Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Introduction to Blogs

Blogs are multiplying at a fast rate. Thousands of blogs are created everyday and lots of people out there are making money off a simple page of information which requires a few dollars or mostly absolutely no investment.

It is even better than a lottery ticket. You don't spend a penny but you might end up being a millionaire, but there are higher odds in blogs to make at least a little amount of money.

Money shouldn't be the first goal for a fairly new blogger and since this article is an introduction to blogs, I am assuming most of you reading are fairly new to the concept of blogs and making money without investing any.

Steps for a new blogger to quickly set up a blog and start posting!

- Visit www.blogspot.com
- Create a Gmail account (If you don't already have one)
- Use the same id to create a blogger account
- Choose a template and start posting anything you like except gambling related content
adult stuff(xxx)

Once you have a blog set up, next thing is adding content to it. Write about anything that you would not be bored writing about. I don't get bored writing about cricket, poker and blogging itself on my blogs and that is why my blogs get a lot of appreciation because my writing doesn't seem boring and you should do the same thing with the topic you love.

Types of blogs:

Personal( For your profile, making online friends, sharing personal goals etc.

Business: Advertising/selling products as an affiliate for a product

Random: Any topics basically that you know a lot about and want to write about.

If you write about Biology when you know nothing about it, people are generally not going to visit your blog again when there are thousands of blogs out there giving more information. There has to be something unique about your blog.

Quick steps to make your blog above average:

- Be creative( Don't copy or paste because it is your personal blog which should contain information that you know)

- Choose a good topic ( Choose something that will also interest others to read about. Lets say you love writing about your school friends and books. You should choose books because people reading won't know who your friends are and would be bored quickly)

- Quantity vs Quality information ( You should write quality information which means don't spam your blog with the same thing over and over again and also write a good quantity of work which means you have enough information for people to read about.

Use the above tips when making your first blog.

Then you need traffic to your blog. You aren't just going to create a blog to get read it yourself because you can do that on MS-Word. You create blog for others so you need to get others to see your blog.

Ways to increase traffic:

- Signature Promotion: Join forums about blog communities, Facebook and use your blog name as a signature under your profile.

- Linking: Tell anyone with the same type of blog as you to add a link to your blog for more information and you do the same thing for their blog. (This gives a higher Google search rank)

- Advertising on Google. Create an Adwords account on Google and start posting ads on Google about your blog if you are selling products. This gets a lot of targeted audience since Google Ads are shown only when specific word is typed. (Use advertising only if you are selling products.

So you have your blogs set up and everything running. You need a way to make money now. Everyone deserves couple hundred dollars for providing useful information. To do that create a Google Adsense account and use the same e-mail has the blogger.com e-mail. Once you have it set up put Google ads on your blog. When someone clicks you get paid from anywhere between 2-70 cents. Which sounds like a low amount but if you get 100 visitors and get 5 clicks it can convert into $3.50. That is for a very low traffic range, but when you start getting more and more traffic the profit keeps rising and you won't have to put much effort.

You are making money while you are having fun creating a blog of your own. Before ending this article, here are some last things to make a note of

- Keep adding information regularly so you can get permanent traffic.
- Keep promoting your blog through the traffic tips stated above.
- Write about what you know and would love to write about.
- Don't click on your own ads as this will get you banned.
- After your blog gains popularity switch to another form of advertisement which will make you more money.

Saving: The Key to Wealth

Saving is one of the easiest ways to slowly and steadily build your wealth. It is too easy for some people and they want other "not so easy ways" to get wealth. So many people today are running in negative credit card debt. Negative means you stole the money from the bank and not returning it now. It means that you stole the money that belonged to someone else. It isn't any less than a bank robbery.

Now start saving because Banks are giving good interest rates and any money you save is the money you earned.

Saving money aside in a bank account with high interest rate will make your money worth what it really is worth. Let me give you an example: The average rate of inflation is 3%. Which means if you have a thousand dollars next year they will be worth $970. But if you put the same amount of money in a savings account or bank account with high interest rate your money will grow to $1040, assuming the interest rate is 4%. This $1040 is only worth $1010 due to the inflation. Now you see that saving money and putting it into a bank makes sense.

Many people don't realize that they are losing money by not spending it and keeping it at home or in a piggy bank. Now of course I used only a $1000 example so most people could understand the concept of inflation and realize that any spare cash at home is losing its value without even being spent.

How to save? is the next big question. You have to realize that every dollar you save every day is worth a lot of money. If you addicted to smoking and smoke pack a day, you are paying heavy price to kill yourself. It is stupid when people buy $7 cigarette packs every single day. Have you ever calculated the cost?

365 x $7= $2555, Smoking for 30 years? = $76650! You spent $76k on doing something that would kill you.

If you don't smoke then you are already $76k richer than smokers. Now for an average person who doesn't smoke. Cut on simple costs of food. Food costs variate a lot as you go from town to town and people often spend money on fast food when they could purchase many better things.

Morning coffee= $2, you drink it everyday till retirement= 365 x $2 x 50 = $36500. Now lets say instead of drinking coffee from a coffee shop, you made your own coffee which costs around 60 cents to make at home.

Then you save: $25550! Now put that in fixed deposit for 10 years at an average interest rat of 4%. You earned 25550 x 0.04 x 10= $36000. You earned 36k by drinking clean coffee at home. These are just very basic and small examples. Imagine if same rules were applied if you bought cheaper car, cheaper groceries, made food at home, that would just make you a millionaire by the age of 50, if not sooner!

Live life. Don't save on every little thing. Spend on what you need and you can afford. Don't waste on drugs, fast foods, short lasting clothes, etc.

Do you really want to work from home?

The first question you have to ask yourself is "Do you want to work at home?". In today's world it is not a big deal to work from home. Although most people work in offices, factories or industries many work from home as well.

There are some pros and cons of home based business, and hopefully after reading this article you will understand some drawbacks and some pros of owning a home-based business.

First of all what is a homebased business? It is a business that can be done at home, mainly using computer, laptop or telephone. Home-based doesn't mean just internet business. There are other types of home businesses which many people are not aware of. Some common ones are:

- Home based Insurance Business
- Legal Advisor Home Business
- Personal Tutoring Business
- Internet website managing
- E-market business
- Trading business

If you want a home-based business, you have to realize that you are not an "average" worker. An average worker makes $12/hr and works from 9-5. In a home based business you will have to choose your own timings. Since it is at home you will generally be spending more time than an average worker.

Pros and cons of home-business are.

Pros: 1.) Low costs (No renting expenses, no tax deduction, no travel expense
2.) Family Life: Stay at home with kids (No childcare expense)
3.) Flexibility: You choose your hours, when you want to work.
4.) Sole-Proprietorship: You are the owner, no more listening to the boss.

These were some of the cons. You need to see and evaluate whether these pros are the pros you were looking for. And if you were looking for 3/4 of these then you should consider opening your own business. But nothing in this world is perfect and that is why there are some negative sides to home-business as well.

Cons: 1) Limited Options: You cannot open a lot of business through home( No restaurant business, hotel business, Sales and Retail Business.)

2) Non-Flexible: Sometimes you will have to work the whole day to make the profit and might not find time to spend with family/

3) Hard to focus: Difficult to focus with kids around which could make you lose a lot clients.

4) Loneliness: Not being able to make friends, working alone for a long time could be less motivational and boring.

Evaluate these pros and cons and decide whether you would able to cope up with the cons and whether you were looking for the pros that home businesses offer. There are a lot of opportunities to work from home. You just have to try to find the best that suits yourself. Some people like to work outside and some like to have independence.

Should you open a business is up to you. Me or any other article writers cannot force you because this business involves risk, ability to do business, management skills, etc and your personal satisfaction in what you want to do

Tips for starting an online business

Starting an online business isn't as easy as it used to be when internet was first created. Today there are more than 6.5 billion webpages on the web. That is more webpages than the total amount of people in this world.

Why has it become hard? Competition with so many domain names, a lot of products to enhance your business, and there are huge differences in the prices of all products, which can drive you crazy. You will need to give yourself time, atleast 30-50 hours for learning.

Here are many tips for making a successfull business online and working from home. Hopefully by the time you have read te article, you will be ready to make your own online business.

* Learn - The first step in starting an online business. You need to learn how to set up a website, what people are looking for and what will be sold over the internet. Whether your business is a simple website with ads or a website that is an afilliator for someone, you will always need to learn first

* Evaluating Business - You need to evaluate some questions:

How much is it going to cost me?
How many hours do I need to spend?
Is it a part time business or full-time?
Will it return profits in the long-term?

* Before you even begin your business, you will need to learn, as you have passed the first stage, you will need to evaluate. After you have evauluated the questions and are confident that you will succeed, then it is time to go to the third step.

* Setting up the business: There are different types of businesses around the world, and the same trend exists online.

Here are tips for few businesses

* A website with ads: This will most likely be a part time business, and about something you like to write about and know a lot about. To set up a website, in the learning stage learn how to create a blog. Get a free blog on blogger.com and make a blog and see how much traffic and revenue you can make from that.

* Average cost: $200 for website modification tools, $10/month for domain and $400 for setting up forum. A good website will cost around $500 to set-up.

* Affiliate Marketing: Business where you will sell products for someone else. This will cost you less than a website, since the original site which you are advertising in most cases will offer you free domain name and host your website.

But less investment does not mean less gains. The owner of the original product will always be the beneficiary and will gain the most, but you will get a small

Causes of the Great Depression

NOTE: Check out the new series of articles on the recent economic downturn located on the homepage of this blog. Don't forget to e-mail me at arjunwadhwa2003@yahoo.ca for any questions, concerns or information!

To become street smart and learn more about the fundamentals of money, it is important to analyze one of the worst disasters in the history of world economy and the reasons for it.

"The Great Depression"

The Great Depression was a very depressing economical period of time for the whole world, and the worst economic disaster in the history of the world. The millionaires went broke within a few days, business tycoons were on the streets left with nothing and many companies went bankrupt. But what exactly caused this event?

Any event like "The Great Depression" does not happen over night and requires time to take place. The Depression had started to take place as World War 1 had ended, a lot of wealth from the Axis came to Allies, and the economies flourished. But during this stage the equality of wealth became worse. The rich people could afford all the luxuries, mansions, cars, etc but the poor couldn't find enough food to survive.

The industrial revolution brought a lot money to the industry owners which left agricultural farmers with very little. And remember we are talking about 1920's when there were a significant number of farmers.

The stock market was climbing and attracted many investors, who only found themselves lose all that money to a major stock market crash. When the stock market goes incredibly high, a crash is inevitable. This event caused many people to commit suicide, and was a major step towards the great depression. It happened on October 29th, 1929 and it is still known as "Black Tuesday" because black color signifies evil and depression.

With machinery, workers were able to work longer and more productively without getting injured which caused a lot of worker strikes for higher wages and better health plans for them, since they deserved it with all the hard work. With wages, increased the price of goods, but the salaries of others remained the same.

Recently the gasoline prices have risen; imagine if all items were inflated like gasoline, today we would be in another depression. This is what happened during the great depression. The prices became high but the salaries didn't.

Then people who did not have enough salary started buying on credit. Which meant that they would pay within a year or pay in installments, but with the stock market crash they were in debt forever. The depression hit America the hardest, followed by Canada, countries in Europe, and some other major parts of the world.

Matters became worse as people were fired from work due to fewer profits in sales, and farmers leaving their farms in hope to do better in the industrial revolution. This was also the start of a new era, where industry, trade and business was quickly taking over and agriculture, logging and mining were becoming things of the past.

Since the industries were already in a poor economical shape, the newcomers, farmers and other uneducated people remained unemployed and had nowhere to go. They couldn't sell the crops for low price, and they couldn't get a job in the city. The unemployment rates increased to as much as 50% which means that half the people legally able to work did not have work.

The inequality of wealth was taking its toll, but prosperity came again. As demand for warfare items such as guns, bullets and bombs increased, the industries flourished again. Countries were preparing for another war which is known as the World War 2. The great depression was completely gone after the World War 2, but resulted in the lives of millions of people.

The Great Depression has taught to the future generations like ours, that the effects of spending too much, buying too much, living in a dream world with a few people with all the luxuries can cause a downfall in the economy. We together have to learn from this economic disaster and try out best to avid one in the future by only buying what we need, donating and spreading money across the world to people who need it.

Improving Self-Confidence Skills

This is another Personal Development Article. You might be wondering what personal development has to do with making money. It actually has a lot to do with your personal ability to achieve success. Without confidence you will not be able to make money online or in the real world.

We all know that self-confidence is a skill that one must have to reach the top. Confidence is something that would separate losers from the winners. A confident person will never give up and keep trying whereas the less confident person would give up and blame their own luck.

Confidence is not genetic. The process of gaining confidence starts at a very young age. When we get encouraged to keep trying to walk and we finally learn it or when we get good grades and see the smile on our parents face which we want to see again and again.

Most children that have self confidence are the ones that get good grades and understand everything at school. The parents of such children always believe in them and tell them to do better or comments like "you can do better" help build confidence.

For children improving confidence is easier than it is with adults because adults understand that comments like "You can do better or "Try Again" are made to encourage kids and not for adults. That is why many adults end up having low confidence and consider themselves below average.

Self-confidence can be gained by doing many activities. (Steps in gaining self-confidence

1. One of the most common things that holds people back from being confident is physical appearance. It is what we appear to the whole world as. Our physical body and our face is what people see because no one can read our brains or look deep into our hearts, which is why gaining confidence requires a good appearance.

- Go to gym regularly, eat healthy foods, apply lotions to dry skin, etc.

2. Improving Communication- When you talk to someone, you can almost instantly tell if the person is educated or not. That is why having communication skills is important, because it will lead to higher confidence level.

- Improve communication skills by talking on phone with employees, calling the news channel to share opinions on the latest issues. Read and increase your vocabulary. Working part-time in a call center will also help in building communication skills.

3. Believe in yourself- There is a huge psychological factor behind confidence. You need to believe that you are the best, and that even sky isn't the limit. Life is like journey where the destination is death. Which means you will never reach point in life from where you cannot go further. Keep trying and believe that you can do even better because only then you will be able to.

People that have confidence generally have good communication skills, happy with their physical appearance and believe in themselves

Understanding cultures in the business world

Today we live in a world of billions of people. They are all from different countries, different backgrounds and yet we still belong to one world.

People immigrate to other countries in hope to achieve something greater that couldn't be achieved in their home country. They bring with them, experiences of their country, their culture and their language.

How many times have you seen two people talking to each other understanding every single word, and you on the other hand, never even heard that word before. It has happened to all of us, and why shouldn't it? This world is a divers ed world. Not just human beings, but look at animals. African elephants look different that South Asian elephants.

Success in business comes from knowing what your fellow co-workers or partners appreciate and value. You have to incorporate that and then melt in with their point of view and Addia little touch to it.

It doesn't mean that you don't value your own opinions. Just that sometimes things will not go your way and others will get what they want.

You have to understand the fact that what is important to you, might not be as important to someone else. Music might be something that you listen to for some relaxation, whereas for a musician, music is their life.

Some tips to easily adjust to new environments and accept new cultures is:

- Don't assume that you know everything about other's culture, because there are always some rumors and misconceptions.
- Don't make fun of other's feelings and point of view, because for them what they are saying is absolutely right.
- Appreciate others culture and religion.
- If you are non-religious then don't make fun of other religions.

If you follow the tips above, you shouldn't have that much of a problem adjusting to new cultures.

For business owners, it is important to find out about the most dominant culture in their neighborhood. A restaurant serving Italian food in the middle of a Chinatown is not going to do as well as an Indian Restaurant near a neighborhood with lots of Indians.

A lot of businesses fail due to the lack of knowledge of what people want. Business is all about selling what people want, and what people want depends on their needs, which vary.

Online business ideas ( From home)

What could you possibly do as an online business? There are many possibilities and types of businesses that you can do sitting in the comfort of your own home. However, some businesses just cannot exist online, so your options are less than real world business ideas.

Similarly, there are businesses that only exist online, and therefore you can only do them online and no where else. When you are working online, you are mostly working from home, so we can apply the home based idea to almost all online businesses.

One such business is creating a website. It costs a few dollars; in fact you can start right now with a blog for free at blogger.com. Choosing between a website and a blog depends on the topic you want to choose and what information you want to provide. A blog can usually be about your personal life and does not contain forums. For most people a website is more ideal, since it will provide more features and business ideas. There are many sites which are making millions of dollars in ad revenue.

But how will you make money from a blog and a website? Before creating a blog you need to select a topic you will be writing about, and you should enjoy writing to make good money. Once you have a good blog with informative content then you need to put ads on it to make the money. Google offers Google Ad sense which is a free ad program and if someone clicks the ads you will get paid a few cents or even a few dollars depending on how much the click was worth. It's simple, easy, and free.

Once you have adsense set up, then you are ready to popularize your blog. This can be done by placing a link under your profile on applications such as facebook, Orkut, online forums or your friend's blog.

Another online business is to sell someone else's products through your website and get commission for that. This is what affiliates do. You are basically an affiliate for a company and you advertise their products.

For example if your website is about cars, then you can very well sell cars through your website. You can do this by listing some cars for sale on another website. You will usually get paid per sale.

One benefit of being an affiliate is that you can also use ads as another source of revenue side by side. You will be making money from ads and selling products. This is why this type of business is successful. Best of all it costs only a few hundred dollars to set up, but requires a lot of time and you must have a popular website.

A huge drawback of owning a website is that you need to take it to the top, or have at least 5000-10000 visitors per month to get offers for being an affiliate. In addition you have to spend a lot of time before you can even make your first hundred dollars.

Once you get started, the money will flow in without much effort and you will get rewarded for the work you have put in it; but it does take a long time to get there. I myself have a blog which has earned around $70 and since I have only spent a few hours, it actually turned out to be a decent hourly rate. I am also an affiliate for a few sites and have managed to make couple hundred dollars, but I am not a full time businessman.

These are some of the home based businesses which require very little investment but lots of time! If you are planning to own a website and a business online, then you should first try out with a blog, or free website, and play around with layouts.

Knowledge about Java and other programming languages is also essential to save time by using automatic features. Remember not to quit your job right away in hopes of becoming a successful businessman online. You should start your business with a job on side and then slowly decide whether it is worth to quit your job.

How to save money on gas

Gasoline prices have skyrocketed in past few months. The prices have gone so high that it has become a political issue about who will provide better gas prices.

Saving money gas has become more important than before. This time it is about saving thousands of dollars per year, not just a few dollars. Now you have to add gasoline to your monthly budget, if you are planning to use it for work or other activities.

But there are many ways to save on gas. If you take a closer look at the number of alternatives available; there are actually a lot of them. One of the fundamentals rules to save money on gas is to use less of it. The idea is simple and easy to follow. Here is how you can save on gas and therefore on money.

1.) Walk the short distances: If the grocery store is only a mile away, it won't hurt to walk all the way there. It will be a good exercise for you and save a lot of gas. One of the biggest reasons why someone uses a car is for grocery shopping. A car requires gas, and if you don't use the car you won't use the gas and save money.

To buy small items like bread, eggs, or some fruits don't waste gas. You are not only saving your own money by walking, but also protecting the environment from global warming. There are other short distances that people use their car for like going to a friend's house, shopping, or just going for a ride.

2.) Ride a bike for long distances: Bikes can easily cover 5-7 miles without making you tired. You can buy a solid expensive bike with gears and latest technology and still end up in profit after saving all the gas. Use your bike to go to work, school, or grocery.

Bike is again good for health and can be used for longer distances. Instead of walking with grocery, you can use the bike storage box and put groceries inside it making it easier for you. Buy your kids a bike for going to school or other places. Buying a bike is must for everyone who doesn't live far away from a mall.

3.) Use public Transit: For long distances public transit can be cheaper than a car and again you will be doing well for the environment. Whenever you save on gas, you protect the environment which means you always gain and never lose. A bus can usually carry around fifty people and be used to travel distances up to 100 miles.

For some people it is hard to take their bike to work, or do grocery shopping on a bike. I can understand their problem. Especially in a city everything is located far away and a car is must for most people. But don't get disappointed, you can still save a lot on gas by following these tips:

1.) Turn your air conditioner or heater off whenever you can
2.) Make sure you get your engine updated often.
3.) Buy a car with high mileage, meaning it can run a lot of kilometers without using too much gas.
4.) Avoid buying heavy duty trucks, since they use a lot more gas.
5.) Buy a 10 seater if you have a big family.

A car isn't the only place where you need gas. What about gas stove, gas washing machines and dishwashers? The only way to save on gas on electronics is to use it less. Make sure you have the newest gas technology which requires less gas to run the electronic.

Make sure you don't over use your washing machine or gas stove.

Hopefully, by now you have understood that saving money on gas is not that hard after all. Start now and your money will pile up soon. You can put the money in a savings account and make it grow bigger rather than blowing it on gas.

Theories behind playing poker

Texas Hold'em has exploded in popularity in the last few years following the win of amateur player who made millions in the world series of poker. Texas Hold'em has been around for a long time but only got recognition now for the great game that it is. Just search poker on Google and you will find all sorts of websites offering poker strategy, videos, software, hand trackers, statistic trackers, etc.

Texas Hold'em requires skill, and the best players are always the ones who do no depend on luck and play with odds in their favor. In short run however a donkey (slang term for a bad poker player) can beat the shark (the professional player), due to the luck factor. You must understand that in the short-run there is luck involved, but it will eventually even out after thousands of hands. This is where the Theory of Poker comes into play. The professional players know that losing is part of the game and you are bound to have at least one losing session in your poker career.

Poker is based on a lot of theory and math. First thing to consider when playing poker is whether you have enough money to play with. Sure you might have $20 and take that to a 10c/20c table, but what if you get a bad beat? You must follow proper bankroll management. A general rule is that you must have 20 buy-ins for a cash table. For example, you need $400 to play 10c/20c. The theory behind this is that when you sit on a table, in the short run your opponent might get lucky and take your whole stack. If you only have one buy-in, then you can lose all that money in one unlucky hand and then never be able to play again.

The bankroll management theory states that a poker player more money than a single buy-in to play to the best of his ability. Poker money must be set aside only for poker and not for personal use. This way you can climb up limits and start playing higher stakes. If you lose, you can easily drop down a stake and still have enough money to come back. Bankroll Management must be followed at all times, because it is one of the most fundamental theories, without which you are bound to go broke.

Then comes the pot odds theory. Pot odds refer to the money in the pot and the strength of your hand. This way you can make a mathematically correct decision and make money in the long run. For example, imagine you are button on a $1/$2 game, and you are holding 78s. Everyone calls and according to the pot odds, you can profitably call as well. Why? Because everyone behind you just called making the pot a total of $15, plus the big blind and small blind. You are only risking $2 to win $15. If you happen to hit a straight, flush or even better a straight flush, then you can easily win a huge pot.

The theory behind the pot odds is that in the long run if math odds are in your favor, then you will win. For example if you play in a situation where you are 70% favorite every time, then 70% of the times you will come home as a winner and make money in the long run. Now of course the opponents will win 30% of the times, but you will win more. You will lose sometimes but over a huge sample of hands, your winning percentage should be closer to 70%. If you have the correct pot odds, then you must make the call even if you think that you are behind in the hand. Pot odds are very essential in order for you to become a successful poker player. Many books and calculators are available that can provide you in-depth pot odds for every decision.

There are also lots of theories behind tournament such as stealing blinds, playing premium hands under the gun, stealing from the button, re-stealing from an original blind stealer, defending blinds, etc.

The theory behind stealing blinds is that in a tournament the blind levels do not stay at the same level. The constantly go higher and stealing blinds can get you a lot of chips late in the tournament. Also during the late stages you will find conservative players who will fold every hand to get more money. These players are not playing for the first place, but for some extra money. As a professional player you must make stealing blinds an essential move in tournaments. This way you can safely add to your chip stack and take advantage of players.

Stealing blinds from the button is the most effective. If everyone behind you folds and the blinds are really high, then you only have to face small blind and big blind in order to steal their blinds and also you have position after the flop in case you miss the flop completely.

Defending blinds is a controversial theory which states that you should defend your blinds more often in the late stages, because other players will be trying to steal your blinds. If you call their raises, you are constantly putting pressure on them. But what if they are not stealing and actually have a good hand? This is why blinds should only be defended against small raises or if you are an expert poker player who knows what he is doing.

These are some of the basic theories of poker for cash games and tournaments. Poker requires tremendous amount of skill. For a beginner it may seem hard to understand the skill factor, and that is why they lose their money because they are gambling not playing poker. You should always look for poker strategy articles, videos, and books which will improve you significantly. Remember that poker school is a school that no one graduates from!

Why Google is the best search engine

To make money online, you will need to optimize and use Google to your advantage to get traffic or find money making opportunities. For this you need to know exactly why and what makes Google so successful and how you can use it to your advantage.

"Why Google is the Best Search Engine ever created"

Google is really the best search engine out there. It is fast, reliable, easy to use, free of cost and user-friendly. Google is one of the most profitable online companies and the reason for this is their search engine which is one of the most visited websites in the world.

The Google Query System

To judge a search engine, one must know how and why the search engines lists some sites on the top and some sites on the last page when doing a query. Google uses a link system to list the sites on the top. This means that site which has been recommended by other sites and blogs for the keywords gets listed on the top. Not just that but websites which are updated frequently also get a higher rank on Google. This way whenever you search for a keyword you will get the latest and most of the times the best available site on the first page. Other search engines list sites which pay them a fee, or sites which are the most valuable in terms of profit, but Google has used a unique system which gives you better results than other search engines.

Google does not ask for a price to favor a certain site over the other, but simply lists the site which is updated, contains information related to the keyword and has been recommended by other sites. This way even blogs created with WordPress or blogspot are listed in the search since they also can be useful in providing information.

The Google Website and Features

Google is also fast and easy to use. The search bar is right in the middle and GOOGLE is written clearly on the top of the search bar which attracts the user right towards the search bar. The sub sections such as images and news are smaller than the search bar, but still visible to the user. It also has some features such as "I am feeling Lucky" which takes you straight to the first site and "Pages From Your Country" which lists sites only from your country and can be very useful when you need to read about the latest elections, find a job near your area or simply want to read a blog created by someone in your country.

Another user-friendly feature that Google provides is the option of storing your searches for future use. For example if you searched for "Making money" and found some interesting websites and let's assume that next time you searched you forgot about the keywords you used. If you enable the option of storing your searches then "Making Money" will get listed as soon as you type the letter M, making it faster for you to search without typing the whole phrase. This feature is especially useful when using a long phrase to search for an item such as the lyrics of a song.

These features are lacking in other search engines which simply use one plain search bar with a limited number of other options. In terms of advertising, the actual Google page does not contain any advertisements. The search results have a few advertisements listed on the right side and you must have noticed that they are mostly text ads. This is because banner ads can make your internet slower if you do not have a graphics card and also distract you when you are researching for an important project.

The Google Filter

Now comes the filtering part. Google uses a filter system to avoid listing sites which are illegal such as sale of drugs, ammunition, black markets, etc. It also blocks torrent downloads of books which are basically an online copy of book completely free without the publisher rights. Google filters are very strong and make your internet experience much safer and faster. Sometimes it will also warn you if you are searching for something illegal.

Since Google is one of the most commonly used search engines, sites always try to get a higher ranking and as a result they improve their content, use more specific information and use Google Keywords to provide information that you need. Not only has Google made searching internet easier, but it has also improved the content of websites because of the way Google ranks the websites.

In conclusion, Google is the best search engine out there which is safe, quick, legal, free and easy to use for any search. What are you waiting for? Visit wwww.google.com now to search for absolutely anything and you will find everything that internet has to offer.

How to make money in the Stock Market

Making money in the stock market is similar to making money on your money in bank with interest being paid to you. It takes time, patience and lot of knowledge to make money in the stock market.

Many say stock market is a gamble, but it is actually more about your ability to see deep into the stock and realize when the stock will go up. The ones who say it's a gamble are the ones that don't make much money or randomly pick any stocks.

Generally people who are long term traders will make more money in the stock market. Long-term traders means long-term "stockers". They usually keep a stock for years and wait for it to grow slowly and steadily. Remember the quote here is "Slow and steady wins the race". You have to follow a similar strategy.

Why do long-term investors do good in the stock market? The reasons are because they pay one time commission fee. Whereas a short-term buyer and seller has to pay fees on every transaction which they do frequently, but the long term investors only pay the fee once because they don't make many trades. Another reason is because the stock grows more and might even make you a millionaire.

For example, it is easier for a stock to go from $1/share to $30/share in a matter of 4-5 years. But it is almost impossible for a share to go from $1/share to $30/share in a couple of months. It might go up a dollar or few cents, but it won't go too high. For that reasons the short-term investors make less profit and sometimes they are even is loss because of the commission fees that add up and low returns on investment.

So to make money in the stock market, you should buy a stock for long-term and hope to keep it in your portfolio for the next couple of years, unless you find that the shares will drop in prices or will not make you any gain then you need to sell it.

One thing that many beginner investors do, and which I did too was to buy the shares that almost everyone has heard of. For example, the Microsoft share is one of the first ones that are bought by people. Mainly because the company is well recognized and the share is not ever going to drop to an absolute value of $0 anytime in the near future so people feel comfortable buying those shares.

In order to make profit you need to something that others don't. Although the Microsoft share made some people millions of dollars from an investment of only $10,000, it is not going to make you the same money. The company has already reached a very high peak, and chances of it getting even more money reduce.

People who did make money by the Microsoft share are the people that believed in it when it first came in the stock market as a small company and wasn't well established. That is why you have to find newly starting companies with low share prices and see their profile, market rating, average profit/loss, maximum share drop, etc.

To make huge sum of money, one has to invest in something which has a huge potential to grow, and is at the bottom of its business career and is rising nicely to the top and will make a lot of money. An example of such a company is Net Gear. Net Gear is slowly rising and is one of the shares that I own right now. You don't have to buy it, but it is an example of how you can invest in something that is small and gain huge returns.

So here you have it. To make money in the stock market you need to be a long-term investor and invest a company which has potential to grow a lot more than its present state. But not to forget that some people also make money by selling and buying shares every week and don't keep shares for more than a month in their portfolio, and also that investing in a small company can be a risk. Take these precautions when first starting and start with a small amount of money so that you won't go bankrupt buying your first stock!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Contact Information

Any questions or concerns regarding this blog or promotions should be e-mailed directly to rockstar2003@gmail.com

Expect a reply within two business days.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Beware of Cyber Crime

Search Tag: Cyber Crime

There is a lot of money to be made online. With programs such as Adsense, blogger, wordpress; websites are just a click away. People have great opportunities to learn about the online world and make money from advertising, etc. But any place where millions of dollars float around; there will always be scams and criminals ready to take every single dollar out of the system to use for services such as a crime network.

A few years ago there was a website recruiting terrorists. A website which was not ranked on search engines; which meant it could only be accessed if anyone knew the exact address was or someone guessed the right URL. The news channel did not release the name of the website, but did inform the public that there were chat rooms, special e-mail application only for the people part of the website. This is an example of a high-level cyber crime, which attracts and targets innocent teens to be part of a terrorism group and chat with people who kill hundreds everyday.

Child pornography is another criminal activity which mainly started due to the chat rooms and the easy access criminals have to everyone's e-mail address including young children. This type of crime became easy because of the network that internet has created. Even now you can go to any chat room and expect to find people who are willing to give you their address, phone number, and even set a place and time to meet a person they have never seen. Most young children are naive and get trapped in these situations and think they are actually going to meet nice people, but end up in videos all over the internet.

Cyber crime is everywhere. There is a black market for almost every p2p game you can think of. People were selling fake game money for real money, scamming young kids of their accounts and selling them for a higher price. One such game my son played had a black market, where people were giving out telephone pins for membership. They were charging "one million game coins" per pin. Most people doing this were well below the age of 21, and they didn't think anything was wrong with selling other people's phone numbers for $7/month membership.

Think about it; if young teens have their black markets, then how many more black markets must be existing for the trade of drugs, credit card numbers, terrorism, pornography and anything illegal that can be thought of? E-bay was recently sued for the sale of fake brands. This is another common cyber crime. In the real world your shop would get closed and you would get a hefty fine for this, but online the only thing that will happen is your account will be suspended; meaning that you can create another account and get back in business.

Many people don't even consider sale of fake products a huge crime. There are bigger crimes that need to be solved, and compared to that the sale of fake brands and black markets for video games are nothing. It really is unfortunate that black markets and scams have become so common that people don't consider these activities as crime and rather a small scale scam where the seller is only making a couple hundred dollars, and this is exactly the reason that cyber crime isn't stopping.

Another reason why cyber crime is so popular is because of the lack of censorship. Internet does not get censored all that much. How many websites can government officials scan? There are more than six billion web pages, and that is equal to the number of people living in this world! People can easily get away with fake identity cards. I myself have not given proper information in some e-mails addresses, and how exactly will the police catch me doing something wrong? The only way is to track ip which is considered to be loss of identity. The police itself are helpless due to the privacy laws.

The above are examples and reasons of cyber crime. The only way we can stop cyber crime is to report it as much as possible. Do not hesitate in contacting the police if you see some illegal activity going on. Do not look over websites that are scams; report them or e-mail the website host to remove the website. Work with the government. I would rather give the government my personal identity than giving it to some criminals who would use it for illegal purposes.

In conclusion, cyber crime is a crime done on the internet through a network. It has become one of the most popular types of crimes and is hard to detect. We as citizens of the internet world are responsible to report such sites and stop these crimes from happening.

Save money on eating out

Search Tag: Saving

In the western world a lot of people don't have time to cook food at home; especially the working mothers. In the modern era the roles of a woman are changing and all members of household are expected to work. This all leads to eating outside and spending more money than you really need to.

Eating outside can cost a lot of money if you choose a "high-status" fine dining restaurant. You can easily save $30-$40 every time you go out to eat. Firstly, you need to decide if you are eating out for food or for a special occasion. If you are eating out regularly because you don't have time to cook, then avoid going to fine dining restaurants at all costs!

Fine dining restaurants have a lot of expenses such as the plates, table cloth, servers, etc. This is why fine dining restaurants can cost up to 3 times more than an ordinary restaurant. If you are going out to eat regularly choose a restaurant where there are no servers because the wages are one of the biggest restaurant expenses and if there are no wages to pay then food will be much cheaper. The quality of the food does not get affected and you won't need to give any tips which can add up to a large amount.

Self-serving restaurants such as McDonald's, Steak House, and most other fast food restaurants are mostly self-serving and that is why the food is much cheaper. You can always find a lot of items to satisfy your hunger in self-serving restaurants. But if you are going for a special occasion and would like to go to a place where you are served and have all the luxuries then it will definitely cost more, but you still have options. Most dining restaurants have discount rates and some will allow kids to eat for free because they make enough money from the adults.

Another type of restaurant you want to avoid is all you can eat buffet restaurant. Firstly, it is unhealthy and secondly it costs much more than average meals, especially if you don't eat for the money. Many people over eat at buffets because they paid for it and this causes bloating of the stomach, stomach ache, and even lower metabolism.

If you want to save money when eating out, you must avoid buffets at all costs! Think about it. Why would a restaurant allow you to eat more than you paid for? Buffet price is set at maximum standards; meaning that the price you pay is actually the price for the maximum amount of food an average human being can eat at one meal. You need to be really hungry and have a lot of capacity to actually eat more than the expense of the food.

This is the reason why many buffet restaurants continue to be in business and make a lot of profits. The food and service aren't the only ways to save money when going out. Another way to save money is to set a standard server tip. This means that whenever you leave tips for the server, give them a standard amount. Something like $5 is low, but still counts as a tip.

It may make you look cheap, but if you are tight financially then you need to save on tips. There is no reason to give $20-40 in tips when you cannot afford to. The servers get a salary so you aren't hurting them too much. But again, if you go to a self-serving restaurant you won't need to worry about all these things at all and save a lot of money.

In conclusion, the best way to save money is to avoid restaurants with luxuries other than food such as fast service, interior decoration, top notch furniture, etc. Your only priority should be the quality of the food which will not get affected if you avoid luxuries of a five star restaurant. So start looking for restaurants where you serve yourself, and don't have to waste money to help restaurant provide the luxuries.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Advertising is everywhere on the internet. It takes a lot of time to understand the way advertising works on the internet. This article also contains advertisement because advertisement remains one of the only forms of payment for many websites. The type of advertising which costs no experience and is absolutely free is pay per click advertising.

What exactly is 'pay per click advertisement? Pay per click advertisement means that you get paid for every click that your advertisement gets. One of the most common pay per click programs that many websites use is Google Adsense. Google Adsense is a program which is free to use and very easy to use. You basically get the ad code which is in HTML form and paste it to your website. A couple of seconds later the advertisement will appear on your page and you will get money for each and every click.

Pay per click advertising uses keywords to match advertisements to your content. For example, if I create a blog which contains information about making money by investing then you might see ads like "The investing guide", "The investing bot will make you money", etc. Similarly if your website or blog is about video games then only video games ads will appear. It is not necessary that you only put advertisement which suits your content, but it is recommended. Website Designers spend a lot of time to get the perfect ads, but I suggest you let Google Adsense do that for you. I have never had inappropriate ads and they are all related to my content.

There are ways to get more clicks on your ads. One of the ways is to blend the ads with your website. If your website is mostly black and white, then your ads should be standard white and black as well. Matching ads to your site layout is very important and will increase your Ad Revenue significantly. Since pay per click only pays you for a click, it is important to make it stand out so visitors frequently visit those links and don't just stare at it.

One of the best ways to make money from pay per click advertisements is to get high volumes of traffic. Since more people will visit your site, you will get more clicks and more money. You don't have to choose Google Adsense, but other programs such as AdBrite, Bidvertiser also offer pay per click advertisements.

You might be wondering why people pay you if someone clicks their ad. The reason for this is because they get a visitor to their site who might end up buying their product. In addition to that, next time the visitor returns, he/she will not use the pay per click advertisement but rather a URL link. This way they can get return traffic directly to their site. Everyone benefits from the pay per click advertisements. Google Adsense and similar programs make money by taking up to 20-30% of the pay per click profits, the publisher gets money for the clicks and the advertiser gets popularity for their product.

Pay per click (PPC) is form of advertisement which is only done on the internet. It has become a multi-billion dollar industry and continues to grow. This is because it is free and provides benefits to everyone. No one loses money in this business. You might make less profit, but it is still a profit, not a loss.

In conclusion, PPC is one of the best forms of advertising on the internet. If you own a company, or a website then you need to start using PPC advertising as soon as possible, because you might be missing out on thousands of dollars of earnings.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Traits of Successful Websites

All good and solid websites have things in common. If an average person wants to make their site above average then they will just need to follow the good websites layouts and the things that all those sites share in common. In this article some examples of websites will be given and the traits that make them and other sites successful.

Common traits include-

Clarity of information (Organization) : Writing gibrish certainly doesn't help attract more people. Look at Google for example. It is so easy to search because there is only one search bar and sub sections above it which are printed in another colour and GOOGLE written so clearly that even a 7 year old can figure out what to do. Just simple and easy to use. That is why it is rated the best site and the richest.

Organization of the information is important. Many websites give lots of information but it seems like too much to read and people are generally lazy to read long paragraphs on the computer. They need quick to navigate and easy to understand content and that is why sites like Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia are so popular because they organize the information in an easy and time saving way. Lets take a look at Yahoo now. Instead of all the information on the same page, they use the main page for interesting news titles such as "Discover the secrets of millionaires" which attracts people to look around the site since the main title is so clear and interesting. On the left there are sub categories for Horoscopes, chat, Yahoo Answers, etc. People just get hooked to these sites like a drug because of the time it saves.

Quality Information: Now lets move to content related websites such as Wikipedia. The popular sites with lot of content need to be extra careful with the quality of information. Online it certainly helps more if you have Quality information rather than quantity because of the types of people looking at sites. Most visitors to Wikipedia are Elementary-High school students looking for project related information and they won't be interested in reading a lot, but if anyone does want to read more Wikipedia uses sub categories to divide the topic into pieces of information. Quality information never has spelling mistakes. If you make spelling mistakes on your site there is no way you will ever reach above average website. Quality is important because students would look for something to the point and that is why using sub categories helps the site increase traffic and profits and spelling mistakes just makes it unprofessional. Ask yourself if you would like to be a permanent visitor toa site where every other word is mis spelled.

Eye pleasing Layout: The layout of the site is the first thing that determines whether the visitor will stay or just go to another website. Again people try to be too fancy with the layout. You just need a simple eye pleasing layout. The colours of the ads should blend in with the text colour of the content (Assuming you have ads on your site). Nothing should seem out of place. Sub Categories need to be different colour but still look like part of a website. For an example of ad blended with the content visit this blog www.onlineblogging4money.blogspot.com and see how the content is blended in with the ads and the layout is eye pleasing. For other examples look at sites like google, yahoo, ebay, etc.

Contests: Many sites, especially forum containing sites use competitons as a way of attracting more visitors. Person with the most posts gets a small reward for contributing to the forum society. A good site will always have something for the visitors that makes visitors of the users feel like a part of the site because they would be participating in the site contesnts. Contests help drive more traffic and make the site look more " unselfish" where the owner isn't the only one raking in all the profits. For an example look at Adsense Forums.

Contact Information: If the visitors are not able to find what they were looking for, or just need to ask something related to the site, the contact information should always be ready on the website. Many successful sites have Contact Us Button which will link to the email immediately and the visitor can send the email by just clicking the button. Visitors feel nice when they find that they are being taken care of and can ask questions related to their problems. Contact Information also shows that the site isn't just some random site but it is owned by highly professional and caring people. Use sites such as richjerk website who has sold over 6 million books because of the website content and enganging with customers in regular conversations.

Some sites will even have Live Support which will also make the visitors come back again again to ask any questions.

These simple yet hard to follow tips will help any person thinking about creating a website make the most out of their website.

Conclusion Summary:

- Good layout
- Quality Information
- Contact Information
- Easy to understand Language
- Targeted right towards the topic in discussion
- Ads shouldn't look like Advertisements.

Guidelines to play poker

Search Tag: Poker

Texas Hold'em's popularity has exploded in the past few years. Over 200 poker websites which offer tons of freerolls and bonuses for just a deposit! Since the game as exploded there are a lot of new players trying to play and make the money like the pros do on TV.

Well only 0.5% of the people actually end up becoming TV pros, but you don't have to be a pro, you just have to be a good player and be the best on the table you play.

The first place to start will be an online website like:

www.pokerstars.com
www.fulltiltpoker.net

These websites offer 1,000 play money dollars and when you are learning it is better to lose play money rather than losing real money and finding yourself bankrupt in the process of learning.

Okay so now you have an account set up and play money and you learn the game and deposit money.

Now lets go to the tips:

1. Premium Hands: When creating a solid bankroll you must only play good preflop hands. Trow garbage hands like Q5 and avoid face cards with low kickers. Many new players like to play any king, any ace or any queen or jack only to find out that their opponent has a higher kicker.
This strategy is one of the easiest strategies to win money but it is too simple for some wannabe pros. If you want to win poker you have to reduce the amounts of hands because genrally you might hit a medium pair or low pair and get nothing but a bad beat if you play bad hands. Good hands to start off in a cash table: AAem can teach you the importance of premium hands because it is hard to bluff in them. Omaha can teach you more about draws and 5-card draw will improve your flop reading and make you an analytical player rather than aluck chaser.

6. Record your progress:If you suddenly start making money on consistent basis then record them in a personal diary and record some hands that you won huge with or lost huge with to not repeat your mistakes.

7. Variations in play: Make sure you don't follow a strict rule for any hand. For example betting $5 with AA every single time you have it. Your bets are supposed to be based on your hands and your position instead of a fixed value. You should change your play, make some different kinds of moves and analyze the results you get from it because it will help you a lot to figure out what kind of moves pay off the most or pay too little.

Strategies to trap opponents:

Check-raise: You check a monster hand until your opponents bet and you re raise them so they have no other option other than folding or calling. (only used with best hands or for a buff)

Check-call: This strategy should only be used if you are going for a draw or you want to show weakness.

Bet/Follow bet: You keep betting until your opponent folds. Should be used with medium hands, and bluffing.

Reraise: Only done with a good hand.

These strategies will help you imrpove your game and make you money.

Hope to see you at the tables soon!

Good luck!

Job versus Business

It is a tough decision for anyone to figure out if a business is better than job. Many people consider a business to be more of a gamble, whereas a job is considered to be secure and better in the long-run.

In this blog you will find opportunities to earn money through jobs such as writing, taking surveys and through business by creating websites, selling on e-bay, becoming an affiliate, etc.

Jobs Versus Business

* Boss: If you can't stand working under someone, then jobs are not for you. Jobs do not offer freedom the way business does and you will always be working under someone, which some people refer to as being a good pet.

* Flexibility: You can choose your own timings. This might sound like an amazing benefit of owning your own business, but isn't. You cannot have a successful business, if you choose to get up late in the afternoon and work for a few hours. In the beginning you will need to work more than you do in a job and continue to do so until you reach the peak then you can reduce timings. In terms of flexbility, business actually requires more time.

* Growth: This is one the biggest benefits of having your business. In a job you cannot grow and are stuck at a salary range which is usually between 40-70k/year. Many businesses are making millions of dollars per month and businessmen like Bill Gates making billions. When you are working under someone you cannot surpass their income. So if you are working under Bill Gates, he will be the ultimate profit maker and you will get a small percentage of it.

These are some comparisons between a job. If you love the ability to grow, flexibility, freedom of being your own boss then go ahead and give your dream one shot. Always go for your dreams. Even if you don't succeed atleast you know that you tried and who knows you might be the next Bill Gates.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Join Metacafe to earn money

Since the popularity of youtube, there are many sites trying to come up with the youtube idea and become a billion dollar site. When a site gets bought for more than a billion dollars, it definitely has a future and that is what others try to do.

One such site known as Metacafe is an identical twin of YouTube. One huge difference which is attracting a lot of money makers/video makers is that Metacafe allows you to earn money on videos. YouTube doesn't give a penny for your videos and the only way you can make money on YouTube is by advertising something on your website.

Metacafe is different. It pays $5/1000 views, but the payment only starts as you reach 20k views. But you also get paid for those 20k views which equals $100. I know this is not a lot of money for 20,000 views, but still better than getting nothing. Imagine if you could get a million views on a video, and a million view video has become common on YouTube. If it is common YouTube is will surely be common on MetaCafe, really soon.

If you are good at marketing videos and can make interesting titles and videos, then go ahead and join MetaCafe to prove your videomaker skills. Here is a direct link to join MetaCafe:

http://www.metacafe.com/

Friday, August 22, 2008

Opportunities in Poker

Some of you might know already that poker has become a multi-billion dollar industry in just a few years following the win of "Chris Moneymaker", an average Joe who made millions of dollars winning a WSOP title aka World Series Of Poker.

He managed to make millions, but his profit is nothing compared to the profit that the poker sites, poker affiliates and the poker tools have made in the past few years.

Your opportunity to make money in poker has also increased, due to the high number of players literally donating their money. Now I know that many people are against gambling and if you are one of them, then you can surely skip this tip and look at other wonderful money making tips around the blog.

But for people who are good at reading people, odds, probability, poker is the right job for you. There are a lot of bonuses out there and sites are literally giving you free money to start playing poker.

One such site also advertises on my blog and offers free money, check it out before opening an account. Use some of these sites to improve and remember to play with fake money first to learn or you will go broke really fast.

* The best study source is videos. Basically you watch a professional play with his hole cards opened and you see what they and why they do it. Some free sources are:

- http://www.pokerstrategy.com/uBBSLB : Awesome training videos absolutely free.

- Flop Turn River Videos: A library of around 30 videos which are offered so that you will buy more, but still the free ones are very useful

* http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/830035 /playing_headsup_poker_basic_strategy.html?cat=61

The above link is my own creation on Associated Content, a website which I have reviewed as a scam, but this is the only article I have there and the last one.



* Get the following books

- Theory of Poker
- NL theory and practice

If you want to take your poker career further, I suggest you join card runners at cardrunners.com which is the most expensive and the best videos out there. They are only worth buying if you already have made it to low stakes from micro.

Good luck on your poker career!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

How to save money in high school?

Search Tag: Saving

The earlier you start saving money, the better it is. Saving money in high school is easier to do than an adult because you don't have the burden of paying bills, or pay the mortgage. If you are an average teen then you should still be living with your parents, and be able to save a lot more easily.

Saving money in high school is also critical. You will have to pay student loans, book fees, tutor fees and for some even a new place to live. You will be going to College and all the money saved will help a lot to repay the student loans and to find a good place to live without a lot of work.

* Clothes: In high school these days everyone wants to wear branded clothes. You have to make friends and fit in by buying branded clothes. This is a huge problem for girls since they seem to be more fashion oriented. But what if all that money could be saved by simply buying only when you really need clothes?

* Stay away from sales when you don't need clothes. Even if the clothes are cheaper, there is no reason to buy them if you don't need them. As a high school student, clothes might be the most expensive item on your shopping list.

* Entertainment Discounts: Every once in a while you feel like watching a movie. Why not go on discount days? In my town every Tuesday the ticket is $5 less than usual. Find a good place to watch movie which offers discount rates on some days. On those days you can go and have fun for less money.

- There are no drawbacks to this. You watch the same movie, the same theatre just a different day. Those few dollars add up quickly. Lets say you watch one movie per month (Most of you watch more than that), but lets just say you saved $5 per month on movies, that would be $320 by the time you graduate. This is just for the movies; wait till all other savings add up.

* Lunches: You don't have to buy a combo everyday. Save on lunch food by simply buying less or making food at home. This will again save a lot of money by the time you graduate. Home lunches cost around $1 on average if prepared everyday, and cafeteria food costs around $5. That is 4 dollars of saving 5 days a week. That is a whooping $3840 saved on food in four years!

* Travelling Costs: Buy a bike or walk to school rather than taking the public transit everyday. A bike will cost $350 the first time you buy it, but in the long run you will save more by not taking the bus. Walking of course is the best option for most teens to save the most money. Let's do the math again. A bus ticket costs $1.50 each and you will be using two everyday. $15 every week and $780 every year which is already more than the cost of your bike or the "cost" of your walk.

* Trips: You don't have to waste over two grand on the international trip if you don't feel like going. It is a big decision to go to the international high school trips. If you want to save up, then your best bet is to not go on them. You can go on the smaller trips to have fun, and forget about the international ones.

* It is tough to not go to the trip of your life, so this tip is optional for anyone who can do it.

Here are your 5 tips to save when you are in high school. Although summer months have been included in the calculations for savings, you will still save around the same as stated.
Remember that saving in high school is easier to do, than to save later in life. So start now and good luck!

Disadvantages of Associated Content

I have written for Helium and Associated for the past 6 months. On Helium I have 84 articles, but on Associated Content I only have 2 articles. Why so much difference?

Associated Content does not offer competitions to earn $2-$3 per articles. In terms of payment, Associated Content pays $1.50 per thousand views. On this blog I have a click rate of 5% meaning that out of 1000 visitors, around 50 click the ads and are interested in my ads. The average pay per click is determined by a lot of factors, and some of them are quality of your site, traffic you get, etc.

But I manage to get around $0.30-0.45 per click, which adds upto $24 for 80 clicks. This payment is only for this blog, more valuable sites such as Associated Content could get upto $0.80 per click which means you make them $30-$35 and then they return $1.50 for this favour. As you can clearly see, this is a ridiculously high profit margin.

This is one of the biggest online scams I have ever seen, because it is a scam where you get scammed by getting paid the least amount. The amount of writers that get sucked in by these sites is in thousands including me as well for writing two articles which have earned me $0.80 after writing and editing them for a good one hour. Now you might be thinking that it is impossible for you to get 1,000 visitors to your own site, but even if you could get 100 people to visit your site, you would make more than what AC pays you.

Go ahead and look for writers on Associated Content with around 100-300 articles, most of them have total views of around 50k-75k which means they got paid $112.5 for writing 300 articles!

That is less than 50 cents per aricle, and a quality articles takes atleast half an hour to write. I am a writer who has written for both these sites, and in my opinion Helium is far superior to AC.

Now let's talk about the quality required. Generally speaking AC rejects a lot of articles if they don't suit their "advertisement targets", but Helium does not reject articles at all, no matter how poor the quality is. Often they will recommend you to submit another article, but never will they throw your work in the trash and reject it upfront.

AC's upfront payments attracts a lot of articles, but who is eligible for upfront payments? Only U.S. citizens who write tourist guides, travel guides, etc. Even the best writers on the site have earned only a couple thousand dollars for spending hundreds and hundreds of hours writing.

Helium is also not worth writing for if there were no reward-a-thons. But atleast in terms of quality their expectations are less, and also there are publishers who will pay upto $300 per article if they choose to publish your piece.

If anyone wants to argue against me, feel free to e-mail me at arjunwadhwa2003@yahoo.ca

Helium Marketplace can earn the top writers a full time job, but never can this be achieved on AC. Helium also lets you post your articles on your blog and if I ever write an aricle on making money at helium, I can simply put the same article here and earn money on two sites from the same piece of article. AC is strictly against this, they will ban your account if they find the article anywhere else, leaving you with $1.5/1000 or $2/1000 impressions if you reach a higher clout level. Imagine this in a physical world. Thousand people came to an exhibition to see your article for which you earned one and a half dollar.

If you want to really showcase your writing, the best place is your own website or become a full time writer for sites such as About.com which genuinely offer good payment. This article should save you atleast twenty hours of writing that you would've done at AC earning 10 cents per hour.

Be smart, be creative and be original. Do something for yourself and stop giving away 90% of your revenue to multi-million dollar sites and write only during competition times, because even Helium doesn't pay as much you deserve.

Don't lose confidence and keep promoting your work through a blog or a website and you will see more earnings than you see on AC accounts. Writers are worth a lot more than what they get paid.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Guide to making money at Helium

Helium's population has exploded in the past months. What is helium? It is not the gas we are talking about. Helium is a place where writers have an opportunity to write and make money.

One of the best things about helium is that you only have to be 13 years or older to join and it offers good pay. A lot of writers complain that they don't get enough money and earn only pennies everyday.

What many writers don't know is that Helium offers competitions known as reward-a-thons. During these competitions you can get $3 for every article you write. It can become like a job since most articles take 15 minutes to write if you are a fast typist.

This means that you will make $15/hour if you can get to that level. For writers who don't write much, they get paid $1-$2 each article which is still a commendable amount to earn.

But wait the earnings don't stop there. After you have received this payment your article will gain money as more people view it. For every view you get 1-3 cents. Which means over time the article will earn $1-5 more on top of the payments you already received.

I have written at helium and let me tell you that it is one of the safest and the easiest ways to make money from writing. Extremely good writers can even get $100 per piece if they choose to write for companies. Helium is a place you must visit if you want to improve your writing or just make some money.

www.helium.com

Saturday, August 16, 2008

How to make million dollars in 6 months?

I got an e-mail recently from someone who wanted to make million dollars in a couple of months.

Now of course million dollars in 6 months just sounds absurd, and I am sure all the people writing aren't millionaires, but I can provide you some solid information which if utilized properly will lead to the goal of a million dollars.

For becoming a millionaire in 6 months, you need to get lucky, because it is an unrealistic goal, and needs unrealistic ways to get there.

To earn million in 6 months use the following tips:

1. Make a website and use ads on them : Go to google and type in AdSense and if you are a new website maker do not forget to register for Adsense and use it on your website. This will make your website more popular and more revenue will be generated. Just place a google ad on your website and get paid for it! You make absolutely no ivestment except the investment on your website. (This gives you free money while you are sleeping!)

2. Sell on ebay and you might become a millionaire like this guy:

" Kyle MacDonald traded one red paperclip for a house. He started with one red paperclip on July 12 2005 and 14 trades later, on July 12, 2006 I traded with the Town of Kipling Saskatchewan for a house located at 503 Main Street.

Website used: www.ebay.com
Full article: http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/2006/07/503-main -street.html
Source: www.TorontoStar.com

This is just one story of a guy who traded one paper clip with a goal of buying an independent house within year. Making 500k off a paper clip might seem rediculous and rare to happen. Making 20k to 50k isn't hard, riduculous or rare! Online is one the only places where you can make money without investing any and unfortunately it is also the place where people get scammed and buy too many appealing products.

If you have items to sell that you don't use(Most people have garbage items that means a lot to others). I suggest using ebay to sell your items. It isn't very hard to start selling items and doesn't take too much time. The thing about ebay.com is that you can walk away after posting your item. Unlike a shop where you stand for the whole day hoping to make a sale; on ebay you just post the item, post the price(Or bid) and leave.

Some popular items to sell/buy:

1. Cell phones
2. Games
3. 2nd hand appliances
4. Rare items(Old coins, stamps, collections)

If you haven't already noticed all items high in demand to buy and sell are the items that don't have much of a price range. Someone can bid upto a thousand dollars for a cell phone and some peoplepc games for less than $2! Rare items are definitely the profit makers. Some old $1 coins can be sold for over $100 a piece!
For money making monline ebay is certainly a must visit!

3.) Go to money contests: Any contests with a huge cash prize, just join them and do whatever it takes to win them. There are contests almost every day on the net, radio and local community. To make a million in short time you must join any opportunity giveing you money.

4.) Play poker: Poker involves skill as well. If you are good at reading people, and analytical type of person there are millions to be made from poker. I am not that good at poker, but I do know that people that are good are making millions of dollars. The poker industry is on a boom and now is the best time to play poker because of the number of online sites and they usually offer a bonus to sign up of $100-$1000! More money in less time.

5.) Buy lottery: To make a million in 6 month, you need some unrealistic ways because it is an unrealistic goal. Buy a $1 lottery which might turn into $100 million if you get extremely lucky.

Good luck on your short road to a million dollars!

Paid survey sites for Non-U.S. residents

Are you looking forward to some extra cash? If you are a serious survey taker then you can get hundreds of dollars per month in just a few hours! It doesn't matter if you are not a U.S. citizen because you are still a human that has personal opinions and thats all that matters. Here is a list of sites that accept all U.S. and non U.S. citizens from around the globe.

Many sites send spam or advertisments as a form of survey taking, but these sites have been tested by me and I regularly get surveys so I am sure that you will not get disappointed, and also I am not a U.S. citizen which is why this makes sense. You are not going to become a millionaire, but you can use it to voice your opinions and get couple extra bucks per month which slowly add up to thousands. The field of surveys is growin too which means that there are chances that in the future you will get more surveys than you get right now.

The Paid Online Surveys sites list (Non U.S. citizens)

1. CanadaSurveypanel.com
2. Surveyspot.com
3. ACOP.com
4. Globaltestmarket.com
5. Surveylion.com
6. Opinionoutpost.com

Register to these websites and fill out your profile completely to get the most surveys. Remember the key to success is honesty here. If you provide honest answers to all the questions you will get more surveys.

For example, some surveys are only for women and others for parents with physically disabled kids. Some websites have different profile sections like Automobile profile(Information about your automobile, insurance, car insurance, education profile(cost of your eucation, degrees, etc.). Complete all your profiles or they won't even bother sending you a survey. You must complete every single detail which may take a lot of time but in the end it is worth it. It takes time to fill your complete profile, but it does give benefit. Since the company will know a lot about you, they will know which surveys to send to you.

Lets say that you don't fill your insurance information, then you will not get an insurance related survey.

How to sell products through your website

Selling products through a website can be tough and provide low profit sometimes. It is more of a hassle than ad, but it would return in more profits once someone knows how to do it properly.

I have done some selling of products online, and also visit a lot of websites which offer products for sale. There are many things have been noticed by me and that I can offer advice on how to sell products.

Some tips that will help you sell products successfully through a website are:

1. Target Advertising- If you want to sell products then you need someone to advertise your site or products which can be done through Google Adwords and also through hundreds of other websites offering ways to advertise your website.

2. Promotion of website- Before starting to sell products you need to have enough people that visit your site to view your products. Many people create a website on a topic, get traffic and then start selling products. Which can be a good idea since you don't want to look like someone who just wants to business and get over it. Ways to increase traffic are:

- Signature Promotion- Join forums and put a link to your site in your signature.
- Linking- Tell someone else to put your link on their site and you put their link.
- Adwords- Using google as a source of traffic.
- Website Rank- Get it ranked higher on google by adding more useful content.

3. Affiliates: What better way to sell products than to get people to sell them for you keep half the profits? This is one of the best ways online to sell a a product. Find some websites that are related to the topic.

For example if you want to sell gym equipment, then find websites that talk about healthy eating, fitness etc, and then e-mail them to talk about a deal. Examples of deal include:

- Paying for their hosting of the site for putting your ads.
- Paying a fixed amount every month.
- Do back linking with them.(Stated above)

4. Content Relation: Content has to be related to th products being sold. The content also should provide lots of information not just about products but also about the topic. There are a lot of people out there only interested in selling products and in result they don't get permanent traffic, because people run away after being asked to pay for every single item they click on the website.

Keep your visitors happy, and don't make them feel like they are customers being sucked to buy a product.

Painless ways to save money

Search Tag: Saving

Saving money can be a pain for some people, and that is why we get the title "painless ways of saving money". If you love being secure financially and like the feeling of having enough money in our bank account, then saving money won't be pain for you, and you are already on a way to being a debt-free human.

But for some people saving money means no shopping, no enjoyment, no pleasure, which means no fun in life. And we all live to work and have fun, so we must spend money right? That is right, and saving money doesn't mean having less fun or enjoying your life less.

We need to save money in order to have fun. Many of you are wondering what is meant by that? Saving a few dollars today, add up to thousands of dollars. It is not just a saying or a phrase, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Here is the maths behind saving (Don't worry I am only talking elementary school maths).

1.) Save $1 a day by making your own coffee. (It is fresh, hot, tasty and you can make it rightwhen you wake up, which means no hassle of waiting in a line buying coffee which is cold sometimes or has less/more sugar.

Now this dollar everyday of the year adds upto $365. You do this for 25 years of your life, and you have saved $9125, not a bad amount for having your own coffee, is it?

In most cases you can save upto $2-$3 on breakfast alone. Saving on food means having healthier food, eating at your own time and you will learn how to cook! You will have to work a bit harder than standing in a line and saying "one cheese burger". But look at the benefits. You will be able to save upto $10 everyday on average. Those fast food restaurant receipts add upto a lot.

2.) Choosing the right bank: Your savings need a place to grow or to stay parallel to the inflation rate. You need to find a bank that pays the highest interest on your savings and then put your money in that account. Also known as the "savings account". This will make you save money, and also grow that money even bigger.

3.) Saving on gas/school/work: Buy your children a bike to ride to school. Over time this will save more money than the cost of the bike.

I can personally relate to this example. My son's school was on a bus route, about 1.9 KM away. That is not very far, but it is hard to walk that distance every morning and evening. The bus fare was $2. There are around 280 days of school. So that adds upto $560. Most of his friends took the bus, but I bought

Making money without working

If you want to be a millionaire or a billionaire, then you cannot just work your way up there. You need to have a way to make money without working. But to get there you will need do a lot of work. There are still a lot of ways you can make money without working. Well not a lot but still within your reach and enough for you to make a selection atleast. I have used a numbering system and will give a score out of 10, as to how effective the tip is for making money without working.

Here are a few ways and evaluation of them as to why they are good ways to make money without working.

1.) Website: One time investment. Start a website on something you like, take a few weeks and work on it and then thats it! The rest will be taken care of. The ads will get clicks on them, and every morning you will just need to long in to your ad account to see how much money you made the previous day. Use programs like Adsense, Adbrite, or pay per month ads and you won't even need to update your website.

Rating: 6/10 (Hard work involved when starting)

2.) Stock Market: For people who are smart and can make the correct decisions, they need to get into the stock market. 30% of American Millionaires have gained their wealth through the stock market. All you need to do is have some money, and pick the right stocks which will grow in the long run. Right now is not really the best time to invest in stock market because a recession is slowly taking place, but there are still a lot of stocks that are going up and will continue rising.

Try your stock selections with 'play money' stock market game

http://simulator.investopedia.com/rotate.aspx

* You only need to make an investment and not work. But you can also lose money so be careful!

Rating: 9/10 (Excellent choice for most people)

3.) Investing in someone else's business: If a friend or a neighbour needs some money to start a business, or needs a hand in business because of not enough money, then you can invest in their business and get a little share of the profit. You will again only need some money which could grow into a huge sum. Only do this with trusted people, because you don't want to lose your original investment! I have personally done this with some success, but after a few years the friend didn't need more help, but I still ended up with a decent profit.

Rating: 7.5/10 (Too many chances of being scammed)

4.) Lottery: No work at all, just pay $2 to the cashier and buy a lottery.

It can turn into $40 million dollars for no work at all! But there is a "little" drawback, which is that on average your odds of winning are also 1 in 40 million, so this is a good way of losing $2 every week but not making anything, unless of course you are that 1 in 40 million who wins.

Rating: 3/10 (Don't fall for it, lotteries are a scam, but still a way to make money without working).

5.) Foreign Exchange: Similar to stock market, but you will be investing in currencies rather than stocks. This could be as profitable as the stock market. You just invest in a currency which will grow the most according to you. You can make a selection between foreign exchange or stocks or invest in both according to preference.

Rating: 8/10 (Good choice, but be prepared to lose some money in the beginning)

6.) Rich spouse: Marry a rich person and let them share their wealth with you! No work at all involved, but you will need to be happy with your spouse, since you will have to spend the rest of your life with him/her.

Rating: 5/10 (Don't ruin other people's lives for your sake)

7.) Savings Account: Saving money isn't too much work. Save money and put in mutual funds or in a high interest paying savings account, and watch your money grow big!

Rating: 9/10 (Excellent Choice for most people)

Remember that most rich people did not work all that hard to get rich, except in a few cases. They were smart with their money, not hardworkers.

As in all cases, you will already need a good amount of money to make money without working, so start saving if you want to follow the tips!

Why own your own business?

Owning your own business remains a dream for most people. What attracts many people is the ability to grow, making big bucks, and being your own boss. It can be rewarding, challenging, harsh, or result in a bankruptcy.

Since this article is about the most rewarding part of owning your own business. The most rewarding part is being your own boss.

You have no one to scream at you, tell you what to do or lead you around. When you are doing business it is all about making good decisions, and the downfall of the business or the success of the business depends on you. You are the sole owner and you are to blame yourself for all mistakes.

When you work under someone, you can easily be blamed for something that you didn't do, but in business you know that you are responsible for everything. When you hire people, you decide when and where they will come. This makes many people feel good about themselves, that they are leading someone and not following someone.

When you are the owner of business, the respect that comes form it also worth being called a reward. For example, law firms or stockbrokers usually have their own name in front of their business name. When people come to you for help, they already know your name, and if they like your service, they will recommend you.

While working under someone else this doesn't happen. You won't get recommended, but your company will. You are working as with the company, not as the "company". The fame, the profits will go right in your company's profits from where you will get a fixed percentage not Dependant on the amount of profit. You are working on a fixed salary and even if the company makes more money because of you; you are still getting paid the same.

But when you have your own company, you will get rewarded for your own work. If you work better and faster then you will gain more profit. There is no fixed amount of money that you will make, which gives you the ability to make a lot of money depending on your productivity.

What about your own hours? When you have a job, you have your own timings. Some people are night owl, which means that they work at their full potential only during nigh time. But most offices open at 9 and close at 5 P.M., which leaves you almost no choices except security guard or police officer. In addition you can only work 9-5. Some people can work for a long time and have the potential to achieve a lot more by working more hours.

Unfortunately, there are not many jobs offering more than 8 hours of work everyday, even if you have the ability to work that long. But with your own business you can choose to work 20 hours a day when the profits aren't that high. You can work at night, choose your own hours and work as long as you like.

If you are making enough money in a few hours, you can enjoy the rest of the time or work more to make more money. It is a pain for many people to wake up early in the morning or work till late night, but in a business you can choose to start your business at noon rather than early morning.

In conclusion the most rewarding part of owning your business is to be in control of your own life, making your own decisions, and having flexibility.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Reasons to take surveys

Search Tag: Surveys

Paid surveys have taken over the online marketing and business community. It benefits the consumers and the producers. The survey takers can get a bit of extra cash and the producers can get lots of information on what products are cherished by the consumers. There are many reasons out there to get started and take your first survey.

Some of the reasons include:

1.) Personal Knowledge: Whether it is a jobs and careers survey or a favorite car survey, everyone gains knowledge from surveys about the latest things available in the market and places to go. For example when I took a clothing survey once and I got an option of a store called Boys and Girls club. I had never heard of that before and went to the store and liked the clothes there and ended up buying decent shirts for myself. Without the paid survey I would have never found out that a store like this ever existed. Personal knowledge is very useful in buying at the cheapest prices, knowing what's out there and there is nothing better than paid surveys that would give you knowledge while having fun.

2.) Making yourself count: In a world of over 6.1 billion and over 200 countries it is almost impossible for someone to change the way of life in this world. All paid surveys that you take are specified for a specific person. Usually the website sends surveys to no more than 50 people and only 20-30 end up taking the survey. If you are one of those 20 people then your opinions will mean a lot to the company you filling the survey for. Next time when you open a newspaper and find a new product being released you might have been the reason for it. Your opinions will make a difference in what will come in the future. Just like you vote for your favorite politician you vote for the products to be released and the products to be thrown away and never be produced again.

3.) Making money- What is a better job than filling out surveys, making your opinions count, changing the future and at the same time making money by doing that. Research has shown that over 80% of Americans have filled free forms, surveys in order to be entered into a draw. If people have time to fill out medical forms and free surveys for a chance to win then why not take a survey which gives 100% reward rather than a "chance" to win something. Most surveys would take only about ten minutes of your time and rewarding over $10. Why not make use of it? You can donate the money and help the poor, use it to pay gas bills, use it to buy lotteries and much more.

Your number one priority should not be making money in paid surveys because you are not going to become millionaires taking paid surveys and that is why it is important for you to enjoy the surveys rather than force yourself to take them to get the cash.

There you have it. Three reasons everyone should take a survey and with internet these days, the survey is just a click away. Go and find the survey waiting for you and get your cash reward and make your opinions count and change the world of business!

This article can be found on helium as well.