Karlonia.com

The paid surveys and offers program SendEarnings is now confirmed as paying, as I have now received my first check from them for my previous earnings:

This first payment has also qualified me for the Gold Membership, which means more earnings from referrals, additional sweepstakes entries, and the chance to receive free referrals from the pool of unreferred members who join the program. Meanwhile, SendEarnings has also begun sending out monthly newsletters, the latest of which I have reprinted below:

Spring is synonymous with new – a new season, new beginnings, and for SendEarnings™ members, new offers and prizes! This April, you can earn extra cash and win great prizes just by trying new products and services through Cash Offers. Check out the latest and greatest choices at SendEarnings!

Cash Offers

Enjoy new offers everyday with Cash Offers! There are a wide range of choices that can enhance and simplify your life. You can find holiday specials, educational opportunities, credit information, home business offers and much more.

With such an extensive selection, your search is made quick and easy with our search tools. You can search by keywords or sort by the latest offers and payout amounts. New choices are added daily and payouts range from $0.25 to $15.00.

Whether you are interested in complementing your life with great products and services or with extra cash, you are sure to get what you need with Cash Offers!

Enhance and simplify your life with Cash Offers!

Sweepstakes

Enhance your life even more by winning in April Sweepstakes! When you are rewarded with cash for trying new products and services, you’ll also receive Sweepstakes entries for each dollar you earn through Cash Offers in the month of April.

Earth Day is recognized this month and to celebrate this 38 year tradition, SendEarnings™ is giving away eco-friendly Sony gift packages. Sony’s socially responsible commitment and eco-friendly designs truly make them For the Next Generation.

The first place winner will have the choice between a Sony Cyber-shot digital camera or a Sony widescreen LCD portable DVD player paired with the Discovery Channel Planet Earth DVD set. This four-time Emmy® Award winning DVD set takes viewers on an incredible journey exploring our planet from the frozen poles to the dense jungles and everywhere in between.

Learn how you can win by trying Cash Offers and go green this Earth Day with SendEarnings!

Fantastic Facts

Observe Earth Day on April 22 and remember to check out the eco-friendly offers on SendEarnings™ everyday! There are several options including an offer to recycle your ink with 00InkJets and you’ll get a chance to win free ink for a year. You can also save up to 75% on your purchases and earn $10.00 from SendEarnings!

Member Story

“I would just like to thank you. Today I completed two offers and received credit on the same day. I would even go as far as to say that it was less than 30 minutes. Bravo SendEarnings! This makes me feel as if my participation is appreciated when credit is swift and prompt! Again Bravo!”

Yvonne J.
Newark, DE

Share your Story

Do you have an interesting, funny, touching or cheerful story to tell about your experience with SendEarnings™? We would like to hear from you! Simply submit your story and it could be selected as a feature in our monthly newsletter.

Please send your story and picture to mystory(at)sendearnings.

If you have a question or would like to learn more about a service provided by SendEarnings, please review the detailed information at our Support Center.

This article by Cheryl Frost provides some useful steps for developing a marketing plan that can be used by small businesses. As with her previous article Preparing Your Small Business for the Market, most of the basic ideas here can be applied to marketing on the Internet as well as in the “brick-and-mortar” offline world.

A good marketing strategy includes a good plan. Many less successful businesses jump right into advertising and promotional efforts, accosting every media source from office cork boards to national newspapers. These businesses have not thought things through and waste a lot of time and money on hit or miss tactics. If you plan your marketing strategy carefully, you can focus on the best media source for your business and the best way to lure in customers.

The following steps will help you develop an effective marketing plan, ensuring a successful and profitable return on your marketing investment:

Set Objectives

Know what your business objectives are before you start. Set objectives that are obtainable and realistic to avoid frustration and failure. Your objectives will sculpt your business image with goals such as high quality, fast delivery, or friendly customer service. Place a measurement on your objectives — i.e., five new customers per month or no more than one percent of product returns. It is easy to state that you want fast delivery, but how will you know if you’ve accomplished that goal unless you preset how long delivery should take? Don’t set goals that are barely within your reach. Start small and raise the stakes after you get a feel for what works best for you.

Analyze your business plan

Take a look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business plan. Consider how you might strengthen the weaknesses and promote the strengths. Opportunities should be weighed for value and return; meanwhile, take note or confront any threats to the plan. Simulate a variety of scenarios, imagining the plan in effect for a long period of time. Try to determine how your plan will be received by potential customers.

Formulate a tactical plan

You also need to plan for how to follow through with your marketing efforts. Take everything you know must be done and plan out how it will be done and by whom. You might take on your own marketing plan or you may decide to hire a firm to help. If you become your own marketing agent, lay out the steps to set the plan to action.

Review the plan

Give your marketing plan a one year test period. After which, review the plan, comparing it to sales data and any other feedback you receive. Reviewing how the plan actually works will help in your efforts to improve it. When you review, you can see the actual strengths and weaknesses, giving you the data you need to either revise the plan for next year or scrap your plan and start anew.

Like the other elements of small business procedures, marketing requires planning. Developing a proper plan will make a dramatic difference in the prosperity and success of your company.

Search traffic is continuing to hold steady this week, as the increasing longevity of the site coupled with a growing amount of content is beginning to draw traffic from several second tier search engines and aggregators. Interestingly, the post from last November on how to write a job applicant rejection letter is currently my top performing page, now totaling over 1100 visits during the last 30 days. Also doing well are the articles on getting rid of ants and fair tax pros and cons. Now we will address some of the other pages and their related queries.

will the atm eat my card after 15 seconds — Sometimes yes; this depends upon the location of the ATM. Apparently some of them are programmed to “eat” cards after 15 seconds if they are not removed from the machine’s slot after completing a transaction. This was probably implemented as some sort of security measure so that if you forgot to retrieve your card, another person that came behind you would not be able to easily steal it.

planet hollywood pulled pork recipe — I actually have a recipe for pulled pork sandwiches that I have tried several times and found to be very good, although it does take a significant amount of time to do the cooking and preparation. It is a slightly modified version of the original recipe from the Harley Davidson cafes, one of which happens to be located near the Planet Hollywood in New York.

what was the civil war fought for — Once again, the query does not specify which civil war we are talking about here, but if we go on the assumption that this is related to the American civil war, the reasons varied according to who was being asked. Each side had different reasons for fighting the war, many of which are summarized in my civil war essay, which was also a review of the book What They Fought For by James McPherson.

canned fruits and vegetables prevent scurvy? — Yes, as long as said fruits and vegetables contain vitamin C (most of them do). This is the “magic ingredient” when it comes to preventing and curing scurvy.

cantaloupes in HEB stores with salmonella — This comes from an incident last June where cantaloupes along with a few other items were temporarily removed from HEB store shelves as part of a recall when a few of the fruits tested positive for salmonella. I posted about the related news story not so much because of the recall but because of the incredibly sloppy (or nonexistent) proofreading efforts of our local KRIS-TV news reporter, who managed to publish the report while it still contained six noticeable English usage errors.

libertarian coffee mug — These are being sold (along with other libertarian-themed merchandise) by the LPStuff.com site, which has significantly improved its item selection and marketing efforts over the past several months.

is beef tongue fattening — This depends on what you would call “fattening” and how much fat you manage to cook out of the meat before consumption. For reference, raw beef tongue contains 18.2 grams of fat per 4-ounce serving according to CalorieKing.com.

how relevant are public request on constant content 6 months old — The relevancy of public requests on Constant Content depends upon the specific needs of the customers making the requests and what they are planning to do with the content after a successful purchase. In general, if the request is already six months old, then I would not expect it to have much relevance (chances are that the customer has already acquired the content from another source), but it never hurts to write an article for the request anyway. Even if the original requester does not purchase it, there is a good chance that someone else who desires articles on the same kinds of topics will come along later and generate some sales for you.

Misuse of the words then and than has become quite common in recent years, especially when we look at blogs and articles that are published on the Internet. For example, I have often seen Internet marketers mix up then and than in their sales letter copy. Many of them are apparently oblivious to the fact that they look quite silly when trying to sell products to people who can easily see that they are not even bothering to proofread their own writing while still expecting prospects to take them seriously enough to trust them and actually purchase something.

In other instances, I have seen cases where bloggers are genuinely confused about which of the two words to use and are wondering how they should be spelled. In this week’s lesson, I will attempt to clear up the confusion regarding proper use of then and than by first defining these terms and then providing examples of correct and incorrect usage.

First of all, the word than has three major definitions and uses:

• Comparison of one entity or quality to another:
  1. Two is less than three.
  2. In general, Internet marketers have a greater income potential than those who are employed at traditional salaried occupations in the corporate world.
• Indication of a preference:
  1. John McCain’s basic values are so antithetical to libertarian ideals that I would rather vote for a Democrat than take the risk of him being elected as president.
  2. It is better to have a bird in the hand than two in the bush.
• Used to suggest something beyond a specific amount or a certain point:
  1. In order to benefit from my articles and understand enough of the material to make an intelligent comment, people need to read more than the first paragraph.
  2. The differences between Republicans and Libertarians go far beyond and involve much more than simple disagreements about the degree of federal taxation.

Meanwhile, then also has three basic meanings:

• Reference to the past or a previous time period in comparison with the present; at another point in time:
  1. Back then, search engine optimization was relatively simple. Now, however, it is somewhat more difficult because search engine algorithms are more complex and there are more competing web pages for most keywords.
  2. A common Karlonian fantasy is having the ability to return to the days of yore while still retaining knowledge of all historical events leading up to the present day. From our modern perspective, things seemed so much simpler back then.
• The next item in a sequence:
  1. When building a profitable website, it is better to publish quality content first and then apply the monetization methods as opposed to trying to do it the other way around.
  2. In order to balance the federal budget, pay off the national debt, and make real long-term improvements to our economy, we must first reduce government expenditures and then look at ways to lower taxes and increase our economic freedom.
• Denotes a logical conclusion; often used in computer programming code in the form “If X Then Y Else Z”:
  1. If you have optimized your page properly, done the necessary keyword research, and acquired a significant number of inbound links, then you can expect to see a significant amount of search engine traffic arriving at your website.
  2. If X = 2, then print “Yes, your answer is correct. 1 + 1 = 2″, else print “Sorry, your answer is incorrect. Please try again.”

Now for some examples of incorrect and correct usage:

Incorrect: Buy a reusable water bottle, rather then using plastic ones. — found as an article title at http://www.edenbee.com/goals/933946514

Correct: Buy a reusable water bottle rather than using plastic ones.

Incorrect: Are cats better then dogs? — used as the title of a video at Metacafe.com

Correct: Are cats better than dogs?

Incorrect: The key to reading IF operators is to understand that the condition part of the traditional “if X than Y else Z” notation has already been evaluated. — rpntutorial, “Reading the IF Operator” at http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/tut/rpntutorial.en.html

Correct: The key to reading IF operators is to understand that the condition part of the traditional “if X then Y else Z” notation has already been evaluated.

Incorrect: I hear sound, and than I don’t hear sound when I put a movie in the vcr. Can you help? — user “mandylover”, trying to ask a question on Yahoo Answers

Correct: I hear sound, and then I don’t hear sound when I put a movie in the VCR. Can you help?

Next week’s topic is currently scheduled to cover the increasingly prevalent phenomenon of apostrophe abuse, where apostrophes are being used in plural forms of words when they should be used only to indicate possession. Meanwhile, if you have any other suggestions for English usage topics, please feel free to mention these in the comment section below.

This rather lengthy, well-researched article by Sarah Tenney analyzes some possible explanations for the overall decline in voter turnout in the United States over the past 40-50 years. For those of you who do not want to read through the whole article, you can check out my related news report from last year on an interesting case of voter apathy where literally no one showed up for a city council election and city officials had to address the problem of what to do when there are zero total votes.

In Controversies in Voting Behavior, Richard G. Niemi and Herbert F. Weisberg point out that election turnout in the United States has dropped steadily and significantly from a high point in 1960, when 65.4 percent of eligible voters went to the polls, to 1996, when the absolute level of turnout dropped to below half of the eligible electorate.

Researchers have found this result something of a paradox, given that major events since 1960 should have resulted in increased, rather than decreased, voter turnout. For example, the overall level of education in the United States has increased over the past half century, and higher levels of education have been associated with higher levels of political participation. Similarly, legal restrictions on voting, such as early registration requirements, have been reduced or removed, and the age requirement for voting has decreased. These developments, combined, should have led to increases in the rate of voter turnout. Yet fewer people are going to the polls each election year.

This puzzle has inspired many researchers to study a variety of individual factors that may account for the observed declines in voter participation. It has also inspired debate about the extent to which decreased voter turnout should be seen as a cause for concern.

Based on research findings on demographics and voting participation, many political leaders and scholars believe that any increase in turnout would come primarily from those who are less educated, have low incomes, and are predominately associated with minority groups. However, other researchers, such as Robert Putnam, argue that this is not the case; rather, the group of nonvoters is largely composed of younger and more residentially mobile citizens. Until we have a better understanding of why the rate of voter turnout has declined, it will not be possible to draw firm conclusions about the extent to which it should be seen as a cause for concern.

The quest to solve this puzzle has given rise to intensive research on voting participation in the United States, covering a range of topics, including demographics factors; institutional and legal factors; societal factors, such as negative campaigning; and individual factors related to attitudes and beliefs.

In this latter respect, many researchers have focused on individual factors related to turnout, such as trust in the government and feelings of political efficacy. However, to date, we do not have a complete examination of a broad range of cultural indicators in a single study.

This paper attempts to set forth a range of indicators that could be used to determine whether widespread cultural changes among the U.S. electorate may help explain the decline in voter turnout over the period 1960-1996. As this paper relies on aggregate data taken from the 1996 National Election Study (NES) survey, it cannot capture the important effects of generational replacement highlighted in the work of Robert Putnam. However, it can point to some areas for further study.

In The Civic Culture, Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba studied political attitudes in five nations, including the United States. In 1963, Almond and Verba observed: “If there is a political revolution going on throughout the world, it is what might be called the participation explosion. In all the new nations of the world the belief that the ordinary man is politically relevant—that he ought to be an involved participant in the political system—is widespread.” They set forth a theory that democracy requires a societal political culture that is consistent with its working principles—the decision making functions of political elites, their norms and attitudes, the norms and attitudes of the ordinary citizen, and his or her relationships with government and other citizens.

Against this background, Almond and Verba defined the civic culture as “. . . neither traditional nor modern but partaking of both: a pluralistic culture based on communication and persuasion, a culture of consensus and diversity, a culture that permitted change but moderated it.” They went on to note that scholars of democracy going back to Aristotle have stressed the need for active citizen participation, as well as high levels of education and information holding among the electorate.

In The Civic Culture, Almond and Verba assessed the political culture of five nations—Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, and the United States—by interviewing a cross-section of 1000 nationals within each country. These interviews focused primarily on respondents’

1. knowledge of the political system,
2. feelings about political structures and leaders,
3. opinions about policy implementation, and
4. their role as members of the political system.

As the interviews for this study were conducted in the United States in 1960, at the peak of voter turnout, Almond and Verba’s findings can serve as a baseline in investigating whether any widespread cultural changes associated with voter turnout have occurred in the U.S. electorate since that time.

Read the rest of this entry »

AdBux, the popular GPT (Get-Paid-To) program that appeared to be heading into recession and slow payouts back in February has released a relatively long newsletter today in celebration of its first anniversary since the initial launch. In addition to touting its continued presence and success among a plethora of copycats and clone sites, AdBux has also announced several significant changes to its business model that are designed to improve the program’s sustainability and provide members with more earning opportunities.

The most important of these changes is the move toward a revenue sharing model similar to what has been implemented by Take the Internet Back. Instead of promising to pay X amount per click (or offer, survey, etc.), members earn shares for each action, and the tally of these shares can be converted to cash at a rate that is determined by the actual revenues of the company. This model is more sustainable because the administrators can vary the amount paid per share according to real current profits as opposed to promising fixed payments to members at some future date and risking the possibility that actual revenues will be insufficient to make the promised payments.

AdBux is also planning to add a few other interesting features to the program, such as a question-and-answer section similar to Yahoo Answers that will allow members to earn shares for providing information to other users. Also in the works is an in-house search engine that will attempt to generate revenues from advertisers based on a PPC (pay-per-click) model. Games, charity donations, and the possibility of new payment processors are other ideas that are scheduled for future implementation. For the full details on the upcoming changes, you can read the actual text of the latest AdBux update below.

Updates and Announcements

On this day, AdBux celebrates its 1 year birthday. In one year we have surpassed everyone’s expectations and we plan to be here for years and years to come. Our last newsletter that we sent out back in February discussed our plans for a future re-launch and a pause on payments. That re-launch was originally planned for today but because of certain specifics regarding the new incentives and changes coming, we decided to postpone the launch until May and payments will be restarted (or just starting for some) in June.

In the past year we have gone through many trials, troubles, and issues. We’ve been accused of scamming people, other sites infringed on our copyrights (*cough* Bux.to *cough*), multiple server issues, payment processor problems, security issues, cheaters, and more. But everything that we have been through only made us stronger.

AdBux will continually be the forefront of everything it creates. WE created what you see all over the net, the assortment of PTC sites, the copy cats and the clones. We were the first of our kind. The upcoming incentives and changes you will see take place over the next quarter will be originated by us and guaranteed to be copied by others. But, that’s the way business is. We have to try to keep a competitive edge or else!

Just to give you a taste of what you can expect:

Read the rest of this entry »

When going to the grocery store, many people already realize that they should not go when they’re hungry because one tends to buy and spend more than originally intended. However, there are some other commonsense tips that you can use to save money at the grocery store while still buying what you need. This article by Keesa DuPre lists five such tips that can help you to live more frugally and reduce unnecessary expenses.

1. Make a List

Just making a list — and then actually sticking to it when you’re in the store — can cut out nine tenths of all impulse purchases and save you money because you aren’t buying things you don’t really need. Even better is when you know the approximate cost of everything you’re purchasing and bring just enough cash to pay for your purchases, plus tax, and no more. This leads us into the second smart shopping tip:

2. Don’t Buy On Credit

Spending money you don’t have via credit cards is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make when trying to spend less. If you only spend the cash in your pocket, believe me, you’ll cut your spending by half or more. Many people rely on credit cards for making purchases of everything from milk and eggs to gas to clothing; the idea of leaving the card at home is going to be a bit difficult for them. But it’s worth trying, if only for a couple of weeks to see how much you actually end up saving when you don’t have practically unlimited ‘invisible money’ to spend.

3. Don’t Buy Brands

There are certain cases where a brand-name food really is better than the off-brand, and in that case, it’s usually a good idea to go ahead and lay out the money for the brand. But in most cases, you can find off-brand or ’store brand’ versions of anything you actually need. The store brands are almost always cheaper, and most of the time they work just as well as the name brands. In fact, some of them actually taste better!

4. Shop Sales — Know a Bargain When You See One

Shopping sales — that is, things like waiting to buy your meat until your local grocery has it on sale — can also save you money. But there is one important caveat; you must know when a bargain is not a bargain. Purchasing something at 50% off is no bargain if it’s money you wouldn’t normally have spent, or an item you don’t generally purchase. A bargain is only a bargain when you’re saving money on an item that you would buy anyway.

5. Ask.

Finally, the old adage “ask and you shall receive” holds true in smart shopping, as well — sometimes you can get a better price just by asking for one. We’re not talking about used car lot haggling; it can save you money, but most people aren’t comfortable with such aggressive negotiating. Politely asking if the store can give you a better price, on the other hand, is subtle and pleasant enough that most people feel comfortable doing it.

Remember that the best way — the only way, in fact — to save money on grocery shopping or anything else is to NOT spend it. Anything that helps you to keep from spending money will help you save money.

With the recent discussion in the media about tax rebates and economic stimulus plans, some people have questioned whether the current proposals will actually provide any significant improvement in our overall economy. This article by John Cassidy argues that the current tax rebate plan may not make much of a difference and suggests an alternative method for stimulating economic activity.

As a standard disclaimer, I should point out here that I do not necessarily endorse the opinions or suggestions of this author personally. If you disagree with the article’s content, you are free to give your rebuttal in the comment section. Better yet, you can submit your own ideas as a separate article through the contact page and have it published right here at Karlonia.com! Doing so will allow you to have your say in the spicy realm of political free speech and can even earn you a free link back to your site if you have one.

It appears our economy is slowing down. Recent trends of consumer spending indicate we may be heading into a recession. In an attempt to prevent this, Congress and the President have agreed to give all of us a tax rebate. The idea is if we get an extra $600 we’ll go back to maxing out our credit cards, which will fuel an economic boom to the delight of Wall Street.

While I’m happy to get an extra $600 I do have a few concerns. There is this deficit thing that has grown so much the last few years. With the tax rebate plan and additional military spending, the deficit is expected to be over $400 billion. Such a huge deficit fuels inflation, puts us further in debt to foreign powers, and keeps us from responding to national problems. Think health care, education, collapsing bridges.

Plus, a measly $600 per taxpayer probably will not do much to prevent a recession anyway. For most people it will amount to a single monthly payment on their credit card debt.

There is a much better way to prevent a recession and it wouldn’t cost the Federal Government a cent. It’s time for trickle-down economics to be made to work. As President Bush has often pointed out, our economy has been growing strongly the last few years. The trouble is that growth has gone exclusively to the wealthy. The rest of us, in the middle class, have seen our wages stagnate or even slip backward. Higher food, medical and fuel costs have further eaten into our disposable income.

For a while we maintained our lifestyles by borrowing money. We’ve run up credit card balances, taken equity out of our homes, or both. Last year, our kids enjoyed another nice Christmas, but we parents woke up on New Year’s Day and realized that we were in financial trouble. We’re paying over 19 percent interest on those credit cards, and the value of our home has dropped so it’s now worth less than what we owe on it.

The only reasonable way for us to respond to this crisis is to tighten our belts and stop spending. No more big-ticket items: drive the old car for a couple more years, get along with the old appliances, eat out less, spend our vacation right here at home. We will have to practice this personal austerity for a couple of years, until we can pay down some of this debt!

But there is a way we can avoid this recession — trickle-down economics. It is time for the wealthy - which have done very, very well during the Bush administration - to start letting some of their huge windfall trickle down to the rest of us. Every employer in America should immediately raise every employee’s wages by five percent. In addition they should increase the size of their work force by an additional five percent. That would prevent a recession. A five percent pay hike for me would make a big difference in my paycheck. I’ve been getting along for the last seven years on one-to-two percent increases, and all of that has been eaten up by the jumps in my health insurance premiums. Give me a five percent increase and I’ll have some confidence in the economy. I’ll pay down my debt AND continue to spend a little. Multiply my extra spending by the millions of other middle class workers and we have an economic boom.

As we spend more, businesses will make more profits and the wealthy will see all their investment come back to them and then some. As Harry Truman once said: “Let it percolate up from the bottom!” For years the Republicans have been telling us that when taxes are cut, more revenue will come in, because it boosts the economy, generating more tax money. Won’t the same be true in the private sector? Won’t giving us all a big pay raise lead to generating more profit? Because, let’s face it, very little has trickled down for the last seven years.

With the overall economy heading into recession, relatively high gasoline prices, and the never-ending expenses of maintaining a reasonable standard of living, many of us are looking for ways to earn some extra money by working from home to supplement our incomes. This brief article by Katherine Hansen provides some suggestions for doing this by using whatever natural talents or passions we already have and turning them into something profitable.

Whether you are looking to earn some extra money or if you are ready to tell your boss goodbye, you may already have what you need to start your own home business. Talents like decorating, gardening, writing, organizing, party and event planning, and cooking are among many skills that a lot of people either lack or simply do not have the time to do well, which means they are willing to pay people like you to do it for them. There are several ways that you can take those talents and make extra money working from home by turning them into a profitable business.

Here are just a few examples of the types of businesses you could start at home:

1. Begin your own home or office design service
2. Become a landscaper or gardener
3. Start a small nursery with your prize winning plants
4. Take your knack for organizing and help people get their homes and offices up to date
5. Begin a party and event planning service to help people plan weddings, holiday parties, conferences, proms, etc.
6. Offer your services and your great recipes to deliver homemade dinners ready to heat and serve, deliver lunches to job sites, or cater special events.

As you can see, there are many ways to take what you already love doing in your spare time and make extra money working from home by turning it into a successful business. If your hobby ends in the creation of something tangible you may decide to sell your work online. A variety of online store sites, such as GoEMerchant.com can help you turn your arts and crafts into a quick and easy online shopping experience.

Choose your own hours and prices for your services at a rate that is competitive for your area and skill so you are in control of how much you earn. Isn’t it time to do what you love?

Although I have slowed down on posting somewhat during the past week in order to gather more articles and take care of other tasks, search traffic volume is still holding steady at around 200 queries per day. The past two weeks of searches have produced some interesting questions, a few of which I do not yet know the answers for but can still research later. For now, I will pick the next eight in the list that I already know without having too spend too much time on while chasing down the answers.

what is 1000 points equal to on mysurvey — 1000 points is equal to $10 on MySurvey.com. This happens to be the minimum payout threshold also, so if you reach this amount, you can go ahead and request a check. Based on my experience, the payment will take about 2-3 weeks to arrive.

globaltestmarket.com legit? — Yes, GlobalTestMarket is definitely legitimate, at least in terms of sending adequate numbers of surveys and making payments as promised. A few days ago, I received my second check from them for $60. You can see the scanned copy of my first $50 check from them here.

what do you do when atm eats your card — According to what I have read elsewhere, some people have been able to get their cards back by simply going into the bank building where the ATM is located and explaining the situation to the bank managers there. In some cases, they have equipment that can pry open the ATM and allow you to retrieve the card. If this does not work or is not practical, you can always notify your bank of the situation and request a replacement card. Sometimes you can even do this online — with USAA it is possible to log in to our online accounts and click on the link that says “Replace lost or stolen card” and select the proper account. New cards are sent by postal mail and usually take 3-7 days to arrive.

does bum marketing work? — Yes, it certainly works, although it does require some initial effort in writing or outsourcing articles, getting these published in the article directories or on your own site, and matching up salable products to keyword topics. However, it does not require significant amounts of money to get started and can be built up slowly on a part-time basis. For more information, see my main bum marketing article that explains how to implement this process.

pinecone research a scam? — No, in fact this is one of the better paid survey companies out there. If you can manage to find one of their banners and get accepted, they will pay a consistent $5 for every survey. Better yet, they do a good job of pre-qualifying participants, meaning that if you do receive a survey from them, there is a very high probability that you will actually be able to complete the survey and get paid. Their payments are also some of the fastest in the industry, especially if you switch to the PayPal option after receiving your first check payment. For more information, see Pinecone Research Payment Report.

dinner major tasks — OK, let’s see…

• Decide what you actually want to have for dinner.
• Gather the necessary ingredients.
• Cook food.
• Eat food.

If you decide to order food from a restaurant instead of cooking your own meal at home, you can skip steps 2 and 3.

can states mandate a lower min wage than federal — No. Although there are still a few states that technically have lower minimum wages than the federal mandate, the federal laws always take precedence, meaning that employees can never (legally) be paid less than the current federal minimum wage.

HOW TO GET TROGEN VIROUS DANGEROUS — One of the easiest ways of getting a Trojan virus is to click on links or attachments from Spam emails, especially ones that promote free software from unknown sources such as last year’s Maxiptrader HYIP download. It is also possible to pick up Trojans by surfing lots of spammy sites without any type of antivirus protection installed, which can also result in slowing down your system with unnecessary adware. As far as I know, Trojan viruses cannot be obtained from handshakes, toilet seats, or even casual sex, although having unprotected sex can result in contracting certain other kinds of viruses besides Trojans.

Confusion among the words to, too, and two ranks almost as highly as errors involving it’s and its in terms of overall prevalence. Among the three, the word to is usually the most commonly used and has many different meanings that can be found when we look up the word in a dictionary. In most cases, the word is used as a preposition but there are a few less common instances where it can be used as an adverb. Here are some of the most important meanings of the word to, followed by examples of correct usage:

• toward, in the direction of, or becoming closer in distance
  1. We went to the store.
  2. The advisor turned to me and explained the idea.
• against, in contact with
  1. His neck was pressed to the ground by the boots of fascist pigs.
• concerning, regarding
  1. We are waiting for a reply to my email.
• constituting, composing
  1. There are four quarts to a gallon.
• indication of an infinitive verb form
  1. We wanted to go.
  2. The investors were looking to buy.
• awaking into consciousness
  1. After being in a coma for several days, the patient finally came to.
• move into a closed position
  1. Please push the door to so I can get some sleep.
• a specific nautical usage meaning “into the wind”
  1. The captain shouted, “Heave to and lower the anchor!”

Meanwhile, the word too is relatively easy to understand because there are only two basic meanings:

• also, in addition to
  1. After reading about how much money could be made on the Internet, she wanted to set up a website too.
• excessively, more than is necessary
  1. Putting too many graphics or advertisements on a web page may slow down loading times and discourage visitors from reading your content.
  2. As a libertarian Internet marketer, you can never have too much money, too many referrals, or too much freedom.

Finally, two is the easiest of the three words to understand because it simply refers to the number that is the sum of 1 + 1:

1. Two income streams are better than one, although having more than two is better still because we can diversify our assets and minimize risk.

Now for some examples of incorrect usage, followed by the corrected forms:

Incorrect: he seems to scarred to ask you and he wants you too hurry up and ask him out and he is jus tryin to make you do that a lot quicker by actin lik he is losing interest — user “wolfeman8″ on Yahoo! Answers

Correct: He seems too scared to ask you and probably wants you to hurry up and ask him out first. By acting like he is losing interest, he is hoping to persuade you to ask him out much sooner.

Incorrect: Do you think I waste to much money? — Question asked by user “Animal lover” on Yahoo! Answers

Correct: Do you think I waste too much money?

Incorrect: The solution is too make sure that any data being return is encoded as UTF-8. — Joshua Eichorn of blog.joshuaeichorn.com

Correct: The solution is to make sure that any data being returned is encoded as UTF-8.

Incorrect: The cost was 8 cents and her father told her that was two much money. — Ann Werrebroeck Herman at belgium.rootsweb.ancestry.com

Correct: The cost was 8 cents and her father told her that was too much money.

The topic for next week is still open for discussion, but at this point I am leaning toward either covering then vs. than or addressing the issue of apostrophe abuse, which includes the widespread but incorrect use of apostrophes in plural nouns.

The website development and advertising company known as Take the Internet Back has updated their site with a fresh new look and has added some useful features, such as allowing advertisers to have a better view of their statistics and allowing regular members to see how much money they have earned and the exact sources of their revenue. TIB is also running another promotional campaign where they are hoping to entice marketers to purchase some advertising in exchange for free additional ad packages at the new WorldAdGroup.com site. As usual, the actual text of the latest update is posted below:

As promised a month ago, we have finished the new TIB website! It has a whole new graphical design and lots more new features for all users - Members, Advertisers and Affiliates. Please read below for more details about what’s new on the TIB website:

General Improvements:

1. New graphical design - more compact and user-friendly
2. The 3 user categories are now more in focus with the website i.e. Member, Advertiser and Affiliate. We needed to create the Advertiser category on TIB, as it was the only way to offer real-time statistics in regards to ads, banners and other advertisement methods. Joining TIB as an Advertiser is extremely simple and also totally FREE. For sending ads or to post a banner on TIB, you will need to have an Advertiser account and be logged in. Also, the new TIB has more accurate and real-time statistics for all users.

For you to better understand the upgrades and improvements, we will highlight them here for each user type:

Member upgrades:

1. Real-time statistics in your Member’s Home page i.e. points from reading mails, points from TIB Specials, etc.
2. Payout list to see how much money you earned

Advertiser upgrades:

1. Real-time statistics regarding ad progress i.e. ability to see how many e-mails were sent on a particular ad, how many members have read that ad, ability to change the subject and content of the ad (only if the ad has not already been sent), and more.
2. Real-time statistics regarding banners i.e. expiration date, number of clickthrus, ability to change the banner at any time, etc.
3. Delayed Confirmation Link for reading Members i.e. members that are reading emails from their Inbox get the Confirmation Link for the message after a period of time. This will ensure an even better response rate for Advertiser’s ads.
4. Advertisers can now choose the Sending Date for their Ad, and also the period of time that passes between the emails ( Only for larger email ads). We have introduced this since we had so many requests from our Advertisers to be given the possibility to choose the Sending Date for each Ad.

Due to the latest developments, we have an important update concerning all our Members that posted links to TIB site. A newer linking system is being developed with more appealing banners and an automatic validation system. Until the new system is implemented, we have disabled the old one. We will update all members when the system is ready to be used.

And last but not least, we will launch a new promotional campaign for all TIB Members and Advertisers, which is effective immediately and will last until the 1st of May:

1. Buy $100 or more and get a free Standard Marketer Package on www.WorldAdGroup.com (WAG)
2. Buy $200 or more and get a free Super Marketer Package on www.WorldAdGroup.com (WAG)
3. Buy $400 or more and get 2 free Super Marketer Packages on www.WorldAdGroup.com (WAG)

We only ask that you help us promote WAG just a bit. It is also a solid advertising program that pays out very generous commissions. Please be sure that you register at www.WorldAdGroup.com - and we will add the bonus packages to your account.

If you haven’t had the chance to go to TIB and see what we have done there, please do so now and let us know what you think? Better, huh? Also - please do not hesitate to report any errors that you may find there as this would help us improve TIB even more.

Thanks and together: “Let’s Take the Internet Back!”

TIB admin

The film titled “The Best Little Statehouse in Texas”, narrated by Larry King, provides a unique view of the processes and procedures of the Texas legislature. The video also shows much of the backroom politics and influences that occur behind the scenes before a bill is ultimately passed or rejected. The film is successful in describing some of the personalities and political views of the various senators, representatives, and lobbyists. The video also depicts many of the conflicts and compromises that occur between opposing legislators.

The first section of the film deals with the issue of redistricting and the second part deals with a bill on the interest rate ceiling and briefly describes the power and influence of special interest lobbying groups. Larry King does a very good job of giving a first person perspective on the ways bills are actually turned into laws. From his viewpoint, wheeling and dealing, fierce arguing, compromise, and even personal attacks often are part of the process. Mr. King also illustrates the weight of lobbying groups and political influence on the final outcome of proposed laws.

In the first part of the film, Larry King’s portrayal of the behind-the-scenes events leading to the passage or defeat of a bill is most effective in showing that heated arguments and personal attacks can become part of the process. The first part of the film dealt with the issue of redistricting. Redistricting is done every ten years in Texas and is based on census results. This issue has become particularly sensitive because population shifts among the districts can result in a gain or loss in representatives in the legislature and can affect the distribution of political parties within the legislature.

Read the rest of this entry »

This essay is a review of an article written by B. Zorina Khan in Journal of Economic History (55:1), 58-97. The title of the original article is “Property Rights and Patent Litigation in Early Nineteenth-Century America”.

For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in inventions. I have thought about many things, from designing a hat for babies to wear when they first begin walking to how to make a computer think using something other than the binary system. In the textbook, America by Tindall and Shi, the authors describe the last quarter of the 19th century as one of great inventions, big business, and industrial growth (675-706). Certainly, the whole question of what caused the industrial revolution is very fascinating, especially since current events describe Afghanistan as a place where there is no electricity, food, water, roads, or industrial development – why here and not there? In Chapter 19 of America, as evidence of growth, the authors point out that the U.S. Patent Office registered 234,956 inventions in the 1890’s, compared to only 276 in the 1790’s (Tindall and Shi 652). I have limited my topic to the question of whether the patent office encouraged the growth of technology in the last quarter of the 19th century as described in the article by B. Zorina Khan entitled, “Property Rights and Patent Litigation in Early Nineteenth-Century America” (58-97).

The argument made by Khan in her article is that the existence of the patent office, patent law, and the judicial system encouraged technological change and stimulated growth in the late 1800’s. In order to prove her assumption, the author examined all of the 795 patent cases from 1790 to 1860 (61). Khan attempts to answer other researchers who contend that patents were of little use during the beginning of the industrialization period because: 1) patents were unenforceable and easily copied, 2) some inventions did not qualify for a patent, and 3) the legal system of the times was “anti-patent”. These scholars question whether the patent office encouraged growth. They also doubt whether money or market forces have a substantial effect on the level of inventiveness (59).

Khan makes several good points. If patents were of little value, as others have suggested, people would have relied on other methods to protect their property rights. Yet, the majority of all of the important inventions of the time were patented. In addition, many investors of the 19th century bought into the creative ideas of others in the hopes of making a profit (Khan 60). The investments of early venture capitalists demonstrate the relationship between inventions and profit.

A major contention made by the author to counter the argument that the courts were not responsive to inventors involved the examination of all 795 patent cases from 1790 to 1860. Few cases (of any kind) were brought before the federal courts during this time period and, of all the patent cases, most were settled out of court (Khan 61, 63, 80, 88-89). Many of the cases that did make it to court, were argued because of market strategy, not enforcement of property rights (67). Most court cases reflected an attempt to extend an existing patent, rather than a question of enforcement. Most surprising of all, only 76 patents accounted for 585 of the 795 total cases (70). These facts bolster the author’s claims because if dissatisfaction with the court actually did exist and enforcement problems were an issue, more and different types of claims would have been filed with the courts.

In examining the patent cases, the author also notes that the outcomes of the cases were consistent across the country (Khan 86). This, too, argues in the author’s favor. Other researchers contend that judges were anti-patent prior to 1836, then, later, became more liberal and patent friendly. Khan, however, counters this claim by explaining the 1836 changes in patent law as the reason for a change in both the number and results of patent cases after that date (62-63). The Commissioner of Patent became responsible for infringement disputes so the type of cases heard by the court system changed. The consistency and non-arbitrariness of the courts also is evident because judges relied on earlier cases to help in later decisions (64).

As evidence for her claim that patent law encouraged technological growth, Khan also uses the number of patent cases filed per capita, the sales of patent rights, and the practice of inventors advertising pending patents (93). Clearly, these would not occur unless patents were enforceable and encouraged growth. As the population grew in urban areas and markets expanded, patent filings increased. Inventors and investors profited from the sale of inventions.
The fact the inventors advertised that their patents were pending is evidence that patents were, indeed, valuable (93).

Khan’s article presents evidence that the patent office encouraged industrial growth and effectively counters those that question the effectiveness of the early patent office. However, as she admits, only one piece of the picture was examined. A more persuasive argument might include a comparison of growth versus patents in other countries with that in the United States. Additionally, an examination of this period of growth might be compared with other periods in the history of the United States. She also did not mention the possible effects of rural to urban transition, transportation advances, western settlement, and increased immigration on the surge of inventions.

Khan’s article and the question of patents in general are very relevant to our history course. The text should have said more about this topic and the lecture should question the role of the patent office during the time of the industrial revolution. If, as Khan suggests, the patent office had some responsibility for the unparalleled growth of the late 19th century, the topic deserves some mention in order to receive a fuller picture of the times.

Works Cited

Khan, B. Zorina. “Property Rights and Patent Litigation in Early Nineteenth-Century America.” Journal of Economic History 55:1 (1995): 58-97.

Tindall, George Brown, and David E. Shi. America: A Narrative History. Brief 5th ed., New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000.

Daniel Goleman brought wide popular recognition to the concept of emotional intelligence in his best-selling book of the same name. This book is divided into five parts: the emotional brain, the nature of emotional intelligence, emotional intelligence applied, windows of opportunity, and emotional literacy. Goleman states that humans have two minds, one that is an emotional mind and the other a rational mind. According to the author, “All emotions, in essence, are impulses to act, the instant plans for handling life that evolution has instilled in us” (Goleman 1995).

In one section of his book, Goleman tells of a sophomore in high school who was a straight-A student fixated on getting into Harvard Medical School. His physics teacher gave him an 80 on a quiz and the student feared that this grade would put his dream in jeopardy. The student brought a butcher knife to school and stabbed his teacher after an emotional confrontation. The court found him innocent, ruling that he was mentally insane at during the accident (Goleman 1995). “The question is, how could someone of such obvious intelligence do something so irrational — so downright dumb? The answer: Academic intelligence has little to do with emotional life” (Goleman 1995). A high IQ can contribute about 20 percent to the factors that determine success.

Emotional Intelligence is defined by five main abilities: Knowing one’s emotions (self-awareness), managing emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions of others (empathy), and handling relationships. Goleman states, “People who excel in these skills do well at anything that relies on interacting smoothly with others; they are social stars” (43-44). All these skills can be developed. Emotional wisdom and maturity can be acquired and enhanced. Goleman’s book summarizes and analyzes the research on how a person’s emotional “intelligence” contributes to functioning well in our society. The theory of emotional intelligence has spread into schools and the business community. Practical application of this popular theory has become the basis for many training and counseling sessions.

So, what are some practical applications of emotional intelligence in the workplace? On some of the findings, emotional intelligence (EI) is utilized in the success of meeting planning in the industries. A small research study was conducted by a Dr. J.P. Pawliw-Fry (Canada-based expert in EI and co-director of the Institute for Health and Human Potential) with meeting planners in the first quarter of 2000. He quotes that, “emotional quotient, or EQ, is responsible for 68% of the success of high-performing planners” [and] tech skills 22%, and IQ only 8%.

Emotional Intelligence can be further defined into five major categories: self-awareness, self-management, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills (Goleman, 1995). “What’s your problem?” Athena Miller, president of Gilbert, Arizona-based Human Dimensions, works with managers and their teams in recognizing their self-awareness. Apparently, these teams spend most of their time fighting, distrusting, and “back-stabbing” each other. People need to express their emotions and feelings with each other and be aware of how they interact with others.

Another example of self-awareness, a personal competency, was found at the Center for Organizational Excellence in Fairfax Station, Virginia. The president, Dr. Joseph Mancusi, says that “planners with such aptitude are able to cope with the tremendous chaos and change inherent to conventions and meetings” and that to assure us that EI, unlike IQ, can be learned and developed (Meany, 2000).

Self-management and self-motivation, sometimes referred to as “Get them under control” is being able to manage your emotions and impulses – to delay your gratification, as well as to persevere in the face of setbacks and failures (Goleman, 1995). After self-awareness you can begin self-management and create walls or “blocks” that will prevent your usual or natural reaction. Once you can take control of your own emotions and get past the obstacles, you can then “orchestrate the actions of others.”

This seems to hold true in San Francisco-based Q-Metrics, where Esther Orioli, president and CEO, says, “your first reaction is fear or inadequacy.” A vice president of sales force performance at PlanSoft Corporation in Ohio, Mike Kunkle, stresses the importance of controlling one’s emotions. In one particular instance Kunkle and his colleagues were barraged by a team member who kept making sarcastic remarks. Kunkle didn’t waste time in arguing or responding to each remark and in the end the meeting actually was pretty productive because he didn’t let the “comments derail the conversation.” (Meany, 2000).

Empathy and social skills, “Skills that matter” are your two social competencies that sense how others are feeling and being able to handle those emotions of others. In one particular case, Jeannie Coyle, who is now a special educations teacher, was formerly with Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association in Washington D.C., where she was an exhibit manager. On one rather already rough day, she and her exhibitors were prepping for a meeting hall. They had to first wait out twelve hours for another group to finish and because they waited that long Coyle and her team were in there all night. To ward off irritated and exhausted exhibitors she ordered lots of room service and committed herself to stay with them all night until 5:00 a.m. (Meany, 2000). I think this demonstrates a high emotional intelligence in the field of empathy and social skills; she demonstrated that she understood, cared, and most importantly did something about it.

There are many other examples of emotional intelligence in practice not only in industries, but now perhaps in curriculums in college for college students. One case reveals EI being taught to future leaders for business graduates. At some business schools EI is taught through stages or phases as Cherniss and Goleman (1995) put it. “There would be four stages:

1. Stage 1: Students deny that they have any need for change.
2. Stage 2: Students see the need to improve but are not sure that anything can be done or they delay action.
3. Stage 3: Students recognize the problem and understand that there are alternative ways of dealing with it, but have not worked out a plan.
4. Stage 4: Students have a plan and put it into action.”

Through these stages tailored to college students, professors can map the EI structure and lead students from stage one to stage four increasing the students morale, motivation, and perseverance (Tucker, Sojka, Barone, & McCarthy, 2000).

Evaluation

I thought the articles were very interesting and closely related to the text, however, the text contains only a paragraph on emotional intelligence. After reading these articles and doing my own extended research, I find that I wish we spent more time on emotional intelligence. I feel that this particular topic would be 90% of OB – organizational behavior and how to be successful managers.

I agreed with most of the comments and summaries in the articles, with the exception of a few. To name one example of disagreement, with my “working knowledge” of EI, the article on You’re Smarter Than You Think, under “Get Them Under Control” Meany expounds Mike Kunkle’s experience with warding off “snide remarks”, continuing with his speech, and being able to maintain a productive meeting, she says is not the works of EI. However, I say otherwise. Kunkle clearly demonstrated self-management and self-motivation. To reiterate, he controlled his emotions by not letting the “passive-aggressive” member to get to him and utilized self-motivation in terms of his perseverance to continue the meeting and, in turn, had a productive meeting. These two values are a part of personal competencies outlined by Goleman and Kunkle demonstrated a high emotional intelligence.

References

Goleman, Daniel (1995). Emotional intelligence. NewYork: Bantam Books.

Meany, R. (2000). You’re smarter than you think. Successful Meetings, 49 (12), 52-56.

Tucker, M. L., Sojka, J. Z., Barone, F. J., & McCarthy, A. M. (2000). Training tomorrow’s leaders: Enhancing the emotional intelligence of business. Journal of Education for Business, 75 (6), 331-338.