Investment in...

Increase traffic using PING

2007-05-30T22:31:00.000+02:00

By using Ping, you are actually informing major server that you have updated your site/blog. Thus, Pinging your site/blog can help you increase your site traffic.Below is a list of pinging services avaiable:http://pingoat.com/>>>Pingoat offer pinging to plenty of server. Using pingoat can help you ping a lot of server in a few seconds only. The disadvantage is that you are allow to ping the same address only once per day.http://www.pingomatic.com/>>>Ping-o-matic offer good pinging service. You can Bookmark the result page of the ping and when you want to ping when you update your site. Just click the Bookmark address and it will ping automatically. No Need to re-type yur site address and site name again.http://kping.com/pings/ping.php>>>King Ping is another good pinging service. It also ping a lot of server at just a few second.http://www.ipings.com/>>>iPING is very easy to use and fast.http://ping.feedburner.com/>>>Ping Feedburner can notify Feedburner about your updated feed.JAPANESE SITEhttp://blog.goo.ne.jp/xmlrpc http://www.blogoon.net/ping/Allow French Blog Pinging onlyhttp://www.weblogues.com/Others pinging services:http://www.focuslook.com/ping.php?url=http://www.yourblog.com http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/

What is Google page rank PR?

2007-05-30T22:27:00.000+02:00

PageRank is a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E).

PageRank was developed at Stanford University by Larry Page (hence the name Page-Rank[1]) and Sergey Brin as part of a research project about a new kind of search engine. The project started in 1995 and led to a functional prototype, named Google, in 1998. Shortly after, Page and Brin founded Google Inc., the company behind the Google search engine. While just one of many factors which determine the ranking of Google search results, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of Google's web search tools.[2]

The name PageRank is a trademark of Google. The PageRank process has been patented (U.S. Patent 6,285,999 ). The patent is not assigned to Google but to Stanford University.

Adsense Secrets - 3 - How To “Tweak” Your Ads To Make Them Click

2007-05-24T20:19:00.000+02:00

Ad Formats : “Dress” your ads for success!

How would you like your ads served? Banners? Skyscrapers? Rectangles? Squares? What about borders and background colors?

The choices can be overwh elming. Many people let Google decide for them-preferring to stick with the defau lt settings. Big mistake! From my own experience I can tell you that it’s like swapping a hundred-dollar bill for a ten-dollar one.

For almost one year I settled for just a tenth of what I could have been making - just because I didn’t bother to control the looks and placement of my AdSense ads.

The various ad formats, colors and their placement on the web page can be done in thousands of combin ations. You can literally spend hours every day experimenting with every possible combination. But you don’t want to, do you?

Let me give you a few ‘ground rules’ that have sky-rocketed the CTR’s on my top-grossing pages:

Don’t “Look” Like An Ad

People don’t visit your website for ads. They want good content.

If you make the ads stick out with eye-popping colors, images or borders, that makes them easy to recognize as ads - and people work extra hard to avoid them.

The same goes for ads that are tucked away in the top, bottom or some other far corner of the page. So easy to ignore!

If you want people to click, make the ads look like an integral part of your content.

Today’s visitors are blind to banners, mad at pop-ups, weary of ads and skeptical of contests and giveaways. So how do you win their confidence? Simple… Don’t make your ads look like ads!

Let’s begin by reviewing each of the different types of ad available from AdSense and explain ing their uses… then I’ll introduce you to a few simple choices that rocketed my CTRs to incredible heights.

Meet the AdSense Family

Google serves its ads in three flavors, with each of those flavors coming in a range of different shapes and sizes. It is very important to understand the differences between each of th ese ads. Some are ideal for particular locations. Some should never be used in certain locations. And some should never be used at all.

The sample page at www.google.com/adsense/adformats lets you see all of the different kinds of ads at once. It even has links to sample placements that demonstrate how the ads can be used.

For the most part, I’d recommend that you ignore those sample placements.

I’ll talk about location in more detail later in the post, but for now just bear in mind that many of the ads in the samples are just too out of the way to be noticed.

You can use them as a starting point if you want but you’ll save yourself a lot of time - and money - by taking advantage of the experience of myself and others, and following the recommendations here.

Download Windows Vista Wallpapers

2007-05-24T20:01:00.000+02:00

You can download Windows Vista Wallpapers by just right clicking on any of the thumbnail images and choose "Save Target As" to save the large size Vista wallpaper image to your hard disk.

These are high resolution Vista Wallpapers and will also fit your wide screen Laptops. Will even make a perfect Windows Vista theme for XP.

The above gallery of Windows Vista Wallpaper images is constructed from Flickr where the wallpapers were uploaded by Brajeshwar, a popular Adobe Geek and Macromedia Flash guru.

If you are not upgrading from XP to Vista yet, this is possibly the easiest way to make your XP Desktop look like Windows Vista [choose one of the green Wallpapers with leaves and water drops or one with bamboo sticks]

If you like to download the entire Vista wallpaper collection in one go, Brajeshwar has put them in a ZIP file for you. Here are the links:
Microsoft Windows Vista Wallpaper Pack
Microsoft Windows Vista r5381 Wallpaper [Officially wallpapers from Microsoft bundled in the latest Windows Vista build.]

Related: Download Windows Vista Screensavers

Adsense Secrets

2007-05-24T19:39:00.000+02:00

Pst! Wanna know some Adsense secrets? The only secret is that there are no secrets per se!

Do a search for Adsense secrets and you will be bombarded by a myriad of ads by trying to sell you the answers to making lots of money with Adsense.

Before you buy anything, my advise to you would be to do some research on a search engine and a bit of common sense. There are literally hundreds of forums where you can pick up valuable information, as well as hundreds of articles that have been written on the subject of Adsense.

Most of the answers are out there for you to find it you will put in a little bit of work. If you buy any of the ebooks available out there, you might find one little nugget of information that you may not have seen anywhere else, but I promise you: most of the time everything is out here on the Internet - all you have to do is search for it. Here are some of the search terms that I personally have used with great results:

increase adsense income
increase your adsense income
adsense experiments
adsense adsense tricks
adsense tips

What I can tell you from my own experience is this:

1. Ads at the top of the page and on the left of the page perfom better than any other ads. (Take a look at the "heatmap" from the Google link below)

2. Ads without background colour and borders perfom better than ads within borders with background colour.

3. Ads within content pages perform better than any other ads.

4. A search box on every page gives you another chance for earning Adsense income.

5. A blue link at the top of the ad, the ad in black, and the url also in black so that it blends in with the ad copy - also tends to perform well. A black url makes the link stand out and gives you a better chance of someone clicking on it.

Google has brought out some great Adsense optimization tips. You can read it here: Google Adsense optimization tips

Experiment with your settings and see which brings you the best results. Google's reporting has become a lot better in the last month or so, so you should instantly be able to see which ads result in better CTR.

To increase your site traffic, which obviously will increase your Adsense income, the best way to get traffic is to have fresh content at your site. Write your own articles and submit it to article directories like Go Articles etc. To find more article directories, just do a search for "free article directory submissions" on a search engine like Google.

Another way would be to publish articles by other authors that are relevant to your site content. You can find free articles all over the web by once again doing a search for e.g. "free site content".

Do this on a regular basis and watch your traffic (and your income) increase.

Adsense Tips, Layout Optimization Tricks for Higher CTR

2007-05-24T19:24:00.000+02:00

Google Adsense is perhaps the easiest way to attract advertisers from across the globe to your blog. Just submit your blog to Google for approval. If Google likes what it sees, it will place contextual ads linking to products likely to appeal to the readers. Each time a reader clicks a link, the advertiser pays Google a small fee, and Google splits that with you.

The next interesting question - How to Make Money with Google Adsense ? Here are The best Google Adsense Tips and Tricks for making more money (profit) from Google adsense program.

a. Strictly follow the rules mentioned in Adsense policies. You will always earn more revenue from Adsense by playing it clean.

b. Never modify the Google Adsense HTML code.

c. Don't ask your friends or visitors to click on your Google ads. Do not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. Don't label the Google ads with text other than "sponsored links" or "advertisements.".

d. Don't click on your own ads - Google is much smarter than you think. You should not reload your pages excessively. If you are testing your website layout with Google adsense, follow some precautions. Or you can use the unofficial Google Adsense Sandbox Tool that is accessible from Firefox, IE and other browsers to see what kind of Google ads will be served based on content (website address URL) or keywords.

e. Don't place ads in pop-up windows, error pages or even empty pages.

f. Don't start a "adsense asbestos" or "home equity loan rates" website merely to make money from accidental clicks (accidence). You will never make money out these "made-for-adsense-only" websites. Instead, write on topics what you are passionate about. Don't waste your money on high-paying adsense keywords lists.

g. For short articles, CTR is best when ads are placed just above the content

h. For long articles, CTR improves if ads are placed somewhere in middle of the content - visitors read the long content and then they are looking for more resources.

i. Use Text Ads instead of Image Ads as users get more options. If you still want to display image ads, consider ad formats that support image ads - Choose either the 300x250 medium rectangle or the 160x600 wide skyscraper - or both, if you display multiple ad units on a page.

j. Google Ads without background color and borders always perform better. Make the border color and background color same as your page background color.

k. Always put ads above the main fold. Make sure that the ad unit with the highest clickthrough rate is the first instance of the ad code that appears in the HTML. Since the first ad unit is always filled before the rest, you want to make sure that ad unit is located in the best placement on your page.

l. Try setting the ad link URL color to a lighter shade. If your text is black, you may make the adlink as light gray.

m. Go Wide - The large rectangle is the best paying adsense format (336x280) - The Google Adsense Publisher team also feels that the best formats are the wider ones - the ad formats that contain the widest individual ads. Try using the 336x280 large rectangle, 300x250 medium rectangle, or 160x600 wide skyscraper.

n. Placing images next to ads or above ads does help in attracting user attention.

o. Blend AdLinks with other navigation links or place horizontal adlinks at the top of your webpage. AdSense publishers are permitted to click on link unit topics on their web pages, provided that they do not click on any Google ads on the resulting page.

p. Organize an Adsense Party for your friends and colleagues - Request them to navigate your website, watch their activity - it will provide vital clues about which regions on your website draw more user attention. Try putting ads near those areas. (Thanks Darren)

q. You can put upto 3 adsense units on a page. Try putting a large skyscraper on the right navigation sidebar of your website. That area is close to the browser scrollbar. You can also add 2 AdSense for search boxes, 1 adlink unit and 1 referral button per product (i.e., 1 AdSense referral button and 1 Firefox plus Google Toolbar referral button).

r. The first few lines of your content are an important factor for determining what Ads are served on your webpage. That's the right place to put keywords in bold (strong or <b> tags) or header tags (h1, h2, etc).

s. Always select the setting to open Google Adsense search box results in a new browser window, so you won't lose your visitors. Click the Open search results in a new browser window checkbox and this add target="google_window" to your form tag.

t. Maximum people think the search box is on the top right corner. So you know where to put it.

u. Don't syndicate full content. If people can read everything from the newsreader window itself, why would they visit your website where your ads are.

v. Use URL channels to determine performance of individual pages. I track my most popular pages with Google Analytics, Statcounter and create a channel for each of the URL. You can even track Adsense Clicks with Analytics

w. For low CTR pages, try changing titles or adding more content to get better focused ads

x. Block low paying advertisers with Filters. Why to loose a visitor for 0.01 cents. Use Overture or Google Adwords Keywords tool to discover keywords that are less popular with advertisers.

y. The AdSense for search Top Queries report shows you what your users are looking for, by listing the 25 most common searches conducted through your AdSense for search boxes. Use this report to identify additional topics to add to your site, or to keep track of your most sought-after information. Focus and improve that content.

z. Not everyone has a RSS reader. Use RSS to Email services like FeedBlitz, Bloglet or Rmail to let users subscribe to your blog by email.

Remember, you are the best judge when it comes to choosing ad formats. Even Google doesn't offer the best advise always. For instance, in the visual heat map, Google suggests that webmasters are best served by positioning ads on the upper left-hand side of a Web page. But on the Google homepage, you will find ads on the far right.

Related Links
Display only relevant Google Ads in Blogs
Google Adsense Layout Tips for Maximum Clicks
Guide for Google AdSense Publishers

AdSense is one of the best tools you can use to draw dollars to your site. Remember that there is no easy way to make money on Adsense... it takes a lot of work. Adsense publishers on blogspot.com can integrate Adsense directly from Blogger Interface.

Yahoo Publisher Network YPN and Chitika eMiniMalls offer interesting Adsense alternatives. You can use this free online Sandbox tool to compare Google Adsense, Chitika eMiniMalls and Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) Program.

Enter any keywords or a website address (URL), choose a geographic location (for Google), customize ad colors or choose from an existing color set and click "Udate Ads Display". You can try the Adsense, YPN or Chitika Services without signing up for any of these services.

How to grab 1000+ top paying keywords

2007-05-24T19:18:00.000+02:00

Step 1. Use Google Adwords keyword tool, searh the keywords you prefer, it will give you 200+ keywords list for your first search, and then use the kewords listed, search them again, you’ll grab 200+++ keywords!

Step 2. Use Free Keyword Suggestion Tool, search the keywords you prefer, continue the work step1 , do more deep research, and then you’ll grab 100+++ keywords now!

Step 3. Use Affiliate program online, find the hottest products of you niche, and search these products’s name in Google or Yahoo, keywords there!

From step 1-2-3, you have got x000+ keywords, now go step4 and get more…

Step 4. Use Good keywords, it’s a free tool for finding the perfect set of keywords for your web pages! This tool can build your keywords list easily

OK, you’ve got y000+++ keywods!

And the best step 5 . Use Keyword Elite, this tool is not free, but it’s valueable and powerful, you can check it here>>>Keyword Elite

Good luck~

Free Directory Submission (SEO)

2007-05-24T19:02:00.000+02:00

Following is a list of free web directories according to their PR. These directories don’t require any reciprocals links are fully free.

Directories With PR 7 & 8

1. http://www.lii.org/

2. http://www.stpt.com/directory/

Directories With PR 6

1. http://www.2yi.net/

2. http://www.allwebscape.com/

3. http://www.urlz.net/

4. http://www.vxbox.com/

5. http://www.webworldindex.com/

6. http://www.worldsiteindex.com/

7. http://www.zunchdirectory.com/

8. http://www.wowdirectory.com/

Directories With PR 5

1. http://www.01webdirectory.com/

2. http://www.4ppl.com/directory/

3. http://www.777media.com/

4. http://www.abilogic.com/

5. http://www.addyoursitefreesubmit.com/

6. http://www.axelis.com/

7. http://www.busybits.com/

8. http://www.buzznick.com/

9. http://www.dirdir.info/

10. http://www.directorybin.com/

13. http://www.jamjaa.com/

14. http://www.mavicanet.com/

15. http://www.qango.com/

16. http://www.rdirectory.net/

17. http://www.site-list.net/

18. http://www.siteinclusion.com/

19. http://www.theglasspalace.org/directory/

20. http://www.topsearchengineranking.us/

21. http://www.tsection.com/

22. http://www.submiturlhere.com/

23. http://www.yemoo.net/

24. http://www.deemoz.org/

Directories With PR 4

1. http://links.scrabblestop.com/

2. http://www.1any.com/

3. http://www.addsite-submitfree.com/

4. http://www.addyoururl.org/

5. http://www.alistsites.com/

6. http://www.alivelinkdirectory.com/

7. http://www.allwebspiders.com/

8. http://www.bestwebdirectory.info/

9. http://www.blackdhalia.com/

10. http://www.blisswolff.com/directory/

11. http://www.classicdirectory.info/

12. http://www.clickmybrick.com/

13. http://www.cyberbilt.com/

14. http://www.cyborginfo.com/

15. http://www.d1r.info/

16. http://www.deluxdirectory.com/

17. http://www.dir6.com/

18. http://www.directorydelux.com/

19. http://www.directoryking.info/

20. http://www.directorynew.com/

21. http://www.directoryvault.com/

22. http://www.directoryworld.info/

23. http://www.directoryws.com/

24. http://www.dmozdir.com/

25. http://www.domain-link-exchange.com/

26. http://www.dpdir.info/

27. http://www.eu-directweb.com/

28. http://www.ewebdir.com/

29. http://www.fabaroo.com/

30. http://www.findsites.net/

31. http://www.forage.in/

32. http://www.freecomplex.com/

33. http://www.freekicktemple.com/directory/

34. http://www.free-website-directory.com/

35. http://www.gdotz.com/

36. http://www.getmorebacklinks.com/

37. http://www.global-weblinks.com/

38. http://www.go7.us/

39. http://www.godirectory.org/

40. http://www.gosearchtechnology.com/

41. http://www.groovybanana.com/

42. http://www.gulqro.com/

43. http://www.hotproduct.info/

44. http://www.inredllc.com/

45. http://www.ipage.info/

46. http://www.k-directory.com/

47. http://www.klik-klik.com/directory/

48. http://www.linkbuilding.us/

49. http://www.linkdir.info/

50. http://www.linkscatalog.net/

Best SEO Plugins for WordPress

2007-05-24T18:59:00.000+02:00

Here is the list of the best seo plugins for wordpress?These plugins were recognized on the web!

If you are finding some plugins to get more traffic or high rank in search engine,you can check this list and pick some to use on your blog,maybe they’ll make great effect for your blog>>>Now go>>>

Head META Description - Provides an automatic meta description tag for your blog, inserting a dynamic description depending on the query-type.

Ultimate Tag Warrior - Best Tag system for WordPress. You can use categories and tag system on one website which is very cool. Makes it easier by searching through the tags you made for the posts.

Google Sitemaps - Generates a Google Sitemaps compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. The Google sitemaps program is part of the ?Google webmaster tools?. Provides info on how people came to your site throught their googles search phrases.

Related Entries - Puts up related entries of your posts throught similar tags, and words. Good for SEO because more links within the site, great deep linking.

SEO Title Tag - Overrides several limitations in creating search engine optimized title tags for blog posts and for Pages in the WordPress blogging platform.

Landing Sites - When visitors is referred to your site from a search engine, they are definitely looking for something specific - often they just roughly check the page they land on and then closes the window if what they are looking for isn?t there. Why not help them by showing them related posts to their search on your blog?

Google Sitemaps - UTW Tag Addon - This plugin is a WordPress 2.0.4 plugin that automatically adds the UltimateTagWarrior tags onto the end of the google sitemap XML file as produced by the Google Sitemap plugin.

New Scam -- Sending Counterfeit Checks Directly to Banks!

2007-05-24T18:39:00.000+02:00

New Scam -- Sending Counterfeit Checks Directly to Banks!
The fraudulent official check scam artists are trying new techniques to separate honest people from their money. One of the latest scams is cleverly designed to look like a check being sent directly to a financial institution by the FDIC, for deposit to a legitimate customer's account!

According to an FDIC May 1, 2007, alert (SA-112-2007), banks are receiving bogus letters that claim to be from the FDIC (but aren't), instructing the banks to credit official bank checks (which turn out to be counterfeit) to a customer's deposit account.

You should alert your mailroom and/or mail deposit staff to this scam, and instruct them --

Not to deposit the checks to anyone's account.
To deliver the entire mailing (envelope, instructions and checks) to your security department for further handling.

We suggest that you contact law enforcement and the FDIC if you receive a mailing of this type.

Because this scam reveals that a depositor's account information is probably in the wrong hands, you should advise your customer of the problem, and strongly suggest that affected accounts be closed out and new accounts be opened.

Internet Fraud Still Rising

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recently released their 2006 Internet Crime Report. The IC3 receives complaints online and by telephone. They refer them to the appropriate law enforcement agency. Here are highlights of the report:

1. Complaints received on the IC3 website - 207,492 (While this is a 10% decline from 2005, dollars involved in the claims rose.)

2. Complaints by category:

Auction Fraud - 44.9%
Non-delivery - 19.0%
Check fraud - 4.9%
Credit/Debit card fraud - 4.8%
Computer fraud - 2.8%
Confidence fraud - 2.2%
Financial institution fraud - 1.6%
Identity theft - 1.6%
Investment fraud - 1.3%
Child pornography - 1.0%

3. Total dollars lost in fraud cases for 2006, $198.44 million. This is an increase over 2005 by 8.37%.

4. The mean dollar loss was $2,529.90 and the median was $724.00.

5. Referrals by Amount of Dollars Lost:

$.01 to $99.99 - 15.6%
$100 -$999.99 - 39.4%
$1,000 - $4,999.99 - 31.6%
$5,000 - $9,999.99 - 7.6%
$10,000 - $99,999.99 - 4.7%
$100,000+ - 1.0%

6. Amount lost by category:

Complaint Type
Median $ Loss per Complaint
% of Reported Total Dollar Loss

Nigerian letter fraud
$5,100
1.7%

Check fraud
$3,744
11.1%

Investment fraud
$$2,694.99
4.0%

Confidence fraud
$2,400
4.5%

Auction fraud
$602
33.0%

Non-delivery
$585
28.1%

Credit/Debit card fraud
$427
3.6%

7. Over half of the perpetrators resided in one of these states, ranked from the highest to lowest:

a. California - 15.2%
b. New York - 9.5%
c. Florida - 9.3%
d. Texas - 6.5%
e. Illinois - 4.5%
f. Pennsylvania - 3.3%
g. Tennessee - 3.2%
h. North Carolina - 3.1%
i. Ohio - 3.1%
j. New Jersey - 3.0%

and the United States contained 60% of the perpetrators, as you can see by the country of origin ranking:

k. United States - 60.9%
l. United Kingdom - 15.9%
m. Nigeria - 5.9%
n. Canada - 5.6%
o. Romania - 1.6%
p. Italy - 1.2%
q. Netherlands - 1.2%
r. Russia - 1.1%
s. Germany - 0.7%
t. South Africa - 0.6%

8. Losses by Age of Complainant Demographics (Average (median) $ Loss per Typical Complaint_

Male - $920
Female - $545

Age - Median Loss
<20 - $500
20-29 - $702
30-39 - $786
40-49 - $827
50-59 - $860
60+ - $866

9. Top 10 states where complaints originated from:

a. California - 13.5%
b. Texas - 7.2%
c. Florida - 7.1%
4. New York - 5.5%
d. Pennsylvania - 4.0%
e. New Jersey - 3.6%
f. Illinois - 3.5%
g. Ohio - 3.3%
h. Virginia - 3.0%
i. Michigan - 2.9%

10. While email was the most common method scammers used to contact their victims, there are others to watch for:

Email - 73.9%
Webpage - 36.0%
Telephone - 17.7%
IM - 12.0%
Snail mail - 10.3%
Wire - 6.3%
Fax - 4.0%
Bulletin board - 3.7%
Chatrooms - 2.4%
In person - 1.5%
Newsgroups - 0.6%

The complete report is available here.

Corporate Profits Buoyed by Forex Gains

2007-05-24T17:39:00.000+02:00

While the American economy is sputtering, US corporations are earnings record profits and stock market capitalization is soaring. These seemingly contradictory trends are being driven by the decline in the USD. Multinational corporations, especially those based in the US, are conducting a growing portion of their business abroad and subsequently, their foreign sales are booming. When corporations convert these profits from the currencies they are booked in back to USD, on which their financial statements are based, they are realizing the equivalent of a 5-10% bump from foreign exchange gains. Many of these companies are web-based, such as Yahoo, Amazon and eBay. Ironically, as the economy sags, betting on these types of companies may be akin to a bet against the USD.

Pound and Euro move in lockstep

2007-05-24T17:36:00.000+02:00

In recent years, the British Pound and the Euro have begun to converge in value, so much so that both currencies have traded within 5% of each other for almost a year now. There are a couple of explanations for this trend. First, the relationship between the Pound and the Euro are largely symbolic. Perhaps, investors are grouping the two currencies together because of some perceived economic and/or political similarities. Second, it seems that all of the currencies that are supported by any semblance of sound economic fundamentals have risen against the USD, so it is possible that the Pound-Euro convergence is simply the result of both currencies simultaneously appreciating against the USD. Monetary policy and economic cycles are not aligned in Europe and Britain, so it doesn’t seem this link has any strong fundamental basis. Whatever the reason, in all aspects except for in name, the Pound has officially been absorbed into the Euro. The Financial Times reports:

From the euro’s launch in January 1999 until 2003, the pound initially traded in a wide 21.1 per cent range against the euro. Since then, volatility has been significantly reduced with the trading range falling to 8.6 per cent in 2004 and 7.1 in 2005.

Pound Surges to 15-Year High

2007-05-24T17:34:00.000+02:00

Since 1992, two macroeconomic events had not occurred in Britain: price inflation has no exceeded 3% annually and the British Pound has not surpassed the $2 barrier. Both events were realized today, however, as an early-morning release of economic data indicated inflation in Britain was hovering around 3.1% and the British Pound quickly rose above 2 USD/Pound. Interest rate futures also witnessed an immediate correction, to the extent that the markets are now pricing in a British benchmark interest rate of 5.75% 6 months from now, .5% above the current rate. Meanwhile, US inflation statistics were dovish, suggesting the gap between British and US interest rates is set to widen, which should propel the Pound further upwards. The Financial Times reports:

There is little that is inevitable about currencies moving in line with expected interest rates and nothing in long-term trends that allows people to predict currency movements in connection with inflation and other variables. But on Tuesday, the currencies moved exactly as if they were linked to the inflation figures by an umbilical cord.

China Increases Yuan Trading Band

2007-05-24T17:26:00.001+02:00

China Increases Yuan Trading Band

In a sop to western policymakers, China recently announced that it would widen the Chinese Yuan’s daily trading band, from .3% to .5%. In theory, this means the Yuan will now be permitted to fluctuate by up to .5% per day against the USD. In practice, however, the Yuan’s daily rate of appreciation probably won’t exceed .05%, and only then on an especially volatile day. Two years ago, China revalued the Yuan and since then, the currency has appreciated at an annualized rate of 3%. However, the west was not mollified, and continued to pressure China relentlessly to allow the Yuan to appreciate further. Unfortunately for the west, this latest policy change is unlikely to have any practical impact on the valuation of the Yuan, as analysts are predicting the currency will appreciate by only another 3% this year. Bloomberg News reports:

The yuan never moved the maximum permitted under the previous limit. It moved 0.13 percent from the daily reference rate on April 16, the most this year, according to Bloomberg data.

Asian Nations Form Forex Bloc

2007-05-24T17:23:00.000+02:00

The leaders of 13 Asian nations recently agreed to pool part of their combined $2.7 Trillion in forex reserves to create a safety net of sorts, which would protect any and all of the member countries in the event of a currency crisis. The move stems from the 1997 Southeast Asian economic crisis, in which several Asian economies summarily devalued their currencies and were forced to enter into burdensome agreements with the International Monetary Fund. The bloc also announced that it would continue preliminary discussions over the possibility of a common Asian currency. However, this is probably still at least a decade from coming to fruition. Xinhua reports:

“A relatively modest proposal for a currency index comprising a weighted basket of regional currencies has been bogged down in wrangling.” Officials from the ADB now agree the proposal of a single currency is "many decades from being viable."

Real Estate Investing and Baseball Bringing Hope to New Investors

2007-05-24T17:06:00.000+02:00

Ever heard of a guy named Sam Zell?

Don’t worry, outside Chicago many folks don’t know much abot this Billionaire. I thought I might bring some hope to all the newbie real estate investor / baseball fans out there with this little piece of news:

The Tribune Company Plans to Sell the Chicago Cubs before the end of 2007

Basically, the Cubs were owned by Tribune who was just bought out by Mr. Zell. Zell made his fortune investing in real estate. At one point (possibly still), one of his companies was the largest owner of apartments in the USA, and another was the largest office owner in the country. Pretty impressive stuff! If you don’t know much about the man, I recommend doing some research, as it is an interesting story . . . more importantly, it is inspiring to see what some knowledge in real estate can get you.

Zell decided that he didn’t want to hold on to the Cubs and has offered the team for sale; he wants to close the deal by the end of the baseball season.

Interested?

Get off your computer and start making some real estate deals so you can get in on the bidding!

How to Protect Your Identity: Stop Giving Out the Last 4 Numbers of your Social Security Number

2007-05-24T17:00:00.000+02:00

I’ve always had a problem with financial companies asking me for my personal information. I’ve always done my best to get around giving information like my social security number as a means of verifying who I am when on the phone with any financial institution. This weekend I had a realization about protecting your identity and it relates to something many people do every day: Stop giving out the last 4 digits of your social security number!

The whole point of companies asking for the last 4 numbers of your social security number is to protect you and your identity.

The irony of this is that the last 4 numbers of your social security number have now come to replace the entire number (9 digits). If all it takes is those 4 numbers to fully access, modify, or alter a financial account, then isn’t giving those 4 digits out the same thing as giving the entire number out?

I never give that information out and urge you to do the same.

When the logic behind our account “security” makes no sense whatsoever, isn’t it time to make a change?

Top 5 Mistakes Made By Real Estate Investors During the Housing Bubble

2007-05-24T13:27:00.000+02:00

We’ve all been talking about the real estate housing bubble for years now. I thought it might be appropriate to look back at some of the mistakes people made in an effort to averting a similar crisis again in the future.

The 5 Biggest Mistakes Made By Real Estate Investors During the Housing Bubble

Forgetting about the past - This is probably the most amazing mistake! As we all know, history tends to repeat itself. By not learning from history we deserve our fates. The dot-com bubble in the stock market took place less than a decade ago. People lost their pensions, retirement, homes, etc. during the bursting of that bubble, yet investors didn’t remember that what goes up exceptionally fast must come down.

Irrational Exhuberance - Take a look at the image in my previous post about irrational exuberance from back in August 2006. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that the market was WAY overinflated! All anyone could talk about for a few years was how much money their homes were worth and how much they could make buying property. Investors got lost in the hype and forgot about what is most important . . . which leads me to my next point:

Ignoring the Numbers - It is hard to ignore all the hype and buy a property based on proper evaluation when you see every property in the country rising at an astronomical rate. This was a fatal flaw for tens if not hundreds of thousands of investors. They ignored what is most important, the numbers, and bought properties on nothing but hope.

Becoming Emotionally Desperate - Desperation leads people to do stupid things. When everyone around you is in a frenzy, what do you do? Remember the days when properties went on the market and had 10 offers by that night? I do. Bidding wars are lose-lose situations for investors. They are powered by emotional attachments, and not by any realistic accounting for a property’s worth. Fear that the market will climb forever and that you’re missing the boat is not a reason to invest. Slow and steady people!

Becoming Greedy - I sold a condo back in 2003 after it had almost doubled within three years. At the time I sold it, the property was way overvalued and I gladly got out. By 2006 it had more then doubled in price over what I had sold it for. While I think about what could have been, I’m glad I got out. My analysis was correct, and as I write this, the price of the property is falling back down to where it was when I sold it. Greed is a terrible thing; it blinds you to reality. Too many people complain about the losses they are taking. Had they sold their properties and taken their profits earlier on, they would not have anything to complain about. Those investors who purchased near the top of the bubble at crazy prices simply got greedy. No market will go up forever. We all know that these things are cyclical. When greed takes over, disaster can soon follow.

I’d love to hear any other theories about the top mistakes made by real estate investors during the housing bubble. Feel free to share them with us!

This post is part of Problogger’s Top 5 Group Writing Project.

How to Determine Your Net Worth: Is it High, Low or Average?

2007-05-24T12:43:00.000+02:00

Real estate investors, like everyone else, should be aware of their net worth. This value is extremly important because it allows us to gauge if our complete financial value is increasing or not. The average American doesn’t know how to save money, and typically has a very low net worth; many people even have a negative net worth! While it may seem obvious to many of us, the average guy simply can’t put a cap on wasteful spending (going out for drinks, buying cars that lose value, etc.) in order to buy assets that actually go up in value (like real estate, securities, etc.), and thus increase their net worth.

Simply put, net worth is your total assets minus your total liabilities
How to Determine Your Net Worth
Your Assets

The first step in calculating your net worth is to determine the total value of all of your assets. Add the value of the following:
Liquid Assets: cash, checking & savings accounts, money market accounts, CDs, savings bonds, cash value of insurance policies
Securities: (use current market values) stocks, bonds, mutual funds
Non-Marketable Investments: annuities, IRAs, tax shelters, pension plan equity
Hard Goods / Durables: cars, bikes, motorcycles, mobile homes, furnishings, furniture, electronic and other equipment, collectables, jewelry, furs
Loans Receivable: money owed you
Real Property: house, condo, rental property, commercial property, land, other real estate
Your Liabilities

Tally all of your liabilities . . . I know this part is much scarier for many of us!
Mortgages & Home Loans: Determine the balances owed on these loans
Credit Cards: Determine the balance due on all of your cards
Credit Installment Plans: Determine the remaining balance on payment plans for vehicles, furniture, equipment, mobile homes, home improvement loans
Cash Loans: the value of any cash loans outstanding
Insurance Policy Loans: any loans against your insurance policy
Any Notes Payable
Taxes Due: on income & property

Now, just subtract the liabilities from the assets and you’ve got your net worth.

You can use our net worth worksheet to help organize your work.

Compare Your Net Worth to that of Others

Note: By using computer software like Quicken or Microsoft money, you can make this task much easier. You can even watch your net worth on a month to month or week to week basis with very little work. I highly suggest using one of these to do your bills and calculate your assets and liabilities!