Posted by admin on March 31st, 2008 — Posted in Commerce Resources
The most valuable affiliate Internet marketing tip has to be finding out exactly what the top six-figure-monthly check guys spend most of their time doing. It is really very simple. If you were to learn what they spend most of their time doing and were to start doing it right from day one, then this has to be the fastest way for any new affiliate to reach that six-figure monthly check status.
Let us first narrow down this mystery to one area to make it easier to solve. Top Internet affiliates spend virtually all their time at their affiliate blog or the affiliate site that they use to generate traffic to then direct to their affiliate sites and that is so obvious that it does not qualify to be called a marketing tip.
But now that we have that information we need to know exactly what it is that they spend most of their time doing. Do they spend it churning out content for instance? Not really. As important as content is and the truth is that they do allocate a little time to it, they do not spend most of their time on it. Further evidence can be found in the fact that most top affiliates usually hire writers to write their content. But even before they assign the writing of their content, there is something else they do first. Something else that consumes so much of their time, especially in the early days of an affiliate blog as they seek to build enough traffic.
Actually there are two very important, specific tasks that top high flying, high earning affiliates spend virtually all their time doing.
This is a real life changing secret that should actually be sold for a pretty high price and be well worth every dime, but today is your lucky day, it is available for free, no strings attached. You’ll get it at Christopher Kyalo’s amazing Affiliate Insider Secrets newsletter. Subscribe now and gain access to this valuable information that will change your affiliate business forever. To subscribe simply send a blank email now to Affiliate-insider-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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Posted by admin on March 31st, 2008 — Posted in Baker's Dozen
III. The Scientific Method
To qualify as science, an economic theory must satisfy the
following conditions:
All-inclusive (anamnetic) - It must encompass, integrate and
incorporate all the facts known. Coherent - It must be
chronological, structured and causal. Consistent -
Self-consistent (its sub-”narratives” cannot contradict one
another or go against the grain of the main “narrative”) and
consistent with the observed phenomena (both those related to
the subject and those pertaining to the rest of the universe).
Logically compatible - It must not violate the laws of logic
both internally (the narrative must abide by some internally
imposed logic) and externally (the Aristotelian logic which is
applicable to the observable macro world). Insightful - It must
inspire a sense of awe and astonishment, which is the result of
seeing something familiar in a new light or the result of seeing
a pattern emerging out of a big body of data (”data mining”).
The insights must be the inevitable conclusion of the logic, the
language and of the development of the narrative. Aesthetic -
The narrative must be both plausible and “right”, beautiful
(aesthetic), not cumbersome, not awkward, not discontinuous,
smooth and so on. Parsimonious - The narrative must employ the
minimum number of assumptions and entities in order to satisfy
all the above conditions. Explanatory - The narrative must
explain the behaviour of economic actors, their decisions, why
events develop the way they do. Predictive (prognostic) - The
narrative must possess the ability to predict future events, the
future behaviour of economic actors and of other meaningful
figures and the inner emotional and cognitive dynamics of said
actors. Prescriptive - With the power to induce change (whether
it is for the better, is a matter of contemporary value
judgements and fashions). Imposing - The narrative must be
regarded by society as the preferable and guiding organizing
principle. Elastic - The narrative must possess the intrinsic
abilities to self organize, reorganize, give room to emerging
order, accommodate new data comfortably, avoid rigidity in its
modes of reaction to attacks from within and from without. In
some of these respects, current economic narratives are usually
theories in disguise. But scientific theories must satisfy not
only most of the above conditions. They must also pass the
crucial hurdles of testability, verifiability, refutability,
falsifiability, and repeatability - all failed by economic
theories. Many economists argue that no experiments can be
designed to test the statements of economic narratives, to
establish their truth-value and, thus, to convert them to
theorems.
There are five reasons to account for this shortcoming - the
inability to test hypotheses in economics:
Ethical - Experiments would have to involve humans. To achieve
the necessary result, the subjects will have to be ignorant of
the reasons for the experiments and their aims. Sometimes even
the very performance of an experiment will have to remain a
secret (double blind experiments). Some experiments may involve
unpleasant experiences. This is ethically unacceptable. Design
Problems - The design of experiments in economics is awkward and
difficult. Mistakes are often inevitable, however careful and
meticulous the designer of the experiment is. The Psychological
Uncertainty Principle - The current position of a human subject
can be (theoretically) fully known. But the passage of time and
the experiment itself influence the subject and void this
knowledge (”time inconsistencies”). The very processes of
measurement and observation influence the subject and change
him. Uniqueness - Experiments in economics, therefore, tend to
be unique and cannot be replicated elsewhere and at other times
even if they deal with the SAME subjects. The subjects (the
tested humans) are never the same due to the aforementioned
psychological uncertainty principle. Repeating the experiments
with other subjects adversely affects the scientific value of
the results. The undergeneration of testable hypotheses -
Economics does not generate a sufficient number of hypotheses,
which can be subjected to scientific testing. This has to do
with the fabulous (=storytelling) nature of the discipline. In a
way, Economics has affinity with some private languages. It is a
form of art and, as such, is self-sufficient. If structural,
internal constraints and requirements are met - a statement is
deemed true even if it does not satisfy external (scientific)
requirements. Thus, the standard theory of utility is considered
valid in economics despite empirical evidence to the contrary -
simply because it is aesthetic and mathematically convenient.
So, what are economic narratives good for?
Narratives in economics offer an organizing principle, a sense
of order and ensuing justice, of an inexorable drive toward well
defined (though, perhaps, hidden) goals, the ubiquity of
meaning, being part of a whole. They strive to answer the
“why’s” and “how’s”. They are dialogic and prescriptive
(=provide behavioural prescriptions). The client (let’s say, a
politician) asks: “Why am I (and here follows an economic
problem or behaviour”. Then, the narrative is spun: “The
situation is like this not because the world is whimsically
cruel but because…and if you were to do this or that the
situation is bound to improve”. The client is calmed by the very
fact that there is an explanation to that which until now
bothered him, that there is hope and - providing he follows the
prescriptions - he cannot be held responsible for a possible
failure, that there is who or what to blame (focussing diffused
anger is a very policy instrument) and, that, therefore, his
belief in order, justice and their administration by some
supreme, transcendental principle is restored. This sense of
“law and order” is further enhanced when the narrative yields
predictions which come true (either because they are
self-fulfilling or because some real “law”- really, a pattern -
has been discovered).
IV. Current Problems in Economics
Neo-classical economics has failed on several fronts
simultaneously. This multiple failure led to despair and the
re-examination of basic percepts and tenets:
1. The Treatment of Government
Government was accorded a special status and special treatment
in economic theory (unlike other actors and agents). It was
alternatively cast as a saint (seeking to selflessly maximize
social welfare) - or as the villain (seeking to perpetuate and
increase its power ruthlessly, as in public choice theories).
Both views are caricatures of reality. Governments do seek to
perpetuate and increase power but they use it mostly to
redistribute income and not for self-enrichment.
2. Technology and Innovation
Economics failed to account for the role of innovation in growth
and development. It also ignored the specific nature of
knowledge industries (where returns increase rather than
diminish and network effects prevail). Thus, current economic
thinking is woefully inadequate to deal with information
monopolies (such as Microsoft), path dependence and pervasive
externalities.
3. Long Term Investment Horizons
Classic cost/benefit analyses fail to tackle very long term
investment horizons (periods). Their underlying assumption (the
opportunity cost of delayed consumption) fails beyond the
investor’s useful economic life expectancy. Put more plainly:
investors care less about their grandchildren’s future than
about their own. This is because predictions concerned with the
far future are highly uncertain and people refuse to base
current decisions on fuzzy “what ifs”. This is a problem because
many current investments (example: the fight against global
warming) are likely to yield results only in the decades ahead.
There is no effective method of cost/benefit analysis applicable
to such time horizons.
(continued)
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Posted by admin on March 31st, 2008 — Posted in Web + Hub
Why Submit To Web Directories
Many people are paying alot of money to submit their urls to web
directories mainly because of 3 reasons: a) To get permanent 1
way link. b) To get a good Google PR page linking to your site.
c) To get traffic / leads from directories.
Coincidently, the first 2 factors are part of the mathematics
that determine how well your site will rank in Google Search
Engine. Because of that, the “Web Directory Industry” exploded
and you see tonnes of new web directories appearing eveyday.
Even Yahoo and Microsoft have their own web directories.
The Problem
When everyone starts doing that, the World Wide Web becomes a
place full of directories and links with no real content. So,
our big brother Google decided to flex its muscle by treating
directory websites as “Link Farms” and banned them. If you
stumble across any old directory websites with PR of 0, you know
that these websites are the victims of Google slaughter. The
implication is that your one way link in their website will not
help your google ranking at all. Many webmasters who depended on
their directory site for income cursed and sweared.
The contradicting part is that Google actually uses data from
dmoz.org which is another web directory! I do not believe that
Google can ban all the web directories around but I think they
can come up with valid excuses to ban any sites they do not
like. This is like being able to sentence someone to death with
any reasons that you can come up with…scary?
Are Web Directories Dead
Many people do not think so. I do think that Google will
eventually make Web Directories useless in providing one way
links and PR unless these directories can show that they are
different. Google has already changed their ranking algorithm
such that PR becomes devalued. One way links have to pass
through strict filter to really make any impact. So, to rely on
factor a) and b) to boost Google ranking is no longer valid (See
on top). If you want to rely on directories to get hits would be
even harder. Statistics show that directories do not provide
leads many other webmasters. Unless you are doing some sort of
advertisements in the directory site, it is unlikely that anyone
will notice your url especially when you are with hundreds of
urls.
MSN and Yahoo Search Engines
Unlike Google, most of the traditional SEO linking and directory
submission tactics still works for MSN and Yahoo search engines
(You will notice that your msn ranking will climb up much faster
than your google ranking). However I believe that in the near
future, MSN and Yahoo will try achieve Google-like ranking
algorithm. It is possible that they might choose not to follow
google.
Invest in Web Directories or Not?
Submitting urls to good web directories is a quick way to get
strong 1 way links and can help your site be spidered quickly.
Dmoz especially, can make significant impact to your google
ranking. I am not really concern about other directories but to
be included in famous directory like business.com or botw.org
gives my site recognition and prestige. In short, I would not
want to spend too much time and money in submitting to web
directories.
What Directories To Submit
1) If you decide to submit to directories, you will definitely
want to start with dmoz.org. I would recommend you to just go
for a deep category with very few sites but with an editor
available. You do not need to worry about the page rank of the
category because the chances of you getting into a high Page
Rank category is slim and not worth waiting. Just submit and
heck care. Personally, I do not believe that DMOZ will survive
for long because it is maintained by volunteers and that the
data could be subjected to manipulation. To me, the main reason
why it is still surviving is because Google is using their data.
2) The next directory to submit is MSN small business directory.
If you want value for money, this is the one. Though the
categories are cluttered, you can get your urls into a few
categories. They also give you a personal page where you can
promote your company.
3) The next one you want to try is botw. The submission fee is
$40 per site but because they have been around for quite a
while, it is unlikely that google will kill them. Many
directories with high PR might have their PR dropped to 0
overnight and you would be heart broken if you submitted your
site to their directories. I wrote an article on how to submit
to BOTW: http://www.sitecritic.net/articleDetail.php?id=76
4) You may submit to other web directories if you want but
generally, I would not recommend spending more that $200 for web
directory submissions. If you think you are rich, pay $300 and
go for Yahoo Directory.
Conclusion
There will still be future for web directories but directories
that do not provide extra services other than just listing URLs
will die off slowly. Web directory submission is not the best
way to get your ranking up in Google and will not provide you
with impressive leads. However, submitting your site to a few
famous directories will built up your reputation and web
presence.
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Posted by admin on March 31st, 2008 — Posted in Travel + More
In the Bible, the Dead Sea is known as the “Eastern Sea” or the “Sea of the Arava”. The ancient Greeks and Romans called it “Mare Asphaltitus”, meaning the “Clay Sea”, due to the patches of clay, or asphalt floating on its surface. Later on, since life in this body of water was deemed impossible, it was dubbed the “Dead Sea”, and this term was adopted by various European languages. Mosaics from the Byzantine era depict fish swimming toward the Dead Sea from the Jordan River and rushing to turn back and flee toward the north, to the fresh water sources.
The Dead Sea region offers a rare combination of nature sites, history and unique healing centers, each of which has the potential to inspire autonomous tourism development. The Dead Sea, at approximately 417 meters below sea level, is the lowest point on the surface of the earth. It is a remnant of the ancient “Lake Lisan”, the body of water which once extended from the north of the Sea of Galilee to Hazeva in the Arava.
The water’s salinity, with a concentration of about 340 grams per liter (10 times that of the Mediterranean!), makes floating natural and effortless and instills a sense of peace and tranquility. The air is dry, rich in oxygen and free of any environmental pollution, and the temperatures are relatively high, even in the height of winter. The fact that the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays are naturally filtered makes it possible to sunbathe without burning and is instrumental in treating various skin diseases. The natural “healing waters” along the coast, which are rich in minerals and natural heat, combined with the black mud deposits, are the ideal foundation for health and beauty treatments.
The region’s nature reserves and scenic diversity offer a unique combination of arid desert vistas and oases alongside pools and waterfalls teeming with diverse flora and fauna (mountain goats, pikas, insects, reptiles, various species of fowl, etc.). The region’s historical sites are among the most renowned in the world, namely: Massada, Qumran, Jericho, Ein Gedi, the Roman fortresses and the monasteries in the Judea Desert.
A great many resources are invested in developing infrastructures, facilities and services dedicated to the tourist industry. The region offers about 4,000 rooms in hotels of various standards, kibbutz resort villages, hostels and other accommodation facilities, with adjacent services such as: parking lots, public beaches, well-kept nature reserves and fascinating tourist sites. The vacationers and tourists in the region can choose from a wide variety of excursions and activities, including desert tours on foot, in special vehicles and on camels, Bedouin accommodation, rock climbing and rappelling courses and excursions, as well as archeological and agricultural tours.
http://www.dead-sea-health.org
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