Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Oh Halloween — how you’ve changed!
Remember when we used to make our own Halloween costumes and then made our kids’? And when little ghosts and goblins came to our door, they carried old pillowcases they hoped to fill with loot instead of orange bags or plastic pumpkins? If you do, you are definitely out of touch with Halloween today. Nowadays little girls want store-bought Disney princess costumes and little boys want to be superheroes. Halloween has turned into a $6 billion spending spree per year in the U.S., and $1.5 billion in Canada. Since the U.S. has almost 10 times the population of Canada, does that mean that we actually spend more per capita? Interesting.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Bomb Scare
via msnbc.msn.com
That's really scary. I just hope we could prevent these type of things to even started.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
New e-passports won't have biometric data
By Lia Levesque, The Canadian Press
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MONTREAL - The federal government rolled out some details of its new 10-year electronic passport on Tuesday, saying the Canadians who know about the new document seem to like it.
"Generally Canadians are not aware of the project by the government of Canada to adopt the new passport, nor do they know exactly what the passport consists of," a survey released by Passport Canada indicated.
But the idea of the microchip-equipped passport, which offers a choice of validity of five or 10 years, "experienced significant support," the survey said.
The new passport will contain a photograph but not biometric data such as fingerprints or iris scans.
Adults will be able to choose between a five-year passport and one valid for 10 years but children will only be able to get the five-year document.
"The goal of the validity period of 10 years is not to reduce costs but to be more convenient for Canadians, to get Canada to the same level as a growing number of countries such as the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Australia," said Monique Boivin, a Passport Canada spokeswoman.
She said about 80 countries issue e-passports and "Canada is the only G8 country not to issue electronic passports to the general public."
Boivin said Canada chose not to include fingerprints and iris scans in the passport to comply with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
"Right now the ICAO standard is the facial image," she said.
The Passport Canada survey said that about 55,000 Canadian passports were lost or stolen in 2008-2009. The country issued 4.38 million passports in the same period.
Boivin said that there are 19 million passports in circulation and those stolen "represent a very small, tiny portion of what is outstanding at this time."
There have been some suggestions that Passport Canada raise the price of replacement passports for those lost or stolen rather than pass the cost on to everyone.
Boivin said a final proposal will be developed that will set the costs and standards and be sent to Parliament for approval. Once that's done, the new electronic passport could be implemented from 2012 onwards.
However, some people have raised concerns about privacy issues.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Union worried about the confidentiality of information contained on the passport's microchip.
"Some feared that the passport chip could lead to surveillance and monitoring of Canadians by unauthorized parties," the group wrote in the report.
"That means making personal information available electronically can increase the number of forged passports and identity theft."
Boivin said an awareness campaign will be conducted to "reassure" Canadians about the confidentiality of data.
She noted the passport has to be opened to the second page to be scanned unlike other documents such as a driver's licence. It also must be held close to the computer drive to be read.
The passport agency acknowledged that there is an upward trend in states adding other biometrics, such as fingerprints and iris scans for security.
The Employers Council, which was also consulted by Passport Canada, welcomed the adoption of e-passport because it lengthens the validity period, reduces paperwork, and eases mobility.
Canada
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10-year electronic passport... interesting.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
How To Get Traffic To Your Website
4 Sources For Dirt Cheap Traffic – How To Get Traffic To Your Website
The biggest hurdle that internet marketers face is getting quality, targeted traffic to their websites without
breaking the bank. Affiliate marketers, ecommerce store owners, bloggers, and product owners alike all face this problem. Thankfully, there is plenty of traffic available – more than you’ll ever need – and all you need to do is to step in front of it. Below are four underground, cheap sources for reliable traffic that you can turn on like a faucet.
1) Facebook Advertising
With more page views than any other site in the world and the internet’s most advanced targeting system, Facebook is an endless source for constant traffic.
While still in it’s infant stages, the Facebook advertising platform already shows signs of becoming a top source for paid traffic. Unlike search traffic, which only allows marketers to target based on keyword, Facebook ads allow the advertiser to drill down to the exact demographic of user. Plus, Facebook allows direct marketers and affiliate marketers.
In fact, the Facebook ad system is so massive that new marketers may find their test budgets eaten up in just a few minutes. To maximize your results, create small tests by choosing the exact demographic for your product. This will provide higher click rates, lower costs, and higher ROI.
2) Social Media / Link Bait
Quality rises to the top, and social media will spread it and send links back to your content.
While most marketers scramble for links and manually built social media presences, smart marketers realize that quality content brings exposure, traffic, and links naturally. This is often referred to as “link bait,” or any quality content that deserves a link. Of course, having an established presence can help to jump start this, but havingRetweet, Facebook sharing, and bookmarking tools on your website can go a long way.
Link building is the most important factor to where you rank in the search engines, and the most powerful links are those that come naturally and unsolicited. Give your market content that deserves a link, and then syndicate the content through your Twitter account, to your subscriber list, and through social media.
Social activity also gives you a bump in the search engines, because Google looks at activity as part of it’s algorithm. This can be partially manipulated through social communities, including Synnd.com.
3) Article Marketing
Old school article marketing is still a reliable source for backlinks, traffic, exposure.
Article marketing is back in a big way. Social media tools have made article marketing twice as effective, as outlined below. Quality article marketing campaigns bring back a recurring supply of backlinks, and the articles dominate the search engines themselves, giving websites a two-fer (backlinks and traffic).
For example, if you send your Squidoo lenses, Hubpages, and EzineArticles through a social media strategy and pick up a few Retweets and bookmarks, the backlinks and overall presence of the article become much more powerful, simply because the article is on an already well-established domain. (Tip: put your EzineArticles on your blog, and then Tweet your blog – this is very effective.)
However, even with only minimal exposure, article marketing is still a very effective way to funnel traffic back to your websites and increase your backlinks. In fact, there are still affiliate marketers who only do article marketing and drive their traffic back to an offer. The key is in quality – it always rises to the top. Focus less on keywords and more on quality.
4) List Swaps, Solo Ads, and Affiliates
Other people’s lists can be had for dirt-cheap. Why don’t more people utilize this? We’ll never know.
If you have your own offer (and you should), then it is easy to get people to mail it out to their list, even if you don’t have your own product. Yes, affiliates are a great source to get traffic and leads, but “other people’s lists” can be hugely effective even without your own product.
If you’re building a list and can’t pay affiliates yet, no worries – rent someone else’s list. Solo ads in other people’s newsletters are available all over, and they are disgustingly cheap. In some preliminary tests, solo ads that cost $50 – $200 can bring back as many as 200 – 500 leads.
To find list owners who would be willing to run a solo ad, simply browse through your keywords and look at relevant blogs on Alltop.com. Get their contact information and ask them if they are open to a mail drop or solo ad. The key in making this successful is having a winning email to give to the list owner that gets people to click the link and opt into your squeeze page. Once the email is written written, it can be used on every single one.
Too many internet marketers fear traffic and wonder how to get it. Again, there is already an unlimited supply of traffic – both free and paid – on the internet; you just need to reach out and grab it. Instead of worrying about doing all of them, focus on just one. Master one traffic strategy, and you’ll be far ahead of where most people ever get.
Excelent information from Ryan. He always deliver good stuff.
Dancing with the Stars Shocking Elimination
via ca.tv.yahoo.com
He has a Super Bowl ring and despite his last place finish on Monday night's competition show, former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner is still in the running to add the "Dancing with the Stars" mirrorball to his trophy cabinet. Instead, "DWTS" offered its most shocking elimination to date as former "Hills" beauty Audrina Patridge was sent packing on Tuesday night's elimination show. I sure was surprised myself by this decision. She really got far in her dancing, but I guess this was a number game. I feel sorry for her.
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