Money market with Internet - every day something new!

Attracting Targeted Traffic

2007-09-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

Attracting targeted traffic is providing quality content that others are searhing for.

Keep your visitors returning to your site by providing interesting and relevant contant. Focus on your particular niche and update often, this will give your readers a reason to bookmark you and return to your site

Give your readers a clear image of what they will find on your site as this is an invitation for them to navigate around for the topic of interest.

Information should be easily found, have a menu of topics on each page so they can follow through with their search for relevant information. This will increase your page views, which are very important for making money with Google’s AdSense.

Participate on forums, submit your site to Directories and leave sincere comments on other blogs in your niche.

Write articles and submit them to article directories as this will give you a link back to your own site when others use your articles.

Ask your readers to subscribe to your RSS feed, this will attract new visitors by sharing headlines and articles with other sites.

Forex trade, Online Forex broker, Marginal treding on forex

2007-09-08T14:04:00.001-07:00

Forex:

"The foreign exchange (currency or forex or FX) market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. It is by far the largest financial market in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions. The average daily trade in the global forex markets currently exceeds US$ 2 trillion. Retail traders (individuals) are a small fraction of this market and may only participate indirectly through brokers or banks."

The Retail forex

(Retail Currency Trading or Retail Forex or Retail FX) market is a subset of the much larger Foreign exchange market. The Foreign Exchange market trades around 1.9 trillion daily, and retail trading is about 20 - 25 billion of that volume.
Retail Forex is usually highly leveraged

-->The idea of margin (leverage) and floating loss is another important trading concept and is perhaps best understood using an example. Most retail Forex market makers permit 100:1 leverage, but also, crucially, require you to have a certain amount of money in your account to protect against a critical loss point. For example, if a $100,000 position is held in Eur/USD on 100:1 leverage, the trader has to put up $1,000 to control the position. However, in the event of a declining value of your positions, Forex market makers, mindful of the fast nature of Forex price swings and the amplifying effect of leverage, typically do not allow their traders to go negative and make up the difference at a later date. In order to make sure the trader does not lose more money than is held in the account, Forex market makers typically employ automatic systems to close out positions when clients run out of margin (the amount of money in their account not tied to a position). If the trader has $2,000 in his account, and he is buying a $100,000 lot of EUR/USD, he has $1,000 of his $2,000 tied up in margin, with $1,000 left to allow his position to fluctuate downward without being closed out.

Typically a trader's trading platform will show him three important numbers associated with his account: his balance, his equity, and his margin remaining. If trader X has two positions: $100,000 long (buy) in EUR/USD, and $100,000 short (sell) in GBP/USD, and he has $10,000 in his account, his positions would look as follows: Because of the 100:1 leverage, it took him $1,000 to control each position. This means that he has used up $2,000 in his margin, out of a $10,000 account, and thus he has $8,000 of margin still available. With this margin, he can either take more positions or keep the margin relatively high to allow his current positions to be maintained in the event of downturns. If the client chooses to open a new position of $100,000, this will again take another $1,000 of his margin, leaving $7,000. He will have used up $3,000 in margin among the three positions. The other way margin will decrease is if the positions he currently has open lose money. If his 3 positions of $100,000 decrease by $5,000 in value (not at all an unusual swing), he now has, of his original $7,000 in margin, only $2,000 left. As discussed above, if you have a $10,000 account and only open one $100,000 position, this has committed only $1,000 of your money plus you must maintain $1,000 in margin. While this leaves $9,000 free in your account, it is possible to lose almost all of it if the position dives. On the other hand, if you have 5 positions open in a $10,000 account, you can lose only $5,000 because the other $5,000 is held in margin. However, this does not make it safer to hold more positions. The Forex market fluctuates so rapidly, that with shallow margins, you are much more likely to be closed out of your position and lose it entirely when it might have recovered from a temporary fluctuation if you had had sufficient margin to cover the variation. The more positions open at one time, the more risk the trader is exposed to.

Marginal Trading on FOREX

Marginal trading is the term used for trading with borrowed capital. It is appealing because of the fact that in FOREX investments can be made without a real money supply. This allows investors to invest much more money with fewer money transfer costs, and open bigger positions with a much smaller amount of actual capital. Therefore, one can conduct relatively large transactions with a small amount of initial capital. Marginal trading in an exchange market is quantified in lots. The term "lot" refers to approximately $100,000, an amount which can be obtained by putting up as little as 0.5% or $500.

But you always should remember these rules:

Margin trading can make you responsible for losses that greatly exceed the dollar amount you deposited.

Many currency traders ask customers to give them money, which they sometimes refer to as "margin," often sums in the range of $1,000 to $5,000. However, those amounts, which are relatively small in the currency markets, actually control far larger dollar amounts of trading, a fact that often is poorly explained to customers.

Don't trade on margin unless you fully understand what you are doing and are prepared to accept losses that exceed the margin amounts you paid.

The CFTC lists 9 warning signs for foreign exchange trading fraud:

1. Stay away from opportunities that seem too good to be true
Always remember that there is no such thing as a "free lunch." Be especially cautious if you have acquired a large sum of cash recently and are looking for a safe investment vehicle. In particular, retirees with access to their retirement funds may be attractive targets for fraudulent operators. Getting your money back once it is gone can be difficult or impossible.

2. Avoid any company that predicts or guarantees large profits
Be extremely wary of companies that guarantee profits, or that tout extremely high performance. In many cases, those claims are false.
The following are examples of statements that either are or most likely are fraudulent:
"Whether the market moves up or down, in the currency market you will make a profit."
"Make $1000 per week, every week"
"We are out-performing domestic investments."
"The main advantage of the forex markets is that there is no bear market."
"We guarantee you will make at least a 30-40% rate of return within two months."

3. Stay Away From Companies That Promise Little or No Financial Risk
Be suspicious of companies that downplay risks or state that written risk disclosure statements are routine formalities imposed by the government.
The currency futures and options markets are volatile and contain substantial risks for unsophisticated customers. The currency futures and options markets are not the place to put any funds that you cannot afford to lose. For example, retirement funds should not be used for currency trading.
g. You can lose most or all of those funds very quickly trading foreign currency futures or options contracts. Therefore, beware of companies that make the following types of statements:

"With a $10,000 deposit, the maximum you can lose is $200 to $250 per day."
"We promise to recover any losses you have."
"Your investment is secure."

4. Don't Trade on Margin Unless You Understand What It Means
Margin trading can make you responsible for losses that greatly exceed the dollar amount you deposited.
Many currency traders ask customers to give them money, which they sometimes refer to as "margin," often sums in the range of $1,000 to $5,000. However, those amounts, which are relatively small in the currency markets, actually control far larger dollar amounts of trading, a fact that often is poorly explained to customers.
Don't trade on margin unless you fully understand what you are doing and are prepared to accept losses that exceed the margin amounts you paid.

5. Question Firms That Claim To Trade in the "Interbank Market"
Be wary of firms that claim that you can or should trade in the "interbank market," or that they will do so on your behalf.
Unregulated, fraudulent currency trading firms often tell retail customers that their funds are traded in the "interbank market," where good prices can be obtained. Firms that trade currencies in the interbank market, however, are most likely to be banks, investment banks and large corporations, since the term "interbank market" refers simply to a loose network of currency transactions negotiated between financial institutions and other large companies.

6. Be Wary of Sending or Transferring Cash on the Internet, By Mail or Otherwise
Be especially alert to the dangers of trading on-line; it is very easy to transfer funds on-line, but often can be impossible to get a refund.
It costs an Internet advertiser just pennies per day to reach a potential audience of millions of persons, and phony currency trading firms have seized upon the Internet as an inexpensive and effective way of reaching a large pool of potential customers.
Companies offering currency trading on-line will usually be located in different legal jurisdictions to you. Even if they display an address or any other information identifying their nationality on their Web site it may be false. Be aware that if you transfer funds to foreign firms it may be very difficult or impossible to recover your funds.

7. Currency Scams Often Target Members of Ethnic Minorities
Some currency trading scams target potential customers in ethnic communities, particularly persons in the Russian, Chinese and Indian immigrant communities, through advertisements in ethnic newspapers and television "infomercials."
Sometimes those advertisements offer so-called "job opportunities" for "account executives" to trade foreign currencies. Be aware that "account executives" that are hired might be expected to use their own money for currency trading, as well as to recruit their family and friends to do likewise. What appears to be a promising job opportunity often is another way many of these companies lure customers into parting with their cash.

8. Be Sure You Get the Company's Performance Track Record
Get as much information as possible about the firm's or individual's performance record on behalf of other clients. You should be aware, however, that It may be difficult or impossible to do so, or to verify the information you receive. While firms and individuals are not required to provide this information, you should be wary of any person who is not willing to do so or who provides you with incomplete information. However, keep in mind, even if you do receive a glossy brochure or sophisticated-looking charts, that the information they contain might be false.

9. Don't Deal With Anyone Who Won't Give You His Background
Plan to do a lot of checking of any information you receive to be sure that the company is and does exactly what it says.
Get the background of the persons running or promoting the company, if possible. Do not rely solely on oral statements or promises from the firm's employees. Ask for all information in written form.
If you cannot satisfy yourself that the persons with whom you are dealing are completely legitimate and above-board, the wisest course of action is to avoid trading foreign currencies through those companies.

Good luck, you will need it ;)

ON VACATION AND NEW STUFF IN PROGRESS

2007-08-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

ON VACATION

AND NEW DESIGN IN PROGRESS

(came back: 06-09-2007 )

SORRY!

Search Engine Optimization

2007-08-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

In my role as a search engine consultant, many people ask me what search engine optimization (SEO) is all about. Well, here's an explanation!

Search engine optimization is a relatively new business area and one which, as the name suggests, is very closely related to search engines.

As many people will know, search engines represent a type of service provided online to help internet users find information as quickly and easily as possible. Popular search engines include the market leader, Google, plus the likes of Yahoo and MSN.

When you type in a search on one of these search engines, you are then presented with a list of results. The software behind the search engine effectively finds what it considers to be the best matches for your chosen search.

So, where does search engine optimization fit in here?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about trying to get a website to appear more highly in the search engine results.

Achieving this can be done in a number of ways, but will usually include a range of techniques. Typically, a search engine consultant might look to make changes to the structure of the website, to the way in which content is presented and to the underlying website code.

The consultant may also adopt a range of "off-site" techniques - these might include increasing the number of other sites that link to the target site.

In effect, the target of search engine optimization is to increase the number of visitors to a particular site, by improving the site's search engine rankings.

Increasing the number of visitors should, if done properly, increase the number of sales made on the website.

This scope for improving income is what has put the best search engine optimization experts in high demand.

You can find out more about improving your web presence by visiting where Keith Barrett is employed as a search engine consultant. This article may be used by any website publisher, though this resource box must always be included in full.

Search Engine Optimization Tips

Search engine optimization (SEO) seems to be shrouded in mystery for many people. Perhaps this is a good thing, as if you don't optimize properly and according to "the rules" it's very possible that the search engines will stop indexing you all together. So, the aim of this guide is to help you do the simple things that provide the largest return on investment. But first some background on how search engines work, and why search engine optimization is a good idea.

SEO Background

To index the huge number of webpages online (30 billion plus) the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN, have created, or acquired, complex algorithms designed to comb through the web and deliver relevant results. These algorithms have always been closely guarded secrets, but by looking closely at the results page, and running "tests" on the system, many people have determined what it is they're looking for. This in turn gave rise to search engine optimization as we now know it. As for why SEO is important, depending on the source 75-90% of people find the websites they're looking for using a search engine, so the importance is easy to see.

Give The Search Engines What They Want

In the constantly changing world of search engine algorithms, I can't give you exact details. However, there are some important things that will most likely never change. When it comes to your website, there are two major things search engines look for, the first is your onsite content, and the second is how your website is seen by the rest of the internet. The easiest things to do involve your onsite content, so we'll start there.

Content

The most important words on your website are in the title. Make absolutely sure that your title contains the keyword, or keyphrase that you'd like people to search for. A good way to do this is to follow this formula: "Website Name - Keywords/Keyphrase". Continuing on, your headings, the h1, h2, h3, etc. tags, are also very important, so try to have them include your keywords as well. However, in the case of headings use them as they were meant to be used. Don't use headings as normal text, and don't have multiple instances of h1 headings. Search engines caught wind of this early on and penalize sites that abuse it.

Another important item is the anchor text used in links. The anchor text is the actual underlined text that goes between the "a" tags, and it should reflect your keywords and keyphrases instead of something like "click here." Then of course is the high quality, unique content you've added to the internet community. Make sure your content includes your keywords and phrases so the search engines know what your website's about. It seems as if ideally your keyword frequency and density should be somewhere between 3% and 7%. So, let's say your keyphrase is "car repair," then this phrase should be repeated 2-3 times for every 100 words. On top of that, you should be shooting for over 200 words per page which seems to be a standard among all search engines.

Offsite Optimization

Onsite optimization can take you a long way, but to really drive your traffic up you'll need to concentrate on link building. Unfortunately, this is not as easy as working with your content. The search engine algorithms have changed recently to include backlinks in the formula they use to rank your website. What this means, is that the more high quality, relevant backlinks you have to your site the more important your website is considered by Google, Yahoo, etc. The key here is high quality and relevant backlinks, as opposed to those found in link exchange farms. There are a few good ways to do this. The first, and simplest thing to do, is to submit your website to online directories.

Try to pick reputable directories that take free submissions such as the Open Directory project, and LinkCentre. Another great way to build backlinks is to write articles like this one. There are tons of websites that take article submissions and allow other webmasters to use them. However, to use an article the webmaster must also place the author's information which the author defines. It's a great idea to place a link, with good anchor text, back to your website in this section. Assuming your website presents valuable information to other users, you might also try contacting other webmasters directly.

Let them know that your website can serve as a great resource for his users. Depending on the size and popularity the website, you may or may not get linked. If you don't, shake it off and keep plugging away. My last little tip on search engine optimization is to be persistent, and patient. Search engines, specifically Google, have begun to value backlinks on the basis of longevity, so the longer a backlink survives the more valuable it becomes. This may mean it will take months to obtain a top ranking, but keep plugging away, your efforts will pay off.

Organic Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization can be broken down into two separate yet intertwined categories. Non-organic or paid search optimization and organic, or unpaid search optimization. Paid search advertising relies on purchased search phrases to drive visitors to a website, while organic search optimization focuses on developing web sites that are naturally search engine friendly and appear in the unpaid or "organic" search engine results pages. (SERPS)

Successful organic optimization combines technical know-how with persuasive marketing. Organically optimized web sites contain content that visitors find informative and relevant to their searches. Content is further optimized for search engines by incorporating relevant key phrases or words into the site's literature. Organic optimization is holistic in approach. Every aspect of a web site is analysed for it's level of search friendliness. Aspects like the site's title, meta-tags, editorial copy, structure and design, usability and function are all taken into consideration.

These aspects and many others are equally considered when optimizing a web site. There are, however four main points of interest:

1. Key Phrases: One of the first steps in organic optimization is determining which key phrases are to be targeted. This is determined by researching which words or phrases a target audience is most likely to search for. These target keywords are then incorporated into the title, description and content of a web site. It is important to note that the overuse of keywords in a web site can result in a search engine's indexing software to considering a site as abusing or spamming the search engine and can result in that site being removed from the search index. Generally a key word should appear five to eight times within a site's editorial content and content should consist of between 200 and 400 words.

2. Site Structure: Search engines are somewhat limited in the way they can index a web site. Search engine robots or spiders are chiefly concerned with determining two things, what is this web site all about and where should this site show up in the search engine results. Often the way in which a web site is constructed can have negative results in how effective these search spiders are. It is important to understand how search engine indexing works in order to create web sites which are fine tuned for optimal search results Search spiders look primarily for text content when judging how a site is to be indexed. Sites which are built entirely of graphic elements or flash are not search friendly. Sites which feature an overuse of javascript and other dynamic content are not search friendly. A multitude of factors are considered when optimizing for the search engines. Since different search engines follow different rules, and the rules often change, it is unlikely that every aspect of a web site will be perfectly matched to every search engine. The important thing to strive for is eliminating the elements of a site that are known to cause problems, and emphasizing as many search friendly aspects as possible.

3. Usability: A site which is difficult to navigate, slow to load, or leaves a user wondering exactly what the site is all about is a site that is not going to perform very well. The flow of information within a web site must be logical and intuitive. Optimizing a site for performance is critical to its overall level of success. After all, what is the point of having a web site that ranks well in search engines if nobody can use it?

4. Inbound Links: The amount of inbound links to a web site has a direct effect on the search engine page ranking of the site. Virtually all of the popular search engines have methods of calculating the link popularity of any given site. This makes inbound links an important area of organic optimization. The quality of the inbound links can matter more than the quantity. Search engines place more importance on relevant links from sites which they consider to be authorities on any given key phrase. Search engines strive to provide the most relevant results possible by filtering out meaningless or "junk" links to a website. In some cases, large numbers of irrelevant inbound links are seen by the search engines as abuse or spamming. Practices such as "link farming" and "free-for-all" link pages are frowned upon.

As the popularity of paid search advertising grows so does the need for organic optimization. While paid search campaigns can offer short term exposure, organic optimization involves steady, long term results. And as the costs of paid search advertising continues to climb, organic optimization offers the assurance of appearing in search pages for natural searches. By combining aspects of search engine technicalities, site structure and usablity, organic optimization not only focuses on search engine results but offers the end user of a site a quality experience.

Introduction to Search Engine Optimization

By Avinesh Prahladi

Search engine optimization is a method to evaluate and assess your website and it assists the search engines to read, and comprehend it. It is not all about rephrasing or altering the look of the website. It is a procedure where slight changes are made so that the content is more noticeable and the search engines can view and interpret the website easily. SEO cannot be termed as spamming as it is a method under which the search engines are assisted so that in return they can provide you assistance in the coming time.

For the past couple of years the procedure of SEO has been frequently put into use. Websites are being created using Java and Flash which the search engines are not able to comprehend and overlook. In a situation where the content of the website is overlooked by the search engines subsequently they are not able to index your website. If your website is not indexed then nobody can look for it in the search engines like- Yahoo, Google, and MSN. If your website is not visited by the target consumers then there is no use of putting efforts and capital in creating a website.

Search engine’s main purpose is to provide the potential results to the visitors and if for some reasons they are not able to index any particular website they might be loosing a great amount of content that the visitors are expecting. SEO bears so much importance that Google offers rules and regulations to opt for a SEO service.

How SEO functions?

There are majority of the websites those are not well functional on their topics. The keyword directory which has about fifty or more phrases in a particular page and the business that contains four individual submissions, websites make an effort to aim at all the four in a single time. Probably the website was targeting a search phrase that nobody is searching. SEO assures that every page of your website stays centered and consequently observed as an influence on the particular topic.

Free of cost search engines

On the internet search engines are free of cost. Google itself and the websites taking services of Google’s results make about fifty percent of the internet search market themselves. If you are only targeting Google then you are loosing your fifty percent of the business profit. SEO should be for all search engines, not just Google and at the same time keep constantly evaluating the search engines so that your website (or websites) remains at a decent rank. This way you are increasing your website consumers by making minimum efforts.

Pay Per Click Advertising

The results that are displayed on Yahoo and Google are known as sponsored links. Entirely depending how much is your budget, you can appear anywhere on the lists. There are companies who provide assistance in conducting effective pay per click advertising operation.

Linking

Search engines consider that keeping a link with your website will be beneficial. If you don’t contain an inbound links then the search engines won’t list your website. Higher number of inbound links will get your website decent ranking. It is recommended that be cautious of free for all (FFA) which is exclusively made to link. Search engines block these websites those are linked with these farms.

Choosing a SEO service

It can be verified by rankings of the website in the search engine. You should opt for those websites which has a ranking in the top ten because of its keywords. Imagine if a SEO company which can place a website in the top ten ranking at the same time when the opponents are professionals in this field, now you can very well assume what treatment your website will get

Five Steps For Basic Search Engine Optimization

By Tony Williams

The comparatively low cost of building a Website makes it one of the most cost effective ways of promoting a business. Even the smallest business can benefit from an online presence; provided it is an effective one.

One of the basic necessities of promoting your business with a Website is that it must be able to be found on the search engines. Without this simple thing your site is effectively invisible to the general public and may as well not even exist. Disillusionment can soon set in when the company Website does not appear to be 'performing' or bringing in any customers.

For this reason, it is essential when contracting a Web designer to ensure they have some knowledge of search engine optimization. There are many who don't. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is not some black art (although many would have us believe so) and there are many simple tips and tricks that can easily be carried out to optimize a site.

Here are my five steps for basic search engine optimization...

1.Optimize your site around the most popular keywords – A keyword or keyword phrase is what a user will type into a search engine to look for the information they need. So spending some time anticipating and researching the keywords related to your business will not only be worthwhile; but is a vital step towards the success of your Website.

2.Know your target audience – One of the basics of marketing is to advertise to the people who are likely to be your customers. This applies also to your Website, so make sure it is built to be appealing to them.

It is also a good idea to look for ways of getting your existing visitors to keep returning to your site such as a regular newsletter, promotions, giveaways, etc. Again; knowing your target audience will be a big help in deciding the most effective methods.

3.Don't give up on your existing Website – If you already have a site that is not performing as well as you would like, don't abandon it. Instead get the site looked at by a professional and find out what improvements can be made.

There will more often than not be more value to search engines in an existing site than in a brand new one.

4.Make sure your site is designed to be 'user friendly' – There are many superb guides that go into great detail about effective Web design. But some of the more obvious things to consider are: Colour schemes, easy navigation, page layout, text sizes, etc. Without a user friendly Website your visitors will not stay long enough to find out what your business is all about.

5.Add content to the Website regularly – A site that is updated regularly encourages repeat visitors and also gets looked upon more favourably by search engines. A simple way of adding fresh content to a site is to incorporate a blog. This can then be posted to on a daily or weekly basis.

Following these five steps for basic search engine optimization will help to ensure that your Website gets noticed and attracts the customers you need for your business. Good luck!

Danny Sullivan & The Formation of a Local SEM Organization

By Todd Mintz

It´s true that Danny Sullivan is indirectly responsible for the formation of SEMpdx (Portland´s SEM Organization). At the 2006 SES Seattle Conference, in a conversation with Anvil Media´s Kent Lewis, Danny inadvertently (for he´s too nice a guy to do something like this deliberately) slighted our Rose City. When Kent relayed Danny´s comments to Scott Orth, the desire to form a local SEM organization that would be the envy of much bigger marketplaces was born. One year later, I can state unequivocally that being one of the founding board members has been an extremely valuable, enriching experience.

The purpose of my writing this article is to attempt to show others the value of what we´ve accomplished and hopefully encourage like-minded SEM´s in other communities to form their own local organizations. I know that SEO Meetups are forming many places and it´s wonderful that folks are getting together to talk shop and drink beers. However, Dallas / Fort Worth, New York, and New England are the only regions that I know about that seem to be doing what we´re doing in Portland (and if I´ve slighted your organization, it´s due only to my ignorance).

So, why are the benefits of such groups?

• Exchange of ideas. SES Seattle 2006 was the first time I ever had an in-person conversation with another SEO (and I had been doing SEO since 2000). An SEO who doesn´t go to conferences has not likely met many (if any) fellow professionals. It´s really nice to hang out with people with whom you can openly share your work experiences and who understand what the heck you are talking about.

• Business Referrals. Not everybody is an expert in all facets of SEM. Many SEMpdx members have more clients than bandwidth. It´s nice to be able to refer out potential clients to trusted sources.

• Competitors Can Be Friends. All the original SEMpdx board members were with difference agencies at the time our organization was formed (though two of us are now corporate). Competing with each other for business is a little less onerous when you have strong relationships with your competition (and when they can also be a referral source for you).

• Educating Our Community. Each board member knows that once our Portland Business Community sees the value of search engine marketing, they will be more likely to invest in the search process. To further this aim, SEMpdx hosts a series of monthly events along with our annual day-long Searchfest where business people interested in learning more about search can learn from the best minds in our industry.

• Recruiting New Search Professionals. Our members who run multi-person agencies have to turn business away because they can not find enough qualified people to hire. There is an extraordinary lack of search personnel. We are using our organization as a magnet to attract potential employees (and any Portland people who are looking for search careers really should start hanging out with us).

• Giving Back To Our Community. Each year, we designate a local non-profit to get a percentage of our revenues, plus we collectively offer our professional services gratis to that charity.

• Increased Individual Visibility. Because our organization has become highly visible, each Board Member has become much more visible in the Portland business community, as well as in the global search community.

So, it´s great first step to organize and attend a local SEO meetup…however, the benefits of forming a full-fledged local organization can personally and professionally profitable for all involved.

Are Anti-Glare Search Engines Really To Glare On?

The buzz surrounding the anti-glare search engines is on! With a number of anti-glare search engines like Blackle introducing a new theme of using a black screen for saving energy, people are curious to find out the truth about its claim. According to an article published by Mark Onktush in January, 2007, turning Google page black would save 3000 MWh per year!

Interesting as it sounds, there are actually a number of aspects to be taken into consideration prior to resting a complete belief in the theory of the anti-glare search engines. Mark, in his article, claimed that Google could actually save 750 MW hours a year using a black screen. This, in fact, is true for cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors, which consume more power. The black screen would definitely use around 15 watt less in CRTs. But what about LCD monitor users? To be precise, Mark had himself claimed that around 25% of people use CRT monitors. If such is the case, would a black screen really be a great help for LCD users?

As said earlier, the CRT users would save around 15 watts less energy than their LCD counterparts, amounting to 1,917,750 kWh (511,400,000 hours x 25% x .015 kW). This is definitely good news for CRT users. However, there is a flip side to it as well. The LCD users can hardly benefit from a black screen for they use a black lit display, selectively blocking out certain wavelengths of light. It is surprising to find that an LCD monitor actually consumes an extra watt when switched on to black screen. However, the CRT users would definitely be benefited by setting up anti-glare screen as their home page.

The concept of anti-glare search engines or Black Google has been criticized widely. But it would not be altogether correct to negate the whole issue by claiming it as worthless. People should appreciate the fact that importance is being placed on health issues of the users. Anti-glare screens are easy to read as they negate straining of the eyes. Energy saving or not, users certainly feel easier to read on a black screen than their colored counterparts. The debate on anti-glare search engine has gained from strength to strength. In spite of multiple criticisms, we sincerely believe that the concept should really be worked upon and bettered.

3 Top Ways to Search Engine Optimization

By Sean R Mize

The track of the number of websites on the World Wide Web is a Herculean task. And searching for a particular website in this jungle of websites is an even harder task. To make your site stand out you must have your site search engine optimized. Here are three top ways to search engine optimization or SEO.

First way to search engine optimization is to make a good professional website in which the content is updated regularly and the content is search engine optimized. This can be done by giving some consideration to the keyword and keyword density in the word content. The search engine detects the website that is keyword rich and regularly updated.

Second way to get search engine optimized is the use of RSS feed. By the RSS feed you can have your website link to all the major sites and have your updated content sent to the subscribed users immediately. Also this will give your website a dynamic nature which in turn will increase your search engine rating. The use of RSS feed also give your website a professional look that will help you increase your public presence.

Third way to go for search engine optimization is to submit your website link to the search engines and web directories. You can also pay for some keywords that best describe your website. This will help you improving your search engine rating. Here the keyword should be chosen carefully as you need to pay for the keywords. So make a list of keywords and then bid on the keywords according to the applicability list of the keyword.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘

Unethical Search Engine Optimization Explained

By Keith Barrett

If you've ever thought about hiring a professional search engine optimization (SEO) consultant or read about SEO as a subject then you may have seen the term "black hat" mentioned. Let's take a closer look at what black hat SEO really means.

To begin with, we'll revisit what is meant by the term search engine optimization (SEO). SEO refers to methods that improve search engine rankings for a particular website. Techniques can vary but will often involve making the most of the website by ensuring that its content and structure appeal to search engines, as well as visitors.

There are various schools of thought on how best to carry out such optimization. As far as the major search engines are concerned, there are ethical methods of improving search engine rankings and unethical methods.

Within the professional search engine community, ethical techniques are known as "white hat", while techniques that are viewed as unethical have been labelled "black hat".

White Hat SEO involves making the best use of the structure and content of the website to improve rankings. Black Hat techniques will often involve attempting to fool a search engine into believing that a particular website is more relevant or highly regarded than it actually is.

Examples of Black Hat methods might include cloaking, which is where a search engine is effectively shown a different version of a website to visitors. Other techniques would include employing hidden text and links.

Although Black Hat SEO can have some impressive results, the major search engines are constantly attempting to clamp down on such methods, banning websites who employ them.

For long-term results, ethical White Hat methods are the most effective.

You can find out more about improving your web presence by visiting Search South, where Keith Barrett is employed as a search engine consultant. This article may be used by any website publisher, though this resource box must always be included in full.

A Professional Web Promotion Service

Are you looking for a professional website promotion service? What do you expect from a web promotion service, for example do you expect your site to reach the top ten of the rankings, top five or even number one? How do you ensure that you have chosen the right company to carry out your web promotion requirements?

I have had sites on the net since 1999 and have had many negative experiences when choosing a company or a person to promote my websites. I have now learnt from these experiences and am now hoping to educate the readers of this article to ensure that they do not make the same mistakes. I have now learnt how to successfully promote my own websites and have helped many other people to attain top five rankings on some of the major search engines such as Google.

I personally believe that a web promotion service should include:

Personal web promotion tuition

As well as promoting a site, I think the company should explain each step of what they are doing and why they are doing it. This is a way of educating their client in to how to promote a website.

For example if they believe in one-way links they could show where they have obtained and placed the backward link and explain why they have done this, the benefit it could bring and all of the aspects of page rank.

If they use article marketing as a form of web promotion, again they could explain the benefits of writing articles and about which article directories they submit each article to.

Monthly ranking reports

For each keyword they are attempting to promote, the web promotion should send a monthly report to their client to show the current ranking of the website.

Search engine optimisation

The web promoter should also be able to advise on how the webmaster could change his/her website to help to make it more search engine friendly. This could include ensuring that all of the main keywords are on the homepage(I am often amazed at how many websites do not already have this in place) and to advise about the importance of adding fresh unique content to the site on a regular basis.

Stephen Hill runs The How To Stop Stammering Centre, he has a number of websites including:

web promotion service treatments for stuttering stuttering information

All a rticle Source: EzineArticles.com

ISO 9000 certification

2007-08-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems. ISO 9000 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. For a manufacturer, some of the requirements in ISO 9001 (which is one of the standards in the ISO 9000 family) would include:

a set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business;

monitoring manufacturing processes to ensure they are producing quality products;

keeping records;

checking outgoing product for defects, with appropriate corrective action where necessary;

regularly reviewing individual processes and the quality system itself for effectiveness; and

facilitating continual improvement

A company or organization that has been independently audited and certified to be in conformance with ISO 9001 may publicly state that it is "ISO 9001 certified" or "ISO 9001 registered." Certification to an ISO 9000 standard does not guarantee the compliance (and therefore the quality) of end products and services; rather, it certifies that consistent business processes are being applied. Although the standards originated in manufacturing, they are now employed across a wide range of other types of organizations, including colleges and universities. A "product", in ISO vocabulary, can mean a physical object, or services, or software. In fact, according to ISO in 2004, "service sectors now account by far for the highest number of ISO 9001:2000 certificates - about 31% of the total" - source: the ISO Survey 2004

ISO 9000 family

ISO 9000 includes the following standards:

'ISO 9000:2005', Quality management systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary. covers the basics of what quality management systems are and also contains the core language of the ISO 9000 series of standards.

ISO 9001:2000 Quality management systems - Requirements is intended for use in any organization which designs, develops, manufactures, installs and/or services any product or provides any form of service. It provides a number of requirements which an organization needs to fulfill if it is to achieve customer satisfaction through consistent products and services which meet customer expectations. This is the only implementation for which third-party auditors may grant certifications.

ISO 9004:2000 Quality management systems - Guidelines for performance improvements. covers continual improvement. This gives you advice on what you could do to enhance a mature system. This standard very specifically states that it is not intended as a guide to implementation.

There are many more standards in the ISO 9001 family (see "List of ISO 9000 standards" from ISO), many of them not even carrying "ISO 900x" numbers. For example, some standards in the 10,000 range are considered part of the 9000 family: ISO 10007:1995 discusses Configuration management, which for most organizations is just one element of a complete management system. ISO notes: "The emphasis on certification tends to overshadow the fact that there is an entire family of ISO 9000 standards ... Organizations stand to obtain the greatest value when the standards in the new core series are used in an integrated manner, both with each other and with the other standards making up the ISO 9000 family as a whole".

Note that the previous members of the ISO 9000 family, 9001, 9002 and 9003, have all been integrated into 9001. In most cases, an organization claiming to be "ISO 9000 registered" is referring to ISO 9001.

Contents of ISO 9001

ISO 9001:2000 Quality management systems — Requirements is a document of approximately 30 pages which is available from the national standards organization in each country. Outline contents are as follows:

Page iv: Foreword

Pages v to vii: Introduction

Pages 1 to 14: Requirements
- Section 4: General Requirements
- Section 5: Management Responsibility
- Section 6: Resource Management
- Section 7: Product Realization
- Section 8: Measurement, analysis and improvement

Pages 15 to 22: Tables of Correspondence between ISO 9001 and other standards

Page 23: Bibliography

The standard specifies six compulsory documents:

Control of Documents (4.2.3)

Control of Records (4.2.4)

Internal Audits (8.2.2)

Control of Nonconforming Product / Service (8.3)

Corrective Action (8.5.2)

Preventive Action (8.5.3)

In addition to these, ISO 9001:2000 requires a Quality Policy and Quality Manual (which may or may not include the above documents).

Summary of ISO 9001:2000 in informal language

The quality manual is a formal statement from management, closely linked to the business and marketing plan and to customer needs. The quality manual is understood and followed at all levels and by all employees. Each employee needs measurable objectives to work towards.

Decisions about the quality system are made based on recorded data and the system is regularly audited and evaluated for conformance and effectiveness.

You need a documented procedure to control quality documents in your company. Everyone must have access to up-to-date documents and be aware of how to use them.

To maintain the quality system and produce conforming product, you need to provide suitable infrastructure, resources, information, equipment, measuring and monitoring devices, and environmental conditions.

You need to map out all key processes in your company; control them by monitoring, measurement and analysis; and ensure that product quality objectives are met. If you can’t monitor a process by measurement, then make sure the process is well enough defined that you can make adjustments if the product does not meet user needs.

For each product your company makes, you need to establish quality objectives; plan processes; and document and measure results to use as a tool for improvement. For each process, determine what kind of procedural documentation is required. (Note: a “product” is hardware, software, services, processed materials, or a combination of these.)

You need to determine key points where each process requires monitoring and measurement, and ensure that all monitoring and measuring devices are properly maintained and calibrated.

You need to have clear requirements for purchased product. Select suppliers appropriately and check that incoming product meets requirements.

You need to determine the skills required for each job in your company, suitably train employees and evaluate the effectiveness of the training.

You need to determine customer requirements and create systems for communicating with customers about product information, inquiries, contracts, orders, feedback and complaints.

When developing new products, you need to plan the stages of development, with appropriate testing at each stage. You need to test and document whether the product meets design requirements, regulatory requirements and user needs.

You need to regularly review performance through internal audits and meetings. Determine whether the quality system is working and what improvements can be made. Deal with past problems and potential problems. Keep records of these activities and the resulting decisions, and monitor their effectiveness. (Note: you need a documented procedure for internal audits.)

You need documented procedures for dealing with actual and potential nonconformances (problems involving suppliers or customers, or internal problems). Make sure no one uses bad product, determine what to do with bad product, deal with the root cause of the problem and keep records to use as a tool to improve the system.

Pre ISO 9000

During WWII, there were quality problems in many British high-tech industries such as munitions, where bombs were going off in factories. The adopted solution was to require factories to document their manufacturing procedures and to prove by record-keeping that the procedures were being followed. The name of the standard was BS 5750, and it was known as a management standard because it did not specify what to manufacture, but how to manage the manufacturing process. According to Seddon, "In 1987, the British Government persuaded the International Organisation for Standardization to adopt BS 5750 as an international standard. BS 5750 became ISO 9000."

1987 version

ISO 9000:1987 had the same structure as the UK Standard BS 5750, with three 'models' for quality management systems, the selection of which was based on the scope of activities of the organization:

ISO 9001:1987 Model for quality assurance in design, development, production, installation, and servicing was for companies and organizations whose activities included the creation of new products.

ISO 9002:1987 Model for quality assurance in production, installation, and servicing had basically the same material as ISO 9001 but without covering the creation of new products.

ISO 9003:1987 Model for quality assurance in final inspection and test covered only the final inspection of finished product, with no concern for how the product was produced.

ISO 9000:1987 was also influenced by existing U.S. and other Defense Standards ("MIL SPECS"), and so was well-suited to manufacturing. The emphasis tended to be placed on conformance with procedures rather than the overall process of management — which was likely the actual intent.^{[citation needed]}

1994 version

ISO 9000:1994 emphasized quality assurance via preventative actions, instead of just checking final product, and continued to require evidence of compliance with documented procedures. As with the first edition, the down-side was that companies tended to implement its requirements by creating shelf-loads of procedure manuals, and becoming burdened with an ISO bureaucracy. In some companies, adapting and improving processes could actually be impeded by the quality system.^{[citation needed]}

2000 version

ISO 9001:2000 combines the three standards 9001, 9002, and 9003 into one, now called 9001. Design and development procedures are required only if a company does in fact engage in the creation of new products. The 2000 version sought to make a radical change in thinking by actually placing the concept of process management front and centre. ("Process management" was the monitoring and optimizing of a company's tasks and activities, instead of just inspecting the final product.) The 2000 version also demands involvement by upper executives, in order to integrate quality into the business system and avoid delegation of quality functions to junior administrators. Another goal is to improve effectiveness via process performance metrics — numerical measurement of the effectiveness of tasks and activities. Expectations of continual process improvement and tracking customer satisfaction were made explicit.

Future Version : 2008

TC 176, the ISO 9001 technical committee , has started its review on the next version of ISO 9001, which will in all likelihood be termed the ISO 9001:2008 standard, assuming its planned release date of 2008 is met. Early reports are that the standard will not be substantially changed from its 2000 version.

As with the release of previous versions, organizations registered to ISO 9001 will be given a substantial period to transition to the new version of the standard, assuming changes are needed; organizations registered to 9001:1994 had until December of 2003 to undergo upgrade audits.

ISO does not itself certify organizations. Many countries have formed accreditation bodies to authorize certification bodies, which audit organizations applying for ISO 9001 compliance certification. Although commonly referred to as ISO 9000:2000 certification, the actual standard to which an organization's quality management can be certified is ISO 9001:2000. Both the accreditation bodies and the certification bodies charge fees for their services. The various accreditation bodies have mutual agreements with each other to ensure that certificates issued by one of the Accredited Certification Bodies (CB) are accepted world-wide.

The applying organization is assessed based on an extensive sample of its sites, functions, products, services and processes; a list of problems ("action requests" or "non-compliances") is made known to the management. If there are no major problems on this list, the certification body will issue an ISO 9001 certificate for each geographical site it has visited, once it receives a satisfactory improvement plan from the management showing how any problems will be resolved.

An ISO certificate is not a once-and-for-all award, but must be renewed at regular intervals recommended by the certification body, usually around three years. In contrast to the Capability Maturity Model there are no grades of competence within ISO 9001.

Auditing

Two types of auditing are required to become registered to the standard: auditing by an external certification body (external audit) and audits by internal staff trained for this process (internal audits). The aim is a continual process of review and assessment, to verify that the system is working as it's supposed to, find out where it can improve and to correct or prevent problems identified. It is considered healthier for internal auditors to audit outside their usual management line, so as to bring a degree of independence to their judgments.

Under the 1994 standard, the auditing process could be adequately addressed by performing "compliance auditing":

Tell me what you do (describe the business process)

Show me where it says that (reference the procedure manuals)

Prove that that is what happened (exhibit evidence in documented records)

How this led to preventive actions was not clear.

The 2000 standard uses the process approach. While auditors perform similar functions, they are expected to go beyond mere auditing for rote "compliance" by focusing on risk, status and importance. This means they are expected to make more judgements on what is effective, rather than merely adhering to what is formally prescribed. The difference from the previous standard can be explained thus:

Under the 1994 version, the question was broadly "Are you doing what the manual says you should be doing?", whereas under the 2000 version, the question is more "Will this process help you achieve your stated objectives? Is it a good process or is there a way to do it better?".

The ISO 19011 standard for auditing applies to ISO 9000.

Industry-specific interpretations

The ISO 9001 standard is generalized and abstract. Its parts must be carefully interpreted, to make sense within a particular organization. Developing software is not like making cheese or offering counseling services; yet the ISO 9001 guidelines, because they are business management guidelines, can be applied to each of these. Diverse organizations—police departments (US), professional soccer teams (Mexico) and city councils (UK)—have successfully implemented ISO 9001:2000 systems.

Over time, various industry sectors have wanted to standardize their interpretations of the guidelines within their own marketplace. This is partly to ensure that their versions of ISO 9000 have their specific requirements, but also to try and ensure that more appropriately trained and experienced auditors are sent to assess them.

The TickIT guidelines are an interpretation of ISO 9000 produced by the UK Board of Trade to suit the processes of the information technology industry, especially software development.

AS 9000 is the Aerospace Basic Quality System Standard, an interpretation developed by major aerospace manufacturers. The current version is AS 9100.

PS 9000 is an application of the standard for Pharmaceutical Packaging Materials.

QS 9000 is an interpretation agreed upon by major automotive manufacturers (GM, Ford, Chrysler). It includes techniques such as FMEA and APQP. QS 9000 is now replaced by ISO/TS 16949.

ISO/TS 16949:2002 is an interpretation agreed upon by major automotive manufacturers (American and European manufacturers); the latest version is based on ISO 9001:2000. The emphasis on a process approach is stronger than in ISO 9001:2000. ISO/TS 16949:2002 contains the full text of ISO 9001:2000 and automotive industry-specific requirements.

TL 9000 is the Telecom Quality Management and Measurement System Standard, an interpretation developed by the telecom consortium, QuEST Forum. The current version is 4.0 and unlike ISO 9001 or the above sector standards, TL 9000 includes standardized product measurements that can be benchmarked.

ISO 13485:2003 is the medical industry's equivalent of ISO 9001:2000. Whereas the standards it replaces were interpretations of how to apply ISO 9001 and ISO 9002 to medical devices, ISO 13485:2003 is a stand-alone standard. Compliance with ISO 13485 does not necessarily mean compliance with IS0 9001:2000.

Debate on the effectiveness of ISO 9000

The debate on the effectiveness of ISO 9000 commonly centres on the following questions:

Are the quality principles in ISO 9000:2000 of value? (Note that the version date is important: in the 2000 version ISO attempted to address many concerns and criticisms of ISO 9000:1994.)

Does it help to implement ISO 9000:2000?

Does it help to obtain ISO 9000:2000 certification?

Advantages

It is widely acknowledged that proper quality management improves business, often having a positive effect on investment, market share, sales growth, sales margins, competitive advantage, and avoidance of litigation.The quality principles in ISO 9000:2000 are also sound, according to Wade,and Barnes, who says "ISO 9000 guidelines provide a comprehensive model for quality management systems that can make any company competitive." Barnes also cites a survey by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance that indicated ISO 9000 increased net profit, and another by Deloitte-Touche that reported that the costs of registration were recovered in three years. According to the Providence Business News , implementing ISO often gives the following advantages:

Create a more efficient, effective operation

Increase customer satisfaction and retention

Reduce audits

Enhance marketing

Improve employee motivation, awareness, and morale

Promote international trade

However, a broad statistical study of 800 Spanish companies found that ISO registration in itself creates little improvement because companies interested in ISO have usually already made some type of commitment to quality and were performing just as well before registration.

In today's service sector driven economy, more and more companies are using ISO 9000 as a business tool. Through the use of properly stated quality objectives, customer satisfaction surveys and a well-defined continual improvement program companies are using ISO 9000 processes to increase their efficiency and profitability.

Problems

A common criticism of ISO 9000 is the amount of money, time and paperwork required for registration, According to Barnes, "Opponents claim that it is only for documentation. Proponents believe that if a company has documented its quality systems, then most of the paperwork has already been completed."

According to [Seddon, ISO 9000 promotes specification, control, and procedures rather than understanding and improvement.Wade argues that ISO 9000 is effective as a guideline, but that promoting it as a standard "helps to mislead companies into thinking that certification means better quality, ... [undermining] the need for an organization to set its own quality standards." Paraphrased, Wade's argument is that total, blind reliance on the specifications of ISO 9000 does not guarantee a successful quality system.

The standard is seen as especially prone to failure when a company is interested in certification before quality.Certifications are in fact often based on customer contractual requirements rather than a desire to actually improve quality."If you just want the certificate on the wall, chances are, you will create a paper system that doesn't have much to do with the way you actually run your business," said ISO's Roger Frost. Certification by an independent auditor is often seen as the problem area, and according to Barnes, "has become a vehicle to increase consulting services." In fact, ISO itself advises that ISO 9000 can be implemented without certification, simply for the quality benefits that can be achieved.

Summary

A good overview for effective use of ISO 9000 is provided by Barnes: "Good business judgment is needed to determine its proper role for a company... Is certification itself important to the marketing plans of the company? If not, do not rush to certification... Even without certification, companies should utilize the ISO 9000 model as a benchmark to assess the adequacy of its quality programs"

See also

ISO 10006 Quality management - Guidelines to quality management in projects

ISO 14000 - Environmental management standards

ISO 19011 - Guidelines for quality management systems auditing and environmental management systems auditing

ISO/TS 16949 - Quality management system requirements for automotive-related products suppliers

ecommerce software

2007-08-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

E-commerce consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing and servicing of products or services over electronic system such as the Internet and other computer networks. An electronic business application aimed at commercial transactions and can involve electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, e-marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), automated inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. E-commerce software typically provide a means of capturing a client's credit card information, but they rely on the software module of the secure gateway provider, in conjunction with the secure payment gateway, in order to conduct secure credit card transactions online.

Synonyms:
Shopping cart software, shopping basket, Internet Commerce Software, Web Commerce Software, Web Commerce Server Software, and Electronic Commerce Software

Ecommerce 2.0

A few years ago, Tim O’Reilly introduced the concept of Web 2.0 to make sense out of what was next for software solutions. Web 2.0 explains how the realities of tomorrow will change how software solutions are designed, created, and used.

By examining and extrapolating Web 2.0 principles, I began to see that they had important implications for online retailing. This is ultimately where the concept of eCommerce 2.0, and the Six Principles of eCommerce 2.0, comes from.

Understanding the new possibilities for software—and what principles are applied in creating it—is the foundation for understanding the future of eCommerce. It is also the foundation for taking advantage of eCommerce 2.0 principles and the new trends they drive. The Six Principles of eCommerce 2.0 Just as Web 2.0 is altering the software development landscape, the principles of eCommerce 2.0 will define how eTailers do business online. Below is an introduction to the Six Principles of eCommerce 2.0.

[edit] The Six Principles of eCommerce 2.0
1. Sell Everywhere – Be Seen and Be Shopped Customer expectations for how and when they buy products have changed substantially over the past few years. Multi-channel selling was once limited to managing direct sales, a call center, a website, and possibly a partner channel. With eCommerce 2.0, this has been expanded and refined to include various online channels. These new channels include additional branded websites, various online marketplaces (such as eBay, Amazon.com, Overstock.com, and others), and online shopping comparison engines (such as Shopping.com, PriceGrabber.com, and others).

2. The Long Tail – Target Niche Markets eTailers who can connect with niche markets and provide a better online experience are capitalizing on new-found revenue. In the past, the obvious strategy was to find the bulk of the market and then mass market to them. With so much competition, many online merchants have adapted by discovering new methods and tools that target specific niche markets. These niche markets are not flooded by the big brands and respond well to content and online experiences directed specifically at them. In many cases, the demands of these niche markets are simply not being met by big brands. The Long Tail principle of eCommerce 2.0 is about being able to reach beyond the traditional prospect base and tap the potential of niche markets.

3. Customers Rule – Build a Community of Raving Fans Buyers were once along for the ride in the eCommerce process. Now they are in the driver’s seat. The content buyers create through forums such as product reviews, blogs, and social networks influences other buyers as much or more than any promotion eTailers create. Forums like YouTube and MySpace underscore how content created by consumers has become a viable and valuable part of the promotional and sales cycle for retailers. The most frightening aspect of these forums for many eTailers is the perceived loss of control over content being published.

4. Personalized Shopping – Make It Fun to Shop and Easy to Buy Shopping has long been considered a recreational activity by many. Shopping online is no exception. In fact, with the sophistication and speed of online shopping tools, consumers are spending more and more on eTailer sites. The best of these shopping tools takes into account that buyers want to be entertained and pleased. Buyers also—just as in the brick-and-mortar world—do not like long checkout processes. When building your online brand, regardless of channel, remember that speedy checkout equates to happier buyers who are more likely to return and buy again.

5. Mash-ups – Integrate and Collaborate Integration is nothing new, but what is new is how dynamically these integrations need to be initiated, modified, and used. The eCommerce 2.0 environment is built upon many interrelated systems and processes that require information to be exchanged dynamically. This happens between many systems based on individual user experience and the context of a particular customer interaction or order. Seamless access and interaction between systems is what promotes increased conversions and buyer loyalty, as well as attracts new buyers.

6. Data is King – Collect a Wealth of Opportunities Gone are the days of looking at purely operational reports. Seeing how many listings you have in a marketplace is fine, but it does not tell you how you compare to other eTailers, what your performance is like over time, or what other channels may be more profitable. eCommerce 2.0 is about collecting and managing data from all online channels to enable better business decisions. Discovering product opportunities relies on being able to define business objectives carefully, identify related key performance indicators (KPIs), and receive continual data to act on it.

[edit] Putting it Into Practice
eCommerce is growing and changing at a rapid pace. It is being driven by ever-evolving technology and consumer needs. Keeping pace with this change can be difficult. This is a brief introduction to the principles that will drive future eCommerce. These principles can be used as a guidepost to evaluate where you are with your business today and where you can go with it in the future.

eCommerce 2.0, with all of its principles, represents a new creative frontier that will test your competencies, technology, and ability to form partnerships. It will also give you better information and more effective branding capabilities, and help you form more profitable online relationships. What eCommerce 2.0 ultimately gives you—by adopting its principles—is more control over your own data, processes, and profitability.

Adult Merchant account

2007-08-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

Merchant account

A merchant account allows a business to accept credit cards, debit cards, gift cards and other forms of payment cards. This is also widely known as payment processing or credit card processing.

Merchants, or business owners who receive credit card payment for their goods or services, must apply for a merchant account typically through a merchant bank or MSP (Merchant Service Provider). The merchant account will typically be established based on several factors. Merchants who own businesses with poor or no credit may find it difficult to establish a merchant account through traditional routes

low cost merchant account,card credit merchant processing,card credit merchant service ...

Rates and fees

Merchant accounts are not free - a variety of charges are involved. Some fees are charged on a monthly basis but most are charged on a per-item or percentage basis. All of the monthly fees are at the discretion of the merchant account provider but the majority of the per-item and percentage fees are passed through the merchant account provider to the issuing bank according to a schedule of rates called Interchange fees, which are set by Visa and Mastercard.

Each transaction is categorized into an interchange category depending on the kind of card that was used for the transaction and the circumstances of the transaction. For example, if a transaction is made by swiping a card through a credit card terminal it will be in a different category than if it were keyed in manually. If a transaction is made using a rewards card it will fall into a different category than a standard card. The permutations add up - in total there are about 130 categories, each with a different rate.Merchant account providers usually group the 130 categories into 3 or 6 categories and apply a single rate to that entire bucket. This includes Retail, Mail Order / Telephone Order and eCommerce or Card Not Present. They base that rate on the average interchange rate that they expect for that category plus a markup for themselves.These tiers describe costs for different kinds of credit cards when processed under different kinds of circumstances. For example, a check card costs less than a consumer credit card which costs less than a business card. The method of how a credit card is processed changes which tier of Interchange is applied. For example, a swiped credit card costs less to process than one keyed into a credit card terminal.

Interchange Based Fees

3-Tier Pricing

3-Tier Pricing is the most popular pricing method, although 6-Tier Pricing is gaining in popularity quickly. In 3-Tier Pricing, the merchant account provider groups the transactions into 3 groups (tiers) and assigns a rate to each Tier.

Qualified rate

A qualified rate is the percentage rate a merchant will be charged whenever they accept a regular consumer credit card and process it in a manner that has been defined as "standard" by their merchant account provider. This is the lowest rate a merchant will incur when accepting a credit card. The qualified rate is also the rate commonly quoted to a merchant when they inquire about pricing. For example, for an internet merchant, the internet interchange categories will be defined as Qualified, while for a physical retailer only transactions swiped through or read by their terminal in an ordinary manner will be defined as Qualified.

Mid-qualified rate

Also known as a partially qualified rate, the mid-qualified rate is the percentage rate a merchant will be charged whenever they accept a credit card that does not qualify for the lowest rate (the qualified rate). This may happen for several reasons such as:

A consumer credit card is keyed into a credit card terminal instead of being swiped
A special kind of credit card is used like a rewards card or business card

A mid-qualified rate is usually 1.50% - 2.50% higher than a qualified rate. Interestingly, the kinds of transactions that are usually grouped into the Mid-Qualified Tier only cost 0.30%-0.50% more in interchange costs, so the merchant account providers make much of their profit from these transactions.

With the prevalence of rewards cards it is not uncommon for 15-40% of transactions to be mid-qualified.

Non-qualified rate

The non-qualified rate is the highest percentage rate a merchant will be charged whenever they accept a credit card. All transactions that are not qualified or mid-qualified will fall to this rate. This may happen for several reasons such as:

A consumer credit card is keyed into a credit card terminal instead of being swiped and address verification is not performed
A special kind of credit card is used like a business card and all required fields are not entered
A merchant does not settle their daily batch within the allotted time frame

A non-qualified rate is usually 2.00% - 2.50% higher than a qualified rate (and only cost 0.50%-1.50% higher in interchange costs).

6-Tier Pricing

As a result of the Wal-Mart Lawsuit and to compete against Pin-Based debit cards (which are processed outside of the Visa and Mastercard networks), Visa and Mastercard lowered the interchange rates for debit cards well below those for credit cards. Merchant Account providers have gradually had to pass the savings on to their customers. Consequently, each of the 3 original tiers have been divided into Debit and Credit, for a total of 6 tiers.

Interchange Plus Pricing

Larger and more sophisticated merchants usually have their merchant account services priced on an interchange plus basis, which means that they pay a specified markup over and above the interchange costs.

Other Fees

The Authorization fee is charged each time a transaction is sent to the card-issuing bank to be authorized, usually between 10 and 20 cents each. Even if the transaction is declined this fee is assessed.The statement fee is a monthly fee associated with the monthly statement that is sent to the merchant at the end of each monthly processing cycle, usually a flat $5 or $10. This statement shows how much processing was done by the merchant during the month and what fees were incurred as a result -- although rarely in a way that clearly explains the tiered pricing and costs of "downgrading."

Monthly minimum fee

The monthly minimum fee is a way to ensure that merchants pay a minimum amount in fees each month. If a merchant's qualified fees do not equal or exceed the monthly minimum they will be charged up to the monthly minimum to satisfy their minimum fee requirements.

Example: A merchant has a $25.00 monthly minimum fee. Their qualified fees for their most recent complete month of processing total only $15.00. This merchant will be charged an additional $10.00 to meet their monthly minimum requirements. It is industry standard to charge a monthly minimum.

Batch fee

A batch fee is charged to a merchant whenever the merchant "settles" their terminal. Settling a terminal, also known as "batching", is when a merchant sends their completed transactions for the day to their acquiring bank for payment. It is industry standard to charge this fee.

Chargeback fee

If a merchant encounters a chargeback they may be assessed a fee by their acquiring bank. This fee is typically charged whether the chargeback is successful or not and is not dependent on the amount of the chargeback.

Methods of processing credit cards

For a credit card transaction to be processed correctly it must be sent electronically to an acquiring bank. The method of processing credit cards will vary by industry. A merchant account provider typically has the ability to sell or establish a means to process credit cards for a merchant.

Credit card terminal

A credit card terminal is a stand-alone piece of electronic equipment that allows a merchant to swipe or key-enter a credit card's information as well as additional information required to process a credit card transaction. A credit card terminal is a dedicated piece of equipment that only processes credit cards although it is common for related transactions including gift cards and check verification to also be performed. A credit card terminal typically must be plugged in to a power supply and connected to a telephone line. However, newer terminals may be powered by batteries and communicate over the Internet. Some credit card terminals are connected to the cellular network and communicate wirelessly. When a credit card is run through, it contacts the network to verify that the credit card can be charged. The actual billing of the charge is done at the end of day batch where all sales from the terminal of the day are sent out.

Most credit card terminals in current use consist of a modem, keypad, printer, magnetic stripe reader, power supply and memory card.

A merchant accepting credit cards with a terminal in the United States will usually acquire that terminal in one of 4 ways. They may purchase the terminal, rent the terminal, lease the terminal or be offerred the terminal at "no cost" in return for` contractual obligations from a merchant processor.As with computers, there is a wide range of memory capacities and other features like built-in printers and debit card pinpads that affect the manufacturing cost of a credit card terminal.Because of the general lack of knowledge regarding the cost of a credit card terminal, a business owner would be wise to make sure they are paying a fair price or making an acceptable contractual agreement before making a written commitment for processing and/or a credit card terminal.When a terminal is leased there is usually a 3rd party leasing company involved and it is not uncommon in many U.S. states for these leases to be non-cancellable.As with any cntractual agreement, a business owner should carefully review the terms and conditions before selecting a merchant processor and a credit card terminal. The written agreeent will always apply no matter what the processor's representative or terminal seller might state verbally.

Automated Response Unit (ARU)

An ARU allows the manual keyed entry and subsequent authorization of a credit card over a cellular or land-line telephone. A business typically imprints their customer's card with an imprinter and then processes the transaction instantaneously over the phone.

Payment gateway

A payment gateway is an e-commerce service that authorizes payments for e-businesses and online retailers. It is the equivalent of a physical POS (point-of-sale) terminal located in most retail outlets. A merchant account provider is typically a separate company from the payment gateway. Some merchant account providers have their own payment gateways but the majority of companies use 3rd party payment gateways.

Level 3 Processing - Purchasing Cards

Increasingly, corporations and government agencies are relying on this form of payment to compensate their service providers and suppliers. Businesses benefit by receiving their funds quickly and by winning competitive bids and government contracts where purchasing cards are the required form of payment. The downside, however, is the cost associated with receiving these payments.

For some businesses there are ways to process these transactions that allow them to maintain their margins and be competitive in the bidding process. For example, if government transactions are over $5,000, businesses can significantly reduce their transaction costs by including specific information about the purchase along with each transaction. For private large ticket transactions, businesses can save even more. Implementing such a program can enable them to recover a full 1% of their total transaction as pure profit – often as much as a 40% - 50% savings when compared to processing in a more traditional manner.

Some interesting link:

Credit card
-windows xp patch
Payment gateway
-windows vista
merchant account provider
-windows upgrade
Credit card fraud
-windows software
Chargeback insurance
Payment card industry- PCI
Cardholder Information Security Program- CISP

uvme.blog.hr -windows xp profesional

5 Things You Should Never Do In Forex

2007-08-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

Revising my recent trades which were made during the last month I still find myself making the same mistakes I've been doing as a newbie trader. The amount of these mistakes lowered, but sometimes emotions overcome the mind and the strategy and as a result - pips are lost. Here is the list of most devastating and stupid things you can make in Forex trading:

1. Don't place stop-loss - sometimes I just forget to place, sometimes I hope for the price to eventually go in the right way and think that stop-loss will be an obstacle. This is wrong! Always place a stop loss - it's good to have it significantly lower than your targeted profit.
2. Trade in lots too big - even if you are100% sure that this position will be profitable, don't make it too large - 1%-5% is more than enough. Losing 20% of your deposit will require much more risk to recover.
3. Overtrade - everyone says that it is bad to overtrade, but for a trader it is always hard to stay away from market when there is "so many opportunities". Just try to set a limit of daily/weekly trades for yourself. Overtrading is a result of the mindless emotions, not your mind, so avoid it.
4. Closing the winning positions too early - it seems OK to get some guaranteed profit against risking to wait even more. But trading experience proves that early closing for winning positions and waiting for losing positions to go green - is completely wrong. Let your winning positions run and cut your losing ones early!
5. Following forecasts and signals - for some traders it's hard to avoid this, especially when there is some Forex guru they respect. Trading with your own strategy and full responsibility is the only way that can make you a professional and successful Forex trader.

Forex Guide Controlling Risk

2007-08-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

Forex trading is a 24-hour activity, so how can you protect your positions when you are away from your screen?

There are a variety of automated orders that can be triggered at pre-set exchange rates and that can be deployed to control the downside and consolidate the upside:

Stop loss: An order to close out a position automatically when the bid or offer price touches a given level.

For long positions, you issue a stop loss order below the current exchange rate. If the market price falls through the stop loss trigger rate, then the order will be activated and your long position will be closed out automatically.

If you have a short position, you would set your stop loss above the current rate to be activated when the offer rate touches the trigger level.

A “trailing stop loss” is one that is adjusted behind a position as it moves into profit, to lock in gains.

In volatile markets, it may be impossible to execute stops at the precise limits.

Take profits order (TPO): The opposite of a stop loss. For a short positions the TPO order will be set below the current exchange rate, and vice versa for long positions.

Limit order: A buy or sell order that is activated when the current exchange rate passes through some preset threshold rate. Limit orders can be good for a specified period (e.g. a day, a month) or “good till cancelled”.

One cancels the other (OCO): A combination of a stop loss and a limit order (or two limit orders) at opposite ends of the spread. When one is triggered, the other is terminated.

Forex trade, Online Forex broker, Marginal treding on forex

2007-08-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

The Retail forex

Interesting Ideas to Make Money on ebay

2007-08-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

1) Sell Used Cell Phones on ebay
The demands for used cell phones with brand names like Nokia, Motorola, Kyocera, Alltel, Ericsson, Sprint, etc in ebay are pretty high. Many of the used cell phones auctions in ebay usually attract bids.

So how to find used cell phones to profit on ebay?

Many people change their cell phones every year. If you are one of them, probably you already have 2 or 3 used cell phones kept at home that can sell on ebay. Your friends may also keep a few of old phones left unused. You can buy from them and resell on ebay.

To get a consistent supply of cell phones, you may think about placing classified ads in newspaper states that you pay money for used cell phone. You shouldn't pay much when buying used cell phones. Do a little research on ebay to find out how much used cell phones are generally selling. If a used cell phone sell at a price of $50 in ebay, you should pay not more than 30% of the price to buy it. If the phone is a recent model you can pay little more and cut a little if it is old and nothing special.

2) Sell Used How-to Books
Used how-to books are quite easy to find and inexpensive to buy. They can be bought at $1.00 or less. You can buy how-to books from thrift shops, estate sales, used book stores, yard sales, etc and sell them in ebay for high profit margin. You can also get how-to books from Book Sale Finder. Here are the type of books you should look for:

Hobbies
Photography, blacksmithing, clock building & repair, woodworking, magic, treasure hunting, iron work, pipe smoking, dog training, antiques, coins, buttons, medals, drawing, painting, craft making, dolls, pottery, etc.

Home and Garden
Home decorating, home remodelling, garden trellis, etc.

Misc
How to repair (watch repair, door repair, pipe repair), how to play, lost treasure, eary aviation, etc.

When you list your books in ebay, you can either list them in the "Book" category of ebay or in the subject specific category of ebay. For instance, If you are selling a book related to home decorating, you may be making more profit if you list the book under the "Home Deco" within the "Home &amp;amp; Garden" category of ebay campare to listing the book under "Book"

3) Sell Gift Cards

Gift card is another profitable market in ebay. There are many people possess gift cards but not everyone of them will use their gift cards. If you can offer to buy these unused gift cards for a price at 20% or less of the value of the gift certificates, they will sell to you. You can advertise your offer in local newspaper, penny shop and trading post. You are looking for gift cards that are still valid (not yet expire). Most gift cards have a toll-free number on the back you can dial to check whether the cards are still valid.

When determining the buy and sell price of a gift card, you should do some research on ebay. Try to look for auction that sell the similar card. See how much the card sells in the auction and set you buying price at 40% to 50% of the selling price of the auction. The starting bid and winning bid of the auction can also give you an idea on how much your card can sell on ebay. ;)

Second, we will nead pay pal account

2007-08-05T04:25:00.000-07:00

PayPal

is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made< through the Internet. It serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as cheques and money orders. PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other corporate users, for which it charges a fee. On October 3, 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay.[1] Its corporate headquarters are in San Jose, California, at eBay's North First Street satellite office campus. The company also has significant operations in Omaha, Nebraska; Dublin, Ireland; and Berlin, Germany.[2]dit] History

Beginnings

PayPal is the result of a March 2000 merger between Confinity and X.com.[3] Confinity was founded in December 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek, initially as a Palm Pilot payments and cryptography company.[4] Both Confinity and X.com launched their websites in late 1999. X.com was founded by Elon Musk in March 1999, initially as an Internet financial services company. Both companies were located on University Avenue in Palo Alto. Confinity's website was initially focused on reconciling beamed payments from Palm Pilots [5] with email payments as a feature and X.com's website initially included financial services with email payments as a feature.

At Confinity, many of the initial recruits were alumni of The Stanford Review, also founded by Peter Thiel, and most early engineers hailed from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recruited by Max Levchin. On the X.com side, Elon Musk recruited a wide range of technical and business personnel, including many that were critical to the combined company's success, such as Amy Klement, Sal Giambanco, Roelof Botha, Sanjay Bhargava and Jeremy Stoppelman.[6]

To block potentially fraudulent access by automated systems, PayPal devised a system (see CAPTCHA) of making the user enter numbers from a blurry picture, which they coined the Gausebeck-Levchin test. According to Eric M. Jackson, author of the book The PayPal Wars, PayPal invented this system now in common use. Although, there is evidence AltaVista used a CAPTCHA as early as 1997, before PayPal existed.[citation needed] The neutrality of The PayPal Wars, which was self-published by Eric Jackson through his company World Ahead Publishing, funded in part by Peter Thiel, is disputed.[7]

eBay watched the rise in volume of online payments and realized its fit with online auctions. eBay purchased Billpoint in May 1999, prior to the existence of Paypal. eBay made Billpoint the official payment system of eBay, dubbing it "eBay Payments", but cut the functionality of Billpoint by narrowing it to only payments made for eBay auctions.

For this reason, PayPal was listed in several times as many auctions as Billpoint. In February of 2000, there were approximately an average of 200,000 daily auctions advertising the PayPal service while Billpoint (in beta) had only 4,000 auctions. By April of 2000 there were more than 1,000,000 auctions promoting the PayPal service. PayPal was able to turn the corner and become the first dot-com to IPO after the September 11 attacks.

Legal issues

In March 2002, two PayPal account holders separately sued the company for alleged violations of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) and California law. Most of the allegations concerned PayPal's dispute resolution procedures. The two lawsuits were merged into one class action lawsuit (In re PayPal litigation). An informal settlement was reached in November 2003, and a formal settlement was signed on June 11, 2004. The settlement requires that PayPal change its business practices (including changing its dispute resolution procedures to make them EFTA-compliant), as well as making a US$9.25 million payment to members of the class. PayPal denied any wrongdoing.

In August 2002, Craig Comb and others filed a class action against PayPal in Craig Comb, et al. v. PayPal, Inc.. They sued for alleged mishandling of customer accounts and customer services, with regards to PayPal's user agreement. Allegations included the up to 180-day restriction on deposited funds until disputes are resolved, forcing customers to arbitrate their disputes under the American Arbitration Association's guidelines (a costly procedure), and requiring users to file claims individually, restricting class action suits. The court deemed these actions unconscionable and ruled in favor of Comb.[8]

Bank status

In the United States, PayPal is licensed as a money transmitter on a state-by-state basis. Although PayPal is not a bank, the company is still subject to and adheres to many of the rules and regulations governing the financial industry including Regulation E consumer protections and the USA PATRIOT Act. However, on May 15, 2007, PayPal announced that it would move its European operations from the UK to Luxembourg, commencing July 2, 2007 as PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A. This would be as a Luxembourg entity regulated as a bank by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the Luxembourg equivalent of the FSA. PayPal Luxembourg will then provide the PayPal service throughout the European Union (EU).

Safety & Protection Policies

The PayPal Buyer Protection Policy[4] claims that customers may file a buyer complaint within 45 days if they did not receive an item or if the item they purchased was significantly not as described. If the buyer used a credit card, they might get a refund via charge back from their credit card company.

PayPal protects sellers in a limited fashion via the Seller Protection Policy[5]. In general the Seller Protection Policy is intended to protect the seller from certain kinds of chargebacks or complaints if seller meets certain conditions including proof of delivery to the buyer. PayPal states the Seller Protection Policy is "designed to protect sellers against claims by buyers of unauthorised payments and against claims of non-receipt of any merchandise". Note that this contrasts with the consumer protection they claim to offer. This policy should be read carefully before assuming protection. In particular the Seller Protection Policy includes a list of "Exclusions" which itself includes "Intangible goods", "Claims for receipt of goods 'not as described'" and "Total reversals over the annual limit". There are also other restrictions in terms of the sale itself, the payment method and the destination country the item is shipped to (simply having a tracking mechanism is not sufficient to guarantee the Seller Protection Policy is in effect).

The company—by its own admission—uses automated systems to verify tracking numbers. If a seller has an item not received claim filed against them, they are required to enter a tracking number for the item. If they fail to enter a valid tracking number that shows a successful delivery, or even mistype the number by one digit, they will lose the claim automatically without a real person ever adjudicating the claim. In general, if a valid tracking number is entered which can be accessed online and shows a successful delivery, the seller will automatically win the claim.

The item significantly not as described claim is a more complicated matter. In this situation, the buyer has acknowledged the receipt of the item but has found the item to be "significantly not as described." The multi-level process provides an initial period of time for the seller and buyer to attempt to reach an agreement on their own. If the seller does not respond to the initial dispute from the buyer, or if the seller is unable to offer a settlement which is agreeable to the buyer, the buyer then has the option of escalating the dispute to a claim. If seller does not wish to communicate with buyer, the seller also may choose to escalate a dispute to a claim. The escalation from dispute to claim is not automatic; if a dispute is not escalated it will be automatically closed after a certain period of time. By escalating the dispute to a claim, the party is asking a PayPal representative to review the claim and make a settlement decision. In most cases, if the seller has been found to have misrepresented the item in a significant way, the buyer will be required to return the item to the seller at buyer's expense — and provide a tracking number for the return shipment — in order to receive their refund for the transaction. This policy is criticized as being in favor of the fraudulent seller. A seller can exaggerate the condition of his items and the worst that can happen is that he has the item returned. The innocent buyer has to pay return shipping and ends up out of pocket for something that was not his fault. This is in line with criticism of eBay's general policy of putting sales and its own profits above buyer protection against fraudulent sellers (for instance shill bidding).

If the seller has not been found to have misrepresented the item in a significant way, then the buyer's claim will be denied and the buyer will have no further opportunity for claims of any type using Paypal's systems. The only recourse the buyer would possibly have at that point would be through their credit card company (if payment was made using a credit card) or by filing a claim against Paypal through the Better Business Bureau or another similar consumer protection organization.

Security Key

In early 2007, PayPal introduced an optional security key to its users. This adds an additional layer of protection when logging into a PayPal or eBay account. Once a user enters their login ID and password, they are prompted to press a button on the small security key, then enter the six digit number to complete the login process. There is a one-time US$5 charge for this device, with no ongoing fees, however business accounts get them free of charge.

Money Market

In 2000, PayPal began offering its customers the option of investing their funds in a Money Market account managed by Barclays plc. If a user activates it, the balance of their account begins earning monthly dividends. The rate fluctuates daily, but thus far has been around 5%, and this percentage is the same regardless of the account balance.

Funds are not insured by the FDIC. While other online bank accounts like ING Direct, Citi Direct, HSBC Direct, or Emigrant Direct offer comparable or higher percentage yields and are FDIC-insured, one major advantage of the PayPal money market account is the accessibility of it with no long term commitment.

Firist, we will nead "e-gold" and maybe ebay account!

2007-08-05T04:15:00.001-07:00

eBay Buying and Selling

Description about e-gold from wiki!

e-gold is a digital gold currency operated by Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. under e-gold Ltd., and is a system which allows the instant transfer of gold ownership between users. e-gold Ltd. is incorporated in Nevis, Lesser Antilles.

According to the company's website, as of April 2007, e-gold had 112,188 oz (3,489,436 grams) of gold and 138,567 oz (4,309,923 grams) of silver in storage, which is worth approximately US$86 million . There are typically 66,000 e-gold spends each day totalling 15,000 oz (460 kilograms), which is about US$10.5 million. There are over three million e-gold accounts of which about one quarter are active

On 27 April 2007, a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. indicted e‑Gold Ltd and its owners on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. e-gold, however, considers the charges completely groundless, and has responded to the allegations in their own press release.

History

e-gold was founded in 1996 by Dr. Douglas Jackson and Barry K. Downey [4]. Transactions using e-gold have grown dramatically since 2005. The total amount of gold bars (over three tonnes) in the e-gold system is approaching the size of the national reserves of smaller countries. e-gold now generates a substantial income from spend and storage fees — there is a charge of a few cents to make each e-gold "spend" and e-gold itself now earns well over a million USD per year from fees.

The number of e-gold accounts (as claimed by e-gold) grew from 1 million in November 2003 to 3 million on 22 April 2006. [5]

Role in global commerce

Many small businesses in the U.S., Europe and Asia, each with full-time staff now operate as "digital currency exchangers," doing nothing other than buying and selling digital gold currency for fiat currencies, as gold bugs term national legal tender currencies not backed by hard assets.

e-gold transactions — a "spend" — are completed electronically, usually using the web interface, and they always settle by weight of the metal even if denominated in some other way. A user may send (or "spend") a tiny amount of gold (a fraction of a gram, ounce or kilogram) to another user account instantly, anywhere in the world.

Even though e-gold is careful to not advocate any particular political agenda, as the Liberty Dollar does for example, e-gold could be viewed as a libertarian form of private currency

e-gold is, according to their website, "100% backed by gold"

Exchanging for currency

e-gold does not sell its e-metal directly to users. Instead digital currency exchangers, such as OmniPay (a sister company of e-gold), and numerous independent companies act as market makers selling e-metal in exchange for other currencies and a transaction fee. Conversely, these exchange providers will buy e-metal with other currencies, again taking a transaction fee. In this manner e-metals can be converted back and forth to a variety of national currencies. The amount of a particular currency or e-metal necessary to complete a transaction is determined by the spot price of the metal in relation to the value of the currency. e-gold is known as private currency as it is not issued by governments.

Compared to other systems like PayPal, the process of buying e-gold can be confusing to a person unfamiliar with the e-gold system. e-gold, unlike e-Bullion for instance, does not sell digital currency directly to the user. According to their website the reason e-gold does not provide an in-house exchange service is so there can be no debt or contingent liabilities associated with the business, making e-gold Ltd. absolutely free of any financial risk. They claim e-gold Ltd. does not possess currency of any nation or even have a bank account.

Crime and fraud

e-gold has been perceived as the medium of choice for many online con-artists, with pyramid schemes and High Yield Investment Programs ("HYIPs") commonplace. This has been blamed on e-gold's policy of irreversible transactions. However, e-gold is now blocking accounts where fraud is proven or suspected [11].

e-gold and OmniPay have also been accused of being a medium for money laundering, although this is questionable given that there were only 24 customer accounts holding over 10kg of gold (approximate value $200,000) by April 2006 [12]. As digital gold currency providers are not banks, they are not legally required to perform various sorts of "know your customer" background checks. However, many legitimate e-gold exchange providers, for example GoldNow, may require a higher level of identification, generally more intrusive than a bank, for security purposes.

Opening an account at www.e-gold.com takes only a few clicks of a mouse. Customers can use a false name if they like because no one checks. With a credit card or wire transfer, a user buys units of e-gold. Those units can then be transferred with a few more clicks to anyone else with an e-gold account. For the recipient, cashing out — changing e-gold back to regular money — is just as convenient and often just as anonymous. [13]

In January 2006, BusinessWeek reported on the use of the e-gold system by ShadowCrew, an 4000-strong international crime syndicate involved in massive identity theft and fraud [14]. Omar Dhanani of Fountain Valley, California, connected to the ShadowCrew, is an e-gold customer and is reported to have moved amounts ranging from $40,000 to $100,000 a week from proceeds of crime through e-gold [15].

In response, Chairman and founder, Dr. Douglas Jackson published a letter which stated that "e-gold operates legally and does not condone persons attempting to use e-gold for criminal activity. e-gold has a long history of cooperation with law enforcement agencies in the US and worldwide, providing data and investigative assistance in response to lawful requests." He further noted that "Our staff has participated in hundreds of investigations supporting the FBI, FTC, IRS, DEA, SEC, USPS, and others."

In August 2006, WORLDLawDirect lawyers announced e-gold Ltd. officials and their legal counsel to be the subject of a U.S. Federal Court subpoena. They believe e-gold Ltd. is subject to U.S. Federal Court jurisdiction and may be held liable for some or all of the investors' losses (and potential triple damages) in the Solid Investment (Solidinvestment.com) large scale HYIP scam!

Money article from wikipedia!

2007-08-05T04:07:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Various denominations of currency, one form of money
Money is any good or token that functions as a medium of exchange that is socially and legally accepted in payment for goods and services and in settlement of debts. Money also serves as a standard of value for measuring the relative worth of different goods and services and as a store of value. Some authors explicitly require money to be a standard of deferred payment.[1]
Money includes both currency, particularly the many circulating currencies with legal tender status, and various forms of financial deposit accounts, such as demand deposits, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. In modern economies, currency is the smallest component of the money supply.
Money is not the same as real value, the latter being the basic element in economics. Money is central to the study of economics and forms its most cogent link to finance. The absence of money causes an economy to be inefficient because it requires a coincidence of wants between traders, and an agreement that these needs are of equal value, before a barter exchange can occur. The efficiency gains through the use of money are thought to encourage trade and the division of labour, in turn increasing productivity and wealth.

Economic characteristics
Money is generally considered to have the following characteristics, which are summed up in a rhyme found in older economics textbooks and a primer: "Money is a matter of functions four, a medium, a measure, a standard, a store."
There have been many historical arguments regarding the combination of money's functions, some arguing that they need more separation and that a single unit is insufficient to deal with them all. 'Financial capital' is a more general and inclusive term for all liquid instruments, whether or not they are a uniformly recognized tender.

Medium of exchange
Main article: Medium of exchange
A medium of exchange is an intermediary used in trade. An effective medium of exchange should have the following characteristics:
It should also be recognizable as something of value. Person A should recognize the value of the item so that Person B can give it to A in exchange for goods or services.
It should be easily transportable; precious metals have a high value to weight ratio. This is why oil, coal, vermiculite, or water are not convenient in this regard.
It should be durable. Money is often left in pockets through the wash. Some countries (such as Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Singapore) are making their bank notes out of plastic for increased durability. Gold coins are often mixed with copper to improve durability.

unit of account
Main article: Unit of account
A unit of account is a standard numerical unit of measurement of the market value of goods, services, and other transactions. Also known as a "measure" or "standard" of relative worth and deferred payment, a unit of account is a necessary pre-requisite for the formulation of commercial agreements that involve debt.
An effective unit of account is to be:
Divisible into small units without destroying its value; precious metals can be coined from bars, or melted down into bars again.
Fungible: that is, one unit or piece must be exactly equivalent to another, which is why diamonds, works of art or real estate are not suitable as money.
A specific weight, or measure, or size to be verifiably countable. For instance, coins are often made with ridges around the edges, so that any removal of material from the coin (lowering its commodity value) will be easy to detect.

Store of value
Main article: Store of value
To act as a store of value, a commodity, a form of money, or financial capital must be able to be reliably saved, stored, and retrieved - and be predictably useful when it is so retrieved. Fiat currency like paper or electronic currency no longer backed by gold in most countries is not considered by some economists to be a store of value.
An effective store of value should have the following characteristics:
It should be long lasting and durable; it must not be perishable or subject to decay. This is why food items, expensive spices, or even fine silks or oriental rugs are not generally suitable as money.
It should have a stable value.
It should be difficult to counterfeit, and the genuine must be easily recognizable.

Market liquidity
Main article: Market liquidity
It is important for any economy to move beyond a simple system of bartering. Liquidity describes how easily an item can be traded for another item, or into the common currency within an economy. Money is the most liquid asset because it is universally recognised and accepted as the common currency. In this way, money gives consumers the freedom to trade goods and services easily without having to barter.
Liquid financial instruments are easily tradable and have low transaction costs. There should be no--or minimal--spread between the prices to buy and sell the instrument being used as money.

Types of money
In economics, money is a broad term that refers to any instrument that can be used in the resolution of debt. However, different types of money have different economic strengths and liabilities. Theoretician Ludwig von Mises made that point in his book The Theory of Money and Credit, and he argued for the importance of distinguishing among three types of money: commodity money, fiat money, and credit money. Modern monetary theory also distinguishes among different types of money, using a categorization system that focuses on the liquidity of money.

Commodity money
Main article: Commodity money
Commodity money is any money that is both used as a general purpose medium of exchange and as a tradable commodity in its own right.[2]
Commodity based currencies are often viewed as more stable, but this is not always the case. The value of a commodity based currency as a medium of exchange depends on its supply relative to other goods and services available in the economy.
Historically, gold, silver and other metals commonly used in commodity based monetary systems have been subject to regular and sometimes extraordinary fluctuations in purchasing power. This not only damages its stability as a medium of exchange; it also reduces its effectiveness as a store of value. In the 1500 and 1600's huge quantities of gold and even larger amounts of silver were discovered in the New World and brought back to Europe for conversion into coin, the purchasing power of those coins fell by 60% to 80%, i.e. prices of commodities rose, because the supply of goods for sale did not keep pace with the increased supply of money.[3] In addition, the relative value of silver to gold shifted dramatically downward.[4] More recently, from 1980 to 2001, gold was a particularly poor store of value, as gold prices dropped from a high of $850/oz. to a low of $255/oz. The advantage of gold and silver, however, lies in the fact that, unlike fiat paper currency, the supply cannot be increased arbitrarily by a central bank.
It is also possible for the trading value of a commodity money to be greater than its value as a medium of exchange. When this happens people will often start melting down coins and reselling the metal used to make them. This has happened periodically in the United States, eventually causing it to move away from pure silver nickels and pure copper pennies.[citation needed] Shipping coins from one jurisdiction to another so that they could be reminted was sometimes a lucrative trade before the advent of trusted paper money.[citation needed]
Commodity money's ability to function as a store of value is also limited by its very nature. Copper and tin risk rust and corrosion. Gold and silver are soft metals that can lose weight through scratches and abrasions.
Stability aside, commodity based currencies are limiting in a rapidly growing or very active economy. The supply of money in an economy must be equal or greater than the volume of trade. If commodities are used as money, then the money supply must equal the total amount of goods and services sold. In a large economy, the volume of trade can easily outstrip the supply of any one commodity.
This problem is compounded by the fact that money also serves as a store of value. This encourages hoarding and takes the commodity money out circulation, reducing the supply. The supply of circulating commodity currency is further reduced by the fact that commodity moneys also have competing non-monetary uses. For example, gold and silver is used in jewelery and nickel and copper have important industrial uses.
Commodity based currencies also limit the geographic extent of the trading market. To make large purchases either a large volume or a high weight or both of the commodity must be transported to the seller. The cost of transportation of the currency raises the transaction cost and makes long distance sales less attractive.

Banknotes from all around the world donated by visitors to the British Museum, London

Fiat money
Main article: Fiat money
Fiat money is any money whose value is determined by legal means rather than the relative availability of goods and services. Fiat money may be symbolic of a commodity or government promises.[2]
Fiat money provides solutions to several limitations of commodity money. Depending on the laws, there may be little or no need to physically transport the money - an electronic exchange may be sufficient. Its sole use is as a medium of exchange so its supply is not limited by competing alternate uses. It can be printed without limit, so there is no limit on trade volumes.
Fiat money, especially in the form of paper or coins, can be easily damaged or destroyed. However, it has an advantage over commodity money in that the same laws that created the money can also define rules for its replacement in case of damage or destruction. For example, the US government will replace mutilated paper money if at least half of the bill can be reconstructed.[5]. By contrast commodity money is gone for good.
Paper money is especially vulnerable to everyday hazards: from fire, water, termites, and simple wear and tear. Money in the form of minted coins is sometimes destroyed by children placing it on railroad tracks or in amusement park machines that restamp it. In order to reduce replacement costs, many countries are converting to plastic bills. For example, Mexico has changed its twenty and fifty pesos notes, Singapore its $2 and $10 bills, Malaysia with RM5 bill, and Australia and New Zealand their $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 to plastic for the increased durability.
Some of the benefits of fiat money can be a double-edged sword. For example, if the amount of money in active circulation outstrips the available goods and services for sale, the effect can be inflationary. This can easily happen if governments print money without attention to the level of economic activity or counterfeiters are allowed to flourish.
Perhaps the biggest criticism of paper money relates to the fact that its stability is highly dependent on the stability of the legal system backing the currency. Should the legal system fail, so would the currency that depends on it.

Credit money
Main article: Credit money
Credit money is any claim against a physical or legal person that can be used for the purchase of goods and services[2]. Credit money differs from commodity and fiat money in two important ways: It is not payable on demand and there is some element of risk that the real value upon fulfillment of the claim will not be equal to real value expected at the time of purchase[2].
This risk comes about in two ways and affects both buyer and seller.
First it is a claim and the claimant may default (not pay). High levels of default have destructive supply side effects. If manufacturers and service providers do not receive payment for the goods they produce, they will not have the resources to buy the labor and materials needed to produce new goods and services. This reduces supply, increases prices and raises unemployment, possibly triggering a period of stagflation. In extreme cases, widespread defaults can cause a lack of confidence in lending institutions and lead to economic depression. For example, abuse of credit arrangements is considered one of the significant causes of the Great Depression of the 1930s. [6]
The second source of risk is time. Credit money is a promise of future payment. If the interest rate on the claim fails to compensate for the combined impact of the inflation (or deflation) rate and the time value of money, the seller will receive less real value than anticipated. If the interest rate on the claim overcompensates, the buyer will pay more than expected.
Over the last two centuries, credit money has steadily risen as the main source of money creation, progressively replacing first commodity then fiat money.
The main problem with credit money is that its supply moves in line with credit booms and bust. When lenders are optimistic (notably when the debt level is low), they increase their lendings activity, thus creating new money and triggering inflation, when they are pessimistic (for instance because the debt level is perceived as so high that defaults can only follow), they reduce their lending activities, bankruptcies and deflation follows.

Money supply
Main article: Money supply
The money supply is the amount of money within a specific economy available for purchasing goods or services. The supply in the US is usually considered as four escalating categories M0, M1, M2 and M3. The categories grow in size with M3 representing all forms of money (including credit) and M0 being just base money (coins, bills, and central bank deposits). M0 is also money that can satisfy private banks' reserve requirements. In the US, the Federal Reserve is responsible for controlling the money supply, while in the Euro area the respective institution is the European Central Bank. Other central banks with significant impact on global finances are the Bank of Japan, People's Bank of China and the Bank of England.
When gold is used as money, the money supply can grow in either of two ways. First, the money supply can increase as the amount of gold increases by new gold mining at about 2% per year, but it can also increase more during periods of gold rushes and discoveries, such as when Columbus discovered the new world and brought gold back to Spain, or when gold was discovered in California in 1848. This kind of increase helps debtors, and causes inflation, as the value of gold goes down. Second, the money supply can increase when the value of gold goes up. This kind of increase in the value of gold helps savers and creditors and is called deflation, where items for sale are less expensive in terms of gold. Deflation was the more typical situation for over a century when gold and credit money backed by gold were used as money in the US from 1792 to 1913.

Monetary policy
Main article: Monetary policy
Monetary policy is the process by which a government, central bank, or monetary authority manages the money supply to achieve specific goals. Usually the goal of monetary policy is to accommodate economic growth in an environment of stable prices. For example, it is clearly stated in the Federal Reserve Act that the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee should seek “to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.” [7]
A failed monetary policy can have significant detrimental effects on an economy and the society that depends on it. These include hyperinflation, stagflation, recession, high unemployment, shortages of imported goods, inability to export goods, and even total monetary collapse and the adoption of a much less efficient barter economy. This happened in Russia, for instance, after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Governments and central banks have taken both regulatory and free market approaches to monetary policy. Some of the tools used to control the money supply include:
currency purchases or sales
increasing or lowering government spending
increasing or lowering government borrowing
changing the rate at which the government loans or borrows money
manipulation of exchange rates
taxation or tax breaks on imports or exports of capital into a country
raising or lowering bank reserve requirements
regulation or prohibition of private currencies
For many years much of monetary policy was influenced by an economic theory known as monetarism. Monetarism is an economic theory which argues that management of the money supply should be the primary means of regulating economic activity. The stability of the demand for money prior to the 1980s was a key finding of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz [8] supported by the work of David Laidler [9], and many others.
The nature of the demand for money changed during the 1980s owing to technical, institutional, and legal factors and the influence of monetarism has since decreased.

History of money
Main article: History of money
The first golden coins in history were coined by Lydian king Croesus, around 560 BC. The first Greek coins were made initially of copper, then of iron because copper and iron were powerful materials used to make weapons. Pheidon king of Argos, around 700 BC, changed the coins from iron to a rather useless and ornamental metal, silver, and, according to Aristotle, dedicated some of the remaining iron coins (which were actually iron sticks) to the temple of Hera[1]. King Pheidon coined the silver coins at Aegina, at the temple of the goddess of wisdom and war Athena the Aphaia (the vanisher), and engraved the coins with a Chelone, which is to this day as a symbol of capitalism. Chelone coins[2] were the first medium of exchange that was not backed by a real value good. They were widely accepted and used as the international medium of exchange until the days of Peloponnesian War, when the Athenian Drachma replace them. According other fables, inventors of money were Demodike(or Hermodike) of Kymi (the wife of Midas), Lykos (son of Pandion II and ancestor of the Lycians) and Erichthonius, the Lydians or the Naxians.

Quotations on money

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"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." Gospel of Matthew 6:24 (KJV)

"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." First Epistle to Timothy 6:10 (KJV)

"Money may not be able to buy happiness, but it sure the hell can rent it for awhile." Daniel Guy Sprecker

"When it's a question of money, everybody is of the same religion." Voltaire

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money." Cree proverb

"When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart." John Wesley

"Money. It's a gas." Pink Floyd

"Everybody loves money. That's why it's called 'money'." Danny DeVito

"Money doesn't talk, it swears." Bob Dylan

"I spend money with reckless abandon. Last month I blew five thousand dollars at a reincarnation seminar. I got to thinking, what the hell, you only live once." Ronnie Shakes

"So you think that money is the root of all evil? Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?" Ayn Rand

"The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it. The process by which banks create money is so simple the mind is repelled." John Kenneth Galbraith

"If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice of how he acts when he loses money." New England Proverb

"Money is a stupid measure of achievement, but unfortunately it is the only universal measure we have." - Charles Steinmetz