Applying For a Small Business Loan

When you have ideas, plans, and desires in place, the anticipation of moving forward in operation a small business is extremely exciting. Only one thing can hold you back – money. Working with a lender and applying for a small business loan can be easy or difficult, depending on how much preparation you’ve put into the process.The lender will ask for a variety of items when applying for a small business loan1. Business Plan.If you don’t already have one, write one. Virtually no lender will consider you for a small business loan without the organization, detail, and direction you have for your business, and all of this is stated in a business plan. For information on how to write a business plan, visit sample-business-plan.org/sample-business-plan-directory.html – Don’t be afraid to hire a professional writer to write or proofread the plan for you if you’re not confident in doing it yourself.2. Loan Proposal.Nearly all lenders require a loan proposal if you are applying for a small business loan. After you’ve written a detailed business plan, your loan proposal can be written. The information in a loan proposal includes details on who you are, including your experience and business desires; how much money you need and what it will be used to purchase or fund; how you intend to pay back the loan; and what your plans are if you cannot pay the loan back in full.3. Completed Lender’s Application.Most lenders will also require that you complete a business loan application when applying for a small business loan. Your application should be very organized and presented in a professional manner. Don’t omit any details, and be completely honest about your credit history, even if you don’t have an excellent credit rating, when applying for a small business loan. Some lenders base their loans on the character of the person applying for a small business loan, and if you’re “borderline” for qualifying for the loan, your honest application can prove to the lender that you are indeed trustworthy for receiving a small business loan.4. Financial Statements.If your business is already in existence, visit the lender for your interview with two years of tax records, as well as two years of business and personal bank statements when applying for a small business loan. Not all of that information may be required immediately when applying for a small business loan, but it’s better to be prepared with the information on hand, rather than have to tell them that you’ll have to bring that in at a later date. Your tax records will show the profitability of the business, as well as detail its expenditures. Your bank statements will prove that money is coming in, and that the business is already established. If your business is yet to be launched, you still need to go to the meeting prepared with both two years of tax forms and two years of personal bank statements when applying for a small business loan. This will show the lender that you are a responsible, reliable individual, that you pay your bills, and that you file your taxes in an honest, timely, and fair manner.5. ResumeWhile not required for a meeting with a lender, it’s probably a good idea for you to have a current resume with you for the interview with the lender when applying for a small business loan. As mentioned, there will be some judgment of your character made at your loan interview. If this should come into play during the interview, you can easily present your resume to show your work experience when applying for a small business loan. This is especially important if you’ve worked in the field in which your business will be based. It’s also important in the instance that you have experience in a business-related area, such as management, marketing, or accounting, to show that you are capable of succeeding in business due to your experience in working with other businesses.The bottom line is to be prepared when applying for a small business loan:- Visit the lender with all files neatly presented and very organized.- Present information as requested during the application process and interview when applying for a small business loan.- Dress for success. Don’t show up at your meeting in jeans and a sweatshirt when applying for a small business loan.- Don’t worry if you’ve forgotten anything, and don’t get flustered. Offer to drop off or fax the requested information as soon as you leave the meeting. Offer to provide any additional information that could possibly play a role in your loan’s approval.If your business loan is not approved, don’t become frustrated. Many small businesses are declined on small business loans. Look into alternative loan sources, and don’t give up.

TOP SEO Mistakes – Top SEO Website Errors

Are you using the right keywords to optimize your website?
In many cases websites are optimized for the wrong SEO keywords. You need to do the research to find out what SEO keyword phrases people actually use to search for businesses in your particular field. In many cases you will discover that SEO keyword phrases that you thought were important are in fact rarely searched for; the opposite is also true.How well does your website show up well in Google, Yahoo, Ask and Bing?
You should test the effect of searching for your SEO keywords on a regular basis in all the major search engines. Your website position in the search engines will fluctuate and needs regular monitoring.Website Title – The single most important onsite SEO factor.
The web page title is very important. It should be relevant, the correct length and different on every page within the website. It is surprising how often we see inappropriate web page titles, no titles at all or a title that says something stupid like “HOME’ or in the case of really lazy website designers ‘TITLE GOES HERE’. Use a different title for each page within your website. Remember that search engines list pages, not websites, so each page is a fresh SEO opportunity.Website Description.
Tell Google what your page is about. As with the web page title, in many cases the Description is missing or incorrectly used.Website SEO Keywords.
While many search engines no longer use Keyword Meta tags, some still do, and they should accurately reflect page content, but you must be careful not to use too many of them.Broken links will harm your SEO efforts.
This is the number one error that we find when auditing websites. You click on a link within the website and you see an error message telling you that the page cannot be found. This delivers a very unprofessional image to people visiting your website. It is likely that Google will also mark you down in the search engine rankings, as Google expects technically perfect websites. There is no excuse for broken links within a website. Broken image links are also a common error found within websites. Instead of a picture being displayed you will see a broken image logo. Again this is easily checked for by professional website designers and there is no reason for a website to have broken image links.Picture only websites are disastrous for SEO.
Sometimes you will visit a website that appears to be displaying the usual mixture of text and pictures, but on closer inspection, even the text is actually contained within a picture. If there is no real text displayed within a website, Google has no clue what the website is about and the website will feature very poorly in the search engine results. There are ways to partly fix this, using what are called ‘Alt’ tags, used in combination with the website title and description, but as a rule your website should contain lots of relevant text. This is what Google likes!No relevant SEO keywords in a page.
If your website content fails to mention your product or service, it is not surprising that your website ranks poorly within Google. There are lots of tricks relating to where you place your keywords on a page and that is what we excel at. Simply stuffing a page with keywords will not achieve the desired result, and may even hurt your listing within Google, as it may interpret too many keywords as an attempt to spam the search engine listings. Google takes a very dim view of attempts to spam it.Number of back links
A very important SEO factor. Do you know how many other websites link to your website? Google does. The more links to your website, the better. Also the quality and source of the links is important to Google. If you suddenly gain hundreds of links overnight, this can trip the spam alert at the search engines and you can end up in a worse position within the search engines than before you started any SEO activities on your website.Google Page Rank.
Do you know what your Google Page Rank number is? In fact do you know what the Google Page Rank means? Google rates all sites using hundreds of different criteria and comes up with a number for your website. 0 is bad while 10 is the highest value. The higher the Page Rank the more likely that your website will show up higher within the Google search engine results. Many websites we audit have a page rank of 0 or 1, which is not good! Install the Google toolbar to view your website’s PageRank.Alt tags.
Great for your website’s SEO. Alt tags (short for Alternative tags) are a way of telling Google what a picture is about. As far as Google is concerned a picture is just a picture. Google does not know what a picture is about, unless you specifically tell Google using an Alt tag. It is amazing how few website designers go to the bother of using alt tags, which is a pity, as proper use of alt tags can have a big influence on your listing within the Google search engine results.Ease of Navigation and menu issues.
Many websites are hard to navigate. This means that it may be difficult to move from page to page, or back to the home page. This is such an important aspect for your website visitors and it is a shame that we see so many poorly constructed menu systems. Google may also find it hard to navigate your website and categorize each webpage which can harm your SEO efforts.Spell checking and grammatical issues.
It is vital that you check the spelling within your website. The correct use of grammar is also important. If your website is full of these types of errors, it gives a poor impression. Your company looks unprofessional. Correct spelling is also important for Google.Flash and java issues.
If your website uses flash or java to enable website navigation, make sure that you use the technology carefully as you may find that some search engines are unable to follow the links and as a result will not list most of your website pages within their search engine listings.Google Analytics.
This is a free tool from Google that allows you to analyze visitors to your website and track how they interact with your website. Has your website been enabled to show Google analytics data? If not you are missing out on a vital source of information about your website.Heading tags.
Proper use of heading tags within your HTML code can play a vital role in onsite keyword SEO. Many websites we audit are completely devoid of any heading tags. Try and use 2 or 3 levels of headers.Open Directory Project.
Did you know that a submission to the Open Directory Project is one of the most valuable links you can get in terms of your website’s SEO? They reject most sites and only accept sites that are technically near perfect and contain high quality information, presented through a professionally designed interface that is easy to navigate.How many pages of your website are indexed in Google?
Do you know how to see exactly how many pages that make up your website are listed within Google? You would expect Google to know about your home page, but the more pages within your website that Google knows about, the better. For example a large website promoted by us, has 10,300 pages listed within Google.W3C validation.
W3C is an organization that sets website standards. Do you know if your website passes W3C validation?File names.
The name of a file can be a valuable clue to Google, as to what the file contains. For instance if you have a picture of a motor car and the picture file is called 0001.JPG this does not tell Google anything. On the other hand if the file was called CARS-FOR-SALE-IN-PERTH.JPG, then this can help considerably with your website SEO. The same principle applies to the naming of all files and folders within your website.PDF file size Issues.
If you use PDF files, there are many ways of reducing the size of the final PDF file. The larger the file size the slower the PDF file will load on the screen or download to a hard disk.Do all the major search engines know about your website?
Remember that apart from Google there are a few other search engines that your website should be listed in, such as Yahoo, Bing and Ask.Flash file sizes.
The larger the size of your flash file, the longer it will take to load. Many sites use flash banners that have enormous file sizes. This can be very frustrating for your visitors.Google Places page.
This is a fantastic way of getting your website listed in the local service or products section within the Google results. The majority of websites do not use this feature at all and many of those that do use it do not take full advantage of the SEO opportunities afforded by the Google Places feature.Flash or graphical intro pages.
How often have you visited a website to be greeted by a meter that tells you a flash introduction screen is loading, which often seem to take forever to load and once they do load actually display little relevant information. If you are lucky you can click on a ‘skip intro’ button. Do not use intro pages as they just annoy website visitors and can harm your website SEO.Text used within links (anchor text).
The correct use of keyword text within a hyperlink can play a significant part in your on-page keyword SEO strategy. In many cases this SEO opportunity is wasted when the hyperlink contains words such as ‘click here’.Home page file size.
Do you know the combined file size of your home page? By combined, I mean not just the HTML page itself, but all the associated graphic, CSS and flash files. The longer a page takes to load, the more likely a visitor will click on the Back button and visit a different website.Java issues.
If a visitor to your website has disabled Java in their local browser, how will this affect your website? Will the menu systems still work? If you must use Java, at least have an alternate menus system that visitors can use. Search engines may have difficulty following some types of Java based menu systems.Do not use hidden text to try and trick the search engines.
Everyone knows that having keywords on your web page is important as far as SEO is concerned. A very old trick is to have lists of your keywords repeated over and over at the bottom of the page, formatted to display in white text on a white background. Google hates this type of spamming and is on the lookout for it. Far from improving your website’s position with the Google Search Engines results, you could find that your website gets severely penalized by Google. Do not try spamming Google, they will find out!

What Is Link Popularity and What Has It Done For Me Lately!

Link Popularity or Link Pop as it is sometimes abbreviated is the number and quality of links that are pointing to your website. This helps the major search engines determine how popular your site is and therefore how high to rank it in the search engine results for a certain keyword. At the very basic level this mean that the more link you have coming to your site or pointing to your site the higher in the search engines you will rank which means more traffic. For most commercial sites more traffic means more money.Link popularity was a concept created by the brains behind the largest search engine in the world and the most commonly used. Google accounts for a large percentage of the daily searches that occur on the internet and its popularity has been due to a concept created by its founders Lary Page and Sergey Brin. The concept that the more links that a site has the more useful it must be. They took this concept even further and developed a complex and secret formula that not only counts the number of links coming to a site but also gives each of the links a different rate depending on the link popularity of the linking site. So a link from a Page Rank 8 website is weighted more heavily and will help a website more then a link from a web site with a page rank of 2. So the more a webmaster can get links from high ranking pages the better the site will do in the search engines. Also the high their own Page Rank or PR will be. So Page Rank is determined by link popularity.So how can you build high quality incoming links that will help you rate well and have a great link popularity so you show up on the first page of the search engine results? You have to find and build links to your website. The best types of links to build are one way links. These are links that are from another website pointing to your but one that you do not link back to.Building Your Link Pop1. Develop as many links to your website as possible (See Thing To Look Out For)2. Link to websites with a variety of Page Ranks but focus on getting links from the high page rank websites.3. Look for ways to build one way links and build as many as possible.4. Two way links will also help your websites Link Pop.Things To Look Out For1. Don’t go overboard with the concept and build 1,000′s of one way links in a month. Spread the work out over time and build links each day. This is a more natural way and won’t get your website in trouble with Google.2. Link only to sites that are listed in Google. You don’t want to list to any sites that have been removed from Google’s database. You can do this by searching for the website unless it is brand new the website address will show up in Google. Or by using the Google Toolbar you can check the website Page Rank. If the Page Rank Bar is grayed out you should watch out.3. Don’t ever link to or from FFA or Free For All link pages.4. Don’t exchange links with irrelevant websites. If you website is about Babies and you have links from Car racing websites this might throw up a red flag for the Google Bot.In short if you want to improve where you website is listed in the search engine results pages you need to build one way links to your website. The more links you build the higher up in the results your website will appear when people search for certain keywords you are competing for. Two of the easiest ways to get high quality one way links to your website is through submitting your site to Directories and submitting articles to article directories. Most of all develop your links slowly around 10 to 20 per day and keep doing this for a few months without giving up.

How to Reach Students in the Digital Age With a Certificate in Instructional Technology

The field of education is constantly changing and growing with technology. In this digital era, children grow up with computers from the time they are very young. In order to reach these children, educators need to adapt to technology in education and learn how to teach students using technological tools. It’s nearly impossible to avoid using technology and computers these days, especially when it comes to education. Most students have grown up with computers since birth or childhood and use them to learn too. It’s important to know how to use computers if you want to be an effective educator.Getting a certificate in instructional technology is designed to improve classroom technology and integration skills and inspire teachers interested in improving their classroom instruction through technology integration. Beyond this, completing an instructional technology program also helps build resumes. Teachers interested in learning more about technology or enhancing their technology skills should strongly consider pursuing a certificate in instructional technology as a way to improve their careers and expand their knowledge.It’s important for teachers to know the foundations of educational technology. This will help form a basis for which to build upon. Learning about educational technology usually begins with understanding how a computer works, including hardware, operating systems, and networking for educators. This includes learning how to upgrade, repair, maintain, and troubleshoot computers for the purpose of providing positive learning environments and experiences for a diverse array of end users including teachers themselves. Even for teachers who aren’t interested in teaching technology, learning about the basic foundations of educational technology can be helpful for teachers and students alike.Some courses show teachers everything from the beginning, including how to use a computer, so you don’t need any experience before taking any classes. Classes in the foundations of educational technology will focus on everything involving computers, even the details for beginners including how to use a printer. This can be extremely helpful for educators, especially those who have not had much or any practice and experience with computers. Whether you don’t own one or are not part of the digital generation, you can still learn by starting from scratch. This will advance both your personal and professional lives for the better because whether you teach technology or not, you will definitely need to use it one day if you continue with a career in education.Because technology is so important, you should understand not only the basics, but also how to incorporate it into the classroom setting as well as within lessons and classroom activities. However, before that can be possible it’s necessary to understand the social and historical development of the use of technology in education. Learning about the evolution of technology and its applications to education and having an understanding of the social and historical development of the use of technology within K-12 education will take you much further than merely learning how to use a computer.Computer ethics, etiquette, the digital divide, equity regarding students with special needs, English as a second language, and socio-economic factors are also important themes to explore and discuss. Research can show you a lot about the equity issues concerning access and use of computers and related technologies.Perhaps the best part about expanding your knowledge of instructional technology is the effect it has on learning for students. Project based and collaborative learning with computers are fun and effective ways for students to learn. This learning can be implemented in a regular classroom or in a computer laboratory, but either way, ethics, etiquette, and safety online for students and teachers should be of utmost concern at all times.

Entertainment Company Logos

Organizations in the Entertainment market are in a field that is heavy on creativity, innovation, style, and trends. What people found entertaining last year may be boring this year. Trends in music and video game tastes change over time. Stability is not a hallmark of this industry. So a logo that works great for a bank may be too sedate for an Entertainment company. The relevant point here is that a logo must fit the company’s image and the nature of its business. Some entertainment business owners actually ask professional designers to “piggyback” on some identity from an unrelated company simply because they like it. All images — regardless of industry — must fit the company they are intended to represent.Considerations in Designing an Entertainment LogoEntertainment companies are particularly difficult to design for. Because of the nature of that industry it’s easy to overdo the “sizzle” in designing the logo. Yes you want strong and bold colors but be careful of how many you use. Yes you want creative imagery, but be careful about incorporating graphics that can’t be enlarged or reduced. Will that 3d enhancement that looks great on a poster transfer to a letterhead or to the Internet? Just like any other business, entertainment company logos are the starting point for all communication efforts. Letterhead, business cards, marketing material, promotional items, advertising material, and even corporate offices all incorporate the business identity.Take color as an example. Yes you want to use bold colors like red, orange, and maybe even indigo. Blues and blacks are desirable as well and gradients of these colors add impact. But make sure you check what happens in Black and White. If the logo won’t produce well either adjust the colors or make sure the entertainment company for whom the image is being designed has a budget that will allow for a hundred percent color reproduction.Font size is another issue that follows the same principle. 3d Effects with certain fonts look great but will they look great everywhere the identity is applied. The “Keep it Simple” rule of design is especially important because it is easy to confuse simplicity with being dull and boring. But simplicity works with these companies. Consider one of the most famous entertainment logos of all time: Paramount Pictures.The Paramount Logo – Great ExampleSimple, elegant, and originally appearing in three colors with minimal shading, this logo has been around with some minor variations for almost a hundred years. The mountain, the stars, and the sky are all attention grabbers. What’s more this image evokes curiosity in the viewer. What does a mountain have to do with movies? Is that Mount Fujiyama? What do the stars represent? Some think the movie was just a doodle on the designer’s pad but the stars we know were meant to represent the twenty four movie stars who were signed with Paramount at the time. Paramount’s original owner, Adolph Zukor, was one of the first to establish Hollywood’s star system where famous actors and actresses would make movies for a single studio. While the stars are white note the color gradations in the sky in some uses of the logo. Note that these gradations do not harm the impact of the design when reproduced in black and white. Current entertainment companies would do well to study those images that have withstood the test of time.

Top 3 Ways You May Be Hurting Your Brand

Your Brand Is AliveA brand is a living, breathing thing. You must feed it and nurture it to make sure it stays healthy. Even healthy brands, like other living things, can become very unhealthy when treated poorly or neglected. Unfortunately, many of us do great harm to our brands despite our good intentions.I’ve had the opportunity to manage brands in multiple industries and at various stages of the brand life cycle. This experience has included established brands that were number one in market share to spanking new, freshly launched brands. Regardless of size or age or industry, they all needed proper nurturing to become healthy and grow.The Damage We DoIt is possible that external events can cause damage to the brand, but there is often little we can do to protect against that other than damage control after the fact. Even if you make all the right moves with your brand, unforeseen events may still occur that are beyond your control. Since it does us no good to dwell on those things we can’t control, we’ll focus on the things we can control. Brand Management, or mismanagement, is something we can control and is the point of this discussion.In my experience, most of the harm we do to our brands is the direct result of the decisions we make and the actions we take. While the abuse we sometimes cause may be unintended, it is generally not accidental. Following is a quick breakdown of what I consider to be the three most common ways we abuse our brands despite very good intentions.Abuse #1: NarcissismQuite simply, this is when we, as marketers, attempt to make our brand a reflection of our own desires. Here’s a newsflash for you. It isn’t about you! The single most important role for any manager of brands is to serve as the voice of the consumer within your company. This means you set your personal wants and needs aside and focus on satisfying those of the consumer.I ran into this at every company I ever worked and with many people both inside and outside marketing. My favorite response when I encountered this was a pointed reminder of the role of brand management. It went something like “What you like doesn’t matter…we focus on what our consumers like”. Any company unwilling to adhere to this approach with their brands will eventually have some very weak brands.Abuse #2: Everything to EveryoneOur brand is a great brand. If we water down any brand attributes that strongly define it as belonging to a particular segment it can appeal to everyone, right? Wrong. Your brand is what it is and the attributes that clearly differentiate your brand from the competition are strengths. It is rare that a strong brand can have universal appeal.I’m a firm believer in the philosophy that, if you focus on everything, you’ve focused on nothing. If you want a brand that is built to last, it is absolutely essential that you remain disciplined in your brand positioning. This means you appeal strongly to the target consumer base and you accept that this means your realistic market potential has its limitations. Even the biggest brands have to live with this if they’re going to survive.Abuse #3: Handyman SpecialThis may be the worst of the bunch and I’d wager that it’s the most common. This is the death of your brand through excessive tinkering. I’m guessing most of you have seen this. You have a healthy brand experiencing steady organic growth and you have some turnover on your brand team. Then a new guy comes in and he’s god’s gift to marketing and decides it’s time to change your brand strategy.Big mistake. A brand strategy is a long-term plan. While it is healthy to periodically evaluate your plan and refresh your tactics, you don’t change your strategy if your brand is healthy. I don’t care if you change out your brand managers every six months. You don’t change your strategy to match. You are much better off to maintain consistent implementation of a good strategy that to keep changing in pursuit of a great strategy.It’s About DisciplineThis is by no means a comprehensive list of all the ways we abuse our brands and just knowing what they are won’t guarantee that you avoid them. At the end of the day, brand management success will be much more dependent on remaining disciplined in your brand plan that brilliant innovation. I know big, radical change is fun and it’s sexy but that’s not the key to long-term success. Your brand team, like any other team, should be well versed in the fundamentals of brand management and kept within the boundaries those fundamentals provide.

E-Learning and the Future of Online Education

Among the most recent technological advances that have been promoting the competitiveness of companies, such as call centers, electronic commerce, customer relationship management centers and human resource management centers, is a technology hub that is to realize its full potential – electronic education or more popularly the e-learning format.By definition, e-learning is the provision of educational programs and learning systems through electronic means. The e-learning is based on the use of a computer or other electronic device (for instance, mobile phone) to provide people with educational materials on the go. Distance education laid the foundation for the development of e-learning, which solves some difficulties in terms of timing, synchronization of schedules, attendance and travel, typical problems of traditional education.Also, the e-learning can involve a wider range of equipment online education. The term e-learning covers a broad suite of applications and processes such as Web-based learning, computer based training, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration (group work).Advantages of E-Learning ProgramsWe present what experts in this area considered the most important benefits to the education industry:Increased Productivity: The e-learning solutions as Web-based training (WBT, web-based training) and computer based training (CBT computer-based training) allows students to study from your desktop. Direct delivery of the courses can reduce downtime involving low productivity and helps to eliminate travel costs.Timely: When launching a new product or service, e-learning can provide simultaneous training many participants about the processes and applications of the new product. A good program of e-learning can provide the necessary training in time to meet a specific date of commencement of operations.Flexible Training: An e-learning system usually has a modular design. In some cases, participants can choose their own learning path. Additionally, users can mark certain sources of information as a reference, thus facilitating the process of change and increasing the benefits of the program.Cost Savings per Participant: Perhaps the greatest benefit of e-learning is that the total cost of training per participant is lower than in a traditional instructor-led. However, e-learning programs tailored to entry may be more expensive due to the design and development thereof. It is recommended to conduct a thorough analysis to determine whether the e-learning is the best solution for your training needs and training before investing in the project.What Discourages E-Learning? The main barriers that have prevented the integration of these technologies of e-learning training programs of companies are:1. Organizational structure and traditionalism.2. Lack of best practices.3. The lack of support and experience.4. Lack of understanding and vision about e-learning.5. The lack of human resources and user acceptance.6. Organizations and traditional processes.7. The lack of skill on the part of teachers and instructors, coupled with a negative attitude.8. Lack of strategic actions.9. Lack of training and support to teachers and instructors.10. The time required for the preparation of the material.The Most Common ErrorsLike any emerging technology, e-learning requires the involvement of expert consultants who can implement a program leading organizations to success. Then we present the ten most common mistakes when defining a strategy for e-learning:1. No vision.2. Confusing strategy with technology.3. Place the Learning Management System (LMS, learning management system) as the core of the strategy.4. Focusing on the development and delivery rather than the business itself.5. Focus on transforming a conventional training program in an online education program.6. No consensus among partners.7. No time to diagnose the lack of support from senior management.8. To think that this new function is a part-time work or short duration.9. Ignore the weaknesses and dangers.10. Failure to change management.Designing Tomorrow’s EducationWhile in Mexico and there are companies that offer e-learning solutions that involve content developed by experts, and infrastructure management platforms and other services, the acceptance of these technologies is not yet that this industry would have. Experts say that the adoption of e-learning in Mexico has been slow because there are cultural barriers.Like other initiatives such as e-Mexico, public and private institutions are required to design and implement specific programs to advance the education industry in Latin America. It is imperative to mobilize the educational and cultural communities, as well as economic and social actors to accelerate changes in education systems and training for our countries to move towards a knowledge-based society.An initiative of e-learning could be a path to modernize our economy. At the same time, through the components of the education industry, can provide the entire community, but particularly to our young people the skills and tools they need to succeed in a globalized economy based on knowledge. Those who are more interested in such projects are indeed educational institutions, which reduce costs for both the student and for the institution itself, mean a great incentive.While companies continue to hire graduates of universities that demand Internet resources and access to information based on Web technologies, a matter of time that these organizations realize that the adoption of this new generation of technologies is imminent.

What Are the Top Social Networking Sites and How Do They Help My Business Succeed?

Using social networking sites can help your business grow. With proper use they can also help you get more website traffic and make it build naturally. To make the best use of your time, you should know what types of social networking sites are available and then use the ones that fit your business needs.Facebook Fan PagesWith an ever growing population, Facebook has become the hot spot of social networking. Fan pages allow people to “like” your business or website which enables you to contact them in limited capacity. They can visit your page and add images and comments and depending on their settings their friends can see when they comment.NingRecently this site switched to a paid program, but with it you can build your own social networking sites. You can create one related to your business or related to your niche. Several radio stations have created their own networking sites with Ning.YouTubeA video sharing site that allows users to comment, record video responses and more to create a social networking atmosphere. You can create fun videos related to your business or informative, or educational. The more beneficial it is to users the more likely they are to share it with others which means more website traffic for you.Blog Talk RadioStart your own radio show. Listeners can listen via computer or phone and they can chat on the website. This is a great way to listen to what your potential buyers want or what they want to know.UstreamSocial networking meets live streaming TV with this social media site. Viewers can watch online and chat with each other and you. You can have regularly scheduled shows to talk about your niche, answer questions, or offer instructions. Regular shows will help bring more website traffic by bringing in regular viewers.TwitterTake blogging and shrink it down to 140 characters and you have Twitter. You basically can chat with the world. For a business this means sharing that you have a new blog post, you are running a sale, or if you are a food cart in a big city where you are going to be in the next half hour.LinkedInBefore social networking became the rage, networking was what people did in business. People attended networking meetings to maintain current business contacts and create new connections. LinkedIn is a site dedicated to the old style of business with elements of social networking. Business owners and employees can register with LinkedIn and include the business name in their individual profiles as their job.Special Social NetworksSocial networking sites can further be defined by the niche of your business. There are social networking sites for dog owners and dog related businesses. Cats, lizards, horses and other animals have special networking sites as well. Comic collectors, car devotees, biking, hiking whatever your business niche there is probably a specialized social network for it.

How to Organize Your Home for Educational Success

Parents need to organize their homes to be conducive to an educational environment for their children. Homes that are conducive to education have developed an environment that will increase the academic preparedness for their children. In our society, children need all the advantages necessary to become well-educated and if children can start the journey from home, all the better.We all realize that the examples we give to our children can play a major part in what kind of person they grow up to be. If we set good examples for our children, hopefully they will observe and learn from those examples. Since parents set the first examples for their children, why not set an example of maintaining a well-organized home that has an educational environment.Parents should realize there may be a direct relationship between a clean, well organized home and how much education and financial success children will achieve. Parents should always be looking for every advantage for their children, and if developing successful children is as simple as keeping a clean and orderly home. All of our homes should be clean. We also know that it takes more than keeping a clean house to raise educated children, and by no means am I saying that children must come from an organized, clean home in order to be successful. Children can learn in any environment, but an organized environment is more conducive to success.Parents should also remember that requiring children to keep the house clean is part of keeping an environment conducive to education. Children should be given the responsibility of keeping their bedroom clean and also keeping any room they use in the house clean. In addition, children should have consequences for not keeping their bedroom or any room they use clean. This is a good way to build some responsibility in the children.When organizing a home conducive for education anything that is not useful should be thrown out to make room for the educational environment. When this is completed the parents should try and find a room in the house that can be used for educational purposes. The room can be a shared room, but when someone walks in the room, they will observe the many educational tools. More information will be provided about this room later in this article.To continue with organizing an educational friendly home, parents should place educational items throughout the house to make children aware of the importance of education. Parents could start by hanging up pictures throughout the house depict different people from other counties. This is a perfect time for parents to discuss the pictures with their children and give them a lesson about the people. The history lessons that can be derived from pictures can be invaluable for children, and remember this is part of building a house conducive to education for children.In building an education friendly home the parents must have several bookshelves throughout the house. Bookshelves mean there are books in the home. Books should always be visible throughout the house for children, so they can realize the importance of them. Homes with no books in them are sending the wrong message to their children. Reading is the foundation of education, and the only way children can practice their reading is to have books at home. The bookshelves should be placed in strategic places throughout the house. One of the most important rooms to place the bookshelf is the child’s bedroom. Children need to have easy access to books to encourage them to read. Parents should find one or two other locations in the house for bookshelves. Parents may have a special workroom in the house that could be another good location for a bookshelf.If the house is big enough to set aside a special room for educational tools, this would be very helpful for children and adults. This room should be well lit and have a large desk or table with a computer and printer that has access to the Internet. This is a good place to have a bookshelf and books. Now since we live in the technology age, the room should also be equipped with fax, scanner, and telephone. Children can use this room to do homework, research and reading. This is what we call a 21st century room. Parents who can afford to have a 21st century room are giving their children an educational advantage that should help with their success.Parents should also target other rooms in the house to develop an educational environment. If the house has a basement the parents can put up posters with positive messages to encourage children. Furthermore, parents can place magazines in the bathroom and in the kitchen to encourage reading. The kitchen could be used to place children’s report cards on the refrigerator each semester. Parents who have degrees, awards or certificate should place them on a wall in the house or a room that is visible. Children love to see accomplishments of their parents, and maybe it can motivate them to be successful. Parents should remember that the goal is to build the entire house as an educational environment.In addition to the educational friendly home, the parents should set some routines in place for their children that go hand and hand with the educational environment. Some routines that should be in place include having children set a special time each night to do homework, a set time to get up each morning and go to sleep each night. Children should have procedures for what chores are expected of them. It also helps if parents show children how to organize their room by placing items in special places. Parents should also consider posting a chart on the inside front cover of their child’s folders to track the amount of time spent studying for each subject, and note what chapters and assignments have been completed. This can help organize your student’s educational materials within your home and document his or her learning accomplishments for the school year.Time should be set aside for children to read. If possible, dinner should be eaten as a family, and parents should discuss the happening of the day.Parents should monitor noise levels during homework time. Whether the child is working independently or together with parents, the phones, televisions and outside noises distract should be at a minimum. Parents should be aware of study time and encourage family and visitors to avoid unnecessary interruptions, such as loud video games or conversations. Consider turning off or silencing electronic devices that can interfere with students’ concentration during study time. Television should be turned off during the week and only allowed on the week-end.Parents should build a relationship with their children that encourage them to do a good job at school; this is part of the process of building a home conducive to educational success. The parents should expect their children to be successful in school and provide all resources needed to make it happen. Parents should continuously tell their children how smart they are and make sure they placed them in educational enrichment programs outside of their normal school day to build on their intelligence. If parents want their children to attend college, this should be clearly stated at an early age. If parents are trying to gear children toward a particular career they must begin early by focusing on skills that are necessary for that career.In order to continuously encourage children, parents should show interest in their child’s ideas and allow them to express themselves. Don’t continuously quiet them.Remember, learning at home doesn’t always have to be restricted to your residence – visiting a local science museum or taking in a play may be related to something the child is doing at school, and will broaden the child perspective on life.

S&P 500 Rallies As U.S. Dollar Pulls Back Towards Weekly Lows

Key Insights
The strong pullback in the U.S. dollar provided significant support to stocks.
Treasury yields have pulled back after touching new highs, which served as an additional positive catalyst for S&P 500.
A move above 3730 will push S&P 500 towards the resistance level at 3760.
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Pfizer Rallies After Announcing A Huge Price Hike For Its COVID-19 Vaccines
S&P 500 is currently trying to settle above 3730 as traders’ appetite for risk is growing. The U.S. dollar has recently gained strong downside momentum as the BoJ intervened to stop the rally in USD/JPY. Weaker U.S. dollar is bullish for stocks as it increases profits of multinational companies and makes U.S. equities cheaper for foreign investors.

The leading oil services company Schlumberger is up by 9% after beating analyst estimates on both earnings and revenue. Schlumberger’s peers Baker Hughes and Halliburton have also enjoyed strong support today.

Vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna gained strong upside momentum after Pfizer announced that it will raise the price of its coronavirus vaccine to $110 – $130 per shot.

Biggest losers today include Verizon and Twitter. Verizon is down by 5% despite beating analyst estimates on both earnings and revenue. Subscriber numbers missed estimates, and traders pushed the stock to multi-year lows.

Twitter stock moved towards the $50 level as the U.S. may conduct a security review of Musk’s purchase of the company.

From a big picture point of view, today’s rebound is broad, and most market segments are moving higher. Treasury yields have started to move lower after testing new highs, providing additional support to S&P 500. It looks that some traders are ready to bet that Fed will be less hawkish than previously expected.

S&P 500 Tests Resistance At 3730

S&P 500 has recently managed to get above the 20 EMA and is trying to settle above the resistance at 3730. RSI is in the moderate territory, and there is plenty of room to gain additional upside momentum in case the right catalysts emerge.

If S&P 500 manages to settle above 3730, it will head towards the next resistance level at 3760. A successful test of this level will push S&P 500 towards the next resistance at October highs at 3805. The 50 EMA is located in the nearby, so S&P 500 will likely face strong resistance above the 3800 level.

On the support side, the previous resistance at 3700 will likely serve as the first support level for S&P 500. In case S&P 500 declines below this level, it will move towards the next support level at 3675. A move below 3675 will push S&P 500 towards the support at 3640.