Google settles Adwords lawsuit

Google has settled a lawsuit with American Blind & Wallpaper Factory over its search ads, bringing a four-year long dispute to an end.

The retailer had claimed that Google’s Adwords programme allowed other firms to infringe its trademarks when bidding on keywords, but pretty much looks to have climbed down as the trial approached.

Google said no payment had been included in the settlement and will not have to make any changes to Adwords’ rules.

It promised not to make any changes to AdWords’ trademark policy that would adversely affect American Blind in return for the suit being dropped. Each side will pay its own legal costs.

The move chalks up another victory for Google in the US, although it has been defeated in similar cases in France. Now it just faces the prospect of a legal skirmish with the world’s largest airline.

Google launches interactive widget ads

Google today launched Gadget Ads, a new interactive rich media ad format which will allow advertisers to measure users' responses to the ads, as well as updating ad content in real time.

The new ads designed for use across Google's network of sites, and aims to offer a way for internet users to interact with ad content in a way that is not possible with standard web ads.

The measurability of the Gadget ads will appeal to advertisers, and goes beyond merely measuring how many people clicked on an ad.

Instead, advertisers will be able to see how many users interacted with the ads in a number of ways. For instance, in the case of video ads, advertisers can see how much of a video has been watched, whether menu controls were used, and so on.

For web users, the ads avoid the need to click through to another website, as all content can be viewed within the ad on the website you have visited.

Google has been running a beta of the new ad system with a group of AdWords advertisers, including Honda, Intel and Paramount. Some examples of the Gadget ads can be viewed here.

Google will set some standards for users of these ads - animations longer than 15 seconds will not be permitted, reading or writing cookies is also forbidden, as are popups or other external alerts.

Advertisers can choose from CPC or CPM pricing models for the Gadget ads, while Google will be offering the usual targeting options available to help place the ads effectively.

How much traffic can Digg or Google News drive to your site?

Whilst looking through our site visitors stats recently I noticed two big spikes in traffic.

What may have caused them...?

Below is a graph taken from our web analytics software (the nice folks over at WebSideStory ) showing the number of visitors to E-consultancy.com over June and July this year.

You can see that traffic typically ticks along at around 4,000 unique users a day with it busier during the week than at the weekend. But you can also see two big spikes - one in June and one more recently at the end of July.

The first spike drove around 12,000 unique users to our site. The second around 35,000 unique users.

Looking into it, the first spike came from Digg. Specifically from here - http://www.digg.com/programming/Are_all_AJAX_homepages_doomed_ which points to a blog post we created at http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/361247/are-all-ajax-homepages-doomed.html and got 429 "Diggs".

The second spike came from this appearance on Google News which pointed to a blog post at http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/361446/10-reasons-why-i-ll-swap-my-ipod-for-a-zune.html.

Three things I noted from this:

Firstly, that 'social media' sites like Digg can indeed drive a lot of traffic. So too can aggregator sites like Google News. Even for a niche player like us there is a lot of attention and traffic that you can get this way.

Secondly, that if you are in B2B marketing (which we are, given our users and subscribers are all online marketing and e-commerce professionals) then you can get a lot of attention (including PR etc.) if there is something of a consumer spin to what you are talking about e.g. the big traffic spike we got was because 'iPod' is such a popular keyword and topic. And it is particularly easy to do this online.

Thirdly, in both cases, if you read the user comments and Digg comments, there is both commendation and criticism of what we originally said. Some of it is subjective and open to opinion, some of it I think the users / readers probably have a fair point. So the collective wisdom is indeed greater than any one organisation. But that's the beauty of the internet and 'social media' as a platform for debate and collective self-betterment (if that word exists?).

Clearly the more important question as a business is what brand value (or damage) and what commercial value (or damage) such traffic-driving might have. Certainly if we were flogging advertising on a CPM basis (which we don't) then it's pretty easy to see the value...

Pay-per-Digg service exposed

A pay-for-votes service has been launched that allows publishers to promote their submissions on Digg.com.

User/Submitter touts itself as a site "where Digg submitters pay for Digg users to promote their stories, and where Digg users make easy money".

Digg is a social book-marking service where users can submit stories and vote for content that they like. Submissions that garner enough interest are promoted to the service's front page, which typically leads to a spike in traffic.

The User/Submitter site offers Digg users 10 cents for every 'digg' they issue to listed stories. The publishers of those stories are then charged a base fee of $20 plus $1 per Digg.

It is unclear whether the service offers a genuine product or is a hoax, however. In a test by vnunet.com, we were able to create an account and were presented with a list of stories on which we could vote.

But we were unable to verify whether those stories had recruited the services of User/Submitter or were just random links pulled from the Digg.com website.

User/Submitter did not respond to several requests for comment.

Digg disables pay-per-vote service

Digg has clamped down on a new service which claims to allow publishers to manipulate ratings on the social bookmarking site.

The offending site, User/Submitter, describes itself as an opportunity for Digg users to “make easy money” by promoting articles, while charging publishers a fee for the privilege.

However, a statement on the site says it had been forced to rework its system after being discovered by Digg during trials.

It says: “Digg has recently been disabling user accounts that have shown obvious patterns of using User/Submitter. At this time, please wait to use User/Submitter until we rework the system to help users avoid getting disabled by Digg.

“We should be rolling out this new version of User/Submitter in a few days.”

Google Analytics - Track Your Site Traffic

Google analytics is a great tool for your website. you can easily track users comming on your

site. Google analytics is another free service provided by google. To use this service first you have to sign up for an invitation. You have to wait until you get an invitation from google. Once you have an analytics account one can easily optimize his or her site. There are some great advantages of google analytics. AdWords users: Google Analytics can be used to track cost data from Google AdWords and only if AdWords and Analytics accounts are linked to each other. Log on to your AdWords account and follow the instructions on how to link your Analytics account with Adwords.

You will get three different type of overviews with google analytics:
1. Executive Overview
2. webmaster Overview
3. Marketer Overview

All hold their different features.

The main features include:
1. Overview
i) Conversion Summary
ii) Marketing Summary
iii) Content Summary
iv) Site Overlay

2. Marketing Optimization
i) Unique Visitior Tracking
a) Daily visitors
b) Visits and pageview tracking
c) Goal conversion tracking (very important if you are using adwords or any other advertising.)
d) Absolute unique visitors
e) Visitor loyalty
f) Visitor recency
ii) Visitor segment performance
a) New v/s returning
b) Referring source
c) Geo location
d) Geo map overlay
e) Network location
f) Language
g) User-defined
h) Domains
iii) Marketing Campaign Results
a) Campaign conversion
b) Source conversion
c) Medium conversion
d) Referral conversion
e) Campaign ROI
f) Source ROI
g) Medium ROI
iv). Search Engine Marketing
a) All CPC Analysis
b) Adwords analysis
c) Adwords keyword positions
d) Overall keyword position
e) CPC vs organic conversion
f) Keyword considerations

3. Content Optimization
i) Ad version testing
a) Overall Ad A/B testing
b) Source specific testing
c) Keyword specific testing
ii) Content performance
a) Top content
b) Content drilldown
c) Content by titles
d) Dynamic content
e) Depth of visit
f) Length of visit
iii) Navigational Analysis
a) Entrance bounce rates
b) Top exit points
c) Site overlay
d) Initial navigation
e) All navigation
iv) Goals and Funnel process
a) Goal tracking
b) Goal conversion
c) Defined funnel navigation
d) Defined funnel abandonment
e) Reverse goal path
f) Goal verification
v) Webdesign Parameters
a) Browser versions
b) Platform versions
c) Browser and platform combos
d) Screen Resolutions
e) Screen colors
f) Languages
g) Java enabled
h) Flash version
i) Connection speed
h) Hostnames

With these amazing features you will know a lot of things which you need to know, so that you can optimize and add suitable content to you website to achive maximum visitors.

Creating Google Analytics account
Visit www.google.com/analytics for signing up.
Enter your Google Account email and password.
Don’t have a Google Account, click on Sign up now to create a new google account.
Once you have setup a google account enter your Website’s URL
Select http:// or https:// from options. Enter a nickname for this account and click Continue.
Enter your contact information and click Continue.

The tracking code that you need to paste into each page of your site. Copy and paste the code given in the box into the bottom of the content, before the tag of page. If you use a common include or template, you can enter it there.

change the xxxx-x to your google analytics account number. Google analytics will start tracking your site traffic within 24 hours after the installation of the code in your website.

Upload Files To Megaupload.com - Earn Reward Points/Earn Money

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Make money from Digg.com

Those who spend lot of time digging on digg.com, why not make some money while you digg. Yes, you can earn each time you digg a post. This method is an extension about how Web 2.0 can be misused by social networking.

A site called User/Submitter offers 50 cents for digging a set of 5 posts on digg.com. All you have to do is register at usersubmitter.com with your digg users ID and they will send you the list of post’s to be dug. What is this site getting by paying 50 cents for every digg set? That’s a logical question, let me answer that. Here is how exactly User/Submitter is able to pay its users, if you run a website which has articles on it, to drive traffic to the site you pay User/Submitter a base amount of $20 and $1 per each digg. Digg.com flashes your post on its front page only if the post has been dug at least 51 times within 24 hours. A post on the front page of the digg.com can drives 10,000 to 15,000 users to the site which roughly translates to $400-$500 Adsense dollars. So by paying $71 ( $20 base + $51 for each digg) getting a huge amount of traffic which eventually means hard cash is not a bad deal at all.

Digg.com needs to come up with another algorithm to stop people from exploiting its services.

Let Spammers Pay for the Spamming emails in your Inbox!

Tired of e-mail spam? Let’s make the spammers pay for what we see in our inbox. The idea sounds thrilling isn’t it? Let’s see how it’s done.

A site called BoxBe.com lets you create a public address which will be forwarded to the advertisers and different directories. If any of the advertisers wants to send a e-mail, he will first have to pay BoxBe.com for sending the e-mail to your address. The price can be set by the user or BoxBe.com will do it for you.

Once you have funds in your account you can either donate to charity directly from you BoxBe account or the funds will be transferred to your PayPal account.

Now that’s fun, isn’t it! Earning from E-mail SPAM!

Tips For Writing Better Pay-Per-Click Ads

When it comes to pay-per-click advertising, there are two ways to decrease your spending. You can lower your cost per click (which will lower your position and your CTR) or you can improve your ads (which will increase your CTR and your position). Great ads will attract more clicks for a given amount of impressions, which will be rewarded by Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing with lower bid prices or higher rankings.
The real secret to writing “the best ad on the page” is to ruthlessly test and track multiple ads over multiple test iterations. By doing this, you will improve your ad over time, and will eventually have a great performing ad with a very high click through rate.
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few tips you could use to give your initial ads a boost, or to help you beat your personal best performing ad time and time again. So without further ado, here are 18 tips for writing better PPC ads:
Write ads for small groups of keywords. By grouping your keywords very tightly, and writing your ads specifically for those keywords, you will give yourself a large advantage over your competition. Many people are too lazy to take the time required to do this properly, yet it is something that will increase your CTR every single time.
Work your keywords into the ads as much as possible. If you took the advice from the previous tip, you will have an easier time with this one. You should try to get your keywords to appear multiple times in your ad so that you can take full advantage of keyword bolding. I sometimes include the keyword in all four lines of the PPC ad for maximum bolding.
Give the ads some visual appeal. This takes some additional creativity and planning, but can really help your ad to stand out. You can make each line progressively longer (or shorter) for a cascading effect, you can alternate lengths to create a visual “arrow” or “reverse arrow” shape within your ad, or you can make your ad intentionally extra short. All of these will help you ad differentiate itself from the competition and will hopefully attract some eyeballs.
Write ads with your audience in mind. When you are writing an ad, think to yourself “what is my audience looking for when they search for this keyword?” If you can “read their minds” and guess their internal dialog, you will be able to answer their exact questions and get their attention. This is another tip that is immensely easier if you group your keywords very tightly.
Create an attention-grabbing headline. Nothing in your ad is more important that your headline. The problem with PPC ads is that you don’t get much space for it (25 characters with AdWords). Craft your headline wisely, but don’t stress over it too much, you will probably be split testing many, many different variations before you find the great ones.
Ask the audience a question. This is definitely a good strategy for certain markets. If you can work a question into your headline or description, test it out and see how it impacts the CTR. If someone is searching for something, and then you confirm what they are searching for, they are likely to click on your ad. Additionally, the tone of the question, along with the question mark, helps differentiate your ad from the others.
Use specific numbers. This is a common copywriting trick that has been used for decades. Numbers create interest and specific numbers create curiosity. They won’t always perform better, but try to test the impact of including numbers in your ad. If you can, include a very specific number such as “314″ instead of “300+” or “76.83%” instead of “75%”. You don’t have to be 100% accurate with the numbers either, as long as you aren’t blatantly lying.
Capitalize strategically. It is better to capitalize the first letter of every word? The first letter of important words? Just the first letter of words in the headline? Should you capitalize words in your display URL? You can never be sure until you have tested it, but it is something that you must test. I usually start out capitalizing everything, then try out any combinations I can think of.
Borrow ideas from others. Another copywriting principle that has been in practice for decades is borrowing ideas from other ads. Although you should technically only take “ideas” (such as rewriting an ad about “pens” to work with your “cheese” keywords), you won’t get into any trouble copying direct competitors. Take some of the top (or your favorite) ads that are being shown for your keywords and mix them up to create something new. It they are at the top of the listings, they probably have a pretty good ad (or are paying out the nose).
Emphasize the benefits of your offer. Yet another age-old copywriting principle. Your audience doesn’t care how many features your are offering or how great they are, they want to know “What’s in it for me?” If you can tell them, in your ad, what benefit they will get from giving you their click, you will likely have a successful ad.
Use words that evoke emotion. If you can effectively get people to feel emotions when reading your ad, they will probably feel compelled to click it. The list of emotion words goes on and on, so here is a nice guide to emotion words.
Test multiple versions of your display URL. This was touched on in tip number 8, but needs to be expanded. While you should experiment with capitalization (i.e. “DomainName.com” vs “domainname.com”), you should also experiment with “www”, sub domains, and pages. It usually, but not always, increases the CTR when you include the keywords in your URL. You can essentially do this one of two ways: “Key-Words.DomainName.com” or “DomainName.com/Key-Words.” Although some uptight editors might disable these ads if the pages don’t actually exist, you can resubmit them and a nicer editor will realize that there is no harm done.
Be cautious with prices. Although prices do have their place as negative qualifiers, they will usually be detrimental to your CTR. Unless your price is the lowest, it is probably best to leave it out of your ad. You can, instead, state the savings as a benefit to the user.
Include a call-to-action. Sometimes, the most effective way to get someone to do something is to simply ask them to do it. That’s the principle behind the call to action. Because you have such limited space in a PPC ad, the call-to-action might not be beneficial, but is is at least worth a test. Just including something like “Click here to receive this benefit” is sufficient.
Double check spelling and grammar. This might seem obvious, but is can very easy to make a stupid mistake. Having a grammatical or spelling error in your ad hurts the credibility of your ad and will most likely get it disable by an editor, costing you valuable testing time.
Don’t waste space with useless words. Like I said before, the space available to you in a pay-per-click ad is extremely limited. Although your ads should be grammatically correct, they do not need to be sophisticated sentences. Keep them simply and concise so that it is easier for the reader to quickly understand what you are offering.
Use negative keywords. This isn’t directly related to actually writing your ads, but it is definitely important. It goes along with tip number 1. If you don’t use negative keywords, your ad is going to be triggered by keywords that you didn’t intend for. When this happens, your ad will not match what the consumer was searching for, they will not click your ad, and your CTR will suffer.
Make the ad relevant to the landing page. I saved this suggestion for last because it will not effect the CTR of your ad in the least bit (it can, however, effect your landing page quality score). With that being said, it is still very important that you make your ad relevant to the landing page. If a visitor reads a particular offer or benefit in your ad, they are expecting to find it when they click through. Give them what you promised in your ad and you will experience higher conversions. Give them something that doesn’t match the ad and you will have a lot of confused visitors who reach for the back button.
There you have it, eighteen tips I have learned through my experience with PPC marketing. Keep in mind that these are merely suggestions, they can’t possibly be used all at once, and they won’t always make for a better ad. You need to test every change you make to your ads to determine if it has a positive or negative overall effect.

These will not help to Make Money Online

Have you read enough tips on how to make money online? Well, here are some tips to help you NOT to make money online.1) Do nothing. Seriously. Just keep on reading tips about how to make money online, research to your heart’s content, buy all sorts of ebooks and info products… But never, ever follow through with any of the money making ideas and tips that you have.
2) Insist that it’s really too easy to make real money online. If it’s too much like work, then it’s just not worth doing. Follow those get-rich-schemes. Believe that you’ll be an Internet Millionaire if you just find that One Great Online Business.
3) Have too many projects going on at the same time. This way, you can come up with several so-so money-making ideas and you end up wondering what you’re doing wrong if none of them take off.
4) Copy what already works. I mean, why come up with your own idea? You heard that blogging about making money/digital photography/gadgets/(fill in the blank) helps this other person earn thousands of dollars a month. Or, that person who sells embroidered shirts on eBay is a Power Seller. So, why not do the same thing? Brilliant.
5) Start something that you don’t care much for. Who cares if your passion is really knitting? Someone said that cameras and beauty products are the best ways to make money online. So, you’re off to do just that - even if you can’t care less about the latest news and issues that surround photography or beauty.
6) Believe that your interest in something is all you need to succeed. You just need to love online dating, in order for you to start an online dating site, right? Forget any other possible business skill that you need in order to make a venture succeed. Who cares about planning, accounting, marketing…?
7) Listen to every single person who says it’s impossible to make money online. There’s just no way you can get cash from the web. Everyone on the Internet is just off to take advantage of you and do really, really bad things to you.
8) Start a project and forget about development. If it’s ‘out there’, then it should just start raking the cash in, right? Just start a blog then never mind the quality of the content and don’t worry about promoting it and such. Open an online store and just stock it up without doing much else. Sign up for an affiliate programme and don’t come up with innovative ways to promote it.
9) Quit at the first sight of trouble. Not enough dollars in Adsense? Just forget it then. No one’s buying your handmade bags? Close your online shop.
How difficult is it NOT to make money online? Easy peasy, right?

Earning skills for reading

People make judgments, knowingly or unknowingly, in their life all the time. For example, they will do it when they decide on the type of shoes to buy, or when they have to face big issues such as choosing a good college to enter. But not all the judgments people make are sound ones. To form a sound judgment calls for an effort to give one’s opinion objectively as well as correctly on the basis of facts. In reading activity, an adequate judgment must be based strictly on the information given by the reading material. Therefore, in learning how to make sound judgments about what you read, the most important thing that you should bear in mind is to examine facts closely and then make your judgments carefully. Making sound judgments requires critical reading on your part. Generally speaking, authors, no matter what their medium of communication, aim to convince you that what they say is true and should be accepted as truth. They try to get you to share, at least momentarily, their attitude towards people and events. But everyone has biases; so do authors. To be a critical reader, therefore, you should be fully aware of the author’s biases. It is important for you to approach the reading material with a questioning mind. Instead of accepting passively or blindly, you should evaluate what the author says. You should demand evidence, insist on facts, and test whatever the author says against what you know by experience or what you have read from other sources. Only after this can sound judgments be formed.

4 popular ways to make money without spending money

I am trying these ways from André le Roux Editor, Pandecta Magazine; and I'd like to share with my mylot friends!

WAYS TO MAKE MONEY: # 1

Make money selling your own product Yes, you can do this without spending money. This is the path most small business take - and probably the most profitable one. It is also the most difficult one of the 4 ways to make money without money. It's difficult and time-consuming. If you're forced to do it without a budget, it will be even more time-consuming. But you're determined to build a profitable, long-term Internet business, right? Hard work is not a problem. Right? The most difficult part of this method is the product development. What can you make without spending a penny? Something that people will still buy from you? The answer lies in information products. We all have marketable skills. You're an expert in something. Do you know a lot about cars? Write a mini-book on basic engine maintenance. Know a lot about kids? Write a book called "101 Ways To Keep 2-year olds entertained" - you've already got your first buyer right here! This is really doable. There are people who'd pay to know what you know. Get nitty-gritty advice on creating your own product. Get the very short, very powerful e-book called "Ways To Make Money On The Net". No hype. Just dead-accurate advice. This document will save you two years of trial and error! Guaranteed.

WAYS TO MAKE MONEY: # 2

Make money selling someone else's product When you sign up as an affiliate/ reseller for Internet company X, it means that you refer people to them. When someone buys, you get a cut. It's still hard work, but this is probably the most doable of the ways to make money without money. You can't believe everything you read about affiliate programs, but they can really make money. A significant portion of my own Internet income is from affiliate programs. There are a couple of things you have to get right though. That book I mentioned above also looks at some of the best ways to make money with affiliate programs.

WAYS TO MAKE MONEY: # 3

Make money selling advertising space The idea behind it is to offer free information from your web site to pull in high volumes of traffic. Once you've achieved that, advertisers would pay you to display their advertisements on your site. This is probably one of the oldest and most hyped ways to make money without money. It worked really well until the end of 2000. It's how Yahoo became big. With the dotcom bust in 2000, even Yahoo was forced to look to alternative revenue streams. Advertisers began to realize that, in most cases, web advertising is just not cost effective. Most people don't click ads right? I don't. But wait... there's life in this baby yet... Contextual advertising (like Google's AdSense program) is now a big thing in online advertising. If done properly, it is far more effective than any other form ads so advertisers are again spending money online.

WAYS TO MAKE MONEY: # 4

Make money doing what you already do This is not for you if you're looking to build a serious small business on the Net. It's the easiest of the ways to make money without money, but because it's easy, it doesn't pay much. Very little in fact. It mostly involves getting paid to surf the Internet and getting paid to take surveys. It's like stuffing envelopes for money. If that blows your hair back, type "getting paid to surf" into the search box at Google and hit "Enter". Take your pick. Don't expect to get rich though. WAYS TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE... Bonus Tip How serious are you? Ok, you've read this far. Time I spilled the beans... Making money online is not easy. If it was, you'd be out there making it, not over here reading about it. I worked my butt off for two years before I made my first sale online. Two years of trial and error, late nights and too much coffee. Shave two years off your learning curve. Get "Ways To Make Money On The Net" right now. At only 39 bucks with a full money-back guarantee to back your investment, it's a no-brainer. Find out more about the book here. Buy that book, read it, APPLY it and keep at it. You can and will make money from on the Net. All the best and enjoy your earning!

Tips on being a good boss when you work for yourself

As you become increasingly successful at online auction selling, you'll find this activity takes up more and more of your time and gradually becomes less of a hobby and more of a job. Then you'll wake up one morning and realize that not only are you your own boss, but also you're probably the worst boss you've ever had. At that point, you can either quit and go to work for someone else, or learn how to be a better boss to yourself. To-do lists are necessary. But as they grow, they can become like an ever-increasing load of bricks in your backpack. No matter how hard you work, no matter how much you get done, the burden of all the things that you should be doing and haven't done gets heavier and heavier, until you just want to drop the weight altogether and forget about it. If someone else is your boss and knows how to manage well, that boss will help you set priorities: you don't need to do everything today; do this one important thing and do it well, and you'll be a hero. The boss will pat you on the back now and then and let you know that your work is appreciated. The boss will insist that you take breaks and that you not work on weekends or holidays except in emergencies, and will insist that you take a vacation. But when you work for yourself, unless you learn how to be a good boss to yourself, the whole burden of everything that needs to be done may weigh on you 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, year-round. First, prioritize those to-do lists, and try to set reasonable expectations for yourself. Each day there should be one task that if you can finish that day, you'll feel you've done something significant. Anything else you might do is a bonus. Next, begin to keep lists of accomplishments. You may have half a dozen or a dozen kinds of things that you need to do on a regular basis. Keep a list for each of them, including a category for "miscellaneous." When you turn your attention to one thing and start working on it, continue working on it until you arrive at some logical stopping point -- a point from which it will be easy to start again and that feels like an "ending," so you can add it to your list and get a sense of accomplishment for having done it. The lists are a way to pat yourself on the back -- it's cumulative. The longer your list of accomplishments gets, the more you'll feel good about adding to it, and even looking back at it. Also, if you can, while working on projects, divide what you hope to accomplish in a day into pieces -- so you aim to get to this part done by 10 AM, that part by noon, etc. That way, when you work fast, you can reward yourself with breaks. One of the challenges in working alone is that you are likely not to give yourself any breaks, and not to give yourself any rewards or pats on the back either. In addition to to-do lists and accomplishment lists, make lists of goals and plans. But keep those loose and flexible. Don't make them like New Year's resolutions -- objectives that you will never accomplish and that just make you feel guilty thinking about them. Make the to-do and accomplishment lists first; and by looking at the patterns, put together some short-term goals and practical plans for moving in that direction.

Boss Yourself!

I was impressed by my friend's experience and his unique idea! Yes, why always work for others? Why always follow other's orders? Why don't we boss ourselves??? It has been almost two months since I came back from the US. The first half month, I had a good rest as the different time and the tied trip. The second month,we tried to help my boss to get the academic project from the Ministry of Public Health,actually, I did nothing,just did some service for them, such as I bought food and drink, typed paper,called telephone, received Email, that mean I learn nothing except how to be a “graduate student”. The third half month, I made my decision to write my review, it was the fifth time to prepare my review. How shame it is! Right? Every time when I decide to wrote it, I would be disrupted by the accident. Such as the final exam, boss’assignments, going back home and applying for the vise .maybe they are excuses. The main reason is lazy and luck of patience. The forth month, sleeping, eating, waiting new work are the three main themes. I am lose my way now,I am boring now and I am down now, So I am overweight now, I need to be on diet, keep fit for myself and to be myself. the reason is simple that the best surgeon is also a health guy! while I should not wait for chance and work that my boss ask me to do,fight for life and what it is yours, to be your boss by yourself. boss yourself!!!

4 Computer Money-Saving Tips

Tip #1 -- Rebates: A rebate is not always a bargain. Computers with rebates are often close to being discontinued. You may pick up a good deal or purchase technology that's about to become yesterday's news. What's more, stores will often package computers with a bunch of free items to make it look like you're getting more value. Chances are the extras are either poor quality or items you're unlikely to use. Also, they're counting on you to not redeem your rebate, a very common occurrence.

Tip #2 -- Extended Service Warrantees: Buyer Beware! They're a gamble, but not always a bad idea. If you're purchasing a laptop and you plan to travel a lot, an extended warranty that covers replacement of the monitor/display can be a good gamble. Replacing a display can cost $400-$600, making the warranty worthwhile. On the other hand, if you plan on buying the warranty for routine maintenance; save your money. Oftentimes it can take weeks for the store to send your PC out for service. Also, remember the store where you purchased your computer does not always do warranty work during the first year, instead you may have to ship it directly to the manufacturer. In general, extended warranties cover electronics[things you can't see]. They don't usually cover physical damage. Most extended warranties have large gray areas, leaving the warranty provider a lot of room to reject claims.

Tip #3 -- Monitors: Don't throw away your monitor if it's still working properly. Instead, keep it and save a chunk of money by just replacing your old CPU[computer tower]. Monitors last much longer than CPUs and the technology is usually compatible between your old monitor and the new CPU. However, if you're dissatisfied, then monitors, keyboards and mouses are the three tools to spend extra money on, since you use them every day!

Tip #4 -- Networking: How are you connecting to the Internet? If you're using a high speed Internet connection, such as cable broadband or DSL, you'll want to make sure you have a network card built into your system. If you have a wireless network at home or at the office, save money and installation time by buying the wireless card built right into the computer.

Forex Handbook & Definitions

Trading Hours

The forex trading desk is open 24 hours daily from 17:00 ET Sunday through 16:30 ET on Friday.

Currency Pairs

24-hour trading is currently available in the following 14 currency pairs: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, USD/CAD, AUD/USD, EUR/JPY, EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF, GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY, CHF/JPY, EUR/AUD, GBP/CHF.

Dealing Spread

Forex Day Trading's normal dealing spreads are 3-5 pips for the major currency pairs.

Fees

No fees or commissions are charged to the customer, regardless of account balance or trading activity (See the "Commission-Free Trading" section of the disclosure page).

Trading Minimums

Mini Accounts:
Forex Day Trading's minimum transaction size for mini accounts is 1/10th the size of a standard lot, or 10,000 of the base currency, with a minimum margin deposit of 0.5% (that is, 200:1 leverage). For example, a US$10,000 position would require an initial margin deposit of US$50.

Standard Accounts:
The minimum transaction size for standard accounts is 1 lot of 100,000 of the base currency, with a minimum margin deposit of 1% (that is, 100:1 leverage). For example, a US$100,000 position would require an initial margin deposit of US$1,000.

Price Quotes

Forex Day Trading clients have the ability to execute trades directly from real time streaming bid/ask quotes. Live prices are continuously published to clients via the currency trading dealing software, and traders can at any time click on the current bid or offer and instantaneously execute a trade. Prices are updated automatically as market conditions dictate. On average, the forex traders make 100,000 prices per day. More importantly, we publish the same dealing price to the entire client base and allows any client to deal on the available price.

Trading over the Internet

Executing a deal via the Internet is a simple two-step process. Simply enter the number of lots and then click on the bid (buy) or offer (sell) for the currency pair you wish to trade - your deal is automatically executed. The forex trading software automatically calculates the initial margin requirement based upon the notional amount of the deal, and if sufficient funds are available in your account, will accept the transaction. Deals are confirmed online, normally within one second, and the system instantaneously updates both your open position and calculates your current P&L.

Phone Trading

Live clients may trade over the telephone with the forex trading desk 24 hours a day, from Sunday at 1700 ET through Friday at 1630 ET. When trading via phone, our dealers will quote the same tight spreads available via the trading platform. All trades executed via the phone are subject to a pre-deal margin availability check and will be manually entered into the customer's account for integrated P&L analysis and reporting. All telephone calls are recorded for the safety of both parties.

Phone Dealing Procedure

Immediately state your ID and Password.

State your interest. Always be sure to include the number of lots and the currency pair you are interested in.
Example: "I would like a price on 5 lots of Euro/Dollar."

The Forex Dealer will then provide a 2-way price quote.
Example: "Euro/Dollar is 1.2416/20" (the first number being the bid, the second the offer)

State your trade.
Example: "At 1.2416, I sell 5 lots of Euro/Dollar,"

or

"At 1.2420, I buy 5 lots of Euro/Dollar"

If you do not wish to deal at the quoted levels, simply say "Nothing Done," hang up and call again later. Or, place a limit or stop order at your desired level.

Remember: A price given is the dealing price at that time; haggling is not allowed nor are Traders allowed to remain on the phone until the price changes.

It is important to remember that Dealing Desk phone lines are reserved for the placing of orders only, and that proper Phone Dealing Procedures be observed at all times.

Order Types

The forex dealing platform provides sophisticated order entry and tracking. Orders may be entered at any rate - inside or outside the existing spread - using the following orders types:

Limit orders
An order with restrictions on the maximum price to be paid or the minimum price to be received.

If a trader is long USD/CHF is 1.4627, a limit order would be entered to sell dollars above that price, for example, at 1.4800.

Stop Loss orders
Order type whereby an open position is automatically liquidated at a specific price. Often used to minimize exposure to losses if the market moves against an investor's position.

If the trader above is long USD at 1.4627, a stop loss order could be left at 1.4549, in case the dollar depreciates below 1.4549.

As a rule, sell stops are filled on our bid, and buy stops are filled on our offer. This allows us to fill client stop orders at the rate they requested in almost every case. In the rare instance that the market gaps over a requested rate, the stop is filled at the best available price. This is an important point for traders who are accustomed to being filled on sell stops when the offer reaches the requested order rate. For example, if a stop order is placed to sell USD/CHF at 1.4549, the trader will be filled when the bid reaches 1.4549 (i.e. the bid/offer is 1.4549/54).

One Cancels Other orders (OCO's)
A contingent order providing that one part of the order is cancelled if the other part is executed. This is a particularly useful order type in that it allows traders to execute specific trading strategies based on technical analysis - without having to watch the market tick by tick.

As above, with the trader long USD/CHF at 1.4627, a typical OCO order would be a stop loss at 1.4562 and a limit (take profit) at 1.4700. If one part of the order is filled, the other is automatically cancelled.

All of the above orders may be entered as Day Orders, entered today and good until end of NY business day (1700 ET). Or, clients may choose to may enter a Good 'til Cancelled Order (GTC), which is valid until the order is executed or cancelled. Orders remain open until they are triggered or cancelled. If you close out a position manually, you must cancel any order(s) relating to that position.

Order Execution

First In First Out (FIFO)

Open positions are closed according to the FIFO accounting rule. All positions opened within a particular currency pair are liquidated in the order in which they were originally opened.

Stop Loss Orders - Execution Rules

As a rule, sell stops are filled on our bid, and buy stops are filled on our offer. This allows us to fill client stop orders at the rate they requested in almost every case. In the rare instance that the market gaps over a requested rate, the stop is filled at the best available price. This is an important point for traders who are accustomed to being filled on sell stops when the offer reaches the requested order rate. For example, if a stop order is placed to sell USD/CHF at 1.4549, the trader will be filled when the bid reaches 1.4549 (i.e. the bid/offer is 1.4549/54).

Good Til Cancelled (GTC) Orders - Execution Rules

All GTC orders remain open until they are triggered or cancelled. If you close out a position manually, you must cancel any order(s) relating to that position.

Orders left over the weekend

Orders left pending at close of trading on Friday at 1630 ET or placed over the weekend are subject to a gap open on Sunday evening when trading at 1900 ET. For both stop loss and limit orders - if your order is triggered due to news, events or other fundamental factors, it will not be executed over the weekend. Your order WILL be executed at the prevailing price when the trading desk opens Sunday. Because of the additional gap risk involved, you may want to reconsider leaving open orders over the weekend.

Margin

The initial margin requirement is 0.5% for mini accounts and 1% for standard accounts.

If you do not have adequate funds available to enter a new forex position, you will receive an "insufficient margin funds" message when attempting to deal.

If the unrealized P&L of your net total open position falls below your account balance, your trading account is under margined and all your open positions may be liquidated. To avoid liquidation of your positions, do not use your entire account balance as margin for open positions. Instead, leave enough funds in your account to withstand a market movement against your open positions. We suggest you always use stop loss orders to limit your downside risk when trading.

Please contact us if you wish at any time to use a lower degree of leverage or otherwise adjust the margin settings in your forex account.

Rollovers

A rollover is the simultaneous closing of an open position for today's value date and the opening of the same position for the next day's value date at a price reflecting the interest rate differential between the two currencies.

All open positions are automatically rolled over to the next day's value date following the close of NY trading at 1700 ET.

Clients have the opportunity to earn interest on rollovers, depending on the direction of their positions and interest rate differential between the two currencies involved. For example, US interest rates are higher than Japan's, so if a trader is long USD/JPY (i.e. holding dollars), they will earn interest on the roll. Conversely, if a trader is short USD/JPY (i.e. holding yen) they will pay interest on the rollover.

The spot forex market is traded on a two-day value date. For example, for trades executed on Monday, the value date is Wednesday. However, if a position is opened on Monday and held overnight (remains open after 1700 ET), the value date is now Thursday. The exception is a position opened and held overnight on Wednesday. The normal value date would be Saturday; because banks are closed on Saturday the value date is actually the following Monday. Due to the weekend, positions held overnight on Wednesday incur or earn an extra two days of interest. Trades with a value date that falls on a holiday will also incur or earn additional interest.

Rollover credits or debits are reflected in the unrealized P&L of the open position, and a rollover report (available in the "Reports" tab of the trading platform) provides additional detail of rollover activity.

Confirmations

Deals are confirmed on screen, typically within one second. Full transaction details may be accessed on screen as well, including date, time, rate, notional amount bought and sold, USD value, and reference number.

Daily Housekeeping

Daily Housekeeping will occur each evening at 1700 and will last about 5 minutes. During that time, important system maintenance tasks will be performed and back office staff will conduct daily rolls. Online trading MAY be unavailable, but we will accept phone orders.

Interest

Client funds maintained in a non-segregated account earn interest on deposited funds not used as posted margin. In addition, clients either earn or pay on overnight rollovers, depending on the direction of their positions. Open trades are rolled forward in the base currency of the position.

Reporting

The dealing software tracks all trading activity in real time, allowing clients to view current open positions, real-time profit and loss, margin availability, account balances, and all historical transaction details directly on-screen.

How to Read a Currency Quote

Before trading currencies an investor has to understand the basic terminology of the forex market, including how to interpret forex quotes. In every foreign exchange transaction an investor is simultaneously buying one currency and selling another. These two currencies make up a currency pair. This is an example of a foreign currency exchange rate of the dollar versus the yen:

USD/JPY = 119.72

The currency to the left of the slash ("/") is called the base currency (in this example, the US dollar) and the one on the right is called the quote currency or counter currency (in this example, the Japanese Yen). This notation means that 1 unit of the base currency (that is, 1 dollar) is equal to 119.72 Japanese Yen. If buying, the exchange rate specifies how much you have to pay in units of the quote currency to buy one unit of the base currency; in the above example, you have to pay 119.72 yen to buy 1 US dollar. If selling, the foreign currency exchange rate specifies how much units of the quote currency you get for selling one unit of the base currency; in the above example, you will receive 119.72 Japanese Yen when you sell 1 US dollar.

As with stocks, a forex quote includes a bid price (or bid) and an ask price (or ask). This can be easily illustrated with an example of a currency quote taken from the forex trading software:

In the above example, the bid price is 119.68 yen and the ask price is 119.75 yen [notice that when the ask price is displayed, only the last two decimal places are displayed to the right of the slash (75 instead of 119.75)]. The bid price is the price at which dealers are willing to buy the base currency (in units of the quote currency) and users of our software can sell. Thus, if a trader presses the button "Sell USD," he/she would sell dollars at 119.68 yen. The ask price, on the other hand, is the price at which dealers are willing to sell the base currency and users of our system could buy it. By clicking "Buy USD," an investor would be buying dollars at 119.75 yen.

Even though there are many currencies all over the world, 85% of all daily transactions involve trading a group of currencies known as the "Majors." These currencies include the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar. The four most actively traded currency pairs are the US Dollar / Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), Euro / US Dollar (EUR/USD), British Pound / US Dollar (GBP/USD), and the US Dollar / Swiss Franc (USD/CHF). The US Dollar / Canadian Dollar (USD/CAD) and the Australian Dollar / US Dollar (AUD/USD) are also actively traded pairs. For traders, the best trading opportunities are with the most commonly traded (and therefore most liquid) currencies; i.e., the "Majors."

The examples below were taken from the currency dealing system which provides forex real time quotes. From left to right are the euro-dollar exchange rate, the british pound-dollar exchange rate, and the dollar-swiss franc exchange rate. All of these currency quotes are of major currency pairs.

Taking the example of the euro forex quote (first pair above), buying one euro would cost 1.0099 US dollars and selling would provide 1.0093 US dollars.

If you want to see more live currency quote examples, you can sign up for a free test drive of our forex trading software by clicking the appropriate link below. You will be able to obtain live forex quotes as well as place simulated trades in real time using different currency pairs.

Tips for beginners to trade forex online

Have you seen a lot of advertisements recently telling you how easy it is to trade on the Forex market and make big profits? Do you know what Forex trading is? It's very easy to get conned into committing your hard earned cash into get rich schemes. This website has been set up to explain Forex trading, the pitfalls as well as the profits!

If you do decide to risk Forex trading, hopefully some of the articles will help you avoid making costly mistakes. In case you don't know, Forex stands for foreign exchange and Forex trading is the exchange of one foreign currency for another. The daily volume of Forex trading is three times that of the stock exchanges yet there are no physical market places. Trading takes place 24 hours a day with only a short break at weekends.Traders range from the big banks to individuals sitting at home working on their computers. Successful Forex trading means studying the market carefully, watching for trends to show when to enter and exit as well as following economic indications. Even then no trader can be 100% right all of the time.

Unless you want to lose your shirt,you should carefully study and fully understand how the Forex market works before you consider trading. Firstly learn which of the different currencies are most actively traded, it is pointless buying a currency that rarely changes hands. Find yourself a good online broker. The money market changes by the second, you need a broker with a good trading platform. Understand the mechanics of trading, including putting a stop-loss price. The market can be very volatile, huge losses can occur and well as huge profits. Study the different ways in which traders decide when it is a good time to enter the market. Will you use fundamental or technical analysis? Both methods have advantages and many traders use a combination of both when making a decision.

Consider your own personality. Trading on the Forex Market is a science and you cannot be swayed by emotions, whether a fear of losing money or greed. You must learn to make a plan and stick with it.

Before you actually start trading, sign up with several online Forex brokers who offer live trading platforms where you can practise without using cash. Brokers don't want to see you lose money, if you succeed you will stay with them and become a profitable client, a win-win situation.

Invest In Gold wisely

In January of 1980, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 850, and gold was worth $850 an ounce. Twenty-two years later, the Dow is up ten times, while gold (at $320) has been cut in half.

With such a dismal 22-year performance, you might wonder if investing in gold stocks is a wise move. The answer is "yes" - but not under typical circumstances. Here's what I mean.

All you need to really know about gold is this: when everything else is getting clobbered, gold does well. Of course, the opposite is true, too when everything else is doing fine, gold does poorly. The problem for gold has been, from 1982 to now, everything else did just fine.

Since March of 2000, however, stocks have been clobbered. Meanwhile the XAU Index, the index of major mining stocks, is up 20%. And the price of gold has risen from about $280 to about $320 an ounce in that same period. What this tells us is that gold's traditional role hasn't changed, even though nobody has paid much attention. Nowadays, a 5% or greater portfolio position in gold makes sense, to diversify your risk and give you a boost up in your investments when everything is going down.

Why Invest in Gold?

Historically, gold has been a proven method of preserving value when a national currency was losing value. If your investments are valued in a depreciating currency, allocating a portion to gold assets is similar to a financial insurance policy. In the past year, the climb in the price of gold above $700 per ounce is due to many factors, one being that the dollar is losing value.

Reasons to say YES to Gold
• The dollar is weak and getting weaker due to national economic policies which don't appear to have an end.
• Gold price appreciation makes up for lost interest, especially in a bull market.
• The last four years are the beginning of a major bull move similar to the 70's when gold moved from $38 to over $800.
• Central banks in several countries have stated their intent to increase their gold holdings instead of selling.
• All gold funds are in a long term uptrend with bullion, most recently setting new all-time highs.
• The trend of commodity prices to increase is relative to gold price increases.
• Worldwide gold production is not matching consumption. The price will go up with demand.
• Most gold consumption is done in India and China and their demand is increasing with their increase in national wealth.
• Several gold funds reached all-time highs in 2006 and are still trending upward.
• The short position held by hedged gold funds is being methodically reduced.
• U.S. government economic policies over the past decade have systematically projected the U.S. economy down a road with uncontrollable federal spending and an uncontrollably increasing trade deficits. Both will cause the dollar to lose in international value and will increase the price of alternative investments, such as gold.
• With the recent devaluation of many international currencies, the U.S. dollar was the international safe haven of last resort. We are seeing signs of this ending due to many financial factors, the most important one being a falling dollar.
• There are over One Trillion dollars ($1,500,000,000,000) of U.S. debt owned by foreigners which could be repatriated under certain conditions. This could cause a major decline in the value of the dollar and a soaring gold price.
• If you believe in 'buy low, sell high', gold is still low, but climbing.

Trading with a mini Forex account

Opening a mini Forex account, instead of a standard Forex account means you can trade smaller amounts, where the value of a pip will be $1, and greatly reduce the risk of a large loss. For example, a 10 pip loss on a standard trade of $100,000 would result in a loss of $100, whereas a 10 pip loss a mini Forex trading lot of $10,000 would be $10.

Many online Forex brokers will allow you to open a mini Forex account for as little as $250. Knowing that your losses are not likely to be great, will allow you to concentrate on adhering to a good trading strategy instead of watching your balance and worrying about a margin call.

Every Forex currency trader dreads a margin call. This means your Forex broker believes you do not have sufficient funds in your mini Forex trading account to cover your trading and he may liquidate all your trades.

If you are a beginner, the best way to protect yourself against a margin call is to only trade one pair at a time and use a small percentage of the capital in your mini Forex account. Most important of all, set a stop-loss order, then you are protected if the market moves against you.

Another of the advantages of a Forex mini trading account is that you still have all the benefits of a whole standard account, the trading platform, charts etc. If you are a beginner I personally think that a Forex mini trading account is the most sensible option. Too many people rush in, thinking Forex currency trading is a quick way to make an easy buck, they are the 95% beginners who lose on the Forex market. Protect your capital while you learn the skill.

Once you have developed your skill and hopefully made a profit, you can invest the profit by trading slightly larger lots, $20,000 instead of $10,000. Don't become over-confident, remember that profit comes from sound research.

Wait until the best trading signals

Why do so many beginners lose money at forex market? The simple answer is that they do not have the patience to rigidly apply their forex trading strategy. Firstly, they are too concerned with instant gratification and don't take the time to learn all the skills necessary to make a successful trade. Secondly, even if they have taken the trouble to learn skills, in their eagerness to start, they forget everything they have learnt about sticking with their forex trading strategy. Instead of waiting for the right forex signal, they leap in at the hint of a possible good trade, hoping that luck will be with them. That is a gamble and gamblers lose.

Selling Your House At The Maximum Value

All Houseowner would want to get the maximum value when selling their houses. However some people mistakenly pay huge amounts of money and undertake complete repair and renovation jobs in an attempt to make the house more appealing. Consider yourself lucky if you ever do recover that money from the sale of your home.

It's a lot of little things, combined with only a few big ones that make the difference between a house that is so-so and one that is irresistible.

Start with the Exterior

First impressions count and the first thing your potential buyers are going to see is the exterior of the house and the garden. Chances are they may decide to drive past your house if they see an unruly garden and an unpainted house. So make sure your garden is well tended and cared for. Mow the lawn, water the plants and place your pots with flowering plants within plain sight. Make sure the exterior of your house is spotlessly clean and that includes the driveway, front porch, shutters and window screens. Take pains to ensure your front door and the surrounding area look absolutely clean. Give the door a fresh coat of paint if need be. Your customers will have a lot of time to have a good look at the front door and the surroundings while they wait for you to answer the door bell.

Lead the way in

Giving your interior walls a fresh coat of paint is undoubtedly the best way to increase the market value of your house. Neutral colors such as antique white or off white give your rooms an elegant and sophisticated quality that is unmatched. Get your carpets and drapes professionally cleaned. Replacing old and worn out fixtures with brand new ones is an inexpensive investment that will most likely reap you rich rewards.

And now, those three most important words that can make or break your sale- 'Clear The Clutter.' Now is a good time to throw away items that have been lying around and have never been used. Clean out and organize your closets. The client's wife will most likely want to see what the clothes cupboard looks like.

The right time to enter the money market

Forex traders usaully use fundamental analysis or technical analysis to decide the right time to enter the money market.

Fundamental analysis
Fundamental analysis is based on the demand and supply of the currency to be traded. This depends on the economic factors of the country using the currency, for example, economic strength, or otherwise, current interest rates, gross domestic product (GDP) etc.
The difficulty with using fundamental analysis to trade on the Forex money market is that the market is very fast moving, with rapid changes throughout the day. Economic data is more suited to long term investment. It involves constantly studying the data, knowing when a country is going to publish its economic reports and how to interpret them. This is why most short term traders use technical analysis based on price movements.

Technical Analysis
Technical analysis is based on the theory that prices move in a pattern and it is possible to predict when a currency has reached a high or low point based on historical evidence, then buy or sell accordingly.
There are a number of methods, based on charts, that technical analysts use to follow price trends, for example candlestick charts and Bollinger Charts. Traders may study several before taking a decision.

So which of the two methods of analysis should you use? Most traders probably use a combination of both. Fundamental analysis provides a long term view of the strength of a currency based on economic situation of the country using the currency plus current supply and demand, but it would be difficult to trade on a daily basis using this method. Nevertheless a trader needs to be aware of economic situations and when economic figures are published as these can affect trading. Technical analysis is useful for daily trading indicating possible entry and exit points. Therefore most traders will use both fundamental and technical analysis. To succeed on the Forex money market you need to have a thorough understanding of the currency you are trading in. Over 24 hours that currency may move dramatically up or down yet end the day at the same price as it started. Buying or selling at the wrong time can result in huge losses. Even experienced traders have bad days and the skill is to minimize the losses, hence the importance of having a stop/loss price in place. Understand how this works fully before attempting to trade.