Casual Articles

How Promotional Items Can Drive Your Business
Promotional items have been proven to be an effective part of the marketing mix, and as such can play a key role in driving your business. Whether it’s a mug or a mousemat, a keyring or a pen, promotional items are generally much appreciated by the recipient. Everyone likes to receive a free gift – it reminds us of the feeling we had as a child when we found a free toy inside the cereal packet. Most promotional items are useful, which means they tend to be kept and used. This in turn means that your name, logo or message benefits from repeated exposure without any further cost. There are many ways in which promotional items can be successfully employed to create brand awareness and drive up sales.For example, advertising campaigns and direct mail tend to see better response rates when they are supported by promotional items. Corporate gifts encourage customer goodwill towards a company and its sales force, and can help generate repeat business as well as customer referrals. Internal award schemes and ince

sponsibility of the user to research and select the criteria to be applied for his/her Trading Plan and as key input to the Portfolio Planner © e.g. volatility and sector allocation, stop loss levels and % risk factors; and for the ultimate selection of which stock(s) to buy and the applicable position size(s).

Putting all or most of your available funds into one stock or sector; placing at risk a large % of one’s portfolio in any one position or having too many open positions with an unacceptable total % of portfolio at risk are recipes for potential disaster.

Experience of other traders shows that it is also wise to diversify their capital in a chosen proportion between a range of high, medium and low volatility stocks to maximise annual growth of their portfolio.

Experienced traders and investors have varying rules for money and risk management.

The following are some typical examples from the literature:

1. In his books and this newsletter Daryl Guppy chooses 1/7 (14.3%) in high volatility (e.g. ‘speculatives’); 2/7 (28.6%) in medium volatility (e.g. ‘

Contracts That Work - Limitations of Liability
Limitations of Liability Thomas J. Hall, JD It’s a provision found in almost every commercial contract: “Vendor shall be liable only for direct damages, in an amount not to exceed $X. In no event will vendor be liable for indirect, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages or for lost profits.” Although the actual words may vary, the meaning is the same: • The most vendor will pay is $X; • For certain claims, vendor has NO liability. Such provisions raise a number of issues: • They are unfair. Vendor’s liability is capped, but customer’s is not. In other words, vendor knows his or her own maximum liability under the contract, while customer’s liability is unlimited. • Vendor’s maximum liability - $X – may be inadequate. For example, “X” may be “no more than customer paid under this contract” or “no more than customer paid in the xyz months preceding the event giving rise to the claim for damages.” If we assume customer is paying 10 grand a month, and “xyz” is 12 mon

This article was originally featured in Daryl Guppy's 'Tutorials in Applied Technical Analysis', voted no 1 trading newsletter in Australia by Shares magazine & no 4 in the world by US Stocks & Commodities magazine and is reprinted here with Daryl's permission.

In addition to developing sound technical analysis skills, strong trading psychology coupled with well thought-out money and risk management are also vital key secrets for success when trading or investing in the market.

From real life experience and lessons in portfolio management learnt the very hard way, John Atkinson originally designed his series of three Money and Risk Management spreadsheets to help his own trading. Through the help of programmers Stephen Parsons and Peter Tamsett, he recently added several user friendly macros and has now made them available as simple to use and very affordable tools to help traders and investors plan and manage their portfolios.

They are designed to assist in the planning and developing of profitable portfolio growth, by putting structured money & risk management control in place and as a means of keeping simple and accurate records.

Many investors and traders spend less time planning the risk of individual trades and their overall portfolio for their wealth creation than they do planning their grocery shopping. Many do not plan, accurately track or review their progress at all.

Some think that spreading or ‘diversifying’ their portfolio into several large positions in 'safe' blue chips is their way to address money & risk management. They do not realise that overloading in too many positions or too large a position can put their portfolio seriously at risk.

Without proper planning one may end up with a portfolio that is a disaster waiting to happen. We know. We've been there & we wouldn't want you to go through the sleepless nights and gut wrenching fear, financial and emotional loss that we and a few traders we know have experienced as a result.

A major reason why we lost our Sydney waterfront home in 2000 and more since was not developing or adhering to correct risk & money management rules - so our series of three portfolio tools has been created from our own personal very hard knock experience at a very real financial cost of literally hundreds of thousands of dollars and at a huge emotional cost.

We subsequently went looking for the information which we wish we’d looked for, or had been advised of, prior. These tools are based on various ‘world’s best practice’ principles and strategies taught by this newsletter, Daryl Guppy’s books and by other trader authors such as Alan Hull, Louise Bedford, Dr Alexander Elder and Dr Van Tharp.

They consist of the:

• Atkinson Portfolio Planner © - to plan your stock selection & overall sector & portfolio risk in advance

• Atkinson Trade Optimizer © - which stock to buy when you have a few to choose from & funds only available for one?

• Atkinson Portfolio Manager © - stop loss, targets, individual stock & combined portfolio equity curves, expectancy of closed trades and much more

Over the coming weeks we will discuss each of these tools in detail.

We start this week with the Atkinson Portfolio Planner ©.

This tool is designed to help you plan your portfolio correctly so you can sleep at night, knowing you have a balanced portfolio and are not too exposed in any one trade, volatility grouping or sector.

Also, that you have planned the correct number and size of open positions to ensure that your total portfolio risk does not exceed your specified criteria.

This easy-to-use tool allows you to check your planned allocation of:

Mix of high, medium and low volatility shares

Mix of shares between sectors

Individual risk of each position as a % of your portfolio

Maximum % of your portfolio in any one position

Total risk of your combined portfolio

Once you have entered your requirements, the Atkinson Portfolio Planner © will calculate the above essential factors and even flag red alerts if any of your planned or open positions exceed your personal risk profile.

This allows the user to ensure in the planning stages that your hard earned capital will be apportioned correctly to conform to risk levels selected by your own Trading Plan.

It is the responsibility of the user to research and select the criteria to be applied for his/her Trading Plan and as key input to the Portfolio Planner © e.g. volatility and sector allocation, stop loss levels and % risk factors; and for the ultimate selection of which stock(s) to buy and the applicable position size(s).

Experienced traders and investors have varying rules for money and risk management.

The following are some typical examples from the literature:

1. In his books and this newsletter Daryl Guppy chooses 1/7 (14.3%) in high volatility (e.g. ‘speculatives’); 2/7 (28.6%) in medium volatility (e.g. ‘

10 Mistakes eBay Sellers Make (Even PowerSellers)
If you are not getting the bids you want with your eBay auctions you could be making some crucial mistakes in your listings. As a PowerSeller who makes a living on eBay I find myself browsing eBay's listings on a daily basis. While browsing I see so many eBay sellers (even PowerSellers) making crucial errors in their listings. Here are 10 simple mistakes eBay sellers make.1. Poor title. I see this so often, the most common mistake is only using a few characters. You have 53 characters at your disposal so try and use them all. Also, imagine yourself looking for the item you are selling. What keywords would you search for? Try and include these in your title.2. Spelling errors. If you have spelling errors in your listing you will get fewer bids. All it takes is to run your listing through a spellchecker before you list.3. Silly terms and conditions. Do you really need payment within 24 hours? Must the buyers feedback be higher than 10? Try and avoid silly terms in your listings and you will ge

ol in place and as a means of keeping simple and accurate records.

They consist of the:

• Atkinson Portfolio Planner © - to plan your stock selection & overall sector & portfolio risk in advance

• Atkinson Trade Optimizer © - which stock to buy when you have a few to choose from & funds only available for one?

• Atkinson Portfolio Manager © - stop loss, targets, individual stock & combined portfolio equity curves, expectancy of closed trades and much more

Over the coming weeks we will discuss each of these tools in detail.

We start this week with the Atkinson Portfolio Planner ©.

Also, that you have planned the correct number and size of open positions to ensure that your total portfolio risk does not exceed your specified criteria.

This easy-to-use tool allows you to check your planned allocation of:

Mix of high, medium and low volatility shares

Mix of shares between sectors

Individual risk of each position as a % of your portfolio

Maximum % of your portfolio in any one position

Total risk of your combined portfolio

This allows the user to ensure in the planning stages that your hard earned capital will be apportioned correctly to conform to risk levels selected by your own Trading Plan.

Experienced traders and investors have varying rules for money and risk management.

The following are some typical examples from the literature:

1. In his books and this newsletter Daryl Guppy chooses 1/7 (14.3%) in high volatility (e.g. ‘speculatives’); 2/7 (28.6%) in medium volatility (e.g. ‘

RSS Feeds Future Revealed
I don't claim to be a futurologist or an RSS pioneer but I have been keeping a pretty close eye on RSS and how it has been evolving. From what I have seen so far I think I can make some pretty good predictions about where RSS feeds are heading.The first prediction is pretty obvious but I think it needs to said. RSS feeds are here to stay and they are only going to become more popular. This year we have seen the likes of Yahoo pretty much integrate RSS into its search and Microsoft will integrate RSS reading into it new browser and make RSS a part of the next version of Windows. It won't be long before RSS Google search appears.RSS feeds will see richer content becoming more common. We already have inclusions in RSS 2.0 that are used for pictures and more frequently podcasts. I think we will see an increase in video in RSS feeds although due to the bandwidth needed I think many inclusions will be in the form of torrents. That's right you heard it here first, RSS readers with integrated support for t

lio tools has been created from our own personal very hard knock experience at a very real financial cost of literally hundreds of thousands of dollars and at a huge emotional cost.

They consist of the:

• Atkinson Portfolio Planner © - to plan your stock selection & overall sector & portfolio risk in advance

• Atkinson Trade Optimizer © - which stock to buy when you have a few to choose from & funds only available for one?

• Atkinson Portfolio Manager © - stop loss, targets, individual stock & combined portfolio equity curves, expectancy of closed trades and much more

Over the coming weeks we will discuss each of these tools in detail.

We start this week with the Atkinson Portfolio Planner ©.

Also, that you have planned the correct number and size of open positions to ensure that your total portfolio risk does not exceed your specified criteria.

This easy-to-use tool allows you to check your planned allocation of:

Mix of high, medium and low volatility shares

Mix of shares between sectors

Individual risk of each position as a % of your portfolio

Maximum % of your portfolio in any one position

Total risk of your combined portfolio

This allows the user to ensure in the planning stages that your hard earned capital will be apportioned correctly to conform to risk levels selected by your own Trading Plan.

Experienced traders and investors have varying rules for money and risk management.

The following are some typical examples from the literature:

1. In his books and this newsletter Daryl Guppy chooses 1/7 (14.3%) in high volatility (e.g. ‘speculatives’); 2/7 (28.6%) in medium volatility (e.g. ‘

Work as a Symphony
Have you ever seen an orchestra producing some truly amazing and inspiring music. I remember seeing an orchestra playing at the Sydney Opera House (and for all the overseas people it is something you must do whilst in Australia). I was so impressed with the way all the different instrumental groups blended together to make this magical sound.The conductor’s role was very important in keeping all the sections on task and in time. However, all the groups must be able to work together (compliment each other) to produce beautiful harmonics. In a good orchestra, the wind instruments are not in conflict with the brass or percussion instruments. They all have a job to do, and they must be able to complete their task as well as support all the other musical sections in the process.Great workplaces are like a wonderful orchestra. Yes there needs to be a good leader conducting proceedings, but there has to be synergy between all the other sections of the business. Just like in an orchestra, each section has

s designed to help you plan your portfolio correctly so you can sleep at night, knowing you have a balanced portfolio and are not too exposed in any one trade, volatility grouping or sector.

Also, that you have planned the correct number and size of open positions to ensure that your total portfolio risk does not exceed your specified criteria.

This easy-to-use tool allows you to check your planned allocation of:

Mix of high, medium and low volatility shares

Mix of shares between sectors

Individual risk of each position as a % of your portfolio

Maximum % of your portfolio in any one position

Total risk of your combined portfolio

This allows the user to ensure in the planning stages that your hard earned capital will be apportioned correctly to conform to risk levels selected by your own Trading Plan.

Experienced traders and investors have varying rules for money and risk management.

The following are some typical examples from the literature:

1. In his books and this newsletter Daryl Guppy chooses 1/7 (14.3%) in high volatility (e.g. ‘speculatives’); 2/7 (28.6%) in medium volatility (e.g. ‘

The 7 Principles For Getting Any Business in the Local News
There is no guarantee that PR (public relations) will work, but when it does it can be extremely powerful, ask Paris Hilton. There are a few things that every business owner should know about PR. PR offers a lot of reach, creditability and can drive a lot of business into your business weather it be web site traffic or foot traffic. There are a few simple rules of the game that we will cover in this article that will be helpful on your journey to getting in the news.Rule #1) is to go local! The reason you want to go local is that many media outlets are owned by bigger corporations and if your story has national implications there is the possibility of getting it picked up in the national press. Your local news media is much more willing to listen to your story pitch than is the national media or is Oprah. Remember small media gets big media. We have all seen this on Johnny Carson where their producers will find some sort of obscure article in a backwater newspaper and give it national coverage.

Experienced traders and investors have varying rules for money and risk management.

The following are some typical examples from the literature:

1. In his books and this newsletter Daryl Guppy chooses 1/7 (14.3%) in high volatility (e.g. ‘speculatives’); 2/7 (28.6%) in medium volatility (e.g. ‘mid caps’) and 4/7 (57.1%) in low volatility (e.g. ‘blue chips’). Others may choose a maximum of 10% in high volatility. The final choice is the user’s responsibility

2. For small portfolios, in his book Share Trading #, Daryl Guppy provides an example of building from $6k to $21k, by starting with $2k (i.e. 1/3rd) in high volatility and $4k (i.e. 2/3rd) in low volatility stocks; then splitting this back to 1/7; 2/7 and 4/7 when the portfolio has grown to $14k.

3. Maximum position size as a % of total portfolio: commonly 20-25% absolute max; some reduce to 15% or less for large portfolios or speculative stocks.

4. Maximum Equity Risk: No more than 2% of portfolio to be placed at risk in any one trade – some choose to reduce this 1 % or 0.5% for larger portfolios or for more highly volatile positions.

5. In my book ‘10 Ways Not to Lose Your Home in the Stock Market’ (due 2005) I wrote “What we also failed to realise was that instead of spreading our risk, we were magnifying our risk. For instance, using a stop loss of 2% portfolio risk, let’s say a trader has ten positions. That means if the market takes a sudden dive and all stops are triggered, they risk losing 20% of their entire portfolio value. Expand that out to twenty positions, then 20 x 2% = 40% of their portfolio is at risk. It can happen – it did happen. If you freeze or have margin loans, the destruction can be far worse….

Dr Elder refers to the 2% risk rule as protection against shark attack and extends the concept further to a 6% rule to protect against piranha attack i.e. to close out the whole portfolio if it drops by 6% in the past month.

Taking this to its logical extension, Dr Elder describes how, using this strategy, also limits traders to three positions (at 2% risk) to start off with, until some of them rise into profit, before opening any additional positions.”

(Readers may wish to refer to my Home Study course module on Money & Risk Management which is based on and includes Daryl Guppy’s Share Trading & Better Trading books and includes my portfolio tools - available at our site. Also refer to books by Louise Bedford (e.g.Trading Secrets) and Dr Alexander Elder (e.g. Come into my Trading Room) for further explanation.)

In the next article I discuss how we use the Atkinson Portfolio Planner to ensure that the following planned risk and money management criteria are met:

1. The maximum total value spent in each volatility grouping

2. The maximum total value spent in any sector

3. The maximum position size as a % of total portfolio

4. The equity risk for each position

5. The combined total portfolio risk exposure

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Most people shy away from email marketing, thinking it does not deliver enough value. They stick with the traditional methods of marketing in newspapers and magazines. In a recent survey at eMarketer, it was found that the returns from email marketing campaigns outsell print advertisements in newspapers in terms of revenue. There are many advantages of email marketing over print advertising in newspapers & magazines. I am listing a few of them here for you to review and decide for yourself.

So you want to be an internet marketer / affiliate marketer and are totally confused by all the possibilities available? You need to be like the sea captain in a storm, who regardless of the wind, the rain, the waves buckling the masts and the hysteric fear of his crew, keeps one eye on the compass and both hands firmly on the wheel as he guides all that is important to him through the turmoil to safety.

Targeted traffic is the life-blood of any online business, without which, any online business will eventually go to the wall. Generating targeted traffic to their websites is also one of the greatest nightmares of any online business owners.

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