting our personal information that it then sells to third parties that have paid for its use. By capturing the keystrokes we make, the passwords we type in, and the websites we visit, Spyware is able to obtain all that it needs to make millions of dollars from the companies that pay them for the information. This information is then turned against us as third parties tailor their marketing messages based on what where and for what we have been shopping.

It is difficult to know if your system has indeed been infiltrated by Spyware but some of the telltale signs are an increase in ad pop-ups when you are on and offline, a slower running system, and even occasional freezing of your computer.

If you do detect Spyware on your computer, you are wise to purchase Spyware scanning software from a reputable dealer. Do not by any means download such software from online resources offering free software; some software that promises to rid your computer from Spyware actually installs it instead.

Ultimately, prevention is your best bet when it comes to Spyware. Be wary of the websites you visit and do not download any software from sites that you do not know to be completely reputable.

Rimini Fair And Business Hospitality

Already known worldwide for its entertainment places and fun-filled environment, over the last few years Rimini has oriented itself towards one more sector of hospitality, namely towards the world of business.

From fashion to nature, from beauty to sport, travelling and economics, Rimini has become an important centre in the international fair arena, with a rich agenda of fairs.

From the TTI, the International Travel Trade, to Rimini Wellness, the festival of fitness, a ot of visitors come in Rimini to see theese special events.

To meet the requests and the on-going changes, the large fair centre of Rimini Fiera has been built and a network of conference facilities to welcome the protagonists of the business world, such as the Palacongressi and the Palaterme of Riccione, and the Centro Congressi Europeo of Bellaria has been organized.

The entire province is full of meetings, conferences and seminars of every kind, ranging from cultural topic to economics, and the city of Rimini presents itself to the international arena with a new business-oriented look.

Hotel facilities have been brought into line with the needs of the evolving market and now in Rimini one can find hotels for fairs with targeted services for all those who travel for business, such as meeting rooms, ADSL connection in the room, newspaper every day, special bus for the fair and special information point to guide the guests trough the city anf its beauty.

The Rex Hotels are precisely a group of 3, 4 and 5 start hotels offering elegance, quality and high technology to their guests.

They provide fully-equipped fair information centres and a shuttle service to the fair of Rimini.

They are complete with gyms and wellness centres for guests to enjoy some relaxation time after a long business day between meetings and fair visits.

Rimini’s hotels make up a state-of-the-art accommodation system, which cares for every detail and has been providing hospitality to a considerable number of visitors, from businessmen to career women…

Title Tags And Search Engine Optimization

Anyone serious about succeeding online must take search engines seriously. Search engines drive a significant amount of traffic to your site. You have to do everything in your power to optimize your site to please the search engines. The bigger value the search engines place on your site, the more traffic they’ll generate for you.

The key to proper SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is to achieve optimal results for relevant search phrases. If you have a Chiropractic practice in San Diego, your goal is to get optimal ranking for your related keywords such as “san diego chiropractic.” It wouldn’t help you business to also rank well for “new york city chiropractic” because your customers are in San Diego. The key is not only to rank well in the search engines, but also to rank well for the appropriate keyword phrases.

There are a variety of techniques listed below to help you get more visitors to your website. Make sure you include as many as you can into your search engine optimization strategy.

Write a Page Title

Title tags are critical for search engines. The title tag copy is one of the most important SEO factors in how the search engines view a web page. The title tag is displayed in the search engine result pages as the heading describing the web page. It’s crucial to maintain balance between optimizing for the search engines and being descriptive for humans. A title page that stands out is more likely to trigger a click from a searcher. Avoid "filler" words from the title, such as "the," "and," etc, and keep your title fairly short. A good rule of thumb is to keep your title under 64 characters.

It is of paramount importance to include your target keyword phrases in your title. Note: Make sure the words from your page title are also found within the content of your web page. Search engines are looking for the connection between the page title and the page content.

Practical Example: An accountant in San Diego, may consider the following page title “San Diego Accounting & Bookkeeping Services”

Tips For Finding High Income Business Opportunities

Many people are looking for a way to make a lot of money very quickly, and without much effort. Many times people get scammed out of their hard earned money by someone else that is trying to achieve the same goals that they are trying to achieve. High income business opportunities often come few and far between, and if you are lucky to be offered one of these opportunities chances are you are not going to be in a financial situation to take this chance. Although high income business opportunities are not very plentiful, there are many different opportunities online that will help you to create a higher income for yourself.

One program that will give you the opportunity for a high income business is affiliate programs. Some of these programs are not worth anything, and some of them actually require you to spend money to join the affiliate program. If an affiliate program requires you to spend money to join, then it might be a scam, and at the very least it is a waste of your time. However some affiliate programs do exist that if approached correctly could turn into a high income business opportunity. An affiliate program basically is a link from your web site to another merchant company. Some of these affiliate programs will pay you based on the number of click-thrus that you produce to their site. A click-thru is when someone clicks on an affiliate link from your site and goes to a merchant’s web site. The other type of affiliate program pays you a percentage of merchandise sales which are generated from the link on your web site. These affiliate programs can definitely turn into high income business opportunities.

If affiliate programs do not strike your fancy, then you might be able to generate a high income doing other types of work that are available on the Internet. Many web sites are looking for content or article writers to help create content for their web sites. Other very common business opportunities online are data entry and transcription work. Both of these jobs can turn into a high income business opportunity once your reputation has been established.

Images, Hotlinking And Bandwidth Theft

The internet is a powerful tool and internet users should use it responsibility. Internet etiquette refers to the standards for proper behavior on the Internet. Hotlinking to images is a violation of Internet etiquette.

The majority of image hotlinking comes from blogs, discussion forums, and websites like MySpace and Stumbleupon. As a long time Internet user, I can tell you that image hotlinking has always been a major concern. While it’s questionable on whether or not hotlinking is copyright infringement, it is a theft issue.

Hotlinking, also known as bandwidth theft is direct linking to a web site's files. When you link to an image on someone else’s server instead of saving the image to your computer and uploading it to your blog you are stealing that websites bandwidth.

Most websites have a limited amount of data transfer (or bandwidth) allowed. If they go over this limit, it costs them extra. Stealing bandwidth therefore unnecessarily increases the cost of hosting. Also, with many hosts limiting the amount of bandwidth a site can use monthly, their site could be shut down for exceeding bandwidth quota.

Though it is the webmaster's responsibility to prevent the unauthorized remote loading of images from their site by uploading an .htaccess file to their server, anyone hotlinking is doing something that truly is unethical. As a webmaster, hotlinking is certainly not something that I appreciate.

If you wish to republish an image, the proper thing to do is to save the image to your computer and upload it to your blog or a free image host. Make sure that you obtain permission from the original author before you upload it and before publication to your blog takes place.

The solution for webmasters dealing with hotlinking is to use an .htaccess file. It’s very simple to implement and it works beautifully!

If you are using Wordpress, there is a hotlink protection plugin that you can install which fights bandwidth theft.

A word to the wise, please don't hotlink. Hotlinking is definitely not proper Internet etiquette.

Making Meals Out Of Nothing

If you're like me and do your shopping weekly or monthly, or maybe even on a tight budget, you always run out of things before the next shopping trip. Or fed up of trying to come up with different meals each day, or want to try a new recipe but haven't got all the right ingredients, then improvise.

Meals can be made out of virtually nothing. Or as my family calls it not a lot night' it's great fun experimenting and coming up with new ideas. I wanted to make a Stir Fry to go with the Chicken Curry I had made, I only had onions, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower, I looked in the cupboard and found a tin of Hot Dog Sausages, I chopped them up, and threw them in. It went down a treat.

I always keep eggs and flour in, it gives you the base for a Quiche and you can add anything to it you want. Or you could make a Sponge Cake for dessert.

Pies can be made out of nothing, Cheese, Mashed Potato and onion mixed together with a little milk. Corned Beef makes a tasty pie. Sausage Meat, finely chopped mushrooms and onions, mixed together with an egg and a little black pepper.

Pasta Shells make a great standby if you're low on potatoes, just throw some grated cheese in with them, some seasoning and a few chopped tomatoes, gives them a whole new look and taste. Or put grated cheese, cream and a little chopped up Ham, then you have a Carbonara.

Pizzas can be anything you want them to be, made with leftovers or things out of the cupboard; even Baked Beans go well on a Pizza.

Slightly watered down Tomato Ketchup, or Brown Sauce makes a great base for a marinade, put in whatever seasoning you like, and brush it over Chops, Steak, Chicken even Sausages, gives it a whole new flavour, the kids will love it.

Even Mince can be made less boring, add onions and carrots pour gravy over, mix plain flour and butter together to make breadcrumbs, sprinkle over the top and Hey Presto! You have a mince crumble.

It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just use your imagination, and soon you will be creating all sorts of tasty recipes, even your friends will want to know your secret. Enjoy.