MAKE MONEY HOW IS THE MAJOR TOPIC AT WALL STREET GRAND

MAKE MONEY IS THE QUESTION ON EVERY INVESTORS MIND AT WALL STREET GRAND

Make money is a safe bet when it comes to wondering what is on every investors mind in 2009 and going forward. The same goes for a multitude of other people because it’s not just “investors” who are trying to figure out the secret. Money is a universal want, need, dream, request, requirement amongst young, old, cultured, weather, human beings across the planet. Point being, we need it, we want it and nobody has the easy answer.



Wall Street Grand is a leading online financial publication. We are pleased to alert investors of stocks that are on the move.

Sign Up for our Free Stock Newsletter



People in general have to armor themselves with the tools and know how to build wealth and save for their future. Our economic condition in the United States and abroad is a clear sign but more importantly a lesson learned to not just investors but to each and every individual who thrives for a healthy prosperous life. This is why Wall Street Grand recommends you speak with a financial consultant before investing.

Sign up for Today for our FREE accredited Wall Street Grand newsletter. To subscribe, enter your e-mail address into the frame at the bottom of this press release or visit our website. Members can call our office anytime during market hours at 888-9-ClubGrand.



About Wall Street Grand



Wall Street Grand is the best investor relations company on the web. From Research Reports to Stock Profiles, we give you everything you need to make the best investment decisions daily. Each of our Featured Investment Opportunities hold premium characteristics to succeed even our own expectations making us the best kept secret of Wall Street.



To feature a company on our web site please contact us at the email listed below.



Wall Street Grand's stock profiles are intended to be stock ideas, NOT recommendations. Please do your own research before investing. Please click here to read the full disclaimer.

5 Ways to Save Time and Make Money By Automating Your Small Business

These days, every small business owner is looking for ways to run faster, cheaper and leaner. In a recession, business owners know all too well that when margins get squeezed, it’s the business owner’s time and take-home pay that take the real hit. Spend more hours to earn less money? That’s not fun.

So in tough economic times, automating your small business is not a luxury; it becomes a necessity. Here are five important things in your business you should automate to put more money in your pocket—and increase your most valuable asset: your time.

1. Connect your website to your customer database using web forms

If your website has a form that visitors can fill out to get more information, subscribe to your newsletter, get a quote or contact you in some other way, make sure that web form: i) automatically dumps the visitor’s information into your database; and ii) automatically communicates to the visitor for you.

Most email marketing programs today will enable you to implement this type of web form. This kind of automation will save you 5–10 minutes of time that otherwise would have been spent keying in and communicating with that visitor. More important, it will ensure you don’t have leads slipping through the cracks between your website and your customer database.

2. Follow up with the leads you generate on your website

Once you’ve got the web form automatically putting leads into your customer database, make sure you follow up with ALL of the leads, not just the hot ones. Most of the leads you generate are not ready to buy from you right now. That’s a fact. By staying in touch with all prospects, you’ll be there when the time is right for them to buy.

The best way to accomplish this is with a good, useful newsletter. Again, a good email marketing tool can automatically deliver your newsletter to the folks who request information from your website. Make sure they’ve given you permission to send the newsletter and, if your email marketing tool allows it, automate the delivery of the newsletter right from the form they filled out on your site.

The automatic delivery of your newsletter – which is triggered by the web form filled out on your website – can be handled by an email autoresponder. Autoresponders are a really powerful form of automation, which have become standard functionality among most email marketing tools. This will save you 5 minutes for every newsletter subscriber (each time you send the newsletter) and it will cultivate a relationship with your prospect so they buy from you when the time is right for them.

3. Follow up with customers

Most business owners work hard to win new customers and then spend too little time cultivating those customer relationships. The reason? It takes time—the most scarce resource available to small business owners. Don’t neglect the all-important customer communication function of your business.

Automate it, in a personal way. You can do this through email, post cards, direct mail packages, even personalized voice messages to your customers. Simply create a customer communication process (aka campaign) that includes a variety of communication “touch points” and then use a good customer database to automate the execution of your communication process.

If you find yourself struggling to come up with a process, I would suggest you start by building a communication process for the first 30 days of your customer’s experience with you. Think of this as your “Wow Campaign” to welcome new customers. Include things like:

* a welcome letter;
* a message from YOU the business owner;
* a thank you gift; and
* 30-day survey

A good customer database can deliver all of this to your customer automatically and in a personalized way. And the time you invest in setting this up once will pay customer satisfaction dividends years into the future.

4. Automate your workflow

If you’re like most business owners, you are doing a bunch of repetitive tasks every day. If you do the same thing three times in one day (or even one week!), stop and ask yourself how you can automate it. Do you have a series of tasks that need to be completed when a lead comes in, an order is created or a service request occurs?

Workflow automation and sales automation software can help you bundle all those tasks into two or three clicks of the mouse, saving you loads of time and ensuring the work is performed in an orderly, systematized manner. It’s hard to explain how powerful this is, but most business owners who implement this type of workflow automation can quickly recover several hours per week.

5. Put your collections on auto-pilot

Too many business owners work hard to close the sale and fulfill the order, but fall short when it comes to collecting on invoices. The problem is the uncollected cash is usually the very cash that goes into the business owner’s personal bank account. Don’t allow your operating profit (and take-home pay) to go down the drain due to uncollected invoices.

Automate the collection of invoices, overdue invoices and declined credit card transactions by employing the automation features found in many of the billing and e-commerce tools on the market today. When it comes to efficiency drivers, your collection effectiveness is a biggie because it correlates dollar for dollar with your take-home pay as a business owner. And don’t forget: every invoice you collect on without making a phone call is money in the bank and time you can spend on other worthy activities.

For the average business owner, these five techniques will usually result in a savings of 8–12 hours per week. The increased revenue opportunity is usually even more valuable than that.

So take a look at your operation and apply these techniques to your business so that you can spend less time, make more money and maintain a personal touch with your customers.

'FarmVille' gamemaker Zynga sees dollar signs

At least one company is making money off of social networking. The game developer behind 'FarmVille' and 'Mafia Wars' has seen its web-based games take off – and deliver profits.

On any given day 500,000 tractors are sold on the Internet. But don't start buying stock in John Deere or Caterpillar just yet. These are $20 "virtual" tractors that belong to the 50 million players of FarmVille, the largest and fastest-growing social game on the Internet.

Social games are free online applications accessed through sites such as MySpace and Facebook. If you've spent any time on either site you're probably familiar with titles such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and Caf World. All three games, which rank among the top five games played daily on Facebook, were developed by San Francisco-based Zynga, one of the tech sector's most talked-about companies these days.

Behind the buzz: Annual revenue at the two-year-old firm is likely to surpass $100 million this year, prompting speculation that the company — backed by the likes of LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and PayPal cofounder-turned-investor Peter Thiel — will soon go public. The software company also has managed to do something that other hot online brands such as Twitter and Facebook have not: Zynga has found a way to make social networking profitable.

Zynga was founded in 2007 by Mark Pincus, 43, who also started social-networking site Tribe.net and software company SupportSoft (SPRT), which eventually went public. (The name Zynga is a misspelled tribute to his deceased American bulldog, Zinga.) While many of his Web 3.0 peers rely on advertising and sponsorship for revenue, Pincus makes its money by getting gamers to buy virtual goods, like tractor fuel or land in the case of FarmVille, that enable players to build bigger farms at a faster rate.

By developing games on social networks, Zynga is able to capitalize on the viral nature of the platform. (Zynga estimates it has 70 million monthly unique visitors.) Gamers can invite friends to join them in the game, and they can send updates on their progress to their friends, stoking interest.

Once hooked, Pincus says, players spend real money on virtual goods to help them advance to higher levels — thereby enriching Zynga. And although playing requires only short spurts of time, the game never ends, as Zynga's designers keep adding levels so that players come back for more.

"For me it's just relaxing and fun. I don't have to think hard about it, and I can do it while watching TV," explains Lauren Kohn, 37, a mother of three in San Jose who has spent more than $100 on virtual goods since she started playing FarmVille four months ago.

Pincus won't reveal his margins, but he acknowledges that the company has been profitable every month since September 2007.

By contrast, Twitter doesn't even have meaningful sales, and Facebook only recently claimed to be cash-flow positive. And if online reports are to be believed, Zynga spends millions each year marketing itself on Facebook, thereby providing the social-networking site with a chunk of its revenue. Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

So You Want To Start A Business?

I'm speaking at the Maria Shriver Women's Conference in LA this week. Very exciting. I am honored to have been invited again.
For those who won't be attending, I wanted to share what I am going to be speaking about. Here are top tips on how to start a business and create change.

1) You must do something you love.
It must be your passion, what you most want to do, the thing that tugs at your heart, no matter what.

This is the only necessity, your reason why you want to start a business. Your intention is what will guide your business. It cannot be about ego, significance, money or something else. It must originate in your heart, in the part of you that knows this is what you must do. Starting a business will reveal so much to you about yourself, life, other people and give you good days and really tough days. And yet the most important factor that will guide you, get you off the couch, put you back on the path is the underlying reason why you wanted to start this business.

2) Find a way to serve, contribute, help other people.
Nowadays, businesses that are sincerely helping others, that have that as one of their core reasons for being, are thriving. Find a way to take away some type of pain from people's lives. You can do that with any type of business. If you are starting a business to make money, to be a success, to get freedom, know that the bigger driver not only of success but also fulfillment is always including others in your journey. Power moves through those who serve. You will never feel weak or overwhelmed or a failure if you know without a doubt, that you are making a difference with what you do and who you are.

3) Know how your business makes money.
We need to be clear on what the path is to revenue. It doesn't mean the business is going to make money on Day One. But you do need to know who your customers are, how you are going to rise above the noise and how people will know you exist. If you need to distribute something, know who is the best at doing that, and so on. Also, allow yourself to be flexible. Your business can't just rely on one source of money, or one big customer or one success factor. Many small businesses find other ways to make money as they get going. Yours can, too.

4) Negotiate everything.
We live in a time where everything is up for discussion. Barter, trade, exchange services, ask for discounts, do whatever it takes to get started or to maintain. It's cheaper to start a business now than ever before. Everyone needs some business, so whether it's a logo, legal advice, PR, web design, go with 50% of the quotes people are offering you. Do not fall into the trap of thinking it costs money to get going. Everything is going for cheap now. Make the most of it. And if you don't have money, look at what you do have and what you can trade. For instance, if you need a web site done, perhaps you can offer for trade editorial or copy help if that's your skill.

5) Know what to expect.
a) Time. Plan for your business adventure to take at least twice as long as you'd thought. Yes, we all think it's going to be an easy ride. But it really will take longer than you planned
b) Teamwork. You really are not supposed to know most things. It's OK and necessary to ask for help and to do so early on. Don;t try to go it alone. There's no shame in asking any and every question along the way.
c) Mistakes. You are going to make them, tons of them. It's part of your journey. Fellow entrepreneurs can tell you things, but starting a business is purely experience. You get your own ticket to the party and learn along the way what you need.
d) Friends/Family. Do not ask their permission and do not expect their approval. Very often, pursuing this kind of a change is disruptive for the people around you. They worry. They face their own fears. They don't relate to you, your choices or your days anymore. Just know this upfront. Continue to love them, of course. Brand new people are coming into your life who are fellow business leaders, dreamers and agents of change.
e) Be a woodpecker. Pick your tree--your idea--and just get up everyday and peck away. Other people may laugh or disapprove. Your beak will hurt at the end of the day and you will never know when your tree will fall. But it does and it will. Stay clear and committed to that tree. It's each little action, each little chip that makes your business grow. And I can tell you, the days when a tree falls are great days. And they will surprise you. Many times they happen when you want to give up, you're tired, other people are telling you you're crazy. And when one tree falls, pick the next one to focus on. Yes, one little bird can make a giant tree fall. One brave woman--and of course man--can change anything in the world. Anything!!

Follow Ariane de Bonvoisin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/clickariane

Is It Right for Insurance Brokers to Make Money from Both Sides?

One of the slipperiest slopes in the insurance industry is the question of whether independent agents and brokers should take money from insurance companies while claiming they are “impartial” when they sell those insurers’ policies to customers. This practice has led to charges, indictments, ruined reputations and fines for some of the biggest insurers in the business, such as Marsh & McLennan and American International Group.

Opinions run the gamut from risk managers at major companies who say it’s unethical, to brokers who claim it’s an important part of their income. The three biggest insurance brokers - Marsh, Aon and Willis - are banned from taking these commissions due to settlements they made with then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. But smaller brokers can take money from insurers, thus giving them a competitive edge.

What’s a broker to do when everyone is sending mixed signals? The New York State Insurance Department is about to publish agent and broker pay disclosure regulations that will force brokers to tell customers that they have the right to request information on how much the broker receives from an insurer to tout its products.

New York is the biggest regulator of insurance and now, as it did under Spitzer, is leading the way, albeit perhaps in the wrong direction. According to several sources, the new rules set a time limit: customers have to request the information within three years after a contract is issued. The rules also limit what they can find out regarding ”quotes presented” to the customer rather than “quotes obtained” by the broker, thereby blurring the lines.

Even the architect of the new rules, Insurance Department Special Counsel Matthew Gaul, told insurance brokers at a symposium in September that “no one is particularly happy with the rule.”

State attorneys general who have followed the Spitzer mold, like Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, have waged war against the commissions that insurers pay to brokers, and are unlikely to justify these new rules. It’s uncertain whether saying that “New York told me so” will cut it when he comes to serve that subpoena.

Just this week Blumenthal added another notch to his belt when he made one of the nation’s leading property insurers, Hartford Financial, pay $1.3 million for engaging in “price fixing.” But his real target is Marsh & McLennan’s Guy Carpenter brokerage unit, which he accuses of being “the ringleader” in a scheme where Guy Carpenter would funnel business to select insurers in exchange for excessive fees and other benefits from the insurers.

The Guy Carpenter unit responded by saying that Blumenthal had a “fundamental misunderstanding” of practices that have been in place for as long as 50 years.

Blumenthal is not alone in misunderstanding the concept of taking money from both sides. As regards the public, it’s going to be tough to pass the smell test. And any broker who takes money from both the insurer and the customer had better be sure not to violate someone’s interpretation of the law in one state or another. But that’s what high-priced, on-retainer legal talent is for, and sometimes even that doesn’t work.

Technorati: Full-time bloggers are making more money than ever

Most bloggers are hobbyists. But there’s a minority of professional bloggers who are making more money than ever, according to a new installment of Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report.

Bloggers can collect ad revenues related to their blogs. But they are also making money by parlaying the popularity of their blogs into speaking engagements, traditional media assignments, and running conferences.

Technorati said some bloggers are even reporting profits that place them squarely in the middle class. Among those who make money from blogging, 54 percent are part-timers, 32 percent are self-employed, and 14 percent work for corporations.

Part-timers and full-time bloggers say the main ways they generate revenue are through display and search ads, as well as through affiliate marketing links where they get a cut from a sale after a referral. About 15 percent say they are paid to gives speeches. Among the segment of full-time and part-time professional bloggers, about 17 percent get their main income from blogging.

For full-time bloggers, the average revenue in a year is $122,222. For part-timers, annual income is $14,777. The average for the full and part-timers combined is $42,548. About 89 percent believe that the ads on their sites must align with their own values. Most use self-serve ad platforms. But an increasing number are using ad networks or blog ad networks too.

About 51 percent of corporate bloggers said they received a salary for blogging. Bloggers who invest in their blog businesses face relatively low costs, but they’re not insubstantial. Site development for self-employed bloggers costs about $1,060 per year. Personal salary averages $5,992. Staff are paid $2,268, marketing and ad costs are $620, and hosting fees are $579. Hence, the overall costs per year, on average, are $10,519.

About 70 percent of bloggers talk about brands. Some 38 percent do brand or product reviews.

Ten of the best … ways to make money from your home

An Englishman's home is his castle. Play your cards right and it could also be a source of money. Huma Qureshi looks at ways to maximise your biggest asset

Economic recovery may be underway, but for many of us money is still pretty tight. Your home is probably your most valuable asset, so why not see if you can use it to boost your income. Whereas before the credit crunch this might have involved remortgaging to release additional cash, falling house prices and tighter lending criteria mean you will have to be a bit more imaginative …
1. Rent out your parking space

You could earn up to £500 a month by renting out a driveway, allocated parking space or unused garage, particularly if you live near a football stadium or train station where demand for parking is high. Register your space for free on a website such as ParkatmyHouse.com or YourParkingSpace. Commuters will typically pay around £75 a month to hire out a private space within walking distance of a train station, while a space within walking distance of Wembley Stadium can be rented out for £17 when an event is on.

Pay-as-you-go car club Streetcar will also rent designated spaces in residential developments from users in exchange for free driving time.
2. Offer your home for a photo or film shoot

Magazines and television companies are always scouting for places to feature as backdrops for photo shoots or filming. If your house happens to be gorgeous it could be ideal for a magazine or book shoot; regular family homes, meanwhile, are in demand from television production companies. It is by no means a guaranteed way of earning extra cash, but considering many agencies offer free registration (they will take a 20% cut if your home is chosen for a shoot), there is no harm in signing up. You can expect to earn about £1,000 a day if your home is used.

Atlanta Bartlett, who co-runs location company Beach Studios, says it helps if you're not too houseproud: "It can be quite inconvenient to have a big crew in your house for days – they will change things around, move furniture and scrape walls. They might even want to paint the place, but then again if you get a shoot that will last a few days then you could say you've hit the jackpot."

The Collective is specifically looking for houses on the west side of the M25, close to many studios where TV dramas are filmed. Its properties have featured in the Bill, Spooks and Silent Witness. Lavish Locations is also keen to hear from owners of spacious family homes.
3. Clear out your clutter

Think outside the eBay box: there are plenty of other websites and places to sell your unwanted gear.

Clear your bookshelves of unread tomes by listing them for sale on GreenMetropolis.com (you'll make £3 for each book sold); or if you're a fashion junkie with too many clothes you could sell the classics that no longer fit to a second-hand designer store, or list them for sale at Whatsmineisyours.com.

If you don't want the bother listing things online then hold a garage sale – post flyers and entice potential buyers with homemade cake. Or copy Cash in the Attic and take your valuables to auction. Find your local auction house and get them to value your items.
4. Rent out your spare room

Split your bills and get a little extra help meeting your mortgage payments by taking in a lodger. Under the government's rent-a-room scheme you could earn up to £4,250 a year tax-free if you get a lodger (as long as you provide him or her with a furnished room).

Register your spare room for free on sites such as Easyroommate or Spareroom.co.uk to find someone. Just make sure you set any ground rules and get a tenancy agreement in place (you can purchase the contract for £5 from the Residential Landlords Association).
5. Offer your house for homestays

If you don't want a long-term lodger, consider instead a short-term homestay. Language schools are always looking for host families to house foreign exchange students for the holidays or single terms. Most schools, such as International House, will pay you directly.

How much you get depends on whether you provide just breakfast or dinner too, but you could earn around £200 a week. If you happen to be a qualified EFL (English as a foreign language) tutor you could earn around £400 a week with InTuition Languages.
6. Set up a bed and breakfast

Running a bed and breakfast is certainly appealing, but don't forget you have to comply with an awful lot of rules including fire, food and gas safety legislation before you can open your doors for business. It's hard work, but bed and breakfast owners say it is worth it. Here are some tips on setting one up.
7. Host a Tupperware party

It's kitsch but it could be fun, and you'll earn a bit of money every time someone buys from you. A lot of people are taking their lunch in to work these days, so we all need Tupperware, preferably colour co-ordinated sets. Sign up to be a Tupperware host or, if you fancy something a little less retro, host a cooking show. ThePamperedChef signs up stay-at-home consultants to perform cooking demos in their own kitchens using its products – you will initially get discounts and free gifts but can proceed to making money on sales.

You could also host a cosmetics party – VIE and the Body Shop both run schemes – or sell home candle decorations with PartyLite, although you will have to buy a starter sales kit before you get going.
8. Swap your house

Technically this won't earn you money, but you might be able to save some. If you are going away, swapping your property with someone else's instead of paying for hotel accommodation is a good option, especially if you have kids and can swap with a family home. This summer, home swaps soared as Brits looked for cost-cutting ways to save money on holiday. You can register your property for homeswaps both here and overseas with the Guardian's home exchange service.
9. Turn your dining room into a study hall

Tutoring at home is a good way for university students or graduates to make a bit of extra cash. It's free to register your tutoring skills with First Tutors and Personal Tutors; the money's not bad either. At First Tutors you could earn on average around £17 an hour.
10. Put your home office to good use

Don't while away the hours on Facebook in the study; make some money out of time spent online. If you're passionate about getting your views heard and don't mind filling in loads of online forms, register at YouGov where you can earn points for every survey you complete. After collecting 5,000 you will be sent a cheque for £50.

How To Make 15,000.00 In 1 Month Just By Tweeting

Remember back when certain people were talking about how dumb twitter is and how stupid I was to be doing all kinds of contests to get followers? Well, it’s had a pretty good ROI!

From Ad.ly and Sponsored Tweets I have made over $15,000.00 in the last 30 days and I am a pretty small fish in the twitter world. I only have 70 some thousand followers.

Here is my ad.ly account:



and Sponsored Tweets:


The really cool thing is lots of people are making great money with twitter advertising. Since ad.ly started I have heard from many people with < 5k followers like David who have gotten a couple hundred dollars for tweets here and there.

I have to admit the first time I got paid over $4000 for 1 tweet I was like… woah how can that possibly back out for the company? I talked to Sean Rad, the CEO of ad.ly, yesterday and actually asked him that exact question.

Sean told me that they measure the goals with the advertisers very close and can tell how well the publisher gives a return to the advertisers. He said that with my account specifically I have a very responsive group of followers that generate thousands of clicks that give the advertisers great value.

Sean understands that without ensuring quality to their advertisers they will have nothing.

That also explains why I am making twice as much now as I was last month and the money keeps getting better. I just approved a tweet for almost $5,000 (doesn’t that seem nuts?).

One thing I find amazing is that the tweets are not very spammy and lots of time they generate a conversation. Such a win-win-win.

Secrets To Making Your New Home Business Succeed In Its First Year

October 17, 2009 ( PowerHomeBiz.com ) - In the U.S., an average of 60% of businesses fail in their first year. It's alarming. This problem is discouraging a lot of 'would be' entrepreneurs from taking a shot at getting rich with their own business. What is the problem?

Many businesses fail in their first year because:

* they don't have enough money to pay the rent, staff and bank loan
* they are not making enough money to pay off expenses, never mind about making a profit.
* they don't have enough money to market their business
* they can't afford to hire more staff to do the tasks. Everyone is over worked.

These are common sense - they all have to do with money.

So if money is the main reason, here is how an entrepreneur can start his business, ensuring he will profit from this life-changing event.

1. Do thorough research first in the market which you are selling to. Don't reinvent the wheel. Copy other businesses which are making money. Don't try to be unique.

2. Create the product or get some stocked and then start selling.

Do not hire staff. Do not get an office. Do not get a new computer for your business.

These come later.

Your most important step, is to make sure your product or service sells.

Try to sell as much as you can until you cannot manage it on your own. Until you need to hire staff before burning yourself out.

3. Be mean with all your expenses. Try to get the best deal for everything.

If you can operate in your garage, do it. Don't rent an office or buy new gadgets to run your business unless it's absolutely necessary.

Remember you need all the cash you can. You don't want to end your business in the first year, do you?

4. If your business can run on the internet, then starting working on it. Put your money into developing an online business. It is far cheaper. You don't need a bank loan for it.

5. Keep doing whatever is bringing in the money in your business. Don't expand and create more products and services, unless you are profiting comfortably and have a lot of money saved up.

If starting entrepreneurs follow the simple advice above, their business will have less chance of running into money problems.

Even if the business does fail, they won't have to suffer the after-effects of paying off their debt.

But that is not how the average entrepreneur think which is why so many have problems with debt later on.

Since money is the main thing that determines a business' success, it is worth considering starting an online information products business first.

The reason being that the profit margins are huge and the financial risk is very small. Many entrepreneurs are made just by running an online information products business.

The start-up cost is small, risk is low, profit margins are high and it is basically hands free after it is launched. Read up on an information products business as another option to starting your entrepreneurship.

The Goldman Bonuses: I'm Shocked, Shocked

In the debate surrounding the Goldman Sachs bonuses, it feels to me as though commentators are missing some fundamentals. They are looking at the size of the potential bonuses and, in the wake of the $10 billion of bailout money Goldman received in the darkest hours of the financial crisis, asking, "How could they?"

In my view, we should not be the least bit surprised. For the first 130 years of its 140-year existence, Goldman Sachs was a partnership; its sole purpose for that period was to use the partners' money to make as much more money for the partners as humanly possible.

In 1999, Goldman went public and its sole purpose changed: thereafter its purpose was to use the public shareholders' capital to make as much money for the partners as humanly possible. The story isn't much more complicated. So we should not be surprised that Goldman has chosen to use taxpayers' money to make as much money for the partners as humanly possible — after all, it's just another pool of capital to be used to achieve the end goal of enriching the Goldman partners.

I find that the capital markets are quite Pollyanna-ish about publicly traded professional service firms and have written about that in HBR previously ("Capital versus Talent: The Battle That's Reshaping Business"). The natural form of business organization for a professional service firm, such as an investment bank, law firm, consulting firm or ad agency, is a partnership rather than a public company.

The reason goes right back to a basic Michael Porter five-forces analysis. The key supplied input in a professional services firm is a group of talented professionals and their supplier power is immense. They have the power to extract a disproportionate amount of the profitability out of the enterprise by pushing up their own compensation.

How should the enterprise seek to ameliorate supplier power? Porter has the answer: backwards integrate. In the case of aluminum producers, that means buying your bauxite supplier. In the case of a law firm or investment bank, it means acquiring your supplier of talent by making the talent the owner. The way to do that is structure the enterprise as a partnership. The suppliers won't put a gun to their own heads and yell: "Give me more compensation or I will blow my own head off." That would be silly.

And so it was for investment banks for the longest time. They were money-making partnerships and the minute a talented associate got sufficiently powerful that he/she would be in a position to start extracting major remuneration from the partnership, the partnership counter-struck by making the associate a partner. The new partner would then have balanced incentives that would prevent him or her from overtaxing the firm to the point of its extinction.

But in due course, these partnerships recognized that if they could convince naïve external capital to give them more resources, they would have a brand new pool of capital from which to extract value. They could show what an impressive and profitable (before partner distributions) a business they were in order to entice external shareholders into the tent. And as soon as they had the external shareholders' capital, they would return to the sole purpose of making money for the partners-turned-senior executives.

Thanks to the external capital, they could engage in lots more sales and trading and principal investing activities. Eventually these would drive the major investment banks off the cliff in the fall of 2008. Even Goldman saw its share price fall to $52 in November 2008, in the middle of the Lehman Brothers/Bear Stearns crisis, a dollar less than its $53/share IPO price in May 1999. It wasn't much of a return for shareholders over ten years, though the Goldman bankers during that period earned wonderful compensation. But thankfully for those Goldman bankers, the taxpayers stepped in and stabilized the financial markets with a huge infusion of their current and future tax dollars and Goldman shares traded above $190/share within a year. Life is good again and it is time for the bonuses to flow, as they always have.

So this is not new at all. The order of priority is: Goldman bankers first, the external shareholders second, and everybody else last. This is not a secret and has never been. The Goldman bankers are not trying to be sneaky. In the current situation, if sounding sorrowful or giving a bit more money to charities helps preserve Goldman's primary imperative of maximizing banker earnings in the future, we will see a dollop of each. But there should be no confusion as to the purpose of any such gesture.

3 Of The Most Profitable Legitimate Online Businesses

If you are considering starting an online business you will enjoy this article. We are going to look at three of the most popular legitimate internet businesses people are starting and running from the comfort of their own home.

It is very exciting to help people and in turn make money on the internet doing it.

1. Provide a service. Other online business owners will pay you to do things for them.

Often they do not have the time to do it themselves. In some cases they do not have the knowledge or the skill level to do it as well. It does not matter what their reason is.

An excellent example of this is writing blog articles. There are people earning excellent part time incomes sitting at home writing articles for other bloggers.

There are other internet marketers who are earning a full time living writing articles on various categories. Besides the money you you make you are never bored as a blog writer. And you are providing a valuable service because there are millions of blogs that need content added to them right now.

2. Sell information products. You can develop your own information products or sell affiliate products by joining their programs.

Information that answers questions and solve people’s products sell like hot cakes on the online today. ClickBank is an example of a digital information affiliate program you can join for free.

If you would like to create a product of your own you can develop information and sell it in numerous ways including audio and video, ebooks, reports, CDs, and so on.

Whether you produce products, or sell other people’s products, you can make a lot of money selling information with this legitimate internet business.

3. Affiliate marketing. Getting paid to sell products as an affiliate marketer is a great internet business to be involved in. There are literally millions of affiliate programs you can join.

This business model has been helping people earn money online for over 15 years. It is one of the most legitimate forms of internet marketing that the average person can get involved and literally be making money from day one.

In summary this is 3 of the most common legitimate online businesses you can be involved in. Providing a service allows you to be your own boss and help other online businesses.

Selling information products will always be common because people will pay for information that helps them solve problems. Affiliate marketing is a quick way to get started selling other people’s products and it can be very profitable to!

Suzanne Morrison is the owner of an internet business ideas website that teaches average people how to make money on the internet. For the best legitimate home business anyone can make money with visit it today!

Shortcut to pragmatic info about make money online – please read this web site. The times have come when concise info is truly at your fingertips, use this opportunity.

ShareThis
Internet business related posts

* Home Businesses Can Compete With The Big Guys On The Internet
* How Can Work At Home Moms Be Successful With An Online Business?
* Online Home Based Business – The Real Internet Income
* Mildest Technique To Achieve Financial Success For Your Online Home Business
* Your Own Online Business: How To Choose The Right Opportunity For You

Internet Business
Online Business
Make Money

Tags: business, home business, internet business, online business

My Secret Weapon: Facebook Ads Manager Tool

I've said it in the past and I'll say it again: I'm always looking for ways to make the most of my time. Whenever a process can be sped up or automated, I'm all for it.

Most of the time, I share these tools with you. There are, however, a few tools I have not shared with you about... and this is one of them.

As many of you know, facebook's ad system can be very tedious, and to resolve that problem, Jacob and I have been using Facebook Ads Manger extension for Firefox.

I've used this over the past few months and it has literally redefined how I look at facebook as an advertising platform, and has helped me to make hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of what I was making on facebook advertising platform (very little).
So What Does Facebook Ads Manager Do?

Facebook Ads Manager allows you to automate much of the tedious ad submission process saving you an innumerable amount of time.


Customization

The toolbar allows for the creation of facebook ads in any way possible. It has all the features you'd expect and allows for split testing by image, text, location, age, and gender. You can even save your settings in a .ad file for later use, or to transfer them to co-workers between computers whether by email or otherwise.


Ad Naming

Ad naming is also an awesome feature. With the ability to add details like targeting information and sub ID, you can easily track your best performing ads. The tags also work in ad titles and and copy for easily including such things as age or country, state, and city names in your geotargeted ads.


Value: Save Time

What's even better is that upgrades are released on a regular basis. As facebook has been updating their platform, the developer of this tool, Jonny, has consistently been rolling out updates.

Although the $200 price tag could seem a bit high, there is SO MUCH value in this that it's an absolute steal. There is a monumental difference between time spent setting things up with this tool vs. if we actually had to take the time to make all our ads manually. It really does pay for itself practically overnight.

You can get this tool here.
How does facebook feel about this tool?

I asked my Facebook Rep about the automated tool and if Facebook was ok with it. Our rep was perfectly ok with it, so there's a bit more security knowing that facebook ads manager is here to stay and they are ok with people using it.
Facebook Advertising

If you're still unsure on how to advertise on facebook, here are a few posts:

* Scaling Your Facebook Campaigns to $100,000.00
So you’ve finally found a profitable campaign on Facebook. Hooray! The problem is, you’re only making $50 bucks profit a day. So how do you scale that? More importantly, how do you scale it to make 6 figure revenues per MONTH like the big guys?

Scaling in Facebook is something that I have been working hard to figure out.

Honestly, I’ve been so used to Google Adwords and other Pay per click keyword engines, that learning how to scale in Facebook was quite a challenge for me. You can see on my affiliate blog, that I write MOSTLY about PPC marketing tips. This was because for the longest time, I would fail at most Facebook campaigns.

I’ve always found however that if you fail enough, you’re bound to find some success. I mean, there are only so many ways you can do it wrong! ;)

I’m used to scaling PPC campaigns (great video interview…) but I had to relearn most of what I knew in order to gain even more revenue through Facebook.

Now, my company is hitting 6 figures per month in revenue just from Facebook alone.

So here are some really helpful tips on scaling your Facebook campaigns:

* More Ads! – Making more ads with little changes can have a big impact. Normally in PPC Engines, I was so used to just split testing 2-3 ads at a time and letting those run that I had to change my mindset. With Facebook, you can run literally hundreds of ads at the same time, going to the same offer.
* Targeting – Targeting on Facebook is where you need to be creative. In fact, if you’ve found a small profiting campaign, chances are, your targeting is actually pretty broad. In my experience, most newbies target very little. So, target more specific things. Remember, people in one place in life might convert differently than another. People at one workplace might convert differently than another. Test them all… ages, geographical location, sexual preference, etc. People at x might convert different than Y. Most people group them all into one large lump of demographic targeting. If the ad is not profitable, you kill entire sub sections which might have been profitable. This might take time, but it’s worth the effort. You can put a small budget on each test to maximize your testing efforts.
* Images – Images are well known as the main factor in producing a maximum click through rate. The higher your click through rate, (usually) the higher your ads get shown. It’s simple enough to know that you should be testing multiple images. If you find a new image that has a much higher click through rate, you’ve instantly scaled your campaign. Test as many images as you can afford. Some images are so odd but work amazingly well. Some images you think would work great, yet perform poorly.
* CPM bidding – Seeing as I am a big pay per click guy, I was so used to the CPC model that it was very hard for me to break away from. Think about it though. Facebook is trying to maximize revenue. If they can get an advertiser to promise to pay a set amount regardless of clicks for 1000 impressions, they have just reduced a lot of risk on their part. Therefore, if you have a good ad, switching to CPM based models really can help you increase your traffic flow. Facebook favors the lower risk (to them) ads.

So now you should be ready to start making some bigger profits with Facebook. The trick is, of course, finding a profitable campaign to begin with.

I have a simple guide about Making Successful Facebook campaigns as well as Shoemoney has a couple great posts on running a successful Facebook campaign.

Now it’s just a matter of doing some actual work…

* Making Successful Facebook Campaigns
Facebook is a advertising system that I have hated for a while. The number of campaigns I have tried on it are huge while the number of successes are so dismal. To advertise on Facebook really takes a certain type of person and understanding of marketing.
Mindset to make a Successful Facebook Campaign

First off, if you're a big Search Engine Pay per click person such as myself, you have to completely change how you think of structuring campaigns.

With most search pay per click advertisements you are paying for advertisements on things people are actively looking for. With facebook however you're trying to get peoples attention on something they may or may not be looking for.

Instead of aiming your search keywords at a particular thing people are looking for, you now have to dive deep into the mindset of a person who you are wanting to buy from you. Who are the people who GENERALLY buy this product? Who are the people who have general interest in the product you are trying to sell.

The great part about facebook is that you can target your campaigns VERY well. You can make campaigns to 27 year old females in California who like the show family guy. It's all about who you are trying to sell to.
Ads

Now that you are thinking in the terms of what your target demographic, it all comes down to ads. Ads are really the most important thing with Facebook.

If you have a good Ad, then you can really make a good chunk of change. Your Ad's click through rate is almost directly proportional to the amount of traffic you will receive. Ads with a CTR of 0.1% and below are a lot less likely to be shown.

If your ads have less than that, chances are you're going to have to pay a nice chunk of change to supplement that low CTR.

One of the single biggest things you can do to increase your ad CTR is to change the image. The image is what is going to catch the eyes of your viewers and thus has one of the biggest impacts on your CTR.

The next is obviously the headline.
Overall

Overall facebook can result in nice profits but it really does take a good amount of work to discover which ads work. You have to target the right people, test a TON of ads, get the high CTR, and overall probably have your ad copied after a few days.

That being said, I wouldn't consider facebook a long term campaign money maker. It's a short term campaign system unless you either own the offer you are promoting such as a service or store or have an exclusive affiliate campaign that is limited to a few people.

Any more experienced facebook advertisers feel free to chime in here if they have been able to make it a more long term system.

How To Make Money Online 10 Ways

There are so many ways in which someone can make money online. It all depends on what you want to do and what kind of money you want to make. Below I have listed 10 ways you can make money online.

There are so many ways in which someone can make money online. It all depends on what you want to do and what kind of money you want to make. Below I have listed 10 ways you can make money online.

Ebay – Ebay has been around for many years and it is still a great way to earn a full or part time income for home. Over the years, eBay has increased fees and changed a few rules, which turned many people off, but there are still millions being made on ebay.

Craigslist – Craigslist is another great way to make some extra money. Just like ebay, craigslist provides a platform for people looking for a way to sell their unwanted items. The only difference is that craigslist does not charge you a listing fee and the site gets way more traffic then ebay. The one downfall is that there is no system that helps buyers see who the good sellers are. There no feedback system in place like ebay has.

Videos – Many video sites have incorporated some sort of revenue sharing in an effort to attract more visitors to their sites. Here are 3 sites that have a revenue sharing program in place. Break, Metacafe and revver.

Uploading.com – Uploading dot com is a site that lets users upload a variety of files and allow others to download it. For every thousand downloads you get $10. The minimum payout is $30 and they will pay you daily if you request it.

Social networking sites – There are new social networking sites popping up all over the internet these days. They way they standing out from the giants such as myspace is by offering to pay their users to be active and send more people to their site. 2 social networking sites that pay are Yuwie and Ximmy.

Article writing – Article writing is a great way to only generate traffic to your site but to also generate some extra income. There are hundreds of sites online that share their ad revenue with their writers. Some of my favorites are ehow, Bukisa, hubpages and Xomba.

Affiliate marketing – Affiliate marketing is probably one of the best ways to start make money online since it doesn’t require you to have your own product or website. As an affiliate, you would sell someone elses product and get a commission from each sale. Great affiliate marketing networks are clickbank, CJ, neverblue and linkshare.

Blogging – There are many bloggers such as John Chow who regularly make $20,000 a month or more from their blogs. You have to be able to blog in a way that will get visitors coming back, reading your blog, and ultimately buying products you recommend. That is how you would make your money. That and ad revenue from sites such as google adwords. You can start a free blog with blogger or wordpress.

Photos –Just like the article writing sites, the video sites and the social networking sites, there are photo sites that will share revenue with you for uploading photos. A few of these sites are Spymedia and Scoopt.

Private Label Rights – Using private label rights products is a great way to make some quick cash online. With a PLR (private label rights) product, you have a product that is already complete and ready to sell. Being that you have private label rights to it you are allowed to go in and edit it in anyway you want. You can also put your name on it as the author. This save a lot of time for people who are looking for a hot product to sell. You can just go to a site such as PLRwholesaler.com, download free PLR products, make changes to them and start selling them right away.

If you would like to learn how you can turn a PLR product into cold hard cash check out this free repor

Gain important information in the sphere of forex investment – please make sure to study this site. The time has come when proper info is truly within one click, use this opportunity.

Financial Protection Agency still on Obama agenda

US President Barack Obama has put forward measures to Congress to urge the creation of a new government agency to protect Americans against financial abuse.

The president’s Consumer Financial Protection Agency would be designed to protect consumers against irresponsible lenders who encourage them into too much loan debt.

At the White House on Friday, Mr. Obama said he was concerned for those people who took out loans they could not afford and blamed some financial companies for taking advantage of gullible customers.

He said: "My concern are the millions of Americans who behaved responsibly and yet still found themselves in jeopardy because of the predatory practices of some in the financial industry."

He said seven federal agencies currently have a part in regulating the financial industry, with the bureaucracies inadvertently allowing some irresponsible lenders to escape accountability by getting through normal checks and balances.

The president said his proposed federal agency would make financial regulation simpler and more effective.

Mr. Obama first asked Congress to create such an agency in June. The banking industry and some lawmakers have fought the proposal.

Does Japan Want Real Banks or Not?

A stroll through Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, one of Japan's megabanks, feels like a throwback to the 1980s: gray, fluorescent-lit hallways, patchy carpets, cigarette-smoke wafting through offices and salarymen shuffling to meetings. Except that while the rest of the world has moved on from that era, Japan and its policy makers are stuck there, still trying to figure out what role, exactly, they want banks to play in their economy.

That's the hidden subtext to the biggest financial issue dominating headlines in Tokyo today: a proposed loan repayment moratorium for small- and medium-sized businesses. The idea is the brainchild of Shizuka Kamei, the new banking and postal-services minister. Mr. Kamei thinks SMEs, the engine of employment for developed economies, need help in the downturn, but not the tough love of competition or—perish the thought—bankruptcy. So he commissioned Kohei Otsuka, a senior vice minister at the Financial Services Agency, to study how the government might force lenders to forgive SME debts. Financial-sector stocks promptly tanked. They may take another hit when Mr. Otsuka's proposals are made public, possibly as early as today.

Bankers are understandably in an uproar, and Mr. Kamei's proposal may be watered down. But it underlines a fundamental truth: Japan may not have a state-owned financial system like China, but it is still state-directed. Japan runs an essentially circular financial system where savers deposit money at domestic banks, the banks buy ever-more worthless government debt, and then the Diet shovels that money back out to favored political constituencies and export industries. The current Democratic Party of Japan-led government, headed by Yukio Hatoyama, plans to tweak this model, but not fundamentally change it: rather than redistribute the public's money to business, the DPJ wants to give it to families.

This model works if there's huge external demand for Japanese exports and capital is flooding the world and washing up in Japan. But in a global recession, when export demand falls away and the money tide rolls out, Japan's banking model is exposed for what it is: an inflexible system that depresses returns to savers to service a mercantalist approach to economic growth. Banks can't look at domestic lending opportunities to take up the slack, either, because Japan never liberalized enough to create productive lending opportunities. Loan-to-deposit ratios today linger between 60% and 70%. Akio Mikuni, who runs Japan's only independent ratings agency, notes the banks have "almost no retained earnings." "They haven't been making money for years," he tells me. Even years of easy monetary policy can't induce the banks to lend.

Add possible higher global capital requirements for banks to this morass, and the profit pool shrinks even further. Nomura raised $4.8 billion in equity markets this week partially in anticipation of regulatory changes, on top of the $3 billion raised earlier this year. Mizuho, Sumitomo Mitsui and others will likely soon follow. Analysts in Tokyo wonder who's going to buy all the stock—and how much further bank shareholders can be diluted. Some suggest the government might buy the paper, making public control of Japan's banks more explicit.

The one slight piece of good news here is that Japanese banks don't have the piles of bad loans they had back in the 1990s. NPL ratios are at 2 to 3% at the megabanks, and a little higher at regional lenders. But as the economy slows, these ratios are rising again for the first time in years. Regulators are reacting by making disclosure standards more, not less, transparent. Mr. Kamei said late last month "financial inspections should aim at turning around struggling corporate borrowers instead of leading them to go bankrupt." That's a recipe to paper over a problem, not fix it.

Without a financial system that efficiently channels money from lenders who have it to borrowers who need it, Japan will have a hard time growing its moribund economy, already projected to contract over 5% this year. Corporations in Japan still rely more heavily on bank loans than their peers in other developed economies. Financial-sector reform becomes even more urgent as the country piles on public debt, which is spiraling toward 200% of GDP, and faces an aging population.

Mr. Kamei's proposal may be a dead letter, but the fact that government isn't speaking up loudly for more competitive financial markets isn't a good sign. The last time Japan tried to paper over a growing pile of bad loans, bail out failing lenders and businesses and pay off political constituencies, the world's second-largest economy sunk into a lost decade of growth. Then again, maybe it never really escaped.

Live Blogging: Sergey Brin & Eric Schmidt Talking Google With The Press

Google cofounder Sergey Brin and Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke today to a small gathering of reporters at Google’s New York office. Below, a live blog of the briefing.

Note that I’ve tidied this up a bit since the briefing happened at 11am Eastern time. You’ll still find plenty of typos. I may try to pull out selected portions later when I have more time. I’m juggling being at our SMX East search marketing conference this week, the impromptu briefing plus having to fly of New York and back to California today.

Expect More Android Devices

Sergey enters the room and sits down. He starts talking, saying he’s not sure where to start. He mentions the Verizon-Google news on Android. “There are a number of devices. They’re coming out as a trickle, but we expect more.” Please note that when I use quotation marks, I think I’ve captured the exact quote or very close to it.

Brin Proud Of Google Book Search

Says he wanted to mention Google Books. Knows there’s a hearing today. Very proud of it, making information accessible. Has an op-ed piece coming out. Feels it helps fulfill Google’s mission.

Schmidt Says “Worst Behind Us” Of Global Economic Downturn

Eric just came in, and now we’re doing some formal introductions. Wants to focus on search in talks today. Both are here because of Google’s global sales meetings happening today. Says mood is very positive. “We told them that the worse is behind us and we’re clearly seeing aspects of recovery…. I had been in error thinking there would be a lag, Europe first, US second.” Google never stopped hiring. Increasing the investment rate in way all would be welcome.

Brin’s Working On Search

Erick Schonfeld from TechCrunch asks what Sergey’s been spending time on. Sergey says search. You can get more commercial results now, he notes (see my Up Close With Google Search Options article).

Today you can restrict things by date, but based on date in the text (not quite, see that article above), but you can’t tell when it was actually authored. You’ll be able to choose that authored date. It’s in prototype. It’s amazing how powerful features like that can be, he says.

Sure, Competiton Helps

Steven Levy from Wired asks: More activity from competitor in Redmond [you know, Microsoft]. Will that ramp up competition?

Sergey: I think it’s healthy to have a variety of competitors and a diversity of competitors (mentions Cuil and Powerset). Certainly Microsoft has made its contributions. Many of the things deployed in Bing we’d seen earlier in Live or whatever it was called. Generally all those competitors helps the health of the industry.

Eric agrees.

Steven asks is Bing new to them or seen as a rebranding. Eric says better they focus on themselves. Says Google criticized for having a self-referential view of things, but they think it helps.

Smart Phones & Office Applications

Ed Baig from USA Today. Where are smart phones going.

Sergey: We started to focus on Android because there were problems. They lacked powerful browsers, the ability to easily install and run different applications without having to do things for every carrier and combination. I think Android has addressed that very well. Look at iPhone does that well. … pretty excited for the future.

Sergey, born of an early need to have these apps themselves. At time we started and launched in 04, email was kind of a toy. Not much storage. So we focusd on something that would work in an enterprise. And I think that pushed the marketer forward, Yahoo and Microsoft are more capable than wer. We feel we’re father ahead. That’s obviously for you to judge. Going forward, more of Google apps will be available both ways.

Question on help for smaller businesses.

Sergey: Added functionality being added to help larger enterprises. Acquisition of Postini for email archiving, they have been providing for their customers. Obviously more complex administration. There have been a number, surprisingly a number of the apps larger enterprises have are shared with smaller businesses. You’d be really surprised to hear. There’s not as much difference.

Gmail: Aiming for 99.99% Stability

Question on Gmail outtages. Sergey, certainly we’re not happy with any outtage. they’re still at three 9s level (99.9%), not where they want to be, but targeting the 4 9s (99.99% available). therew are several things that contribute to reliability. one issues is the time to recovery. with one outtage, could have been solved in 5 to 10 minutes but errors extended that over an hour. Don’t forget, if you look at typical enterprise today …. those outtages tend to add up to more than those highlighted in Q3. Nubmer of people affected by outtage by grouping of people in pods.

Are Google Results Getting Inconsistent? Experimenting Is Good

I asked him about how the new search options produce a different experience from the existing navigational options (the aforementioned article goes into depth about this), plus how listings themselves now have so many enhancements that it’s hard to know what to expect. Is inconsistency an issue? Is this different teams not coordinating?

Would like to see it more consistent, Sergey said. Agrees they’ve pushed ahead with search options and don’t ahve all the things refelcted. You might see the format of the results themsleves, that tthey experiment and try to improve. Somewhat glad seeing different things.

Book Search Thoughts

Theoretical question on Book Search. Eric says doesn’t want to answer theoretical questions, tries to reframe. We were doing things we thought were legal, got sued, came up with a settlement and this is a normal process. They’re very happy with the settlement they had found and don’t want to change it much if htey don’t have to. The hearing is going on right now.

I think the quesitons you’re really asking is does putting the books in the hands like Google that has so many other resources, is that a strategic problem. It’s absolutely impossible for another company to do the things that are like what we wer doing. … the scenarios in front of us … is probably the best outcome for people who are looking for information in a library.

Question: what are plans for Google. Eric interrupts saying orphan books are huge. Millions of books that no one has read. Back to question, long term, what are you thinking of Google books beyond this.

Sergey: we want to make more and more books searchable and available online … clearly to ahve as many works available.

Eric: Settlment doesn’t coer all books in the world. There’s a set of wedges of books that get bigger and bigger all the time that we need to serve. the mission of hte company doesn’t say us only europe only. it says all information. for next couple years as register comes up.

Google & Economic Predictions

Question on economic indications. Eric: want to put in disclaimer that Google isn’t able to see everthing, can’t perfectly predict. Saw the slowdown earlier last year in clickrate. From our perspective, the low point was in the spring, which is why I said the worst is behind us, may June, we began to notice it maybe junish. The conventional wisdoms of recessions, if you date it properly, you get a recovery about now. They see it according to their metrics. The other peice of convesntioanl wisdom is that Europe would lag 6 months. Europe is not one country … and it varies a great deal depending on the country you’re in. It’s the obvious stuff, countries without a big fall don’t have a big bump.

Question: Is google a leading or lagging indicator? Eric, within advertising space, I thinkwe’re a leading indicator.

Sergey: also affected by consumer queries. Says you can try it out youserfl using Google Trends.

Chrome’s Doing Better Than People Realize; Schmidt Doesn’t Respond to Ballmer Questions :)

Question: Seems like Google’s far behind on things like Chrome, getting developers behind.

Eric: Says they’re going to get the message out that Chrome has had better adoption … the adoption rate of Chrome looks very very good. They’re going to get this message out.

Eric: I don’t respond to Steve Ballmer questions [perhaps because Ballmer's known for never saying Google in public if he can help it?], in response to Erick saying that Steve said Chrome is a rounding error.

Mac & Add-On Support Needed For Chrome

Eric says hopes many use Chrome. I see a lot of Macs [like me] in the room. We need to have a good offereing on that. The fundamental thing about Chrome is speed. People who move to Chrome have had problems moving back. Other problem with Chrome, extension architecture (no add ons).

About a month ago, announced Chrome OS and Chromium project. The OS project. Everything is linked together, Chrome is a platform, cloud computing.

Sergey: Chrome was only one to escape unscathed in a security competition

Eric: Historically hard to work in own address spaces, so could get hacked more.

Chrome Vs. Android: Devices Need Their Own OS

Question on Android vs. Chrome OS. Eric says Android more mobile oriented, while Chrome OS designed around the 10″ form factor. True both will use many same things. But designs are different. There are some overlalp but will deal wth. What about subsized netbooks, question? Eric: that’s where we;ll see how things play out.

Google Plays Better With Others

Question: Is google beign too nice now? Eric, tone difference, people (players stakeholders) are getting to know each other better. We’ve always wanted to have these partnershps. we’re learning how to do it where they win too.

Sergey: Talks how there’s confusion between Google and Internet. So now there’s more distinctions

Eric: A simple mantra is Google’s an innovator, and you get collision. Innovation and [missed it] creates opportunity. Fact that Verizon has embraced most of the openness that Google pushed for five years ago, it’s pretty amazing. This is verizon. Not some itty bitty start up. And by the way, it didn’t work in one meeting. We had a couple of deals.

Google May Pay To Carry Premium Content, But Owners May Overvalue Their Work

Question on content, newspapers, deals. Eric responds that you have analogy of free TV and cable TV. When we argue this question of subscriptions, we’re not arguing the prinicples, we’re arguing over the size of the market. We’re working on payment system

Follow up on search results: You know anything with a dollar sign will never get surfaced as won’t get traffc in search results.

Sergey: Says not true, Google Scholar does this [but if you're at a university, you know you get to click through for free].

Eric: I want to distinguish betwen what you think your content is worht and what it’s worth (laughs around). We’re not going to use the price you think as a signal in the reesults. But williingness to pay as reflected in clicks might be looked at.

Follow up: Is that something yo’re thinking of?

Likelihood To Purchase A Ranking Factor

Eric: Not being precise becasue we don’t reveal precisely how Google ranks pages. But the liklihood to purchase or buy something in among them [first time I've heard Google confirm they can measure this for search results and use this as a ranking mechanism].

The more we have access to marketplace [to see data out there], the more Google can improve.

Question from AP on AP president wanting to play off search engines off each other for money [Bing might pay to get news 30 mins early, for example].

Eric: Doesn’t want to address a business issue but says “we have to very careful not to favor one publication over another in terms of speed or latency.”

Googlers Learning To Adjust To Fewer Perks

Question on New Yorker article (excerpted from Ken Auletta’s upcoming book on Google, see here and here for more) about Googlers having sense of entitlement, and Sergey glad they’ve lost some of that.

Sergey: think there was time when the culture was misinterpreted. when working in garage, larry would rollerblade in with sandwiches, so sense that there should be all the gourmet food all the time. culture has to be reset from time to time …. we significantly cut down all the snacks.

Long discussion then followed that seemed to be about how Googlers won’t get rich on stock now.

Eric: We don’t want them to work at google for those reasons (to make money), we want them to change the world.

Last year has been very good in solving that entitlement problem. Patrick [Pichette, Google's still relatively new CFO] changed attitude. It’s been a maturing process in a generally good way.

Would Like To Buy 5-10 People Companies

Question on acquisitions. Eric, most focus on small companies problem like 5 to 10 people. Lots of goodness at Google came from these in the past. Android purchase, he didn’t even notice Larry and Sergey bought it. Sergey was surfing and found Keyhole that became Google earth. Came to eric and said “I bought them.” But for what price Sergey?, Eric said

Erick from TechCrunch asks if Google you buy another YouTube? Have to get value back, Eric says DoubleClick making. YouTube getting there.

Eric also asked what was an example of another YouTube. I said Twitter, but there was another response, so I’m not sure if he heard me or not. But he also said they’d have to assess the real value of a company, which made me think that Twitter’s current estimated what is it $1 billion value might not be how Google sees things.

By the way, after the event, I asked Eric if he was on Twitter. He said he’d avoid it so far. It wasn’t a tone of avoiding something bad but rather how you might avoid a dessert you want to eat but shouldn’t. At least that’s the sense I got.

Hopes FTC Pushes Through Broadband Plan

Hopes for FTC? Eric just met with chairman and the staff. The broadband plan is really really important. President announced he wanted a plan .. we are incredibly sensitive to the rollout of broadband globally. We’re critically depended. Follow-up what did you tell them. Eric: more broadband (laughs all around).

It’s more important to make sure the aggregate agenda of the FTC is correct, says previouss republican chair also had the right agenda.

How About News Corp Deals? Friends & Competitors

Peter from AllThings: News on the MySpace/News Corp deals coming up for renewal.

Eric, Rather not comment on them. I would not prejudge some of thse deals will go. Some of our best friends are in those companies. But our competitors will be all over them.

Google Not Growing Too Fast; Conversely, Doesn’t Handle Growth Well – But You Grow Or Die

question: do you worry google grows to fast?

eric: no

follow-up: how do you handle it?

Eric: as you can see, we dont handle it well.

Sergey long term lots of growth but on a percentage basis recently much less. opportunity is to adapt.

Eric: In technology market you grow or dies… you lose that space.

New Devices Will Come & Bring Changes

Question on devices. Eric, Ithink there will be many things like kindles and will make material change in how people will consume information. Iphone has proven you can sell a phone with a subscriptions. contract cost is greater than the cost of the phone. do you subsidized software, the phone.

Does Google Have An Anti-Competitive Closed Loop?

I asked if Google has too much of a closed loop, access to data from its free analytics and other tools that competitors can’t hope to match, which is used to improve search results (see my Google: Master Of Closing The Loop? article). And might this be anti-competitive?

Eric: doesn’t agree anti-competitive. there are alternatives to google products. none of them are closed loop. you’re not tied into it. microsoft had a closed loop where you could not get out of it. Google has a Data Liberation Front group that really really does make it possible for you to get out of their systems.

I responded that sure, but Google puts the tools out there for free, some of which had a charge before, effectively subsidizing them. Eric said their not subsidized. I said well, they’re free, and Google gets 95% of its income from ads that aren’t on them (he corrected me to 97%), so they seem subsidized.

Sergey: in analytics example. we just noticde when advertising partners when they use analytics they use more advertising on the site. all these stats become appararent to them. the consequence is that if i spend a thousand more more per month on google, I [the advertiser still] make more profit. that’s why it became an idea that we need to make analytis more available. others followed that lead to offer tools. rising tide to lift all boat.

eric: hard to take argument that taking a product that was a cost and making it avialable for free is a bad

Altering The Book Search Settlement

book search question: is there a way to resolve ophans without excluding them.

eric: i don’t know.

rachel who heads communication says let’s do somehting we can do today that will make a material differnce and ethen hopefully we can resolve the ophran works legislation. but if we hang about…

eric: some of criticisms he reads are legit and can be addressed by cahnges in settlment or by legistlation. others seem to be from those who don’t want change. says same with health care, lots of arugments are from incuments with investment in change or satus quo.

sergey: the companies making objections about orphan books have done nothing. microsoft made a token investment and scanned i think 15 books (yes, he said 15 as a joke).

Eric: my challnge to the ciritics is make an alrternative proposal that’s an alternative then let’s have that debate (see Google’s Schmidt To Book Settlement Critics: What’s Your Solution?).

Sergey: settlment isnt’e either or. If anything will make legistlation more liekly that will allow for a broader range of access (hey sorry by the way for the typos typing fast).

Ken Auletta: What are the reasonable objections to book search?

Eric: I’d rather not characterize them right now. I look at the arugments some make sense. maybe we could add this group or address this conern. The settlemtn was not a perfect solution, it was 20 peole on the other side with thier interstes. but that’s how the legal system works.

Sergey: Great to something like settlement that would allow for books like this to be out aorund the world.

Also see: Department Of Justice Files Objections To Google Book Search Settlement

Google, Microsoft & What If There Were An Evil Room

Question on closed loop worries, how not seen like Microsoft.

Eric: there are many reasons we’re not going to be like microsoft. .. user is one click away .. it’s very difficult to move out of windows. but it’s quite easy to move out of these online servies. the third, we’ve taken such a strong position of a company, and if we went into a room that had evil light that made us come out with evil staretgies, consumers would destroy us. 4th is none of us would ever like to go through the legal procedings … and teh evil room was found on the campus, he jokes.

Eric: today we have zero marketshare in chrome OS, because it’s not shipping. Windows has like 80%. Imagine we do get to 80%. Now we go into the evil room and decide to start charging, locking in and go back to the old habits. In that scenario, since all that technology was already licensed to anyone .. they could follow the old [Google] business model and open source is thus the ultimate protection.

So Radio & Newspaper Ads Didn’t Work So Well …. But TV Might

What about other ad platforms?

Sergey still hopeful on tv, even though radio and TV didn’t pan out as they’d hoped. A lot of the news publications interested in working online that print side. We were kind of at the dock but the ship had alread left on those two. but TV has similarlity to advertisign they do already, how many seen a program. We’re optimistic.

Yes, Google Needs More Than PageRank

Question from Erick at TechCrunch: Is PageRank long in the tooth? Are links the most trusted metrics still, as we’re on a web that’s not just data, how does that get into the results.

Sergey: No they’re not (links aren’t enough), and we decided that in 1999. We use various link algorithms, but they’re 1%. There are 100 signals that we use now. We have to continue to develop. Part is that there’s spam. The web also evolves. We’re able to do a much better job than we did a year ago. If we rested on our laurels and stuck with the paper we published in 1998, we’d be pretty stuck right now.

And that’s the conference! Please also see:

* A Conversation with Sergey Brin (TechCrunch’s live blogging)
* Live From New York: Google Cofounder Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt Meet the Press (AllThingsD’s live blogging)
* Techmeme Discussion (there will be more press to come)

Postscript: After the conference, I talked further with Sergey on search quality. See Reviewing Some Bad Google Search Results With Sergey Brin for more on that.

Erich Schonfeld from TechCrunch and I also talked to him about real time search. In particular I wondered if Google would ever cut a deal to get data from Facebook and Twitter. He responded that good players tend to want their data to be open, and he seemed positive that some deal would be reached eventually, though he gave no time frame. See also What Is Real Time Search? Definitions & Players for more about the data issue.

Unpaid utility bill shutters El Rancho Grande

El Rancho Grande, the cafe and live music venue in Hampden, has been closed for the past several weeks due to an unpaid utility bill, according to owner Peter Schmader.

"We've got power issues," he said.

Since it opened in February of 2008, El Rancho Grande has never been about making money, Schmader said ...

"It wasn't supposed to be a flashy, high-rolling place," he said.

Schmader is holding benefit shows at other venues such as Golden West Cafe, hoping to raise enough money to get El Rancho Grande back in business.

"I've been putting everything into it," he said. "I still have hope."

Currency Forex Online Trading For Newbies

This is sort of a beginner?s guide to the Forex market, for anyone who is interested in dipping their hands in a trillion dollar a day investment marketplace that has immense potential to make money for anyone wiling enough to work hard and give it a try. While the Forex market is considered to be one of the best investing options for traders of commodities, there are still inherent pitfalls and things that everyone should avoid before they start building up their investment portfolio. Getting off on the right foot will mean that the rest of your journey will be smooth and trouble free. This is the guide to currency Forex online trading for newbies.

Firstly you have to understand the market, which means understanding the commodity you will be dealing with; currency. The Forex market deals with a single activity – the buying and selling of currency for the express purpose of making money. This is done when you do spot buying of currency (or any sort of buying). Your money goes into the country or the countries stakes; which means your money can travel around the world in a matter of seconds and it can be used for any one thing which include; strengthening of hedge funds, infrastructural support, supporting economic initiatives or even just simply as a developmental initiative. The possibilities are endless but what happens is that you are going to strengthen the countries economic position and thus raise the value of their dollar. Once that happens, you make an instant profit from the PIP (percentage in point) increase. The more positive PIPs you click, the more money you are likely going to make. In a nutshell, a simple nutshell; this is the basic machinery of the Forex trading market.

The Forex market operates 24 hours a day and this means that investing has no rest allocated to it. Be prepared to be woken up by your broker at some weird hour to tell you of an investment opportunity of the century. Online trading also means that you can access the market from anywhere and everywhere in the world; all through the use of a computer. I think the easiest way for a newbie to get started is to sign up for anyone of the known brokerage firms online. They provide comprehensive training for anyone wanting to learn the basics of Forex trading and have even dummy accounts with fake money and simulated situations for you to tinker around with before you dive into the real thing. Also, many of these companies will also either provide or sell you a Forex Trading Systems software, which is basically a platform that makes trading all the more easier. With a professional layout, callouts and information displayed in an ergonomic fashion, these systems are vital for the newbie to find his or her way around the market place. More advanced systems actually advise newbies on their investment moves and right their wrongs on the spot.

The currency Forex online trading for newbies – believe it!

A Tribute to Money Hacker Commentators

I am so tired. My vocation was so long with full of fun. While back to blog, it is totally difficult for me to forget the people - my loyal readers, fruitful commentators, respected guest writers - who have visited my blog and provided fantastic comments to make my blog rich and resourceful. Yes my friends, you should get the deserved honor at its maximum! You never forgot me when I was sleeping and enjoying my vocation. You are my wealth and worth. Here is the honor for you but, not limited. I am adding your best article links with Money Hacker for my readers to take benefit from it and visit your blog to make it more resourceful.

Now, Money Hacker is not only a reading blog. But, have a podcast blog status too. I have added podcasting functions for visitors to either hear, read or both, with blog articles. This podcasting function certainly help visitors to save their reading time and help them to download any article in the form of MP3, to hear later. I highly recommend you to subscribe my podcast articles for save your time.

Hey my commentators, accept this honor! Here are the resources from your site that I have collected for our readers. I am sure, you will certainly benefited from this effort. I have a message for all of you from my heart, in the form of quote from "Marcel Proust: Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." It is very difficult for me to identify a better way to give you maximum benefit. I promise, I will continue such effort as long as I can! Because, "When I was not here, you all worked for me. Now I am here and working for all of you"

1. What to know about highest CD rates in various places?: visit highestcdratesinfo.com and enjoy the series of highly useful articles. Remember to appreciate them for collecting such fabulous information and the time spent to make it wonderful.

2. 'Does Money Grow on Tree'? An article from Mind Your Personal Finance Destiny, starts with a moral story, an advice from a wise father to his son on how to grow money on tree. An excellent read and it never turn you as bored!

3. 'Teaching Your Children About Money', an article I have found at Financially S.M.A.R.T. Advice. As I am very keen about child investments and never miss to read anything related to kids and money. I have got a full lunch from this blog and now it is your turn.

4. 'Proven Tips To Save For a Holiday', an article I have found at Finance Metrics, a well written blog. I have specially added this article in this link list because, I have benefited from some of these ideas just one week back, I was on vocation.

5. 'Effective Tips For Avoiding Debt', a fantastic article I have found at Prime Targeting, a new era finance blog with extreme discipline and style. This article has enough for you friends!

6. TradeStockAmerica is a website, I have found for beginners as well as experienced people to trade stocks in a safe way. There is no scarcity for resources on learning. Visit to have a look. Get the information from the mouth of its founder: "My mission is to help as many people learn techniques that I think have a high probability of making money and doing that over a consistent period of time."

and finally,

7. Free Annuity Rates - They seems to come as my fruitful supporter. They are my frequent visitor and supporter. Do you still wonder why I add their link at last? Remember, in an invited function, guests should be in the front raw than family members. I am not considering FreeAnnuityRates as my guest, but as one in my blog family. They are providing enormous support to me and to my effort. I don't have a particular article from this site to add in this list because, all those I have found at FreeAnnuity are worth for readers. They are well focused on the subject, annuity, that most of the people eagerly looking for. Now, no need to go any other place or doing a search for information on annuity but this site is just here for you!

Any way after creating this list. I thought, I will take a small rest and was looking for some music resources. I have reached to Dig Bands, a blog, that have all information on music.

I know, this is not enough for my dear commentators in return to the support you are providing to me and my blog. I want to do much much more than this to this nice people! Contact me once if you have anything in your mind that I can use to help you, your website, blog or a product by writing an article, review or anything that possible by me.