Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Marketing - About


Advertising by Oliver Totzke


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What is advertising? Advertising is a means of conveying information to consumers about a product or service that exists in many different media. Advertising serves to persuade and inform a consumer base in order to influence them and their purchasing power. (47) No matter the channel by which the advertising is communicated, be it in print, video, or sound-all advertising seeks to accomplish the same goal.

Is advertising a direct affect Popular Culture, or is it a direct effect of Popular Culture? Through the exploration of advertising history in the 20th century, brand identities and their development, along with the examination of Popular Culture, and historical events occurring during the same time frame, we can hope to
find an answer to both of these questions.

Lowering of prices and the beginning of mass production made products more widely available to the public, and thus carrying with it, the need to bring their attention to the new items on the market. With the creation and development of the transcontinental railroad, a national market for products opened.

Although the first advertising agency was developed in 1841 by Volney B. Palmer, it wasn't until the 20th century that advertising agencies began to offer a full spectrum of services ranging from branding and logo design, to concepts, and implementation of the campaign. Originally, the agency served to secure the ad space in a newspaper. By the time the 20th century began there were several agencies for companies to choose from. Experts started coming out of the woodwork left and right to share their thoughts on advertising and the best methods to use, writing book after book on the subject. (1)

The nearly three decade span between 1900 and 1929, known as the "Lost Generation" signified a time in our history full of hardship, and struggle for the majority of America. However, it was during this time that several changes took place, affecting the world as we know it today. America at this time was emerging as a global superpower, and facing many of the same issues we still see in our current society; immigration, poverty, labor and safety issues. (6)

The Lost Generation was referred to as such because "their inherited values could not operate in the postwar world and they felt spiritually alienated from a country they considered hopelessly provincial and emotionally barren". More specifically pertaining to a group of writers, all people who were born and came of age during this time are collectively known as members of this generation. (11)

Women and minorities were beginning to find a sense of liberation while they took over running the commercial world in place of the men, who were off fighting in World War I. The development of Henry Ford's assembly line and vehicles occurred in 1914 and made travel possible for more American citizens each and every day. (3)

It was during this era that advertising a product moved from a static announcement about the new product, to a more persuasive manner; actually trying to convince a consumer that they needed the new product. By using this technique advertisers developed repeat customers for a company, which in turn created brand loyalty. Brand loyalty helped even more to bring new products to an existing consumer base, while increasing the consumer base in general. Brand Loyalty "is the consumer's conscious or unconscious decision, expressed through intention or behavior, to repurchase a brand continually". (31) Brand loyalty occurs because something about the product, be it features, quality, price and value, or even the manner in which it was advertised, has convinced the consumer that it is worth purchasing continually; whether it be on a regular basis or not. To create brand loyalty, advertisers have to break an existing consumer habit, create the new habit of buying their product versus the competitor, and strengthen the newly developed habit by repeating the value of the product and encouraging maintaining purchase of the product in the future. In order for brand loyalty to work efficiently, an advertiser must present the product with a "personality" giving its advertising memorable and positive qualities. (31)

Before World War I, scandalous journals exposing greed and corruption in the business sector were able to achieve widespread circulation. Because of changes in print technology introduced in the 1890's, and a new heavy dependence on advertisers, production costs were lowered; and the discount was reflected to the consumer. Since the magazines were more affordable, they began to circulate publicly more than in the past. Readership began to fall when consumers were bored with the slander, and the magazines began to change course from the "muckracking" and moved to consumerism.

Soon after the change, magazines like Ladies Home Journal, and Saturday Evening Post became staples in most middle class homes. In 1923, a gentleman by the name of Henry Luce began production of Time Magazine, aimed at an audience of serious newsreaders.

With these tools in hand, the advertising industry was soon reaching millions of readers on a daily or weekly basis. Keeping this in mind, the industry chose to step up the game a little by hiring famous figures (movie stars, sports stars, etc) to endorse a product. Famous names and faces were used to endorse anything and everything from medicine and household products to cigarettes and other forms of tobacco.

Woodbury Soap launched its "A Skin you Love to Touch" ad campaign in Ladies Home Journal in 1911, making it the first ad campaign to use sex appeal. (2) The use of sex appeal in this campaign is a clear landmark in advertising history. (10)

In 1915, several agencies form the National Outdoor Advertising Bureau, and eventually end up in control of nearly 75% of America's outdoor advertising. (2) This group was created in order to serve the outdoor advertising needs of multiple agencies; and to inspect fields used for clients.

By the year 1917, the American Association of Advertising (AAAA) is created. This advertising association consisted of 111 charter members, and was America's first agency trade association. (2) AAAA represents the advertising agency businesses in the country. "The AAAA is not a club. It is a management-oriented association that offers its members the broadest possible services, expertise and information regarding the advertising agency business." (8)

America's first radio station debuted in 1920--KDKA, Pittsburgh--breaking new ground for advertising by providing yet another medium to communicate a message with. (2). KDKA's license was issued October 27, 1920, and was the first radio license ever issued in the United States. The call letters "KDKA" were assigned to the station from a roster maintained to provide identification for ships and marine shore stations. At the time these were the only regular radio services operating under official license by the United States Government. When the license was finalized, the call letters given to the station were just the next on that roster. (9)

In 1922, AT&T's radio station in New York, WEAF, begins to sell advertising spots, 10 minutes of airtime to the first person willing to pay $100. A real estate firm out of Long Island purchased 15 spots at a rate of $15 each. Four years later in 1926, the station is bought out to form the National Broadcast Company, and the call letters were changed to WNBC. The following year, a competing radio broadcasting network emerged, known as Columbia Broadcasting Company. (2)

Throughout the mid twenties to the latter parts of the decade, several radio shows are broadcast through advertisers. For instance, in '24, Goodrich tires sponsored the first hour long radio show over nine different stations. (2)

After the stock market crashed in 1929, America left an era of prosperity to enter into an era full of collapse, with the Great Depression and World War II. The generation of this era is referred to as the "G. I. Generation" or the "Greatest Generation".

The people of this generation came into the world during the years of World War I, came of age during the Great Depression, and lifted the country out of wartime at the end of World War II. This generation had the sharpest rise in school attendance ever to be seen at this point in history and people of this generation were the first to benefit from the prosperity of the "Roaring '20's". As teenagers, these generations dealt with the turmoil caused by the Great Depression; and in the latter years of their lives, were the ones responsible for building beautiful neighborhoods, finding incredible vaccinations, and countless other accomplishments. (17)

Ultimately, this was a time in our history that lacked in rich advertising because revenue was so low everywhere. Black Tuesday, (October 29, 1929) the day the stock market crashed, and the ensuing economical collapse that followed led to a dramatic rise in the nation's unemployment rate-- 25%, nearly 15 million Americans were without work, and many families struggled to survive. (15) The desire to create new products or to purchase new products may still have existed, but the means with which to do so, simply did not.

In 1938 in the midst of the Depression, radio surpasses magazines as the most popular method of advertising to use. (2) One can gather that this is due to the costs of printing and distributing the magazines; whereas many people already owned radios from the financial success of the previous decade.

Perhaps the most significant advertising of this era comes from World War II. The War Advertising Council is created in 1942 to aid in organizing the voluntary advertising campaigns to boost wartime efforts. Amazingly the council collects roughly $350 million in advertising free public service announcements. When the war was over, the council dropped the word "war" from its name to become known as the Advertising Council. (2)

Development of commercial television was beginning during this era, with a set of standards for electronic television broadcasting being created and settled upon during the spring of 1941. World War II caused a delay in the commercial development of television, though research efforts resulted in a better product and consumer market. At the close of the war, less than 7,000 functioning television sets were in the country; and only nine different networks on air throughout the country. Many of the networks aired simulcasts of the popular radio shows at the time. The commercial development of television later on will prove itself to be one of the most effective and widely used methods of advertising. (16)

The "Greatest" Generation ironically is succeeded by the "Silent" Generation. This generation of people is referred to as such because they were the children who suffered at the hands of the Great Depression, who were too young to participate in the war effort, and too old to be the free spirits of the next generation. The American citizens of this generation were known for marrying early, and for becoming "the risk-averse technicians and professionals-as well as the sensitive rock 'n rollers and civil-rights advocates-of a post-crisis era in which conformity seemed to be a sure ticket to success. Midlife was an anxious 'passage' for a generation torn between stolid elders and passionate juniors." (19) The Silent Generation felt as though they were a "generation without a cause". (20)

The expansion of television ownership during this era allowed for yet another medium of advertising, the television commercial. Advertisers were unsure of how to go about using this method to their advantage. At first, they thought it would best to treat TV advertising as radio advertising, with pictures thrown in. After conducting many surveys, studies showed that the best way to reach an audience about a product would be to create shows that featured a single product or line of products.

Using the concept, many shows from the 1950's came about, such as the Kraft Television Theatre, Coke Time, and Colgate Comedy Hour. This concept had one flaw. As more people began to purchase televisions for use in their homes, more people watching television meant more production costs; because the television networks raised the costs of doing business with them.

The solution to this problem was developed by NBC Executive Sylvester Weaver. His concept, known as the magazine concept, would prove beneficial to all parties involved-consumers, advertisers, and television networks. This concept proposed that rather than advertisers sponsoring an entire show, the sponsor would purchase time blocks within a show. These time blocks ranged from one to three minutes, and this would allow for up to four sponsors to advertise a product within a show. The concept gets its name because like a magazine, the networks would control content, rather than one advertiser "owning" a show. As with any new concept, the magazine concept was met with resistance. However, by the year 1960, it was shown that this method worked far better than the previous one, and is actually the one still in use today. Sponsors can now spread advertising dollars over several networks and blocks of time to ensure that they reach their specific audience the best. The one exception to the magazine advertising model is the infomercial, which reverts back to original television advertising practices-sponsoring an entire show, or block of time, to be aired on a particular network, at a particular time. (21)

With television advertising, came the mystery, who's watching what, and when? How do we know the most efficient time frames and networks to advertise our product on? A company known as A.C. Nielsen, (still very popular in our current television and retail markets) began collecting data in 1953, a year after being backed by the Advertising Research Foundation. By using the IBM 650 computer to compute audience data, along with recordimeter (a device placed in homes) to verify accuracy of information; Nielsen provided advertisers with valuable information about who was watching what and when, so they could more appropriately distribute their advertising budgets to reach the largest consumer base. (22)

The Civil Rights Movement began in 1955 and American Advertising underwent a massive change. This lead to advertisers using more African American and other nationalities in their commercials, as previously our advertising had been focused on other citizens.

The "Boomer" Generation, also known as the "Baby Boomer" Generation grew up as children with suburban conformism, good nuclear families, and Dr. Spock. The teenage years from the Summer of Love (1967) meant the people of this generation came of age rebelling against their parents. Youth morals changed, and created a slide in SAT scores, the worst ever seen in the 17 years prior. As they entered young adult hood in the '80s, many of the boomers found themselves absorbed in mainstream careers, and living "perfectionist" lifestyles. The boomer generation will give America several political figures, and change the world with "culture wars". (23)

Baby Boomers represent about 29% of the U.S. population, as there are about 75 million of them today. A Baby Boomer is a child born between the years of 1946-1964, and though no official rule states this, these years are the most commonly accepted time frame. The baby boom began at the end of World War II.

The children born early in the "boom" were in their early 20's when President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated, and vividly remember Watergate and the Vietnam War. All of these events had an impact on the people of this generation, who they were, and who they became.

On the other end of the boom spectrum, people born after 1959 are too young to have recollections of the assassinations mentioned above, and therefore are very different people. People born at this end of the time period were much more likely to use illegal drugs, and heavily at that. While this generation has much to tie it all together, there is plenty to separate it.

It was this generation who pushed the divorce rate up to 50%, making it an acceptable normalcy for the children of the next generation, and even our current one. In society, the boomers have become the largest age related demographic, with numbers "too large to ignore" so for the past several years, a vast majority of advertising has been dedicated to reaching them; everything from SUV's to active retirement communities!

Many of the nation's current "big names" of society are boomers. Take for instance President Clinton, President Bush, and many other political figures, i.e. Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, and yes, I said it, even Osama. Oprah, Madonna, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Meg Ryan, Letterman, Leno.... All these people are boomers, and all these people are names we know! (26)

Historically during this time, President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in 1964. It was also during this year that the negative side effects of smoking were brought to the attention of the public eye, with the Surgeon General's Warning being legally required on each pack. Cigarette advertising still reflected the habit as healthy and refreshing. (24) A ban on television and radio advertisements for cigarettes was passed through congress in 1969, signed into law by President Nixon in 1970, and became effective on January 2, 1971. (28)

In 1965 the American Advertising Federation develops a code of ethics for advertising which states that advertising shall be truthful, and agencies should be able and willing to provide proof of all claims. The advertising shall be free of offensive material, and shall serve to speak of their product, rather than bashing competitors. Advertising should only focus on products that are available for purchase at the advertised price, and should not utilize exaggerated claims or false savings claims. Any guarantees or warranties should be stated clearly and avoid misleading information. Any testimonials in advertising should only come from competent people who are reflecting a "real and honest choice". (29)

America's first Super Bowl takes place in 1967, with the Green Bay Packers winning over the Kansas City Chiefs. (24) Little did America know at the time that Super Bowl advertising would end up being a high cost, highly competitive battle. The record for a 30 second spot of advertising time during the NFL show down hit 2.4 million dollars in 2005! (30)

In the 1960's, television advertising accounted for 9 minutes of a television show per one hour block of time, with the average commercial length being about 60 seconds. Nothing regulated the commercials aimed at children, and the kids saw about twice the advertising as adults did, with an average of 16 minutes per hour television show. (28)

Popular advertising icons such as Ronald McDonald and Cap'n Crunch (1963), Fruit Loops Toucan Sam (1964) and the Pillsbury Doughboy (1965) made their first appearances during this decade.

With color television becoming such a big deal during the '60s, advertising began to stress the importance of the bright colors, to make sure the colors on the screen were true to their real life counterparts. (28)

The 1970's continued to bring on change as its 1960's predecessor did. Television went from "Father Knows Best" a wholesome family show, to "Three's Company" a show with three unmarried roommates slap full of sexual innuendos. The first interracial couple on television came with "The Jeffersons".

The "Seven Dirty Words You can Never Say on Television or Radio", a comedic skit by George Carlin in the '60s, cut the list down to three in the '70s. This goes to show how much change that television and radio underwent in this decade span.

The sexual revolution that began in the 1960's "came of age" in the 1970's with the birth control pill now becoming widely readily available and the Supreme Court Roe vs. Wade case now legalizing abortion. These events paved way for the sexual freedom that many experienced during the time.

With it the 1970's brought massive amounts of illegal drugs for the boomers to use. It's speculated that over half of the seventy five million boomers participated in the use of the recreational drugs, and did so frequently, and massively. (27)

The Supreme Court gives the advertising industry first amendment protection in 1976. Prior to this time, no commercial advertising was protected under the rights of the first amendment, and the protection is only granted to truthful advertising. (34)

The late 1970's also saw a dramatic jump in the number of networks available to the public for viewing with cable, allowing for more television advertising. The new networks of the decade were: HBO, TBS, Nickelodeon, Showtime, and ESPN. (31)

The 1980's see a plethora of radical events that changed the way Americans thought about several issues. There was an overall decline in birth rates, a record rise in marriage and divorce rates, and the end of the casual sex era had come; this was because was AIDS becoming prevalent in American lives. A sort of hysteria came over the American public when faced with AIDS. Many Americans did not understand the disease, where it came from, how it was contracted, and how to avoid it. Despite the decline in casual sex due to fear of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, there was a sharp rise in teen pregnancies; and nearly half of those pregnancies ended in abortion. The legalities of abortion also came under fire, as many citizens began to believe and fight for the rights of a fetus, claiming abortion as murder. This continues to be hot topic issue today, and appears to be just as split now, as it was then. (33)

At the turn of the decade, Ted Turner creates CNN, one of the most popular news sources we see in our society today. When it debuted, the network was shown to 1.7 million cable subscribers, and has seen exponential growth since then. CNN is now a world news leader because of its work with groundbreaking technology, as well as many talented journalists. (35) The number of cable subscribers was continuously on the rise, prompting new satellites, which allowed for additional networks to launch and become part of the cable package.

Music Television, otherwise known as MTV debuts in 1981 as a network showing music videos. The first music video aired was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. During the first hours of airing, there were several problems with clips and promos being aired in the wrong sequence, or without audio, but they made it on air after the many difficulties they faced setting up the network. (32) The nature of the network brings a change to television commercials. (2) The popular culture of the 1980's was heavily influenced by the music videos that MTV aired. Clothing and hairstyles were reflected by what viewers saw in the videos. How a musician looked in their videos became just as important as how they sounded on a track, and many artists of the time were able to take advantage of this. (32)

Other television networks to arrive on the cable circuits at this time were: Black Entertainment Television (BET), USA, Cinemax, The Weather Channel (TWC), Playboy, Disney, Country Music Television (CMT), VH-1, Lifetime, the Discovery Channel, and various others. (31)

Generation X comes next in history, with members of this generation being born between 1961 and 1981. Generation X is referred to as such because they were the "odd" generation, the "Friday the 13th generation, crossed out with a capital X. More recently the term has come to mean "Xtreme" for the cutting edge personalities many of the people possess. (39) Sometimes this generation is called Generation 13. (37) People of this generation survived an early force into adulthood, dealing with split families due to the high divorce rates, becoming latch-key kids because only one parent was around, and he/she was working to support the family. This generation came of age holding back the earlier rise in childhood offenses and plunge in test scores-yet they heard themselves condemned as such slackers they would put the country at risk for harm and misfortune. As folks of this generation aged from childhood to adolescence and young adulthood, they dealt with the AIDS crisis, and tended to date and marry with caution for fear of the STD. From a political standpoint, the majority of this generation would rather volunteer for a good cause that vote in an election, as they lean toward no affiliation. (38)

Historically speaking, the mid '80s to late '90s was a time focused on materialistic and egotistical ventures, being all about the wealth and the individual. Credit card use became high as people were becoming focused on having anything and everything their hearts desired regardless of cost. The mottos of the time became, "If you've got it, flaunt it, you can have it all!" and "Shop 'til You Drop!". (40)During this time many women came on to the forefront in professions normally occupied by men. For instance, Sandra Day O'Conner and Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first female Supreme Court Justices. Sally Ride became the first woman to explore outer space. In addition to the new ground broken by women, African American men took charge with Jesse Jackson becoming America's first African American Presidential candidate.

The high divorce and low birth rates that America saw in the '70s changed when Generation X members began graduating from high school. They began to take a new approach to parenting, as to combat the ways of their parents, by keeping a closer eye on their children, and following up with their whereabouts and activities. (39)

With it, the '80s brought more scientific and technological advances and more people began to use personal computers in their homes, which fueled the growth of the internet; which would soon become another large source of revenue for advertisers and consumers alike. (40)

Video Cassette Recorders (VCR) gradually became more affordable, leading to a 200% sales increase. When the federal government ruled that recording TV shows on to blank tapes for home viewing wasn't illegal, we see our first forms of modern day TiVo, digital video recording.

The number of computers with internet access jumped from 30,000 in 1985 to 160,000 by 1989. By 1991, the web as we know it today was developed and put into use.

Popular advertising icons from the '80s include the Dominoes Pizza Noid, California Raisins, and the Snuggle Teddy Bear.

One of the most popular advertising campaigns to hit TV debuted in 1984 with Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" slogan. Statistics show this ad being responsible for a 31% sales increase. (41)

The 1990's doesn't seem so far back in our past, yet there is plenty of nostalgia to commemorate it. Many of us remember those days as if they were just yesterday, but let us take a trip back down memory lane and we may learn something new!

Popular trends in the 1990's include the return of the 1970's clothing styles of bell bottoms, floral prints, etc. The grunge and gothic looks find popularity. Short shirts that allowed women to show a little midriff area are widely seen throughout this time period. Tattoos, body piercings (the nose, navel, tongue, and multiple ear) gained popularity as a statement of self expression and individuality. (43)

The most popular celebrity news was of the O. J. Simpson police chase in the unforgettable white bronco, the murder trial, and the subsequent acquittal that made him become the most famous celebrity to be charged with murder. Lest we not forget the less publicized events, such as River Phoenix's death because of a heroin and cocaine overdose, Saturday Night Live star Phil Hartman being shot to death in his sleep by his wife, who later committed suicide, and the drive by shooting death of famous rapper, Notorious B. I. G. in 1997. (44)

In 1993, the Michael Jackson child molestation drama that we still see and hear of today, when speaking of more recent events, begins. The case in '93 was dropped, though Jackson settled with the child for $20 million while continuing to persist that the claim was false. (45) During the same year, while filming a Pepsi commercial, Jackson's hair caught fire, leading to a reconstructive surgery on his scalp, and thus prescription strength pain medicine. The medicine turned into an addiction and he had to enter rehabilitation facilities in Europe. (46)

The progression of the internet continues throughout the 1990's, beginning with 1991: the web now has 5,000 networks, 4 million users, 1 web server, 4 web pages. As the New Year approaches, the net has 10 servers. In 1992, the internet has reached 7,500 networks, 20 million users, and 50 websites on 26 web servers. The following year, we hit 130 websites on 50 servers, and by 1996, we reach 603,367 websites, on 10 million hosts. This was the first year the amount of email sent and received exceeds that of the United States Postal Service. Between 1996 and 1999, we reach 10 million websites on 40 million host computers. The mid-nineties brought many of the search engines we use today, Ebay.com, and java applets. By the end of the decade, the internet started having negative aspects, such as viruses, and spam. (43)

Some of the most popular advertising campaigns of the decade come from Taco Bell, Budweiser, and Motel Six. Who can forget, "Yo Quiero Taco Bell!" and the little Chihuahua puppy? Or, the Budweiser frogs, and "Bud-Wies-ER", and the, "I love you man, but you're not getting my bud light!" campaigns? And of course, "I'm Tom Bodet, we'll leave the light on for ya". (43)

Advertising has certainly come a long way since the beginning of the century. While the basic principles remain the same, as society becomes more accepting of certain topics, the advertising will continue evolve. For instance, consider in the '50s when it was taboo for pregnancy to be shown on television. "I Love Lucy" broke this wall down (48), and it is now commonplace. Things that are "politically incorrect" and aren't seen in advertising during one time period become accepted and visible in another.

The answer to our question, whether or not advertising is a direct effect or affect of advertising, is simple. Both are yes. Advertising uses what it sees as popular in its audience at the particular time the campaign is ran, to call attention to the product. What people see in the advertising of a product that they consider popular, creates a new trend in culture. Advertising both directs and reflects popular culture. Thousands of products are advertised daily in many different ways. Oftentimes people will discuss the manner in which the product was advertised as frequently, if not more so than the product itself. What makes any particular advertisement memorable is the "personality" which it is given, and the consumers ability to relate. While some advertising has proven itself to be more effective than others, once again it all serves the same basic purpose-to inform, and persuade. As long as there is a creative motivation to create new products and to allow the familiar ones to continually impact us, advertising will continue to drive and be driven by popular culture.

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12. http://www.rccolainternational.com/about_history.aspx

13. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl7up.htm

14. http://www.angelfire.com/ga/struitt/pepsi.html

15. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/peopleevents/pandeAMEX05.html

16. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/tv-history.html

17. http://www.fourthturning.com/html/gi_generation.html

18. http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/chronicle_symbol_friendship.html

19. http://www.fourthturning.com/html/silent_generation.html

20. http://library.thinkquest.org/23440/silent.html

21. http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Brief-History-of-Television-Advertising&id=427382

22. http://www.nielsenmedia.com/nc/portal/site/Public/menuitem.138fa1f1af8ff0919a69c71047a062a0/?vgnextoid=fb5579a21afc5010VgnVCM100000880a260aRCRD

23. http://www.fourthturning.com/html/boom_generation.html

24. http://www.bbhq.com/sixties2.php?caller=sixties

25. http://www.bbhq.com/cgi-bin/boomeryr.pl?67

26. http://www.bbhq.com/whatsabm.htm

27. http://www.bbhq.com/sevente2.htm

28. http://members.tripod.com/lisacafe/60sbuyme.html

29. http://ethics.iit.edu/codes/coe/amer.ad.fed.1965.html

30. http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/20/news/fortune500/superbowl_ads/

31. http://www.angelfire.com/il3/timemachine/80stv.html

32. http://members.tripod.com/retrolisa/videos.html#history

33. http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id44.htm

34. http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/Speech/advertising/overview.aspx

35. http://www.cnnblogawards.com/since1980.php

36. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ccmphtml/colatime4.html

37. http://library.thinkquest.org/23440/er.html

38. http://www.fourthturning.com/html/13th_generation.html

39. Online Lectures from AiO History of Pop Culture Week 5

40. http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade80.html

41. http://members.tripod.com/lisanostalgia1/80sproducts.html

42. http://heritage.coca-cola.com/

43. http://www.angelfire.com/retro2/lisa2/90s4.html

44. http://www.seeing-stars.com/Died/90s.shtml

45. http://www.seeing-stars.com/Died/Scandals1.shtml

46. http://www.seeing-stars.com/Died/Scandals2.shtml

47. http://www.learnthat.com/define/view.asp?id=162

48. http://www.fiftiesweb.com/i-love-lucy.htm

Friday, August 19, 2011

Comparing Granite and Marble Countertops: Which 1 Ought to You Choose?

Granite and marble are the two stones which means they're the two durable, heavy, and surprisingly challenging. At the same time, due to the fact both equally these stones can actually last a life span, they're both equally equally high priced and very challenging to polish and set up. Because these are the two stones, they may be naturally patterned, as a result, you could get granite or surface encounters marble that is certainly not rather related to the style and design from the catalog that you ordered so it will be very best to actually see the real item when choosing the kind of design and pattern which you want as an alternative of relying only on photographs. Both equally are heat resistant plus they tend not to scorch when put even having a really sizzling material this sort of as iron pots and pans.



However, granite is way harder than marble and it can be more resistant to scratches and hefty impacts in comparison to marble. Simultaneously, granite is much more defiant to acids these as vinegar, lemon juice, and tomato juice, and also other things with higher amounts of acidity. To help you far better recognize the strengths of equally stones, permit us take a nearer appear as to how they were shaped. Marble, and all its stone family - onyx, travertine, and limestone with the onset have been sediments manufactured of shells, plant subject, animal skeletons, and silt which all settled for the bottom of bodies of drinking water and after years of staying soaked in h2o, they solidify and turn out to be stones/ Marble’s major element is calcium and that is the motive why it's got a tendency to react to acids these kinds of as vinegar as well as other drinks that consist of citrus. Granite, on the flip side, is made up of crystallized minerals shaped while in the earth’s mantle at large temperature. The consequence is a challenging, really resistant stone. Marble can be scratched and etched by acids since it is created of calcium carbonate and that is a great deal like chalk but the only difference is surface encounters marble is compressed and inside a crystallized type. Within the same method, marble has fewer patterns, in fact it can be more generally marketed in its white shade so stains and mars might stand out more subjected in marble. Granite has a more complex pattern that can hide the stains much better. Regarding styles on the other hand, marble has a finer, a lot more stylish search than granite. The crystal formations in marble are additional satiny and finer in nature rendering it search a lot more deluxe. Granite has more substantial, pea-sized crystals which might be coarser to the eye.



In the end, in terms of longevity, the granite countertop would be more long lasting and even more resistant to stains and scratches though the looks are won by marble. Marble however is less expensive than granite but it surely needs higher routine maintenance. So, it all boils right down to what you truly want as being a countertop. Would you settle for the countertop that is definitely incredibly hard-wearing and even though not as very since the other 1, or would you trade magnificence for sturdiness and energy?

Monday, August 15, 2011

Background Examine Somebody Utilizing Criminal Data

It really is normal to wonder concerning other's background, along with a criminal search is the ideal strategy to uncover this type of information. If you're wondering about another person's background, utilizing an internet background check will allow you to obtain the exact information you occur to be seeking. Within this article we'll current to you the most efficient way to uncover background info on anybody.

And naturally these kinds of searches are not only used by males and ladies who're curious, these are usually used for particular conditions.

Companies who will be considering employing somebody new will often wish to take a look at a candidate's history. Some people may want to examine the past of another person they just started dating to uncover if the things they've been told from the guy or lady up to now is reliable.

A few organizations have began criminal background check solutions online exactly where it is feasible to carry out a track record research on an individual. The internet pages that provide you record checks buy and compile public data. You can easily then look through these databases and uncover particulars on anyone.

At the time you submit the name of the individual you are doing study on, the info will probably be displayed right on your display screen. It is really exceptionally handy . There are generally plenty of files to examine, and you're provided a login and password to ensure that you are able to go back again and take a look at them whenever in the long term.

Abstract Railway Background by ►CubaGallery


Such background checks usually price roughly twenty dollars every, however it is feasible to shell out around forty 5 bucks and this provides you unrestricted background check searches while you are a member.

If you're about to run a track record document examine on an individual, attempt the following trick to determine in the event you possibly can get a hold with the information at no price.

Every so often you will discover information concerning the guy or woman just by operating a search in Google, even though obviously it isn't as thorough and you may just find info about a various person using the same precise name. There is no hurt in running a search in a search motor. Whether or not or not it does not display you something, it is completely totally free of cost.

You are able to also put the person's name into the search motor together with quotation marks around the name. This fairly frequently assists to retrieve much more focused information, although bear in thoughts that there is likely not any background information concerning the individual that is printed on a web site.

The web has created determining any kind of information a great deal easier and track record record checks are really a ideal example. So whenever you are intrigued about someone's story, attempt out an web track record examine.



Get rid of Credit score Card Debt Quick

Obtaining your online credit score will provide you with a extremely crucial piece of credit score info. These scores range from anywhere between 300 and 900. The higher it is the better prices you are able to anticipate to get on loans. Your score will assist you to make feeling of one's credit report, it offers a great image of how well you are handling your finances and also provides you insight into precisely what creditors and loan companies look at when determining whether you are qualified to get a charge card or mortgage.

This really is exactly why we advise that everybody acquire their free credit score a minimum of one time for each yr. When you are about to use to get a charge card, it is an excellent strategy to obtain a copy of your score and report, and look at it to create sure that all of the info is right. It's possible to obtain a copy of your report completely free of charge every and each and every year from every one with the credit score bureaus.

While the above idea is really a totally appropriate means of monitoring your credit standing you could also get a three in 1 report as an option.

Credit Score Freedom by homebasedmerchants


This type of report provides the info that appears on your report as compiled by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and offers you the big image of what your credit score background actually appears like. Usually, a 3 in 1 credit report provides you a short list of potentially difficult info, which you are able to quickly and effortlessly evaluate. It is moreover recognized as a 3 Bureau Credit report.

Collectors, loan companies, and financial institutions will report to a credit score bureau any time a customer will get a loan, opens up a brand new credit card account, misses a payment on the month-to-month invoice, or files for individual bankruptcy. Nevertheless, they're not needed to report it to all three credit bureaus. The outcome is that the no cost credit report you get from 1 credit bureau could probably be missing some important particulars. That missing info can often have an excellent impact on your credit score standing. In the event you would like a really obvious view of how good or dreadful your credit history really is, you should look at investing in a three in one credit history.

A comprehensive analysis of one's online credit score and report will offer you having a fantastic insight into your monetary scenario. Within the event you put in your purchase to get a complete credit score from one with the three credit score bureaus, you can be qualified to acquire your credit score record from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax within a joint file. They are going to assist you in easy evaluation of precisely exactly where you stand and allow it to be feasible for you personally to notice the versions inside your 3 credit reviews. It's heading to assist you adhere to all loans and charge cards that are opened inside your name and you also are going to become in a position to learn which companies contact the credit score bureaus.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Help Making Money

Last August I wrote an article that highlighted the wide spread between the earnings yield on the S&P500 and the yield on treasury bonds. At the time the S&P 500 was in the 1,050-1,100 range which produced an earnings yield of around 7% based on consensus earnings expectations.


Meanwhile 10 year treasury yields had plunged below 3% in anticipation of QE2, producing a net spread between the two of more than 4%. Stocks were a better investment than bonds back then, and soon afterwards the equity market began a rally that took it some 25% higher before today’s list of concerns induced a pull-back. Treasury yields also rose over than time though in recent weeks they’ve dipped back below 3%.


Which brings us to today’s comparison. This morning The Wall Street Journal noted that 2011 full year earnings estimates provided by equity strategists are around $95. Consensus earnings using bottom-up forecasts are higher, which was the point of the article but that’s another story. $95 in earnings on today’s S&P500 of 1,280 is 7.4%, compared with 10 year treasuries of 2.9%. The spread between the two is back to where it was last Summer, in fact it’s even wider. Bonds are once again an unattractive investment.


This is not to ignore the risks currently facing investors. U.S. GDP growth has been disappointingly weak, and the headwinds from high gas prices as well as continued soft housing are weighing on the near term outlook. In addition the European debt crisis meanders on, with the entire world acknowledging Greece’s inability to satisfy its obligations while the EU and IMF persist in throwing good money after bad.


This week’s vote on austerity in the Greek parliament will usher in another round of tax revenue and privatization targets that are unlikely to be met. For this reason the Euro looks vulnerable, and if there are any surprises they’re likely to be negative ones.


Our equity accounts remain fully invested. We think there are good values to be found in selected stocks. One of our biggest positions in Microsoft (MSFT). It’s been a value trap for many investors, but they’ll likely earn $2.58 a share this year and $2.77 next (their fiscal year end is June), and with cash net of long term debt of $38 BN or $4.50 per share the stock is at a P/E of 7.5.


We have also been adding to positions in retailers – specifically we like Family Dollar (FDO). Their low-income customer base will benefit from cheaper gas, and slower growth tends to help this sector as cash-strapped consumers trade down. But FDO also has the opportunity to improve its margins; their sales revenue per square foot is only $163 whereas Dollar General (DG) manages $194. FDO’s operating margin is only 7.3% compared with 10.7% at Dollar Tree (DLTR). Improving these metrics should allow FDO to grow earnings faster than its peers. Holders of their stock include a number of value-seeking investors such as Pershing Square, Lone Pine and Paulson. Nelson Peltz offered $55-60 for the company earlier this year, and management’s rejection suggests they should have some concrete plans to raise the stock price themselves.


In Fixed Income we continue to focus our interest rate risk around the two year sector of investment grade bonds. We don’t like the risk of longer maturities – yields are way too low given the U.S. fiscal position. We continue to have some exposure to emerging market currencies where inflation, interest rates and growth are higher. However, we have trimmed this back recently as we think the EU/IMF/ECB management of Greece’s unsustainable debt  load is looking more likely to induce a crisis before the inevitable restructuring. This would be negative for the Euro, and therefore positive for the US$ against most currencies including emerging markets.


Disclosure: Author is Long MSFT, FDO



Investing legend Paul Merriman, shares the lessons learned and secrets discovered over more than 40 years as one of the world’s leading investment professionals.

John Nyaradi:


Hi, everyone, I’m John Nyaradi, publisher of Wall Street Sector Selector, a financial media site specializing in exchange traded funds and global financial and economic analysis. Today, I’m pleased to welcome our special guest, Paul Merriman. Paul, welcome to Wall Street Sector Selector.


Paul Merriman:


Thanks John, it’s great to be with you.


John Nyaradi:


Paul is one of the true giants of the investing and financial management business. He is founder of Merriman Incorporated, an investment advisory firm based in Seattle, Washington, that manages approximately $1.6 billion for thousands of families across the country.


Paul is a widely respected expert on mutual fund investing. He’s editor of the FundAdvice.com website and his podcast, “Sound Investing,” was named the best podcast in 2008 by Money Magazine. He’s author of a highly acclaimed book, “Live it Up Without Outliving Your Money: Getting the Most from Your Investments in Retirement,” by John Wiley and Sons and is widely quoted in major financial magazines and media.


Paul, let’s start out with your company’s motto, “Invest wisely and live fully.” I like that a lot. Can you give us a sense of what you mean by that, “Invest wisely and live fully?” How do you do that for people?


Paul Merriman:


My view of investing wisely is simply to do the smart, savvy things with our money to maximize our return without getting greedy. And I think one of the wisest things we can do is to invest within our risk limits. Investing wisely also means minimizing expenses and taxes. We believe in massive diversification. We believe that the more stocks you have in the portfolio, the better you will do, not the more average you will be.


The live fully aspect means that not only do you have enough money but that you are also able to enjoy it. Too many people have way more money than they need but find it difficult to enjoy it.


I just spoke with a client who’s down in Mexico. He’s been a client for over 20 years, and I know he’s got more money than he needs. He wants to buy a second house in Mexico. He must have talked to me five times about whether the purchase makes sense. And every time I spoke with him, his burning question was, “Now Paul, are you sure we have enough?” We convinced him, yes, he does have enough…and he’s making the offer, closing the deal, and that is what we think living fully is. Not just having enough, but feeling secure so you can spend it and enjoy it.


John Nyaradi:


That’s got to be a rewarding work especially in today’s environment after the post crash environment we’re in and the pain everybody went through.


Paul Merriman:


John, would you mind if I comment on what you just said?


John Nyaradi:


Please, go ahead.


Paul Merriman:


A lot of people complain about the emotional and financial pain of the 2007-2009 bear market. I think the problem was compounded by going through two big bear markets in 10 years, each of them about the same as the 73-74 decline. That much pain without an extended bull market in between is hard for people to digest and build confidence in the market. It has been one hell of a 10 year period.


John Nyaradi:


Yes, it really has been…you’re a unique animal, Paul, I think, because people tend to be either buy-and-hold people or market timing people, but you do both in your portfolios. I’ve read about what you call “the ultimate buy and hold strategy,” could you give us a little insight into that?


Paul Merriman:


Well, “the ultimate buy and hold strategy” is the title of one of my favorite articles to help people build a better buy and hold portfolio. The term “ultimate,” sounds like a big promise, but it simply means it’s the best I’ve been able to find.


As you know there are thousands of ways to build a portfolio using different asset classes. What we’re looking for are asset classes that have an absolute record of success, and a record of high units of return per unit of risk.


Now, obviously, I can’t know, nor do I try to predict, the future. But what I do have is 80 plus years of evidence that these asset classes have produced great returns. Sure, they don’t go up all the time, but not a one of them has ever failed. Not one has declared bankruptcy. Not one has ever experienced a permanent bear market.


John Nyaradi:


Right.


Paul Merriman:


All of these asset classes qualify as being survivors on a long term basis. So once we determine which asset classes qualify to be in the portfolio we have to decide how much we should invest in each one. I have tried to make that easy by giving people exact percentages in each asset class and funds that offer those asset classes.


John Nyaradi:


I think you said at one point that the choice of those assets is responsible for 95% of your return. How do you fine tune these allocations?


Paul Merriman:


For over 15 years we have recommended a very simple equity allocation. Half U.S., half international, half large, half small, half value and half growth. The equity part also includes REITS and emerging market asset classes.


Then it’s simply a matter of finding the right balance of fixed income to go along with exposure to the equity asset classes. I find most investors are unwilling to accept the risk of an all equity portfolio so we need to find the right balance of fixed income that produces the needed return within the risk limits of each investor. I am always looking for the combination that will produce peace of mind with a reasonable piece of the action.


John Nyaradi:


Sure.


Paul Merriman:


I’ve tried to help investors by building a tabIe of many combinations of fixed income and equity asset classes. The table is in, “Fine Tuning Your Asset Allocation,” at Fundadvice.com. And John, all my work comes with a guarantee. I guarantee if you follow my advice, you will lose money. That’s not the guarantee investors want to hear, but it’s the reality of any risk oriented investment.


John Nyaradi:


Sure.


Paul Merriman:


We should all know what level of risk we’re taking. And I don’t mean some generic risk that is indefinable. I’m looking for a number. The table covers over 40 years of data. It gives an investor a real time relationship between risk and return. If you’re willing to lose 5% to 50% of your money the table shows the likely return you will get over the long run.


John Nyaradi:


Could you talk a little about the market timing in your portfolios?


Paul Merriman:


To start with, I want to make sure that your audience understands that I’m not advocating timing over buy and hold. I know buy-and-hold is a lot easier emotionally. And it’s also a lot more tax efficient.


But there are a lot of people who will simply not accept the idea of holding equities without an exit strategy. Some advisors will tell investors, “You’ve got 50% of your money in bonds so why should you worry about stocks going down? They always come back.” And the investor’s response is, “Hey listen. This is my money, buddy, and I don’t want to sit and watch it decline without some way of protecting it.”


It’s really the catastrophic decline that most people are worried about, and so we use timing with almost the same view philosophically as we use for buy-and-hold. We market time funds in dozens of asset classes. We market time equity funds as well as bond funds. Each account is built to the same risk tolerance test as the buy and hold investors.


Most of the timing we do uses traditional trend following strategies. We never predict where the market is going, only follow the trends. A lot of timing critics think market timers are trying to predict the future. We believe there are trends and they stay in place one way or the other for long periods of time. Those trends can make you decent money on the upside but the most important work is protecting against some terrible losses on the downside.


John Nyaradi:


I hear the word “risk” over and over in our conversation. In your list of 18 mistakes people make, I thought it was really interesting that mistake number 3 is taking too much risk, and mistake number 4 is taking too little risk. That sounds like a conflict.


Paul Merriman:


Well, too much risk is normally a challenge for people who are over confident and think they have more control over their investments than they do. Also, people who take too much risk are not aware how much risk they need to take. If you found out that you could achieve all your financial goals with half as much risk as you’re taking right now, I’d have to challenge you to why are you taking all of that risk?


John Nyaradi:


Sure.


Paul Merriman:


For some the higher risk comes because the investor thinks their friend appears to doing better than they are. By the way, I’ve yet to find an honest amateur investor when it comes to reporting returns. And so we have to be so careful what our benchmark is and how we measure our success.


But then people can also be scared to death of almost any risk. I’ve met people with 10% of their portfolio in stocks, and when they’re down during a bad bear market, they jump to the conclusion that it’s happening to their whole portfolio.


I know it doesn’t sound reasonable to feel that way, but that’s the way a lot of peoples’ minds work. They hate losing money. The fascinating part is if we can just get those people to commit 20 or 30% of their money to stocks, they can literally double their return in retirement. Just a little bit of additional risk. They don’t have to go 50% or 60%. Just to get up to 20%, or 30% can make a huge, huge difference.


John Nyaradi:


Paul, we’re taking in July, 2011, and looking ahead over the next few months, what do you see is the biggest dangers for us as retail investors and the biggest opportunities?


Paul Merriman:


Well, it looks to me like the last 45 years. I have been a chicken for as long as I’ve been in the investment business. I call myself an aggressive chicken, but a chicken nonetheless.


But the fact is there’s always list A, the good news and there’s always list B, the bad news. Both of those lists exist at all times. I have always tended to look at the bad list and to be cautious, so I’ve probably been more defensive as an investor than I needed to be. But what I really worry about is not about me because I have found 100% peace of mind with my investments. I’ve saved enough that I can quit working anytime and have plenty of income in retirement. So that worry is behind me.


John Nyaradi:


Sure.


Paul Merriman:


But here’s what I worry about. I worry that people who have learned the right things, the smart things, the wise things about investing will somehow get spooked by the market and either jump to some ultra safe situation, and as you know, typically at the wrong time, they’ll be enticed into putting their money into something like a guaranteed equity index annuity or some other terrible security that will cost a fortune in fees and be difficult or expensive to liquidate.


John Nyaradi:


Well, folks, it has been a real honor today to have been talking with one of the real giants of the industry, Paul Merriman, founder of Merriman Incorporated in Seattle, Washington and editor of FundAdvice.com. To learn more about Paul and his work, just follow the link at the end of this interview, and that will take you to his website, Merriman.com.


Paul, thanks so much for joining us and we’re all looking forward to talking with you again soon.


Paul Merriman:


Thank you, John, very, very much.


Visit Merriman Incorporated.


 


(This interview edited for length and clarity)




reputation management seo

CBS <b>News</b> Executives Speak Out on License Fees, Dan Rather at TCA <b>...</b>

CBS News Executives Speak Out on License Fees, Dan Rather at TCA.

CBS <b>News</b> Executives Speak Out on License Fees, Dan Rather at TCA <b>...</b>

NASCAR - CUP: BREAKING <b>NEWS</b> – Keselowski Hurt

Brad Keselowski was injured today at Road Atlanta…

NASCAR - CUP: BREAKING <b>NEWS</b> – Keselowski Hurt

Great <b>news</b>: Service industry now slowing down, too « Hot Air

Great news: Service industry now slowing down, too.

Great <b>news</b>: Service industry now slowing down, too « Hot Air

Monday, August 1, 2011

Making Money System


As someone who switches between the hats of freelancer and small business owner several times a day, I’m always on the lookout for software that will help me manage things like invoicing and expense management, financial reporting, project management and team discussion.


It’s not hard to find apps that excel at one of these things. What is hard is finding an affordable solution that allows me to manage all of these aspects of my business from one place, making it easier for myself and my team to get the busywork and administrative stuff out of the way and back to the work of creating content.


Paymo is an app that covers time-tracking, invoicing and project management for freelancers and small businesses. It’s challenging incumbents like Freshbooks, with an offering that is not only cheaper but — in many areas — stronger.


Paymo is a bootstrapped startup with an app built by a small team in Romania. Though they’re talented, their country of origin can make it hard to get any real traction in the West. Eastern Europe has started to create some great tech startups of late. Paymo.biz, which isn’t to be confused with Paymo.com, owned by American mobile payments company BOKU, is one of these.


Making you wait until the end of a review as long as this one to find out whether the app is worthwhile or not seems a bit unfair on the reader, so here’s the bottom line on Paymo: this week, I’m transitioning my freelance business and my small agency to run on Paymo, leaving a random collection of tools such as FreshBooks, project management apps and emails that belong in project managers behind. Paymo has everything I need to run freelance and small businesses, and I can see it scaling to medium size with relative ease.


The Dashboard


Paymo’s dashboard provides you with an overview of how time is being spent in your business when you log in for the day. It’s got charts that show the hours worked per day for the last week, as well as statistics and charts on how much business time was spent on work versus, well, nothing — it can tell you this because users set the work days and work hours of each week, making Paymo a good tool for ensuring that employees are spending their time wisely. With Paymo, time tracking is as useful for billing clients as it is for ensuring your team has been working.



Also on the dashboard is a Recent Activity summary, which shows you recent milestones and tasks that have been completed. You can get RSS or iCal feeds for recent activity.


Client Management


Paymo’s client manager is robust enough that most freelancers and smaller businesses won’t require a separate, dedicated CRM platform. When creating a new client, there are fields for a whole range of information for both the company, and your contact at the company, including an area to make notes in. Paymo lets you add a logo for the client for quick identification.


The Clients tab shows you an overview of all of your clients, including how many staff are allocated to them, the number of active projects they are on, and how many completed and archived projects you’ve done for that client.



The view for individual clients shows the contact information as well as all other details and notes for the company as well as the contact details of the individual you designated as the contact there.



You’ll also find financial statistics, such as how many unbilled hours you’ve done for the client, how much money is due from that client and a handy meter at the bottom that shows you how much of the time budget for each of that client’s projects has been used — you can set a number of hours per month per client project and the time you track or enter for the project will fill up the bar. This is a great feature if you have clients on retainer for a set number of hours to prevent you from going over.


There’s a chart for financial statistics, but it seems that I need to populate the system with more information before anything will appear there.


Project Management


The Projects overview is a simple view that lists each active project, their corresponding parent clients, and the used budget meter makes a reappearance. Clicking through to a single project, the first thing you’ll see is the overview tab, which contains data about the amount of time spent on tasks that fall under the project, recent activity, time worked, unbilled hours, and access to settings — such as the hourly rate on that project. From this view you can subscribe to a project specific RSS or iCal feed, and retire or delete the project.



On the Tasks tab, you’re able to set up a variety of task lists, which contain the actual tasks. Tasks can have a description, marked up with Textile, a due date, and related attachments. You can assign each task to a user, and determine whether that task is billable or not in case you include administrative tasks that you don’t normally bill for in project task lists.


You can save task lists as templates, which is fantastic if you work in a field where projects often look the same, at least to begin with. You can comment on tasks and discuss them with other users.


Milestones are an important part of all project management apps, and Paymo doesn’t disappoint. You can add milestones with a due date and a person responsible for ensuring progress towards that milestone, and associate it with a task list. Once the items in that task list are complete, the milestone is deemed reached, but you can manually complete a milestone without a task list.


Paymo’s data storage comes into play on the project level. The second-last tab in the project view is the Files tab, where you can upload and categorize images, documents and other files that are relevant to the project. Any file you upload as an attachment to a task will appear here as well.


Last but certainly not least is the essential Discussion tab. This tab works like a forum, where discussions are sorted by category, though there are none by default. As with most larger text inputs in Paymo, discussion posts can be formatted using Textile. There is unfortunately no way to reference attachments or tasks in discussions yet but the discussion area isn’t weighed down by bloat, which is a problem I commonly have with forum software.



The Timer


Paymo has a browser-based timer that can be launched from within the web app or a bookmarklet, and will appear as a smaller pop-up window easily positioned to the side of whatever you’re working on. It’s a breeze to use: select a project, a task, and hit the Start button. You can optionally include notes about the time spent, which allows you to easily account for every slice of time you spent on a project.


While some time tracking applications only allow you to tie time slices to clients and projects, Paymo has task management features right there in the timer. You can add a new task to a project to start timing right there and then, and mark a task as complete as well. You can’t set up a project from within the timer but once that’s done you can manage everything in it.



Paymo offers a desktop widget for Windows and OS X that simplifies the process of time tracking. While it is great to have the ability to track time from unexpected locations, a widget is more easily accessible and is still there when the Internet goes down. All you need to do after installing the widget is throw an API key into it, which is conveniently provided on the widget download page, and log in to your account. The widget is laid out just like the online time tracker so there’s no confusion.


While I doubt you’d even notice the size of the widget on a computer with a more regularly sized computer, I’m testing this on an 11″ MacBook Air which leaves me wishing there was a thinner option. The widget takes up about a quarter of the dashboard — still manageable, but a way to choose between the default view and a compact view would be fantastic.


While the beauty of tools like Paymo is that you can use a timer to automatically log how much work you’ve done on a project, you can also manually enter time slices into the Timesheet after the fact. If you go out on an in-person call or to a meeting, it’s less practical to use a timer. Or you may have simply forgotten to hit Start but still need to get paid for the past five hours of work.



Time tracking is certainly Paymo’s strongest suit. In the past seven years I’ve searched long and hard for a great way to unobtrusively track time and I’ve always hated the solutions I’ve tested. Paymo does it for me.


Desktop App


In addition to the desktop widget for time tracking, there’s a more fully-featured desktop application available. It’s still in beta, and comes in Windows and, more recently, Mac flavors.


As beta apps, they’re early on and not fully developed, but are an interesting way to see not just how much time you’ve spent, but how you’ve spent it. The app keeps a record of how much time you spent in each app you used for the duration, and allows you to sort them by client and project later.



This is a really cool feature: if you’re tracking time for Client A, but Client B calls you on Skype midway through, you can easily bill the appropriate clients for each slice of time and you won’t lose any billable hours due to not having an accurate account of the interruption.


Invoicing


Paymo’s Invoicing feature set is easy-to-use and robust without the bloat. From the overview, you can view and set the statuses on invoices. These include draft, sent, viewed, paid and void. Paymo makes it easy to export invoice data as CSV so you can set up Excel spreadsheets of your monthly activity and the like.


The invoice creator is a WYSIWYG affair, and draws on your company settings to populate the invoice with some default information, before you come in and set the individual details such as the client and the hours logged in question. You don’t need to draw on your tracked time and can enter fixed figures instead (or in addition). Like most invoicing apps, you can set taxes that are automatically calculated, provide notes, and so on.



One of the great things about Paymo invoicing is the ease with which you can change the currency of an invoice without having to go and edit the client settings separately. For a freelancer or small business owner with a situation comparable to mine — accounts in a range of different countries, paid in a range of different currencies — this small detail saves time.


Most apps don’t have a feature for this, and some that do (like Freshbooks) make it the default for the client in the future instead of just that invoice, which isn’t what I want.


Adding time to an invoice is a breeze. Click on Add From Time Sheet, select a date range — there are commonly used presets, such as the previous month — and barring any need to change details, click Submit. If you’ve set up your clients, projects and company settings properly, and tracked time accurately, creating an invoice is a matter of a few seconds and a few clicks.


You can create a PDF file from that invoice or provide your client with a permalink that shows them the invoice in the browser (with the option to download it as a PDF or print it). The most common route is to use the Send button which will email it from within Paymo.


Paymo has recently introduced a beta “pay online” feature that allows clients to click a Pay Now button on the invoice page they are taken to and pay the invoice then and there through PayPal. Despite the beta label it works like a charm.


Creating recurring invoices is just as easy, and can be done from the Recurring tab of the Invoicing section, or just by ticking the Recurring button in a new invoice. These can even be sent out automatically once configured so you don’t need to worry that you’ve forgotten to invoice and will be gnawing on your fridge, which with any luck has accumulated the flavors of its former contents, for sustenance next month.


Paymo has a section for expenses, which can be easily categorized, assigned to clients, and there’s a section to upload a scan of a receipt. You can mark these as unbilled or invoiced, depending on whether you want to claim a tax deduction or just get the money back from a client.


Next time you are editing a draft invoice or creating a new invoice for that client, there will be a notification on the editor that says there are outstanding expenses. Click one button and they’ll be added to the invoice with the description and amounts filled in.


If you frequently do estimates in your line of work, there’s a feature for that. It works much like the regular invoicing tool.


Reporting


Paymo’s reporting makes it easy to generate custom reports and look over your business activity for any time period, from the current day to all time, which is something I’m fond of as a stats-and-charts junkie. It’s good to be able to see at a glance where most of your money is coming from versus where most of your time is spent, enabling you to make changes that improve efficiency and earnings.


You can get a rough idea of how much income you are looking at for the current month’s unbilled hours with stats on hours worked (sorted by either project or user), and a financial statistics chart that shows dollars billed and received per month, which is handy for seeing at a glance where overdue accounts receivable are.



You can view reports in the browser, and they can be downloaded in PDF or CSV format. I have a feeling that I won’t really be able to put Paymo’s reporting to test until I’ve got more data in the system — at least a month’s worth for any sort of report I’d base a decision on — but the system seems promising.


Team Management


Let’s skip the boring stuff, except for one quick sentence: you can create users easily enough and allow them an appropriate level of access to Paymo. But what sort of team management features does Paymo provide for business owners?


Running a distributed team means that while the working environment for each member is almost always more to their taste than an office with headache-inducing fluorescent lights and no fresh air, it’s harder to keep a boots-on-the-ground eye on how things are going and whether the hours are getting done.


Once you’ve set up a user’s working days and hours and they start tracking time, you can take a look at their user page, which shows the amount of time they spent working in the past week, and has a Performance meter. Obviously time worked isn’t the only measure of performance, but if your employees have been spending fewer hours than they’ve been getting paid for, you’ll want to know — and Paymo makes that easy.


You can view the user’s timesheets to get more details about the way they’ve spent their time, and see meters for every day in your Paymo account’s history that tells you how much of each work day was tracked.


It’s possible to set up ‘non-working days’ on a user-by-user basis, so that taking leave or a sick day doesn’t impact their performance rating. Finally, you can assign projects to users directly from their profile page.


API


Developers who want to build apps that work with Paymo, either for internal apps or for publicly available apps, are in luck. Paymo have an API that’s freely available to all users, with documentation that appears to be up-to-date with Paymo features.


Mobile


If you go out for a meeting once or twice a month, perhaps it’s easier to manually input time spent later on as I mentioned earlier. But if your business is all about making house calls and the like, or you just like to be accurate to the minute, a mobile app is the way to go.


There’s a capable, free Paymo timer available for the iPhone, but there doesn’t seem to be an official Android app yet. There is an unofficial Android app available — it’s great to see that the API is doing its job in ensuring that Paymo is as accessible as possible on a variety of platforms.


Pricing


There are three Paymo plans available. The first is free, and is great for those who just want a time tracker or freelancers with just a few regular clients. It includes three invoices per month, two users, 50MB of storage, unlimited clients and projects and the time tracking features.


The Basic plan at $9.99 per month drops the limit on invoices altogether and boosts the storage limit to 5GB. It’s designed for freelancers who need to send more than three invoices a month, and young startups.


Finally, the premium plan uses a per-user pricing model at $3.99 each, and applies to businesses who need more than two users to access Paymo. It currently supports up to 40 employees. Premium also gives users 15GB of data storage.


Competitors


Paymo has several well-established competitors in the freelance and small business-oriented invoicing and time-tracking arena, like Freshbooks and LessAccounting.


LessAccounting has some fantastic offerings but puts more of its focus on the money. It’s used for tracking expenses, creating and sending invoices, keeping track of accounts receivable and so on. It starts at $30 a month and has add-ons for the assistance of a real bookkeeper with packages for 6 hours of help per quarter ($70) and 7 hours of help per month ($270). The offering is solid but the pricing and the feature set mean that users looking for something like Paymo aren’t likely to find their solution here.


FreshBooks has been in the game longer, and are best known for their invoicing features. The free plan is constricted to unlimited invoices but for only three clients, and their entry-level paid plan is $19.95 and has a 25 client cap — twice as expensive as Paymo’s plan without client or invoice limitations. Their strengths lie in the ability to send an invoice via email that makes it a breeze for the client to pay online through a variety of payment gateways, including PayPal. Using this in practice doesn’t always seem to pan out with the majority of clients (at least in my experience) having specific instructions as to how invoices should be received. The interface looks better than it works — I find it a bit fiddly — and the company’s foray into time tracking and project management has generally produced poor tools.


Paymo is faced with some capable alternatives. But their strengths are clear, Paymo strikes me as the best all-rounder suite for freelancers and small businesses who need a platform for not just money management but project management.


The Bottom Line


I told you at the start: Paymo is the app I’ll be using to run my business starting next week. After searching for an app with a feature wishlist that is pretty much summarized by Paymo’s actual feature list, and an implementation that doesn’t make me hate time-tracking, I’m sold.


If you’re paying a fortune to run two apps like FreshBooks and Basecamp, chances are all the features you need are in Paymo (though if you need the extra power that Basecamp’s specialization in project management provides, you can sync your Paymo account with it).


It has got some rough edges, but I’ve seen the Paymo team’s iterative approach at work and new features are tackled quickly and tested early. Paymo checks my boxes now, but I’m confident that anything I’ll miss won’t be far behind.


With a free account plan that lets you test out the full feature set, there’s no risk in giving Paymo a try. I suggest you head on over and see for yourself.



Google last year said Android is a $1 billion business. Microsoft, it seems, may have similar plans for Google’s mobile operating system. Thanks to a barrage of patent licensing agreements with Android manufacturers, including a potentially highly lucrative deal in the works with Samsung, Microsoft is on its way to making big money with Android. How much could it all be worth?


Well, with 500,000 daily Android activations that Google recently reported, Microsoft could make $912 million in a year if it extracts $5 per activation on every Android smartphone or tablet sold. That’s how much it reportedly makes on each HTC Android device, as part of a licensing deal struck last year. It’s a long way to getting all Android makers to pony up, but you can see how big an opportunity this is for Microsoft, which is studiously lining up licensing deals with Android manufacturers. There are some 36 Android licensees as of May, making some 310 devices.


The latest and potentially biggest deal is reportedly in the works with Samsung, the world’s leading Android manufacturer in terms of sales. Microsoft is leaning on Samsung to sign a patent licensing deal that could pay Microsoft $15 for every Android device, although Samsung is reportedly trying to bring that down to $10. At that price, Microsoft could make an estimated $200 million alone just on Samsung Galaxy S II smartphones this year based on projections of 20 million sales. And if Android activations pick up speed, which is likely considering the pace of Android’s growth, it could mean an even larger opportunity of more than $1 billion annually for Microsoft.


Again, it’s no guarantee that Microsoft can strike licensing deals with every Android manufacturer but the Windows giant has been on a roll lately. It has recently signed deals with General Dynamics Itronix, Wistron Corp., Velocity Micro and Okyo Corp. Microsoft has not disclosed how much those deals are worth, though it said it was collecting royalty payments from the licensees. Many firms choosing to strike deals, including companies like Itronix, which presumably has some General Dynamics patents to cross license, suggests Microsoft has a pretty compelling argument that may work on other manufacturers.


Microsoft hasn’t won over everyone, however. Motorola has been a hold-out, as has Barnes & Noble. Both are fighting Microsoft in court over patent infringement claims. A win by either could help slow down Microsoft’s patent rampage on Android. But it could be some time before those cases are decided. In the meantime, if Microsoft can add Samsung to the list of licensees of patents allegedly infringed upon by use of the Android operating system, it could be a signal to other manufacturers that it might make sense to fall in line.


There’s something a little perverse about imagining Microsoft making so much from another operating system when it can’t seem to get much traction for its own mobile efforts. Gartner estimated Microsoft sold just 1.6 million Windows Phone 7 devices in the first quarter. It’s almost certain then that Microsoft made a lot more money from its deal with HTC, which sold 9.3 million phones in the first quarter, most of them Androids.


But it’s a sad fact of life in the fast-moving world of technology. Companies that aren’t necessarily competitive can still rake in dollars with their intellectual property. Nortel just sold its patents to a consortium including Microsoft, RIM and Apple for $4.5 billion, leaving Google without some significant patent protection. Google has decried the state of software patents but bid unsuccessfully on the Nortel portfolio to bulk up its defenses. But with Microsoft coming after its Android partners, Google doesn’t have much to say it seems. It may be that Microsoft’s patent licenses become just a cost of doing business for Android OEMs. I don’t think it will derail Android’s overall momentum, but it does undermine the promise of the platform as a free operating system. And it could lead to less innovation and added costs eventually passed on to consumers.


At any rate, Android is still a world beater for now though increasingly a huge lawsuit magnet. Google is still making its $1 billion from advertising on Android. Manufacturers like HTC are seeing record profits by feeding off of Android’s success. It seems like Microsoft is making sure that even if its own platform is starting slowly, it’s getting a sizable piece of the Android action.


Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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  • Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
  • A Media Tablet Forecast, 2011 – 2015
  • A Global Mobile Handset Platform Forecast, 2011 – 2015

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