Is Candy Corn Actually Good For Kids? Do the Math and See
Does all the sugar in candy corn have you wondering whether or not it is good for your kids? In some ways, it just might be. Candy corn could possibly boost thinking skills and improve grades! After letting them eat their fill, have your kids use the candy corn for some math lessons.
On a very basic level, the orange, yellow, and white triangles can help teach colors and shapes. Mix them with some M&M's for a sorting exercise for little fingers. Have children arrange them together to make new shapes.
Need something a little more challenging? Try using the little candies for board game markers. Candy corn bingo is fun - with the numbers on the grid providing answers to equations and the candies marking the spots. Kids can graph different amounts of candy corn. Making spinners from cardboard with the arrows shaped like candy corn can provide another fun way of working with numbers.
Have you ever noticed that the little pieces - if turned on their sides - look like "greater than" or "less than" signs? Kids may enjoy unequal equations much more if they are using candy for the answers.
And what about some story problems? Tommy has 14 pieces of candy corn. If he steals his sister's 8 pieces, how many will he have in all? Since the story problem is quite versatile, candy corn is still helpful when the degree of difficulty is stretched a little. Maybe the kids should find the square root of the number of pieces of candy corn that Tommy has. Or maybe Tommy's stash of candy corn is going to grow exponentially over the entire month of October! Lucky Tommy.
How much does each individual piece of candy corn cost? That is a great math/life question. Which store offers the best price? Try weighing the candy corn - or maybe try weighing the children after they have eaten a few bags of it!
An enormous jar full of candy corn provides a great guessing/estimating game. And the jar will be award to the person with the closest answer. There is some mathematical way of making a fairly accurate guess. Is the prize worth the trouble of revisiting some old high school formulas?
Some geometry students might enjoy the Internet Math Challenge from the University of Idaho. The problem involves pretending the piece of candy is a perfect cone and reconfiguring its color's dimensions. Then again, maybe "enjoy" is too strong a word.
Math and candy corn unite in the world of fiction. Check out the books Who Brought the Candy Corn? by Judy Ann Brown and The Candy Corn Contest by Patricia Reilly Giff for some interesting reading as well as exercises in logic.
Talk about brain food! Perhaps candy corn will become the poster candy for educators everywhere. Not likely. But, hopefully, adding a little tasteful fun to a math lesson may encourage thinking and learning. It might also give the old excuse "the dog ate my homework" a little more credence.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
How To Quit Smoking - The Nicotine Patch
Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known. Study after study shows that one can get addicted to nicotine as quickly as cocaine and other illegal drugs that we generally associate with crippling addictions. It is for this reason, of course, that is can be so difficult to quit smoking. One top of this physical addiction - that is, the body's craving of nicotine - there is a psychological component: because smoking is both legal and socially acceptable in many situations, it can be difficult to avoid it completely. Any attempt to quit smoking, therefore, should involve a comprehensive plan that deals with both the physical and psychological side of the addiction. One way to address the physical addition to nicotine, to leave yourself free to concentrate on the psychological aspects of your addiction, is to use a nicotine patch.
The nicotine patch is one of the oldest, and certainly best-known, medical aids to quitting smoking. Patches are placed on the skin, and work by releasing a slow and steady supply of nicotine into the bloodstream. The idea is that the patch helps wean your body off nicotine - instead of nicotine being immediately absent from your system when you quit smoking, it is gradually reduced.
The way the patch works is to break your body's desire for nicotine "spikes." When you smoke a cigarette, your body receives an immidiete spike in its nicotine levels. As the level of nicotine slowly dissipates after the spike, it will eventually drop to a point where you desire to have it "topped up" again - the need for another cigarette. If you picture a graph of your body's nicotine levels when you smoke, you would see a steady series of peaks and valleys - the peaks corresponding to the spike in nicotine levels when you smoke a cigarette. A graph of your nicotine levels when wearing the patch, on the other hand, would show a steady line: the line wouldn't be as high as your peaks, but it wouldn't be as low as your valleys either. The idea is that the patch goes for the middle ground, and your body slowly adjusts to not having spikes in its nicotine levels.
As you become more and more used to lower levels of nicotine in your system, you can reduce the dosage of the patches you wear, until eventually your body is nicotine free. Another good thing about the patch is that it is an extremely strong deterrent against smoking: if you smoke while you're on the patch, your levels of nicotine will become too high and you could suffer from a nicotine overdose, which can result in sickness and even death.
The patch is a very effective stop smoking aid. It does, however, have some disadvantages: it is fairly expensive, and at the early stages of quitting it can often cost more than cigarettes did. The patch can also cause problems with sleeping if you wear it to bed - and at the same time if you don't you will wake up with no nicotine in your system, and feel pretty bad until you put on a morning patch and it starts working. Despite these drawbacks, the patch remains the medical aid of choice for people dealing with serious nicotine addictions.
Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known. Study after study shows that one can get addicted to nicotine as quickly as cocaine and other illegal drugs that we generally associate with crippling addictions. It is for this reason, of course, that is can be so difficult to quit smoking. One top of this physical addiction - that is, the body's craving of nicotine - there is a psychological component: because smoking is both legal and socially acceptable in many situations, it can be difficult to avoid it completely. Any attempt to quit smoking, therefore, should involve a comprehensive plan that deals with both the physical and psychological side of the addiction. One way to address the physical addition to nicotine, to leave yourself free to concentrate on the psychological aspects of your addiction, is to use a nicotine patch.
The nicotine patch is one of the oldest, and certainly best-known, medical aids to quitting smoking. Patches are placed on the skin, and work by releasing a slow and steady supply of nicotine into the bloodstream. The idea is that the patch helps wean your body off nicotine - instead of nicotine being immediately absent from your system when you quit smoking, it is gradually reduced.
The way the patch works is to break your body's desire for nicotine "spikes." When you smoke a cigarette, your body receives an immidiete spike in its nicotine levels. As the level of nicotine slowly dissipates after the spike, it will eventually drop to a point where you desire to have it "topped up" again - the need for another cigarette. If you picture a graph of your body's nicotine levels when you smoke, you would see a steady series of peaks and valleys - the peaks corresponding to the spike in nicotine levels when you smoke a cigarette. A graph of your nicotine levels when wearing the patch, on the other hand, would show a steady line: the line wouldn't be as high as your peaks, but it wouldn't be as low as your valleys either. The idea is that the patch goes for the middle ground, and your body slowly adjusts to not having spikes in its nicotine levels.
As you become more and more used to lower levels of nicotine in your system, you can reduce the dosage of the patches you wear, until eventually your body is nicotine free. Another good thing about the patch is that it is an extremely strong deterrent against smoking: if you smoke while you're on the patch, your levels of nicotine will become too high and you could suffer from a nicotine overdose, which can result in sickness and even death.
The patch is a very effective stop smoking aid. It does, however, have some disadvantages: it is fairly expensive, and at the early stages of quitting it can often cost more than cigarettes did. The patch can also cause problems with sleeping if you wear it to bed - and at the same time if you don't you will wake up with no nicotine in your system, and feel pretty bad until you put on a morning patch and it starts working. Despite these drawbacks, the patch remains the medical aid of choice for people dealing with serious nicotine addictions.
Developing Learning Activities And Simulations In E-Learning Content
What turns your best dress into a showstopper? Accessories. And what turns your online course content into dazzlingly useful learning content? Learning Activities. What is a Learning Activity? In e-learning content development, we use all forms of questions for test and quizzes:
1. Multiple correct, which presents a number of choices as answers to a particular question. There may be more than one answer to this question. The students chooses all answers that are correct.
2. Single correct, which presents multiple choices as answers to a particular questions. One answer of the possible choices is correct.
3. Item matching, in which there is one column of possible answers that relate to another column of questions. Item matching is commonly used for matching the correct term to the definition.
4. Fill-in-the-blank, in which the students enters the correct word or words that complete a sentence.
5. True/false, in which the student answers whether a statement is true or false.
6. Short answer, in which the student enters a one to two sentence answer to a question.
7. Essay, in which the student responds to a question with a page (or more) long response.
All of these question types are useful for testing knowledge gained from taking a course, as well as testing the level of knowledge prior to a course. In addition, such questions are useful in the course itself as learning checks. The learning check enables the student to determine whether he understands the material. Most companies consider these questions to be adequate learning activities. However, learning activities can be much more. Learning activities that are simulations can involve the student and give him a safe environment in which to practice skills gained through the course. .
Learning Activities are interactive activities that help to explain concepts and involve the student with hands-on learning. This may include all forms of drag and drop questions (one to one correlation, many to one correlation) as well as interactive ordering of graphics or text, and finally, simulations.
An IDC article and survey, Technology-Based Simulations: Cloning the Work Environment for More Effective Learning, June 2004 by Michael Brennan, states, "By 2008 the use of simulations will quadruple.... Simulations provide a parallel universe in which employees hone their skills... Innovative companies have realized this, and others will follow."
Simulations are currently the most expensive learning activity. Simulations must be individually designed and programmed. For example, suppose you have a sales course in which you are testing the sales students retention of the message that the company wishes to deliver to its customers. You could do a question workshop: several questions that give situations requiring an action in multiple correct or single correct formats. Another, more entertaining, method would be to have the sales person run through a scenario in which he indicates what he would do to sell his product. The learning activity indicates whether the customer would buy this product based on those actions. This feedback could be indicated by a graph indicating customer readiness to buy. It could also be complimented by video, in which the customer appears aggravated when the sales person gives his message incorrectly and pleased when the sales person gives his message correctly.
Online courses are taken privately and at the students convenience. If the student requires several attempts with a particular scenario, praise the student for continued effort and eventual competency.
Adding humor to simulations and learning activities is essential yet can be controversial. As the simulation developer or content developer, you do not want to add any humor that could be perceived as offensive, sexist or worse, unfunny. To extend our sales example, when the sales person is unsuccessful at selling his product in the learning activity, you would not want your customer video or simple animation of the customer to offend the sales person. Yet you want him to laugh and try again. Perhaps the customer morosely shaking his head and leaving the room, with text indicating how the sales call went dreadfully south would be acceptable and could be done in a humorous fashion. You would not want this animation to be disturbing the customer should not shake his fist and yell for a restraining order against the sales person, for example.
In the past, I participated in designing a simulation of patient anesthesia. The computer program consisted of a patient on the operating room table and two dials that the student could turn. One dial administered oxygen, the other dial administered anesthetic. The patients parameters could change (height, weight, age). As the student administered the anesthesia, a graph showed the patients stats. If you administered too much anesthesia the patient would die! It was a great simulation, but scary. The death knell of the patient was accompanied by funeral music. . Ouch!
On the other hand, sometimes we encounter simulations and learning activities that add nothing to the content or the course. They are superfluous, added to maintain interest. You must be very careful in these instances. If you want to add something to maintain interest, it should still be useful and explore some aspect of the topic. A Flash movie of interesting fractals may be colorful and fun - useless in a course that is not about fractals, art or Flash. For example, suppose you are teaching contractual document details. You can still relate the content of the course to a learning activity in which the student must put the correct elements from a list into three different types of contracts. As dry as you may think detailing the elements of a contract might be, if you add audio that indicates whether the addition was right or wrong, you can keep your students interest. Wrong! can be contrasted with Oh, not that element, it does not belong said in a beautiful feminine voice. The second response can add a smile and cause the student to remember how the contractual elements are added to a contract. A booming male voice that states, You sir, are correct! can bring that same acknowledgement.
In conclusion, questions and quizzes while useful are not the end of interactivity. We need to provide the means for simulations inside online courses to provide the hands on learning that students need. Through clever activities that allow seeing the consequences of your actions on the simulation model, we can provide activities that enable retention of material and practice. If these activities lead the student to greater understanding, we have provided not only an entertaining activity but also great value for our online courses.
What turns your best dress into a showstopper? Accessories. And what turns your online course content into dazzlingly useful learning content? Learning Activities. What is a Learning Activity? In e-learning content development, we use all forms of questions for test and quizzes:
1. Multiple correct, which presents a number of choices as answers to a particular question. There may be more than one answer to this question. The students chooses all answers that are correct.
2. Single correct, which presents multiple choices as answers to a particular questions. One answer of the possible choices is correct.
3. Item matching, in which there is one column of possible answers that relate to another column of questions. Item matching is commonly used for matching the correct term to the definition.
4. Fill-in-the-blank, in which the students enters the correct word or words that complete a sentence.
5. True/false, in which the student answers whether a statement is true or false.
6. Short answer, in which the student enters a one to two sentence answer to a question.
7. Essay, in which the student responds to a question with a page (or more) long response.
All of these question types are useful for testing knowledge gained from taking a course, as well as testing the level of knowledge prior to a course. In addition, such questions are useful in the course itself as learning checks. The learning check enables the student to determine whether he understands the material. Most companies consider these questions to be adequate learning activities. However, learning activities can be much more. Learning activities that are simulations can involve the student and give him a safe environment in which to practice skills gained through the course. .
Learning Activities are interactive activities that help to explain concepts and involve the student with hands-on learning. This may include all forms of drag and drop questions (one to one correlation, many to one correlation) as well as interactive ordering of graphics or text, and finally, simulations.
An IDC article and survey, Technology-Based Simulations: Cloning the Work Environment for More Effective Learning, June 2004 by Michael Brennan, states, "By 2008 the use of simulations will quadruple.... Simulations provide a parallel universe in which employees hone their skills... Innovative companies have realized this, and others will follow."
Simulations are currently the most expensive learning activity. Simulations must be individually designed and programmed. For example, suppose you have a sales course in which you are testing the sales students retention of the message that the company wishes to deliver to its customers. You could do a question workshop: several questions that give situations requiring an action in multiple correct or single correct formats. Another, more entertaining, method would be to have the sales person run through a scenario in which he indicates what he would do to sell his product. The learning activity indicates whether the customer would buy this product based on those actions. This feedback could be indicated by a graph indicating customer readiness to buy. It could also be complimented by video, in which the customer appears aggravated when the sales person gives his message incorrectly and pleased when the sales person gives his message correctly.
Online courses are taken privately and at the students convenience. If the student requires several attempts with a particular scenario, praise the student for continued effort and eventual competency.
Adding humor to simulations and learning activities is essential yet can be controversial. As the simulation developer or content developer, you do not want to add any humor that could be perceived as offensive, sexist or worse, unfunny. To extend our sales example, when the sales person is unsuccessful at selling his product in the learning activity, you would not want your customer video or simple animation of the customer to offend the sales person. Yet you want him to laugh and try again. Perhaps the customer morosely shaking his head and leaving the room, with text indicating how the sales call went dreadfully south would be acceptable and could be done in a humorous fashion. You would not want this animation to be disturbing the customer should not shake his fist and yell for a restraining order against the sales person, for example.
In the past, I participated in designing a simulation of patient anesthesia. The computer program consisted of a patient on the operating room table and two dials that the student could turn. One dial administered oxygen, the other dial administered anesthetic. The patients parameters could change (height, weight, age). As the student administered the anesthesia, a graph showed the patients stats. If you administered too much anesthesia the patient would die! It was a great simulation, but scary. The death knell of the patient was accompanied by funeral music. . Ouch!
On the other hand, sometimes we encounter simulations and learning activities that add nothing to the content or the course. They are superfluous, added to maintain interest. You must be very careful in these instances. If you want to add something to maintain interest, it should still be useful and explore some aspect of the topic. A Flash movie of interesting fractals may be colorful and fun - useless in a course that is not about fractals, art or Flash. For example, suppose you are teaching contractual document details. You can still relate the content of the course to a learning activity in which the student must put the correct elements from a list into three different types of contracts. As dry as you may think detailing the elements of a contract might be, if you add audio that indicates whether the addition was right or wrong, you can keep your students interest. Wrong! can be contrasted with Oh, not that element, it does not belong said in a beautiful feminine voice. The second response can add a smile and cause the student to remember how the contractual elements are added to a contract. A booming male voice that states, You sir, are correct! can bring that same acknowledgement.
In conclusion, questions and quizzes while useful are not the end of interactivity. We need to provide the means for simulations inside online courses to provide the hands on learning that students need. Through clever activities that allow seeing the consequences of your actions on the simulation model, we can provide activities that enable retention of material and practice. If these activities lead the student to greater understanding, we have provided not only an entertaining activity but also great value for our online courses.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Power of Positive Thought Energy
We have with us the conclusive proof for the Power of positive thought energy from the man who involved himself in the experiment of thought energy. His name is Marcel Vogel. He is a renowned scientist. He says: I am probably the first person in the world to have shown scientifically that there is energy accompanying the process of thought. I have measured this energy in experiments involving plants (philodendrons) and my own thought processes.
Mr. Marcel went to India and watched experiments on plant growth being carried out at the Bose Institute of Calcutta. The scientists there use a recording cresograph to chart the growth rate of a plant- in this case a blade of grass. This blade of grass was sealed off in a glass chamber. The Scientists could look on, but not physically interfere. They watched the machine plot a growth curve for this plant, a curve that would be considered normal in comparison to other growth rates. As Marcel Vogel watched, he suddenly decided to focus his mind on that blade of grass. He took a deep breath, held it, and then exhaled quickly. The plants growth rate accelerated! In other words the energy from his mind went out into the plant, and that mind energy caused the normal growth rate to change. When he focused his mind on the plant, the recorder indicated an accelerated rate: when he released his breath, the recorder jumped to a much higher point on the graph and continued to plot a curve from that higher point. In other words, it just totally transcended the normal growth rate and began a new curve at a much higher point. The whole rate of growth of that plant was modified by the thought energy.
Mr Marcel continued his experiments and proved that positive thought energy could be sent to anybody.
Madam Annie Besant and C.W.Leadbeater in their book, Thought Forms state :
Each definite thought produces a double effect a radiating vibration and a floating form.
The radiating vibration conveys the character of the thought. The quality of the thought determines colour. The nature of thought determines form. Definiteness of thought determines clearness of outline.
Annie Besant and Leadbeater advise us to cultivate helpful thoughts.
Thoughts are our own real children. Positive thoughts will produce positive results. Noble thought will bring happiness.
The astonishing scientific facts are compelling and convincing to cultivate the habit of Thinking Positively.
We have with us the conclusive proof for the Power of positive thought energy from the man who involved himself in the experiment of thought energy. His name is Marcel Vogel. He is a renowned scientist. He says: I am probably the first person in the world to have shown scientifically that there is energy accompanying the process of thought. I have measured this energy in experiments involving plants (philodendrons) and my own thought processes.
Mr. Marcel went to India and watched experiments on plant growth being carried out at the Bose Institute of Calcutta. The scientists there use a recording cresograph to chart the growth rate of a plant- in this case a blade of grass. This blade of grass was sealed off in a glass chamber. The Scientists could look on, but not physically interfere. They watched the machine plot a growth curve for this plant, a curve that would be considered normal in comparison to other growth rates. As Marcel Vogel watched, he suddenly decided to focus his mind on that blade of grass. He took a deep breath, held it, and then exhaled quickly. The plants growth rate accelerated! In other words the energy from his mind went out into the plant, and that mind energy caused the normal growth rate to change. When he focused his mind on the plant, the recorder indicated an accelerated rate: when he released his breath, the recorder jumped to a much higher point on the graph and continued to plot a curve from that higher point. In other words, it just totally transcended the normal growth rate and began a new curve at a much higher point. The whole rate of growth of that plant was modified by the thought energy.
Mr Marcel continued his experiments and proved that positive thought energy could be sent to anybody.
Madam Annie Besant and C.W.Leadbeater in their book, Thought Forms state :
Each definite thought produces a double effect a radiating vibration and a floating form.
The radiating vibration conveys the character of the thought. The quality of the thought determines colour. The nature of thought determines form. Definiteness of thought determines clearness of outline.
Annie Besant and Leadbeater advise us to cultivate helpful thoughts.
Thoughts are our own real children. Positive thoughts will produce positive results. Noble thought will bring happiness.
The astonishing scientific facts are compelling and convincing to cultivate the habit of Thinking Positively.
RAM - What is It & Why You Need Plenty
This is the first article in the Understanding Your Computer series from aworldofhelp.com. Our goal is to help people understand how their computer works, not simply tell them what they need to buy or use. When you know how your computer works, buying the right system or upgrade is easy. The series is designed to provide valuable information to users of all knowledge levels, so if part of it seems too complicated or too simple for you, I hope you read on and get all you can out of the articles. If you have questions or comments about this or any article, please ask in the forums!
RAM - What is it & why you need plenty
Many people picture a computer as consisting in part of a
Processor - CPU
Memory - RAM
Hard Drive
The way these three components interact is important to understanding how a computer works, and ultimately to understanding why you need enough RAM for your programs. Around the Internet and in Magazines you can find recommended RAM amounts for typical users. You also will find many places proclaiming RAM as the best performance for your dollar upgrade. I don't disagree at all, but I want you to understand what RAM actually does, and why it can be such a valuable upgrade.
I covered this subject briefly in the aworldofhelp Notebook Buyer's Guide on page 4. The information in that article is accurate, but I want to try to make things a little clearer here.
The article is divided into four sections, covering:
1. The functions of the three components we are discussing and their relative speeds
2. Why you need RAM and what takes up RAM
3. Multitasking and how RAM improves performance
4. How much RAM you need
CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. It is the brain of your computer. When you open a program, like Microsoft Word for example, the CPU reads through lines of computer code and follows the instructions so you can use your program. When you play an audio file like an MP3, the CPU has to do work to decompress it while it plays. When you edit a picture the CPU has to perform many calculations to make even the smallest changes.
One thing to note is that the CPU actually does have a very small amount of memory in it. This is the fastest memory in a computer system, but it is so small it doesn't really affect this article. Generally speaking, the CPU doesn't store the information that makes up the program, MP3, or picture, it only processes it. The data has to be located somewhere in your computer, and the CPU has to find it and then retrieve it.
That action, the problem of locating the data and how it affects your overall system performance is what this article is about.
RAM
RAM stands for Random Access Memory. This memory is very fast, and you will see it in sizes like 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1024 MB. When you turn off your computer, the contents are erased, so it is only temporary memory. This is where the CPU looks first to get data to process. So if you are editing a picture, and its data is in this RAM, because RAM is fast memory, editing the picture will happen relatively quickly.
Hard Drive
Your Hard Drive is where you store all of your programs, music, video, and everything you keep on your computer. This is the memory where you store your files that remain even after you turn your system off. You will see them in all sizes, now typically ranging from 30 GB, to hundreds of GB. Hard drives are very slow compared to your CPU and RAM because they are mechanical. Inside the disk there are actually small readers that physically move around to locate and read data.
If you are editing a picture, the CPU will first look in RAM memory to see if it is there, because RAM is fast. If it isn't, the CPU will go to the hard drive and edit the picture there. Because your hard drive is so slow, this takes a much longer time than if the picture had been in RAM.
Again, the CPU only stores a tiny bit of data, so it has to get it from somewhere to operate on. If the CPU has data to process, it will do so as fast as it can, but if it doesn't, the brain of your computer simply sits and waits doing nothing. Only after it finds and retrieves the data it needs can it process it.
So ideally, you want your CPU to find data in the fastest place possible. As you can see, if the data is in RAM you are far better off than if it is in your hard disk because RAM is so much faster. Just take a look at the graph below. It shows the time it takes to access each memory type in nanoseconds.
Clearly, your hard drive is slow, but when you look at the above graph, and you see the numbers it is based on below, you realize just how slow it is. Each is an approximate access time in nanoseconds:
CPU 1 ns
RAM 60 ns
Hard Drive 10,000,000 ns
It should be clear why the bars for your CPU and RAM do not even show up on this graph, your hard drive is simply extremely slow.
So why bother with a hard disk?
Seeing that, you might think that it would be great if you could just use huge amounts of RAM instead of a hard disk. You are right, this would be a great situation, but as you might imagine, the faster the memory in your computer, the more expensive it is. RAM prices have come down significantly in recent years, but it will still cost you much more compared to Hard Drive space.
Computers work within this constraint - that faster memory is more expensive - by looking in the fastest place for information first, then moving to slower locations only when they need to. So if you hear your hard drive making noise or you see a light telling you it is being accessed, you know the data could not be found in RAM.
Now you know that the hard drive access that's going on is very slow, and that is the reason your CPU, and in turn you, have to wait.
So now you know that you want lots of RAM, at least enough for all your programs, so you don't have to access your slow hard drive too often. But what actually uses your RAM, and how can you see whether your system has enough?
Windows itself takes up a lot of RAM. Microsoft says Windows XP will run on a machine with 64 MB of RAM, though they recommend 128 MB or 256 MB. If you have even more RAM than that, and I recommend you do, Windows will use some of it as well.
Everything that loads when you boot up your computer also uses RAM. What these programs are actually doing is putting themselves in to RAM, if enough is available, so that they can be used very quickly. The problem is when there isn't enough memory for all these programs, and your computer runs very slowly.
On my machine these programs load when I turn on my computer:
AVG Antivirus
Scanner Software
Digital Camera Software
Gmail Notifier
AOL Instant Messenger
And some server software for testing
Then, everything I run after the boot up uses more RAM. Whatever Internet Browser I use, for example, takes up RAM. Microsoft Word does too, as well as all my programs. To see how much RAM you have and how much free RAM you have, you can open up Task Manager by right clicking on the start menu and selecting it, it looks like this.
On the right, in the Physical Memory section my RAM is listed. My total and available memory is listed, and as you can see, just booting my computer into Windows XP and loading all the things I do, I have less than half of my RAM available for other programs.
Your system will probably have less total RAM, but you'll be able to see how much and how much you have free. You can easily find out how much ram you have by right clicking on "My Computer" and going to properties, but it's useful to see it here so you understand what the Task Manager is showing. You can use this tool to convert the number shown in "K" to a number that you may be more comfortable with, in "MB".
K MB
On my computer, 1048040 K converts to 1023.4 MB, which is 1024 MB.
Your own system may give you a number a few megabytes lower than the actual. For example, 252 instead of 256. That is normal, and is a result of something else, like a video chip, using a portion of the RAM. The actual RAM your programs has to work with is the number listed in the Task Manager.
In my example, I have a hundreds of Megabytes of free RAM. I sometimes fill the RAM if I am video editing or photo editing, but beyond that, it is rare. This is a good thing though, remember the chart. If your RAM is full, your Hard Drive will be used more, and since it is so slow, your system will grind to near a halt.
By looking at the Task Manager, you can get a good idea of how your system is running. If you have lots of available RAM, you are in good shape. But many systems I see actually have almost no free RAM, and this is what causes the system to use the hard disk instead and run slower. Note that the available RAM will generally never hit zero, but will fluctuate around very low numbers if your system is out of memory.
Our example so far has been simplified to show how doing one thing on your computer needs memory. But a real benefit of having adequate memory is multitasking. Basically, if you are doing more than one thing at a time, you are multitasking. If you are reading this article and editing a picture at the same time, you are multitasking.
Generally, if you can switch between two open programs on your machine very quickly, they both are loaded into RAM. In this case, you can likely see plenty of available memory in Task Manager. On my machine, since I have plenty of RAM, I switch between two or three Internet browsers, Excel, PowerPoint, Instant Messenger, my audio player, and more very quickly.
On the other hand if you don't have enough RAM, even with just two programs open, when you switch between them your computer may slow down considerably. The program you are switching to is not in RAM, and the CPU is forced to get information from the hard disk. As you open more programs, the situation only gets worse. A check on task manager in this case will likely show very little free RAM, too little in fact to fit all your programs.
How Much RAM do you need?
The best answer is that you need enough RAM to run all your programs and multitask between them quickly. If your system is running well and you check Task Manager and have lots of available RAM, you are probably in good shape. If your system is slow switching between more than one program, look at the task manager and see if your available RAM is low. If it is, adding more will likely make your entire system run faster, just by fitting more programs into RAM.
You'll be amazed how fixing this problem will improve you computing experience overall. That is the reason so many people talk about RAM as being the best upgrade for older systems.
If you are buying a new computer 512 MB is a good amount of RAM for most users. If you edit a lot of pictures or video, or if you can just afford the upgrade, moving up to 1024 MB (1 GB) is not a bad idea. Memory prices are much lower than they used to be, and you'll have extra memory for more programs now. For most users, the biggest advantage to getting more RAM is that if you keep your computer for a long time, the extra RAM could save you an upgrade down the road.
But how much RAM is too much? Well you won't really slow down your system by adding RAM. Typical systems currently can accommodate up to anywhere from 512 MB - 2 GB of RAM. The problem is, after you have enough RAM, adding more really doesn't get you much, if any performance gain.
With that in mind, check back soon for an article comparing performance of common applications, including multitasking, with different amounts of RAM. We'll test from 256 MB to 1024MB, and you'll be able to see how all we've covered here has a real affect on the speed of your computer.
This is the first article in the Understanding Your Computer series from aworldofhelp.com. Our goal is to help people understand how their computer works, not simply tell them what they need to buy or use. When you know how your computer works, buying the right system or upgrade is easy. The series is designed to provide valuable information to users of all knowledge levels, so if part of it seems too complicated or too simple for you, I hope you read on and get all you can out of the articles. If you have questions or comments about this or any article, please ask in the forums!
RAM - What is it & why you need plenty
Many people picture a computer as consisting in part of a
Processor - CPU
Memory - RAM
Hard Drive
The way these three components interact is important to understanding how a computer works, and ultimately to understanding why you need enough RAM for your programs. Around the Internet and in Magazines you can find recommended RAM amounts for typical users. You also will find many places proclaiming RAM as the best performance for your dollar upgrade. I don't disagree at all, but I want you to understand what RAM actually does, and why it can be such a valuable upgrade.
I covered this subject briefly in the aworldofhelp Notebook Buyer's Guide on page 4. The information in that article is accurate, but I want to try to make things a little clearer here.
The article is divided into four sections, covering:
1. The functions of the three components we are discussing and their relative speeds
2. Why you need RAM and what takes up RAM
3. Multitasking and how RAM improves performance
4. How much RAM you need
CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. It is the brain of your computer. When you open a program, like Microsoft Word for example, the CPU reads through lines of computer code and follows the instructions so you can use your program. When you play an audio file like an MP3, the CPU has to do work to decompress it while it plays. When you edit a picture the CPU has to perform many calculations to make even the smallest changes.
One thing to note is that the CPU actually does have a very small amount of memory in it. This is the fastest memory in a computer system, but it is so small it doesn't really affect this article. Generally speaking, the CPU doesn't store the information that makes up the program, MP3, or picture, it only processes it. The data has to be located somewhere in your computer, and the CPU has to find it and then retrieve it.
That action, the problem of locating the data and how it affects your overall system performance is what this article is about.
RAM
RAM stands for Random Access Memory. This memory is very fast, and you will see it in sizes like 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1024 MB. When you turn off your computer, the contents are erased, so it is only temporary memory. This is where the CPU looks first to get data to process. So if you are editing a picture, and its data is in this RAM, because RAM is fast memory, editing the picture will happen relatively quickly.
Hard Drive
Your Hard Drive is where you store all of your programs, music, video, and everything you keep on your computer. This is the memory where you store your files that remain even after you turn your system off. You will see them in all sizes, now typically ranging from 30 GB, to hundreds of GB. Hard drives are very slow compared to your CPU and RAM because they are mechanical. Inside the disk there are actually small readers that physically move around to locate and read data.
If you are editing a picture, the CPU will first look in RAM memory to see if it is there, because RAM is fast. If it isn't, the CPU will go to the hard drive and edit the picture there. Because your hard drive is so slow, this takes a much longer time than if the picture had been in RAM.
Again, the CPU only stores a tiny bit of data, so it has to get it from somewhere to operate on. If the CPU has data to process, it will do so as fast as it can, but if it doesn't, the brain of your computer simply sits and waits doing nothing. Only after it finds and retrieves the data it needs can it process it.
So ideally, you want your CPU to find data in the fastest place possible. As you can see, if the data is in RAM you are far better off than if it is in your hard disk because RAM is so much faster. Just take a look at the graph below. It shows the time it takes to access each memory type in nanoseconds.
Clearly, your hard drive is slow, but when you look at the above graph, and you see the numbers it is based on below, you realize just how slow it is. Each is an approximate access time in nanoseconds:
CPU 1 ns
RAM 60 ns
Hard Drive 10,000,000 ns
It should be clear why the bars for your CPU and RAM do not even show up on this graph, your hard drive is simply extremely slow.
So why bother with a hard disk?
Seeing that, you might think that it would be great if you could just use huge amounts of RAM instead of a hard disk. You are right, this would be a great situation, but as you might imagine, the faster the memory in your computer, the more expensive it is. RAM prices have come down significantly in recent years, but it will still cost you much more compared to Hard Drive space.
Computers work within this constraint - that faster memory is more expensive - by looking in the fastest place for information first, then moving to slower locations only when they need to. So if you hear your hard drive making noise or you see a light telling you it is being accessed, you know the data could not be found in RAM.
Now you know that the hard drive access that's going on is very slow, and that is the reason your CPU, and in turn you, have to wait.
So now you know that you want lots of RAM, at least enough for all your programs, so you don't have to access your slow hard drive too often. But what actually uses your RAM, and how can you see whether your system has enough?
Windows itself takes up a lot of RAM. Microsoft says Windows XP will run on a machine with 64 MB of RAM, though they recommend 128 MB or 256 MB. If you have even more RAM than that, and I recommend you do, Windows will use some of it as well.
Everything that loads when you boot up your computer also uses RAM. What these programs are actually doing is putting themselves in to RAM, if enough is available, so that they can be used very quickly. The problem is when there isn't enough memory for all these programs, and your computer runs very slowly.
On my machine these programs load when I turn on my computer:
AVG Antivirus
Scanner Software
Digital Camera Software
Gmail Notifier
AOL Instant Messenger
And some server software for testing
Then, everything I run after the boot up uses more RAM. Whatever Internet Browser I use, for example, takes up RAM. Microsoft Word does too, as well as all my programs. To see how much RAM you have and how much free RAM you have, you can open up Task Manager by right clicking on the start menu and selecting it, it looks like this.
On the right, in the Physical Memory section my RAM is listed. My total and available memory is listed, and as you can see, just booting my computer into Windows XP and loading all the things I do, I have less than half of my RAM available for other programs.
Your system will probably have less total RAM, but you'll be able to see how much and how much you have free. You can easily find out how much ram you have by right clicking on "My Computer" and going to properties, but it's useful to see it here so you understand what the Task Manager is showing. You can use this tool to convert the number shown in "K" to a number that you may be more comfortable with, in "MB".
K MB
On my computer, 1048040 K converts to 1023.4 MB, which is 1024 MB.
Your own system may give you a number a few megabytes lower than the actual. For example, 252 instead of 256. That is normal, and is a result of something else, like a video chip, using a portion of the RAM. The actual RAM your programs has to work with is the number listed in the Task Manager.
In my example, I have a hundreds of Megabytes of free RAM. I sometimes fill the RAM if I am video editing or photo editing, but beyond that, it is rare. This is a good thing though, remember the chart. If your RAM is full, your Hard Drive will be used more, and since it is so slow, your system will grind to near a halt.
By looking at the Task Manager, you can get a good idea of how your system is running. If you have lots of available RAM, you are in good shape. But many systems I see actually have almost no free RAM, and this is what causes the system to use the hard disk instead and run slower. Note that the available RAM will generally never hit zero, but will fluctuate around very low numbers if your system is out of memory.
Our example so far has been simplified to show how doing one thing on your computer needs memory. But a real benefit of having adequate memory is multitasking. Basically, if you are doing more than one thing at a time, you are multitasking. If you are reading this article and editing a picture at the same time, you are multitasking.
Generally, if you can switch between two open programs on your machine very quickly, they both are loaded into RAM. In this case, you can likely see plenty of available memory in Task Manager. On my machine, since I have plenty of RAM, I switch between two or three Internet browsers, Excel, PowerPoint, Instant Messenger, my audio player, and more very quickly.
On the other hand if you don't have enough RAM, even with just two programs open, when you switch between them your computer may slow down considerably. The program you are switching to is not in RAM, and the CPU is forced to get information from the hard disk. As you open more programs, the situation only gets worse. A check on task manager in this case will likely show very little free RAM, too little in fact to fit all your programs.
How Much RAM do you need?
The best answer is that you need enough RAM to run all your programs and multitask between them quickly. If your system is running well and you check Task Manager and have lots of available RAM, you are probably in good shape. If your system is slow switching between more than one program, look at the task manager and see if your available RAM is low. If it is, adding more will likely make your entire system run faster, just by fitting more programs into RAM.
You'll be amazed how fixing this problem will improve you computing experience overall. That is the reason so many people talk about RAM as being the best upgrade for older systems.
If you are buying a new computer 512 MB is a good amount of RAM for most users. If you edit a lot of pictures or video, or if you can just afford the upgrade, moving up to 1024 MB (1 GB) is not a bad idea. Memory prices are much lower than they used to be, and you'll have extra memory for more programs now. For most users, the biggest advantage to getting more RAM is that if you keep your computer for a long time, the extra RAM could save you an upgrade down the road.
But how much RAM is too much? Well you won't really slow down your system by adding RAM. Typical systems currently can accommodate up to anywhere from 512 MB - 2 GB of RAM. The problem is, after you have enough RAM, adding more really doesn't get you much, if any performance gain.
With that in mind, check back soon for an article comparing performance of common applications, including multitasking, with different amounts of RAM. We'll test from 256 MB to 1024MB, and you'll be able to see how all we've covered here has a real affect on the speed of your computer.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Macromedia Flash Work Practices
I thought I might put together some of my work practices. These are the steps I put in place to facilitate a good efficient work flow in Flash. These are my tips. I have found they have worked for me. Its a matter of learning these practices so that you do not think about it. Just like driving a car. Then you can concentrate on being creative and working efficiently and quickly within Flash without having to worry about whether you are on the right layer or you have grabbed the wrong Graphic or you have 2 objects to tween on the same layer and you are scratching your head wondering why the tween wont work.
Create A Graphic.
The first thing you do is to create a graphic in Flash. Say you are going to make a circle.
Draw the circle, then go to the select arrow tool and drag around the whole circle including the outline. If you click on the circle to select it, 9 times out of 10 you will select only the fill inside and leave out the outline circle. And then wonder why your tween wont work. Doh!
So rule number 1 is :
USE THE ARROW SELECTION TOOL TO DRAG SELECT THE WHOLE OBJECT.
Then when you have got the drawn item selected by dragging around it. Hit Key F8 (Convert to symbol) and Tick the Graphic Radio Button and name it. I usually use the suffix _gr after a graphic, just so I know that it is a graphic. If I am making a button, I use _btn and a Movieclip I use _mc.
e.g.
Graphic = redcircle_gr
Button == stop_btn
MovieClip = bigCar_mc
Now back to where I was before I went off on a tangent. I hit key F8 to convert the drawing to a graphic. Drawings by themselves are useless. You cant do anything with them , you cant tween or control with programming (Actioncscript in Flash). So make sure you create either a Graphic or a Movieclip so that it is usable.
Ok. So now we have created a greenball_gr and it is on its own layer. Make sure that you have one object per layer. If we are going to tween them later, the tweens wont work unless there is only one Graphic object per layer. If you have two or more it just wont work. !!111!!!
So , lets tween our little ball. We want to move it across the screen. Click on frame 20 and hit key F6 (Insert -> Keyframe). Now move the ball on frame 20. You should have a keyframe on frame 1 and frame 20. We are going to tween or move the ball between frame 1 and 20. Right click on a frame , say frame 10, between the keyframes and select Create Motion Tween. You should have an arrow going from frame 1 to frame 20 on your timeline on layer 1. Now hit enter Key and it will move across the Stage. Flash.
That is what is meant by tweening. Now for the next step which is very important.
Double click on your layer name and rename the layer, Call it Green ball or something that lets you know what you are doing on that frame when you come back later and have forgotten what everything is doing.
AND, now for the most important work practice in Flash after using the arrow selection tool to select and name your Graphic is taaa daaah
LOCK YOUR LAYERS
Thats right folks, Lock your layers. Click on the dot under the lock symbol on your layer and lock it. Why do that ? I hear you say. Well. In flash it gets a bit messy with heaps of layers, so if you lock all the other layers than the one you are currently working on, then you dont go selecting all the wrong bits of other Graphics. They are all locked so they cant be selected and you are safe working on that particular object on that particular layer only.
Now for our next layer. Create another layer in Flash and name it before we do anything else. Lets call it red square. Make sure that your green circle layer is locked before you do anything else !!11!!
Draw a red square on our new layer. Drag select the whole object using the SELECTION TOOL, and hit key (which key ?) F8. Tick the Graphic radio box and name it redSquare_gr. Click on frame 20 , redsquare layer and hit the key to make a keyframe. Which key was that again ? Remember these keys , they are very important. F6.
Revision Time
F8 Convert to Symbol
F6 Insert A Keyframe
But I digress, again! Now where were we? Oh yeah. We had just clicked on frame 20 and inserted a keyframe. Now move the red square Graphic on frame 20 to where we want it to be. Is the Green Circle in the way? Well hide it by clicking on the dot under the eye symbol in the layers palette. Doing that in Flash will make the layer invisible so that other object dont get in the way and you can see what you are doing properly on the layer you are working on.
Right click on somewhere between frames 1 and 20 on the red square layer and select Creat Motion Tween. Hit Enter key to see it run. They both should move independently. If they dont, start again and make sure you have all the steps correct. Follow the instructions to the letter and practice the steps until you dont have to think about it. Flash Work Practices must be ingrained so you dont think about them.
That can be rule number the next.
HIDE THE LAYERS THAT YOU ARE NOT WORKING ON.
Summary
So to reiterate everything I have said so far.
Make sure that you use the drag select tool to select your objects and make them into Graphics or a Movieclips.
Use the Keystroke functions such as F6, F8, F5 etc rather than using the mouse and selecting menu items. The key shortcuts are heaps faster and more professional. Lamers only use menu items for common commands.
Make sure that you only have one object per layer.
Lock your layers that you are not working on.
Hide the layers you are not working on so that you can see what you are doing on the layer you are working on.
MovieClips
That is it for Graphic objects. When it comes to MovieClips in flash it is pretty similar. Let me go through a process of creating a movieclip in flash.
Step the first. Make a separate layer and name it car. Draw a car on that layer. Make sure all your other layers are locked. After you have drawn your car, drag select the whole lot and hit key F8 . Tick RadioBox MovieClip. And name it car_mc. Click ok.
When you are taken back to the timeline, make sure that your movieclip is selected and open your Properties window (I always have my properties window open). In the Instance name textbox, give the MovieClip an instance name. Type in mycar_mc.
This is very important that you give your MovieClips an instance name , otherwise you will not be able to control them with Actionscript. They are useless unless they have an instance name, They are in a vacuum, unusable, a waste of space.
So rule the number the very next..
GIVE YOUR MOVIECLIPS AN INSTANCE NAME STRAIGHT AWAY.
I thought I might put together some of my work practices. These are the steps I put in place to facilitate a good efficient work flow in Flash. These are my tips. I have found they have worked for me. Its a matter of learning these practices so that you do not think about it. Just like driving a car. Then you can concentrate on being creative and working efficiently and quickly within Flash without having to worry about whether you are on the right layer or you have grabbed the wrong Graphic or you have 2 objects to tween on the same layer and you are scratching your head wondering why the tween wont work.
Create A Graphic.
The first thing you do is to create a graphic in Flash. Say you are going to make a circle.
Draw the circle, then go to the select arrow tool and drag around the whole circle including the outline. If you click on the circle to select it, 9 times out of 10 you will select only the fill inside and leave out the outline circle. And then wonder why your tween wont work. Doh!
So rule number 1 is :
USE THE ARROW SELECTION TOOL TO DRAG SELECT THE WHOLE OBJECT.
Then when you have got the drawn item selected by dragging around it. Hit Key F8 (Convert to symbol) and Tick the Graphic Radio Button and name it. I usually use the suffix _gr after a graphic, just so I know that it is a graphic. If I am making a button, I use _btn and a Movieclip I use _mc.
e.g.
Graphic = redcircle_gr
Button == stop_btn
MovieClip = bigCar_mc
Now back to where I was before I went off on a tangent. I hit key F8 to convert the drawing to a graphic. Drawings by themselves are useless. You cant do anything with them , you cant tween or control with programming (Actioncscript in Flash). So make sure you create either a Graphic or a Movieclip so that it is usable.
Ok. So now we have created a greenball_gr and it is on its own layer. Make sure that you have one object per layer. If we are going to tween them later, the tweens wont work unless there is only one Graphic object per layer. If you have two or more it just wont work. !!111!!!
So , lets tween our little ball. We want to move it across the screen. Click on frame 20 and hit key F6 (Insert -> Keyframe). Now move the ball on frame 20. You should have a keyframe on frame 1 and frame 20. We are going to tween or move the ball between frame 1 and 20. Right click on a frame , say frame 10, between the keyframes and select Create Motion Tween. You should have an arrow going from frame 1 to frame 20 on your timeline on layer 1. Now hit enter Key and it will move across the Stage. Flash.
That is what is meant by tweening. Now for the next step which is very important.
Double click on your layer name and rename the layer, Call it Green ball or something that lets you know what you are doing on that frame when you come back later and have forgotten what everything is doing.
AND, now for the most important work practice in Flash after using the arrow selection tool to select and name your Graphic is taaa daaah
LOCK YOUR LAYERS
Thats right folks, Lock your layers. Click on the dot under the lock symbol on your layer and lock it. Why do that ? I hear you say. Well. In flash it gets a bit messy with heaps of layers, so if you lock all the other layers than the one you are currently working on, then you dont go selecting all the wrong bits of other Graphics. They are all locked so they cant be selected and you are safe working on that particular object on that particular layer only.
Now for our next layer. Create another layer in Flash and name it before we do anything else. Lets call it red square. Make sure that your green circle layer is locked before you do anything else !!11!!
Draw a red square on our new layer. Drag select the whole object using the SELECTION TOOL, and hit key (which key ?) F8. Tick the Graphic radio box and name it redSquare_gr. Click on frame 20 , redsquare layer and hit the key to make a keyframe. Which key was that again ? Remember these keys , they are very important. F6.
Revision Time
F8 Convert to Symbol
F6 Insert A Keyframe
But I digress, again! Now where were we? Oh yeah. We had just clicked on frame 20 and inserted a keyframe. Now move the red square Graphic on frame 20 to where we want it to be. Is the Green Circle in the way? Well hide it by clicking on the dot under the eye symbol in the layers palette. Doing that in Flash will make the layer invisible so that other object dont get in the way and you can see what you are doing properly on the layer you are working on.
Right click on somewhere between frames 1 and 20 on the red square layer and select Creat Motion Tween. Hit Enter key to see it run. They both should move independently. If they dont, start again and make sure you have all the steps correct. Follow the instructions to the letter and practice the steps until you dont have to think about it. Flash Work Practices must be ingrained so you dont think about them.
That can be rule number the next.
HIDE THE LAYERS THAT YOU ARE NOT WORKING ON.
Summary
So to reiterate everything I have said so far.
Make sure that you use the drag select tool to select your objects and make them into Graphics or a Movieclips.
Use the Keystroke functions such as F6, F8, F5 etc rather than using the mouse and selecting menu items. The key shortcuts are heaps faster and more professional. Lamers only use menu items for common commands.
Make sure that you only have one object per layer.
Lock your layers that you are not working on.
Hide the layers you are not working on so that you can see what you are doing on the layer you are working on.
MovieClips
That is it for Graphic objects. When it comes to MovieClips in flash it is pretty similar. Let me go through a process of creating a movieclip in flash.
Step the first. Make a separate layer and name it car. Draw a car on that layer. Make sure all your other layers are locked. After you have drawn your car, drag select the whole lot and hit key F8 . Tick RadioBox MovieClip. And name it car_mc. Click ok.
When you are taken back to the timeline, make sure that your movieclip is selected and open your Properties window (I always have my properties window open). In the Instance name textbox, give the MovieClip an instance name. Type in mycar_mc.
This is very important that you give your MovieClips an instance name , otherwise you will not be able to control them with Actionscript. They are useless unless they have an instance name, They are in a vacuum, unusable, a waste of space.
So rule the number the very next..
GIVE YOUR MOVIECLIPS AN INSTANCE NAME STRAIGHT AWAY.
10 Things You Should Be Monitoring On Your Website
Every business needs to know how it is doing. That's the idea behind exit surveys, customer feedback forms, suggestion boxes and other devices. Without feedback from the customer, monitoring inventory, expenses, revenue and other benchmarks, a business can take a quick slide down a slippery slope, without the owner ever seeing it coming or being able to stop the slide.
Webmasters also have things they should be monitoring on their websites. Most of these can be classified as traffic related or server performance related. Here is my top ten list.
Traffic totals. You want to know how much traffic you are generating. If the line on the graph is heading down, you know you have to find out why.
Referrers. It's not enough just to know how many visitors you are getting. You need to know where they are coming from. I discovered I was getting a lot of visitors from a Thanksgiving site. They were all being funneled into my Thanksgiving Happiness article. Suddenly I knew I should get more links from other Thanksgiving sites. Valuable information.
Searches. Much to my surprise, my happiness site started getting a ridiculous number of hits from the search for "hairdressers". It just so happens I wrote a humor column on a hairdresser experience. I was surprised to see it getting so much traffic for such a generic, competitive search term. If that had been a term of a little more relevance for me, this information would have lead me to properly optimize the page and get even more traffic.
Pages viewed per visit. If people visit only one page per visit, you have some work to convince them to visit more pages, like those that make you money.
Pages visited. So you threw up on your site something cool as an add-on. How were you to know that other webmasters would link to it and send a whole bunch of traffic your way? Well, now you know, so add some copy to the page to pull visitors into the rest of your site.
Forms. Are they all functioning? A good website monitoring service can keep tabs on them for you. The last thing you want is to have lost hundreds or thousands of subscribers because a sign-up form stopped functioning
Shopping carts. Slow and complicated shopping carts are responsible for an estimated $25 billion in lost sales. Make sure yours is functioning properly. A good website monitoring service can watch this for you, too.
Download speed. Clear your cache and test your pages. Hmm. Maybe those images are a bit large. Time to compress them, or even remove some. Remember that some people are on a much slower connection than you are. I use a satellite connection sometimes, but when I don't, my connection speed is 28K.
Server speed. Are there problems with server speed? Maybe not where you are, but on the other side of the world. Global website monitoring can alert you to a transatlantic connection problem, so you can take it up with your web hosting service.
Server accessibility. All the web hosts promise 99% accessibility. But is that for real? Who monitors them? By one estimate, 75% of inaccessibility is not on the hosting server, but rather on the Internet's backbone network and in global routing. A global website monitoring service can help identify the problem, so that you can work with your web hosting company to resolve it before too many sales are lost.
Fun. If you are not having fun, audition for that drummer position in the local band. There is no point spending your life doing something that bores you. Webmastering should be fun.
Every business needs to know how it is doing. That's the idea behind exit surveys, customer feedback forms, suggestion boxes and other devices. Without feedback from the customer, monitoring inventory, expenses, revenue and other benchmarks, a business can take a quick slide down a slippery slope, without the owner ever seeing it coming or being able to stop the slide.
Webmasters also have things they should be monitoring on their websites. Most of these can be classified as traffic related or server performance related. Here is my top ten list.
Traffic totals. You want to know how much traffic you are generating. If the line on the graph is heading down, you know you have to find out why.
Referrers. It's not enough just to know how many visitors you are getting. You need to know where they are coming from. I discovered I was getting a lot of visitors from a Thanksgiving site. They were all being funneled into my Thanksgiving Happiness article. Suddenly I knew I should get more links from other Thanksgiving sites. Valuable information.
Searches. Much to my surprise, my happiness site started getting a ridiculous number of hits from the search for "hairdressers". It just so happens I wrote a humor column on a hairdresser experience. I was surprised to see it getting so much traffic for such a generic, competitive search term. If that had been a term of a little more relevance for me, this information would have lead me to properly optimize the page and get even more traffic.
Pages viewed per visit. If people visit only one page per visit, you have some work to convince them to visit more pages, like those that make you money.
Pages visited. So you threw up on your site something cool as an add-on. How were you to know that other webmasters would link to it and send a whole bunch of traffic your way? Well, now you know, so add some copy to the page to pull visitors into the rest of your site.
Forms. Are they all functioning? A good website monitoring service can keep tabs on them for you. The last thing you want is to have lost hundreds or thousands of subscribers because a sign-up form stopped functioning
Shopping carts. Slow and complicated shopping carts are responsible for an estimated $25 billion in lost sales. Make sure yours is functioning properly. A good website monitoring service can watch this for you, too.
Download speed. Clear your cache and test your pages. Hmm. Maybe those images are a bit large. Time to compress them, or even remove some. Remember that some people are on a much slower connection than you are. I use a satellite connection sometimes, but when I don't, my connection speed is 28K.
Server speed. Are there problems with server speed? Maybe not where you are, but on the other side of the world. Global website monitoring can alert you to a transatlantic connection problem, so you can take it up with your web hosting service.
Server accessibility. All the web hosts promise 99% accessibility. But is that for real? Who monitors them? By one estimate, 75% of inaccessibility is not on the hosting server, but rather on the Internet's backbone network and in global routing. A global website monitoring service can help identify the problem, so that you can work with your web hosting company to resolve it before too many sales are lost.
Fun. If you are not having fun, audition for that drummer position in the local band. There is no point spending your life doing something that bores you. Webmastering should be fun.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Interpreting an EKG
EKGs can assist doctors in diagnosing and determining any current or past heart abnormalities and are often a regular screening for those with heart disease. Through electrodes attached at various strategic body points, the EKG machine records the electrical impulses of the heart. The results of the impulses are displayed on a computer monitor and then printed onto graph paper. The attending physician or EKG technician interprets your heart health by reading the graphed EKG image.
EKGs are a critical tool for medical professionals to diagnose and treat heart ailments. The EKG reading of your heart is compared to the reading of a standard/normal heart in order to get an idea of your heart function. Abnormalities in the heart rate, heart rhythm or contractions and relaxations can signal the presence of past heart attacks, heart disease or coronary artery disease. If any of these symptoms are present, your doctor will refer you for further testing.
There are literally dozens of different methods for interpreting EKGs but most begin with a search for recurring patterns. One of the first things EKG technicians look for is heart rate. Electrodes are used to stimulate the heart into contracting and then relaxing. The first spike in the reading (the P spike) represents the impulses from the upper chamber of the heart. A flatter line called the PR interval represents a bridge between the contracting and relaxing of the atria. Each EKG has various other spikes and dips representing heart electrical waves; each spike or dip is referred to by an alphabetic letter.
Most normal hearts have a pattern with a slightly varying rhythm. This is called sinus arrhythmia and is considered normal and healthy. The absence of sinus arrhythmia may indicate other problems with the heart. In EKG interpretation, the lack of sinus arrhythmia has been seen to predict the occurrence of sudden death from heart attack or heart failure. The results of an EKG may become the basis for additional treatment. Your doctor will decide if further evaluation is needed. EKG technicians are highly trained and skilled medical professionals; many physicians consider these technicians to be the first authority in interpreting the EKG results.
Please Note: Professional EKG readings require a great amount of training and education. Since many methods exist to interpret these readings, it is often difficult for non-medical people to understand the terminology. If you are having an EKG performed, your technician will be glad to answer any questions regarding the EKG reading. If you notice something that seems abnormal to you, the technician may be able to calm your fears and by explaining the results in layman's terms.
EKGs can assist doctors in diagnosing and determining any current or past heart abnormalities and are often a regular screening for those with heart disease. Through electrodes attached at various strategic body points, the EKG machine records the electrical impulses of the heart. The results of the impulses are displayed on a computer monitor and then printed onto graph paper. The attending physician or EKG technician interprets your heart health by reading the graphed EKG image.
EKGs are a critical tool for medical professionals to diagnose and treat heart ailments. The EKG reading of your heart is compared to the reading of a standard/normal heart in order to get an idea of your heart function. Abnormalities in the heart rate, heart rhythm or contractions and relaxations can signal the presence of past heart attacks, heart disease or coronary artery disease. If any of these symptoms are present, your doctor will refer you for further testing.
There are literally dozens of different methods for interpreting EKGs but most begin with a search for recurring patterns. One of the first things EKG technicians look for is heart rate. Electrodes are used to stimulate the heart into contracting and then relaxing. The first spike in the reading (the P spike) represents the impulses from the upper chamber of the heart. A flatter line called the PR interval represents a bridge between the contracting and relaxing of the atria. Each EKG has various other spikes and dips representing heart electrical waves; each spike or dip is referred to by an alphabetic letter.
Most normal hearts have a pattern with a slightly varying rhythm. This is called sinus arrhythmia and is considered normal and healthy. The absence of sinus arrhythmia may indicate other problems with the heart. In EKG interpretation, the lack of sinus arrhythmia has been seen to predict the occurrence of sudden death from heart attack or heart failure. The results of an EKG may become the basis for additional treatment. Your doctor will decide if further evaluation is needed. EKG technicians are highly trained and skilled medical professionals; many physicians consider these technicians to be the first authority in interpreting the EKG results.
Please Note: Professional EKG readings require a great amount of training and education. Since many methods exist to interpret these readings, it is often difficult for non-medical people to understand the terminology. If you are having an EKG performed, your technician will be glad to answer any questions regarding the EKG reading. If you notice something that seems abnormal to you, the technician may be able to calm your fears and by explaining the results in layman's terms.
ClickBank Questions
It would seem that Clickbank would provide more for their customers. Obviously, when it comes to internet marketing and affiliate programs, you could put it in your top 10 links. No other database of affiliate programs offers such a possibility for profit on either the affiliate side or the product creation site. And you can't beat the fact that the commissions from over 10,000 products get consolidated into one check. But there are still a few lingering questions that may get you thinking.
What is up with the site? I mean, a site shouldn't be overly complex. In fact, complexity can be a turn off. Then again, I have found more complex site templates from free sites. And it's not just that. How many of you Clickbank affiliates have found news about Clickbank or FAQ's about Clickbank on a forum, clicked the link and the FAQ is on the Clickbank domain. But, if you go to the Clickbank homepage, there is no link to the page you just visited.
I don't know about you, but if I were running a business, I would make sure that customers and vendors could get all of the information possible and not have to find out news through third party sources.
But, on the other hand, I can't complain. The checks do come in. I have never had to search for a customer service link on the site, because there has been no reason to. You make sales and you get a check. It's that simple and I have never found anyone who says otherwise.
Then you've got to wonder about the search feature. There is none. But why? For one reason, if Clickbank itself had a search feature, any internet user who is familiar with Clickbank clicking on an affiliate's hoplink could recognize this. They could then go to Clickbank and buy the product under their own affiliate ID at up to 75% off, which wouldn't matter much to Clickbank or the product seller, at least in the beginning. They still collect their cash.
But eventually, the product seller would notice a drop in sales. Affiliates would become less than satisfied with the results of all their hard work and stop working as hard to make sales that weren't coming in anyway. Therefore, there would be less advertising of the product in total. You can't underestimate the value of an affiliate army who are rewarded accordingly.
There are plenty of third party products available that will essentially build a search engine on a Clickbank affiliate's site for them.
Even without this, there are some out there who know what a Clickbank Hoplink looks like and just where to put their own Clickbank ID in order to make a commission for themselves.
Should the affiliates themselves be responsible for protecting their sales. I don't think so. Of course there are products that can help you protect your links, but shouldn't the responsibility rest on the product developer. Our heroes, the third-party software developers, come to the rescue again by providing software to do this for you, but only a few of the product developers selling through Clickbank rely on these products. This leaves a lot of affiliate out in the cold, relying on link cloaking to protect their sales.
I love when I sign up for an affiliate program and click the link assigned to me to test it out and I am delivered to the main page of the site. There is no "?hop=" behind the URL, just "www.mysite.com." This lets me know that my only job is to get the word out on the product and not become an expert on encryption just to make a sale. Just to let you developers know out there, it is also great not to create a link for affiliates from any page designed for sales. You've just defeated any work we as affiliates or you as a responsible marketer have done to save our commissions. Send the link after the sales if you want to but don't treat your affiliates like dirt by telling their lead that they can get a 50% discount by signing up for your affiliate program.
Another reason for product developers to check out link cloaking software: link popularity. If you use the conventional hoplink, Clickbank gets a link back to their site. If the affiliate has to encrypt the link himself, no one gets the link credit. If you buy one of these scripts, your affiliates will advertise a link that points to your site. Just something to think about.
Then there is sales notices. There are none. There used to be a time when Clickbank would send you an e-mail each and every time you made a sale. Spam? Only if you consider a check from the IRS junk mail. Personally, Clickbank could fill my inbox to the limits with notices like this. But this service is no longer there.
I don't want to even start with Clickbank's sales reports functions. Lets just say that they could be improved, a lot.
This is even another area where third party vendors lend a helping hand. You can create affiliate sales reports, profit reports, send e-mails to your customers, and even graph sales trends with such software. Some are scripts that you run on your site. These will send out a thank you e-mail, add the customer to your database and even activate an autoreponder to send out e-mails to your customers in the future. Others allow to have multiple products, multiple sites, and only one Clickbank account.
So what am I trying to say? Just that with the money you would think Clickbank is making, it seems that they could create a more elaborate, user-friendly site. Despite this, you can't beat Clickbank for high commissions and consolidated payments. In fact, some of the holes in the Clickbank system has allowed some innovative software developers to step in and provide very useful tools. Those who use Clickbank to sell their products should take notice and guarantee an effective affiliate sales force by at least checking these solutions out. In turn, they will be rewarded with more sales and affiliates who trust them.
It would seem that Clickbank would provide more for their customers. Obviously, when it comes to internet marketing and affiliate programs, you could put it in your top 10 links. No other database of affiliate programs offers such a possibility for profit on either the affiliate side or the product creation site. And you can't beat the fact that the commissions from over 10,000 products get consolidated into one check. But there are still a few lingering questions that may get you thinking.
What is up with the site? I mean, a site shouldn't be overly complex. In fact, complexity can be a turn off. Then again, I have found more complex site templates from free sites. And it's not just that. How many of you Clickbank affiliates have found news about Clickbank or FAQ's about Clickbank on a forum, clicked the link and the FAQ is on the Clickbank domain. But, if you go to the Clickbank homepage, there is no link to the page you just visited.
I don't know about you, but if I were running a business, I would make sure that customers and vendors could get all of the information possible and not have to find out news through third party sources.
But, on the other hand, I can't complain. The checks do come in. I have never had to search for a customer service link on the site, because there has been no reason to. You make sales and you get a check. It's that simple and I have never found anyone who says otherwise.
Then you've got to wonder about the search feature. There is none. But why? For one reason, if Clickbank itself had a search feature, any internet user who is familiar with Clickbank clicking on an affiliate's hoplink could recognize this. They could then go to Clickbank and buy the product under their own affiliate ID at up to 75% off, which wouldn't matter much to Clickbank or the product seller, at least in the beginning. They still collect their cash.
But eventually, the product seller would notice a drop in sales. Affiliates would become less than satisfied with the results of all their hard work and stop working as hard to make sales that weren't coming in anyway. Therefore, there would be less advertising of the product in total. You can't underestimate the value of an affiliate army who are rewarded accordingly.
There are plenty of third party products available that will essentially build a search engine on a Clickbank affiliate's site for them.
Even without this, there are some out there who know what a Clickbank Hoplink looks like and just where to put their own Clickbank ID in order to make a commission for themselves.
Should the affiliates themselves be responsible for protecting their sales. I don't think so. Of course there are products that can help you protect your links, but shouldn't the responsibility rest on the product developer. Our heroes, the third-party software developers, come to the rescue again by providing software to do this for you, but only a few of the product developers selling through Clickbank rely on these products. This leaves a lot of affiliate out in the cold, relying on link cloaking to protect their sales.
I love when I sign up for an affiliate program and click the link assigned to me to test it out and I am delivered to the main page of the site. There is no "?hop=" behind the URL, just "www.mysite.com." This lets me know that my only job is to get the word out on the product and not become an expert on encryption just to make a sale. Just to let you developers know out there, it is also great not to create a link for affiliates from any page designed for sales. You've just defeated any work we as affiliates or you as a responsible marketer have done to save our commissions. Send the link after the sales if you want to but don't treat your affiliates like dirt by telling their lead that they can get a 50% discount by signing up for your affiliate program.
Another reason for product developers to check out link cloaking software: link popularity. If you use the conventional hoplink, Clickbank gets a link back to their site. If the affiliate has to encrypt the link himself, no one gets the link credit. If you buy one of these scripts, your affiliates will advertise a link that points to your site. Just something to think about.
Then there is sales notices. There are none. There used to be a time when Clickbank would send you an e-mail each and every time you made a sale. Spam? Only if you consider a check from the IRS junk mail. Personally, Clickbank could fill my inbox to the limits with notices like this. But this service is no longer there.
I don't want to even start with Clickbank's sales reports functions. Lets just say that they could be improved, a lot.
This is even another area where third party vendors lend a helping hand. You can create affiliate sales reports, profit reports, send e-mails to your customers, and even graph sales trends with such software. Some are scripts that you run on your site. These will send out a thank you e-mail, add the customer to your database and even activate an autoreponder to send out e-mails to your customers in the future. Others allow to have multiple products, multiple sites, and only one Clickbank account.
So what am I trying to say? Just that with the money you would think Clickbank is making, it seems that they could create a more elaborate, user-friendly site. Despite this, you can't beat Clickbank for high commissions and consolidated payments. In fact, some of the holes in the Clickbank system has allowed some innovative software developers to step in and provide very useful tools. Those who use Clickbank to sell their products should take notice and guarantee an effective affiliate sales force by at least checking these solutions out. In turn, they will be rewarded with more sales and affiliates who trust them.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Are Your Affiliate Programs Eating Away Your Money And Time
So many times I have heard this. So many examples I do remember. People have left the internet business after being disappointed with their so called affiliate programs.
An affiliate program is an excellent way to earn money especially in the beginning. I said beginning because at that time one does not understand the market and is too nave to bring his own product out in right way.
Affiliate programs fill that gap nicely. You have got a readymade product and a readymade webpage too (though you can develop your own and you should be doing that).There is only one aspect left to make that money.
Making sales.
But you need to choose your affiliate program carefully.
An affiliate program should be free to join. You should be cautious of the programs that will charge you upfront to be able to become their affiliates. Sometimes you buy a product and get affiliate status as bonus. That is acceptable. But a good affiliate program should not charge you a membership fee monthly or yearly whatever the case may be.
There are some programs which charge you a monthly fee for becoming a member and you are expected to recruit more for getting a commission. These are not affiliate programs but MLM programs.
Be cautious when you join such programs. They do not offer a good product to sell. The only thing that you have to sell is the membership. Such programs may eat up a lot of your money before you realize their worthlessness. In such programs you sell a membership and your recruit is expected to sell the same in return.
This kind of sale is not only hard to accomplish but also associated with high attrition. That means the rate of members dropping out is very high.
Also you should get a good commission. Check the percentage offered. Good programs offer 50-60% commissions. Though high priced products seem quite lucrative due to apparent volume of money in commission but selling a high priced product may not be that easy task too. It is because the market for those may not be that large. So you need to select your product carefully.
One very important factor that is often ignored is your aptitude for the particular product. Select a product that you can associate your interests with. For example if you like gardening then a product that caters the gardening needs will be easier to sell than a selling a real estate product.
Because in sales first of all you need to be convinced about the usability and benefits of the product before you attempt to sell it. If the product is around the area of your interest you can easily identify the beneficial aspects. Then you will find it easier to convince your potential customers.
Study the market and demand for that product.
If the demand is high the sales are easier. To study the demand go to Overture or Google and look for the search made around the keywords of your product. It will give you a fair idea about the demand.
Plan your market strategies beforehand.
It is better if you make your own website instead of promoting the copy of the original page laced with your link. Having your own website gives you a unique identification and professional look. The other advantage is that you can promote multiple products on the same page rather than promoting different pages separately.
Web hosting is quite cheap now a days and webpage can be easily built in front page.
Try and give your full efforts into promoting what you have got. Affiliate programs are good way to learn the market tactics. Learn and try them best to your abilities.
Stick with the product you have chosen instead of jumping to the new offer of some other product. New products are being released everyday but being new does not mean that it is better and easier to sell.
Analyze regularly. Test regularly and keep working.
Your commission graph would definitely rise.
Wish you success.
Copyright 2005 Arun Pal Singh
So many times I have heard this. So many examples I do remember. People have left the internet business after being disappointed with their so called affiliate programs.
An affiliate program is an excellent way to earn money especially in the beginning. I said beginning because at that time one does not understand the market and is too nave to bring his own product out in right way.
Affiliate programs fill that gap nicely. You have got a readymade product and a readymade webpage too (though you can develop your own and you should be doing that).There is only one aspect left to make that money.
Making sales.
But you need to choose your affiliate program carefully.
An affiliate program should be free to join. You should be cautious of the programs that will charge you upfront to be able to become their affiliates. Sometimes you buy a product and get affiliate status as bonus. That is acceptable. But a good affiliate program should not charge you a membership fee monthly or yearly whatever the case may be.
There are some programs which charge you a monthly fee for becoming a member and you are expected to recruit more for getting a commission. These are not affiliate programs but MLM programs.
Be cautious when you join such programs. They do not offer a good product to sell. The only thing that you have to sell is the membership. Such programs may eat up a lot of your money before you realize their worthlessness. In such programs you sell a membership and your recruit is expected to sell the same in return.
This kind of sale is not only hard to accomplish but also associated with high attrition. That means the rate of members dropping out is very high.
Also you should get a good commission. Check the percentage offered. Good programs offer 50-60% commissions. Though high priced products seem quite lucrative due to apparent volume of money in commission but selling a high priced product may not be that easy task too. It is because the market for those may not be that large. So you need to select your product carefully.
One very important factor that is often ignored is your aptitude for the particular product. Select a product that you can associate your interests with. For example if you like gardening then a product that caters the gardening needs will be easier to sell than a selling a real estate product.
Because in sales first of all you need to be convinced about the usability and benefits of the product before you attempt to sell it. If the product is around the area of your interest you can easily identify the beneficial aspects. Then you will find it easier to convince your potential customers.
Study the market and demand for that product.
If the demand is high the sales are easier. To study the demand go to Overture or Google and look for the search made around the keywords of your product. It will give you a fair idea about the demand.
Plan your market strategies beforehand.
It is better if you make your own website instead of promoting the copy of the original page laced with your link. Having your own website gives you a unique identification and professional look. The other advantage is that you can promote multiple products on the same page rather than promoting different pages separately.
Web hosting is quite cheap now a days and webpage can be easily built in front page.
Try and give your full efforts into promoting what you have got. Affiliate programs are good way to learn the market tactics. Learn and try them best to your abilities.
Stick with the product you have chosen instead of jumping to the new offer of some other product. New products are being released everyday but being new does not mean that it is better and easier to sell.
Analyze regularly. Test regularly and keep working.
Your commission graph would definitely rise.
Wish you success.
Copyright 2005 Arun Pal Singh
Analyze Your Trading System
I'm going to share with you some of the factors that I examine when I am testing and analyzing potential new trading systems. First, you might be wondering what I use when developing new systems. There are a variety of different software packages available, but I use TradeStation most of the time. The graphic below shows a TradeStation summary of a system that is being tested. You can refer to that throughout this article for the different factors we will discuss.
If you do not want to pay for a software package, advanced users in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel could import data from Yahoo! Finance or some other data vendor and set up data tables to simulate trading. That works just as well as sophisticated software packages but is much more time-consuming and difficult to set up.
The Time Period you choose is important because you want to analyze your system during a variety of market conditions. I usually choose to start somewhere around January 1998 and test all the way to the current date for my systems. This way your system will be tested in strong up years, strong down years and several years that moved relatively less.
Net Profit is probably the first thing most traders look at when they develop a system. Unfortunately, some traders only look at their net profit, and that is why I am writing this article. Net profit is important, of course, but not necessarily the most important factor. A system might have a huge net profit, but if all that profit was made in a couple large trades during 1999 or 2002, that is not a good system. What you want to make sure you develop is a system that works consistently well in all market conditions.
Total Trades and Trade Length are important so you know for sure that your system will work well with what you are trading and again you also want to look for consistency. If you are developing a swing trading system for stocks you will probably want a few dozen trades per year that meet your conditions and most of the trades taking anywhere from 2 to 14 days. If you're going to be trading something else then those conditions will be different.
Another important factor in your new trading system is Percent Profitable. Of course we would naturally assume that the system that has the highest number of profitable trades would be the best. That is not always true though. This is where Win/Loss Ratio (average winning trade divided by average loosing trade) comes in. You may have a high percentage of profitable trades but the average loss might be much higher then your average gain. I have seen systems that have as many as 85% of their trades showing a profit, but if that same system has a Win/Loss Ratio of 0.50, that is their losses are on average twice as big as their wins, you still may not be able to make any money with this system. However there are also systems that may only be right 30% of the time but when they're right they're right by a lot and may have a high Win/Loss Ratio of 4.5 or greater and that you might actually be able to make money with. In general though, most good trading systems have a greater then 50% Percent Profitable and a great then 2.0 Win/Loss Ratio.
The final factor that we are going to examine is the Equity Curve. This is the ultimate test of a consistent trading system. The Equity Curve is simply a graph that shows the total profit or loss after each trade. The line of a good Equity Curve should steadily increase from the left side of the chart to the right. This shows that the system is making consistent profits in all market conditions. Bad systems, even ones who are winners in the end will have wild fluxations in their Equity Curve, having huge increases and decreases for long periods of time or periods of no movement at all.
I'm going to share with you some of the factors that I examine when I am testing and analyzing potential new trading systems. First, you might be wondering what I use when developing new systems. There are a variety of different software packages available, but I use TradeStation most of the time. The graphic below shows a TradeStation summary of a system that is being tested. You can refer to that throughout this article for the different factors we will discuss.
If you do not want to pay for a software package, advanced users in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel could import data from Yahoo! Finance or some other data vendor and set up data tables to simulate trading. That works just as well as sophisticated software packages but is much more time-consuming and difficult to set up.
The Time Period you choose is important because you want to analyze your system during a variety of market conditions. I usually choose to start somewhere around January 1998 and test all the way to the current date for my systems. This way your system will be tested in strong up years, strong down years and several years that moved relatively less.
Net Profit is probably the first thing most traders look at when they develop a system. Unfortunately, some traders only look at their net profit, and that is why I am writing this article. Net profit is important, of course, but not necessarily the most important factor. A system might have a huge net profit, but if all that profit was made in a couple large trades during 1999 or 2002, that is not a good system. What you want to make sure you develop is a system that works consistently well in all market conditions.
Total Trades and Trade Length are important so you know for sure that your system will work well with what you are trading and again you also want to look for consistency. If you are developing a swing trading system for stocks you will probably want a few dozen trades per year that meet your conditions and most of the trades taking anywhere from 2 to 14 days. If you're going to be trading something else then those conditions will be different.
Another important factor in your new trading system is Percent Profitable. Of course we would naturally assume that the system that has the highest number of profitable trades would be the best. That is not always true though. This is where Win/Loss Ratio (average winning trade divided by average loosing trade) comes in. You may have a high percentage of profitable trades but the average loss might be much higher then your average gain. I have seen systems that have as many as 85% of their trades showing a profit, but if that same system has a Win/Loss Ratio of 0.50, that is their losses are on average twice as big as their wins, you still may not be able to make any money with this system. However there are also systems that may only be right 30% of the time but when they're right they're right by a lot and may have a high Win/Loss Ratio of 4.5 or greater and that you might actually be able to make money with. In general though, most good trading systems have a greater then 50% Percent Profitable and a great then 2.0 Win/Loss Ratio.
The final factor that we are going to examine is the Equity Curve. This is the ultimate test of a consistent trading system. The Equity Curve is simply a graph that shows the total profit or loss after each trade. The line of a good Equity Curve should steadily increase from the left side of the chart to the right. This shows that the system is making consistent profits in all market conditions. Bad systems, even ones who are winners in the end will have wild fluxations in their Equity Curve, having huge increases and decreases for long periods of time or periods of no movement at all.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
RAM - What is It & Why You Need Plenty
This is the first article in the Understanding Your Computer series from aworldofhelp.com. Our goal is to help people understand how their computer works, not simply tell them what they need to buy or use. When you know how your computer works, buying the right system or upgrade is easy. The series is designed to provide valuable information to users of all knowledge levels, so if part of it seems too complicated or too simple for you, I hope you read on and get all you can out of the articles. If you have questions or comments about this or any article, please ask in the forums!
RAM - What is it & why you need plenty
Many people picture a computer as consisting in part of a
Processor - CPU
Memory - RAM
Hard Drive
The way these three components interact is important to understanding how a computer works, and ultimately to understanding why you need enough RAM for your programs. Around the Internet and in Magazines you can find recommended RAM amounts for typical users. You also will find many places proclaiming RAM as the best performance for your dollar upgrade. I don't disagree at all, but I want you to understand what RAM actually does, and why it can be such a valuable upgrade.
I covered this subject briefly in the aworldofhelp Notebook Buyer's Guide on page 4. The information in that article is accurate, but I want to try to make things a little clearer here.
The article is divided into four sections, covering:
1. The functions of the three components we are discussing and their relative speeds
2. Why you need RAM and what takes up RAM
3. Multitasking and how RAM improves performance
4. How much RAM you need
CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. It is the brain of your computer. When you open a program, like Microsoft Word for example, the CPU reads through lines of computer code and follows the instructions so you can use your program. When you play an audio file like an MP3, the CPU has to do work to decompress it while it plays. When you edit a picture the CPU has to perform many calculations to make even the smallest changes.
One thing to note is that the CPU actually does have a very small amount of memory in it. This is the fastest memory in a computer system, but it is so small it doesn't really affect this article. Generally speaking, the CPU doesn't store the information that makes up the program, MP3, or picture, it only processes it. The data has to be located somewhere in your computer, and the CPU has to find it and then retrieve it.
That action, the problem of locating the data and how it affects your overall system performance is what this article is about.
RAM
RAM stands for Random Access Memory. This memory is very fast, and you will see it in sizes like 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1024 MB. When you turn off your computer, the contents are erased, so it is only temporary memory. This is where the CPU looks first to get data to process. So if you are editing a picture, and its data is in this RAM, because RAM is fast memory, editing the picture will happen relatively quickly.
Hard Drive
Your Hard Drive is where you store all of your programs, music, video, and everything you keep on your computer. This is the memory where you store your files that remain even after you turn your system off. You will see them in all sizes, now typically ranging from 30 GB, to hundreds of GB. Hard drives are very slow compared to your CPU and RAM because they are mechanical. Inside the disk there are actually small readers that physically move around to locate and read data.
If you are editing a picture, the CPU will first look in RAM memory to see if it is there, because RAM is fast. If it isn't, the CPU will go to the hard drive and edit the picture there. Because your hard drive is so slow, this takes a much longer time than if the picture had been in RAM.
Again, the CPU only stores a tiny bit of data, so it has to get it from somewhere to operate on. If the CPU has data to process, it will do so as fast as it can, but if it doesn't, the brain of your computer simply sits and waits doing nothing. Only after it finds and retrieves the data it needs can it process it.
So ideally, you want your CPU to find data in the fastest place possible. As you can see, if the data is in RAM you are far better off than if it is in your hard disk because RAM is so much faster. Just take a look at the graph below. It shows the time it takes to access each memory type in nanoseconds.
Clearly, your hard drive is slow, but when you look at the above graph, and you see the numbers it is based on below, you realize just how slow it is. Each is an approximate access time in nanoseconds:
CPU 1 ns
RAM 60 ns
Hard Drive 10,000,000 ns
It should be clear why the bars for your CPU and RAM do not even show up on this graph, your hard drive is simply extremely slow.
So why bother with a hard disk?
Seeing that, you might think that it would be great if you could just use huge amounts of RAM instead of a hard disk. You are right, this would be a great situation, but as you might imagine, the faster the memory in your computer, the more expensive it is. RAM prices have come down significantly in recent years, but it will still cost you much more compared to Hard Drive space.
Computers work within this constraint - that faster memory is more expensive - by looking in the fastest place for information first, then moving to slower locations only when they need to. So if you hear your hard drive making noise or you see a light telling you it is being accessed, you know the data could not be found in RAM.
Now you know that the hard drive access that's going on is very slow, and that is the reason your CPU, and in turn you, have to wait.
So now you know that you want lots of RAM, at least enough for all your programs, so you don't have to access your slow hard drive too often. But what actually uses your RAM, and how can you see whether your system has enough?
Windows itself takes up a lot of RAM. Microsoft says Windows XP will run on a machine with 64 MB of RAM, though they recommend 128 MB or 256 MB. If you have even more RAM than that, and I recommend you do, Windows will use some of it as well.
Everything that loads when you boot up your computer also uses RAM. What these programs are actually doing is putting themselves in to RAM, if enough is available, so that they can be used very quickly. The problem is when there isn't enough memory for all these programs, and your computer runs very slowly.
On my machine these programs load when I turn on my computer:
AVG Antivirus
Scanner Software
Digital Camera Software
Gmail Notifier
AOL Instant Messenger
And some server software for testing
Then, everything I run after the boot up uses more RAM. Whatever Internet Browser I use, for example, takes up RAM. Microsoft Word does too, as well as all my programs. To see how much RAM you have and how much free RAM you have, you can open up Task Manager by right clicking on the start menu and selecting it, it looks like this.
On the right, in the Physical Memory section my RAM is listed. My total and available memory is listed, and as you can see, just booting my computer into Windows XP and loading all the things I do, I have less than half of my RAM available for other programs.
Your system will probably have less total RAM, but you'll be able to see how much and how much you have free. You can easily find out how much ram you have by right clicking on "My Computer" and going to properties, but it's useful to see it here so you understand what the Task Manager is showing. You can use this tool to convert the number shown in "K" to a number that you may be more comfortable with, in "MB".
K MB
On my computer, 1048040 K converts to 1023.4 MB, which is 1024 MB.
Your own system may give you a number a few megabytes lower than the actual. For example, 252 instead of 256. That is normal, and is a result of something else, like a video chip, using a portion of the RAM. The actual RAM your programs has to work with is the number listed in the Task Manager.
In my example, I have a hundreds of Megabytes of free RAM. I sometimes fill the RAM if I am video editing or photo editing, but beyond that, it is rare. This is a good thing though, remember the chart. If your RAM is full, your Hard Drive will be used more, and since it is so slow, your system will grind to near a halt.
By looking at the Task Manager, you can get a good idea of how your system is running. If you have lots of available RAM, you are in good shape. But many systems I see actually have almost no free RAM, and this is what causes the system to use the hard disk instead and run slower. Note that the available RAM will generally never hit zero, but will fluctuate around very low numbers if your system is out of memory.
Our example so far has been simplified to show how doing one thing on your computer needs memory. But a real benefit of having adequate memory is multitasking. Basically, if you are doing more than one thing at a time, you are multitasking. If you are reading this article and editing a picture at the same time, you are multitasking.
Generally, if you can switch between two open programs on your machine very quickly, they both are loaded into RAM. In this case, you can likely see plenty of available memory in Task Manager. On my machine, since I have plenty of RAM, I switch between two or three Internet browsers, Excel, PowerPoint, Instant Messenger, my audio player, and more very quickly.
On the other hand if you don't have enough RAM, even with just two programs open, when you switch between them your computer may slow down considerably. The program you are switching to is not in RAM, and the CPU is forced to get information from the hard disk. As you open more programs, the situation only gets worse. A check on task manager in this case will likely show very little free RAM, too little in fact to fit all your programs.
How Much RAM do you need?
The best answer is that you need enough RAM to run all your programs and multitask between them quickly. If your system is running well and you check Task Manager and have lots of available RAM, you are probably in good shape. If your system is slow switching between more than one program, look at the task manager and see if your available RAM is low. If it is, adding more will likely make your entire system run faster, just by fitting more programs into RAM.
You'll be amazed how fixing this problem will improve you computing experience overall. That is the reason so many people talk about RAM as being the best upgrade for older systems.
If you are buying a new computer 512 MB is a good amount of RAM for most users. If you edit a lot of pictures or video, or if you can just afford the upgrade, moving up to 1024 MB (1 GB) is not a bad idea. Memory prices are much lower than they used to be, and you'll have extra memory for more programs now. For most users, the biggest advantage to getting more RAM is that if you keep your computer for a long time, the extra RAM could save you an upgrade down the road.
But how much RAM is too much? Well you won't really slow down your system by adding RAM. Typical systems currently can accommodate up to anywhere from 512 MB - 2 GB of RAM. The problem is, after you have enough RAM, adding more really doesn't get you much, if any performance gain.
With that in mind, check back soon for an article comparing performance of common applications, including multitasking, with different amounts of RAM. We'll test from 256 MB to 1024MB, and you'll be able to see how all we've covered here has a real affect on the speed of your computer.
This is the first article in the Understanding Your Computer series from aworldofhelp.com. Our goal is to help people understand how their computer works, not simply tell them what they need to buy or use. When you know how your computer works, buying the right system or upgrade is easy. The series is designed to provide valuable information to users of all knowledge levels, so if part of it seems too complicated or too simple for you, I hope you read on and get all you can out of the articles. If you have questions or comments about this or any article, please ask in the forums!
RAM - What is it & why you need plenty
Many people picture a computer as consisting in part of a
Processor - CPU
Memory - RAM
Hard Drive
The way these three components interact is important to understanding how a computer works, and ultimately to understanding why you need enough RAM for your programs. Around the Internet and in Magazines you can find recommended RAM amounts for typical users. You also will find many places proclaiming RAM as the best performance for your dollar upgrade. I don't disagree at all, but I want you to understand what RAM actually does, and why it can be such a valuable upgrade.
I covered this subject briefly in the aworldofhelp Notebook Buyer's Guide on page 4. The information in that article is accurate, but I want to try to make things a little clearer here.
The article is divided into four sections, covering:
1. The functions of the three components we are discussing and their relative speeds
2. Why you need RAM and what takes up RAM
3. Multitasking and how RAM improves performance
4. How much RAM you need
CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. It is the brain of your computer. When you open a program, like Microsoft Word for example, the CPU reads through lines of computer code and follows the instructions so you can use your program. When you play an audio file like an MP3, the CPU has to do work to decompress it while it plays. When you edit a picture the CPU has to perform many calculations to make even the smallest changes.
One thing to note is that the CPU actually does have a very small amount of memory in it. This is the fastest memory in a computer system, but it is so small it doesn't really affect this article. Generally speaking, the CPU doesn't store the information that makes up the program, MP3, or picture, it only processes it. The data has to be located somewhere in your computer, and the CPU has to find it and then retrieve it.
That action, the problem of locating the data and how it affects your overall system performance is what this article is about.
RAM
RAM stands for Random Access Memory. This memory is very fast, and you will see it in sizes like 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1024 MB. When you turn off your computer, the contents are erased, so it is only temporary memory. This is where the CPU looks first to get data to process. So if you are editing a picture, and its data is in this RAM, because RAM is fast memory, editing the picture will happen relatively quickly.
Hard Drive
Your Hard Drive is where you store all of your programs, music, video, and everything you keep on your computer. This is the memory where you store your files that remain even after you turn your system off. You will see them in all sizes, now typically ranging from 30 GB, to hundreds of GB. Hard drives are very slow compared to your CPU and RAM because they are mechanical. Inside the disk there are actually small readers that physically move around to locate and read data.
If you are editing a picture, the CPU will first look in RAM memory to see if it is there, because RAM is fast. If it isn't, the CPU will go to the hard drive and edit the picture there. Because your hard drive is so slow, this takes a much longer time than if the picture had been in RAM.
Again, the CPU only stores a tiny bit of data, so it has to get it from somewhere to operate on. If the CPU has data to process, it will do so as fast as it can, but if it doesn't, the brain of your computer simply sits and waits doing nothing. Only after it finds and retrieves the data it needs can it process it.
So ideally, you want your CPU to find data in the fastest place possible. As you can see, if the data is in RAM you are far better off than if it is in your hard disk because RAM is so much faster. Just take a look at the graph below. It shows the time it takes to access each memory type in nanoseconds.
Clearly, your hard drive is slow, but when you look at the above graph, and you see the numbers it is based on below, you realize just how slow it is. Each is an approximate access time in nanoseconds:
CPU 1 ns
RAM 60 ns
Hard Drive 10,000,000 ns
It should be clear why the bars for your CPU and RAM do not even show up on this graph, your hard drive is simply extremely slow.
So why bother with a hard disk?
Seeing that, you might think that it would be great if you could just use huge amounts of RAM instead of a hard disk. You are right, this would be a great situation, but as you might imagine, the faster the memory in your computer, the more expensive it is. RAM prices have come down significantly in recent years, but it will still cost you much more compared to Hard Drive space.
Computers work within this constraint - that faster memory is more expensive - by looking in the fastest place for information first, then moving to slower locations only when they need to. So if you hear your hard drive making noise or you see a light telling you it is being accessed, you know the data could not be found in RAM.
Now you know that the hard drive access that's going on is very slow, and that is the reason your CPU, and in turn you, have to wait.
So now you know that you want lots of RAM, at least enough for all your programs, so you don't have to access your slow hard drive too often. But what actually uses your RAM, and how can you see whether your system has enough?
Windows itself takes up a lot of RAM. Microsoft says Windows XP will run on a machine with 64 MB of RAM, though they recommend 128 MB or 256 MB. If you have even more RAM than that, and I recommend you do, Windows will use some of it as well.
Everything that loads when you boot up your computer also uses RAM. What these programs are actually doing is putting themselves in to RAM, if enough is available, so that they can be used very quickly. The problem is when there isn't enough memory for all these programs, and your computer runs very slowly.
On my machine these programs load when I turn on my computer:
AVG Antivirus
Scanner Software
Digital Camera Software
Gmail Notifier
AOL Instant Messenger
And some server software for testing
Then, everything I run after the boot up uses more RAM. Whatever Internet Browser I use, for example, takes up RAM. Microsoft Word does too, as well as all my programs. To see how much RAM you have and how much free RAM you have, you can open up Task Manager by right clicking on the start menu and selecting it, it looks like this.
On the right, in the Physical Memory section my RAM is listed. My total and available memory is listed, and as you can see, just booting my computer into Windows XP and loading all the things I do, I have less than half of my RAM available for other programs.
Your system will probably have less total RAM, but you'll be able to see how much and how much you have free. You can easily find out how much ram you have by right clicking on "My Computer" and going to properties, but it's useful to see it here so you understand what the Task Manager is showing. You can use this tool to convert the number shown in "K" to a number that you may be more comfortable with, in "MB".
K MB
On my computer, 1048040 K converts to 1023.4 MB, which is 1024 MB.
Your own system may give you a number a few megabytes lower than the actual. For example, 252 instead of 256. That is normal, and is a result of something else, like a video chip, using a portion of the RAM. The actual RAM your programs has to work with is the number listed in the Task Manager.
In my example, I have a hundreds of Megabytes of free RAM. I sometimes fill the RAM if I am video editing or photo editing, but beyond that, it is rare. This is a good thing though, remember the chart. If your RAM is full, your Hard Drive will be used more, and since it is so slow, your system will grind to near a halt.
By looking at the Task Manager, you can get a good idea of how your system is running. If you have lots of available RAM, you are in good shape. But many systems I see actually have almost no free RAM, and this is what causes the system to use the hard disk instead and run slower. Note that the available RAM will generally never hit zero, but will fluctuate around very low numbers if your system is out of memory.
Our example so far has been simplified to show how doing one thing on your computer needs memory. But a real benefit of having adequate memory is multitasking. Basically, if you are doing more than one thing at a time, you are multitasking. If you are reading this article and editing a picture at the same time, you are multitasking.
Generally, if you can switch between two open programs on your machine very quickly, they both are loaded into RAM. In this case, you can likely see plenty of available memory in Task Manager. On my machine, since I have plenty of RAM, I switch between two or three Internet browsers, Excel, PowerPoint, Instant Messenger, my audio player, and more very quickly.
On the other hand if you don't have enough RAM, even with just two programs open, when you switch between them your computer may slow down considerably. The program you are switching to is not in RAM, and the CPU is forced to get information from the hard disk. As you open more programs, the situation only gets worse. A check on task manager in this case will likely show very little free RAM, too little in fact to fit all your programs.
How Much RAM do you need?
The best answer is that you need enough RAM to run all your programs and multitask between them quickly. If your system is running well and you check Task Manager and have lots of available RAM, you are probably in good shape. If your system is slow switching between more than one program, look at the task manager and see if your available RAM is low. If it is, adding more will likely make your entire system run faster, just by fitting more programs into RAM.
You'll be amazed how fixing this problem will improve you computing experience overall. That is the reason so many people talk about RAM as being the best upgrade for older systems.
If you are buying a new computer 512 MB is a good amount of RAM for most users. If you edit a lot of pictures or video, or if you can just afford the upgrade, moving up to 1024 MB (1 GB) is not a bad idea. Memory prices are much lower than they used to be, and you'll have extra memory for more programs now. For most users, the biggest advantage to getting more RAM is that if you keep your computer for a long time, the extra RAM could save you an upgrade down the road.
But how much RAM is too much? Well you won't really slow down your system by adding RAM. Typical systems currently can accommodate up to anywhere from 512 MB - 2 GB of RAM. The problem is, after you have enough RAM, adding more really doesn't get you much, if any performance gain.
With that in mind, check back soon for an article comparing performance of common applications, including multitasking, with different amounts of RAM. We'll test from 256 MB to 1024MB, and you'll be able to see how all we've covered here has a real affect on the speed of your computer.
Building or Decorating Your Home Requires House Plans
There are some things to consider when creating plans for your home. There are two situations that call for plans or blue prints, either you are building a new home or decorating your present home. The types of plans required for either situation will vary depending on the extent of your project.
When building a new home, there are several things you will want to consider carefully. The most obvious is where you are going to build your house. The climate will affect where you build. You wouldnt build an icehouse in the middle of the desert. You will want to determine what material you will want to use. Brick, wood, and cement are popular. In the southern states clay adobe houses are the norm. In the north and other areas brick, wood, and stone are options. The climate will influence this choice as well. In areas where there is cold weather brick and cement are used because they absorb and retain heat. In the south wood frame houses are built. The size of your lot will determine the size and type of house you want. You couldnt build a mansion on say a quarter of an acre. On the other hand a one bedroom, single floor home would look strange on a lot that is two acres or bigger. Whether your home has a basement could be important and that would depend on where you live.
If you are lucky to have a basement, it can house the laundry room and your gym equipment or be a playroom/guest room.
Now that you know where and what type of climate you will be building in it is time to think about the plans. Blueprints are or have been used to draw a linear picture of the house as you see it. Now however there are computer programs that will allow you to build your house in 3-D. There are also web sites online that will also allow you to build your house and see it in 3-D. Not only that but some sites will allow you to place your furniture. There are several kinds of technical drawings that are used to create plans for a new home. There are site plans that address coding issues, landscaping, location specifics, drainage (land contours), trees, set backs, and property lines. A floor plan is a design plan of the house, the layout of the rooms, and where the windows and doors. Another type of plan is building sections, which is a cross section of the house. It helps determine any issues, visualize your finished house and floor plans using section marks. Wall sections show the construction of one exterior wall where sections are indicated with section marks. Exterior Elevations include such features as porches and decks. They also show furniture, window and door locations, eave heights and roofing. Interior elevations show the lighting layout and ceiling conditions. Porches are another very interesting option; they can be enclosed, go all the way around the house. They can also be half-enclosed and half-open. They can be reminders of times past. A huge porch reminds me of my aunts farm years ago. Porches are great for extending family time and conversation while still being protected from the weather.
Decisions to be made are the size of each room, the number of rooms and the number of floors to be built. Will there be a basement or a fireplace, and where is the house going to sit on the lot. You could have a front yard or the house could be in the front of the lot with a yard in the back. You could also put it right in the center and have land all around.
The next consideration is whether you will have a contractor draw up the plans which will be an expense, or you can do them yourself. To do them yourself you will need a pencil or pen, scissors, a measuring tape, and graph paper with 1/4-inch boxes.
You will draw rooms to scale; one box per foot is good. Measure your rooms, doors, windows, heat and air cooling appliances. Draw the outlines of the rooms according to scale.
Measure your furniture (you only need to worry about length and width here) next and take another piece of graph paper. Draw out lines of your furniture, label them and cut them out. Use these pieces to set up the rooms. When you find an arrangement you like, you can make a more permanent drawing. On another sheet of graph paper draw a box for each wall. Scale your windows, doors, built-ins and other features.
Picking a floor plan is a process of answering some very important questions. Will this place be big enough or too big in a few years? Does your design fit in with the houses in the neighborhood? Does the design of the house fit in with the lot size and shape? Will the windows provide the best view and what windows will catch the sunlight in the morning and afternoon? Will changes need to be made or can changes even be considered? Are the rooms that will be used most of the time of adequate size? Expanding your house size could mean you need to sacrifice amenities or storage space. Do you have specialty rooms such as a craft room, an office, or a gym? An office can double as a guestroom. The trend now is toward creating a family area where there is room for each to do his/her own hobby or to be together watching movies or playing games. When all the decisions are made and the plans are all drawn you will be ready to build.
Suppose now, that you are purchasing an already built home or renting an apartment. Plans can be done in these situations as well. Most places will offer a floor plan for you to look at with the measurements of the space in the rooms. If this is not available you can draw your own plan.
You would need the same materials and the plan is fixed, you are limited to what is already there. Draw the outlines of each room according to scale. Take another sheet of graph paper and draw the outlines of your furniture. Label them and cut them out. You can move these pieces around till you find an arrangement you like. You might be limited with your television set because the outside antenna is in a certain spot.
Take another piece of graph paper and draw the wall sections of each room noting the windows, doors, and any heating or cooling appliance might be situated. You will have already placed your furniture so you will have a good idea of what your new home will look like. You can now decorate according to your tastes. In a rental home however, you might not be able to change wall colors or in rare cases hang pictures.
Planning for your home can be very exciting. You could be buying new furniture but you might want to consider the color of the carpets or the floors when you are choosing your pieces. A blue couch on a brown carpet does not exactly match. When planning for your home whether you buy or rent should be done carefully. Keep in mind your preferences, your limitations and if you are building, local zoning ordinances.
There are some things to consider when creating plans for your home. There are two situations that call for plans or blue prints, either you are building a new home or decorating your present home. The types of plans required for either situation will vary depending on the extent of your project.
When building a new home, there are several things you will want to consider carefully. The most obvious is where you are going to build your house. The climate will affect where you build. You wouldnt build an icehouse in the middle of the desert. You will want to determine what material you will want to use. Brick, wood, and cement are popular. In the southern states clay adobe houses are the norm. In the north and other areas brick, wood, and stone are options. The climate will influence this choice as well. In areas where there is cold weather brick and cement are used because they absorb and retain heat. In the south wood frame houses are built. The size of your lot will determine the size and type of house you want. You couldnt build a mansion on say a quarter of an acre. On the other hand a one bedroom, single floor home would look strange on a lot that is two acres or bigger. Whether your home has a basement could be important and that would depend on where you live.
If you are lucky to have a basement, it can house the laundry room and your gym equipment or be a playroom/guest room.
Now that you know where and what type of climate you will be building in it is time to think about the plans. Blueprints are or have been used to draw a linear picture of the house as you see it. Now however there are computer programs that will allow you to build your house in 3-D. There are also web sites online that will also allow you to build your house and see it in 3-D. Not only that but some sites will allow you to place your furniture. There are several kinds of technical drawings that are used to create plans for a new home. There are site plans that address coding issues, landscaping, location specifics, drainage (land contours), trees, set backs, and property lines. A floor plan is a design plan of the house, the layout of the rooms, and where the windows and doors. Another type of plan is building sections, which is a cross section of the house. It helps determine any issues, visualize your finished house and floor plans using section marks. Wall sections show the construction of one exterior wall where sections are indicated with section marks. Exterior Elevations include such features as porches and decks. They also show furniture, window and door locations, eave heights and roofing. Interior elevations show the lighting layout and ceiling conditions. Porches are another very interesting option; they can be enclosed, go all the way around the house. They can also be half-enclosed and half-open. They can be reminders of times past. A huge porch reminds me of my aunts farm years ago. Porches are great for extending family time and conversation while still being protected from the weather.
Decisions to be made are the size of each room, the number of rooms and the number of floors to be built. Will there be a basement or a fireplace, and where is the house going to sit on the lot. You could have a front yard or the house could be in the front of the lot with a yard in the back. You could also put it right in the center and have land all around.
The next consideration is whether you will have a contractor draw up the plans which will be an expense, or you can do them yourself. To do them yourself you will need a pencil or pen, scissors, a measuring tape, and graph paper with 1/4-inch boxes.
You will draw rooms to scale; one box per foot is good. Measure your rooms, doors, windows, heat and air cooling appliances. Draw the outlines of the rooms according to scale.
Measure your furniture (you only need to worry about length and width here) next and take another piece of graph paper. Draw out lines of your furniture, label them and cut them out. Use these pieces to set up the rooms. When you find an arrangement you like, you can make a more permanent drawing. On another sheet of graph paper draw a box for each wall. Scale your windows, doors, built-ins and other features.
Picking a floor plan is a process of answering some very important questions. Will this place be big enough or too big in a few years? Does your design fit in with the houses in the neighborhood? Does the design of the house fit in with the lot size and shape? Will the windows provide the best view and what windows will catch the sunlight in the morning and afternoon? Will changes need to be made or can changes even be considered? Are the rooms that will be used most of the time of adequate size? Expanding your house size could mean you need to sacrifice amenities or storage space. Do you have specialty rooms such as a craft room, an office, or a gym? An office can double as a guestroom. The trend now is toward creating a family area where there is room for each to do his/her own hobby or to be together watching movies or playing games. When all the decisions are made and the plans are all drawn you will be ready to build.
Suppose now, that you are purchasing an already built home or renting an apartment. Plans can be done in these situations as well. Most places will offer a floor plan for you to look at with the measurements of the space in the rooms. If this is not available you can draw your own plan.
You would need the same materials and the plan is fixed, you are limited to what is already there. Draw the outlines of each room according to scale. Take another sheet of graph paper and draw the outlines of your furniture. Label them and cut them out. You can move these pieces around till you find an arrangement you like. You might be limited with your television set because the outside antenna is in a certain spot.
Take another piece of graph paper and draw the wall sections of each room noting the windows, doors, and any heating or cooling appliance might be situated. You will have already placed your furniture so you will have a good idea of what your new home will look like. You can now decorate according to your tastes. In a rental home however, you might not be able to change wall colors or in rare cases hang pictures.
Planning for your home can be very exciting. You could be buying new furniture but you might want to consider the color of the carpets or the floors when you are choosing your pieces. A blue couch on a brown carpet does not exactly match. When planning for your home whether you buy or rent should be done carefully. Keep in mind your preferences, your limitations and if you are building, local zoning ordinances.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
How to Count Calories With Your Eyes
Embarking on a serious fitness quest or even a journey to just be healthy can sometimes be a daunting task. And at some point, youve been told or heard that eating 5-6 frequent small meals a day is the way to go for weight gain or weight loss.
After running a fitness site and bodybuilding forum, I see a lot of confused individuals who ask this very question below about the 5-6 meal deal. They have heard about it and want to do it but when it comes to counting calories, they are not willing to measure each grain of rice.
And can you blame them?
Many times people will ask, I know all that stuff like I need to eat 5-6 meal a day, eat less than your daily maintenance caloric and stuff like that... But what I do not know is how big the meal has to be?
Despite what you may have heard... eating 5-6 times a day it's not that hard. It takes some discipline but it's not all that difficult and you certainly do not eat 5-6 large, American style meals. These are small, frequent meals that comprise what is termed a complete meal (protein, carb, sometimes healthy fat).
But let me go back to the beginning to continue the story...
Here's what you do:
1- Figure out how many calories per day you need to
gain/maintain/lose weight
2- Start tracking with any online nutritional tracking program.
3- Eye ball your portions. You know you had some brown rice
right? Get out a cup. Look at it. If you practice this,
you'll soon be able to eat, look at your place and just know.. that is about a cup of brown rice.
You don't have to physically measure your foods. I suppose you could but that wouldn't work so well when you eat out, go to a friends out and such. Who wants to carry around a complete set of measuring cups and spoons?
So you will need to look at measurement devices like a cup, a quarter cup and such and be able to eye ball things. Once you do this a few times at home, you will be able to visually look at a plate of food and roughly guess the portions. Once you know the portions...
Then you know how much you should enter into a calorie calculator tracking program.
And at the end of the day any good program will show what you ate in calories, protein, carbs and fats. And you'll be able to see this displayed in a graph so you know if your ratios are correct (assuming you are into or have any interested in ratios).
I personally don't carry around a cup or any type of measuring devices. But I know if I go out to eat that the chicken on my place is about the size of the palm of my hand.. times two...
.. the palm of my hand is roughly 3 ounces.
I can eye ball that chicken breast and guess it's about 6 maybe 7 ounces of chicken.
Are you getting my point?
Follow those steps above. Once you know how much you need to eat in terms of calories, you will be able to do whatever you want.
Then eat, and eye ball your portions. Quickly you will learn that in order to hit your daily calories, maybe you don't want to eat 2 cups of brown rice as it's too much. Or maybe not enough. But you can judge this and track it and that is how you will know.
Then track it. If you don't track what you eat, then you are only guessing. And those who guess get frustrated because those who guess do not know. That is why it's called guessing. So if you simply cannot or won't track, you'll always be frustrated and confused. Unless of course, you track it for the first day and forever on, eat the same portions and foods. Yuck!
The biggest mistake I see people making is:
1- They have not ever figured out the math to calculate their calories
2- They do not track what they eat
3- So they just do whatever and get whatever
If you follow the above three steps, you are almost guaranteed not to make the same mistakes that most other people make when it comes to reaching their fitness goals.
Embarking on a serious fitness quest or even a journey to just be healthy can sometimes be a daunting task. And at some point, youve been told or heard that eating 5-6 frequent small meals a day is the way to go for weight gain or weight loss.
After running a fitness site and bodybuilding forum, I see a lot of confused individuals who ask this very question below about the 5-6 meal deal. They have heard about it and want to do it but when it comes to counting calories, they are not willing to measure each grain of rice.
And can you blame them?
Many times people will ask, I know all that stuff like I need to eat 5-6 meal a day, eat less than your daily maintenance caloric and stuff like that... But what I do not know is how big the meal has to be?
Despite what you may have heard... eating 5-6 times a day it's not that hard. It takes some discipline but it's not all that difficult and you certainly do not eat 5-6 large, American style meals. These are small, frequent meals that comprise what is termed a complete meal (protein, carb, sometimes healthy fat).
But let me go back to the beginning to continue the story...
Here's what you do:
1- Figure out how many calories per day you need to
gain/maintain/lose weight
2- Start tracking with any online nutritional tracking program.
3- Eye ball your portions. You know you had some brown rice
right? Get out a cup. Look at it. If you practice this,
you'll soon be able to eat, look at your place and just know.. that is about a cup of brown rice.
You don't have to physically measure your foods. I suppose you could but that wouldn't work so well when you eat out, go to a friends out and such. Who wants to carry around a complete set of measuring cups and spoons?
So you will need to look at measurement devices like a cup, a quarter cup and such and be able to eye ball things. Once you do this a few times at home, you will be able to visually look at a plate of food and roughly guess the portions. Once you know the portions...
Then you know how much you should enter into a calorie calculator tracking program.
And at the end of the day any good program will show what you ate in calories, protein, carbs and fats. And you'll be able to see this displayed in a graph so you know if your ratios are correct (assuming you are into or have any interested in ratios).
I personally don't carry around a cup or any type of measuring devices. But I know if I go out to eat that the chicken on my place is about the size of the palm of my hand.. times two...
.. the palm of my hand is roughly 3 ounces.
I can eye ball that chicken breast and guess it's about 6 maybe 7 ounces of chicken.
Are you getting my point?
Follow those steps above. Once you know how much you need to eat in terms of calories, you will be able to do whatever you want.
Then eat, and eye ball your portions. Quickly you will learn that in order to hit your daily calories, maybe you don't want to eat 2 cups of brown rice as it's too much. Or maybe not enough. But you can judge this and track it and that is how you will know.
Then track it. If you don't track what you eat, then you are only guessing. And those who guess get frustrated because those who guess do not know. That is why it's called guessing. So if you simply cannot or won't track, you'll always be frustrated and confused. Unless of course, you track it for the first day and forever on, eat the same portions and foods. Yuck!
The biggest mistake I see people making is:
1- They have not ever figured out the math to calculate their calories
2- They do not track what they eat
3- So they just do whatever and get whatever
If you follow the above three steps, you are almost guaranteed not to make the same mistakes that most other people make when it comes to reaching their fitness goals.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Specific Measurable Results
Want to make an immediate and dramatic increase in the overall performance of your company? Try creating a set of Specific Measurable Results (SMR) for each department or functional unit.
Specific Measurable Results? Of course, your sales force has them. It's safe to say there are few companies in the world that do not use sales quotas. Not only do sales people use quotas to track their output, they often have targets which measure their activity. "How many, by when" is a familiar phrase. Top sales people monitor how many calls they make to prospects each week. The also track calls made to existing customers, how many letters they send, how many "closes", and so on. If a sales person isn't bringing in the promised business, management can examine his or her activity to see what area might need work.
What about the other players on your sales team - the technical representatives, the sales associates? Do they have specific, measurable results they've agreed to produce? What about your other departments? What about development? Customer Service? Finance? Marketing? Administration? What are they accountable for? Do they have SMR's to produce within a set time frame?
Critical Success Tip: Every department can be measured to improve its performance. Determine what you want to have a functional area do more of - what are the key activities - and find a way to measure them. Then tie each measurement, each "how many" to a set time frame, a "by when".
Say for instance, you want to improve customer service. One point to measure would be their response time to customer problems. How? Set time targets for complaint resolution, and agree on a "by when" those targets will be reached. Or, track the percentage of re-orders, and target that. Sales Associates? Measure how fast proposals are produced.
Tech Reps? Target the number of demonstrations to clients each week. Marketing? Measure how many leads are generated per month, or product awareness, or press mentions. Product development? Measure variance from your development timeline. You can even track Accounting. Target the number of days after close of business when the trial balance and month-end results are available.
Critical Success Tip: To make sure each Specific Measure has its desired effect, the SMR should be the product of a negotiation, with all sides agreeing to what is being measured, how many, and by when. Then, put it in writing.
Use moving averages to see trends. Moving averages smooth out the highs and lows, eliminating any week's jitters. Instead of comparing this week to last week, compare this week's moving average to last week's. Is the moving average going up or down? Also, compare this week's statistics to the moving average.
Critical Success Tip: Graph everything. Every statistic which is important enough to measure should be seen on a graph. Many companies relate more powerfully to a picture than to a set of numbers. Create graphs with one line to indicate past performance - say last year, one line to indicate your intended (target) performance and one line to indicate your actual performance. You can also graph the moving averages.
How do SMR's work their magic?
People like clear objectives. They want to know what is expected of them. SMR's provide easy to understand, unambiguous indicators of what constitutes "a good job". SMR's tell people what to focus on, and they provide a framework to think about the question "how can I succeed?"
People go wherever their attention is. Did you ever look at someone in the car next to you while you were driving, and find yourself swerving into their lane? That's because our brains are wired to always follow our attention. SMR's concentrate your team's attention wherever it needs to be.
SMRs tell you which areas need work. If there is a "gap" between intended and actual results, highlighting this gap with numbers and graphs gives your team a window on figuring out what needs to be corrected to stay on course.
Critical Success Tip: Be sure you are measuring the right things. Remember, your team will go wherever their attention is! And, if you fail to institute a measure for a key area, poor performance in that area may be overlooked. Always check that your SMR's are taking you where you want to go.
Extraordinary Performance from Statistics? SMRs provide a way to turn performance up. It's much easier to create more of something, once you know what you already have. It's almost impossible if you don't.
Want to make an immediate and dramatic increase in the overall performance of your company? Try creating a set of Specific Measurable Results (SMR) for each department or functional unit.
Specific Measurable Results? Of course, your sales force has them. It's safe to say there are few companies in the world that do not use sales quotas. Not only do sales people use quotas to track their output, they often have targets which measure their activity. "How many, by when" is a familiar phrase. Top sales people monitor how many calls they make to prospects each week. The also track calls made to existing customers, how many letters they send, how many "closes", and so on. If a sales person isn't bringing in the promised business, management can examine his or her activity to see what area might need work.
What about the other players on your sales team - the technical representatives, the sales associates? Do they have specific, measurable results they've agreed to produce? What about your other departments? What about development? Customer Service? Finance? Marketing? Administration? What are they accountable for? Do they have SMR's to produce within a set time frame?
Critical Success Tip: Every department can be measured to improve its performance. Determine what you want to have a functional area do more of - what are the key activities - and find a way to measure them. Then tie each measurement, each "how many" to a set time frame, a "by when".
Say for instance, you want to improve customer service. One point to measure would be their response time to customer problems. How? Set time targets for complaint resolution, and agree on a "by when" those targets will be reached. Or, track the percentage of re-orders, and target that. Sales Associates? Measure how fast proposals are produced.
Tech Reps? Target the number of demonstrations to clients each week. Marketing? Measure how many leads are generated per month, or product awareness, or press mentions. Product development? Measure variance from your development timeline. You can even track Accounting. Target the number of days after close of business when the trial balance and month-end results are available.
Critical Success Tip: To make sure each Specific Measure has its desired effect, the SMR should be the product of a negotiation, with all sides agreeing to what is being measured, how many, and by when. Then, put it in writing.
Use moving averages to see trends. Moving averages smooth out the highs and lows, eliminating any week's jitters. Instead of comparing this week to last week, compare this week's moving average to last week's. Is the moving average going up or down? Also, compare this week's statistics to the moving average.
Critical Success Tip: Graph everything. Every statistic which is important enough to measure should be seen on a graph. Many companies relate more powerfully to a picture than to a set of numbers. Create graphs with one line to indicate past performance - say last year, one line to indicate your intended (target) performance and one line to indicate your actual performance. You can also graph the moving averages.
How do SMR's work their magic?
People like clear objectives. They want to know what is expected of them. SMR's provide easy to understand, unambiguous indicators of what constitutes "a good job". SMR's tell people what to focus on, and they provide a framework to think about the question "how can I succeed?"
People go wherever their attention is. Did you ever look at someone in the car next to you while you were driving, and find yourself swerving into their lane? That's because our brains are wired to always follow our attention. SMR's concentrate your team's attention wherever it needs to be.
SMRs tell you which areas need work. If there is a "gap" between intended and actual results, highlighting this gap with numbers and graphs gives your team a window on figuring out what needs to be corrected to stay on course.
Critical Success Tip: Be sure you are measuring the right things. Remember, your team will go wherever their attention is! And, if you fail to institute a measure for a key area, poor performance in that area may be overlooked. Always check that your SMR's are taking you where you want to go.
Extraordinary Performance from Statistics? SMRs provide a way to turn performance up. It's much easier to create more of something, once you know what you already have. It's almost impossible if you don't.
Garage Sales, Flea Markets, and Special Events... Oh My!
The activity chart is an ingenious way to find, in order, events happening in your community throughout the day. Plug in www.noonernight.com on your computer or cell phone and retrieve lunch specials, happy hours, music and nightlife events.
Unlike newspapers with static ads, noonernight.com utilizes dynamic time updates.
To see upcoming events, simply enter a zip code and distance. The day and current time are highlighted in a bar graph form. Each event submitted spans the designated time. So planning a day or week can be done at a glance.
Not everyone can afford to advertise his or her events in the newspaper on a daily basis, which is why noonernight.com was developed. To let the public know whats going on and when and where. A fantastic service for everyone to use.
Adding events is simple, fast, and free.
Noonernight.com is a great advertising and promotion tool that can be used to:
-Submit where your band is playing tonight.
-Advertise breakfast, lunch or dinner specials.
-Know about community events.
-Locate county fairs and festivals.
-List open houses.
and much more.
The activity chart is an ingenious way to find, in order, events happening in your community throughout the day. Plug in www.noonernight.com on your computer or cell phone and retrieve lunch specials, happy hours, music and nightlife events.
Unlike newspapers with static ads, noonernight.com utilizes dynamic time updates.
To see upcoming events, simply enter a zip code and distance. The day and current time are highlighted in a bar graph form. Each event submitted spans the designated time. So planning a day or week can be done at a glance.
Not everyone can afford to advertise his or her events in the newspaper on a daily basis, which is why noonernight.com was developed. To let the public know whats going on and when and where. A fantastic service for everyone to use.
Adding events is simple, fast, and free.
Noonernight.com is a great advertising and promotion tool that can be used to:
-Submit where your band is playing tonight.
-Advertise breakfast, lunch or dinner specials.
-Know about community events.
-Locate county fairs and festivals.
-List open houses.
and much more.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
The Top 10 Things You Should Know Before Starting An Online Business
1. You will not get rich quick.
Contrary to what you read in the hyped up websites and sales copy that are trying to sell you a business opportunity of some sort, it will take time to sell your product or service. Your customers need to find you, so make sure you have a plan so that they find you. Once they are interested in your offer, make sure it is persuasive and you have credibility. Fill your pipeline, keep advertising and know that it will take time to get the sales rolling in. Once the sales start coming in continue your marketing campaign. Just like the saying goes a force in motion, remains in motion!
2. Setting up your website might be time consuming
If you have to create a website, you will have to learn html, find a web host and use templates to creat your website. To save time (but not money) you could contact a web designer to build the website for you. Otherwise get ready to learn a new skill, like I did. The good news is it to less than a week for me to learn the basics and get a website going. There are many web hosts that offer website templates. Just fill in your info. But, what are you going to say? I reccomend that you write out your web design on paper or in microsoft word. Then fill in your template. Have your friends and family check it out to make sure it looks ok. Then publish and your in business.
3. Does the affiliate program provide your considering provide a free website?
Your in luck if they do. Now it is just a matter of marketing. Double check with the person in charge of your affiliate program to see if there might be a hosting fee in the future. With affiliate programs I suggest you learn about cloaking your affiliate URL. This will protect your profits. You can learn about cloaking by search the term in Google. If your an experienced webmaster ask if you can customize you affiliate website. Sometimes, depending on the program, they will not tell you about that.
4. Set a budget.
Know up front how much you are prepared to invest in your online business venture. Be prepared to lose that money if the business fails. Use money that you can afford to lose and will not affect your needs. Don't borrow money to fund your project if possible. But working online I know it will be necessary to use your credit card to get things going, but be sure to pay it back. If you have excel, setup a budget/accounting program. Don't take chances or over spend.
5. Have realistic earnings expectations.
If you learn about a fabulous business opportunity that will make you so much money... don't believe the hype. Wait until tomorrow or the next day before you make your decision about the opportunity presented to you. If your presented with the opportunity to make extemely large amounts of money follow, decide if the claim is over stated. Don't think that you can wake up in the morning in your underwear, check your email and see you have made tons of sales, like they want you to beleive. Think about what your real earning potential is going to be with your new business. Ask others what they think about it.
6. Start small and make sure that this business is for you.
Find a small online business that you can start that has a product many people can use. With this new business, see how you like doing business on the internet. It's not for everybody. But if you like it and want to continue in your new found career, then invest more into your company. If you discover it was not for you, you did not lose to much.
7. Learn online marketing skills
Now when you are sure about getting serios about online marketing, you will need to improve your marketing skills. There is alot to learn. Find out where you can market and use it to your best advantage. This includes the correct way to get listed in search engines, Google adwords, ezines and ezine advertising, email marketing and don't send spam. Learn to write articles and keep your website fresh, should help you in the search engines. Be ready to spend hours and hours learning all the techniques for online marketing. Use the easier techniques first.
8. Automate your online business.
When everything is setup and ready to go, your online busines hopefully will be automatic. When a customer comes to your website, they make thier purchase, credit card processor processes it, and if it is a digital product, it's delivered automatically! Otherwise you will have just a little work to do in shipping your product, check email, and make sure everything is running smoothly. There is even a software program that can answer emails automatically. The more automated your online business is, the more free time for you.
9. Write your plan on paper and follow the plan.
You know, Im also a pilot. Before I fly an airplane, I have a flight plan and I follow the flight plan, which leads me to my destination. It works every time! You should do the same with your business. Write out a business plan, it does not have to be fancy, but write something and follow it. If you don't you will fail. Make changes or add to it later, but you must do this in writing. Refer to your plan as you move along in your business to make sure your on the right course to sucess.
10. Why settle for a meager 50-60% commision when you can get 100% and keep everything you earn on the product you sell.
This is called Royalty-free. There is a software program that you can easily sell and make incredible amounts of money with a good marketing plan. How can they do this and how will they make any money? Well you can explore further at http://www.spy-snooper.com
1. You will not get rich quick.
Contrary to what you read in the hyped up websites and sales copy that are trying to sell you a business opportunity of some sort, it will take time to sell your product or service. Your customers need to find you, so make sure you have a plan so that they find you. Once they are interested in your offer, make sure it is persuasive and you have credibility. Fill your pipeline, keep advertising and know that it will take time to get the sales rolling in. Once the sales start coming in continue your marketing campaign. Just like the saying goes a force in motion, remains in motion!
2. Setting up your website might be time consuming
If you have to create a website, you will have to learn html, find a web host and use templates to creat your website. To save time (but not money) you could contact a web designer to build the website for you. Otherwise get ready to learn a new skill, like I did. The good news is it to less than a week for me to learn the basics and get a website going. There are many web hosts that offer website templates. Just fill in your info. But, what are you going to say? I reccomend that you write out your web design on paper or in microsoft word. Then fill in your template. Have your friends and family check it out to make sure it looks ok. Then publish and your in business.
3. Does the affiliate program provide your considering provide a free website?
Your in luck if they do. Now it is just a matter of marketing. Double check with the person in charge of your affiliate program to see if there might be a hosting fee in the future. With affiliate programs I suggest you learn about cloaking your affiliate URL. This will protect your profits. You can learn about cloaking by search the term in Google. If your an experienced webmaster ask if you can customize you affiliate website. Sometimes, depending on the program, they will not tell you about that.
4. Set a budget.
Know up front how much you are prepared to invest in your online business venture. Be prepared to lose that money if the business fails. Use money that you can afford to lose and will not affect your needs. Don't borrow money to fund your project if possible. But working online I know it will be necessary to use your credit card to get things going, but be sure to pay it back. If you have excel, setup a budget/accounting program. Don't take chances or over spend.
5. Have realistic earnings expectations.
If you learn about a fabulous business opportunity that will make you so much money... don't believe the hype. Wait until tomorrow or the next day before you make your decision about the opportunity presented to you. If your presented with the opportunity to make extemely large amounts of money follow, decide if the claim is over stated. Don't think that you can wake up in the morning in your underwear, check your email and see you have made tons of sales, like they want you to beleive. Think about what your real earning potential is going to be with your new business. Ask others what they think about it.
6. Start small and make sure that this business is for you.
Find a small online business that you can start that has a product many people can use. With this new business, see how you like doing business on the internet. It's not for everybody. But if you like it and want to continue in your new found career, then invest more into your company. If you discover it was not for you, you did not lose to much.
7. Learn online marketing skills
Now when you are sure about getting serios about online marketing, you will need to improve your marketing skills. There is alot to learn. Find out where you can market and use it to your best advantage. This includes the correct way to get listed in search engines, Google adwords, ezines and ezine advertising, email marketing and don't send spam. Learn to write articles and keep your website fresh, should help you in the search engines. Be ready to spend hours and hours learning all the techniques for online marketing. Use the easier techniques first.
8. Automate your online business.
When everything is setup and ready to go, your online busines hopefully will be automatic. When a customer comes to your website, they make thier purchase, credit card processor processes it, and if it is a digital product, it's delivered automatically! Otherwise you will have just a little work to do in shipping your product, check email, and make sure everything is running smoothly. There is even a software program that can answer emails automatically. The more automated your online business is, the more free time for you.
9. Write your plan on paper and follow the plan.
You know, Im also a pilot. Before I fly an airplane, I have a flight plan and I follow the flight plan, which leads me to my destination. It works every time! You should do the same with your business. Write out a business plan, it does not have to be fancy, but write something and follow it. If you don't you will fail. Make changes or add to it later, but you must do this in writing. Refer to your plan as you move along in your business to make sure your on the right course to sucess.
10. Why settle for a meager 50-60% commision when you can get 100% and keep everything you earn on the product you sell.
This is called Royalty-free. There is a software program that you can easily sell and make incredible amounts of money with a good marketing plan. How can they do this and how will they make any money? Well you can explore further at http://www.spy-snooper.com
Web Conferencing Solutions
Introduction
Are you confused by all the buzz words surrounding conferencing calling? Theres audio calling, web conferencing, video conferencing, teleconferencing and many more.
The intention of this article is to give you an introduction to Web Conferencing. Ill describe its capabilities and features. You should then be able to decide if it is suitable for your particular circumstances.
Traditional Conferencing
A traditional physical conference can involve a lot of hassle and disruption to your normal working day. You have to make travel arrangement, book a hotel, travel overnight to get to the conference in the morning. Not only that, when you get back to work the following day you need to catch up on all the work that you didnt do whilst you were at the conference.
I am not going to suggest that web conference calling is going to totally replace the benefits of face to face meetings. But what you might be able to do is use a web conferencing solution to enhance your business. For example you may currently have a face to face conference with all your regional managers on a monthly basis. Perhaps with a regular web conference call you could reduce the need for a physical conference down to just once every three months.
Benefits Of Web Conferencing
Here are some of the things that you can do with interactive web conferencing. Perhaps you can think of ways that you can use these to reduce your current conferencing costs and expenses. Document sharing. This means that your remote colleagues can view your documents such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. On their web browsers they can watch as you move through the documents.
Whiteboards. This is exactly what you would do in a physical conference. For example you could draw a graph or diagram on your virtual white board and your colleagues can interact with it as well, making corrections, suggestions and alterations. You could use the virtual whiteboards to outline your proposals, just as you would in a real conference facility.
Other Business Applications For Web Conference Calling. Question and Answer sessions. Presentations. Show and review project plans. Lectures. Seminars. Two way conversations Discuss budgets. Annotate documents. Project team collaboration
Business Benefits Of Web Conferencing No need to travel. No wasted time. No hotel expenses More instantaneous. You can arrange a web conference call at very short notice and focus on a very specific topic. Easy to cancel the call without disruption.
What equipment is required?
You can start with cheap web conferencing very easily to see if it is suitable for your working practices. I suggest that you visit the website shown at the end of this article to view details of the many web conferencing solutions and products that are available.
Basically you just need an up to date web browser and a good internet connection. Using a dial up connection is possible, but you really need a broadband connection to get the greatest benefits from a web conference call.
At a very simple level, say a one to one meeting, you could use web conferencing to show and share a document with your college and speak to him at the same time via your normal telephone system. Eventually as you can see the huge benefits of web conferencing you can investigate using the other conferencing techniques that are described at my website.
Introduction
Are you confused by all the buzz words surrounding conferencing calling? Theres audio calling, web conferencing, video conferencing, teleconferencing and many more.
The intention of this article is to give you an introduction to Web Conferencing. Ill describe its capabilities and features. You should then be able to decide if it is suitable for your particular circumstances.
Traditional Conferencing
A traditional physical conference can involve a lot of hassle and disruption to your normal working day. You have to make travel arrangement, book a hotel, travel overnight to get to the conference in the morning. Not only that, when you get back to work the following day you need to catch up on all the work that you didnt do whilst you were at the conference.
I am not going to suggest that web conference calling is going to totally replace the benefits of face to face meetings. But what you might be able to do is use a web conferencing solution to enhance your business. For example you may currently have a face to face conference with all your regional managers on a monthly basis. Perhaps with a regular web conference call you could reduce the need for a physical conference down to just once every three months.
Benefits Of Web Conferencing
Here are some of the things that you can do with interactive web conferencing. Perhaps you can think of ways that you can use these to reduce your current conferencing costs and expenses. Document sharing. This means that your remote colleagues can view your documents such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. On their web browsers they can watch as you move through the documents.
Whiteboards. This is exactly what you would do in a physical conference. For example you could draw a graph or diagram on your virtual white board and your colleagues can interact with it as well, making corrections, suggestions and alterations. You could use the virtual whiteboards to outline your proposals, just as you would in a real conference facility.
Other Business Applications For Web Conference Calling. Question and Answer sessions. Presentations. Show and review project plans. Lectures. Seminars. Two way conversations Discuss budgets. Annotate documents. Project team collaboration
Business Benefits Of Web Conferencing No need to travel. No wasted time. No hotel expenses More instantaneous. You can arrange a web conference call at very short notice and focus on a very specific topic. Easy to cancel the call without disruption.
What equipment is required?
You can start with cheap web conferencing very easily to see if it is suitable for your working practices. I suggest that you visit the website shown at the end of this article to view details of the many web conferencing solutions and products that are available.
Basically you just need an up to date web browser and a good internet connection. Using a dial up connection is possible, but you really need a broadband connection to get the greatest benefits from a web conference call.
At a very simple level, say a one to one meeting, you could use web conferencing to show and share a document with your college and speak to him at the same time via your normal telephone system. Eventually as you can see the huge benefits of web conferencing you can investigate using the other conferencing techniques that are described at my website.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Save Your Money, Don't Give to Charity Scammers
**If it's Spam, it's a Scam!- If it sounds too good, if it shows up in your bulk folder or your spam folder - don't touch it, just delete it
**Check out the charity- You can find some charity info at the BBB site www.give.org
** There is no deadline to give- Take you time. Charities don't have deadlines, but scammers do to stay under the radar. Tell them you will think about it. If they use high pressure tactics, they aren't worth it and more than likely aren't legit.
**Ask Questions- Found out the location of the charity, how much of the money is for Administration use and how will the money be used for the needs. If 50% or more of your donation goes to executives salaries, administrative cost and fundraising, skip them.
**Get information in Writing- Have them send you a brochure, a graph of their previous divisions of money, and their 990 tax form information that they file with the government.
Charities are required to provide Form 990 information on request (This excludes churches, synagogues and other places of worship. Don't be fooled by their 'tax-ID number' these are only needed to for employer verification.
**Check out all charities for Police and Fire Departments- Check them out first, get the name, address and phone number to contact them back and do follow up.
**Get a Receipt- Preferably one with the charity name on it. A paper trail is always a good thing.
** Don't donate with cash- Again the paper trail idea, check or credit card is best.
**Be protective with information- Don't give information out over the phone like credit cards or personal information, unless you have checked them out or dealt with them before.
**Get the exact name of the organization- Many have names similar to legit organizations. They may change the wording slightly to throw you off.
**Contact the authorities- Police and or FBI can be contacted, have as much information as you can with you to give them. Even recording a call can be helpful if you get regular calls, make sure it is allowed in your state or if you have to let them know you are recording them.
The BEST way to give to charities is to contact them after you have done your own research. Don't let the scammers scare you off, Please do give of yourself, time or money. Print out or email these tips to others who may not be aware.
**If it's Spam, it's a Scam!- If it sounds too good, if it shows up in your bulk folder or your spam folder - don't touch it, just delete it
**Check out the charity- You can find some charity info at the BBB site www.give.org
** There is no deadline to give- Take you time. Charities don't have deadlines, but scammers do to stay under the radar. Tell them you will think about it. If they use high pressure tactics, they aren't worth it and more than likely aren't legit.
**Ask Questions- Found out the location of the charity, how much of the money is for Administration use and how will the money be used for the needs. If 50% or more of your donation goes to executives salaries, administrative cost and fundraising, skip them.
**Get information in Writing- Have them send you a brochure, a graph of their previous divisions of money, and their 990 tax form information that they file with the government.
Charities are required to provide Form 990 information on request (This excludes churches, synagogues and other places of worship. Don't be fooled by their 'tax-ID number' these are only needed to for employer verification.
**Check out all charities for Police and Fire Departments- Check them out first, get the name, address and phone number to contact them back and do follow up.
**Get a Receipt- Preferably one with the charity name on it. A paper trail is always a good thing.
** Don't donate with cash- Again the paper trail idea, check or credit card is best.
**Be protective with information- Don't give information out over the phone like credit cards or personal information, unless you have checked them out or dealt with them before.
**Get the exact name of the organization- Many have names similar to legit organizations. They may change the wording slightly to throw you off.
**Contact the authorities- Police and or FBI can be contacted, have as much information as you can with you to give them. Even recording a call can be helpful if you get regular calls, make sure it is allowed in your state or if you have to let them know you are recording them.
The BEST way to give to charities is to contact them after you have done your own research. Don't let the scammers scare you off, Please do give of yourself, time or money. Print out or email these tips to others who may not be aware.
The Avoid Debt Secret
Financial talking heads on television and radio try to tell you how to get out of debt, stay out of debt, or what dance steps to use to avoid debt. Just about everything they say is the wrong thing. I don't mean they are lairs and you should ignore them. Actually, many of their ideas do make sense.
They are wrong when talking about debt because they say "live within your means". By focusing on this phrase, what they are not telling you becomes a secret - the true secret to avoiding debt. Do you want to know the secret? If you didn't, why are you reading this?
The secret to getting out of debt and avoiding debt again is
Living below your means.
I'm serious that this is the true secret to staying out of debt. If you live within your means you are spending everything you take in. While this avoids going deeper into debt, it will not dig you out of debt or keep you out. Living within your means is like walking on a treadmill, you work hard but you fail to go anywhere.
How do you live below your means? The best way is to create a spending plan. This can be a simple hand written graph listing your expenses or it can be as complex as a fancy computerized program tracking every dollar you spend through PDA and laptops.
Why is living below your means so important? When you live below your means you are generating a surplus amount of money each month. This surplus is money you use to pay extra on your debts until you are debt free. This surplus can be used to build an Emergency Fund, develop a savings plan for your children's college or prepare for your retirement.
Living below your means is the real secret to personal financial success. It also will not come easy. We people like to live as high on the hog as we can. However, this doesn't help us have a surplus each month. You might have to make some difficult decisions to produce a steady supply of surplus money each month.
How difficult of decisions? You may have to sell your house and move into a smaller rental. Perhaps you will sell one car, stop eating out except for special occasions, come home from work instead of stopping by the bar or even taking on a second job. Be careful of the second job, though. It comes with more taxes, stress and its own set of issues.
When you are done reading, I want you to think about what you can do to start creating a surplus this month. What plans are you going to make, and steps you will take to provide a surplus to pay off your debt and begin a regular savings program?
After you have thought about them, go talk to your spouse about creating a surplus. When you are done talking, writing the surplus creating plan down and hang it on your refrigerator. If the two of you work together, you will be able to conquer your debts and put your family back on a secure financial footing.
Financial talking heads on television and radio try to tell you how to get out of debt, stay out of debt, or what dance steps to use to avoid debt. Just about everything they say is the wrong thing. I don't mean they are lairs and you should ignore them. Actually, many of their ideas do make sense.
They are wrong when talking about debt because they say "live within your means". By focusing on this phrase, what they are not telling you becomes a secret - the true secret to avoiding debt. Do you want to know the secret? If you didn't, why are you reading this?
The secret to getting out of debt and avoiding debt again is
Living below your means.
I'm serious that this is the true secret to staying out of debt. If you live within your means you are spending everything you take in. While this avoids going deeper into debt, it will not dig you out of debt or keep you out. Living within your means is like walking on a treadmill, you work hard but you fail to go anywhere.
How do you live below your means? The best way is to create a spending plan. This can be a simple hand written graph listing your expenses or it can be as complex as a fancy computerized program tracking every dollar you spend through PDA and laptops.
Why is living below your means so important? When you live below your means you are generating a surplus amount of money each month. This surplus is money you use to pay extra on your debts until you are debt free. This surplus can be used to build an Emergency Fund, develop a savings plan for your children's college or prepare for your retirement.
Living below your means is the real secret to personal financial success. It also will not come easy. We people like to live as high on the hog as we can. However, this doesn't help us have a surplus each month. You might have to make some difficult decisions to produce a steady supply of surplus money each month.
How difficult of decisions? You may have to sell your house and move into a smaller rental. Perhaps you will sell one car, stop eating out except for special occasions, come home from work instead of stopping by the bar or even taking on a second job. Be careful of the second job, though. It comes with more taxes, stress and its own set of issues.
When you are done reading, I want you to think about what you can do to start creating a surplus this month. What plans are you going to make, and steps you will take to provide a surplus to pay off your debt and begin a regular savings program?
After you have thought about them, go talk to your spouse about creating a surplus. When you are done talking, writing the surplus creating plan down and hang it on your refrigerator. If the two of you work together, you will be able to conquer your debts and put your family back on a secure financial footing.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
A Guide to Relationship Quizzes
Sometime in the 1950s, womens magazines started publishing relationship quizzes in their pages with a complex scoring system that arrived at a number. This number was then plotted on a scale and the reader could determine, based upon that number, whether their relationship was good or not. It seems silly, and compared with the complex testing done today for relationships, it is silly. But it started a phenomenon still going strong. Back then the popular psychological testing technique that was being used in spy films and TV dramas was the Rorschach test. You looked at the squiggly designs and if you interpreted them as female body parts or death figures the red flags went up. Psychology has improved a bit since then and so has the relationship quiz.
Even though they still use the format of answering questions, scoring the answers and then plotting your final number on a graph, the questions have gotten deeper and more meaningful and the research behind the quizzes has gotten to be more thorough. Todays quizzes, often called Relationship Diagnostic Questionnaires, are based on solid couples research and hopefully point out specific areas of weakness in the relationship with the goal towards improving it.
No longer is a simple number used to evaluate a highly complex relationship and place it in a category of good or bad. Today, a relationship quiz is designed to find out where the holes are, who is guilty of what mistakes, where the breakdown in communication lies and how to fix it. Thats a far cry from the Rorschach type of testing that started the whole thing going.
Popular relationship quizzes have broken down the testing into two areas the things that drew the couple together in the first place and the skills necessary to keep a good relationship from souring. By asking the right questions in these two areas, couples can get a much clearer idea of why they came together in the first place and then, what may have taken place to drive them apart. They can then relive the old passions, work hard to improve the stagnating skills and in the end, enrich their relationship.
Sometime in the 1950s, womens magazines started publishing relationship quizzes in their pages with a complex scoring system that arrived at a number. This number was then plotted on a scale and the reader could determine, based upon that number, whether their relationship was good or not. It seems silly, and compared with the complex testing done today for relationships, it is silly. But it started a phenomenon still going strong. Back then the popular psychological testing technique that was being used in spy films and TV dramas was the Rorschach test. You looked at the squiggly designs and if you interpreted them as female body parts or death figures the red flags went up. Psychology has improved a bit since then and so has the relationship quiz.
Even though they still use the format of answering questions, scoring the answers and then plotting your final number on a graph, the questions have gotten deeper and more meaningful and the research behind the quizzes has gotten to be more thorough. Todays quizzes, often called Relationship Diagnostic Questionnaires, are based on solid couples research and hopefully point out specific areas of weakness in the relationship with the goal towards improving it.
No longer is a simple number used to evaluate a highly complex relationship and place it in a category of good or bad. Today, a relationship quiz is designed to find out where the holes are, who is guilty of what mistakes, where the breakdown in communication lies and how to fix it. Thats a far cry from the Rorschach type of testing that started the whole thing going.
Popular relationship quizzes have broken down the testing into two areas the things that drew the couple together in the first place and the skills necessary to keep a good relationship from souring. By asking the right questions in these two areas, couples can get a much clearer idea of why they came together in the first place and then, what may have taken place to drive them apart. They can then relive the old passions, work hard to improve the stagnating skills and in the end, enrich their relationship.
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