Importance of Social BookMarking

Although the concept of shared online bookmarks dates back to 1996, the term social bookmarking is a relatively new concept and was first used in 2003 by Delicious web service. The term ‘tagging’ is also associated with social bookmarking. Using social bookmarking, users can search, save, manage, and organize web pages/websites for sharing or for remembering. With the rising number and growing popularity of online bookmarking services, social bookmarking is also called social bookmarketing. Over time, bookmarking services have proven to be excellent tools for online marketing. When combined with Search Engine Optimization, social bookmarking can be the key to success of online marketing campaigns.

Higher rankings by search engines facilitate brand awareness. The primary objective behind search engine optimization is thus, to ensure better rankings, and thus, social bookmarking has emerged as an effective tool for providing back links and getting higher traffic, which in turn help in securing better Search Engine Rankings. Bookmarks represent links through tagging. Unlike a hierarchical structure, tagging is done through a bottom-up method, which create many broad categories to fit in the links. As a result, the users can assert the metadata adding relevance to the links. This equates the marketing appeal as a ‘word of mouth’ campaign, in which friends and families validate the quality of the product/service.

Just like keywords tags and the links they are attached to are indexed simultaneously by search engines. As a result, content supplied by you adds the links with the appended keywords. Thus, along with getting links from websites with heavy traffic frequency, you also get links from websites that are relevant. Once you start getting links from big bookmarking websites, your website will automatically get indexed by the web spiders of all major search engines.

Apart from providing SEO benefits, social bookmarking can be a very good marketing tool in itself. Viral marketing campaigns can be very successful using these kinds of web services since the ranking of the bookmarked links depends on the ratings by the users. SEO firms tend to count on the well known users in order to get their assertions for the web pages/services included in bookmarking sites. Sometimes, this might pose some risk if the service/product receives negative reviews from the authoritative users. Moreover, there is a risk of getting branded as a spammer if the users find the submitted links to be irrelevant. All this makes optimization a tricky business! In spite of some risks, the importance and benefits of online marketing through social bookmarking has proven to be phenomenal over the years.

About the Author:

Convonix is an SEO Company that provides customized Search Engine Marketing Strategies to help improve the Search Engine Rankings of your website. Learn more about our consultative SEO services to leverage your site’s online presence.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/importance-of-social-bookmarking-825230.html

Author: Mike Smith

What is Social Bookmarking All About

Social bookmarking is optimized for documenting and sharing lists of links to useful information. In contrast, blogs are optimized for creating and sharing content, allowing for commentary while keeping the original content intact.

It is an all-out phenomena and is growing at a sonic boom clip. Understanding social bookmarking gives you the ability to reach millions of users you might otherwise miss. Social bookmarking is the sharing of websites within an online community. Here is how I like to think of it.



This is the process of moving your "favorites" or "bookmarks" (links to web sites you visit on the web) to a web-based service like del.icio.us , magnolia , or Yahoo or Google . These services allow you to capture these links or (URLs) to their service and provide you with settings to keep the link private or to share it with others (make it public). Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to store, share, classify, and search Internet bookmarks.



There is some debate over how important social bookmarking is in SEO, but the consensus seems to be leaning toward the idea that social bookmarking, along with many other social media optimization (SMO) strategies, is quickly becoming a serious consideration for SEO. Social bookmarking is a great way to make your posts public. There are various places to go for you to post your articles.



Social bookmarking is all about the collective voice. Most of the social bookmarking networks increase the profile of items that receive numerous bookmarks. Social Bookmarking is the flagship of the web 2.0 movement. The basic concept behind social bookmarking is similar to Add to Favorites or Bookmarks that you are most familiar with using your web browsers like Firefox or Explorer.



It is a term for allowing people to publish, categorise and share their bookmarks. Del.ici.ous uses a non-hierarchical keyword categorisation system, know as folksonomy, where user tag their links with one or more freely chosen keyword.



Social Bookmarking is definitely getting a lot easier lately, but there seems to be too many of them. Sometimes social bookmarking sites can get boring if there are not enough of good links. Social bookmarking is becoming the newest and most effective way of producing quality traffic. Social bookmarking is all about the collective voice. Most of the social bookmarking networks increase the profile of items that receive numerous bookmarks.



This is all about labeling the web, making it easier to find the content that you're looking for by passing on what you've found. The labels applied to web sites are commonly known as tags, and over time a kind of taxonomy grows, whereby persistent tags help information to be aggregated and mined for information.



Social bookmarking is a free and easy way to get loads of traffic to your website. It is a new trend in search engine optimization, which has gained recognition as part of a new type of website optimization, termed social media optimization (SMO).? Social Bookmarking, also referred to sometimes as social bookmarketing, is the term used for bookmarking sites on the web and sharing them with friends.



This is certainly the wave of the future. Maybe another video on which sites to use and which sites to avoid. Social bookmarking is an emerging type of a Web service that helps users share, classify, and discover interesting resources.



The concept of an enhanced search, in which data from social bookmarking systems is exploited for enhancing search in the Web. Social bookmarking is a new fashion developed by webmaster today in search engine optimization which has brought up a new type of optimization trend called social media optimization. The idea of marketing your website through social bookmarking is also called social bookmarketing.

About the Author:

Todd Ash Is An Entrepreneur and A Master Of Network Marketing.To Find Out More About Succeeding Online Click Here To Visit Toddash.com For Free Information

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/networking-articles/what-is-social-bookmarking-all-about-397485.html

Author: Todd Ash

A Fail-safe Way to Increase Your Profits

It's distressing how many businesses attempt to sell and advertise their products online to no prevail. And if you're already a successful marketer, there still may be loopholes in your current tactics that, if corrected, could skyrocket your profits even more.

One of the first mistakes I notice about many of these companies is that they've failed to create a fail-safe business plan.

A sound business plan is crucial to making your internet marking company successful. If you haven't established one already, it's in your best interest to do so as soon as possible.

The first thing you should consider when creating your business plan is marketing. A good marketing plan will address the issue of funding your marketing as well as the ideal ways to appeal to your customer base, thus increasing sales.

In remaining unsuccessful when it comes to their marketing and business plans, many companies fall short when they would otherwise succeed. They reveal that they are willing to overlook essential marketing strategies such as hiring a copywriter or boosting their website's traffic via SEO keywords or email autoresponders.

A good professional copywriter can be one of the biggest assets your company can hire. Hiring a copywriter that knows your business and your products can ensure that when customers visit your website, they are treated to concise, eye catching information about your products and policies.

However, a sales letter isn't the only thing you should worry about. There is also the matter of increasing your website's traffic.

Creating internet traffic is one of the more challenging aspects of internet marketing. Many companies assume they can write a sales letter, build a website, include a mailing list, and the profit will come rolling in. Sadly, this isn't true.

Without a good, solid marketing plan, these precautions do very little for your business in the long run.

Creating the best marketing plan for your business entails that you conduct extensive study. You will need to know how much you're willing to pay for sufficient advertising. You will need to know your consumers and what will appeal to them. You will need to consider both your short and long term goals.

How does one go about creating the ideal marketing plan? You can go about this in a variety of ways. Hiring someone to do it for you is an efficient way to create one, but this will require that you pay fees. In the long run, it's cheaper and more beneficial for you if you study your company and your market and determine for yourself what you need.

Fortunately, there are several marketing techniques available to you that generate traffic to your site. A few of these are tips I've already mentioned, such as building a website and hiring a professional copywriter. Mailing lists also ensure you build a solid consumer base while email autoresponders send automatic messages pertaining to subscriptions and customer transactions. More steps to generate traffic to your website include:

- Search engine optimization, or SEO. Establishing a presence on high profile search engines ensures that your name will be the first that pops up when someone searches for similar keywords, products, or companies.

- Affiliate Marketing is a wonderful way to make contacts as well as bringing more customers to your site. Essentially, you acquire two or more business affiliates that will link back to your company's website. In doing so, you are directing any customers that stumble across your affiliates to your website and vice versa.

- Article Marketing is another way to bring customers to your website. This involves you writing a series of articles and then submitting them to online article directories and websites. For example, say you own a pet grooming business. You can higher a copywriter to write articles on the benefits of grooming cats, then provide a link that directs the reader back to your website.

- Pay Per click (PPC) is another affordable marketing technique. This requires that companies use certain keywords in their advertising. Each time a customer clicks on an ad containing these keywords, the advertiser must pay a certain amount. Depending on the popularity of the keyword, they can be as little as $0.01 per click or over a dollar per click. These keywords can lead to sponsored matches, which are ads that show up on a search engine, as well as content match, which are ads that show up on your website, emails, and more. This can be extremely beneficial in the long run.

- Social Bookmarketing is a marketing technique that allows you to see just how popular your website is. You are able to determine how many times your site is bookmarked. By using social bookmarketing sites such as Del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit, and several others, you can also increase traffic to your website by advertising your site on websites like these.

- WSO stands for Warrior Forums Special Offer. By visiting WSO, you can not only find a wide variety of unique deals for you, but you can advertise your own for free! The key is to make your sales letter stand out. You can also use WOS to advertise your products at clearance prices-otherwise known as a Fire Sale.

- Link building and banner advertising are two essential internet marketing techniques. Link building involves you making your online presence as strong as possible by posting your link in as many places online as you can. This can involve search engines, forums, mass emails, and affiliates. Banner Advertising involves you paying certain websites to display your banner ad. Costs vary depending on the website, the location of the banner, and the size of the banner.

Be sure that you're using most, if not all of the above traffic techniques to ensure that your business get's the highest number of visitors necessary.

About the Author:

An award-winning copywriter, Christie helps companies achieve their direct mail and email marketing objectives. She can be reached at http://www.businessmindedcopywriter.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/printing-articles/a-failsafe-way-to-increase-your-profits-736477.html

Author: Christie Love

How to Increase Your Online Traffic and Significantly Skyrocket Your Profits

As more high profile online companies emerge each day, it becomes more important that your business stands out from all of the others. Are you tired of running a mediocre business? Do you want to take your business from six to seven figures a year or more? These aren't impossible dreams. By increasing your online traffic, you can accomplish these goals.

The key is in maintaining a positive online presence. The right online marketing can ensure that your products are always in high demand. Even in times of economic recession, it's possible to advertise your company in such a way that consumers will forget the need to scrimp and save.



One of the most important steps in increasing your online traffic and thus boosting your company's profits is to promote the fact that you are a specialist when it comes to your business and the products you sell. There are several successful methods I've found to do this.



-Create a website. A company website is one of the most important steps in creating a good online reputation. Websites can advertise your products in ways that television and magazines don't. They also offer fast, convenient online purchase methods and delivery.



-Create a blog. A formal, professional blog can emphasize your expertise when it comes to your products. It is also a useful advertising tool, as you can use it to promote new deals, establish schedules, make announcements, and other useful features.



Creating traffic to your website and blog can be tricky. Fortunately, there are several ways to establish links and ads throughout the internet that can help.



Many of these methods involve the purchase of keywords. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, involves using keywords to establish the top positions in popular search engines, ensuring that when a potential consumer searches your product, you will be the first business he or she finds.



Pay Per Click (PPC) is a marketing technique that allows you to distribute ads related to your site. The only fee you have to pay is when a user clicks on the ad. Depending on the keywords used, this can be as little as one cent per click. Banner advertising, in contrast, allows you to display a banner link that leads customers back to your site. In this case, you pay the website displaying the banner link a certain amount. Fees depend on the size of the banner and where it's located on the site.



WSO, or Warrior Forums Special Offer, is extremely beneficial in making your website and your products well known. This is especially useful if you have an extremely rare product or deal to advertise, as WSO specializes in distributing your ad to corners of the internet you wouldn't normally reach.



Affiliate marketing is a simple concept: You link your site to one or more affiliates. As internet users type in keywords, they may stumble on your affiliates, which in turn leads the consumers to your website. The more affiliates you have, the more exposure you'll gain.



Social bookmarketing sites like reddit, Del.icio.us, and others not only let you know how popular your site is becoming, but it also lets consumers do the advertising for you. Social bookmarketing allows for users to display their bookmark lists publicly. This means that if you're bookmarked, you're displayed on their bookmark site as well as on search engines.



By using these methods and more, you can establish a shining online presence and prove to your consumers that you know what you're doing. Once you've convinced them that you are a legitimate, beneficial business, your online traffic will soar.



Once you've established what online marketing methods you want to use, the next step in the process of increasing your profits is to hire a competent, professional copywriter. An ideal copywriter is not only one who knows your products as well as you do, but one that knows why your customers want to purchase it. This results in sales letters that are not only interesting, but reasonable and convincing as well.



The downside is that this will not be an instantaneous success. It's always a good idea to continue to expand your product list. Keep your prices affordable and do your best to establish one-of-a-kind deals for your consumers. These methods will act as padding until your online presence grows.

About the Author:
An award-winning copywriter, Christie helps companies achieve their direct mail and email marketing objectives. Christie can be reached at http://www.businessmindedcopywriter.com.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/how-to-increase-your-online-traffic-and-significantly-skyrocket-your-profits-762221.html

Author: Christie Love

Social Bookmarketing - Spreading the Word to Millions of People

Social Bookmarking: Get ready for some heavy traffic!



The social bookmarking site that we at iyazam.com like to recommend for starters is StumbleUpon.



http://www.stumbleupon.com/



StumbleUpon allows you to tag sites within your areas of interest that you think your peers should check out. It also recommends sites to you based on what others have tagged within your areas of interest.



There is debate whether energy should be focused on social bookmarking, since traffic coming from such sites tends not to be quality traffic. Visitors tend to stay on the site for only a very short time, and they rarely convert into buyers. Despite these drawbacks, StumbleUpon is an excellent tool that can boost your rankings in the search engines. We will explain how it works very soon, but first we’d like to show you how to use the site.

1. First, go to stumbleupon.com and download the toolbar.

2. Before creating your profile, StumbleUpon will ask you for your areas of interest. Browse the topics that are in your areas of interest – make sure to check boxes related to your business.

3. Follow the steps to create your profile.

4. Add “friends” (you are limited to 200). When selecting friends, it is best to search for people with whom you share common interests.

On the stumbleupon tool bar you will note the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons in the toolbar.

The stumble button is like the channel changer on a television remote control – it allows you to flip through a wide variety of sites, all within your selected areas of interest.

If you come across a website that you like, you can give it thumbs up. A small box will pop up for you to give a description of what you like about that site. When prompted, make sure to tag and categorize the site.

The thumbs down button is for a page you don’t like.

SHOW ME THE TRAFFIC!

Get started by promoting your own site on StumbleUpon:

1. Go to the homepage of your site.

2. Give it thumbs up (you can only do this once).

3. Write a good description about your site.

4. Tag it and categorize it.

5. Do this with every page of your site.

How does this process generate massive traffic? Whenever your site is given thumbs up, it will appear more frequently in the StumbleUpon search. The more thumbs up your site earns, the broader your traffic.

If writing is in Rick’s area of interest, whenever Rick flips through websites by using the stumble button, sites related to writing will show up. Suppose Jack has a website that discusses writing, and his website has received thumbs up. Jack’s website will appear in Rick’s Stumble search.

Note the word “social” in the term, social bookmarking. If you want others to stumble upon your site, if you want your site to appear in the stumble search, then you must Stumble other sites and give them thumbs up. This is an incredible tool for driving traffic, which will in turn elevate your position in the search engines.

TO TAKE STUMBLEUPON ONE STEP FURTHER…

• Every time you submit an article, post on a forum, add content to your website, publish a press release or even a classified ad, stumble that page and give it thumbs up, writing a description and tagging and categorizing.

• Stumble and give thumbs up to every website where a link to your site appears. This puts those sites into the stumble search, and therefore your site as well

About the Author:

Hillel Porath is the founder and developer of http://www.iyazam.com . Hillel has been working in marketing for several years learning many valuable lessons along the way, the fruits of which appear on his website. Hillel lives with his wife and toddler in Israel.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/social-bookmarketing-spreading-the-word-to-millions-of-people-504430.html

Author: Hillel Porath

Getting Published in Fantasy - Why is it so Hard?

Fantasy is a genre where most books are produced by a very few (big) publishing houses in the UK and USA. These are the houses that can afford to take the risk on large print runs because they have many other titles too. They produce a few fantasy titles (bad luck, authors) in big volume. Big volume is necessary for most kinds of book printing, but fantasy is the most critical, certainly within fiction.

Let's see why. I'm a fantasy fan. I won't buy a fantasy title unless it is (a) thicker than a doorstop (b) reasonably priced. I don't buy hardcovers or large format (expensive) paperbacks - I look for that small fat little book which opens up to a world where I can get lost for days and days. The fatter the better.

Mass-produced magic

So to sell, the fantasy book needs to be long, most often double or triple the length of the common novel. That means it costs almost three times the amount to produce. And yet, the average selling price for these books is very close to that of your mainstream fiction titles. So you've got a product which has a low selling price and a high cost price. The only way to get your cost per book down is to drive the size of the print run up. Short runs or on-demand printing just don't work when you've got a 650+ page book.

Mass markets mean lower prices

In a niche market (like non-fiction - Paragliding in South Africa) you could sell a book that thick for R350 ($50 or £24) because there is limited competition and the information has high value to a small number of people. In a mass market such as 'fiction', even 'fantasy fiction', there are so many wonderful books out there which your title will compete with, and they dictate the price - as set by the mass market paperback produced in masses. That's $15.99 or £7.99 thanks to Harper Collins, Penguin, et al. for the trade paperback, and even less for mass market format.

Print on Demand too costly

So you can get your book all made up via Print On Demand services like Lightning Source or Lulu, and still be out on the bench with a product that is 4 times the price of the competitors. I don't care how good your writing is, unless you can make me levitate in my chair I'm not going to buy your one sparkly title instead of FOUR of the top fantasy authors' new releases.

Low volume doesn't work

So I've just printed 5 000 copies of my fantasy novel (in the small South African market the mark of a 'Best Seller' is around 4 000 copies). Will they sell? Yes, I hope so, but that's not why I've printed so many. I've printed that volume because if I print less than that, then the books you buy through the bookstore, priced at current market values make me nothing. (Retail price minus bookshop markup, minus the markup of the distributor, delivery costs, development costs, printing costs, advertising, office, tax). Truly. I could print 2000 copies of the book, market my heart out, sell all of them through the bookstores and not even get my money back. I have to go big, or go home.

Would you bet your money on magic?

When faced with this kind of gamble, many publishing companies will decide to go for another kind of book. It may not be the quality of the writing they are rejecting, it's the risk in entering the market given the minimum efficient print run costs and the small unit returns. Unless they can see it selling by the tens of thousands, it just isn't worth it.

Thankfully there are a few publishers who are prepared to take a long shot, and you can bet most of them are fantasy fans. You have to believe in magic to make magic happen.

____________________________________________________________________
Words © Greg Hamerton

Greg is a fantasy author from Cape Town, South Africa. His fantasy novel THE RIDDLER'S GIFT is the first tale of the Lifesong Cycle

Get free samples of his fantasy book and other fantasy writing on his SPELL FOR ETERNITY website, where you can join the mailing list to keep in touch

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_Hamerton

By Greg Hamerton

Othello - Fully Dramatized Shakespearian Play on Audio Book

This audio book dramatizes the second in Shakespeare's great tragedies, Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear being the other three.

Summary: It's a story of love, treachery and jealousy, with an element of racism, set in Venice and written c.1603/1604.

The Main Characters.

Othello, a general in the Venetian army, is read by Hugh Quarshie (of Star Wars fame). He is an associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company and has made many appearances in film and TV productions. At the time of writing he is starring as Ric in the TV hospital drama Holby City.

Othello, also known as the Moor of Venice, is the central character of the play. Although a native of North Africa, he has managed to gain the respect of the Venetians and eventually became the General of the Army. His secret marriage to Desdemona causes much jealousy among other suitors. Othello is easily swayed by Iago to believe that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him.

The scheming Iago, a soldier in the Venetian army, is read by Anton Lesser, a well known stage actor who is also an associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has appeared in many stage productions, films and TV plays. He is a well known narrator of audio books and has won awards for his story telling skills, especially Charles Dickens novels.

Iago is an experienced young soldier serving under Othello. He is angry with Othello for not promoting him and he is also suspicious that Othello may have slept with his wife, Emilia. As the play progresses, Iago becomes very devious and stirs up hatred among many of the other characters in the play.

The unfortunate Desdemona is played by Emma Fielding, an award winning British actress. She has starred in many radio plays, films and TV productions, the most recent being Cranford, a BBC TV mini series. She is also a talented audio book narrator and has participated in the following productions: Shakespeare's Hamlet, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, and Henry James's The Turn of the Screw.

Desdemona's secret marriage to Othello becomes the subject of a Senate debate thanks to Iago's interference. Desdemona is quite capable of defending her reputation and also deals very well with her husband's blind jealousy which was perpetrated by lies spawned by Iago.

Othello has been made into a film on several occasions, the most notable being the earliest version in 1952 starring Orson Welles and in 1965 the legendary Sir Laurence Olivier starred. In the absence of the film versions, this audio book is a wonderful way to enjoy the great bard at his best. Listening on an MP3 player on the school bus could be the ideal way to learn those quaint lines.

Ross Gill is a published author and Internet Marketer. His first novel is a political thriller entitled 'The Patriot Committee' and is available on Amazon.com. Ross has recently entered the audio book market and his main site can be found at http://www.best-audiobooks.com His blog is at http://www.classaudiobooks.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ross_Gill

By Ross Gill

New iPod eBook Reader?

What will iPod do for its Act II? Is it possible that the iPod reader will be available soon? The Apple iPod to the market by storm and sold millions of units around the world and they will need another product soon to keep this going strong and there are many software developers who are looking to help themselves to future riches.

Possible new iPod eBook reader? Very interesting developments on the horizon indeed; Imagine being able to download a blog, which would read to you? Like an audio book, but one of millions of e-books now available? Such a new development would turn the paper book market on its head, as more and more people would off for a bond yield e-books via iPod.

The iPod would have to have bigger screens to display the words, as well as audio features. This would be a great new advancement for those who cannot read and for those who are blind or partially sighted.

Recently someone let the cat out of the bag and to hold of a future iPod reader that was being developed and could soon come to market, which would change the world.

http://www.tuaw.com/2006/07/22/next-ipod-an-ebook-reader/

Wouldn't you like to have an Apple iPod reader for e-books when you are traveling or stuck in traffic? Imagine being on an airplane and just leaning back and thinking while the iPod reader read you an entire book or novel? That would be something and it may be in our future. Please consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

By Lance Winslow

Crafting a Memoir

What is a memoir? Let’s begin by stating what a memoir is not: It is not a genealogy—an outline of ancestors; nor is it, in the strict sense, an autobiography—a chronological account of a person’s life. It is a collection of memories; hence, the word—memoir. Agatha Christie’s memoir was titled, An Autobiography, but she wasn’t particularly pleased with the title. She wrote in the Preface: "Autobiography is too grand a word. It suggests a purposeful study of one’s whole life. … What I want is to plunge my hand into a lucky dip and come up with a handful of assorted memories." That’s what you, the writer, must aim for—a lucky dip.

You may not be a famous writer (yet), or wealthy or powerful; and your memoir may never “sell” to the book market. That doesn’t matter. Your life is important. It is part of history. No one else will have lived exactly as you lived; nor have viewed life from your perspective. Your children, grandchildren, and maybe someone you’ll never know—someone born 50 or more years from now—will be glad you wrote your memoir. Don’t you wish you had such a memory book written by your great-grandfather, your grandmother, or even your mother?

A few years ago, I compiled my book of memories. It was a private publication, intended only for friends and family. My adult children treasure it. I did not begin with, "I was born on …" and write to the bitter end with boring chronology. I divided it into events, such as "World War II—A Child’s-Eye View," "My Cooking" (I’m a terrible cook!), "Things I Want to Do Before I Die," and many more. My children learned some things they never knew about me in "Crushes, Near Misses, and Love."

As you begin to write, think about stories and incidents rather than dates and places. Consider values, beliefs, opinions and quirky little habits. Think of your life as a child’s coloring book—all of the pictures and stories are there in outline form; they only need to be completed with your word-crayons. To jump-start your memories, gather your photos, letters, certificates and other documents, sort them, and make notes. Write simple descriptions of special memories such as "My Best Friend" or "Why I Love to Dance." Perfection and organization will come later.

This is a big project. You won’t complete it in a few weeks. Maybe not even in a few months. But it will be your most important writing project. Ever. So pick up your word-crayons and begin coloring!

Janet Litherland is the author of the novels, Chain of Deception and Discovery In Time, as well as 10 nonfiction books, several collections of music/drama-related scripts, and numerous articles and stories for national publications. As former associate editor of Florida Hotel & Motel Journal, she contributed 78 feature articles to that magazine. She also has taught college extension courses in creative writing and has served as a seminar leader for writers’ conferences. For more information, please visit http://www.janetlitherland.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Janet_Litherland

By Janet Litherland

Forex Education - The Way of the Turtle

Many years ago, I read the story of the turtles in the book “Market Wizards”. I was fascinated to read how the legendary trader Richard Dennis, trained a group of novice traders in just 14 days – and how these novices later became trading legends themselves.

Now we have a book written by one of the turtles themselves. “The Way of the Turtle” by Curtis M. Faith. This turtle and author made $30 million for Dennis - and now shares his insight of the turtle experiment and its achievements

The Bet

In 1983, Richard Dennis had a bet with his long-time friend William Eckhardt. They had a friendly dispute on whether traders were born, or could be taught to be successful. Dennis thought they could be taught, but Eckhardt thought they couldn’t.

The turtle experiment took place - and Dennis won. The turtles achieved a collective compound rate of return of over 80%. This group of 23 traders had never traded before, yet were taught to trade a system in just 14 days.

“Way of the Turtle” reveals the reasons for their success, and covers such areas as:

. The system rules and methodology

. Why, even though they used the same method, some Turtles were more successful than the others were.

. How to expand the rules that the Turtles used - in order to find core strategies that work for any tradable market.

. How to apply the Turtle methods to your own trading strategy.

. Ways to diversify your trading risk

The “Way of the Turtle is a good book - being easy, and fun to read. The book throws up one key fact that all forex traders should note in their forex education: Simple trading systems can provide a trading edge, but it’s psychologically difficult for most traders to follow these systems and take advantage of the edge the system can provide. This is clearly shown by the fact the Turtle’s results varied (despite the fact they all were taught the same methodology).

There’s also a discussion on the difficulty of executing a system that has a few big winning trades, in order to achieve an overall positive return on investment.

If you learn one key fact from the book, it’s that learning a successful trading system is not enough. You need the mental discipline to execute the system correctly - in order to maximize your returns.

I’ve always found the experiment an inspiration, and I’m sure other traders who read this book will come away thinking, “they did it - so it’s possible!”

It’s possible to become a successful trader if you gain the right knowledge – but you also need courage and discipline, in order to execute the knowledge correctly.

You may not be as successful as the turtles were – but the book will point you in the right direction, to achieving currency-trading success. The book does this by highlighting some key areas you need to apply in your own forex trading strategy, in order to become a successful currency trader.

“Way of the Turtle” is well worth buying - and you should consider it to be an essential read, and part of your forex education.

Grab 5 FREE Trader PDF's and get the support you need to trade like a pro with our user-friendly multi-lingual learn forex trading. Get up to date financial news, real-time market prices, tight pip spreads, built-in risk management system, and 24-hour professional support

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By Stephen Todd

How to Make Big Profits with Currency Trading Systems

Currency trading systems have become more popular than ever in recent years.

Here we will look at the advantages of currency trading systems and how to pick one that's right for you.

Trend Following the Key to Big Profits

As economic cycles of boom and bust take years, so do currency trends that mirror the health of the economy.

Traders who can spot and lock into these trends can make substantial profits.

The major currencies traded include:

US Dollar

Japanese Yen

Euro

British Pound

These currencies have good trends, and have high liquidity - which is essential when exiting markets quickly to lock in profits and more importantly, cut losses.

A Disciplined Approach to Trading Profits

Currency trading systems remove the emotional component from trading, which is the major reason most traders lose.

A currency trading system has no emotions, will trade in a mechanical disciplined fashion, cutting losses and running the big profitable trends for maximum long-term profitability.

Emotions - The #1 Major Reason Traders Lose

The definitive book on the subject was Edwin Le Feuvre's, 'Reminiscences of a Stock Operator', which was based on the trading experiences of legendary trader Jessie Livermore.

If you don't think emotions will interfere with your trading then you need to read it!

Other authors to discuss trading systems and emotions include: Jake Bernstein, Larry Williams and Jack Shwager and the latter's book "Market Wizards" is essential reading for any trader.

Just how effective a system can be was proved by "The Turtles", a group of traders who had never traded before, but who all were given access to a system and went on to make millions of dollars.

Technical Analysis

The developments in terms of computer software and the growth of the Net have seen system trading reach a wider audience than ever before.

For example, packages such as Tradestation and Supercharts, allow traders to build and test their own systems using technical indicators such as stochastics, bollinger bands, moving averages and candlestick charting patterns.

You can test these indicators in various combinations over historical data to see which combinations are successful. Traders who do not wish to do this able to buy ready made packages from vendors.

Finding a Technical Trading System that Makes Big Profits

If you choose to buy a ready-made currency system, these six guidelines will help you.

1. Understand the basis of the logic of the system. If you don't understand and believe in the logic, you will not have the discipline to follow it.

2. The system should aim to catch the long-term trends; day trading currencies has less probability of success than long term trading.

3. Simple systems tend to work best, as they are more robust in the face of changing market conditions. There is no link in currency trading systems between complexity of systems and their success.

4. Look at the maximum drawdown from peak equity. This is important in terms of money management, as you need to expect your biggest drawdown is ahead and commit sufficient funds to cover these downturns.

5. Not all systems come with real trading records; they can come with simulations over historical data. Don't discount simulations; if the basis is soundly based logic then they can still work well.

6. Finally, judge a system over years not months. All systems can and do have periods of losses.

Currency trading systems give anyone the potential to make big profits in the currency markets.

To find out more about currency trading systems and how you can increase your trading profits, visit our site: http://www.financial-trading-success.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephen_Todd

By Stephen Todd

Kolkata Hotel

If you are visiting the eastern India then a detailed visit to Kolkata is a must. If west Bengal is the personification of a body then Kolkata is its heart. Previously since the British raj Calcutta was the name given to the city of joy. But now it has called in a more Bengali accent that is Kolkata. It is a beautiful metropolitan city of India modern and contemporary both come in the same package. Love it, flaunt it or hate it you will never forget the city; build in the grand river called Hoogly.

If you are looking for a stay, hotels in Kolkata are the safe bet they provide very ethnic Indian hospitality to their guests and graciously each and every staff of the hotel are at their guests' service. In vicinity of the Kolkata airport there are a number of hotels so that boarding aircraft would be easy as distance is negligible you can board aircraft at any time of the day or night as taxi service is present in 24 hours a day at hotel airport Kolkata India.

Star attractions of Kolkata

Kolkata is full of tourists attractions if there are huge parkland , amusement parks, science centers for children then there are historical monuments, museums and art centers. Specifically there is everything for everybody there is an open Parkland termed as Maidan continuing south from here you will find.Eden gardens is a state of the art cricket stadium(one of the finest in the whole world).To sightsee there are other places also like building of all India Radio building. Fort William a massive British citadel built in 1773.The fort is still in use and retains its well guarded grandeur. The visit can be allowed only with a special permission. Victoria Memorial is situated along St.George's gate road on the southern part of the Maidan. Victoria Memorial is a prominent landmark of Kolkata city. While Calcutta racecourse is another good example. Another prominent place is Chowringe where northern Kolkatta houses the old buildings belonging to the zamindars rich family of Bengal merchants who used to trade with British. It has some interesting markets inclusive of the famous college street book market where you can trace many out of print books with a little patience.

There is a state of the art Nakhoda mosque the largest mosque in Kolkata and a marble palace housing the oldest zoo in Kolkatta and a wide collection of art inside a splendid old Kolkatta buildings.

There are Jorasanko Thakur Bari it is the tagore family residence simple and divine,Prasanth Jain Temple near the Belgachia metro station. There is a Parasannath Jain temple near the Belgachia metro station that is one of the attractions for Jainism followers.

Author's Name- Nancy Eben
Kolkata Hotels
Please Visit:- http://www.quickbooker.com/hotels/asia/india/kolkata-hotels/index.html

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By Nancy E Eben

George Orwell, Author of 1984

The High School English Literature Curriculum

Who was George Orwell, the author of 1984?

George Orwell's real name was Eric Arthur Blair.

He was born in Bengal, India in 1903. His father was an opium agent and worked for the Indian Civil Service. When he was four years old, his family returned to England. He attended the Anglican national school at Henley and later St Cyprian's school in Sussex. Possibly due to the strict regime of these schools, he wrote some anti-authoritarian works including 'Awake! Young Men of England'.

When he was fourteen, he won a scholarship to Eton College and made a name for himself as a contributor to many college publications. One of his teachers at Eton was the famous author Aldous Huxley (Brave New World).

At the age of nineteen, he joined the Burmese police and spent five years there. Although he enjoyed his time in Burma, he became disillusioned with the cloak of Imperialism and this may also have inspired his anti authoritarian views later expressed. On his return from Burma he moved to Paris and started to write short stories but success eluded him. Most of his work was rejected by the publishers.

He contracted pneumonia in 1928, an illness which weakened him considerably. After recovering, he returned to England in 1929, when he was twenty-six, and lived on the bread line for a couple of years as he wanted to experience the tough living conditions of the under privileged. To protect his family's reputation, he adopted the penname George Orwell.

Subsequently he got a job as a sales assistant in a bookshop in London while continuing to write in his spare time. He married in 1936 and he and his wife went to Spain at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War to fight against General Franco's Nationalist party. He sustained a neck wound during the war. After the war, both he and his wife joined a Marxist party in Barcelona and were fortunate not to have been arrested or worse.

He returned to England in 1937 and from this period onwards his writing career became more productive. After a number of successful publications and several salaried jobs later including a broadcasting career with the BBC, George Orwell's legendary novel 'Animal Farm' was published in 1944. Although suffering from tuberculosis, and attending a sanatorium, he labored with his final novel, 1984, originally entitled 'Last man in Europe' and this remarkable book was published in 1949. He died a year later from tuberculosis at the age of 47.

1984, A synopsis

George Orwell depicts a gray, totalitarian world dominated by Big Brother and its vast network of agents, including the Thought Police, a world in which news is manufactured according to the authorities' will and people live tepid lives by rote.

Winston Smith, the hero with no heroic qualities, longs only for truth and decency. But living in a social system in which privacy does not exist and where those with unorthodox ideas are brainwashed or put to death, he knows there is no hope for him.

The year 1984 has come and gone, yet George Orwell's nightmare vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is still the great modern classic of negative Utopia

Ross Gill is a published author and Internet Marketer. His first novel is a political thriller entitled 'The Patriot Committee' and is available on Amazon.com. Ross has recently entered the audio book market and his main site can be found at http://www.best-audiobooks.com/Title.aspx?titleId=6252
His blog is at http://www.classaudiobooks.com

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By Ross Gill

My Favorite Children's Encyclopedia

There are many different encyclopedias on the market. Some of them are so beautiful that I can’t say no when I’m seeing it on the bookstore. When I’m buying encyclopedias I have always on my mind my kids. They are so happy because they love to leaf through different types of encyclopedias.

Their favorite encyclopedia is “Children’s Illustrated Encyclopedia” from Dorling Kindersley. Dorling Kindersley (DK) is an international publishing
company specializing in reference books for adults and children. Books are known for their pictorial style. It’s also very helpful especially when my kids doing their homework. Sometimes they are doing different projects such as posters which they have to present in front of the class. All the parents of teenagers I know complain about the extent and complexity of the homework projects their children are required to do, but on the other side is so beautiful felling when I’m doing homework with my kids together and when I’m helping them to discover different subjects. I really love to help them. I teaching them and believe me, they are also teaching me.

We have many different encyclopedias in our home. As I said the favorite encyclopedia for my kids is “Children’s Illustrated Encyclopedia” but they love others encyclopedias as well. They love to reading encyclopedia of Animals, Earth, Human….All of them is from Dorling Kindersley and because I’m so enthusiastic about their books I’ve decided to setup special web site where I’m presenting their encyclopedias. You can find them at: http://www.ediesbookstore.com/child-picture-books.php

On the book market you can also find Encyclopedia of all Encyclopedias: World Book Encyclopedia which Offers in-depth information on a variety of subjects and educational activities for children. I love this encyclopedia very much and I would like to highly recommend it to all of you!

Edie Kurnik

http://www.ediesbookstore.com

edie@ediesbookstore.com

Edie Kurnik - I'm selling books since 1990 and I love this job. In October 2006 I've decided to build my own web site where you can find the World’s top best selling Children’s Books from diverse publishers. More of them have limited discount prices which you can’t see on any other site with Children’s Books!

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By Edvard Kurnik

Forex Trading - Blackjack and Poker Players Make Great Forex Traders Why?

There are numerous poker and blackjack players who have made the transition from professional card playing to forex trading and made millions. Why are they so successful? Because the skills needed are very similar.

There is an old gamblers saying:

"There's a time to hold them a time to fold them and there's a time to get out of town fast"

If you think about this saying, it's the perfect introduction to succeeding in card playing and forex trading.

Forget the gurus and the mentors (most who have never traded in their lives) who tell you that you can predict forex prices in advance or that they move to a scientific theory - they don't.

Just like card playing forex is a game of odds not certainties - but just like the professional card player, you can play the odds and win.

"A time to hold them"

By studying the cards that come out of the deck the successful card player knows the odds of the cards coming next, he's not certain but by counting the cards he knows the probability and this is true with forex.

In card playing you hold and play in forex trading when the odds are in your favour you execute you're trading signal.

"A time to fold them"

If a card player has junk hands, he folds and passes the hand by.

Compare this to forex traders - many of them want to trade low odds scenario's because they think they will miss a move if their not in the market, while others trade when the odds are never in their favour i.e. day traders and they lose.

The card player knows his winnings are not based upon how many hands he plays - but how good the hands are and how he bets only then and it's the same in forex trading.

In forex trading you get paid for being right not how often you trade.

When you feel you have a high odds hand - bet and bet big.

You will see poker players back high odds hands with a cool head and large amounts of cash and you must do the same.

Forget about the myth of betting small 2% per trade which is a common accepted figure - this is ridiculous!

On 2% on a $10,000 account that's risking just $200.00!

You won't win much doing that- bet 10 - 20% if you have the odds on your side and have the courage of your conviction.

"A time to get out of town fast"

This applied to the old west and when your life was in danger - get out quickly!

In forex trading to preserve your equity you need to cut and run.

I heard a trader once say that if you want to win:

"You need to bet but you can't, if you're not at the table"

To stay at the table or trading, you have to preserve your equity.

That means rigid stops preferably placed before you enter the trade - no hoping a trade will turn around - if you life or position are in danger get out!

DISCIPLINE

All card players have this and you must to, as a forex trader.

Even the greatest card players have to lose hands to win longer term.

However if they can stay at the table and keep betting and play the odds, they can bet big on the high odds hands and win.

Of course you can do this to as a forex trader.

If you want to read an excellent interview with blackjack player come multi millionaire trader Blair Hull which expands on the above points get the excellent book "Market Wizards" By Jack Schwager which interviews Blair and a whole host of top traders - its essential reading for all forex traders.

Finally! Remember:

Play the odds with discipline in forex trading and you can enjoy currency trading success.

PROFESSIONAL FOREX TRADING COURSE AND FREE ESSENTIAL INFO

For free 2 x trading Pdf's with 90 of pages of essential info and an exclusive Forex Trading Course visit our website at: http://www.learncurrencytradingonline.com/index.html

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By Kelly Price

General Tips on Drinking and Enjoying Wine

All around the globe, interest in wine is increasing and the thirst for information about wine is soaring. Wine appreciation courses have become very popular, winery tours are booming and the wine related book market is growing rapidly. But although wine tasting and selecting may be fun and familiar to the average connoisseur, it may seem like an overwhelming experience for a beginner. Beginners are often confused when they hear phrases such as "nose of the wine" and "wine bouquet" and may find buying wine a daunting task. So if you are a novice wine drinker and want to learn more about getting the best from wine, these tips should help you.

• Corked wine usually means the wine has been contaminated by the cork rather than the wine having bits of cork floating in it.
• If you're serving two dinner wines remember this simple protocol - White before red - young before old.
• A dry wine always precedes a sweet one, as the sweet taste will linger. Sweet wines should be served with deserts.
• White and Rose wines should be served chilled but don't uncork them until you are ready to serve.
• Don't throw out wine left in the bottle - recork and it will keep in the refrigerator for several days.
• The ideal wine glass should hold 6-8 oz. of wine (180ml - 240ml) and curve inwards at the rim to hold the scent of the wine.
• Red wine should be served at spring or autumn room temperature.
• Uncork red wines an hour before drinking them to allow the wine to 'breathe'. This will develop the flavour.
• To help red wine breathe, it can be poured rapidly into a clean glass jug and then back into the bottle in order to get air right through the wine (do not do this with a mature wine as it will disturb the sediment).
• To avoid decanting the sediment in a mature red wine it needs to be poured very slowly, in a continuous stream, with the light behind the bottle.
• White and Rose wines should be served chilled for about 1-2 hours in a refrigerator.
• If time is short, wine chills quicker with the cork out. Don't over chill though as this starts to dull the flavour.
• Open Champagne & sparkling wine when it is very cold.
• Keep thumb on top of Champagne & sparkling wine cork as you remove the wire and keep it there until the bottle is open.
• Point Champagne & sparkling wine bottles away from people when opening.
• It is best to drink Champagne & sparkling wine at least 1-2 hours after opening.
• Don't store sparkling wine in the refrigerator for more than 3 weeks unless it has a plastic cork. (The cork will dry out and the seal will fail.)
• After 20 years, corks start to deteriorate so for very old wines, the cork will probably break during opening.
• Attend as many wine tastings as you can. Taste, learn and enjoy !

Author: Ian Hamblin Vinrac Wine Rack Suppliers Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Hamblin

By Ian Hamblin

Is a 4 Hours Week a Possibility?

We all like the idea of living off a massive amount of money that we inherited, made in a lucky deal, won in the lottery, or got from a lawsuit. Well, not all of us have that luxury, so we have to work for hours on end just to make ends meet. There are plenty of bogus get rich quick schemes out there but is there any truth to them?

It is possible to work a 4 hour work week but getting to that point is a lot of work or you could just write a book to tell everyone how to do it and make the money off of the sales. The thing is that you can't expect to instantly start working for a measly 4 hours a week right of the bat. You have to have some way of making money first, and something that doesn't take your input. This is called passive income.

The entire idea of working very little and still making money only happens after you have put the effort into setting it all up. In short one way to pull this off is to pay others to do the work for you. Let's say you get a job writing articles for $5000 a month, sounds decent but what if you can then outsource that job to someone else for $3000 a month. That's $2000 dollars a month without you having to do anything other than sending the other person their check. If you do this repeatedly you can definitely work a 4 hour work week.

So, the secret to reducing your working week is to find and outsource workers who can provide good quality at a reasonable price. With developments of broadband internet connections, many tasks can be now be undertaken online such as programming, design, writing etc...

The thing that you really need to pull this off is knowledge and connections. If you are familiar with a particular industry you have a better idea of what is required and how to find people who can do the work satisfactorily and quickly for you.

Another thing is to cut out expenses. Rather than taking the list price all the time ask for a discount. Chat up the manager, be friendly, compliment that workers, smile, be a person that they can't help but want to help out. While paying less does not give you any immediate income, it does mean that you are spending less and therefore can survive on a smaller salary.

Don't limit yourself to the old fashioned notion of working 40-50 hours a week for 60 years and then growing old and dying. You don't need to have a million dollars to start living like you want to. You just need to be making enough money to cover your expenses and have some left over for the rainy day.

Getting to a 4 hour work week isn't something you can do by being lazy. You have to go out and work hard to set up everything so that all you have to do is keep the "money machine" oiled and running smoothly. Work for the biggest impact not the most time.

Now, it's time to read the ultimate 4 Hour Work week by Tim Ferris, and, as the publisher states, kill your job and design a life.

Ross Gill is a published author and Internet Marketer. His first novel is a political thriller entitled 'The Patriot Committee' and is available on Amazon.com. Ross has recently entered the audio book market and his main site can be found at http://www.best-audiobooks.com/Title.aspx?titleId=6681. His blog is at http://www.classaudiobooks.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ross_Gill

By Ross Gill

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - 5 things you should know.

Well, six actually if you include the fact that there are now four different Jane Eyre audio books you can download. This is a great way to learn Jane Eyre quotes and get to know the characters and how they pronounce the Victorian English, especially the fully dramatized version which features Claire Bloom and Sir Anthony Quale.

There was a lot of tragedy in the life of Charlotte Bronte.

Charlotte was only five years old when her mother died in 1821. Four years later in 1825, when Charlotte was nine, two of her older sisters died - Maria aged eleven, and Elizabeth aged ten. She had three other siblings - Patrick, who died in 1848, aged 31 - Emily, who also died in 1848, aged 30 - and Ann, died in 1849, aged 29. Charlotte outlived all of her siblings and died at the early age of 39, in 1855. The fact that the three Bronte sisters are acknowledged as being among the greatest novelists in the English language is remarkable when you consider their short lives.

The character of Jane Eyre has many similarities to the life of the author.

Charlotte Bronte lived in a bleak moorland near Haworth, her father was a clergyman and the family lived on a meager salary. Her formative years were filled with loss. After the death of her mother, Charlotte was brought up by a strict aunt. In the Jane Eyre novel, Mrs. Reed seems to resemble Charlotte's aunt and the other aspects of her childhood are also evident.

Jane Eyre is often referred to as one of the best love stories in the English language.

The story revolves around a young strong willed woman's search for love and compassion. Jane is offered the job as governess to a ten year old girl and finds herself falling in love with her employer, Mr. Rochester. There is a parallel here to Charlotte Bronte's time in Brussels, where she went in 1842 to improve her grasp of the French and German languages. Whilst there, she stayed in a small hotel owned by Constantin Heger, a married man, with whom she falls in love, sadly without reciprocation.

Charlotte Bronte struggled to have her work published.

Her first novel 'The Professor', a novel about her life in Brussels, was rejected by her publisher and only saw the light of day after her death. Even, her major work, Jane Eyre, was published under a pseudonym Currer Bell.

Charlotte Bronte was influenced by the emerging romantic authors and poets of Victorian England.

These include William Wordsworth, Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott. The Bronte sisters also wrote poetry and were very supportive of each other.

Ross Gill is a published author and Internet Marketer. His first novel is a political thriller entitled 'The Patriot Committee' and is available on Amazon.com. Ross has recently entered the audio book market and his main site can be found at http://www.best-audiobooks.com/Title.aspx?titleId=7550 His blog is at http://www.classaudiobooks.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ross_Gill

By Ross Gill

Low Cost Netbook Review - HP Mini 2140 - A Great Market Value For Sale

HP is really putting a lot of effort to be the no 1 low cost net book provider. Thanks to the currently booming net book market. At the recent CES in Las Vegas, HP unveiled their latest addition to the great net book arena.

Yes. HP announced that their latest HP Mini 2140 model will be made available very soon. Keeping true with their previous model, HP Mini 2133, the new 2140 is built on the same material as the 2133. That means the 2140 will also be built on a solid magnesium alloy chassis, as with the older 2133.

Cool. None of the flimsy plastic stuff. Personally, I like it better this way. With netbooks being small in size, they are more prone to physical abuse. This is especially true if you carry them around with you in your daily travels. As such, a more sturdy and strong build material is always a welcome improvement.

The only downside to the strong and sturdy build is its' weight. It surely weights a lot more than the other net books built on them flimsy plastic material. The 2140 unit weighs about 3.0 pounds with full accessories. That makes it the heaviest netbook around. Oh well, you can't win them all, I guess.

The HP Mini 2140 also sports probably the largest keyboard in the low cost net book range. At 92% of a standard keyboard, you would surely be able to adapt quickly to the keyboard. It even has a full sized right shift key located right below the enter key. Nothing awkward about the keyboard.

The keys are also protected with HP Durakeys. HP DuraKeys? Its a clear coating that protects the finish and printed characters on the keys. The keyboard will be look new even after years of heavy typing.

I do, however, have a beef with the mouse pad, though. Somehow, having the mouse buttons on either sides of the mouse pad really doesn't jive with me. I would have liked it better if they had decided to put the mouse buttons at the bottom as with a normal mouse pad.

I've always been somewhat frustrated that these net books can only display to a max resolution if 1024x600. To those who like to have more pixels in their display, the HP Mini 2140 unit has got two display modes - 1024x576 and 1366x768. Odd resolutions? Yes. They are a bit odd. I think HP decided to make the display fit in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Why? To conform to HDTV standard perhaps?

Following are the hardware specifications for the HP Mini 2140:

CPU: Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.60 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)

Chipset: Mobile Intel® 945GSE Express

Memory: 1 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (Max 2GB)

Hard Drive: 160GB 5400/7200 rpm SATA; 80GB Solid State Drive

Display: 10.1-inch diagonal HP Illumi-Lite LED SD; 10.1-inch diagonal Illumi-Lite LED HD

Graphics: Mobile Intel GMA950

Integrated Camera: VGA Camera

Ports: 2 USB 2.0; 1 mic in; 1 headphone/line-out; 1 VGA out; 1 RJ-45

Slots: 1 Express Card/54; 1 secure digital

Audio: High Definition Audio, stereo speakers

Networking: Marvell Ethernet Integrated Controller (10/100/1000)

Wireless: Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/draft-n; Broadcom 802.11b/g; HP Integrated Module with Bluetooth 2.0 Wireless Technology

Battery: 3-cell (28 WHr) high capacity Lithium-Ion; 6-cell (55 WHr) high capacity Lithium-Ion.

What else? That's basically the gist of it. I'd say the main benefit of getting this new HP Mini 2140 would be the better screen resolution. No matter how odd the display resolution is, 1366x768 is certainly a lot better than just 1024x600 which is like the de facto standard for netbook screen resolution.

Nothing much separate the current netbooks from one another. For the most part, they are all created almost equal since they are mostly built on the same Intel Atom chipsets. This new HP Mini 2140 tries to differentiate itself from the rest by the means of the display resolution. So, if you want something different, this HP 2140 unit is certainly worth looking at.

Hadee Roslan is a Computer Systems Engineer. He blogs about Current Events in Computer Technology

If you are looking for low cost net books, you should take a look at the Low Cost NetBook Market. The place to go if you're looking for the best values in HP Mini Note Netbooks For Sale on the internet

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hadee_Roslan

By Hadee Roslan

Ebooks - An Emerging Christian Book Market

In recent years, the ebook publishing market, which has literally exploded in the secular world, is also rapidly becoming an emerging Christian book market. While recent trend of ebook sales may have seen intermittent decline at specific quarters within the past years, ebook sales have also during other quarters reported dramatic increases (1) and experts are still optimistic that ebooks are the future direction; that is in the long run. Some analysts have suggested that any decline of ebook sales seen this year may be attributed to the flooding of the ebook secular market with many low quality materials; this is pretty obvious and one does not need to be an expert to observe this. Others have suggested that much of the information that many ebooks offer are easily obtainable at no cost on the Internet (2); that is with a little focused search on the Internet.

Logically, if you simply follow the surging trend of the technology of electronic devices and the expanding daily use of the Internet, coupled with environmental issues with regards to exploitation of trees for paper printing and other paper products, one can only deduce that the need for ebooks would only increase in the future. The way I see it, ebooks are critical not just to the secular world, but also to the Christian world. We need an inexpensive electronic book publishing outlet, such as the ebook outlet, to augment our current teaching and preaching of the good news of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So, if you are already a Christian writer, or you are an aspiring Christian writer, whether you have published a book in the past or not, now is a ripe time for you to start thinking about writing, publishing and possibly selling your own authored ebooks. Just in case you are not familiar with this term, an ebook simply means an electronic book. An ebook can be downloaded and read on an electronic device such as a desktop or laptop computer, or an ebook reader device, a device that is specially made for reading ebooks.

With the rapid Internet and technology device advancement, ebooks are already been published and made available in different formats such as: Adobe PDF or ebook Reader format, HTML format, which is a Hyper Text Markup Language, that combines text and extra information about the text (en.Wikipedia.org), the same format that website pages are created and published, and in Microsoft's LIT format, exebook (an executable file format) and other formats. You would need to spend sometime on the Internet reading information on different possible ebook formats that I cannot begin to list here. Just know that the same possible ebook formats being used by the secular world is also applicable for creating and publishing Christian ebooks. Likewise, Christian ebook promotion and marketing would also mirror the same approaches as the secular ebook market, only that our ebook content, writing approach and target market may differ. However, be aware that there are a lot of low quality ebooks circulating on the Internet, especially product and website promotional ebooks. You as a Christian writer should strive to write, publish, promote and market high quality ebooks, both in content and design.

There are many uses of ebooks to the Christian world. First, ebooks can be used as a powerful tool for teaching and preaching the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you have a ministry, a church, a Bible Study group or a faith-based organization, ebooks are an excellent, very cost effective way to produce reading material or cheap books for your members to read. Ebooks are excellent for Christian reading book clubs, youth ministry, and other church groups, especially the evangelism group. Ebooks are in fact a very powerful tool for evangelism.

Now, is the time for a Christian writer, or aspiring Christian writer to start gaining indepth knowledge about how to write, publish, and promote and market ebooks. You could in fact sell your ebooks either for profit, or use your proceeds to support various church ministries or Christian faith-based organizations.

There is no one stop resource center for learning about ebooks. There are in fact numerous good Internet-based resource centers that can furnish you at no cost very detailed information on how to write, publish, promote and sell ebooks. Also, you should strongly consider setting up your own website, if you don’t have one already. A website provides you an Internet base for people to get to know you, your organization or company, the work you do and the products you offer for sale. For example, you may choose to sell your Christian ebooks, or simply make them available for free download at your website. You can also create a Christian content-rich website where you can provide Bible-based information in the form of articles, ebooks or both, as well as other writing works such as Christian ePoetry.

The process of writing, publishing, promoting and marketing ebooks have become a huge area that requires one, especially Christian writers and publishers, to really make time to learn and understand it. Again, there are numerous content-rich websites that provide very good information. So, take advantage of the free, highly informative and educational material that they offer. But be careful not to be quick to purchase ebook-related products, for example, ebook creating software, before you understand what the product really offers. Ask other individuals who have used the product for their honest product review. Blogs on the Internet are great avenues for sourcing people’s opinions about ebook software and their recommendations based on their use of the software. Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. There are many scams on the Internet and you must be careful, as you take the first step into starting to gather and read information on how to write your first Christian ebook.

References:
1. “Publishers Report Increases in eBook Revenue and Units Sold in Q1 '05” by the International Digital Publishing Forum (www.idpf.org/doc_library/statistics/Q12005.htm)

2. “The Paradigm Shift Of Internet Marketing: The Transition From Ebook Marketing To Software Marketing” by Melvin Perry (Internet entrepreneur), copyright 2005

Jacyee Aniagolu-Johnson, PhD is the author of an upcoming Christian non-fiction book release, “Rays of Victory: Nailing Racism to the Cross.” For more information about the upcoming book release by Marble Tower Publishing, LLC please visit http://www.marbletowerpublishing.com

I grant permission to anyone who wishes to reprint and distribute this article on the condition that it is reprinted and distributed in its entirety, including all specified links

© Jacyee Aniagolu-Johnson 2006

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By Jacyee Aniagolu-Johnson

The Harlequin Romance Legacy

When people think romance novel, the first thought that pops up may be 'Harlequin Romance'. And why not? Harlequin romance novels have been around for decades and continue to be the leader in series romance in the world. Harlequin romance novels have definitely withstood the test of time, and are still going as strong today as they were in the 1960's.

Based in Toronto, Canada, Harlequin romance continues to publish over one hundred titles of serial romance every month. This publisher's books are printed in twenty-five different languages around the world and are written by over one thousand talented romance writers from around the world as well. Harlequin doesn't just offer office romance any more, however, but psychological thrillers, mysteries and historical romance genres as well. Harlequin remains one of Canada's most successful book publishers, with sales of over one hundred and thirty million books a year. Harlequin Romance offices make their presence known around the world as well, with offices scattered from Toronto to New York to Tokyo and Warsaw. Because of the worldwide reputation of Harlequin Romance publishers, writers for Harlequin are able to be globally marketed, a bonus for those fortunate enough to be signed on with the huge publishing company.

Harlequin romance offers something for just about every reading taste, and is generally a tamer romance than some found on book market shelves. Still, there are different imprints within the Harlequin publishing house that attract different age groups and types of readers, and guidelines provided to authors wishing to submit their romance fiction manuscripts must follow Harlequin guidelines to the letter if they hope to be published with the illustrious company. Harlequin romance books are also still one of the more affordable offerings out there in the romance reader market, making them popular by price range and content both. Harlequin has just about every age bracket tagged, from young adults to thirty-somethings to the over the hill-ers. Every Harlequin romance book that rolls off the presses offers a compelling read and great characters.

Women's fiction has long made it to the top of the New York Times bestseller listings, and Harlequin is often seen at the top of that list. Harlequin Romance books publish works in a variety of imprints, including Silhouette, MIRA, LUNA, Red Dress Ink, and HQN books, among others. With over two billion Harlequin romance imprints shipped to buyers all over the globe, Harlequin can do just about anything it wants, and it wants to continue to be a leader in women's fiction for years to come.

The Harlequin Romance website is an exciting, reader friendly neighborhood that keeps fans of Harlequin up to date on the latest signings, releases and attractions to come in the near future. Since the 1960's, Harlequin romance books have settled in their place on library and bookstore shelves, and nothing seems able to knock them off. It's a given that the Harlequin romance is here to stay. Short, fast reads appeal to today's always-on-the-go-women and Harlequin offers them exactly what they're looking for.

Still looking for the perfect romance? Try visiting http://www.MyRomanceLife.com, a website that specializes in providing romance advice, tips and resources including information on Harlequin Romance

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By Samantha Kay

Three Factor Model For Portfolio Management

Three factor model, popularly known as Fama and French three-factor model, is one of the most followed portfolio management models. The model was developed in 1993by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French; by modifying other very popular investing model Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Three-factor model is widely followed by investors and fund managers to analyze risk and return associated with instruments/markets and to make highest return for risk taken.

For good understanding of three-factor model, understanding of CAPM, the original model, is necessary. CAPM consider only one factor, the market risk or beta, to determine the risk and return. The formula of CAPM is as follows

R = Rf + beta x (Rm - Rf)

Where R is the return, Rf is the return rate of risk-free investments, beta is the risk associated with a security/market, and Rm is the return expected from market. The model says that it is better to invest in instruments/markets whose expected return exceeds required return. CAPM successfully explains around 80% of returns.

Three factor model is more evolved than CAPM. In addition to market risk or beta, it considers two more market factors, size or market capitalization and value or book/market ratio of an instrument. The formula of three factor model is as follows,

R = Rf + beta x (Rm - Rf) + Bs x SMB + Bv x HML

Where SMB is 'Small cap Minus Big' (historic excess returns of small cap instruments), HML is 'High value Minus Low' (historic excess returns of value stocks), and Bs and Bv are beta corresponding to small cap and large cap portfolio having values either 0 to 1. For a portfolio having all small cap stocks Bs will be 1 and Bv will be 0 and for a portfolio having all large cap stocks Bs will be 0 and Bv will be 1.

The idea behind the three factor portfolio management model is that, value and small cap stocks often outperform large-cap stocks. Most possible reason for this out performance include 1) higher reward for compensating higher risk taken, 2) early mispricing of equities resulting in later corrections, and 3) small-cap companies often shows higher growth and this is reflected on their stock prices.

The widespread adoption of three factor model by investors is a result of the fact that mutual funds and portfolio managers following three factor model of investment outperformed most others. Investors can also add custom factors to the model to make it more precise and to enhance reward. But investing only in small cap or value stocks can cause problems for investors, especially in periods of high volatility. Investors should diversify their portfolio investments and should be aware of other risk minimizing strategies.

NobleTrading is an online stock day trading broker who support traders with quality information via their blogs and advanced direct access trading systems. NobleTrading also traders to day trade OTCBB and Pink Sheet markets

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By Dan Pipitone

Top Secret Investment Risk Management Advice

Excellent investment risk management

Control the things that are actually in your hands. Most prominent of all is investment risk management. Develop a game plan for investment risk management that will enable you to master the markets and control your wellbeing.

Who knows if the market will go up or down? How much will it move? And for how long a trend will continue? In reality, investment risk management is the only real thing you have control over. That's why it's so vitally important to your trading strategy.

The perfect Indicator

Sadly there are no entry criteria that will pick winning trades 100% of the time. As you're about to find out, it takes more than a good entry to make money in the market. Nevertheless, most novice traders undertake a determined search to find the perfect indicator(s) that will lead them to trading success. Even though this may sound far fetched, I too have searched for the silver bullet to slay the market.

So why do almost all market traders search for the perfect entry? I believe the reason is a subconscious one.

Focusing on an entry point gives traders a false sense of control. The point at which you have chosen to enter the market is the point at which the market is doing exactly what you want it to do. This can create a sense that you are not only controlling the entry, but the trade itself. Unfortunately, this couldn't be further from the truth. The market is going to do what it's going to do - it doesn't care for your well-thought-out entry criteria.

Repeating what I said just a moment ago, investment risk management really is the only thing you have control over.

In Jack Schwager's book Market Wizards, Schwager interviewed some of the world's top traders and investors, nearly all of whom emphasised the importance of money management. Here's a few of my favourite excerpts:

'Risk management is the most important thing to be well understood. Undertrade, undertrade, undertrade is my second piece of advice. Whatever you think your position ought to be, cut it at least in half.' ­- Bruce Kovner

'Never risk more than 1% of your total equity in any one trade. By risking 1%, I am indifferent to any individual trade. Keeping your risk small and constant is absolutely critical.' - Larry Hite

'You have to minimize your losses and try to preserve capital for those very few instances where you can make a lot in a very short period of time. What you can't afford to do is throw away your capital on suboptimal trades.' - Richard Dennis

Learn from these gurus and start to master investment risk management to prosper in these difficult times.

Learn High Performance Trading Systems At http://www.ultimate-trading-systems.com/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Jenyns

By David Jenyns

Everything is Happening for the Good

When we feel that something has gone wrong and are very much disappointed then people will console us saying "Probably, there is some good in whatever is happening to you". Here I would like to comment on this saying. Firstly, don't think that people console this way. It is the truth that there is some good in our present situation. The reason behind this is that how can God, our Creator, put us in trouble? It is lack of our faith that we are feeling that wrong has happened to us. Secondly, its NOT PROBABLY but DEFINITELY there is some good in our present situation. At this time, we may be feeling bad but sooner or later we will discover that whatever has happened to us was good infact.

Let me give my real experience to emphasize my point. It may seem boring but follows a very good point. One afternoon, I had to go for some denting-painting work of my car. My wife stopped me. Then, I thought of going to a weekly book market. Again, she held me back. I was very much frustrated and angry with her. Suddenly, I found that my son was having some severe breathing problems. I ranged up our family doctor who advised me to rush to the hospital. Instead of taking my son to the hospital where we usually go, I took him to another hospital on the view that our first hospital admits the patient (whether really required or not) just for making money. My son was hospitalized in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as he was having pneumatic and asthmatic attack. Doctors were trying their best to make him survive and we all were praying to God for his life.

In the above cited my real-life experience, there are so many points that put forward the belief that "EVERTHING IS HAPPENING FOR THE GOOD". I was made to stay at home. This helped me to take my son to hospital at the right time. Similarly, if we had taken him to our first hospital then we would have brought him home back assuming that hospital people unnecessarily asking for hospitalization and at home, he would have got more serious and some worst could have happened.

Some people (generally, these people lack faith in God) ask if someone's son dies then what good is happening in this case. But, I still hold the faith that there is some good in his death. Exact reason God knows but one reason can be that he may have to undergo severe illness in his life ahead.

Now I ask you to feel the rightness of my belief yourself. Think of a period when you think you were in trouble and distressed. Now think of events and happenings after that period. You must have felt later that there was some good in your so called trouble.

Similarly, THERE IS SOME GOOD IN my writing and your reading of this article. ALSO, REMEMBER THAT there is good for all parties involved in a happening. More on this belief in my coming articles. Till then have great faith in God and believe that EVERTHING IS HAPPENING FOR THE GOOD.

Syed Feroz Zainvi has obtained M.Tech. (Comp Sc & Engg) degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (INDIA). His areas of interests are distributed computing, computer graphics and Internet Technologies. Currently, he is involved in Software Project Planning, Development and Management. His other interests include writing for magazines and contributing utility softwares on Magazine's CDs. He also have flair for teaching computer science with new teaching methodologies. His web-page URL is http://www.zainvi.tophonors.com

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By Al Kaatib

How to Buy an Ebook Reader Like a Pro

Digital technologies have truly changed the way we live our lives. Who would've thought a few years ago that paper newspapers would be in so much trouble. And how about the emergence of the social media and the way it has changed the way we communicate with each other. Even reading hasn't stayed the same. A few years ago, a few companies tried to push the e-book market to the next level, and while they failed to take e-books mainstream, companies such as Amazon and Sony have managed to attract customers by offering ease-of-use and digital features on their readers that one does not get with a paper book.

Buying an ebook reader is very much similar to buying a laptop. These devices are not cheap, and they don't come with the same set of features. Some come with better E-ink technologies. Others come with better battery life. You should do proper research before forking out $300-$400 for a gadget that you intend to use to replace your paper books.

Here are some of the factors that you should consider before purchasing an e-book reader:

• Screen Size: screen size does matter! You want to make sure you are aware of what you are getting with your e-book reader. Those with smaller screens can be frustrating for the purpose of reading. The standard screen size is 10" but some companies are working on bigger and smaller screen sizes. You want to make sure you feel comfortable with the size before purchasing an e-book reader.
• Portability: why would you want to buy an ebook reader that is not portable? The whole point of buying a reader is to be able to carry it around with you during your trips and in your daily life.
• Battery life: an ebook reader that requires you to recharge it each and every day is such a hassle. You want to make sure you get an ebook reader that lasts you a few days between battery recharges.
• File Format: a lot of e-book readers come with their own proprietary file formats. While this is not a deal breaker, you want to make sure you can convert your PDF files to those formats so you can read them on your reader.
• Book Selection: the biggest factor of them all. There is no reason to buy an ebook reader if you can't find books to put on it. Companies such as Amazon and Sony provide you with the opportunity to buy books directly from them. But not every ebook reader comes with its own store.

Buying an ebook reader is very similar to buying a laptop. You don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a gadget that is useless. But if you do your due diligence, you can get a device that helps you read more, learn more, and save the environment in the process.

Still looking for an ebook reader?

Amazon Kindle is one of the best ebook readers on the market. Log on to read all about it: http://indled.com

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By Panah C Rad

Overview Of South Asia's Book Retail Industry

South Asia's multi- billion-dollar book retail industry is all set to witness exponential growth in the times to come. South Asia's Book Retail Industry is dominated by the gargantuan book retail industry of the Indian sub-continent. The Book publishing industry in India alone is all set to grow at the rate of 15% per year. Other markets in South Asia are slated to experience similar growth rates in the times to come.

In India, book retail, which was a cottage industry dominated by family managed companies is now being increasingly populated by organized players. Other prominent market in South Asia is the Indonesian book market, which is experiencing high growth after years of stifling control. The Asian Economic Crisis in the late 1990's forced publishers across South Asia has to rethink their cost structures and their marketing strategies.

The net result being that publishers came out with low priced versions and slimmer volumes. This significant change of approach arrested the sliding growth rates as customers lapped up these slimmer volumes. Reprinting of previously successful titles is also one of the innovative strategies used by publishers to shore up their bottom lines.

Across South Asia, innovative marketing strategies have been deployed by publishers to capture the imagination of consumers. Celebrity book launches, blog discussions, email marketing, preview booklets and similar such initiatives have been launched to increase the size of the book retail industry in South Asia.

Book Retail across South Asia's metropolitan cities has become a lifestyle business as publishers try to promote the reading habit amongst the youth. Plush reading galleries at Bookshops and coffee parlors try to promote reading as a leisure activity. Specially designed coffee table books for the high-end consumers, circulation of e-books, book reading sessions are some of the ways publishers have devised to target the premium segment of the market. Most booksellers in South Asia admit that when it comes to books relationship marketing works wonders. Email, phone calls help in cultivating a loyal base of readers who in turn generate higher business through referrals.

More and more publishers and booksellers have started attending International book fairs to gain an understanding of international publishing standards. This international exposure has convinced them to increase their investments in infrastructure to deliver publications that meet or exceed the expectations of both domestic and international consumers. Even today, majority of the books published in South Asia are printed in the English language. However, analysts predict that across South Asia, the growth in regional language press is likely to exceed that of the English language press. This is primarily because of the rising literacy levels and the proliferation of media in the remotest corners of the South Asian Peninsula.

The author is an aspirant writer on medical text books

To get the latest Indian books online on health and health products on Alternative treatments like Magnetic Therapy, Reiki, Ayurveda, Yoga, Acupressure, Acupuncture, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, and Aromatherapy etc. college textbooks , multimedia CD on Indian Treatment Methods and other alternative instruments log on to South Asian book vendor

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By Singh Vineet