Working For Google "Worst Decision"?

It’s a well-known fact that Google frequently lets its employees do their own thing on company time. Many of those employees then come up with brilliant ideas, but the search engine giant - wealthy as it is - doesn’t have money to pursue them all. In the long term, do those employees go on to get rich, or get screwed?

Robert Cringely votes for “rich.” After considering several aspects of the company’s operations, he writes, “[W]e’ll shortly see a dribble, then a river, then a flood of former Google employees with time, money, and experience, and some of them will have the drive to realize the dreams of those thousands of ideas that were rejected by their former company.”

That sounds like a pretty sweet deal - work for a famously “fun” company, then go do whatever you like best. But Google Watch’s Steve Bryant found a flaw with the plan, and it relates to a clause in Google’s standard employee agreement form; Googlers appear to forfeit the rights to just about everything they think of while working for the company.

“In other words, everything you do here, stays here,” writes Bryant. “So that fabled 20% free time at Google is really just 20% more time for Google. . . . Google knows what it’s doing. And while I have no doubt that the current Google employees will go on to make wondrous companies, Google is ensuring they snatch up most of the good ideas first. In that light, working for Google could be the worst decision an entrepreneur ever makes.”

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Using Pay Per Click To Sell Your Resale Rights Package

One of the most effective forms of advertising on the Internet today is what is called pay per click advertising. Pay per click is where you only pay for the ad you placed if somebody clicks on it and visits
your sales page. In theory, this sounds very simple. Unfortunately, pay per click advertising can eat your sales budget alive if you don't know what you're doing. Hopefully, the following tips will give you a
decent idea of how to set up a pay per click campaign, though it is really a lot more complex than this. My suggestion is to take a good crash course on pay per click advertising and learn as much as you can.

The most popular pay per click search engine is Google Adwords. There are others that are not as expensive to advertise with but the downside is they don't get as much traffic. You have to decide which is more important to you, costs or traffic.

In the case of selling a resale rights package, you are unfortunately behind the 8 ball right from the start. Internet marketing ads are about the most expensive on pay per click search engines. The reason for this is very simple. The competition for the consumer's dollars in the attempt to hook them into the latest money making product is fierce. The top spot in these related categories can run you several
dollars per click. So if you have a product that's only getting you $20 profit per sale, you are looking at a closing percentage that is simply quite unrealistic. However, that doesn't mean you can't
advertise using pay per click search engines.

For starters, you don't need the top spot. The truth is, you don't really need anything near the top spot to make sales with pay per click. It is a known statistic that people using search engines will go as far as page 3 to find something they are looking for. If they haven't found it by then, they pretty much give up. Therefor, setting your cost per click to land you between, say pages 2 and 3 will be more than good enough to get you some decent traffic. In these
positions, usually between 8 and 16, you can get away with costs of less than 20 cents per click. Also, if you narrow down your keywords to just the specific ones for your product, these keywords probably won't cost much at all. Now you've gotten your costs down to the point where your required closing ratio is something a little more realistic.

Also, in placing your campaign you don't want to include the whole world. In most cases you really only want to reach English speaking countries such as The United States, England, Australia and Canada.
This keeps people who probably won't be able to use your product, unless it's bilingual, from clicking on your ad. This also keeps costs down.

Before you even begin your pay per click campaign you want to make sure you have your web site and sales page ready to go. Each click is going to cost you money, site or no. So the last thing you want to do is spend money on advertising for a product that isn't finished or doesn't even exist yet.

You want to test your campaign for about 500 clicks to determine if the product itself is even sellable. If you're not making enough money in those 500 clicks to at least cover you expenses and make a small profit then most likely the product isn't marketable. You may think it is the greatest thing since sliced bread but it's what the public thinks that matters.

Pay per click can be costly and risky. But with the proper fine tuning and testing it can be one of the most powerful forms of advertising on the Internet. It comes down to getting a good education on the process. Google has a great training section. It should get you off to a good start.

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The VoIP alternative for call shops

What you commonly know as a phone shop, a telecenter or a call shop can now become more cost-effective and more advantageous by means of VoIP enabled features. In fact, there are many parts of the world where the phenomenon has already been put into practice and what resulted was a beneficial call shop market strategy. VoIP (or Voice over Internet Protocol) is already broadly acknowledged as very likely the most economizing (budget saving), time-saving and practical manner of communicating on a long-distance basis.

When broadband phone services (another name for Voice over Internet Protocol, strictly touching upon the most appropriate “channel” for telephone communication over Internet) combine with the plus points offered by the assistance the customer finds in a call shop, then communication is exploited at its peak through: 1) reliable means of voice transfer, since the technology which facilitates VoIP guarantees unfailing voice data conveying; 2) low payment conditions since ITSPs and call shops charge less than a regular landline; 3) profitability for the call shop owner who benefits from the low costs necessary for acquiring VoIP characteristic services and from the customers’ increased confidence in competitive call shop businesses.

The regular call shop – i.e. the private business establishment which provides its customers with the means of initiating and carrying through local or long-distance telephone calls at cut rate costs – can be situated anywhere in a city, from hotel hallways or airport waiting rooms to shopping centers or university campuses. Provided that a high speed Internet connection is made available – a phenomenon which is no longer a novelty nowadays, nor is it difficult or time-consuming to make it operational anywhere in the premises of a city – the same locations and even Internet cafés can be at an advantage from being converted into call shop centers functioning on a VoIP basis.

Of course, the regular call shop which aims at transferring its services to a VoIP operation alternative has to acquire, additional to the Internet connection, the required software and hardware equipment which enables the proper functioning of any VoIP-based call shop. This means that the owner has to make sure that he is in the possession of the software indispensable for the management of his business; such software will provide him with the means of establishing call rates, of obtaining billing reports and other information concerning call tariffs. Additionally, you have to make certain that call routing is operational, which means that, after having made a deal with your VoIP gateway provider, you should be able to operate your calls on a VoIP basis.

Moreover, the hardware and software systems solutions available for working on a VoIP basis should also allow the owner of the VoIP-based call shop to observe in real time the activity going on in a selected number of booths. In other words, basic software for broadband phone services in a telecenter additionally provides the owner and the call operator(s) with a call detail record (frequently known as a CDR in such telephony services) on the basis of which the precise payment for the call can be established. Subsequently, both prepaid and postpaid opportunities are made possible.

To what concerns the network gateways which will allow the proper working of a phone shop operating with the assistance of Voice over Internet Protocol technologies, the common SIP (session initiation protocol) convertible gateways or the standard H.323-compliant gateways are the most reliable and the most cost-effective. Additionally, calls operated from such a phone shop can be forwarded to any local public switched telephone network (PSTN) and they will not suffer any form of delay or any other king of unwanted, ill-timed interruption during the conversation.

All in all, the basic requirements for a phone shop to operate successfully while benefiting from Voice over Internet Protocol superiority are: a computer with an Internet browser (Internet Explorer is reliable and the most commonly employed) and a broadband phone service with telephones. Afterwards, the purchase of the software making possible call display records, call billing and routing to local PSTNs will render your telephone services impeccable.

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Components of Business Communications

Business communications. The phrase seems somehow elusive. Most small businesses know that they need to have it, but are a little confused about what business communications really is. The fact of the matter is that business communications is not just one thing. There are many things that fall under the umbrella of this term, and it is important to make use of them in any business.

Copywriting

This is a big part of effective business communications. Copywriting is how you communicate to others what your product is. Copywriting encompasses copy for ads and copy for your Web site it. It is the content that allows you to tell other why your product is so great. There are very few functions under the business communications umbrella that are as important as copywriting, especially when it comes to encouraging people to buy your products.

One aspect of copywriting is publicity. Publicity involves writing press releases which you then distribute in order to attract public attention and to generate positive coverage for your company.

Newsletters to customers are also very beneficial results of good copywriting. They keep customers updated, and it helps them feel as though they are part of a community that cares. Additionally, you can include special sales or new items in these newsletters.

Using your copywriting expertise, you can create eye-catching flyers, brochures, and one-time features to. These additional tools are very useful to any business, they fuel growth.

Correspondence

Business letters are how you communicate with others who help keep the business running. You send these to suppliers and clients and backers. With increased reliance on technology, emails fall into this category. Letters can be emailed, as stated before, faxed, or even delivered by courier or through the mail. This correspondence is what keeps your business functioning.

Internal Communications

Inter-office communication forms part of business communications. Memos, messages, phone calls and meetings are all forms of inter-office communication. You need to communicate with members of your staff so that they understand what is expected of them and are clear on their job specifications. In addition, you can give them feedback about their performance and this helps boost their morale. Open channels of communication in an organization ensure that everyone is kept up to date and they generally foster a good working atmosphere.

Promotional Items

While not to every businessperson's taste, promotional items can help attract people to your side. They can create a public presence generate company awareness and enhance your business image as a sound, reliable and professional company. They include items such as shirts, business diaries, pens, tote bags, key chains and even little toys. No matter how you might wince at them remember they attract public attention, especially because carry them around a lot of the time.

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Which Kind Of Credit Card Should I Choose?

As even the briefest search on the internet will show you, there are thousands of credit cards available from many different providers, and even more sites offering advice on which card you should choose. Most card advertisements and promotions make a lot of noise about attention-grabbing features such as market-leading low rates, long balance transfer deal introductory periods, or enticing cashback or rewards programs, but some or all of these features may be irrelevant to you no matter how good they look.

What really matters when choosing a new card to apply for is getting the card with the right mix of features to suit the way you plan to use it. To ensure that you get the best deal available it pays to take a little time out to think about the ways in which you normally use your card.

In today's increasingly cashless society, many people use plastic as simply a convenient payment method, clearing their balance in full every month. This frees them from having to carry large amounts of cash around, and makes it easier to keep track of their spending with online account management and the like. If this is the way you plan to use your card, then the interest rate doesn't really matter to you. Considering that you'll be clearing your balance every month, then you shouldn't be charged interest at all.

What's more important is to get a card that rewards you in some way for using it, either through cashback where a small percentage of everything you spend is credited back to your account, or with a rewards program that will allow you to build up points which you can later redeem to get cheaper goods or services.

If you plan to use your card to fund larger purchases such as home electricals, with the repayments being spread over several months, then the APR of a card is the single most important feature to look for. A low APR means that more of your repayments go towards clearing your debt rather than servicing the interest charges. This means that your debt will be cleared more quickly, and will have cost you less to take out in the first place. It may also be worth looking for a card which offers a long 0% introductory period on purchases, with many cards now offering a deal of 12 months or even longer.

The most common way of spending with a card is to have a mix of large and small purchases, repaying a reasonable portion of your spending each month but sometimes carrying a balance over if funds are a little short. It's also common to want to transfer a debt from a more expensive account such as an older credit card or an expensive overdraft. For this kind of mixed use, a relatively new kind of card can be a good fit.

A 'flat rate' card charges the same low interest rate for each type of card use, whether purchases, balance transfers, or even cash withdrawals. The low interest rate means that your credit costs less and can be cleared more quickly, and the simplicity offered by having just one APR for everything means you know exactly where you stand.

So no matter how impressive a new credit card may seem, with a wide range of eyecatching features, it really pays to decide which one to apply for based on your own needs and spending habits rather than the features that card issuers tell you are the most important!

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The Adsense Problem

Two forces have been at war since the earliest days of the web. One force screams “information should be free” and proclaims the value of the free content site. The other force is that of capitalism which proclaims the value of allowing the free market to decide the value of information.

Many have tried to combine these forces on the web in much the same way those forces have been combined on television, radio and other commercial media where information is free… but not free of commercials. The latest attempt is Google Adsense and has been heralded by many as the final solution.

For those of us who have been around since the days when Yahoo had 17 sites in their directory… we yawn. We’ve seen this cycle over and over. It is not the final solution. It is just a repeat of the same old problem.

True… Adsense has made further inroads than any other attempt so far at solving the capitalist/socialist battle of information on the Internet. Many actually do make a living providing “free” information because of Adsense.

Consider the damage though. Ironically most of the damage has been done to Google’s search results. Now, instead of watching as Google miraculously serves up nearly perfect results… we can now expect Google to serve up the unique soup of “made for Adsense” junk sites that came into existence only because Google pays webmasters to create them.

And of course… the cycle of destruction has already begun. Adsense begets junk sites begets junk clicks begets lawsuits about click fraud begets advertisers turning away from Google. Those advertisers are where the money comes from to fund this massive project of garbage site generation. Adsense wasn’t the first monetization method to go through this cycle of causing its own destruction and it probably won’t be the last.

What should we do about it?

Some will claim that we should just cash in. Create hundreds of thousands of junk sites with the latest junk site generator; put Adsense on them and cash the checks all the while knowing that Adsense is self-destructing. OK; that works. Thousands of people are following this strategy… some with seven figure incomes.

Others are opposed to being part of the problem and deeply yearn for a true balance… a true solution to this problem. They know it is possible because it has been done before in other media with mixed, but stable results. What is that solution?

I truly believe that there is something inherently different about the Internet than other media. Other media have always been run by the big companies for the benefit for the little people. The Internet is different. The content we are talking about wasn’t created in Hollywood or New York by some large company. It was created by us!

I believe that is where the solution lies. We should not be looking at Google and all of the other advertising networks that preceded Google to solve this problem. Nor should we be waiting for Yahoo and Microsoft to solve it. We have the power to solve it ourselves!

We created this content. We also have the products to sell. Perhaps you fit only into one of those two camps. That’s OK too. The Internet has the power to bring the products directly to advertising spots on the content sites and has no need of a “Google” to be the go-between. YOU can do it yourself!

I know because I’ve been quietly doing it myself (both sides of that equation) for over 6 years. I earned my freedom from a J.O.B. on September 1, 2003 with an Internet income that was a multiple of my prior employment number that was very near six figures. I did not use ANY advertising network to do that. I simply built my own.

You can easily do the same. Do you currently run content sites with Adsense and have watched their ranking fall (yes; the data shows that having Adsense code on your site has a negative correlation with rankings)? Do you currently have products that you sell through Google Adwords? Why give Google a cut? This is the Internet! Why not just hook up with each other and pay directly for your advertising or receive your income directly from multiple advertisers?

It is possible. The tools to pull it off all exist on the Internet already. One again… ironically, you can Google them. Are you ready for Web 3.0? You had better be. Web 3.0 is YOU!

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10 Reasons Commenting is Good For Bloggers

I don’t think we comment enough and I put that down to bloggers not realising the benefits. Here are the benefits as I see them, let me know if I miss any:

1. It’s the right thing to do - people complain about not enough comments on their own blog but don’t take enough time to comment on others. We all like some attention or an occasional pat on the head for a job well done. Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself!


2. Make friends and influence people - Blogging is partly a networking activity. People are more likely to link to you (or more) if they have heard of you. Get yourself out there, make friends.


3. Clicks - People click your link to see what other interesting stuff you write about. Obvious but true.


4. Develop a Bloggers Eye - Find the point of interest in a story. By commenting you are training your brain to think of something interesting.


5. Create Commentable Content - By observing which posts you commented on and which you did not (or couldn’t no matter how hard you tried!) you develop an awareness of what works to attract comments.


6. Comments = Ideas - You managed to comment. Could your comment be expanded into a post …?


7. You never know who is reading - It amazes me who reads my comments on obscure blogs that I thought only myself and a handful of others read. My comments on one blog lead to a consulting gig. You never know unless you try.


8. What you give you get more of - I strongly believe what you put out comes back to you. You will get more comments yourself. Try it.


9. Keep Match Fit - Exercise your writing muscles, the more your practice the more you improve. Comments should be short, fast, to the point and make an impact. They are excellent tests of your writing skill.


10. Comment on Fresh Blogs For Fresh Perspectives - If you are always among the same crowd you will find inevitably the same thoughts being reflected back over and over. Break out! I advise people to comment on new blogs every day. By not commenting on the same old blogs, or especially setting a goal to comment on more blogs than the day before, you will be forced to leave your blog-reading comfort zone and visit new blogs. This exposes you to new ideas, different ways of looking at things, and hopefully a way out of the echo chamber.

Blogging is not just about saying your piece, it is also about going out and joining the conversation where it is happening. It’s about reaching out to people and exposing yourself (steady!) to new ideas. Some giving as well as all this taking back we focus on.

Ask not what the blogosphere can do for you but what together we can do for the blogosphere.

I didn’t manage to comment on more blogs every day, but I did make a ton of comments. It sparked ideas, conversations, new contacts, opened up opportunities, attracted more subscribers and I had a lot of fun.

Those of you who tried it, what did you find?

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Extreme Solutions To Money Problems

Individual settlement
You may pick and choose among your creditors the ones you need to pay by arranging individual settlements. Many suppliers will consider foregoing all claims on overdue accounts if you agree to promptly pay a portion of their claims. Some of them may even continue conducting business with you.
It is difficult to predict which suppliers might be willing to consider an individual settlement and which will not. The only way to find out is to ask. Before proceeding, however, make absolutely sure that you want to pursue this course of action. It is possible that such a tactic could place a risk on the size and availability of your future credit lines. If you do proceed and the size of the debt to be forgiven is significant, get an agreement in writing before you meet the payment.

General settlement
A general settlement for all creditors is a much more serious step than pursuing individual settlements with selected creditors. General settlements are often made when companies are one step away from bankruptcy. They can sharply limit your ability to obtain future trade credit and debt financing.

However, seeking a general settlement for creditors is almost always a better solution than filing for bankruptcy. Be aware, though, that creditors don't always agree to general settlements.

Often, a settlement for creditors is arranged after a business has decided to close its doors. But it is sometimes pursued by businesses that plan to stay open although they frequently emerge as scaled-down enterprises.

If you are seriously considering this option, whether yours is a large or small business, consult with an experienced attorney.

Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is an option of last resort. Even if you are flat out of money and have no intention of continuing with your business, it isn't necessarily the best course of action. Often, informal individual settlements or formal general settlements offer the best solution.

A voluntary bankruptcy, however, may allow you to pre-empt the legal actions of unsympathetic creditors. It may allow you to hold off payments to creditors while you come up with a new business plan. But it is important to consult with a lawyer before taking this option.

Sometimes creditors will try to force a business into an involuntary bankruptcy. They will pursue such action if they feel that the company will not make a rapid turnaround and that there will be little chance of realizing payment otherwise.

Any type of bankruptcy involves tremendous legal and accounting costs. And, before any creditors realize payment on their debts, the lawyers and accountants get paid first. A bankruptcy will also require a great deal of management effort and energy over an extended period of time. And, of course, it may scare away some of your vendors, customers, and employees.

Cutting costs
While you should always try to cut costs, you need to step up this strategy when a cash crunch is at hand or looming. Remember, for any business to grow and be profitable over the long term it must, first and foremost, survive. Cutting expenses is difficult. Come up with a bottom line goal set a total companywide spending figure. Review each of your functional areas and determine where you can make cuts without doing long-term or irreputable harm to your product quality or sales efforts. Do this with the input and guidance of your key personnel.

Employee participation
Never try to hide a serious cash crunch from your employees. Inform them of the problem. They are probably aware that it exists anyway. If you aren't honest, the rumors may fly, and people may assume a scenario worse than the reality!

Ask employees to pitch in. Encourage your staff to make savings suggestions. Even in the midst of a cash crunch, it's a good idea to offer financial incentives for great suggestions if at all feasible. Or organize a contest. Creating an awareness of the problem and offering each employee the opportunity to be part of the solution boosts morale and breeds loyalty even in the worst of times. If employees participate in suggesting cost-cutting measures, they are more likely to be cost conscious every day as well.

Layoffs
Everyone wants to avoid layoffs. But it is better to lay off a few people at once rather than let everyone go because you are shutting your doors. Employee attitudes can be volatile during a downturn in business. You need to be very careful in your handling of employment issues during this period.

If you can avoid a layoff by freezing hiring and assigning idle workers to vacant positions in other job functions, do so. Or consider having everyone pitch in a little to cover an open position.

Avoid cutting salaries if possible. If you must make cuts, start with your own. Key executives should be next in line for pay cuts. Cut only the salaries of your rank-and-file employees as a last resort. But definitely cut pay before cutting benefits. Employees are generally more attached to their benefits than to the specific amount of their wages.

Another step you should consider before laying off staff is instituting a four-day work week. You may want to discuss this option with your employees and get their feedback first.

If you must proceed with a layoff, don't do it incrementally. Do it once, and then reassure the remaining staff that their jobs are secure. Be sure that the cuts you have made are sufficient enough to forestall a reoccurrence for some time to come.

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Social network ad spending in the US could top $2 billion by 2010

Despite being nervous of user generated content, marketers are finally ready to embrace social networks, according to a new report from eMarketer. As a result, US social network ad spend is estimated to reach $2 billion by 2010, and, for the time being at least, MySpace stands to benefit most.

The report predicts that US spending will total $865 million by 2007 (up from $350 million), with MySpace taking the lion's share, at $525 million. The rest is then carved up between what eMarketer calls 'generic social network sites' which includes Facebook, Bebo, Piczo, and Friendster ($200 million), and 'portal' social networks such as MSN Spaces, Yahoo 360, and AIM Pages ($95 million). The remaining $45 million goes to more niche offerings.

With the larger social networks possibly reaching saturation point in the US, international growth will be a key factor. eMarketer estimates that social network ad spend outside of the US will rise to $260 million in 2007 (up from $95 million in 2006), and by 2010 is expected to reach $665 million.

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E-Gold Indicted for Money Laundering and Illegal Money Transmitting

WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. has indicted two companies operating a digital currency business and their owners on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.

The four-count indictment, handed down on April 24, 2007, and unsealed today, charges E‑Gold Ltd; Gold & Silver Reserve, Inc.; and their owners Dr. Douglas L. Jackson, of Satellite Beach, Fla.; Reid A. Jackson, of Melbourne, Fla.; and Barry K. Downey, of Woodbine, Md., each with one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business under federal law and one count of money transmission without a license under D.C. law.

Subsequent to the indictment, the Department of Justice also obtained a restraining order on the defendants to prevent the dissipation of assets by the defendants, and 24 seizure warrants on over 58 accounts believed to be property involved in money laundering and operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business. The restraining order does not limit the E‑Gold operation’s ability to use its existing funds to satisfy requests to exchange E-Gold into national currency for customers of non-seized accounts, or its ability to sell precious metals to accomplish the same, once approval has been received.

According to the indictment, E‑Gold’s digital currency, “E‑Gold,” functioned as an alternative payment system and was purportedly backed by stored physical gold. Persons seeking to use the E‑Gold payment system were only required to provide a valid email address to open an E‑Gold account – no other contact information was verified. Once an individual opened an E‑Gold account, he/she could fund the account using any number of exchangers, which converted national currency into E‑Gold. Once open and funded, account holders could access their accounts through the Internet and conduct anonymous transactions with other parties anywhere in the world.

The indictment alleges that E‑Gold has been a highly favored method of payment by operators of investment scams, credit card and identity fraud, and sellers of online child pornography. The indictment alleges that the defendants conducted funds transfers on behalf of their customers, knowing that the funds involved were the proceeds of unlawful activity; namely child exploitation, credit card fraud, and wire (investment) fraud; and thereby violated federal money laundering statutes. The indictment further alleges that the defendants operated the E‑Gold operation without a license in the District of Columbia or any other state, or registering with the federal government, and thereby violated federal and state money transmitting laws. The indictment alleges that this conduct occurred at various times from 1999 through December 2005.

“As alleged in the indictment, the E-Gold payment system has been a preferred means of payment for child pornography distributors, identity thieves, online scammers, and other criminals around the world to launder their illegal income anonymously,” said Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division. “This indictment demonstrates that the Department of Justice, in cooperation with its law enforcement partners, will aggressively identify and prosecute those who knowingly enable and profit from transmitting the proceeds of criminal activity, online or offline.”

“Douglas Jackson and his associates operated a sophisticated and widespread international money remitting business, unsupervised and unregulated by any entity in the world, which allowed for anonymous transfers of value at a click of a mouse,” said U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor for the District of Columbia. “Not surprisingly, criminals of every stripe gravitated to E-Gold as a place to move their money with impunity. As alleged in the indictment, the defendants in this case knowingly allowed them to do so and profited from their crimes.”

“Today's indictment is the result of a two and a half year investigation by the U.S. Secret Service Orlando Field Office into an alternative payment system which has largely operated outside of normal banking industry regulations,” said Secret Service Assistant Director for Investigations Michael Stenger. “This system has been exploited for more than 10 years by criminals who operate primarily via the Internet. Cooperation among investigators, including the IRS, the FBI and other state and local law enforcement, has enabled us to more effectively address emerging threats and evolving criminal methods, such as the use of electronic or digital currency to facilitate trafficking in illicit goods and services.”

“The advent of new electronic currency systems increases the risk that criminals, and possibly terrorists, will exploit these systems to launder money and transfer funds globally to avoid law enforcement scrutiny and circumvent banking regulations and reporting,” said Assistant Director James E. Finch, of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “The FBI will continue to work closely with the Department of Justice and our federal and international law enforcement partners to aggressively investigate and prosecute any, and all, persons or organizations that use these systems to facilitate child pornography distribution, to support organized crime, and to perpetrate financial crimes.”

“This is a new twist on laundering money through unlicensed money transmitters but it is nothing new for financial investigators,” said Eileen Mayer, Chief of IRS Criminal Investigation. “The combined investigative skills of the law enforcement partners under the St. Cloud IRS Criminal Investigation and Secret Service Task Force proved to be a brick wall for E-Gold. We are proud to bring our financial expertise to this type of investigation that ultimately unravels fraud.”

The conspiracy charge in the case relating to money transmitting carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The federal law violation of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The D.C. Code violation for money transmission without a license carries a maximum sentence of five years. The conspiracy charge relating to money laundering carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The case is being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service with the assistance of the IRS and the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Criminal Division. Assistance is also being provided by the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the Criminal Division.

An indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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4 Easy Ways to Get Advertisers on Your Site

If you're just getting started on the internet--or simply looking for ways to add new revenue streams to your business--you might be considering accepting ads for other companies' products on your website.

Who wouldn't like to make a few extra bucks without any effort? You just put up a few ads on your site and wait for the cash to roll in, right?

Not necessarily.

To make your site attractive to companies looking for ad space, you'll need to have a great niche market, tons of traffic and the promise of good ad placement on your site. However, if you don't have all these elements in place yet, there are still ways for you to make money from ads on your site. The easiest--and often the most successful--include:

1. Promote an affiliate product on your site.

Joining another company's affiliate program is one of the simplest ways to get started with internet advertising. While affiliate links aren't technically ads, they allow you to make money by promoting someone else's product. As an affiliate, you earn a commission each time someone you've referred makes a purchase. To encourage sales, you might post a banner on your site that links to the affiliate site or publish a newsletter article about their product.

Different affiliate programs offer different payout options. Some might offer 10 percent commission for each sale, while others pay up to 50 percent of each sale. You'll want to shop around for the best deal for you and the best fit for your site. To find good affiliate programs, check out the following directories:

• Associate Programs
• Affiliates Directory
• Refer-It

Some internet advertising pros are actually making all their income from signing on with multiple affiliate programs. They don't even have a product of their own! This isn't a strategy for beginners, however, so take some time to check out different programs before committing to this option.

2. Use targeted advertising with Google AdSense.
Google's AdSense program  allows you to make money advertising on your site by placing targeted text ads generated by Google on your pages. The ads appear in rectangular boxes running down the side or across the bottom of a web page with the words "Ads by Google" over the top. These ads are paid for by businesses that use Google's pay-per-click program, AdWords. These ads reflect the content on your site, so if your site sells a book on how to recognize authentic baseball cards, for example, the ads that appear on your site might be for baseball card retailers.

As a Google AdSense publisher, you earn money every time a visitor to your site clicks on one of the AdWords ads on your site. If you're getting a lot of targeted traffic--and if these visitors are interested in the products being advertised--that could mean a healthy new source of extra income for you.

Best of all, Google AdSense is free to join. It's easy, too. Google does all the work of finding relevant ads for your site--you just collect the payments.

A word of warning: Google ads don't work for all sites, so if you add them, be sure to test them. You don't want to lose credibility with your target market.

3. Approach companies directly to ask if you can advertise for them.

If your site is already getting lots of traffic, try looking for sites that offer complementary products and target the same niche market as you do. For instance, if you own a bridal shop, you could approach a local florist to see if they'd like to advertise their wedding bouquets on your site. An ad on your site would also be seen as an implicit recommendation of their product, and it could send a ton of brides to their site. And the more successful your ads are, the more you can charge for them.

Be sure to contact potential internet advertising partners in a professional manner. Call them on the phone instead of just e-mailing them so your communication is more personal and professional. Be ready to supply them with information about your business and your site traffic. The more information you can give them, the more likely they'll be to consider your offer. And above all, make sure they have a solid reputation. If you partner with a questionable company, their activities could reflect poorly on your business.

4. Sign up for a blog-specific ad program.

If you have a blog, consider signing up to feature blog-specific ads on your site. The key is to consider the kinds of ads your target audience will find valuable. Here are some great ways to attract advertisers to your blog:

• Sign up with a context-based ad program like Google's AdSense  that will automatically generate ads for your site that you can put up within minutes of being accepted to their program. Crisp Ads  offers a similar program, but only for blogs.
• Place Amazon Associates  ads on your site, and feature ads for products you personally use or are happy to endorse. That way, your customers are responding to your recommendations.
• Get advertisers interested in your blog with a link they can use to contact you for rates and requirements. This link can be a simple message saying "Click here to find out how to advertise on this blog!" That way, anyone visiting your site is free to discuss advertising opportunities with you.
• Sign up with an advertiser-publisher connection program like BlogAds  or AdBrite, and get listed in their publishers' directory. One important note: With these types of ads, the advertisers look through listings of thousands of blogs to choose the right people to promote their products. Unless you're getting thousands of visitors a day, they might not be all that interested in doing business with you.

Making money from your site isn't a matter of putting up a few ads and grabbing a paycheck--it takes a lot of research and testing on an already established site to make even the best internet advertising strategies truly pay off.

Even then, you may find that your audience resists the presence of ads. If you're putting people off by placing ads on your pages, you could end up losing more customers and revenue than you actually gain. To make sure this doesn't happen, test every aspect of each new ad campaign you run.

Once you do discover the internet advertising strategies that work best for your site, you can try promoting another product, and then another. Soon, all those added revenue streams will combine to swell your profits.

Derek Gehl is Entrepreneur.com's "E-Business" columnist and the CEO of the Internet Marketing Center, an internet marketing firm that has helped thousands of people learn to start and run their own online businesses.

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Online Advertising - Points To Ponder To Make Profit With Advertising Online

Advertising Online has become one of the most potent tools used in introducing a business product to the consuming public. In fact, generally of online businessmen prefer the usage of the online advertising over the other forms because of the wide range of accessibility that it offers on both business people and consumers alike. The method of online advertising may vary from integrating pop-ups on a visited site, colorful banners embedded on a popular site, pay per click advertisements and a lot more. But whatever it is that is used, the fact remains that online advertising is a hit now. So, it is just a matter of choosing the right method of online advertising for you and let it work as efficiently as you can.

So, you have chosen the method. What is next now? Creating and designing your advertisement is as essential as choosing the right method. The design that you created bears everything about your product and your business. It is just right that you put equal importance with how you will design the advertisement. So, what are the important things that should be included in your design?

It is important that you allow for interaction to exist between you and the client. Although this may seem to be a little scary to some designers, but the challenge is with theirs. They have to come up with a site that allows even “zero knowledge” people to make use of the site. In short, it has to be a little user-friendly.

Also, it is essential that what you put as a content of your site is something that is relevant and pertinent to your prospective client. Logically, you will not be putting something on your advertisement that is literally anti-client. Therefore, think better in what you put on your site.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to generating massive traffic ‘Triple Your Traffic Fast'

Download it free here: Triple Your Traffic Fast

Download a free article marketing guide here: Secrets of Article Writing

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

Raymond Nesa is an experienced web marketer specializing in article marketing, traffic generation, and list building.

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Marketing Concept and Strategy - For Quick Online Success

When you make the decision to start an Internet business or for that matter any business you must have a plan (Marketing Concept and Strategy) for your online success. This is your business and it is your responsibility to know what is going on. Don’t go for the free options because they will end up hurting your business in the long run.

Always remember the old saying; you get what you pay for.

Every one wants to earn money with internet marketing, I’m sure your business wants to also, that’s why you finally created the website that your business or brand needs to be able to market globally, but sadly you find nobody is clicking on your site and the phone never rings.

You ask - What are we doing wrong?

The simple answer! Is this …

Your (Online Marketing Concept and Strategy) is totally ineffective.

You need to be using your web site as a lead generation tool. This is done by using what is known as a “Squeeze Page” or a lead capture page.

You will then drive traffic to you squeeze page by submitting articles month after month and they will establish you and your business as leading experts in your field. This is a powerful strategy that will end up giving you many back links to your web site, without you having to lift a finger once your articles have been submitted to article directories.

By using a squeeze page you are able to collect the email address of your new potential customers so you can then follow up with additional valuable free information which will build customer trust, letting you drive your sales message home with each email contact.

Using your web home page, along with an autoresponder as a lead generation tool in particular allows you to put your lead generation on autopilot, it allows you to make the whole world within your reach and just one automated email away from instant online sales 24 hours a day, 7 days a week… Even at 3:00 A.M. in the morning.

The number one reason for using this (Marketing Concept and Strategy) is that it can be done almost free if you are willing to put the time and legwork into getting it established.

Want to learn how I do it?

Download Free Report At: Secrets of Online Success!

Robert Steward has been marketing online since 1993, and teaching online for 7 years.

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Making Money On The Internet Is No Easy Task

There are many so called experts on the internet that claim that making money on the internet is every bit as easy as wiping your butt after using the bathroom. And they of course will give the "inside secrets", for a price. In my experience many such offers are a scam, and the information that you receive for your money is full of more fluff than crème filled donut from your local supermarket. In most cases you can get information that's just as good by searching article directories.

Don't let anyone fool you, making money on the internet is exactly like making money in any form of business. Remember the Internet is just a way to do business. Just like the telephone or direct mail are ways of doing business. Contrary to popular belief, making money in any form of business is a process and not at all an easy task.

The task can become easy and fun in time, but it's not going to start out that way. There are many things that you must learn in order to make money on the Internet, or anywhere else for that matter. It's kind of like riding a bike. Did you jump on a bicycle the first time you ever saw one and ride off? No you had to fall down and keep trying in order to learn how to ride a bike. Making money on the internet, or anywhere else, uses the same principle.

The bottom line is that making money on the internet simply isn't a simple and easy task, and anyone that tells you that this is the case has their best interest in mind, not yours. You can make money on the Internet, just realize that it takes time and effort, and it's not going to happen overnight. The best weapon that you have at your disposal is educating yourself. Good luck and remember what Henry David Thoreau said, " Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it." Your internet venture should be done because you love it, not for the money.

Trevor Kugler - Co-founder of JRWfishing.com Trevor has more than 15 years of business experience and 25 years of fishing experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country - Montana.

http://www.jrwfishing.com/gang_hooks.asp - Start Catching more fish Today!!!!

http://www.jrwfishing.com/signup.html - sign up for the best free fishing Ezine on the web and get $10 for your trouble.

http://www.lulu.com/tkugler - Fishing Tips & Techniques For Pennies!!!!!!

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

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Make Money Online

Looking to MAKE MONEY ONLINE and not sure where to start or worried about scams? You may be suprised but making money online at home is pretty EASY. I've had many stints from graphic design and website design (it's what I went to college for), running a record label, selling on ebay to promoting concerts and myself as a musician and have learned more than a thing or two about networking and marketing on the internet. Being a single mom has also taught me a lot of patience ;)

So with my ninja marketing skills and web design skills I have set out to make a living making money online so that I can be free to live life on my own terms and be in control of my finances.

So after spending hours and hours just like you hunting for legitimate ways to make money online that actually PAY I realized that there definitely was money to be made and have tried it all from surveys to affiliate programs and adwords. Eventually, through trial and error, I have found what programs work and what is a waste of time and created this lens so I could share my resources so you can skip all the crappy scams out there and get started down the right path :)

Some Tips on how to Successfully Make Money Online


* BE PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE PROMOTING
* NEVER GIVE UP, TRY TRY AGAIN
* LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES AND OTHERS
* DON'T BE AFRAID TO TRY SOMETHING NEW
* RESEARCH, RESEARCH AND RESEARCH SOME MORE!
* BE INFORMED ON INTERNET MARKETING TRENDS
* KNOW SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION LIKE THE BACK OF YOUR HAND


To read more about my journey in paying off debt and my journey to make money online, please visit my blog where I talk about anything from debt, budgeting, credit repair and my experiences with making money online at Somewhere Over the Debt - Make Money Online and Live Life on Your Own Terms :)

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Make Money Online - Batch 63

It’s time for another batch of Make Money Online reviews. This maybe batch 63 but batch 64 is complete and I already have five reviews for batch 65. Yes, there is no stopping the greatest piece of linkbait ever created! You keep the reviews coming in and I’ll keep posting them.

Here are the 10 reviews of batch 63.

• 亲子故事


• ricdes dot com


• Console Boards Console Games


• Latest Trends Blog


• Techlivez.com Upcoming technology


• IM Chat Messenger


• Table For Five Personal Parenting Blog


• Tea Scoop Green Tea


• Online Cash Flow


• Neverland Team

Make Money Online By Reviewing This Blog

If you want to review John Chow dot Com, then Link to this blog’s home page with the anchor text “make money online” and link to this post showing the rules of the review. Here is an example of what I want:

John Chow dot Com is blog that helps you make money online. If you review of his blog, he’ll link to it and send you a ton of traffic.

I will link to anyone who reviews my blog. Just make sure it’s a real review and not tossed in with another post. The link will send you traffic and help improve your search engine and Technorati ranking.

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