Fight Against Corruption - After Deterrence Comes the Structural Changes

A campaign against corruption must be credible. The public has grown cynical. Citizens and bureaucrats have heard all the words before. They have even seen a few minor prosecutions. But the culture of corruption remains, especially the feeling of high-level impunity. As a result, people feel that awful sense of structural shame that characterizes underdevelopment. Its awful, but there is nothing one can do about it. Its part of the system, part of the culture. As one Italian said before the remarkable recent events, In some parts of the world corruption is a fact of life. Here, its a way of life.

Experience indicates that frying big fish can help break that culture of corruption. Big corrupt actors must be publicly named and punished so that a cynical public believes that an anti-corruption drive is more than words, more than a campaign against a political opponents. Importantly, therefore, the first big fish must come from the party in power.

Having said this, the fishing of big offenders can be overdone. At some point it is a mistake to focus on the past if it takes energy away from a focus on the future. An analogy with health policy is germane. If illness is rampant, it must be treated. But in the long run, prevention deserves priority. In the case of reducing corruption, prevention means reducing monopoly power, limiting official discretion, and enhancing transparency in institutions of the public and private sectors.

Therefore, after frying a few big fish, we must turn to the reform of institutions. In the case of government corruption, experience shows that public officials should be involved in the solutions. We should begin with the positive. In particular, work with line officials to define ways to measure public sector success, and then link part of the officials' compensation to the achievement of results.

Private citizens should also be involved in the campaign to reduce corruption. The greatest enemy of corruption is the people. People can be sources of information about where corruption occurs. Popular participation may substitute, in some cases, for bureaucracy, thus reducing the scope of corrupt allocations. I have described in Controlling Corruption the many ways that popular participation was used in Hong Kong successful battle against corruption: hot lines, call-in shows, educational programs, barrio councils, oversight bodies for public agencies, involvement of professional organizations, and so forth.

How should we think about prevention? Corruption occurs when individuals find their economic calculation favors corruption. If the probability of being caught is small and the penalty is mild and the payoff is large relative to the positive incentives facing the government official, then we will tend to find corruption. Fortunately, it is possible to locate areas within an organization where corruption is most likely. Some people call it vulnerability assessment.

Here structural changes are worthy of systematic analysis: reduce monopoly, clarify discretion, enhance accountability, increase penalties, raise the probability of being caught, and link pay to performance. Also, a government may wish to create a special anti-corruption agency, as in Hong Kong and Singapore, whose role is not just investigating corruption but working with departments to reform policies and procedures in order to reduce the vulnerability to corruption.

Successful change requires a strategy against corruption. This may sound obvious, but in fact so-called anti-corruption campaigns often lack just this. Having a strategy means recognizing that we cannot attack all forms of corruption at once, even if we do not declare this publicly. We must distinguish various types of corruption and recognize that they are not all equally harmful, even if we do not say so in public. For example, corruption in the courts or in the police is usually more pernicious than corruption in the Customs Bureau or the Drivers License Department. In general, inspectors of all varieties must be cleaner than service-providers must be.

Home Based Business - 3 FAQ's About the 'X' Factor! Do You Have It?

Q: I see all these internet programs out there, I know what they're telling me. What are they not telling me?

A: That is a question seldom asked by novice e-business seekers, but it's the best question. The fact is, what these online business opportunities don't tell you is the most important element you'll learn in your endeavor. The most important answer is: it's what's inside of you that will determine your overall success or failure in this business.

Ultimately, what these programs are not telling you is that diligence, ambition, persistence, discipline, work ethic, honesty, and patience are a few of the virtues that will promise success in your online business. Quite honestly, this is the same with any other business you can start, but it is a factor that too many people forget. The lure of online riches is the catalyst for too much disappointment. The fact remains that your personal virtue is the ultimate decider in all things.

Q: I've started my business already and I can't seem to make any money! Am I doing something wrong or am I in the wrong business?

A: Many factors come into play when you get stuck. First of all, remember that it happens to the best of us. Second, the worse thing you can do right now is quit. If you keep going, you have a fighting chance. If you quit you have 0 chance. It all boils down to what's between your ears.

Examine your actions with an open mind. Make sure you eliminate bias and emotion when you do this. Are you doing enough work (10 or so hours per week)? Are you spending enough money on marketing (an inevitability in this business, a few hundred dollars is a good start)? Are you selling the right product? Is it just impatience on your part, or have you given it an honest effort? You must ask yourself these questions.

In the end, make sure you are making measurable progress. In other words, don't do the same thing over and over again and not get any results. If you've answered these questions honestly, then you have some decisions to make. You keep going with the product and campaign you have going, you switch marketing tactics, or you switch products and try different tactics. It's up to you!

Q: I've done all of what you told me, but I can't seem to make the progress I want to make. What gives?

A: Make sure your expectations are where they need to be. Accept that you probably won't make a million bucks in your first month unless you've got an infinite amount of capital to spend. I've heard this bit of wisdom from a highly successful entrepreneur, he says; "Too many people overestimate what they can make in a month, but they underestimate what can be accomplished in a year!". Great advice. This statement can bring you back down to earth, but it can also charge you up for what's in store for your future!

One more thing. I find a great deal of great advice in motivational speakers and self-help gurus. If you put the time and funds together, you can listen to what they have to say regarding success. If you listen to them, you will find what it take to achieve success in you business. But if you listen closely, intently, and with an open mind and heart, you may find as I did a blueprint for how to manage your life! Start with Anthony Robbins, Les Brown, and Zig Ziglar and branch out from there. Their messages are somewhat different, but they all tie in to living a more fulfilled and abundant life! Try it!

Millionaire online professionals call this program "online money making on steroids"! See what they're all raving about by clicking the link below!

Supervisory Scheme Under Modifying Financial System

At the initial stage of development, commercial banks provided most of the services of financial intermediation. Later with the appearance of a variety of other financial intermediary services, such as investment banking, insurance, fund management, (notably between 1930 and 1970) strict demarcation lines between the various financial intermediaries and their functions was imposed with direct controls over competition between such intermediaries. For instance, the Glass-Steagall Act in the USA in 1933 prohibited provision of investment banking by commercial banking institutions and Italian Banking Law of 1936, which established the principle of separation between banking and non-financial activities.

With a view to limiting the risk of financial instability, significant restrictions on the lines of business, geographical location and operation of financial enterprises existed in many countries, sometimes supplemented by ceilings on deposit rates, new entry restrictions and official tolerance of cartel-type agreements. The result, in many cases, was the establishment of cartelized oligopolistic clubs of semi-specialized intermediaries, that led to the appearance of largely self-regulating clubs with agreed rules of conduct.

The cartelized oligopolistic structure limited competition, guaranteed franchise value and reduced likelihood of failure. This was partly due to international stability achieved by the Bretton Woods arrangements. This reduced the need for financial supervision. So over the years banking supervision did not play the central role in the central bank's activities, due to the structure that reduced the need for regulation and allowed self-regulation. In the United States the Federal Reserve became the major player in regulation and supervision only after enactment of Bank Holding Company act in 1956 that assigned central bank supervisory function over BHCs.

Oligopolistic structure reduced competition, efficiency and innovation. The protected and regulated financial system was abolished under the conditions of increased international competition, technological innovation, drive for efficient, improved services for customers and return of liberal, market based ideology. Instability and failures became frequent and led to greater involvement of central banks in supervisory activities. Moreover, this also led to the blurring of the previously clear boundaries between different types of financial intermediation. Universal banking became more popular and commonplace. Banking mixed with insurance, bank assurance, and undertook fund management. Eventually, this meant that the attempt to supervise separately by function would end up with multiple supervisors involved with the same institution.

So, one obvious conclusion that was reached was placing responsibility for the supervision of all financial intermediaries in one institution. But this naturally caused a problem for central banks, wishing to maintain internal control of banking supervision.

On the other hand, such unification results in economies of scale arising from single set of central support services (information services, premises, human resources, financial control etc), a unified management structure, a unified approach to standard-setting, authorization, supervision, enforcement, consumer education and tackling of financial crime. It also results in economies of scope implying that single services regulator will be able to tackle cross-sector issues more effectively and efficiently than multiple separate specialist regulators.

Alternatively, placing all supervision under the roof of the central bank would require taking responsibility for supervision over activities which lay outside its historical sphere of expertise and responsibility. One obvious example of this would be market price risk versus credit risk. Banking institutions mostly deal with credit risk, while securities firms face market price risk that derives from fluctuations in market price of securities held by the financial institution.

An even more serious problem would arise out of how to set the boundaries between those sub-sets of depositors/institutions which would be covered by the deposit insurance, the lender of last resort (LOLR) facilities, etc., and those not so covered. The central bank would be unwilling to extend its operational remit to dealing with financial markets and institutions where issues related to systemic stability are limited and customer protection of much greater importance. One more proposal was delegating supervisory responsibilities to multiple agencies outside the central bank. This option requires full and free exchange of information among multiple agencies at national and international level. Within the European Community, legislation has imposed a duty on these authorities to cooperate, however implementation of this may be more difficult. This model also requires the harmonization of capital standards. This would imply that the risks incurred would be subject to the same standards irrespective of the unit of the corporate organization they are incurred.

An obvious problem with the model is allocation of responsibilities between different supervisors. Traditionally, countries have organized their prudential framework along institutional lines. This has generally been on a tripartite basis (banks, securities firms, insurance companies), except in countries such as Germany and Switzerland which have universal banking systems, where securities business is generally regarded as the banking business. So it is difficult to allocate it under the specific supervisor. One alternative proposal was to divide the structure of supervision into two purposes: systemic stability (prudential supervision) and customer protection (conduct of business supervision). This was the Twin Peaks proposal, advocated in the UK primarily in the work of Michael Taylor (1995 and 1996). The supervisory body charged with customer protection would naturally take the lead in some areas, markets and institutions. Contrary to this, the body charged with responsibility for systemic stability would take the lead in dealing with the payments system, and with certain aspects of banking and, perhaps, other financial markets. In practice, however, to a large extent a 'systemic stability' regulator and a 'customer protection' regulator most probably would implement the regulation of a bank in exactly the same way, so there would be considerable duplication and overlap. Dealing with two supervisors would also raise the cost of supervised entities. The Twin Peaks concept has, so far, not found favor in practice, though, the US system has evolved in a way that approximates it, with the Federal Reserve coming close to a systemic stability (prudential) supervisor, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) undertaking the conduct of business role.

One important point is dividing tasks according to micro and macro approaches. Customer protection issues are generally associated with micro level decision-making, while systemic stability deals mostly with macro, however to some extent with micro-level as well. It has been argued that keeping macro part of systemic stability issues with the central bank and micro part with an independent agency would restore clarity and responsibility.

It is worth discussing how this problem applies to developing countries. The financial structure in developing and transitional countries is quite distinct from developed economies. They tend to be simpler, more dependent on standard commercial banking and degree of blurring boundaries in these countries is low. In developed countries the complexity of financial sector and blurring boundaries force central bankers to extend their activities further away from traditional limits. It also creates multiplicity of supervisors or unified supervisory body outside the central bank. This is not the case in developing countries. The banking system, insurance companies and stock exchange can co-exist without much friction or overlap.

Thus, the strength of argument concerning the changing structure of financial system and whether the central bank should regulate non-bank financial institutions as well largely depends on the degree of blurring boundaries between various types of financial intermediaries and readiness of the central bank to tackle with the responsibilities that lie outside its historical sphere of expertise. Practically observed trend towards separation of regulatory function from the central bank can be explained by the development of the financial markets in different countries that tends to make this argument decisive.

Best Stocks to Buy > Day Trading Strategies & Techniques - Hot Tips

The stock market is presenting us with a wide variety of NEW hot stocks in 2009 & 2010. Many of them are going to be new technology stocks that come from the nanotech, biotech, financial, energy, healthcare & communications sectors.

Most of them might seem promising, but the truth is that a good number of these trading & investing opportunities could be extremely risky, while others are simply not as good as they look. That's why it's very important to know how to choose among the best especially if you want to day trade them.

When you know how to pick and approach the best hot stock trading opportunities, you are able to generate a consistent and respectable amount of money in a very short period of time.

Experienced day traders recognize that trading hot stocks on momentum can be the fastest way to make money in the stock market, especially on uncertain times like these.

Imagine if You could make between $300 and $1200 daily trading hot stocks from your computer?

You don't necessarily have to trade momentum hot stocks all the time. But you can learn how to take advantage of them when you encounter the best opportunities for going long or for shorting them to make money when they are poised to fall down.

If You decide to day trade stocks just keep always in mind that for a trader to survive and be consistently profitable, its necessary to keep things as simple as possible. To much confusion and technical indicators will most of the time make you slow in your decisions and froze you up when a good opportunity is right in front of your screen.

In the end, stock trading is all about picking the best daily stock opportunities and following your buy and sell signals with ease and simplicity. Once you learn to master your trading decisions, you can aspire to produce consistent profitable results.

Fire Pit Considerations

You can enjoy and use fire pits for all the year round be it winter or summer. It is right that in the wintry weather the use of fire pits as well as hearths has a great deal more logic thanks to the truth that these equipments can be used to warm up rooms and save some expenses on electric or gas heaters. An efficient fireplace can warm up a big room, without the need to use any other power supply for warming up.

Fire pits can be fixed or portable. They are used as containers for barbecues, fires, in addition to open-air warm up. In addition, they come in various sizes, resources and accessories. A few fire pits make use of wood at the same time as others make use of natural gas. Besides a number of fire pits are intended to roast marshmallows even as others can accomplish a more difficult task like container of a fire all through a camping activities.

While choosing a fire pit, it is better to think about the pros and cons. If you required a portable fire pit, decide on a lightweight fire pit that can be set up without any difficulty. If you would like a fire pit for your backyard, its better you use a dish or bowl design. Be certain that fire pit add on products like screen, dome or cover are part of the package. In addition, think about the size of the equipment in particular once you are determined to utilize logs and coals. As soon as you are buying a fire pit with grill, take care that there is a fixed stand to lift the grill.

If your fire pit's burning medium is wood, there are good quality wood to burn although the most excellent is hardwood logs. They are compact and dense, are affordable, burn slower, and are better in addition are pleasant to burn as well. Just a word of warning, on no account set fire to pressure treated wood like plywood for they release poisonous gasses that are injurious to your health.

Additionally, you can seek advice from your neighboring fire department if you plan to buy an open-air fire pit. These fire pits are not supposed to be burned inside. Maintain them away from combustible materials to prevent catching fire. For safety reasons, you are required to keep fire extinguisher in close proximity to the fire pit. Besides, not at all leave the fire unattended. Last but not least, be careful of your surroundings.

Further, you should maintain the fire pits by carrying out proper repairs if need be, you have to avoid placing anything except firewood into the fire pit, if you have pets or small kids you have to take care that they cannot, by any means, get close to the fire pit or the flames, you have to maintain your pit spotlessly clean and dirt-free when not in use, and if you are using gas you are required to seek advice from a professional concerning the pipes as well as overall safety of the fire pit.

About Biometric Gun Safes

What are they?

Biometric gun safes are the most state of the art and technologically advanced gun safes in the marketplace today, naturally along with that comes significantly higher prices. “Biometric” references how the locking mechanism of the safe releases and allows access to the contents. Instead of using mechanical locks and keys or combination dials or electronic key (pin) pads similar to using a debit card at the atm, the biometric family of gun safes uses an electronic fingerprint scanners.

Why would someone need or want one of these devices?

Biometric gun safes are most useful if you have handguns that are kept at home or the workplace and the intended purpose of those firearms is protection. As a gun owner you should have an understanding that you need to keep your guns secure so that they do not get stolen by thieves, mishandled by curious children or misused by angry teenagers, any type of locking safe regardless of locking mechanism can handle this task. However if, in an instant you need to quickly have access to that firearm to protect yourself, your family or co-workers from an intruder or burglar, your only choice is a biometric gun safe. With any traditional safe you would have to fumble with keys, dials or type in a sequence of numbers on a key pad. These tasks if attempted under extreme pressure or half asleep in the dark of night could be impossible and prove fatal. Biometric safes allow you to release the locking mechanism by simply placing a finger tip over a laser scanner. You could have your gun in your hand within seconds without even opening your eyes.

How to differentiate between biometric gun safes?

Biometric gun safes can vary in price from a few hundred dollars for a single fingerprint scanner, single handgun safe; to thousands of dollars for larger gun vaults with the capacity to hold multiple handguns, long guns and ammunitions, with multiple fingerprint scanners.

While most gun safes are rated only on how well they prevent theft, unauthorized access and damage from fire; biometric gun safes are additionally rated on false acceptance and false rejections. False acceptance identifies how likely an unauthorized person like a thief could get access to the safes contents, a false rejection would identify how likely an authorized person like yourself would not be allowed to access the safe.

Single finger scanning safes are usually to most reliable and least expensive. Safes that scan four fingers offer much higher level of security but typically also posses higher cost and false rejection ratings.

Biometric gun safes also vary on how many samples they can store in memory and how fast they can process the samples. The higher end safes can hold multiple samples such as you, your spouse, your business partner or other trusted friend or family member and will be able to process the samples accurately within a split second.

The last variation in biometric gun safes is whether the safe can be opened with just a fingerprint, just a key, or with a fingerprint and a key in conjunction. Single purpose safes are the least costly and offer the most ease of use. Safes that offer the most variations require a bit more technical ability to configure to your liking or needs and will be at the top of the price spectrum.

Biometric gun safes replace your keys and combinations with fingerprints. They protect your firearms from theft, unauthorized use and fire, while allowing authorized access to the guns within in mere seconds. Typically the larger safes with the most robust choice of options and highest performing ratings command the highest prices.

Basic Gun Safe Information

Why bother?

With the decision to own a firearm of any type should also be the decision to own a gun safe Firearms whether intended for sport or self defense must be kept securely away from the possibility of theft or the possibility that someone other than the owner could happen across the weapon and intentionally or unintentionally use it to hurt someone. Criminals that use firearms typically do not walk into a sporting goods retailer and ask which guns are best to use for bank robberies or stick ups, the guns they use are from the streets, stolen guns that were once purchased by law biding citizens. Children of any age should never under any circumstance have unsupervised access to a firearm. The use of gun safes weather at home or work is one of the best measures a gun owner can take to prevent these tragedies. This article will provide basic information on what types of gun safes are available and how they differ from one another: by size, how they work, and how well they work.

Large or Small?

There are generally speaking two types of gun safes based on the overall size and quantity of firearms they will be used for.

Large gun safes used for long barreled firearms such as rifles or shot guns these are usually designed to stand vertically and have racks inside to hold the guns side by side without leaning onto one another, some have interior shelves to accommodate ammunitions or smaller handguns.

Smaller safes used for hand guns, revolvers or semi-automatics are usually designed to hold only one or possibly two guns. These must somehow be able to be secured to either a wall, a strong secure shelf or the floor, this is in order to prevent a would be thief from trying to abscond with it and its' contents. Regardless of size all gun safes need to provide protection from theft or unauthorized use and fires.

Mechanical or Electronic?

Another differentiating characteristic among all gun safes is how the locking mechanism works. There are two basic categories mechanical and electronic, with two sub categories under each.

Mechanical locking devices include both the classic locks with keys and the classic combination dials. These are typically the least expensive gun safes and offer the most basic functionality.

Electronic locking devices use either a key pad or fingerprint scanner. These will cost significantly more but offer the most convenient method of access no fumbling with keys or combinations simply type in a multiple digit code similar to an atm or press your fingertip over an illuminated scanner.

How they rate?

No matter what size or type of locking mechanism all guns safes are measured by two standards; how well do they resist theft known as the burglary rating and how well do they resist fire, the fireproof rating.

Burglary rating is measured in minutes and identifies how long it would take an experienced locksmith with locksmithing tools to gain access to the contents of the safe, it would take most common thieves much longer.

The fireproof rating is also based on time, and indicates how long the unit could be exposed to the extreme heat of a fire and still maintain and internal temperature safe enough to prevent damage to its' contents.

If you have guns you need to keep them safe. What types of guns and how many you have, will determine exactly what size safe you need. You need to consider how you want to access the firearms in the safe and what level of security you either require or desire.

Strategy Game

Is it your very first time to hear the words ‘online game’? I don’t think so! With everybody getting hooked on to something in the Internet, the unlikelihood of this fact is almost next to nothing. Online games are very popular nowadays. They come in different game plans, player modes and prices too. From the simple word games, such as Scrabble and Book Worm, and puzzles like Sudoku and even crossword puzzles, to shooter games such as Ragnarok and RF, these games all spell two things out: competition and enjoyment.

With the use of Internet, people who take part in this mode of entertainment are promised to have fun and exciting interaction with players from within his community to people of other countries. Online, when you just search for these kinds of games, you find hundreds to thousands of it that you are not sure which to play. These games are especially good when you have internet access twenty four hours a day and seven days a week-that is if you are planning on becoming a fanatic.

But if you are just looking for simple enjoyment, then a simple dial-up connection will do, providing that no body in your household is planning on making a call or is waiting for a call on your landline. This is just to make sure that your play and game time will be uninterrupted and thus give you a hundred and one percent of pure fun. When it comes to online games, the ones which are very popular ever since it came to be invented are the strategy game.

The first strategy game that really became popular is Star Wars. This game, as is with all the other strategy games, is a war game and it is played by, yes, mapping and laying out your fortress and arsenal, strategically placing the arsenal, and your soldiers in a way that your fortress will not be penetrated by your opponent. The main goal is simply by killing your opponent’s army by breaking through his fortress and at the same time making sure your own fortress is still standing. There are a lot of strategy games invented and loaded to the internet almost everyday. There’s the Random Defence wherein you are being given ten different maps to test your skills on, well, defense, and at the same time killing your enemies. See what I mean a while ago?

Another relatively new strategy game is the Ultimate Defence. Despite its almost hard core title that can make you envision of really cool graphics and ugly monsters and all that, this game is really more of cute people trying to kill bugs who are attacking them. It has very cute graphics and more like a game your sister or your younger brother would like to play. Another such strategy online game is the Elite Forces Defense. This game has cool graphics wherein you, as you guessed it, try to stop the enemies from invading your camp by strategically placing your soldiers, tanks and other arsenals.

Fellowes MS-460Ci Microshred Paper Shredder Review

These days, you can't be too careful when it comes to making sure that the documents you want shredded stay shredded. There are a few newer machines on the market that promise a level of shredding that is unprecedented, better than even the smallest cross cut capabilities. Here we will take a closer look at one such machine, the Fellowes MS-460Ci.

Pros:

1. The main advantage of the MS-460Ci is its micro shred technology. We're not sure how it does it, but this shredder positively obliterates paper, creating shreds of 5/64ths of an inch by 25/64ths. This translates to an average page being turned into three thousand particles, versus around four hundred for the typical cross cut shredder. That is some real security, and should give anyone genuine peace of mind when it comes to shredding your most highly confidential documents.

2. The MS-460Ci comes with Fellowes' SafeSense technology. SafeSense is a pretty ingenious safety function that is able to detect body heat, and will thus stop the shredding process immediately when it senses that your hand is too close to the cutting mechanism.

3. One added bonus of creating particles that are so small is that the bin holds around 80% more paper per gallon than the average cross cut machine. That means that you can shred a lot more paper and empty the bin a lot less often. We figure that anyone in their right mind would have to consider that a win win situation.

4. Also in the "we don't know how they did it" category, we were amazed at how quiet the MS-460Ci was during normal operation. We looked up the product specs and Fellowes claims that the machine puts out 64dB of sound, which is quieter than a busy restaurant, and only a little bit louder than a normal conversation.

5. Another of Fellowes unique features is its jam proof system, and they included it on the MS-460Ci. This system is designed to save users a lot of headaches, since not everyone who will use the machine knows how many sheets it is designed to handle. It works by automatically sensing the amount of paper that the user it trying to feed it at one time, and either giving you the green light or the red light. We tested the system out, and it worked great. The machine would not operate if the stack we were feeding it was too big.

Cons:

1. Though it's hard to fault a machine that shreds paper into such tiny bits for being relatively low capacity, the MS-460Ci can only handle about twelve sheets at one time. But again, those twelve sheets are turned into something between confetti and powder, so who can complain?

2. Again, probably due to its remarkable cutting ability, the MS-460Ci can only be run for fifteen minutes at a time before it needs a twenty five minute rest. We are thinking that because this type of technology is so new, these numbers will improve over time.

Recommendation: If you want the one of the highest security levels available in a deskside shredder along with an excellent one year warranty, you would be hard pressed to find a better shredder than the Fellowes MS-460Ci.

Affiliate Marketing Company - How to Run a Successful Affiliate Marketing Company

Being successful in affiliate marketing is something that is both achievable and enjoyable. The rewards can be high and once you have built your Company it may be that you only have to spend a few hours per week just keeping tabs of the products or services that you are affiliated to. Also any affiliates that work for you in your down-line.

Before you can do this you must however find yourself some products or services to affiliate to, without choosing obvious scams or products that only a select few people would use.

Try to stick with products that you have knowledge of; it is far easier to promote something that you know a lot about.

Managing what products you affiliate, your time and work rate also keeping open options on possible other services and products are key factors when it comes to successful affiliating.

It goes without saying if you can find that niche product or service then you could be onto a bit of a winner.

If you do find a niche market, you will need to get yourself clued up on the item or service. Obviously the product will be so new that not many people will have heard of it yet, so questions will be asked by your potential customers.

Remember with niche markets things are not always that secretive, so you must remember to jump on it as quick as you can but as professionally as you can. Do not be selfish with the product or service, the key to a niche's success is marketing and if you have affiliates doing the leg work for you, and then you can expect more rewards from having a working down-line than doing things on your own.

Remember 'more heads make light work', this is definitely true with affiliate marketing. Research where to find a good affiliate base, this is usually friends, work colleagues, social networks and forums. Just be careful not to spam people or websites, and if you are working with friends or family a reasonable share of rewards will be expected.

It is not always easy to find a 'niche' market, but they are out there if you dedicate an element of time to finding them. Technology is always a good place to start when you are looking for a product or service that has just come onto the market, as technology is always changing; if you say to yourself that you wouldn't mind owning that product the chances are thousands of other people will be saying the same thing to. So it is just finding a good and polite way of tapping into that market without 'holding your foot in the door' so to speak.

The fact that you do not have to go knocking on anyone's door to sell products is definitely a plus point; you can dedicate as much time to being an affiliate as you want.

There is an amazing range of products you can become an affiliate of for example PayPal. With schemes such as the one PayPal operate you will find multiple products and services to promote and a down-line scheme that rewards you for other affiliates that join using your unique identifier.

It will take a little time to become successful, but for those of us who are successful in affiliate marketing the rewards are plentiful.

Next, Click Here to Get Your FREE Copy of "Affiliate Profits Blueprint" - A Step by Step Guide to Internet Marketing Success. Whether you're a seasoned online marketer today, or someone who has never sold a thing online before, this F-R-E-E Step-by-Step Video and Book course will give you the help you need, and the cutting edge affiliate techniques that will take your business to another level! Come Check it Out!

How Use Ecards To Increase Sales!

Marketing Professionals try all the resources at their command to get new clients and to retain old clients. Client relations are one of the most important functions of a marketing professional. Here is a suggestion. Use ecards to increase sales by getting new clients and retaining the old. Let me tell you how you can do that.

There are many ecard websites on the Internet. Out of them, few offer ecards for business. You will get free ecards, professionally made that look beautiful. The ecards in business section are generally available in the categories of thank you, Season's greetings, To clients, Sorry etc. in other sections of the website you will get ecards to wish birthday, ecards for Holidays and other topics.

One of the most important factors that affect the client relationship is communication and making the client feel that he/she is highly valued. During every Festive and Holiday Season, use Holidays ecards. After every few weeks, send an ecard to an old client that says Thinking Of You. After every sale or referral, send a Thank you ecard and for any mistake send a sorry ecard.

Avoid sending single line emails to clients. Send ecards. When they will view the ecard, they would appreciate the care that you have taken to select and send the card. You will win their good will and make them happy. In every business, one needs to be one step ahead of the competition. Use ecards to do that

How to Analyze Your Website Traffic to Increase it Even Further

Whether you're a newbie or an experienced webmaster, your sales will rise significantly with highly targeted website traffic tailored to your industry niche. I'll write it down as simple and as I possibly can...without website traffic there is no money. Even if you do not want to profit with your website and want it purely for informational purposes what good is it if no one will find it!
Organic and paid traffic can be generated or increased by including your web site in the top directories, search engines, article directories, authority blogs and press releases. In order for the search engines to properly index your web site and perform what is called a "deep crawl," the construction of your website needs to be obstacle free.
Make sure your site has meta-tags (yes they are still are used by the search engines). Websites that have too many missing links or data that has not been recently updated could give the Google bot and other search engine robots a red flag indicating that your pages are old or not relevant anymore. If you have a self designed website, make sure you keep the directory structure simple and not too deep. The fewer directories you have to crawl will make the job much easier for the search engines bots. Everyone knows the K.I.S.S. method remember it when designing your website.
Find out which pages visitors usually enter your web site through so you can include more initial information on your site's products and services. Analyze other useful information from reports about website visitors including their countries, browsers, languages, operating systems, IP addresses as well as number of repeated visitors. It is essential that you know where your website visitors are coming from. Use Google analytics to analyze your website visitors. Google Analytics is a brilliant and free web traffic analyzation tool. It can give you detailed, business-oriented data about your site's visitors through a powerful web-based user interface. The more you know about your business website visitors the easier it will be to do SEO for that particular page or pages. Google Analytics is free to anyone who desires to know more about their website traffic or visitors.
It is also a powerful internet resource that allows website owners to track things like their page views, unique visitors, and entrance keywords. Google Analytics is a "cookie-based" (as opposed to a web analytics tool that analyzes log files) program. It will also help you become aware of the online marketing projects which are more cost effective.
Analyzing your website traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool for a number of different reasons. And one of those reasons is "what are your visitors looking for"? Once you realize what they are looking for you can now optimize each page or blog for that purpose. Analyzing website traffic is as important as bringing quality visitors to your website.
For many online businesses Google Analytics is their primary tracking resource. It is free and can quickly turn your online business into a profitable venture.

Wordpress and SEO Techniques For Your Blog

Wordpress is the most important and popular blog platform today, embraced by numerous individuals, CEOs, marketing managers and anyone who has a message to communicate online. There are more than 50 million blogs out there, therefore, if you are planning to stand out, you have no choice but to keep the phrase Wordpress and SEO in mind. Wordpress is an amazing platform, very well appointed, offering a lot of amazing SEO power already built in. not everything comes by default, though, and you need to follow particular tips and hints in order to make a difference.
Most bloggers tend to forget that Wordpress and SEO go together, and do not implement some of them, condemning their blog posts to invisibility, no matter how good they might be. Optimization for search engines depends on many different factors and can be implemented in many different ways. Here is what you should keep in mind if you want to implement a good SEO strategy for your blog:
• Permalink Optimization: The most important thing you can do regarding Wordpress and SEO is to use the right keywords in the title. No matter how nicely written is your blog post, if no one can find it, it doesn’t really make any sense. The right keywords can make your URL visible and more attractive.
• Tags: Tags are very important for SEO, but only if they are useful and well picked. You do not need useless and unnecessary tags; there is no point in adding tags that have nothing to do with your permalink or description. On the contrary, they lessen the emphasis given on the title keywords.
• Wordpress allows you to use Headings and Subheadings. Use them. They are defined by html code, with H1 for the main heading to H6 for the smaller one. If you are writing a long post with several topics elaborated in it, it’s a good idea to use sub headings, because this way you allow the search engines to search for keywords in the blog, and not only in the title. This way you increase the comprehensiveness of your blog in keywords and implement one of the most important Wordpress and SEO techniques.
• Design: keeping the wordpress design clean, clear and simple is crucial. The body text should be written using clear heading and lines. Most bookmarking sites are against blogs, because of possible spamming, therefore keeping your blog well appointed and clear, can help your blog look more like a site, liked and appreciated everywhere. The design should also be clean because of crawlers; if Google, for example, sends a crawler to scan your blog and everything is too messy, with flashy and attacking designs and weird codes, chances are you will be ignored. Moreover, a clear design and text allows the visitor to see your text directly, without wondering where to click;
Wordpress and SEO techniques already built in the platform and these tips here can help you create a likeable site and interesting texts, with SEO interest as well, allowing your blog to be among the first results in Search engine queries.

Why Good Web Design Just Isn't Enough

You've got a great new website, the design is incredible, it looks very impressive, you've got a sensational product or service to sell from your site. The trouble is, no one ever visits the site. Here's why good web design just isn't enough.
No Traffic - A well designed website is a great asset. However, if you're receiving no visitors, the chances are, your website isn't optimised for Search Engines. There are some beautifully designed websites incorporating amazing images and impressive flash. But making a pretty storefront is no good if no one comes by your store to shop at it.
Off Site Activities 1 - It's not just the work that you do directly on your website that builds your online profile and brings visitors to your website and increases your Search Engine Rankings. Article Marketing is one way of boosting these areas. Writing an engaging article on a relevant topic and posting it prominently on the Internet can boost credibility, profile and get some great backlinks.
Integration - Until recently, you either had a great website design, or great SEO for your website. But now, designers and SEO experts are working together to produce stylish, navigable websites with informative content that are professionally optimised.Integration of key SEO principles into a snazzy design makes the best combination.
FOUR: Hosting - If you use a poor quality hosting service, they can really effect the way that the Search Engines view your website. If you want the most out of your website, you need to ensure that you have good quality, fast host with great customer service if things go wrong.
Off Site Activities 2- Online Advertising is essential if you want to bring quality traffic to your website. Google, Facebook, MSN and Yahoo (and many others) all offer their own online advertising systems. To attract visitors that are looking for your goods and/or services, use Paid Search advertising.
Copy and Content - Without high quality content on your website, you will impress visitors with your style, but they will soon click away from your site when they don't find what they want. You need to create compelling copy and captivating content
Off Site Activities 3 - Social Media sites offer valuable opportunities for creating backlinks, providing a human face for your company and also doing some traditional advertising to specially targeted market groups. Social Media Optimisation encourages interaction between company and customer on a level that never existed before. It's a great way to develop brand loyalty.
The Right Blend Essentially to get the most out of your website, you need to have blended your great web design, superb SEO, sizzling copy, unique content, relevant links and made the most of any brand building opportunities through Social Media Optimisation.
Developing a website with the design as your highest priority can seriously damage your ability to get customers to your site. But by considering the areas mentioned above, you can develop well designed websites that also attract the right kind of customers and keep them interested long enough to buy whatever you're selling.

Does Your Website Need a Redesign?

You may have a beautiful website, it may win awards for excellence in design, but unless the designer has taken into account the principles of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), you may need to consider a redesign. You may have an old website, it does its job, it tells people about your company, but it's slow and the content, it's a bit out of date. In both cases, you definitely need to consider a redesign.
Both websites will struggle to get the volume of traffic that they could receive. The new well-designed site may get traffic for those looking specifically for that site, but anyone using a keyword search for your product or services won't find you.
The older site with out of date content loses out because the Search Engines think (due to the lack of fresh content) that the site is dormant or dead. Both of these websites could receive great traffic and a potentially lucrative increase in business, but without consideration of SEO, they won't get any share of that possible income.
So what should one look for in a site that might need a redesign?
All FlashAlthough there have been significant advances in Search Engine technology and they are beginning to read some flash, a site that's all flash is likely to be dreadful for Search Engines. They will be pretty, but the Search Engines won't rank them highly because the content is essentially unreadable. But what about major corporations that rank highly but have flash-only sites? These sites have such a high rate of linkage that their flash content probably doesn't matter, unless you can compete with a major corporation, an all flash sites is a no go.
FramesFrames in your website make it difficult for search engines to index its pages. What's more, human visitors really struggle with frames, they're difficult to read and it's hard to get an impression of the site. Some browsers don't even support frames, meaning your site is entirely unreadable for those potential customers.
Splash PagesWeb designers using splash pages really make a visual impact on the visitor. Imagine the entire webpage as an animated page, straight out of a cartoon. Very impressive. Unfortunately, from an SEO point of view, they're horrible. Splash pages generally contain little or no text content; have no links and full of flash and other software which the Search Engines still find difficult to assess for a ranking. You may impress with your Splash Pages, but kiss goodbye to many potential customers.
Slow LoadingVery simply, a slow loading page puts off both human visitors and search engine crawlers. Human visitors may not have the patience to wait for the pages to load and search engines almost always rank the faster loading pages above the slower ones. If your site has slow loading pages, they need replacing.
Out of Date ContentFirst, the Search Engines will simply ignore this site as if it no longer exists. It may have been ok in the past to leave your content for months without updating it, but these days, it will soon slip off the radar without regularly updated content. What's more, nothing puts off a human visitor more than out of date content.
If your site contains any of the above SEO problems, you need to implement a redesign; it's costing you potential income.

What Does it Take to Go From Employee to Successful Home Based Business Entrepreneur?

Your freedom of choice and the freedom to effect change in your own life is extremely powerful. This is a basic freedom we’ve all been blessed with at birth that we can use to accomplish extraordinary things in life. If you fail to use this freedom to your advantage however, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.
For example, let’s say you find yourself complaining about your job or your lousy boss. If I were speaking with you, the first thing I would ask you is, “what are you going to do about it?” I can only hope that this question would not be met with a blank stare.
The reality is that everyone has their own laundry list of things to complain about. Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to take the steps necessary to correct that which makes them unhappy. Able yes; willing no.
So, let’s assume that you are one of the few who recognizes when you need to make changes in your life. Please allow me to also assume that you’ll actually take the steps necessary to make it happen. To you I say: change is good. However, change also requires transition. And my friend, transition can be tricky.
To acknowledge that something needs to change in your life is only an initial step. This acknowledgement is meaningless if it does not push you in the direction of making the required transition. All too often people are willing to accept mediocrity with an excuse of “well, this is just the way it is”.
Change is good – transition is critical. The topic of transition can be clearly illustrated by looking at some real world, easy to understand examples.
For instance, I think we’d all be in agreement that Tiger Woods is one of history’s greatest golfers. The man’s accomplishments speak for themselves. Now, what do you think would happen if you sat Tiger in front of a video golf game? Just because Tiger Woods has unmatched skills out on a real golf course, does that necessarily mean that those skills will automatically transition to video golf?
I would bet my last dollar that a 13 year old, video-game-fanatic kid would kick Tiger’s butt in video golf. Do you get the point? The transition from real golf to video golf is not automatic. I’m sure Woods has the propensity to be great at video golf, but this would only be determined by how successfully he could make the transition.
Let’s take this concept into home based business. Let’s say you’re a good employee; recognized by your boss for doing a great job and complimented by those with whom you interact as someone competent at your tasks. Good for you – you can be proud of those accomplishments. The question then becomes, will your commendable job performance necessarily translate into an ability to effectively start and grow a business? The definite answer is NO.
The successful transition to becoming an entrepreneur is not guaranteed to the good employee.
Take a look at the network marketing industry. Network marketing has enabled more ordinary folks to enjoy extraordinary home based, entrepreneurial success than probably any other industry. BUT, that success IS NOT automatic. Just because you’re a good employee, does not mean you’ll be a successful network marketing business owner.
Your MLM business is just that – it’s a business. And, transitioning into and growing a business requires a specific skill set that must be learned and adopted. These skills include – but are not limited to – communication, marketing, organization and listening. You may already posses some of the required skills. If so, good for you! But, don’t stop there.
There is one sure way to increase your chances of success and that is to strengthen the skills you already have and to build up new skills where you’re deficient.
For anyone seeking success in the exciting world of network marketing – also referred to as multi level marketing or MLM – you’d be doing yourself a huge favor by preparing yourself properly. How to succeed in network marketing is much more than a function of being a good employee. It’s much more than having lots of energy and good intentions.
Success in a network marketing business of your own is a sum total of the real world, practical business skills you develop and hone. And, there are essentially two ways to build up the skills you’ll need: to learn them on your own or learn them from someone who has already taken the path you now wish to travel.
Is it possible to acquire these skills and succeed in business by trial and error? Of course it is. But, I can promise you this, it will be a long, painful and very expensive road. Investment in yourself by way of getting your hands on useful information is the path consistently taken by those who consistently succeed.
Doesn’t learning from others just make sense? For example, what would be the fastest, most efficient way to learn salsa dancing? To teach yourself how to do it or take classes from an accomplished salsa instructor? The answer should be obvious.
If you are looking to make the transition from employee to a successful network marketing business owner, the very best first step you could take is to get a copy of “The UNIVERSAL MLM Success Kit”. This training tool is jam packed with information and instruction that anyone could use to accomplish their goals in MLM. Go check it out now…you’ll be glad you did.

Link Building is an Important Part of Optimizing Your Website

If you are concerned about optimizing your corporate website and pulling in the most amount of quality web traffic as possible, link building should be a major part of your overall Search Engine Optimization and management strategy. It is one of the most important elements to any SEO and SEM campaign.
Link building is a very important part of search engine optimization (SEO) and management. The main role that link building plays in SEO is that it helps the search engines determine how important or valuable your site is considered to be by others. If high quality, high traffic sites are linking to your site, then logic dictates that your site is also high quality. It is sort of like being cool by association. Of course it is important to have many links coming into your site, but it is much more important to have high quality links attached to your website.
The key benefit to having high quality web sites, blogs and directories linking in to your website is that, for search engines, it is one of the major factors involved in determining the quality or usefulness of your website. Once search engines deem your site to be high quality, they will start sending more traffic to your site by giving your websites higher rankings, or status when accommodating web searches.
There have been a lot of rumours lately about linking no longer being important, thanks to black hat link building techniques. These rumours are simply not true. While there is no denying that some unscrupulous SEO imposters have tried to outsmart the search engines with some less than white hat link building techniques, this has not made search engines devalue links altogether. Search Engines have simply evolved and adapted find and punish black hat attempts at link building. This is why it is important to always link with high ranking sites and directories that are somehow related to your website content. As an example, a confection e-retailer would benefit from receiving links from high ranking suppliers, children’s sites, or shopping / review blogs, rather than links from dog kennels, garden shed suppliers, or computer review blogs. In other words, it is well worth your while to seek out links from high ranking, pertinent sites than it is to connect with low ranking, irrelevant sites.
So how do you know if you have found a white hat or black hat link building company? Well, there are a few clues. If link building is part of an overall and encompassing SEO strategy, this is a good sign you are in good hands. Ask for references from past and present clients. If the company you are considering gets accolades from their existing clients, this is also a good sign. Do not forget to ask questions. Ask the link building company if any of their clients have been black listed while under their care. If so, why and what did they do to get them out of the mess...were they successful in removing their ban? These are just some of the clues to help determine if you are dealing with a purely white hat company.
If you are concerned about optimizing your website and pulling in the most amount of quality web traffic as possible, do not ignore link building as part of your overall SEO strategy. It is one of the most important elements to any SEO and SEM campaign.

Affordable Gift Suggestions For Your Groomsmen This Recession

In the past and up to our present time, a wedding between a man and a woman is indeed a joyful celebration. However, we are driven a 100% influence on the power of money to have a joyful wedding ceremony. Times have changed compared in the past. Weddings are joyful occasions to celebrate. But, you couldn’t have a successful celebration without the people who helped you. These are your families and friends who not only helped you out during the celebration but who have shown you that they are around when you needed them the most. You are overwhelmed and very grateful to all the people who had supported you, but gratefulness when not shown is like a wrapped gift not given. One of the people you are grateful to be there are the groomsmen. Their role not just for being the groomsman that day but also for being a friend who have helped and assisted in any way they can for the wedding to be successful are worthy to be grateful for. Of course, you are thinking the “oops” - which means spending again. But if you shop around and plan well there are a lot of cheap groomsmen gifts ideas that they will surely be glad to have.
To help you with your tight on the budget decisions, we have gathered and searched cheap groomsmen gift ideas that range from $5 to $15.
Money clip. Price ranges from $5.99 to $7.93. Men are usually not fond of bringing a lot of things, even a wallet. More often they would just bring cash and probably a cell phone. With this, a money clip could help in storing their cash securely.
Distinction Shot glass. Shot glasses come in various designs you can choose from. For instance, if he is an NFL fanatic, you can give him an NFL shot glass. Price starts at $8.33 to $12.
Flip flop sandals. A sandal is a men’s accessory that could come in different great styles, colors and materials. It is basic footwear that anyone would want to have for that casual or summer outing. You can find a durable flip flop sandals starting at $9 to $15.
Clear glass mug. Your groomsman can now easily drink like a fish with a clear glass mug, price ranges from $10.58 to $15. Another cheap groomsmen gift idea that he could use not only for a glass of beer but can also be used for any beverage like coffee or tea.
Waiting for the last minute won’t help you save your pennies. Shop around and compare prices. All of the gift ideas presented here can be personalized. Some can offer free personalization. Look around carefully and you might stumble upon stores that offer sale prices. A token of appreciation from you, will mean a lot for your groomsmen. You can even scout for any shopping codes or company promo codes to save. This means it is a win-win solution for your groomsmen and your pocket.

A Guide To Buy Wholesale Gifts

When you buy wholesale gifts, the manufacturer or wholesaler will sell you the items as a retailer, and in the process you end up paying much less than you would have got them from a retailer, because you bypassed the latter. In buying wholesale, a consideration of the amount of gifts to buy is in relation to the people that you have in mind to give to. Many wholesale outlets usually have offers to shoppers buying wholesale with some reducing the price up to a certain percentage. You may wonder then how they make their money. It is called spreading risks. They may sell at a lower price but end up selling large amounts thus balancing their books when it comes to making profits. Some outlets even offer to act as a drop shipper for whatever you buy. This means that you may order wholesale via a retailer who does not stock the items that you require, and they just go to the wholesaler who will directly ship your items to you bypassing the retailer. This may however, come a price as the retailer will have to get the difference between the wholesale and retail price as his pay. It is therefore advisable to go direct to the wholesale
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distributor for your wholesale needs. Remember, if you whole family are looking up to you, or you have a number of friends who are graduating from college, and you need to pass a message through special gifts; wholesale buying is the way to go. You end up reaching out to each and every one of them and touching them in a special way in a personalized manner without having to spend so much on buying individual gifts at retail price. Again, wholesale gifts usually come with other special incentives other than special discounts. This include being able to buy online and getting drop shipping services, not limiting you on orders-can be to the lowest minimum- no monthly charges and no membership charges. It therefore comes as no surprise that most people are turning to wholesale buying to cut on costs and for convenience. With the global financial downturn of recent times, it is perfectly understandable that everyone is keen on keeping cost to the maximum, only in this case (with wholesale buying) it is to their advantage. And who wouldn’t want to get gifts in bulk for convenience and then have them drop shipped to your door?

Internet Marketing -What is a forum signature

Forums are very good means of marketing a product or service. You can learn a lot from the posts of different people and at the same time, they can get tons of related information about you. But writing those posts everyday can tire you out without reaping rewards sometimes. So you would come to think, "How can this help me promote my goods?" The answer: good forum signatures.
What is a forum signature?
A forum signature is a block of information that is automatically attached at the bottom of each forum post. This usually contains links for sites owned by the author. It can be as simple as a text or include graphics and animations as well.
What is the importance of using forum signatures?
A forum signature is used to provide forum readers a link of an author's web page, usually related to the forum topic itself. It can be very useful especially for internet marketers as they can advertise their links by getting involved in forums. For more details www.achieving-liftoffs.com.They can expose their links to the forums that they join into, creating back links that increases their page rankings, putting them in front of search results from different search engines. And the more clicks they generate, the more potential for them to have a sale.
How can you add a forum signature?
You will definitely not have a forum signature unless you prompt yourself to create one. Normal texts can usually be typed down in forum sites but signatures with graphics and the like will need to be in an HTML code. To add a signature, go to a forum and sign up. Go to the link which will enable you to change your profile setting. Normally, you will find a signature box in it. Paste the text or code of your signature in the box and click the "attach signature" checkbox (if any) for your forum signature to automatically attach below your message.
How can you use your forum signature effectively?
•Make your signature a promotional tool. The forum signature can act just like an online advertisement on different sites. It should describe what you are promoting. Put together a profe
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ssional and convincing content and make it short but sweet. (Tip: If you are not much of a computer savvy, there are several sites that offer forum signature designs. Just make sure that what you get is relevant to your product or service.)
•Include the link to your site. To make your signature more effective, include the link to your website. This will help you generate more traffic and will also help the readers learn more about the products or services that you are offering.
•Participate in a forum related to your site. Expose your signatures to relevant forums. Promoting your fly new motorcycle models in a forum for computer geeks? What can you possible get from that? Try forums for car lovers and you will surely find interested readers who would gladly look at what you have to offer. It is basic marketing-picking markets that have the same interest as you.
•Create threads. In forums, the readers usually skip the part of replies that are not related to their query. For more details www.website-conversion-mastery.com.If you look closely, thread creators get more clicks than thread repliers. This is because most of the readers would post replies without reading the other replies. So to generate more exposure for your site, create lots of threads in related forums to let other users see your signature rather than posting them as replies.
•Include your achievements. It is always a plus for an internet marketer's professional character if you put his achievements in the forum signature. When you including these, you will find your readers clicking on your signature to know more about you and what you have to offer.
If you are a senior member in a forum, you can also earn a lot of money by providing your signature to different forums. Keep in mind though that optimizing your forum signature to reap marketing reward is, by no means, an easy task nor an overnight matter. You still have to build trust and create value for your signature to have credibility. But through the proper content in your forum signature, you can be sure that you are a step closer.

How to Be a Nonprofit Development Director - Your First 100 Days

President Roosevelt, coming into office in the midst of the desperate years of the Great Depression, set the standard for new presidents to make their marks within their first 100 days in office.
And, like FDR, incoming President Barack Obama enters the White House at a time of great crisis with his own ambitious first 100 days to do list.
Chances are, if you’re coming on board as a nonprofit development director in today’s climate, you, too, may be facing a time of great instability.
Nonprofits, for the most part, have been hit hard by our nation’s economic woes. They’re facing challenges in terms of donations, staffing, government and foundation funding and organizational structure.
How can you make a difference quickly, while at the same time setting those important standards for your organization’s future sustainability?
Too often a development director’s worth is hastily measured by those without a true understanding of how development operates. Today’s grant proposal will more than likely take months, if not a year, to bear fruit. Establishing a successful individual donor campaign will certainly yield immediate results, but the real results may take years.
How can you best approach your new position in those crucial first 100 days?
Begin by giving yourself some time to review what’s been done in the past. Hopefully the grant files will be well organized, the database will be one that you’re already familiar with, you can access what has been done in terms of any type of annual appeal and events.
Make a list to determine what needs to be done in each of the following areas:
GrantsTake a look at your organization’s 990 or budget for the past three years to determine what percentage of the budget came from grant funding.
Has the organization run any past capital campaigns? Do they have a history of funding from the same funders every year? What efforts have been made to locate new sources of foundation or corporate funding? What is the organization’s goal for foundation/corporate funding? What types of relationships does the organization have with their foundation/corporate funders?
If you’ve been in the field for awhile, right off the top of your head, some new sources may come to mind. Make it a point to prioritize locating new sources of funding by doing weekly research.
Individual DonorsWho are your donors? Does your organization have any bequest gifts?
Make it a point to create a listing of your top ten to twenty donors. You’ll want to speak with them on the phone or meet with them personally within the upcoming 100 days to introduce yourself and learn about their connection with the organization.
Don’t make the mistake of solely focusing on your top donors. Query your database as well to find your most loyal donors. These may be individuals who only give $50 – but they’ve given every year for the past ten years. Make it a point to write, call or meet with as many of these individuals as well to introduce yourself and show your appreciation.
DatabaseI’m assuming that your organization has one ☺. Chances are, if you’re a new development director working for a smaller nonprofit and you are the sole development department, the database may be nonexistent or a bit of a mess.
Do your best to familiarize yourself with your organization’s database, the past protocols for data entry and reporting procedures – and absolutely set aside time for training if necessary.
CommunicationsHow has your organization communicated in the past? What does their website look like and who maintains it? Is their website current? What types of collateral does the organization have to express their mission? Is the organization logo prominent on all pieces of communication? Has communication with donors been current or sporadic? Has any effort been made to engage the local press?
Begin to outline a strong, consistent communications plan to keep your donors – and the public – informed.
StewardshipDoes the organization have protocols on stewardship? What are the guidelines for a thank you letter to a donor? To a corporate or foundation funder? When does the Board president or CEO sign the thank you letter? Are thank you calls made on a weekly basis?
Make a plan to gather all stewardship materials together and develop a consistent plan for thanking and retaining donors.
EventsFamiliarize yourself with past events, if any. How do they relate to the mission of the organization? Have they met goal? What are the expectations for the upcoming year?
BoardDuring your first 30 days you should make every effort to introduce yourself to every member of your board of directors if you haven’t already met. Find out how they became involved with the organization, what their fundraising goals are, and what kind of communication they’d like to receive from you.
CommunityHas your organization been involved with any community organizations in the past such as Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, etc.?
If so, make it a point to keep current on the connections. If not, you may want to consider how involvement might benefit your organization.
Your MissionProbably the most important part about your new job is your organization’s mission and how you relate to it. Your strong passion for the goals and value of your organization will be key to how well you are able to raise funds.
Whether you’re working for a museum, an arts organization, a free clinic, a school, a religious organization, etc., you must be thoroughly grounded and have a strong belief in the mission. Make it a point to learn why your organization was founded, who benefits, and why their services are so important to the community.
Wearing the many hats of a one-person development office is challenging! Make your first 100 days count.

Nine Tips For Living a Harmonious Life in Retirement

Many people speak and write about living a harmonious life. Some of those people offer guidance that amounts to trying to help readers or hearers align their lives to the life of the writer/speaker. And many readers/hearers actually listen for a specific set of steps that will create harmony in their lives. I’m not presuming that the way I structure my life will be the way you need to structure your life. What I can offer is some guidance about the kinds of things that often create disharmony in people’s lives and some generalized tips to help you create harmony in your life.
First, let’s stop and think about what a harmonious life is. Webster’s dictionary defines the word “harmonious” this way: (1) having parts combined in a proportionate, orderly or pleasing arrangement: congruous, (2) having similar or conforming feelings, ideas, interests, etc: in accord; (3) having musical tones combined to give a pleasing effect: consonant. When we think about harmony in music, it is easy to hear and feel the harmony of the notes. Harmonious notes in music produce a pleasing and comfortable sound. The same is true of living a harmonious life: it produces a sense of pleasure and peace and it is comfortable because it has everything in an appropriate proportion. A harmonious life will also produce a pleasing connection between beliefs, feelings and interests and the way you live your life.
My top tips for creating and living a harmonious life are these:
1. Become very clear and conscious in your own mind about what are your beliefs, feelings, ideas, interests and values. If these are clear and consistent or harmonious, you have made the first and most important step.
2. Understand and define your priorities in life. What is most important to you? Is it inner peace or helping others or building a secure and comfortable life for your family?
3. Align your priorities with your values and interests. If they do not work together to create something pleasing, you have a dissonant chord that will prevent you from living a harmonious life. Your priorities will be easier to honor if they are in harmony with your beliefs and values.
4. Base your goals on your values and priorities. Most of us are trying to achieve something at most times in our lives. Setting goals for ourselves that are not consistent with our values and our present priorities, we are not very likely to achieve them. While your values will remain fairly consistent throughout your life, your priorities will change from time to time. If your goals are in conflict with your values or your present priorities, you will experience disharmony and you will probably not achieve your goals.
5. Allocate your time according to your values, interests, priorities and goals. I often work with people who are trying to re-align their lives and their goals but do not reallocate their time in ways that match. Let’s face it, there are only so many hours in a day! If your priority and your goal are to spend more time with your family, you need to stop working until 9 pm.
6. Focus your energy on your highest priorities and on the achievement of your goals. It is very easy to see some low-priority project you think needs to be done and expend all of your energy trying to get it done to get it off your mind. But doing this diverts your focus, your time and your energy from the things you have said are most important to you. If your goal is to build a tree house with your son or daughter this month, working on your golf game needs to wait until next month.
7. Don’t take on more than you know you can reasonably do without creating exhaustion or stress. Taking on new responsibilities or tasks should be a considered decision. It should be considered in terms of the balance of your life according to your values and your priorities. If something doesn’t fit, you will probably be more content in your life if you don’t agree to do it.
8. Cherish the feeling of harmony and peace when you create it. Learn what that peaceful harmony of life feels like. Enjoy the peace and the feeling that your life is within your control and matches your values and priorities.
9. When you feel that your inner harmony is being disrupted, stop and think through your values and present priorities. Re-evaluate and see what needs to stay and what needs to go.
If you will take these steps to think about what you want in life and align both your time and your energy with a focus on values and priorities, you will begin to enjoy the peace of a harmonious life. You probably noticed, however, that there is no step 10 in this process. This is because you will be constantly aligning and re-aligning your time, your energy, and your focus when your present priorities change and when your values become clearer and your interests change. Enjoy the sound of perfect harmony!

Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle

Maintaining all around health is the best way to live, and when it comes right down to it, all it takes is creating and up-keeping good habits, but there are some ABC’s of health which we should all abide by. Number 1: A balanced diet is one that eliminates or minimizes artificial trans fats in the body, employs a modicum of saturated fat for flavor, and focuses on unsaturated fats, the types found in vegetable oils, seeds, avocados, nuts, and fish for the greatest in health benefits. Saturated fats, which are concentrated mostly in animal products, are solid fats that raise harmful LDL cholesterol and increase cardiovascular disease risk. Foods high in saturated fats are damaging to your arteries, so as a result The American Heart Association advises limiting saturated fats to less than seven percent of total calories, which is equivocal to about 15 grams for the average person in taking 2,000 calorie-a-day diet. It is easy to limit your saturated fat intake, just stay away from high fat content dairy products, limit your red meat intake and manage your meat portions. Lastly, and this is a given, as much as possible stay away from fried and greasy foods, these are just swimming in saturated fats.
Hydration is the mother of necessity for all around health. When it comes to you and your health, nothing will do but the very best. Alkaline water is the only water that carries large amounts of disease fighting anti-oxidants as well as holding the record for being 6 times more hydrating than even bottled water! A water ionizer is your ticket to the healthy and age reversing alkaline water that your body shouldn't live without. Alkaline water has also been known to help with cellular function; the molecular make-up of alkaline water is much smaller than that of tap or bottled water, making the water's molecular structure more penetrable to your cells. Because the water molecules are able to penetrate and reach our cellular system at a much quicker rate than any other water, this results in more energy, toxin detoxification, and a better running immune system!
Where would we be without proper rest and relaxation? Every living person needs a proper amount of sleep to rejuvenate the body, as a matter of fact, sleep is needed to regenerate certain parts of the body, especially the brain, so that it may continue to function optimally. After periods of extended wakefulness or reduced sleep neurons may begin to malfunction, visibly affecting a person's behavior. Some organs, such as muscles, are able to regenerate even when a person is not sleeping so long as they are resting. This could involve lying awake but relaxed within a quite environment. Even though cognitive functions might not seem necessary in this scenario the brain, especially the cerebral cortex, is not able to rest but rather remains semi-alert in a state of "quiet readiness". This is a one way ticket to bringing on or compounding stress. Without proper rest or down time stress is eminent. Stress has been known to have the following causes:
• Rapid heartbeat.
• Headache.• Stiff neck and/or tight shoulders.
• Backache.
• Rapid breathing.
• Sweating and sweaty palms.
• Upset stomach, nausea, or diarrhea.

Some mobilized key specifications of web 2.0 design

Undeniably, Web 2.0 is an honored progress in the arena of web design. I am feeling massive excitement to introduce you people with this modernism of website design for the help www.29web-design-tricks.com. Web 2.0 templates have comfort of numerous designing facilities like as innermost layout, effortlessness, content versatility, intelligibility as well as appealing color contrasts.These are some mobilized key specifications of web 2.0 designArtistic attractionYour wish to do a website design with some astounding effects which makes your site more appealing. A web 2.0 design helps you to draw some artistic designing aspects which will capture audience concentration and helps you to keep them at your site for long time.Content rangeIn web 2.0 design style, you are able to use larger fort sized contents for decorating your web page. Here you can focus vital key phrases with a larger font size at your content.Effortless navigabilityViewers of your site are chasing for information or produce what they required! Thus web 2.0 design styles suggest you to keep easy navigation system for visitors at your site.Great logosThe best feature of web 2.0 design is its logo design capability. You can design significant large logos for promoting your brands business. This kind logo can easily capture the eyes of your viewers what exactly required in small business web design.Innermost positionWhen you built your website in an innermost manner then it is very easily assumable that your design brings an honest impression of your products. It is also far easier for your budget as you can use minor pixels or texts on your website.
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LabelingYou can insert remarkable labels at your design for special offerings of your business. By using this special feature of web 2.0 design style you can directly reflect your selling strategies in front of your business market.Natural helpful iconsHere you can use impressive icons at the important areas of your site to draw the attention of your viewers. Placing notable icons is a designing credibility apart from using much content. These icons will automatically put visitors at your required area.Number of columns reductionThe clarity or visibility of your website varies with your used number of columns at your website. As much fewest numbers of columns is used, the simplicity increases simultaneously. Infusing too much columns on your webpage is always a bad deal for web 2.0 style.Separating segmentsIn web 2.0 design style, you are able to use fluorescent color segment to separating different important parts of your web page. From visitor's point of view, it increases easiest readability of different sections of your web page.Simple LookingAs it has a lot of new features, it can help you to take away from several hazards and put into the innermost purpose of designing for the help www.my-early-days-on-the-net.com. The design looks simple and comfortable for the users. You will achieve your objective using only required features.At the end, the web designing world marching forward with its own added features. Web 2.0 designs are taking a step ahead with its modernized features by capturing viewer concentration from rest of the world design styles.

Dog Heartworm Disease: How Worse Can it Get?

Any disease suffered by your pet requires your immediate attention. As a responsible pet owner, it is your duty to make sure that your dog lives as comfortably and happy it is should. One of the worst diseases your pet could acquire is dog heartworm. This is a type of disease that is transferred from one host to another through mosquitoes.What’s tricky about this disease is the fact that its symptoms doesn’t show right away. In fact, it may even take a full year before your dog suffers from its common effects like coughing, fatigue, or blood discharge. Worse, it could even be too late for your dog to recover from the disease at this point. The more complicated cases of heartworm may lead your dog’s death in just a few days after the full incubation of the disease. And oftentimes, this happens exactly when the major symptoms show.Heartworms are parasites that live inside the dog’s body. If fleas and mange infest the outer skin and hide of the dog, heartworms attack the vital organs. Heartworms do look like worms, thus its name. They are very small and multiply in the blood vessels. They travel throughout the body, more particularly to the heart and lungs. They also invade the liver and kidneys of your pet. When the worms take full control of the organ, failure follows. This is the main reason why dogs die due to the disease.To treat heartworm, it is best that you consult with the vet right away. Do it the moment you see even the faintest
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symptom of the disease. But in this case, regular health checkups with the vet are most advisable. If you live in a place where mosquitoes thrive, give your dog anti-heartworm shots or medicines to keep it from suffering from this disease unnecessarily. Anti-heartworm shots and medicines are available from the vet. Visit your veterinarian as frequently as possible to monitor your dog’s health. If ever your dog is diagnosed with heartworm, make sure that you give all its medicines on time, all the time. While dog heartworm can be fatal, it can easily be prevented as well. By knowing what you have to do, you really need not worry about the implications of this disease. Being well informed can save your dog’s life.It also helps to boost your dog’s immune system. Dogs with stronger bodies are more likely to live longer and healthier. Diseases like heartworm won’t infect them easily, as the parasites deposited in the blood stream are easily eliminated by the dog’s antibodies. There are many ways you can possibly make your dog immune system stronger. Give dog vitamins, provide good nutrition, and follow good hygiene – these are all the things you can do to make sure that your pet is in pink of health at all times.Dogs are man’s best friends. But parasites are their biggest enemies. Keep your dog protected. Prevent heartworms before they infest your pet. Give your dog the protection and love that it deserves all the time.

Where To Get Free Money To Buy A Home

There are a growing number of home buyers who have found free money to buy a home. These are grant-loans offered by the Community Development Corps (CDC's) which are local government agencies specifically designed to help low income families purchase their first home. Some CDC's even allow previous homeowners to get into the program.
Many local governments have started home loan subsidy programs for emergency workers (EMS, Police, hospital workers, etc.) so they can purchase affordable housing on their city or county salaries. These same governments have also extended the funding to the public to qualified buyers. Their funding is allocated by the city, county or state government and is unpredictable because of funding crises in local and state governments.
If you would like to apply for a loan, you should begin immediately to get qualified because there is usually an educational program associated with the loan. While only loans are mentioned previously, many of the funds disbursed are actually grants and not meant to be paid back. Most carry guidelines that must be strictly adhered to so that the loan becomes a grant and does not have to be repaid after a number of years. The loans are never transferable to someone buying the home, even if they are qualified in the CDC program. There are seldom pre-payment penalties, but remember, if the loan is kept for a certain term, there may be no repayment required.
The amount of the funding varies and is determined by the need of the applicant, the expected purchase price of the home, and most importantly, the amount of the funding the CDC gets. Typically, it is quoted to the perspective homeowner in a flat dollar amount, such as $40,000, which will be about 20% of the purchase price of a home for which the applicant qualifies. Sometimes the applicant can also apply for repair monies, usually about $5,000.
The applicant must look for a home to buy while waiting for his funding. His competition is other home buyers that can get conventional financing, so the process of finding a home can be frustrating. An issue of the loan process is that it usually takes 60 days, once a purchase contract has been signed. This unusually long closing time is a hardship on the buyer and seller, but seems to matter little to the CDC. Often time's sellers would rather sell at a lower price rather than waiting for the uncertainty of the CDC funding.
The CDC also requires that the applicant get pre-qualified by a lender for the difference of the grant money and what is owed to purchase the home. It is important that the applicant uses a commercial bank as a lender because a mortgage broker may put part of his commission on the "backend" of the loan, often resulting in a higher interest rate. Most CDC's have a maximum interest rate the borrower can pay, so this could kill the purchase. However, there is an industry secret to overcome this which is to have the seller "buy-down" the interest rate of the loan by giving the lender a set amount at the closing as part of the closing costs. The larger this amount, the lower the interest rate for the buyer.
The CDC loan process may be intentionally complicated so that the number of applicants remaining after the elimination process includes only the strongest. Expect many requirements to change throughout the loan process and before closing. This is very annoying, but ask yourself this, "Who else is willing to gift you with $40,000?" Do whatever is asked even if you don't understand why, or if you have done it before, because there are probably ten people behind you waiting for the same funding. Persistence and perseverance is the key to owning your own home and having the government pay for a big portion of it.

Printing Cost: Saving On Smart Printing Companies

Nowadays, consumers are becoming more critical. Witty slogans on fancy billboards and television advertisements alone are no longer sufficient to make the cut. You do not need to be entertained, but as with the needs of every client, you need to be assured of your purchases, be it with clothing purchases or printing costs.
Both big companies and entrepreneurs are faced with a financial dilemma. Your advertisements with more information without blowing your budget. You need a printing cost that would accommodate your needs with all the flyers that are needed to be given away and brochures that are to be mailed.
With the weight of having to keep up with the changes in advertising, the pressure of acquiring printing solutions within the budget is crucial. However, cheap printing need not necessarily mean substandard.
What was probably true in the past is no longer true today, especially for printing and your printing needs. If you think that a printing cost is directly proportional to quality – then you might be in for a surprise.
Some businesses pay a higher price for their printing needs. Others are held hostage by their need to produce postcards and flyers in large quantities that will reach out to their huge host or clientele. To this, they forsake the quality to have a large print volume at the cheapest price.
If you need to reach a wide, targeted demographic as large as possible, you no longer need to sacrifice quality. Printing cost should be cheap, but quality should be at par with the best.
Smart Printers and Smart Printing
The printing technology used by modern printing companies produce prints that are of unremarkable quality. Perhaps what differs is overhead cost or management cost, and the profit margin the print company dictates. Nevertheless, cost-effectiveness should be the by-word companies should live by. Consider the following when choosing your printing company:
1. The larger the volume of the print job, the lower the cost per unit will be. This means that it will enable you and your company to reach more of your targeted market.
2. This would allow you to increase your prints, your coverage and your sales without going over budget or spending too much on your prints. . Higher sales should generate higher profits and a better return on investment on your cost of printing.
3. Choosing a company that offers lower cost of printing means you have more money to upgrade your print job too. You can opt for a larger print, a different finish, or a thicker paper. This makes for more impressive marketing materials and may make a difference in the effectiveness of your advertisement.
4. Lower printing cost will allow you to supplement your marketing materials even more. You can have company stickers printed, you can send postcards during special occasions, you can put out more posters, etc.
With the technological advancements, printing cost is becoming more and more affordable. Keeping up with the changes in advertising need not drive companies and entrepreneurs to reach deeper into their pockets. With a smart and professional printing company, you can print wisely and affordably.