ZimZum

You might think that if you win the lottery or get a huge raise, all your problems will be solved. Sounds logical, right? Well, it might sound logical, but it isn’t. Having a bigger bank account will not make all of your problems disappear. Why? Because money is nothing more than a giant magnifying glass. Any problems you have with money only get bigger when you have more of it. There are people who earn $150,000 a year who have huge money problems because they have never learned how money works.

So, if you are want to implement another top wealth creating habit in your life, learn how money works while your bank account is still modest. Deal with any out-of-control spending habits, plus any fear of loss, fear of risk and fear of money issues you might have. If you start small, you’ll be able to make a lot of mistakes without it costing a bundle.

You see, if your bank account is large, chances are that you will want to play big with your moneybuy large things, invest large sums and take huge risks. If you’re not well-educated about money, though, or don’t have a lot of experience yet, huge risks can equal huge loss. But if your bank account is small, you’ll be more inclined to learn how to handle your money carefully and frugally, which minimizes your down-side. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores, always proclaimed that if he controlled his expenses (i.e. kept it small), he could afford to make a lot of different mistakes.

So if you think that you have to wait until you win the lottery to start learning about money, think again. Now is the time to start, while it’s all very small. You can’t hurt yourself too badly when your bank account is small, and you can learn a whole lot. It’s never the size of your bank account that mattersit’s how you deal with money, no matter the size of your bank account. And in this case, the size does matter and smaller is better. Good luck on implementing this top wealth creating habit!

About The Author
Stephanie Yeh and her partner have helped many other people achieve and experience prosperity with the help of a strong 15 year network marketing business. Her current project, the Journeyman Wealth Program, is aimed at helping 15 people a year fully achieve their dreams. Stephanie’s Prosperity Abounds website works on the basic principle that “You are the creator of your own reality!”. Get more details on her website at http://www.prosperity-abounds.com; info@prosperity-abounds.com

If you’re like many people, your retirement savings have not been growing consistently over the years. We’re not referring to the wild fluctuations in the stock market, but rather the fluctuations in our short-term needs. Every once in a while, it just seems like a good idea to yank ALL those retirement savings out and pay for something.

You might need to pay for a down payment. You might need to pay off some credit card debt that’s nagging at you. You might want to ‘bugger off to Europe’ as Rick did some years ago. You know it’s not a good idea financially, but you do it anyway. Retirement savings are not designed to bail us out when we need this kind of short-term cash infusion but if it’s there…

As financial advisors, we have our ideals. Ideally, you should put retirement funds away and ‘leave it there’. Ideally you should never touch it at all, even when you retire! Why? Because it is the ‘earnings’ from the nest egg that you should be using, never the principal. As we heard one person suggest recently, your principal is like your ‘goose’, and you never kill the goose, because then you’re eliminating all those future ‘golden eggs’ (interest/earnings) it will lay.

As financial advisors, one way we try to prevent people from yanking out their retirement savings is by ensuring there are other ’short-term’ funds available for emergencies. These are meant to act as a buffer zone against the yankers. It helps, but it doesn’t always work.

One problem is that a distant retirement will never be more urgent than the current cash demands you have. It’s impossible. How can long-term demands be more urgent than a current crisis? So what stops you from yanking out those retirement funds? Their convictions? Simple arithmetic? A more viable alternative?

When a client is bent on yanking out their retirement savings to pay off, for example, some credit card debt, telling them how much they’re going to lose in retirement income in 25 years time doesn’t seem to work. Even telling them how much the tax bill is going to be next year can pale in comparison to the relief the person is seeking from the anxiety over their current debt crisis.

So, the question is how can we provide ‘relief’ and still keep the retirement funds intact? Look at a debt consolidation loan? Review the person’s cash flow and create a debt repayment program? Maybe this will work for a minority of people. In the real world, when people are looking for relief, however, they are looking for relief NOW!!! The easiest way is to yank to retirement funds and be done with it.

So, in the moment, when you are in a cash crunch and seemingly have no other place to go, you will yank your retirement savings. Unless you have anticipated the problem and ‘pre-decided’ that under no circumstances will you access your retirement savings. In this way, you will do a pre-emptive strike on bad financial moves. Further, you will be cognizant of putting yourself into situations where you might risk those long term savings.

The alternative is to invest long-term, make progress, encounter a short-term cash crunch, yank out your retirement funds, survive the problem, invest long-term again, make progress, encounter yet another short-term cash crunch, yank out your retirement funds to get relief…

If you’re locked into an investment cycle like this, your retirement savings have not been growing consistently over the years, and it’s not just the market.

About The Author

Rick Hoogendoorn has been in the financial services business since 1991. Cheri Crause is a certified financial planner in Victoria, BC.

www.chericrause.com

rick.hoogendoorn@shaw.ca

Ever since the turn of the century, world stock markets have been very volatile. In other words there have been significant movements (up or down) in share prices. This phenomenon has been evidenced by the collapse in recent years of the share prices of the dot com companies (e.g. Yahoo, Amazon etc.) and the sharp falls in the share prices of telecommunication stocks (e.g. British Telecom, Marconi etc.). Yet despite these events there is very little emphasis placed on measuring the volatility of stocks.

The aim of this article is to explain one method of measuring the volatility namely beta factors and how investors can interpret this information. The article aims to state how investors can use beta factor analysis to their advantage when there are political uncertainties affecting markets. Though some stockbroker firms calculate the beta factors of certain stocks quoted in their respective stock exchanges, investors have little access to these figures. In more developed markets many stockbroker firms do have access to beta factors but it is only in recent years that investors have access to this information.

BETA FACTORS:

The beta of an investment is a relative measure of the systematic risk of an investment. In other words it measures the specific risk of the company’s shares relative to the market as a whole. In general, the sign of the beta (+/-) indicates whether, on average, the investment’s returns move with the market or in the opposite direction to the market. The scale or value of the beta indicates the relative volatility of the particular stock.

A beta of +0.25 for instance, would indicate that on average, the investment’s returns move one quarter as much as the markets do in the same direction. If the market rose by 10%, the investment would be expected to rise by 2.5% but on the other hand if the market fell by 10% the investment would be expected to fall by only 2.5%. A beta of -0.1 would indicate that on average, the investment’s returns move one tenth as much as the market’s do, but in the opposite direction. If the market rose by 10%, the investment would be expected to fall by 1%. Hence we can summarise a number of situations:

If Beta > 1 this means that the investment’s returns will move, on average, in the same direction as the market’s returns, but to a greater extent.

If Beta = 1 this means that the investment’s returns will move, on average, in the same direction as the market’s returns, and to the same extent.

If 0 -1, to the same extent if Beta = -1, and to a greater extent if Beta < -1. In practice it is rare to find negative beta stocks since they go against the trend of the market. One possible sector that could consist of negative beta stocks is the gold industry that tends to go against the trend shown by equity markets.

INVESTMENT STRATEGIES:

In world markets, beta factors can have a major influence on the investment strategies of investors. If the analysis is to be believed then in times of a bull market (rising markets) investors should hold stocks with a high positive beta factor since they should outperform the market. A practical example of this was in the late 1990’s concerning the dot com stocks. At this time the bull market has reached its peak and those investors who held dot com companies (that had high positive beta factors) made excess returns and did far better than the relative index performances.

However in times of bear markets (falling markets) then investors should target low beta stocks since they should outperform the market. An example of this can be found in the UK where two low beta FTSE stocks (Tesco and Centrica) outperformed the market in a falling market.

USING BETA FACTORS IN THE PRESENT SITUATION:

The current world political situation is probably the worst it is for many years. World markets are falling at a rapid pace. What does beta factor analysis teach us about an investment strategy in this situation? Firstly, however good a company is it likely that in such circumstances most will encounter falls in their share prices.

However during this time a number of alternative investments that have negative beta factors have appreciated in value. The prime example of this is gold. Over the past twenty years when there was a strong equity bull market, the price of gold has fallen significantly. In addition to this shares in the gold sector have performed badly when compared to equities. However in the past few years it is noticeable that in the political uncertainty that has arisen in the world that the price of gold has shown material gains at a time when equity markets have recorded sharp falls.

Another commodity that has done well is oil that has seen a significant increase in its price per barrel over the past few months. In line with gold, the oil price has suffered over most of the past twenty years (at a time when equity prices were on an increase) and it is only in recent years that the oil price has shown a recovery.

CONCLUSION:

Beta factor analysis is a useful technique that has enabled many international investors to achieve satisfactory returns in the past. If one looks at the trends in world markets then one can see that in a bull market those investors that have followed a selective aggressive portfolio (i.e. including shares with beta factors of over 1 times) have generally outperformed the market.

However the wheel has changed. We are now in the stage of a bear market. The current political uncertainty has made things extremely difficult for investors. Should they get out of world markets since a conflict will almost certainly mean falling equity prices. Or should investors move to alternative investments with negative beta factors such as gold and oil? After all in case of a conflict these commodities will almost certainly rise and will probably go against the trend of equity prices. The answer will very much depend on how the current political situation develops. However investors will do well if they include gold in their investment portfolios.

Disclaimer: No responsibility for loss can be accepted to any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of material in this article.

©2004 by Andy George. All rights reserved

About The Author

Andy George is a qualified chartered accountant who was born in Birmingham, England and who has had many years’ experience in public practice, industry, and commerce and as a lecturer. Since 1991 he has been based in the island of Cyprus. Andy was a financial correspondent for eight years at the Cyprus Financial Mirror where he wrote articles on business and accounting related issues to a non-technical audience.

He is the author of eBooks: How to write and Publish Your Own With a Shoestring Budget http://www.budgetebook.com

http://www.easy4tune.com/cbmall

akgeorge@cytanet.com.cy

Looking Inside Your Tenant’s Mind
Basic Mind-Reading Report 101 for Landlords

It goes without saying but I will say it anyway. The better you understand your tenants and their personal situation, the better you can serve their needs and your own. Notice that your needs come after your tenants. Always put your tenants’ needs before your own and they will buy real estate for you in return. That’s a fair trade. Take it!

Many cold-hearted, self-serving, money-grudging, wanna-be landlords don’t understand human nature. Let me tell you right now, if you can’t put yourself in another person’s shoes and see a problem from that person’s perspective with empathy, you will fail miserably in the “landlording” business and in life. Wise up!

Fear not. If your not quite sure what I’m talking about, here come the stories and details of how to be loved and adored by those kind people called tenants.

Let me first dispel the horror stories about landlording. If you follow my advice and teachings, you should have very few tales of woe to tell. You’ve heard the stories and they sound like this: Those damn lowlife tenants. They trashed our house, they disturbed the neighbors, they ruined our lawn, they were filthy pigs who never paid the rent on time, they never did what we told them to do and it cost us a fortune to get rid of them and repair our investment once they finally did move.

Well, guess whose fault that is. Yep, it is completely and unequivocally the fault of the so-called person that is calling themselves a landlord. The real name for this type of so-called landlord is uneducated dummy and because of these lazy fools the whole industry gets a bad rap!

There is a plus side to the scenario above and that is this: It sets up a perfect opportunity for you to do the exact opposite of the fools and create for yourself an unlimited market supply of excellent trouble-free tenants for life!

Tenants, believe it or not, are human beings. They are not animals or things to be mistreated, abused or taken advantage of. If you will prepare your rentals as if your mother was going to be moving in, your mindset would be realigned in short order. In effect, you will start looking at it from a compassionate point of view. You will not cut corners. You won’t let things go that need fixing. You will use more care, skill and diligence in preparing that dwelling for another decent human being to begin calling home. That’s what you want to achieve.

You want to provide a trouble-free, pleasurable, aesthetically pleasing, creature comfortable, needs fulfilling, safe, secure, affordable and convenient place to live. When you provide those things and screen the population, it’s like striking gold.

The process of getting good tenants begins in your mind. By that, I mean you have to educate yourself to be able to recognize value and acquire properties that are structurally sound, aesthetically pleasing, physically functional and provide safety, security, affordability, convenience and a feeling of pride in your tenant’s mind.

Sounds like a daunting task, doesn’t it? Well it’s not. In fact it is so simple to achieve that once you understand the process you won’t even have to think about it. It will come naturally to you. I promise you that this is true and I intend to prove it to you as well.

I absolutely guarantee that you can do it. So for now, just take my word for it as being a fact, because it is. Here’s an example of using a motto to align your thought process in relation to all the things I just said. Repeat the following:

Landlord’s Creed

I vow never to rent to someone else, something that I myself would not be happy living in.

Mansions not included!

Now apply that to every prospective property that you evaluate as a potential rental property investment. Human nature is immutable. We all have basic needs, wants, desires and expectations that include fear. When you remove fear and provide comfort and security, you will own your market.

So what you first have to do before you can be a great landlord is to find great places to rent to other people. I explain how to do this in the book at www.magicbullets, so I won’t go into it here.

The screening process is also outlined in that book as well. I will hit upon a few things that weren’t touched upon already in the processes in the main body of the book, so here are a few nuggets for you now.

The following observations are done after you have already performed the formal screening procedures. I’m rushing you up to the day that your face-to-face meeting occurs with the tenants who have passed your telephone interviews and have succeeded in getting an appointment with you to see your wonderful rental.

Now, here are some things that your uneducated dummy-type landlords can’t begin to recognize, plan for or evaluate when it does appear before their very eyes.

As soon as your potential renter shows up to view your property, take note of
the time. Are they on time? Can they keep their first promise to you? Can they follow directions? If their late, did they get lost? I’m sure you gave them good directions and also used landmarks like churches, stores or monuments, so they could find you easily. If they can’t follow simple directions, do you think a lease agreement and those directions are going to be any easier? No, they are harder to follow.

O.K. They showed up on time. This says they respect your time, are able to follow directions and are serious about finding a nice place to live. How did they arrive, on foot, by bike, bus, cab, truck, motorcycle or tractor-trailer? Preferably they arrived in a clean, well-kept passenger car that is in a clean condition.

Now who was driving the vehicle? If it’s a couple are they both going to be renting or is your tenant without wheels. Let’s assume your prospect drives up in their own car. It runs fine so you won’t have cars on blocks and a parts yard for a front lawn in six months when they buy more cheap junk to get around with.

So the car looks O.K. on the outside but how about the interior of the car? Do they smoke and have smashed down McDonalds bags pushed so far into the floorboards that it now resembles carpet? Does this vehicle look like a home on wheels, with garbage bags filled with clothes, a crying baby and a cat in the back window? Watch out if you see this type of telltale evidence. I don’t think I need to paint the picture of what will result if you miss this investigative step.

Pickup trucks with camper-shells can also be loaded to the gunnels with personal effects, including small zoo animals. I encourage you to get a look back there, too!

The bottom line here is people will generally treat your property the way they treat their own, if you’re lucky! So see how they’ve done with their own stuff up to this point and choose wisely based on intuition, gut-feeling and physical evidence.

So the car inspection is over now. How are the appearances of the folks? Are they clean and well groomed? Do they seem to fit the profile of what you had envisioned over the phone interviews or are they 180 degrees out? Have they successfully fooled you or deceived you into believing something else up to this point? Now that they have appeared before you, is it blatantly evident that these persons are con artists?

If you get an uneasy feeling within the first few minutes of meeting these people, don’t brush it off as just some crazy thought. That’s your self-preservation instinct operating and you better listen to it. The book, Magic Bullets will help to protect you, so do not fear. Use this information to protect yourself from the events that lead to horror stories. Don’t give it another thought. Let’s get on with our interview, shall we?

So far they are on time. They have a good clean car and they appear to be honest and decent people who indeed do give you the same impression you developed over the phone. In fact, these people are really more than you expected. Yes, if you’ve done it right that will often be your experience and it is almost always a pleasure and privilege to rent to such high quality individuals.

Have you noticed something about the process here? There has been no mention of race, religion, national origin, sex, age or marital status. That is discrimination based on federally protected human rights and it’s against the law to discriminate on those issues. This includes the handicapped and a few others groups I may have overlooked.

My point is simply this: If they meet all the criteria that makes for a good quality tenant, than you would be ruling out a potentially excellent long-term tenant based on preconceived notions and that is dummy landlording in the first degree! So don’t discriminate on basic human rights issues.

So many people screw this process up. They also make mistakes by choosing management companies to do this highly developed type of intuitive researched and planned-for event. I honestly know of no management companies who can be as thorough as an owner who takes the time to protect their own interests in this way.

I don’t care how much management companies protest about the above statement. The fact of the matter is, they are not you, so they can never find a tenant that satisfies your own personal preferences the way you can.

I like to personally screen potential tenants because in all cases, I have total control and that’s what real estate is all about - control!

Think of the opposite of control. That would be the stock market for the small investor. The way I see it, I don’t want to be on the sidelines rooting for someone else to make money for me or more often, hoping they don’t lose it, steal it or mismanage it to my certain demise.

With the way I approach real estate, it is a 100% guarantee every single time that I am going to outsmart, outwit, outperform, over deliver and under promise to the point that I crush my competition. I am in a league of my own.

My tenants are the winners and they know it, too. What kind of loyalty do you think develops in the minds’ of people that look to me for protection? It stands as a testimony and irrefutable, self-evident, empirical fact that I care enough about the people who have entrusted me with their welfare, their time, their money and their trust to deliver on my promises. My tenants don’t move. They either pass away due to old age or they end up buying it from me when I want to sell it. It happens that way all the time.

So think again when you hear a dummy landlord talking about all the trouble they had and then ask yourself one question. Did they read Magic Bullets before they became a landlord? It’s 100% certain they did not. If they had, then their tenants would have loved them and paid for their real estate time and again, and made them rich beyond their wildest expectations…

Snap out of it! Hey, are you with me? OK, your back. Good let’s get back to reality here. What I do works and the only thing about landlording I don’t like is cashing all those darned checks. I’m not kidding. Bank tellers look at you like your some kind of thief because you have so many checks to cash.

Here are a few things that you won’t find out unless you have been around a while but I’m going to save you from the pain of learning the hard way. Now of course you’re going to do everything right by following my advice in real estate but there are a lot of things I don’t know. Yes, I admit it. I don’t know everything but I do know what I’m going to tell you about next and that is…drum roll, please! Watch out for real estate investment property that comes with existing tenants! Here’s why. In general, the new owner takes the property subject to the existing lease and rights of the tenant or tenants. Most often, whatever existing lease or rental agreement that was made with the previous owner will remain in effect.

What could happen if you don’t thoroughly review existing tenants lease agreements? What if the previous owner rented a unit to his good-for-nothing, drug-addicted brother for $1.00 a month for the next five years? That’s a valid lease. You may take them to court for misrepresentation but it’s going to cost you lost rent, lost sleep and maybe your safety.

Anyway, that’s an extreme example of an intentionally designed below-market rent lease agreement but it illustrates my point. Here’s another. Let’s say you’re getting a great deal and you buy it, and find out the reason the owner sold it to you was because the tenants were very difficult and had him over a barrel. And all the while, they are paying lower than average rents and complaining about everything. Now you get them and you can’t raise the rent and they refuse to move. Here comes your eviction lawyer and you have attorney’s fees and more lost rent to boot.

My point is this: Make the seller get rid of bad tenants before you close on the deal. Do a pre-closing inspection and personally walk through the empty apartment, house, condo, trailer or doghouse yourself. Bring extra locks or call a locksmith and have the locks changed the day before closing. An honest seller will not have a problem with that so long as the title company holds those keys until your check is accepted at the closing table.

The lesson here is it’s always better to install your own tenants because you control the process from start to finish. Don’t follow a dummy landlord or by default, you could be a dummy, too!

Remember this too: When you install new tenants, you are generally going to get a higher rent from the property because inflation creeps along and landlords have a hard time raising rents on people. I have seen 10-15 year long-term tenants paying the same price for 15 years. You will go broke if you let that happen.

Adjust your rents accordingly every time you fill a vacant unit and if people want to renew their leases, then inform them of an economic reality that currently exists called inflation, and you are just keeping up with it! The Annual Consumer Price Index may be used as a reference. If they don’t understand, they have an option and that would be to go look for a similar rental to yours at a lower price. If you have followed my advice, this elusive lower rental price will not be found and your tenants will be grateful to you for renting out such a clean place at the new price-adjusted rate.

There is a lot of garbage held out for rent and prices may be lower, but no one wants to live in a pigsty with lime green shag carpet and Brady Bunch orange counter tops, where the roaches tell you what to do.

So the lesson here: Encourage balking tenants to find something comparable to yours at a lower price. If they find it, let them go. Odds are, they won’t. After all I told you, it’s often next to impossible, if you’re a hands-on owner. There is no 10% fee to management companies either. So you can even ask 5% less than investors who use professional management to do their job. So many ways to slaughter your competition…so little time!

Dan Auito is a dual-licensed real estate agent and appraisal assistant. In addition to being a 20-year veteran of the United States Coast Guard, Dan has also founded a non-profit drug prevention corporation, a real estate consulting group and is the author of “Magic Bullets in Real Estate.” This 300-page power-packed book (due out in late Sept 2004) comes with a website (on line in late Sept 2004) that further supports its readers. Dan lives with his wife Kimberly and their two children, Brandon and Briana, on the emerald isle of Kodiak Island, Alaska.

Dan may be reached at http://www.magicbullets.com
Call 1 907 481-6300 or write 1619 Three Sisters Way Kodiak AK 99615

There are few more iconic characters in American movie history as Lois Lane, Clark Kent’s sidekick at the Daily Planet, and Superman’s romantic interest. But 23 year old Kate Bosworth’s performance has earned her a number of excellent reviews in the role in the latest film in the Superman series - ‘Superman Returns’.

Bosworth admits that she was unsure if any actor could pull of a convincing Superman/Clark Kent combination - she remembers the original film with great excitement. However, she is full of praise for Brandon Routh, the unknown actor who plays the title role. She realized how good Routh was going to be as early as an early screen test, before she had got the role, when she discovered she “had become totally lost in just reading with him, in a white, bare, sparse room with the tri-pod video camera and a couple of people sitting around and watching and that’s when I realized he was going to be tremendous in this film”.

Bosworth modelled her Lois Lane performance on Katharine Hepburn. “I watched a lot of Hepburn to prepare for Lois, particularly ‘The Philadelphia Story’ and ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’. Hepburn is a great model for how I see Lois - strong but fragile.”

Bosworth spent her early childhood moving around the US, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, then to Connecticut and to Massachusetts. It was around the time of the move to Massachusetts in 1998 that she heard of an open audition for Robert Redford’s film ‘The Horse Whisperer’. A horse-lover, she went along for the experience, and won the role of the female lead’s best friend. After “The Horse Whisperer” Bosworth took a break from acting, returning two years later to resume her career which has culminated with her role in ‘Superman Returns’.

Filmography

Superman Returns (2006)
 Bee Season (2005)
 Beyond the Sea (2004)
 Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004)
 Advantage Hart (2003)
 Wonderland (2003)
 The Rules of Attraction (2002)
 Blue Crush (2002)
 Remember the Titans (2000)
 Young Americans (2000) TV Episode
 The Newcomers (2000)
 The Horse Whisperer (1998)

Plot points are linear links that make up the chain of traditional Aristotelian 3-act dramatic structure. This classic structure worked well in Hollywood for almost a century now. Although young movie makers are forcing the limits of this structure, plot points still rule the day as the “tent poles” that hold up of the circus of our dreams. Here are the plot points of Wings of Desire (1987), as I see them.

Wings of Desire (1987)

STARRING: Bruno Ganz (Damiel), Solveig Dommartin (Marion), Peter Falk (Himself), Otto Sander (Cassiel)
DIRECTED BY: Wim Wenders

WRITERS: Peter Handke, Richard Reitinger (screenplay)

PROTAGONIST DAMIEL’S DILEMMA: He is an angel but wants to become a human being.

PROTAGONIST’S DESIRE: To become a human being.

HIS CHIEF OBSTACLE: He has no idea what it means to be a human being, and he is invisible.

ESTABLISHING SHOT: Aerial B&W shot of Berlin.

INCITING INCIDENT: Two angels walking on the streets of West Berlin, riding the trains, etc. Listening to the thoughts inside people’s heads.

PLOT POINT 1: Damiel confides in Cassiel that he is not totally happy to be an angel.

MID POINT EVENT: Damiel falls in love with Marion.

PLOT POINT 2: Damiel falls to earth.

3rd ACT RESOLUTION: Damiel and Marion become conscious of the value of their true relationship in a limited world. Life is not a series of random “coincidences” any more.

I admit, the second season`s finale of LOST was amazing. I was a bit disappointed from the last episodes but this one absolutely turned my interest back. Finally, something really important happened and we found out some of the Island`s secrets and as it seems - we`ll continue to figure them out in the next season.

There`s obviously no sickness on the Island and maybe the sign “quarantine” on the doors just have to keep the people in the hatches so that they continue to do their job about the experiment of Dharma Project. That doesn`t explain why Russo has killed her friends, thinking they were “sick”, but probably she just got crazy (which actually doesn`t seem very likely) or maybe there is something more that we still don`t know.

Michael seems to be one of the most stupid characters but I don`t think that this is the end of his appearance. Walt has some paranormal abilities that have to be shown. I think that Michael and Walt either will decide to come back (because of Michael`s consciousness) or won`t be able to find the way and finally the ocean will bring them back to the Island.

About the Others, I don`t think they will hurt Kate, Jack and Sawyer. They will probably use them for their experiments or try to make them a part of their group. Which is more interesting for me is why do the Others hide their identity? Who are they hiding from?! That`s something that I really can`t wait to find out.

Source: “LOST” Season Finale review.
More articles about “LOST” and other tv shows are available here.

One of the highest rated TV series of its era, The Andy Griffith Show is enjoyed by people of every age to this day. The show centers around the world of Sheriff Andy Griffith of Mayberry. But the true series star is Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts) in the role of the sometimes competent, always wacky sidekick. The onscreen magic between Griffith and Knotts is something to behold. Both men went on to storied careers in Hollywood with Knotts gaining numerous roles, such as that of Mr. Furley on Three’s Company, and Griffith as the lead star on the popular show Matlock…

The Andy Griffith Show (Season 4) DVD features a number of hilarious episodes including the season premiere “Opie the Birdman” in which Opie becomes the adoptive father of several orphaned baby birds after he inadvertently kills their mother with his slingshot. Developing a personal attachment to the birds, Opie struggles with the notion that once they’re grown, he’ll have to set them free… Other notable episodes include “Barney’s Sidecar” in which Barney acquires a sidecar for his motorcycle a local auction, but his daily antics quickly have all of Mayberry up in arms, and “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” in which Gomer Pyle joins the Marine Corps in order to become a man, but he’s failing miserably until Andy convinces the drill instructor to take Gomer under his wing…

Below is a list of episodes included on The Andy Griffith Show (Season 4) DVD:

Episode 96 (Opie the Birdman) Air Date: 09-30-1963
Episode 97 (The Haunted House) Air Date: 10-07-1963
Episode 98 (Ernest T. Bass Joins the Army) Air Date: 10-14-1963
Episode 99 (The Sermon for Today) Air Date: 10-21-1963
Episode 100 (Briscoe Declares for Aunt Bee) Air Date: 10-28-1963
Episode 101 (Gomer the House Guest) Air Date: 11-04-1963
Episode 102 (A Black Day for Mayberry) Air Date: 11-11-1963
Episode 103 (Opie’s Ill-Gotten Gain) Air Date: 11-18-1963
Episode 104 (A Date for Gomer) Air Date: 11-25-1963
Episode 105 (Up in Barney’s Room) Air Date: 12-02-1963
Episode 106 (Citizen’s Arrest) Air Date: 12-16-1963
Episode 107 (Opie and His Merry Men) Air Date: 12-30-1963
Episode 108 (Barney and the Cave Rescue) Air Date: 01-06-1964
Episode 109 (Andy and Opie’s Pal) Air Date: 01-13-1964
Episode 110 (Aunt Bee the Crusader) Air Date: 01-20-1964
Episode 111 (Barney’s Sidecar) Air Date: 01-27-1964
Episode 112 (My Fair Ernest T. Bass) Air Date: 02-03-1964
Episode 113 (Prisoner of Love) Air Date: 02-10-1964
Episode 114 (Hot Rod Otis) Air Date: 02-17-1964
Episode 115 (The Song Festers) Air Date: 02-24-1964
Episode 116 (The Shoplifters) Air Date: 03-02-1964
Episode 117 (Andy’s Vacation) Air Date: 03-09-1964
Episode 118 (Andy Saves Gomer) Air Date: 03-16-1964
Episode 119 (Bargain Day) Air Date: 03-23-1964
Episode 120 (Divorce, Mountain Style) Air Date: 03-30-1964
Episode 121 (A Deal is a Deal) Air Date: 04-06-1964
Episode 122 (Fun Girls) Air Date: 04-13-1964
Episode 123 (The Return of Malcolm Merriweather) Air Date: 04-20-1964
Episode 124 (The Rumor) Air Date: 04-27-1964
Episode 125 (Barney and Thelma Lou, Phfftt) Air Date: 05-04-1964
Episode 126 (Back to Nature) Air Date: 05-11-1964
Episode 127 (Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.) Air Date: 05-18-1964

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of The Andy Griffith Show (Season 4) DVD.

Never thought the searching a search engine would be so much fun, in fact my first artist search and search engines I was actually like everybody else looking for information on something that was of interest to me.

The irony now is that I actually create the information that they were looking for some kind of turned the tables.

It’s interesting to see as seo from the other side of the fence and actually see how the searches reach the websites they do and how the rankings work on the search engines to put those sites in the certain order that they usually end up in the search.

One most fascinating things about seo is that it is not a static rule, it’s more like a dynamic one that changes with the market.

What exactly is standard search engine optimization? So many different programs out there that looked so enticing which one you choose?

Which program will be the answer for you? Is only a few the questions you may have when looking for the perfect seo platform, but the truth is it’s actually closer than you think.

Search engine optimization doesn’t have one static role it’s actually a collage of different rules all stemming back to quality web pages for both the customer search engines and the people producing them.

In a perfect s.e.o. strategy everybody involved wins, from the webmaster, to the search engine company, and ultimately and most importantly the person doing the search for information.

We were waiting for something like this to happen for a long time. Yahoo!, one of the key providers of mass-market RSS aggregators, finally took a step forward and published their RSS whitepaper, covering their own findings with RSS, based on their usage data.

1. YAHOO!’S KEY FINDINGS

Let’s first take a look at Yahoo! key findings and what they mean for marketers.

a] Awareness of RSS is quite low among Internet users. 12% of users are aware of RSS, and 4% have knowingly used RSS.

Although RSS awareness is increasing, only few internet users yet understand what RSS is and how to use it.

For marketers, this means that simply placing an RSS button on their site it not nearly enough, with the report finally demonstrating that marketers needs to use clear and persuasive copy to get their visitors interested in RSS, explain RSS to them and get them to subscribe to their feeds.

In addition it also shows that marketers need to make sure they are using “user-friendly” buttons to generate subscribers, such as “Add to MyYahoo!”, which consumers do understand.

b] 27% of Internet users consume RSS syndicated content on personalized start pages (e.g., My Yahoo!, My MSN) without knowing that RSS is the enabling technology.

This finding only underlines the above suggestions.

Stop touting your RSS feeds only using an RSS button, but rather aim for a “subscribe feature” and then explain to the visitor how to use it.

Strong copy has never been so important.

c] 28% of Internet users are aware of podcasting, but only 2% currently subscribe to podcasts.

Goes to show that podcasting still has a long way to go and can right now function only as a supplement to your existing marketing activities.

It might also give an indication that audio is not the most appropriate format for much online content.

d] Even tech-savvy “Aware RSS Users” prefer to access RSS feeds via user-friendly, browser-based experiences (e.g., My Yahoo!, Firefox, My MSN).

e] My Yahoo! has the highest awareness and use of any RSS-enabled product.

Both of the findings above, although indicating that these are the results Yahoo! would want to publish, show that having browser-based RSS reader subscribe buttons is a must.

It also shows that the market is ready for the soon-coming IE and Outlook integrated RSS features, which should really boost RSS usage among consumers online.

Now, let’s take a deeper look at the report …

2. “UNAWARE RSS USERS” VS “AWARE RSS USERS”

The whitepaper makes a strong distinction between “Unaware RSS Users” and “Aware RSS Users”, positioning the “Unaware” batch as the mainstream Internet population.

This makes it absolutely clear that B2C marketers, targeting consumers, should take special care to promote their feeds using “friendly” subscribe buttons.

On the other hand, if targeting a more tech-savvy audience, going the way of “RSS” and more complex RSS reading tools might be a better choice. This might also prove more effective for targeting executives and other corporate target audiences that might be using an enterprise-wide RSS solution, such as NewsGator.

3. CONSUMPTION LEVELS

The whitepaper says that on the average “Aware RSS Users” subscribe to 6.6 feeds.

The consequences of this are not as simple as they might seem. Even “RSS Aware” users do not subscribe to “just anything” and seems they only subscribe or keep being subscribed to the content of highest relevance to them.

The message for marketers is to become even more relevant and more focused on providing real value for their target audiences.

RSS does not mean that end-users will start consuming that much more online content, but simply that their primary consumption channel will change. It’s up to you to make place for yourself in this consumption channel, but you can only do so if you become one of the key targeted content providers for your market and can deliver consistently high-quality content.

4. TYPES OF RSS CONTENT CONSUMED

Even in the world of RSS, mainstream media rules, with World news and National news both leading the pack at 52% and followed by Entertainment at 34% and Weather ad 31%.

If we take a look at what lies beneath this we can see that end-users still see RSS as a news consumption tool and a tool to receive time-sensitive updates, such as weather info.

The interesting part is that blogs achieve only 23% and although they are gaining quickly are still not part of the mainstream.

Whichever way you look at this, the real long tail is still far from fruition.

There are two are interesting categories listed in the report: investment/financial info/banking at 13% and Shopping/online commerce at 10%.

The popularity of these two shows that RSS in fact is appropriate for delivering business info and that RSS can be used for e-commerce. A strong case in point urging e-retailers to start providing RSS feeds.

5. WHY END-USERS USE RSS

“RSS Aware” end-users subscribe to feed because of “ease” or “convenience”, followed by being able to choose what they read.

To marketers, these three should be the founding stones of how to get their visitors to adopt RSS.

6. THE FAMOUS ORANGE BUTTON

Marketers, pay attentin to this.

Only 4% of total RSS end-users actually use the orange XML button, and only 38% of RSS aware users use it.

It seems the orange button isn’t dead … it was never alive.

Let’s move on and replace it with something more user-friendly.

And BTW — 22% of the people that clicked on the button don’t even know what action they took after clicking the button and 26% left the site. Goes to show the RSS button is only losing us subscribers.

7. HOW USERS FIND THEIR FEEDS

50% use the defaults available in the RSS reader and only 13% use the search engines to find them.

Yes, it’s cruical to be in the RSS feed search engines, but it would be even better if you could move your way to the default seetings. And by all means, actively promote the feeds on your site as end-users, according to the report, actively tend to subscribe to the feeds on the sites they find interesting.

8. CONCLUSION

To conclude this, here’s a direct quote from the report, saying exactly what I’ve been trying to get through for a couple of months:

“To position RSS among mainstream Internet users, it is essential to effectively communicate the benefits of RSS (ease, convenience, access to information of interest). Internet users do not understand how to use the XML button, how to actively seek out RSS feeds, or even what the term RSS means. Instead, they need a simple interface where they can choose the information and content that interests them. This is where personalized start pages and browser-based experiences can help move RSS into the mainstream.”

Learn how to take full marketing advantage of RSS and get all the expertise, knowledge and how-to information for implementing RSS in your marketing mix, from direct marketing, PR, e-commerce, internal communications and online publishing to SEO, traffic generation and customer relationship management. Including complete interviews with more than 40 RSS marketing experts. Click here now: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/book/

written by:Myspace