Google brings in some money, plans on getting more

Quick and techy for your Thursday: Google breathes easier: Cisco's Tandberg deal hits opposition; better news for Sidekick users; taking stock of economic recovery efforts.

Googling along: Google reported a 7 percent jump in revenue for its third quarter, bouncing back from a virtually flat second quarter, and chief executive Eric Schmidt said the Mountain View search giant will start hiring again.

And, in its first effort to make money off its book-scanning project, Google announced a service to sell electronic versions of books for download to computers, phones and possibly e-readers. Google Editions will start with 400,000 to 600,000 books in the first half of next year, said Google's Tom Turvey, making the announcement at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

More, please: A poll of Tandberg shareholders found that 21 of them — owning more than 24 percent of the stock — won't sell at the terms currently offered by Cisco. The San Jose networking giant early this month offered $3.1 billion for the Norwegian maker of videoconferencing equipment.

Cisco called its price "fair" and said it wouldn't comment further during the tender process, which ends Nov. 9. The deal requires acceptance from more than 90 percent of shareholders.


Sidekick, Part 3: The news is getting better for users of the ill-fated phone. Microsoft Corp., whose subsidiary Danger makes the phones, said it has recovered "most, if not all" of the personal data lost during a server failure over the weekend and will restore it soon.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is distancing itself from the culprit, reports the Good Morning Silicon Valley blog. Said a spokesman: "The Danger Service platform, which experienced the outage, is a standalone service operating on non-Microsoft technologies, and is not related to Microsoft's cloud services platform or Windows Live."

And more GMSV on phones: a round-up of early reviews of the BlackBerry Storm 2 and Motorola's Android-powered Cliq.

The slow road back: A clutch of news stories hit today on the theme of economic recovery:

-- The House Financial Services Committee, split on party lines, voted for regulation of privately traded derivatives. It was a first major step for President Barack Obama's plans to overhaul federal regulations governing the nation's financial institutions.

-- The Senate is considering a plan to extend and broaden the home-buyers' credit, which allows income tax reduction of up to $8,000. The proposal would remove the first-time requirement, raise the eligibility income and extend the plan until June 30. It is now set to expire Dec. 1.

-- For the first time since the automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975, there will be no cost-of-living raise for Social Security recipients next year.

And finally: Anheuser-Busch is buying all the national ads on this weekend's "Saturday Night Live" to promote Bud Light Golden Wheat. The sponsorship — a first for the 35-year-old show — will mean 6 to 7 minutes of extra show time, NBC said.

Which doesn't sound near as intriguing as the full-show product placement of Windows 7 in the upcoming variety show by "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane,

Make Money Online Using Google - Free Kit Introduced to Help Start Home Business

A new kit has been introduced to help people who want to start earning money online. The basis to the system teaches anyone how to make money using Google. Its offered on a free trial basis which gives anyone who want to try it a great opportunity.

There are many ways in which you can make money online today, in fact tens of thousands of people are working from their PC's at home making more than just a living. Getting rich online will probably take some time but anyone can make extra money relatively easy.

For 99 percent of people the Internet is just a place of leisure or way to contact people. What many people do not know is that with the correct knowledge you can implement a great money making income stream with just a few hours of work a day.

The kit which you can get to make money with Google shows the average person how to develop the skills to use Google to make you money. The kit teaches how to use clever advertising with Google along with telling you which companies and websites you can use to promote everyday products. The outcome is an automatic income stream where by you will receive commission even while you sleep.

An online money making system is a great way to earn extra income. It's also a fun and exciting project (especially when you start earning your first dollars)

The Google Business Kit provides all the necessary tools kits and resources to get going. Many Internet marketers of said that this is an unbelievable offer as most kits/courses can cost anything up to one thousand dollars. This is basically because they experts don't like giving away their secrets for nothing.

Ads drive Google's profit way up

oogle Inc. reported third-quarter results that easily topped expectations on Thursday, the second straight period of gains for the online search titan and a clear sign that Internet advertising is bouncing back from the depths of the recession.


As the dominant Internet player, the Mountain View company's performance is widely viewed as a gauge of the online industry's overall strength.

"We believe the worst of the recession is behind us," said Eric Schmidt, the company's chief executive, during an investor conference call. "We're very optimistic now about the future. We now have the business confidence to invest heavily in the next phase of innovation, hoping to invent the future as we see it."

Specifically, he said, the company is stepping up hiring, eyeing acquisition opportunities, expanding its mobile offerings and improving its search engine technology.

Investors applauded the late-day announcement, bidding up shares more than 3 percent, or $17, in after-hours trading to about $547.

Google said revenue totaled $5.94 billion, a 7 percent increase from a year ago, thanks to rising ad spending on its sites and those of its affiliates. Net income reached $1.64 billion ($5.13 per share), a 27 percent leap. The Wall Street consensus called for earnings of $4.69 per share on sales of $4.2 billion, according to a survey by Bloomberg.

Aggregate paid clicks, the instances when consumers click on ads, rose 14 percent from a year ago during the third quarter. The average cost per click was down 6 percent from last year, but up 5 percent from the second quarter, when it fell a record 13 percent on an annual basis.

The results represent "improvement over the depths of the recession" and demonstrate the online ad sector is stabilizing, said Clayton Moran, analyst at Benchmark Co. Until the second quarter, Google's revenue had declined for more than a year.

Google boasts a commanding lead in online search, controlling 64.9 percent of the market in September, up 0.3 percent from the month before, research firm comScore Inc. reported Wednesday. Microsoft Corp. has increased its market share since releasing Bing in June, but still owns only 9.4 percent of searches. No. 2 Yahoo Inc. slid 0.5 percent last month to 18.8 percent.

Separately on Thursday, Google said it will introduce a service for booksellers next year that will take square aim at Amazon.com. Google Editions will allow readers to purchase books and read them over any device that connects to the Web.

The program will start with from 400,000 to 600,000 books in the first half of 2010, with prices set by publishers, said Tom Turvey, head of Google Book Search's publisher partnership program.

"The way the e-book market will evolve is by accessing the book from anywhere, from an access point of view and also from a geographical point of view," Turvey said Thursday at the 61st Frankfurt Book Fair.

It's the first time the company will attempt to make money from its books program, which began in 2004. The ambitious plan to scan millions of books at research libraries and make them searchable online sparked a spate of lawsuits by authors and publishers.

A controversial settlement proposal that would have established a system for identifying and compensating the appropriate rights holders was recently scrapped, after the Department of Justice raised antitrust and other concerns.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/15/BULU1A6446.DTL#ixzz0UJNQG4TL

Affiliate marketing: everything you always wanted to know

It has been a decade since the first affiliate network began in the UK and the market is still growing. The total value of online sales generated by this channel is over £3 billion per year. But what is affiliate marketing, how does it work, why is it so effective and what’s next?

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is where affiliates (some people call them publishers) advertise your product or service on the Internet, either on their own website via pay per click advertising on Google Adwords, for example, or by email marketing, and thus drive visitors to your website.

When those visitors make a purchase, or complete a measurable action such as completing a lead form, you reward the affiliate by paying them a commission, either a fixed amount of money or a percentage of the sale value.

So the main advantage of affiliate marketing is accountability; you pay only on the completion of a defined action, be it a sale via your checkout or the completion of a lead form. So, it’s 100 per cent measurable, and provides the highest return on investment of any form of online marketing – particularly valuable in this recession when driving revenue forward is a challenge.

A recent report by Econsultancy found that UK merchants involved in affiliate marketing drive 16 per cent of their online sales via this channel and that 78 per cent of them expected to be "more reliant" on affiliate marketing in 2009. Other UK merchants argue the percentage of online sales via affiliate marketing is higher at 30 per cent but there’s no doubt that these statistics underline the fact that affiliate marketing should form part of an integrated and successful digital marketing strategy.

As a sales force, affiliates can deliver a significant volume compared to other sales channels.

However, this can’t be done without a competitive commission rate. The highest sales levels come from setting competitive commissions, although excessive commissions are not necessary to achieve great results. Good affiliates stay in business because they’re good at connecting with consumers, delivering offers consumers want and managing their business so it’s profitable. Low commissions won’t deliver volume as they don’t incentivise successful affiliates to work with you.

Affiliates need to be at the heart of your business rather than peripheral to it. They need to become ambassadors for your brand. Like any other member of your team they need the tools to do the job. This includes a good company website, optimised to convert customers online or complemented by an offline reward mechanism, good stock levels if appropriate and good quality creative. Your internal processes also need to be geared up so that when high volumes of profitable business are delivered you can provide support efficiently and promptly.

It can be tough to identify the right affiliates for your brand. This is vital, however. To get affiliate marketing right, it's worthwhile finding an agency with experience in the sector. New affiliate schemes are emerging where some of the traditional costs are stripped out and agencies are leading with results driven campaigns. So, if your business could benefit by affiliate marketing don’t settle for an agency that’s not prepared to share the risk and put its money where its mouth is!

Report: Affiliate Strategies and affiliated companies that touted free government grant money are insolvent

A group of local companies that allegedly bilked consumers by purporting to help them obtain non-existent government grants was insolvent when authorities moved to shut them down.

A preliminary report by the receiver appointed to take charge of the companies’ operations says the businesses “operated only by signing up new victims faster than the old victims could obtain refunds.”

A federal judge last month halted the companies’ activities and froze their assets after the Federal Trade Commission and the attorney generals of Kansas, Minnesota and North Carolina alleged they had engaged in deceptive business and telemarketing practices.

The companies — the receiver has uncovered almost two dozen so far — include Affiliate Strategies Inc., Apex Holdings International LLC, Grant Writers Institute LLC and Landmark Publishing Group LLC.

The receiver, Larry E. Cook, said his investigation of the companies’ books revealed “several thousand intercompany transfers,” making it difficult to sort out their profits and losses. But he said that his investigation indicated that when the companies’ bank accounts were frozen on July 24, there was less than one day’s operating cash requirements in the accounts.

“The companies were incurring very high expenses for postage, printing, marketing leads and labor,” Cook’s report states.

Of immediate concern, the report adds, were “the large distributions and salary paid” to Brett Blackman, president and chief executive of Affiliate Strategies and a principal owner of the other companies.

Cook said that Blackman got $841,545 from Apex Holdings in 2008 and in turn made net contributions of $491,559 to Affiliate Strategies. That left him with net distributions of $349,986 in addition to a salary of $118,049, or a total of $468,035 last year.

Anthony Rupp, an attorney for Blackman, declined to comment on Cook’s report.

Since taking charge of the companies nearly a month ago, Cook, his attorneys at Lathrop & Gage and Lathrop’s staff have fielded “hundreds of calls” from consumers seeking refunds, trade creditors and banks, Cook’s report states.

The report says that a preliminary review of 32 U.S. Postal Service crates received by Lathrop on August 19 indicates most of the mail consists of returned grant writing books from consumers seeking refunds, payments from consumers for grant writing materials and other demands for refunds dating back to March.

“Although it is difficult to summarize the mass volume of calls and letters, a majority of the communications are from elderly individuals, or their children, who have discovered automatic checking account deductions from their, or their parents’, checking accounts and are requesting refunds,” the report states.

In court documents, the affiliated companies maintain the allegations by the FTC and the attorneys general were “based completely on anecdotal claims which badly misconstrue” the defendants’ “legitimate businesses.” The companies say they will be able to prove that have offered their products to thousands of customers “who have never made any complaints.”

Cook has set up a Web site, www.asireceiver.com, that provides information about the case. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson has scheduled a Sept. 1 hearing in Topeka on whether to grant authorities’ request for a preliminary injunction against the companies, Blackman and other defendants.

Affiliate Fatblogging – By Shawn Collins

Affiliate marketing is all about people and relationships. Some critics say that is a problem when trying to scale.

But many affiliate marketers are crunching numbers on a different kind of scale these days. They’re getting into affiliate fatblogging, where they chronicle efforts about healthier living and weight loss on their blogs.

Here are some affiliate marketers that are trying to achieve a net loss.

Ayako Bingham
Where can people follow your progress? www.branding100.com

What’s your power song (song that gets you pumped when exercising)? Don’t Cha / The Pussycat Dolls

Any regrets about posting your progress online? I love taking pictures, but I don’t like being in them. But, this way, I am pushed to accomplish my weight loss efforts

Any advice for affiliate marketers that want to get in shape? Find something that works for you. I am not a treadmill type and it took me a while to find something I actually enjoy doing.

Tyler Cruz
Where can people follow your progress? www.tylercruz.com In particular, my weight loss challenge vs. Jonathan Volk started at the post www.tylercruz.com/blogging-weight-loss-challenge-cruz-vs-volk

What’s your power song (song that gets you pumped when exercising)? I’m currently listening to the best singles of No Doubt which have some nice fast paced songs. Before that, I was listening to the best singles of Michael Jackson such as Beat It and Billie Jean. Great running music.

Any regrets about posting your progress online? Absolutely not. It’s all about public accountability and pressure. Promising to reach a goal to yourself is one thing, but promising it to the world is something completely different.

Any advice for affiliate marketers that want to get in shape? Try announcing your weight loss or fitness goal publicly. It’s a lot harder to come up with excuses when everyone is watching you.

Scott Jangro
Where can people follow your progress? There’s no easy way to do this. For a while I was using the Nike+ website but the battery died on the sensor. I go through phases of talking about my progress in blog posts or podcasts to keep myself motivated. I’ve also got a page on my blog: www.jangro.com/feeds-n-fat/

What’s your power song (song that gets you pumped when exercising)? Eminem “Lose Yourself”

Any regrets about posting your progress online? No, I’m pretty open about stuff that I do. I like the pressure of publicly declaring my goals. When I do that on my blog, I find that my readers are both supportive of me and even inspired to get in shape themselves. That’s a nice feeling.

Any advice for affiliate marketers that want to get in shape? Set goals for both work and exercise. For example, I might commit to a number of miles per week. To get yourself away from your work, schedule time to work out. I use exercise as both a break and a reward for getting stuff done. I also find that I can get some fresh thinking done while on an hour run without any distractions.

Tim Jones
Where can people follow your progress? www.therealtimjones.com

What’s your power song (song that gets you pumped when exercising)? Fuel by Metallica

Any regrets about posting your progress online? Not necessarily a regret, but I’ve found that now I’m accountable to a whole group of people that want to know my progress. Keeps you more motivated and keeps you from eating that double cheeseburger, but can also be intimidating. Could have quietly worked on my fitness and weight loss — like I said, not a regret, per se, but a little unexpected.

Israel Lagares
Where can people follow your progress? www.FatManUnleashed.com or www.twitter.com/israellagares

What’s your power song (song that gets you pumped when exercising)? Any song by Eminem gets me going. It’s like I transfer all of his hate into my workouts.

Any regrets about posting your progress online? I have no regrets at all about putting myself online. It has helped me tremendously. I’ve been able to identify negative patterns in my diet and exercise, plus have been held accountable.

Any advice for affiliate marketers that want to get in shape? If you are trying to get in shape start off slow. Cut the little things out and replace them with positive choices. Instead of soda, drink diet soda. Then instead of diet soda switch to water. Get in small workouts. Hop on the floor and do some pushups then go for a walk in the park. Do that for a month and then step your game up. You can also try my Blogger Proof Workout. It’s made for those folks that live behind the monitor. Check it out at www.fatmanunleashed.com/bloggerproofworkout.pdf

James Seligman
Where can people follow your progress? www.jamesseligman.net

What’s your power song (song that gets you pumped when exercising)? Indestructible – Disturbed

Any regrets about posting your progress online? No regrets, with other affiliates also getting in shape, it’s like you have your own little support system.

Any advice for affiliate marketers that want to get in shape? Just take a quick 10-minute walk every day before logging on your computer. One of my biggest issues was sitting in front of the computer all day and eating snacks (junk food), so don’t snack!

Jonathan Volk
Where can people follow your progress? My affiliate marketing blog, www.jonathanvolk.com every Wednesday.

What’s your power song (song that gets you pumped when exercising)? Skillet, Comatose. ;)

Any regrets about posting your progress online? None! It’s been a great motivation for me. When I gain or lose weight and I post it online; it’s a huge accountability tool for me.

Any advice for affiliate marketers that want to get in shape? Even though much of affiliate marketing is done solo, do not apply this to your weight loss regimen. I had been trying to become healthier and get in shape for a while and it was not until I had a friend to work out with and push me that I was able to really have any progress.

Booby trap: children exposed to raunchy ads

As more and more young children become internet-savvy, the need for parents to protect them from harmful content grows.

A Sensis e-business report has revealed a big jump in the number of children under the age of five who use the internet.

While practices can be put in place to ensure children are protected against pornographic sites, harmful spam and email attachments, the realm of internet advertising poses a more difficult challenge to parents.

Internet adverts syndicated through Google's AdSense are literally all over the web - allowing website owners to display ads relevant to their site's content.

However, one particular advert has managed to spread across the web and catch the eye in a not-too-wholesome manner.

The banner-ad in question advertises 'Evony', a free online role-playing game where the player builds up a civilisation, trades commodities with other players and conducts war against competing civilisations.

But the way the game has been marketed online has caused controversy, with increasingly racy banner ads depicting busty women alongside the words 'Play Unnoticeably', 'Save the Princess' and 'Save your lover'.

The game itself has no distressed damsels in need of rescuing.

Added to their raunchy nature, the marketing campaign was criticised after its Google ads appeared frequently on websites with family content, with many site owners struggling to block the ads.

La Trobe University sociologist Dr Michael Flood has researched the potential social effects of pornography on young children.

He says advertising tactics like Evony's could become even more commonplace.

"It can go as far as advertisers, marketeers and amateur porn producers want it to go - I think it can go a whole lot further than it has and I think there will continue to be efforts in legal regulation and technical strategies like filtering and they will also continue to be circumvented," he said.

"One result of exposure to this kind of sexual material is just a liberalisation of attitudes, it means that children and young people are more accepting of sexual activity, assume that their peers are sexually active, and more approving of various forms of sex and sexual relations."

Children exposed

The danger for young users of the internet is that these sexually-suggestive adverts can appear potentially anywhere where a site has left allocated space for Adsense banners.

Dr Flood says, with an increase of younger children becoming net-savvy, the need for parental supervision is greater than ever.

"Parental sexuality-education is important - so is parental monitoring of children's internet use - however, as children become more independent, I think you wind back that monitoring because it's not appropriate to police a 15-year-old's computer use in the way you might police your 10-year-old's computer use," he said.

"One thing it's important to say is that children are sexual beings and do deserve information on sex and sexuality, however, much of what's available online and elsewhere isn't age-appropriate and doesn't teach very healthy messages about sex or women.

"Parents should be having conversation with kids about sex and sexuality as kids age anyway, and part of that is having conversations about the materials they may see online and elsewhere."

Sexuality education

Dr Flood says the effects on children of sexually-explicit content potentially shape the way young boys see women and girls, as well as young girls being influenced over their sexual value.

"It's actually very hard to say [what the effect is] on younger children, it may be that the youngest children cant make much sense of... sexually explicit material, they may ignore them or they may not make such sense," he said.

"There is evidence, though, of different effects of sexual content in media on children and young people.

"[One effect is] more support for what you might think of as sexist or sexually-objectifying views of women and of sex - so given that the Evony ads show women in various stages of undress, in fact progressively more and more undressed, they are teaching the attitude that girls and women are sexual objects and that their main value is in terms of their appearance and their bodies.

"Amongst girls, it can teach them that their primary value is as sexual objects, increasing their judgements about their bodies to agree with basically sexist and stereotypical attitudes about sex and gender and it can do the same amongst boys as well.

"I think that it's just as important that we teach and use social and education strategies - children and young people in schools should be taught about some of the negative and harmful ways in which sex and sexuality are represented in pornography and in advertising, so that they're more critical when they see problematic images of women or women's bodies or sex.

"They're then less likely to take on the sexist attitudes that those images can represent."

EBay Partner Network Announces Change in Affiliate Program

Payment Structure for EPN Now Based on Quality Click Pricing, a PPC Program
The eBay Partner Network has officially announced a major change to their affiliate program. There have been many smaller changes to the program over the last year, including harsher regulations guarding entrance to the program, and more stringent guidelines over what kinds of sites
EBay Partner Network Announces Change in Affiliate Program
are allowed to operate within its rules.

There is nothing minor about this change from EPN however... it's a landslide, and it will heavily impact every affiliate currently operating niche websites with the eBay Partner Network.

The eBay Partner Network affiliate program has been operating under a commission structure. By listing eBay products on a website, when someone clicked through from your site and ended up making a purchase, you would receive a portion of eBay's commission from the sale, upwards of 50% depending on the monthly volume that you dealt with.

Now EPN is switching to a pay-per-click or PPC structure similar in nature to Google Adsense. This means that every time someone clicks on one of your product displays, you'll earn a small fee based on the quality of the traffic you send to the site. The new program is therefore appropriately entitled Quality Click Pricing and it will come into effect on October 1st. New EPN enrollees will immediately be started in the Quality click Pricing program starting on September 1st.

The quality of your traffic will be determined by a number of factors including bids made, auctions won and purchases made, the proximity of the purchase from the click (the sooner a person makes a purchase after clicking over from your website, the better) and more. The exact details are still unknown, and there is concern

Google Rivals Will Oppose Book Settlement

Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo are planning to join a coalition of nonprofit groups, individuals and library associations to oppose a proposed class-action settlement giving Google the rights to commercialize digital copies of millions of books.

The settlement between Google and groups representing authors and publishers, which is awaiting court approval, has attracted opposition from various corners of the book world. The Department of Justice has also opened an antitrust investigation into the implications of the agreement.

Gary L. Reback, an antitrust lawyer in Silicon Valley, who is acting as counsel to the coalition, said that Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo had all agreed to join the group, which is tentatively called the Open Book Alliance. The group, led by Mr. Reback and the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that has been critical of the settlement, plans to make a case to the Justice Department that the arrangement is anticompetitive. Members of the alliance will most likely file objections with the court independently.

“This deal has enormous, far-reaching anticompetitive consequences that people are just beginning to wake up to,” said Mr. Reback, a lawyer with Carr & Ferrell, a firm in Palo Alto, Calif. In the 1990s, Mr. Reback helped persuade the Justice Department to file its landmark antitrust case against Microsoft.

Some library associations and groups representing authors are also planning to join the coalition, he said.

Microsoft and Yahoo confirmed that they were participants; Amazon refused to comment. Earlier this summer, Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, criticized the settlement.

Google reached the sweeping settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers in October. The two groups had sued Google for copyright infringement in 2005 over the company’s plan to digitize millions of books from libraries, alleging copyright violations. The agreement sets up a mechanism for Google, along with a registry operated by authors and publishers, to display and sell millions of books online.

The parties in the settlement have hailed it as a huge public good, arguing that the agreement will make millions of out-of-print books widely available online and in libraries across the country. They have said it will also create new ways for millions of authors to make money from digital copies of their books, and that other companies could secure deals similar to the one Google obtained under the settlement.

Nick Ansell Asks “Are There Legal Real Work From Home Jobs?”

20th August 2009 Adelaide, South Australia
Self employed concreter Nick Ansell sets his sights firmly on discovering his true potential.


An ever present buzz is circulating world wide as the work from home industry is fast becoming the most preferred choice of the decade. Everyday people from all types of backgrounds are slowly being drawn to this type of alternative because of mounting financial pressure, ever restricting employment, and the ongoing diminishment of traditional job opportunities.

Self employed concrete contractor Nick Ansell has been experiencing first hand the transition to the work from home industry and has set his sights firmly on discovering his true potential.

“Yes I have been working as an independent marketing consultant now for the last 4 months“, says Nick. “ I was so keen at first and got easily mislead a few times and lost a bit of money for sure. But I soon came to realise that that’s the name of the game and you have to take responsibility for that and learn from it. Some people in this industry will just be after the money and others will be in it for the long run and that’s fine with me because I’m in it for the long run . I clearly understand the long term benefits that this type of work produces. I want a better future for my family and I believe this is the way I can achieve that”.

One of the negatives that has spurned from the industry has been the hundreds if not thousands of false and misleading opportunities that have seen many people lose a lot of money only to line the pockets of those who are doing the misleading which has begged the question, are there legal real work from home jobs, or is all this just make believe hype, Nick explains,

“Yes there certainly are a lot of hyped up promises out there and I believe that the average person is always going to find that out first before they find what works. I think that’s just the nature of the beast and the luck of the draw. I also think it’s very important to know what you are really in this for. If you only see the money then those that just throw money claims at you are going to draw you in easily, and if you do not want to work for your money then those who claim that they do all the work for you are going to get you too. Its all relevant to what you really want. But don’t expect anyone else to give it to you. There are legal real work from home jobs out there but your not mentally geared up to see them. The real sustainable opportunities cost real money, take real time and take real work but reap the greatest rewards on many levels and that is what I focus on.

As the industry continues to swallow up well over ninety percent of the people who pursue it, it is still crystal clear that the breath taking ’ $112 billion’ generated in direct sales alone will continue to draw many more people for many more years to come, and with so many becoming increasingly aware of the perceived nature of this business, another question arising is what kind of values could carry on through the industry in the years to come, Nick goes on to say,

“ I used to work for my uncle doing sales for his security company. I could not relate to the cut throat nature of it all. It felt wrong. I’m not saying that you should be spineless, but I think any business that requires you to lie, cheat or steal to get ahead is wrong. What happened to helping people and being genuine and honest. My Uncles business was just one in an army of the survival of the fittest. Unfortunately some of the most powerful business’s in the world are the pinnacle of this method. So one day I just got up and left because I just couldn‘t take it anymore. It was not my business and there was nothing I could do about it. I was not cut out to be the lying snake in the grass that he expected to be. Negativity breeds negativity and the opposite applies. Yes there are a lot of snakes in the home business industry but I think that’s a dying trend. Ultimately those who help others first and foremost will come out on top, I firmly believe that. Now it is so exciting because I am able to show people my value without having to worry about the outside influence of others because I am creating my own destiny by being myself in service to others and people appreciate that. I feel gratitude and I know people can see that in me and I believe this is where the industry is going.”

So with the economy still looking very ordinary and the rise of a new empire taking it may not be a matter of if but more a matter of when to seek for your own unique portion of what could be called the event of the new beginning of business, online business.

And as the gap between the rich and the poor increases it seems now would be as good a time as any to find your place in a top online business opportunity.

Nick says, “I am so glad I decided to believe in the change because I proceeded to change and that added value to me far greater than I previously thought was possible, and now all I have to do is live by it so that others may see the value I have.”

Social media is a means to revenue

It seems like a long time since Internet startups thought they could offer a free product and make a living selling ads. That would be in 2004, during the birth of Web 2.0.

Such is the incredible pace of change in the Internet's evolution. In its own historical scale, that moment would be equivalent to the Renaissance: the Dark Ages of the dot-com bubble was past, but superstition still at times superceded reason.

To wit, the mantra was: "Build a community of users first, monetize later."

How far we've come.

"Making money from ads was never a proven concept, it was just a promise," said Paul Verna, a senior analyst at research firm eMarketer. "Companies discovered eyeballs [on web pages] don't equal money, especially when you're dealing with user-generated content.

"This is very clear now. It wasn't clear until a while ago."

Although the web is filled with free tools that let people talk, share content and offer advice, few make money. Twitter, the social network on which people communicate in 140-character bursts, is the most famous among them. Though it boasts millions of users and continues to grow at a cheek-rippling rate, it has yet to make a dime.

Its leaders said they won't display ads on the service, and they won't ask its users to start paying for it.

But they've hinted at a revenue model that is becoming increasingly popular with new startups in social media: Charge the companies that use it as a marketing tool.

Big companies have the money. And they're increasingly turning to social media as a way to reach consumers and cultivate a youthful brand image. That works fine for startups scratching around for a revenue model.

One of these is Praized Media, a Montreal startup that offers a tool that can is embedded in blogs and elsewhere online, which allows users to search for and rate local merchants. Their original plan was to make money each time a user clicked on a sponsored link by a merchant.

But now they're moving away from a consumer product to monitoring online conversations for companies so that the companies can seize on sales opportunities.

"Let's say someone on Twitter says she's planning her daughter's wedding," said Paul Dawalibi, president of Praized Media. "We'll be able to pick out from that, that a wedding means a florist" and connect buyer to seller, for a price that would be paid by the seller.

"People are yelling out needs online, but so much of it gets lost in the ether," he said.

Another Montreal startup, Identi.ca,is an open-source copycat of Twitter, popular among the free software crowd. It plans to make money by offering a version of itself for companies to use internally among employees.

The idea of seeking paying customers in enterprises is still experimental, but it shows promise. Companies large and small embracing social media see them as no longer a fad, but a crucial element in their marketing.

In a survey of decision-makers in media and entertainment, consulting giant Accenture found that 53% believe social media represent the highest growth opportunity for them.

Microsoft Replaces Google in Advance Internet Deal

Although reports of Microsoft's ad deal with Advance Internet have deemed Yahoo the loser, it's Google that will lose local market share as a result. Before signing with Microsoft, Advance Internet had used Google's contextual ad platform AdSense on all its local sites. As part of its deal to become a Microsoft network reseller, Advance has switched from running Google AdSense on article pages to running Microsoft Content Advertising links.

"Google now has been replaced with the Microsoft product," Advance Internet President Peter Weinberger told ClickZ News. The company began running AdSense ads in early 2008.

Exactly how much AdSense inventory is represented by Advance Internet sites -- which include local news sites NJ.com, NOLA.com, and OregonLive.com -- is not clear. Weinberger said he was not sure. Google did not comment in time for publication. The agreement does not affect Condé Nast Digital sites such as Epicurious.com and Style.com, which are published by a separate division.

In what could be perceived as another setback for Google, the publisher has agreed to include Microsoft's sponsored links in the internal site search it uses Google to operate. According to Weinberger, Advance employs Google's platform to enable content searches on its sites, but Microsoft will now serve ads into those results. Google had not served sponsored links into Advance search results in the past.

Advance was running Google's AdSense ads the same way any small site publisher or blogger does. Because there wasn't any custom set-up in place, Advance performed the transition without Google's involvement. "We just stopped using it," said Weinberger.

The ad deal between Microsoft and Advance, announced yesterday, has been construed as a blow to Yahoo, which has partnered with several newspaper site publishers in similar deals. In those deals, paper site publishers have agreed to use Yahoo's display ad management platform. Advance, which currently uses 24/7 Real Media's ad management platform, was looking for a more flexible contract, Weinberger explained.

"We want the flexibility of continuing to use our current advertising platform... There's a tremendous amount of flux in the ad serving space right now," he continued. "It seemed to make sense for us to be patient to get a better understanding of what all these platforms will become before making a decision."

Google Plans to Update Font Faces in AdSense

Google AdSense has been testing different fonts and has found that various fonts fare better than others depending factors such as size and character width. As a result, they are planning a font face update. Here's what to expect:

Arial: 728x90, 336x280, 120x600, 120x240
Verdana: 300x250, 160x600, 468x60, 250x250, 234x60, 125x125, 180x150
Times New Roman: 200x200

The changes only affect ad units in Latin-based characters and only ads that have been set to "AdSense default" for the font face. The AdSense team recommends conducting your own testing once the changes are in place, in order to get the best performance for your site.

Obama Merchandise a Big Seller at NBC Store

If you’re a fan of all things Obama, NBC Universal's online store has no fewer than 29 options for your buying pleasure -- from a shirt with the president's picture proclaiming "YES WE DID" to both of his books to a special inauguration DVD to a refrigerator magnet of the first couple.

Can you celebrate the Obama presidency at NBC?

Yes you can.

If you're a fan of all things Obama, NBC Universal's online store has no fewer than 29 options for your buying pleasure -- from a shirt with the president's picture proclaiming "YES WE DID"...to both of his books...to a special inauguration DVD...to a refrigerator magnet of the first couple.

And don't forget the Barack Obama Action Figure -- yours for $15, plus tax.

You can buy them online -- or at NBC Universal's retail store in New York.

Some analysts say it's good business, that NBC is simply offering what people want to buy. They point out that the adult version of the “YES WE DID” shirt ($25) was so popular, it sold out on the Web site.

But others note that there is no merchandise available that shows support for the other side of the political aisle. And they question whether the political bent of the items on sale are healthy for a corporation that operates an impartial news outlet.

Some of NBC’s item descriptions would seem to support that notion: "Bring reform to your refrigerator. Or at least keep company with the President while you're at work, with the Barack Obama Magnet," one item description reads.

"From Yes We Can to Yes We Did! Celebrate Barack Obama's historic victory with the new 'Yes We Did' Unisex T-Shirt," reads another.

But if your favorite color in the red, white and blue just happens to be red, you're out of luck.

There are no t-shirts or refrigerator magnets for George and Laura Bush, and NBC did not say whether it ever sold Bush items after his victory in 2000.

The CBS and ABC online stores sell books about the president, but no merchandise. Fox and CNN do not sell books or gear.

Some journalism ethics scholars said NBC Universal's focus on Obama merchandise was unseemly for a media outlet.

"The NBC Universal Store stands out for the amount of pro-Obama trinkets and gadgets and promotional material it sells. Its nearest competitor is CBS, which has a dozen items...books and the 60 Minutes interview with Obama,” DePaul University journalism professor Bruce Evensen said.

"The [NBC] site seems like a campaign stop for those following their messiah...The appearance that NBC isn't reporting the news with fairness, balance and impartiality -- but is instead cheerleading -- is apparent," he said.

But others said the sale of Obama items appeared to be nothing more than a smart business decision.

"I think it indicates that NBC thinks it can make money from selling Obama items but not from McCain or Bush items," said Eric Alterman, author of the book, "What Liberal Media?" and an English and journalism professor at Brooklyn College in New York.

Joe Luppino-Esposito, a conservative blogger who spotted the shirts for sale, agreed that selling only Obama gear could be a good business decision, but he said that it reflected network bias nonetheless.

"It's definitely possible that it's a business decision, but I think that a news organization should always be careful in selling products that aren't so blatant in showing a bias," he said.

Jane Kirtley, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Silha Center for Media Ethics and Law, said, "I would agree that it is problematic when you have an entity that has a news division to appear to be taking a partisan line. When you're selling memorabilia that supports anybody who prevailed in an election, you run the risk of being labeled as having a partisan affiliation."

"To me, whatever money they're making off of this, it's not worth it. It undermines any attempt to represent itself as a nonpartisan entity," she said.

But Alterman said the idea that the Obama merchandise reflects on the reporting at NBC and MSNBC was "almost comically stupid."

"Do these conservatives think that the person making the decision of what items to sell in the NBC gift shops is the person giving orders about how to slant the politics of NBC news?" he asked.

"What about the choice of beverage sales in the cafeteria?"

Liberal media watch groups Media Matters and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting declined to comment on the issue.

Can You Really Make Money With Twitter?

A lot of Tweeters claim they make money with Twitter. A new platform called Sponsored Tweets went live this month. It connects advertisers with tweeters.

Advertisers search for the best user to tweet out their message, depending on for example the amount of followers and the location of the tweeter. The tweeter can accept or reject the offer, and get paid for tweeting.

Websites like "paymetweets" and "be a magpie" offer similar services. So how much do they actually pay?

This Tweeter tells me he signed up for Magpie half a year ago. He says he's earned a disappointing 50 cents so far, and doesn't feel the site is authentic.

Others are more lucky. Tamar Weinberg says she's made a few hundred bucks within two weeks. She was a featured user of Sponsored Tweets when it launched.

" I think it's a great service, just as long as there's full disclosure that the tweet is sponsored, and as long as you tweet out content that's relevant to your followers. Otherwise, you may lose a few," Weinberg says.

Eddy Salomon from WorkAtHomeNoScams says the best way to make money on Twitter is by tweeting often, and being legitimate.

"Provide useful information in the way of retweets, articles or news stories related to one's industry. Then mix in a few promotional tweets. For instance I will retweet about other legitimate work at home or telecommuting news or leads I may find. Then once a week I'll tweet about a new article I wrote or a new work at home opportunity I just got involved with," Salomon says.

But of course, it all depends on the number of followers and how often you update. Tweeters with a lot of followers have a higher chance of getting paid more. Fast Company says celebrity bloggers like Jessica Gottlieb can make about $22 per tweet.

It's no wonder Sponsored Tweets is stirring up a debate. While some say it's not a big deal because many celebrities already get paid to endorse products on TV for example, others don't agree.

This tweeter from Dallas tells me he is against tweeting for money. He says you should only tweet about things you have an honest opinion about.

To wrap it up, you can definitely make money with Twitter. It all depends on how many followers you have, how often you tweet, and how you feel about sponsored tweets.

Money Back Websites for Back to School Shopping

Back to School shopping has arrived. Many parents will head out to the stores, stressed about finding sales and good deals for clothing for the kids. Before heading out the door, think about shopping on line and making cash back for the purchases.
Three specific sites that giving cash back when shopping through their websites are Mr. Rebates, Ebates and Fatwallet. Not only do they offer cash back at on line stores like Old Navy, Gap, Target, WalMart and The Children's Place - but coupons as well.
All three sites can be found on facebook as well, where becoming a fan will allow the sites to post on profile wall pages. Each site allows a shopper to search for stores using a search box, or hunt for them alphabetically, or shop by categories such as apparel/clothing, shoes, electronics, computers and software/games. Hundreds of stores offer cash back percentages ranging from 1% to 12% and more!
Two of the sites, Ebates and Mr. Rebates are also offering even more cash back on specific stores during the back to school experience. Coupons are also available at each website and also visit another website called Retail Me Not, to may find even more coupons to be able to use while shopping at the many stores available for cash back.
The concept on these sites: register to become a member, shop through the stores they have relationships with, get percentage of the total (before taxes of course) in a "pending" account, wait about 30-90 days depending on the stores, money will then show up in the available account and just request a check to be sent. Or have it paid through PayPal. So simple.
Another great concept for two of the sites is the referral program. Refer friends and family to www.ebates.com and www.mrrebates.com and earn more money. Friends must become a registered SHOPPER before the referral bonus shows up in the account. Truly make a great amount of money just for sharing the knowledge of these sites with everyone.
If a shopper is not sure of the sizes for children, take them to the store to just try a few things and then order stuff on line at the store. Never having to wait on lines! Just go in, check out sizes and how things fit on the kids and then go back and shop by size at stores like Old Navy, Target and so many others!
Great ways for saving money, but also making money on things all parents need to buy! Enjoy making money and reducing money stresses all with three websites.

Google Adsense To End Video Units Feature

Google Adsense is all set to end video units feature from April end. The video units feature, through which publishers could show YouTube content and video ads on their pages, is now being eliminated by Google AdSense. Google has announced that the existing AdSense clients will have their feature eliminated by the end of April.

As for the new clients of the revenue sharing ad program, they will not be given the option to place video ads on their pages any more. However, publishers will still be able to display video content on their pages. For this, they will have to pull embed codes directly from YouTube.

The reason that Google gave for eliminating the video ads was that their performances was not up to the mark. Pre-rolls are much more common that videos, mainly because figuring out a sustainable ad model for the latter is much more difficult. However, the problem with video ads might not concern the whole ad unit, rather the underlying content only. Since brand advertisers rarely want their names to be associated with random words spoken in videos, the concept of video ads seemed to be faulty.

It is being believed that the latest announcement by Google, in relation to the video ads, is just another step towards laying off the programs in AdSense. Only sometime back, the American conglomerate had discontinued its Google Radio Ads. It was also looking to sell off its Google Radio Automation software business, only a month after it had decided to bail on selling print ads. It was only a matter of time before Google pulled the plug on AdSense and it seems that the right time has come now!

Appeals Court Rules Against Google On Keyword Ads

"The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Google in Rescuecom v. Google (PDF), a trademark infringement lawsuit over Google's keyword advertising practices. The court said: 'The Complaint's allegations that Google's recommendation and sale of Rescuecom's mark to Google's advertisers, so as to trigger the appearance of their advertisements and links in a manner likely to cause consumer confusion when a Google user launches a search of Rescuecom's trademark, properly alleges a claim under the Lanham Act.' While this result hampers Google's ability to end trademark lawsuits early, the case is still at an early stage and Google could still win."

Can Google Make Any Money with Twitter?

Twitter, a microblogging service in which millions of people post brief text messages, has emerged as the custodian of a valuable online index of real-time facts, comments, musings and announcements, information that is clearly valuable for Google's search engine index.

Google may be in late-stage negotiations to acquire Twitter, according to published online reports. Facebook already made a bid for Twitter in 2008. Twitter has focused in recent weeks on strengthening its search features, in what was originally thought as a bid to make it a more competitive entity against Google and other search-engine players. But if Google were to acquire Twitter, how would that benefit Google?



Google may acquire Twitter, according to reports circulating online, but how would it benefit from such an acquisition?

On TechCrunch, Michael Arrington wrote that "two separate people close to the negotiations" had told him that Google was jockeying to acquire the microblogging site, which lets users post "tweets" of up to 140 characters.

Twitter previously declined a buyout by Facebook in 2008. No valuation has been publicly announced for a potential Google deal.

This would be Twitter co-founder Biz Stone’s second deal with Google; he was part of the team behind Blogger, which the search-engine giant bought in February 2003.

According to analysts, Twitter offers potential real value to any company seeking to acquire it.

"Twitter's value is in its content, growing by 6 million tweets per day," Jeffrey Mann, an analyst at Gartner, said in an e-mail. "Twitter is attractive because it has built a service that attracts this much volume, creating a constantly growing, twitching, seething real-time source of comments, news and opinions.

"The culture and ambitions of Twitter and Google match," Mann added. "Now is the time for Twitter to sell. It is at the top of its hype range now. Monetizing on its own would be a long, hard slog."

Twitter has been taking steps to make its search feature more robust, starting with the March 6 transfer of its search bar from search.twitter.com onto its main site. A "Trends" menu, where users could see the most talked-about subjects among Twitter users, was integrated into the search function at the time.

At the time, the thinking was that such steps would allow Twitter to seize a larger share of online revenue dollars and thus offer more powerful competition to Google. However, if Google acquires the company, then Twitter’s newfound strengths only contribute to Google’s already substantial assets—and eliminate a potential source of future competition.

"I think Google is starting to see the beginning of a threat to its dominance of search coming from the microbloggers." John Byrne, an analyst at TBRI, said in an e-mail. "Twitter has its own search engine, which is great for getting up-to-the-minute tweets on any topic, and Google does not have a significant presence in microblogging as part of its search index. If people start using Twitter to search, that would come at the expense of Google."

When it comes to a potential Google-Twitter deal, Byrne said, “What I would expect is to see two affiliations: a deal in which Twitter’s search results are included in Google’s search results, and a deal in which Google starts posting search-based ads on Twitter’s search site.

"The first would allow Google to improve its search results significantly and expand Twitter’s reach significantly," he added. "Both affiliations would allow Twitter to see significant revenue-sharing deals with Google that would, for the first time, allow it to monetize the significant momentum it has achieved in microblogging."

Twitter had already been exploring alternate ways to aggressively monetize itself, starting with the March 23 launch of ExecTweets, a site sponsored by Microsoft that clustered the microblogging missives of some of the nation’s most prominent executives. In addition, it announced business- and enterprise-centric plans to launch paid commercial accounts sometime in 2009.

Should a Twitter acquisition take place, any such revenue-generating features will likely contribute to Google’s bottom line, as well.

A Google-Twitter acquisition would mark the second major IT deal in this period; IBM and Sun Microsystems are reportedly finishing negotiations for a mega-buyout, with IBM acquiring Sun for as much as $6.5 billion in cash. The deal would allow IBM to position itself as the 800-pound gorilla with regard to open-source Linux and Java software for Web application development, data storage, government systems and telecommunications.

Sites For Smarter Money Management

Apparently, I am one of the few people who use the personal finance app Quicken the way its geek programmers intended: I use it to record my every financial transaction (except small cash purchases), every investment activity, and every penny I pay on interest for my mortgage into it. For some reason, I'm obsessive about keeping track of my money. My one concession to practicality and time savings in recent years: I no longer break out what I spend on sales tax for retail transactions.

But compulsive behavior isn’t by itself smart money management. In fact, I'm doing things all wrong. I've got the details but I don't act on them. I can see where my money is going, but that's all I really do with the information: watch my money go.

Current Web-based personal finance apps make it much easier to do things right. They don't just collect your financial transaction data, they analyze it. They make suggestions. And until your finances get Madoff-complicated, they do a good job at giving you a simple picture of what's going on with your money. Simple enough that you can act on the information in smart ways.

Like most online personal finance sites, Mint will log on to your bank and investment accounts, download your data, and show you exactly what you’re spending money on. It also does a fairly good job of categorizing your transactions. It will tell you, for example, what you’re spending on gas every month, even if you buy gas from different stations.

Mint's clever trick is that it lets you compare you spending habits with other people in your location (city or state). If you see that you're spending more than most people on utilities, for example, that may help prod you to lower your energy use. It's a limited feature (you can't filter out people who have bigger or smaller families than you, for example) but it still provides very useful data.

The service also looks at the fees and interest associated with your bank and credit accounts, and gives you customized advertisements showing how much you would save if you switched to another bark or card. Again, the data behind the feature is limited, but it's enough to let you know when you're getting fleeced by your financial institution.


Wesabe, like Mint, gives you specific ways to save money, but its tips aren't from advertisers. Rather, it compares how much you spend per transaction at a particular vendor, like a grocery store or fast-food restaurant, and then suggests that next time you're thinking of going to that establishment, you try a lower-priced option in the same category, based on data from other users. The service also identifies recurring fees and subscriptions and will offer them up to you as optional "cutbacks," reminding you as you get closer to the next time the fee is paid that you might want to terminate the service.

Wesabe also lets you select from a menu of financial goals -- both savings and other, such as "stop paying overdrafts" -- and it tracks your progress towards them. Wesabe has a community of users in online forums on the site, so as you try to grapple with the system's advice you can talk with other users in similar situations.

Intuit, which makes Quicken, also has an online version, Quicken Online. Its trick is its clear and simple way of telling you about your cash position. It tells you how much money you have left to spend until your next paycheck, and when that will be. It also helps you track simple goals, like saving for a vacation or car down payment. Quicken Online does far less than Quicken the software app, but it's also much simpler. It's also free.



Thrive is the stern nanny of personal finance sites. It evaluates your financial habits and gives you three achievable goals about them, like taking 10 percent less cash out of the bank machine each month. Make that goal, and it's replaced with another. I hate this site. Because it's right.

Other sites in this vein include Geezeo, which has a very strong community angle, including a section for financial "confessions." There's also Buxfer, which has the neat feature of helping you settle shared bills, like rent and phone; it's great if you have roommates.

None of the sites let you pay bills or actually execute financial transactions through them, as the financial apps Quicken and Microsoft Money do. However, since most bank sites now have bill-pay features, that's not a great loss. Any money you spend on a bank site will get picked up when it's recorded by the sites covered here.

One warning: If you read my last column, you know that there is a risk to using online resources. And when you're talking about online banking, that risk is material. You have to give your bank accounts' user IDs and passwords to these sites to use them so they can gather data for you. That is a risk. None of these sites has had a breach and let private customer information into the wrong hands, and they all depend on maintaining their users' trust. Each company's CEO will tell you that their sites are virtually un-hackable, and that even if someone got your password on the service, all they could do is see your transactions -- remember, these sites don't let you actually move money.

If, however, one of these services was hacked and the bad guys got your stored bank passwords out of it, well, that would be financially catastrophic. The site spokespeople will tell you that's not possible. They're probably close enough to right that it doesn't matter. But there is no such thing as zero risk when it comes to computer security.

All of these sites are free, and you could, theoretically, use them all. I wouldn't recommend that, but it could be an interesting exercise. Personally, I like the advice from Wesabe and Thrive. But Mint collects data from more sources, like investment accounts, so it gives you a more complete financial picture.

For finding ways to be smarter about money, all of these sites are better than one of the old-school software-based financial products, and definitely superior to the most common personal financial management system -- guesswork.


By Rafe Needleman

Make money off your e-waste

Sure, you already know you should recycle your e-waste — and that every week, a new company seems to come out with its own recycling program.

But with all the different take-back programs, sell-back programs, rebate programs, and the like, how's one supposed to know which method to go with — or better yet, which methods are actually profitable for the would-be environmentalist? Because while both Best Buy and Office Depot will charge you about $10 to recycle your laptop, the former offsets that cost by giving you a $10 gift certificate and the latter doesn't. Other sites, like Collective Good (http://collectivegood.tradeups.com/), might in fact pay you for the privilege of taking your unwanted laptop off your hands. Others might offer to donate the proceeds of your recycled product to your favorite charity. What's a do-gooder to do?

All these programs will inevitably vary for you in terms of locations, convenience, restrictions, etc. — which is why some environmentalists find their attempts to e-cycle using only sustainable transportation and packaging an all-day endeavor.

PC Mag has just published The Electronics Recycling Superguide (www.pcmag.com/ article2/0,2817,2341907,00. asp).

This article details the e-waste recycling programs offered by the major electronics manufacturers and a list of seven cash-back Web sites that might pay you to send them your e-waste.