The 1% indeed: a new study of the global economy and wealth
concentration has identified a complex system of only 147 banks and
corporations around the world which share in the largest chunk of the
change. While that number might not seem too shocking to those of us
paying attention, this study, "by a trio of complex systems theorists at
the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go
beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power,"
writes New Scientist.
In other words: valuable data which will not only strengthen OWS'
political arguments but will help us identify whether, and how, the
global economy is unstable.
Click here to read the full article.
By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
| Sourced from
AlterNet
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
What to Do If You're a Data Breach Victim
Up to 20 million Americans may become victims of a data breach
this year, in one or more of an estimated 400 incidents.
A data breach happens when a hacker gains access to a computer that contains personal records of individuals, or a disk or other device containing records is lost or stolen.
These may be stored by a business or other organization - a hospital for instance - and the records may hold information ranging from simple contact details like home or email addresses, to highly sensitive and confidential information like credit card numbers and health records.
Click Here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
A data breach happens when a hacker gains access to a computer that contains personal records of individuals, or a disk or other device containing records is lost or stolen.
These may be stored by a business or other organization - a hospital for instance - and the records may hold information ranging from simple contact details like home or email addresses, to highly sensitive and confidential information like credit card numbers and health records.
Click Here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
Friday, October 14, 2011
Your Action Plan for Dealing with Telemarketers
Telemarketers always seem to call at the worst possible time,
and even then you can't get them off the line without being
rude.
But the truth is that they mostly don't care about inconveniencing you, and they're so thick-skinned they don't care what you say to them either!
But sometimes they may be selling something you want and, if not, there's still an effective way of dealing with them.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
But the truth is that they mostly don't care about inconveniencing you, and they're so thick-skinned they don't care what you say to them either!
But sometimes they may be selling something you want and, if not, there's still an effective way of dealing with them.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
WHAT MAKES MARKETING SO HARD?
by C.J. Hayden
"Marketing is hard." That's what we independent professionals tell each other, anyway. At meetings, workshops, and online, wherever entrepreneurs gather, the difficulty of getting clients is a frequent topic.
There's certainly some truth to this statement. Marketing your services can be one of the most challenging elements of being in business for yourself. But does marketing have to be as hard as we seem to think it is? Maybe not.
In fact, I've noticed that professionals often make marketing much harder than it needs to be. Here are six ways that entrepreneurs frequently turn marketing into much more of a struggle than necessary.
1. Refuse to choose a target market.
If you don't limit your marketing to a specific category of likely clients, the alternative is marketing to anyone and everyone. That makes everything about marketing harder. You have to network more often, in more places, with more people, to run across enough prospects who might hire you. Building referral relationships is rarely possible, as you can neither identify who might be most likely to refer you a client, nor describe to them who they should refer.
Without a defined target market, you can't even talk about your business effectively, because there's no way to get specific about the benefits and results you produce. Whether you market yourself online, in person, by mail, or on the phone, trying to reach an undefined audience with a generic marketing message will wear you out before it produces results.
2. Spend time on your approach without tailoring your message.
I'm often asked to supply a universally effective cold calling script or sales letter, as if it were possible to craft such an item without explicit details about what is being sold, to whom, and for what purpose. No matter what marketing approach you choose, it's not going to work without a message that's tailored to your business and your audience.
But I see countless professionals fall into the trap of thinking marketing success is all about the technique -- social media, let's say, or public speaking, or pay-per-click ads, or a leads group -- while giving little thought to what they wish to communicate with these approaches.
3. Do what's easiest instead of what works best.
Most professionals already know what works best to market their services. When I ask them, they answer with "networking," "word of mouth," "referrals," and other strategies involving direct contact or personal connections. But when I ask those same professionals where they are spending the majority of their networking time, many of them sheepishly admit they are avoiding these strategies and instead sending out email, running ads, or trying to attract web traffic.
It may seem easier and less confronting to sit at the keyboard, buy an ad, or hire website help than to spend time connecting with people personally. But is it really "easy" to put money and effort into the least effective ways to market yourself, instead of doing what you already know works better?
4. Change marketing approaches every week.
Successful marketing is an ongoing process, not a collection of unrelated events. Whether you are blogging, networking in your community, writing a newsletter, or building referral relationships, persistence and consistency pay off while one-time or occasional attempts fall flat. Letting go of a marketing tactic after a handful of tries, only to pursue a different approach, is a guaranteed recipe for struggle and failure.
5. Avoid follow-up.
Similarly, any marketing strategy requires follow-up to produce results. Exhibiting at a trade show will do nothing for you unless you follow up with the people who stopped by. Public speaking won't produce results until you follow up with those who attended. Attending networking events won't bring you clients unless you follow up with the people you meet.
Yes, follow-up can seem difficult or confronting, but consider the alternative. Expending all that effort on exhibiting or speaking or networking without landing any business because you neglected to follow up -- now that's hard.
6. Continue to search for hidden marketing secrets instead of doing what's in front of you.
One of the hardest ways to go about marketing is spinning your wheels in analysis paralysis, second-guessing, or perfectionism. "Should I do this? Maybe I should do that. Perhaps something else might work better. I wonder what else I could do? Maybe I need more information. I'm not sure I'm ready." You can wear yourself out this way just thinking about marketing, without taking a single step.
Make it easy on yourself instead. Choose a few simple, effective things to do about marketing, using the suggestions above as a guide. Then get going. And keep going. You'll find that marketing won't seem so hard once it really starts to work.
"Marketing is hard." That's what we independent professionals tell each other, anyway. At meetings, workshops, and online, wherever entrepreneurs gather, the difficulty of getting clients is a frequent topic.
There's certainly some truth to this statement. Marketing your services can be one of the most challenging elements of being in business for yourself. But does marketing have to be as hard as we seem to think it is? Maybe not.
In fact, I've noticed that professionals often make marketing much harder than it needs to be. Here are six ways that entrepreneurs frequently turn marketing into much more of a struggle than necessary.
1. Refuse to choose a target market.
If you don't limit your marketing to a specific category of likely clients, the alternative is marketing to anyone and everyone. That makes everything about marketing harder. You have to network more often, in more places, with more people, to run across enough prospects who might hire you. Building referral relationships is rarely possible, as you can neither identify who might be most likely to refer you a client, nor describe to them who they should refer.
Without a defined target market, you can't even talk about your business effectively, because there's no way to get specific about the benefits and results you produce. Whether you market yourself online, in person, by mail, or on the phone, trying to reach an undefined audience with a generic marketing message will wear you out before it produces results.
2. Spend time on your approach without tailoring your message.
I'm often asked to supply a universally effective cold calling script or sales letter, as if it were possible to craft such an item without explicit details about what is being sold, to whom, and for what purpose. No matter what marketing approach you choose, it's not going to work without a message that's tailored to your business and your audience.
But I see countless professionals fall into the trap of thinking marketing success is all about the technique -- social media, let's say, or public speaking, or pay-per-click ads, or a leads group -- while giving little thought to what they wish to communicate with these approaches.
3. Do what's easiest instead of what works best.
Most professionals already know what works best to market their services. When I ask them, they answer with "networking," "word of mouth," "referrals," and other strategies involving direct contact or personal connections. But when I ask those same professionals where they are spending the majority of their networking time, many of them sheepishly admit they are avoiding these strategies and instead sending out email, running ads, or trying to attract web traffic.
It may seem easier and less confronting to sit at the keyboard, buy an ad, or hire website help than to spend time connecting with people personally. But is it really "easy" to put money and effort into the least effective ways to market yourself, instead of doing what you already know works better?
4. Change marketing approaches every week.
Successful marketing is an ongoing process, not a collection of unrelated events. Whether you are blogging, networking in your community, writing a newsletter, or building referral relationships, persistence and consistency pay off while one-time or occasional attempts fall flat. Letting go of a marketing tactic after a handful of tries, only to pursue a different approach, is a guaranteed recipe for struggle and failure.
5. Avoid follow-up.
Similarly, any marketing strategy requires follow-up to produce results. Exhibiting at a trade show will do nothing for you unless you follow up with the people who stopped by. Public speaking won't produce results until you follow up with those who attended. Attending networking events won't bring you clients unless you follow up with the people you meet.
Yes, follow-up can seem difficult or confronting, but consider the alternative. Expending all that effort on exhibiting or speaking or networking without landing any business because you neglected to follow up -- now that's hard.
6. Continue to search for hidden marketing secrets instead of doing what's in front of you.
One of the hardest ways to go about marketing is spinning your wheels in analysis paralysis, second-guessing, or perfectionism. "Should I do this? Maybe I should do that. Perhaps something else might work better. I wonder what else I could do? Maybe I need more information. I'm not sure I'm ready." You can wear yourself out this way just thinking about marketing, without taking a single step.
Make it easy on yourself instead. Choose a few simple, effective things to do about marketing, using the suggestions above as a guide. Then get going. And keep going. You'll find that marketing won't seem so hard once it really starts to work.
| Copyright © 2011, C.J. Hayden Read more free articles by C.J. Hayden or subscribe to the GET CLIENTS NOW! E-Letter. |
Sunday, October 9, 2011
App Malware Threatens Smartphones and Tablets
While most of us exercise caution before downloading an
executable file to our PCs, some of the same people don't
hesitate to install them onto mobile devices, like smartphones
and tablets, without worrying about app malware.
After all, apps -- "applications" -- are nothing more than executable mini-programs and deserve the same precautions that you use on your desktop computer.
Let's be clear at the outset that we're not talking about Apple products like the iPad and iPhone here, so-called iOS devices. That's because Apple retains full control over the apps and the way they actually run on these devices and vets each one before making them available at its App Store.
Click Here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
After all, apps -- "applications" -- are nothing more than executable mini-programs and deserve the same precautions that you use on your desktop computer.
Let's be clear at the outset that we're not talking about Apple products like the iPad and iPhone here, so-called iOS devices. That's because Apple retains full control over the apps and the way they actually run on these devices and vets each one before making them available at its App Store.
Click Here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
5 Facts You Should Know About the Wealthiest One Percent of Americans
Think Progress by Zaid Jilani
It may shock you to learn exactly how wealthy this top 1 percent of Americans is.
Think Progress by Zaid Jilani
It may shock you to learn exactly how wealthy this top 1 percent of Americans is.
As the ongoing occupation of Wall
Street by hundreds of protesters enters its third week — and as protests
spread to other cities such as Boston and Los Angeles — demonstrators have endorsed a new slogan: “We are the 99 percent.” This slogan refers to an economic struggle between 99 percent of Americans and the richest 1 percent of Americans, who are increasingly accumulating a greater share of the national wealth to the detriment of the middle class.
Van Jones on America's Uprising: It's Going To Be an Epic Battle
Alternet by Adele M Stan and Don Hazen
Jones talked to AlterNet about the growing social movements for change, running real progressives in 2012, and how we can train a million new leaders.
As the grassroots sit-ins and marches that originated as Occupy Wall Street spread to other cities, Van Jones, lead evangelist for the American Dream movement, took the stage Monday at a Washington, DC hotel where organizers of the institutional element of the progressive movement converged at Take Back the American Dream. The gathering was organized by the Campaign for America's Future in partnership with Jones' new organization, Rebuild the Dream. Jones voiced his support for the spontaneous Wall Street uprising, and for the U.S. Marines who agreed, he said, to protect the protesters while wearing dress blues.
Click here to read the full article.
Alternet by Adele M Stan and Don Hazen
Jones talked to AlterNet about the growing social movements for change, running real progressives in 2012, and how we can train a million new leaders.
As the grassroots sit-ins and marches that originated as Occupy Wall Street spread to other cities, Van Jones, lead evangelist for the American Dream movement, took the stage Monday at a Washington, DC hotel where organizers of the institutional element of the progressive movement converged at Take Back the American Dream. The gathering was organized by the Campaign for America's Future in partnership with Jones' new organization, Rebuild the Dream. Jones voiced his support for the spontaneous Wall Street uprising, and for the U.S. Marines who agreed, he said, to protect the protesters while wearing dress blues.
Click here to read the full article.
Alternet by Adele M Stan and Don Hazen
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Typo might send personal data to crooks, not company
First came "typosquatting."
In this common scam, cyber-criminals buy Internet addresses that differ from big-name ones by just a letter or two, then capitalize on sloppy typing. Someone who wants to go to xyxcorp.com but accidentally types xyzcorp.com ends up at the scammer's site.
Now comes another trick to hook the fumble-fingered, courtesy of a keystroke omission rather than a misspelling: a missing dot in an email address.
Click here to read the full article.
By Sid Kirchheimer
In this common scam, cyber-criminals buy Internet addresses that differ from big-name ones by just a letter or two, then capitalize on sloppy typing. Someone who wants to go to xyxcorp.com but accidentally types xyzcorp.com ends up at the scammer's site.
Now comes another trick to hook the fumble-fingered, courtesy of a keystroke omission rather than a misspelling: a missing dot in an email address.
Click here to read the full article.
By Sid Kirchheimer
How to Avoid Predatory Lending Scams
Although laws are being tightened all the time -- in some
states more than others -- the practice of predatory lending
is still flourishing.
There seems to be no official definition of the term and that, in many cases, the process may actually operate inside the law -- it may be unjust and unfair but it's not always illegal.
Frequently, predatory lending occurs in the housing market, charging high-interest rates and fees; we've discussed this problem previously in a Scambusters issue as part of a broader review of mortgage scams. New Mortgage Scams Sweep Away Homes And Dreams.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
There seems to be no official definition of the term and that, in many cases, the process may actually operate inside the law -- it may be unjust and unfair but it's not always illegal.
Frequently, predatory lending occurs in the housing market, charging high-interest rates and fees; we've discussed this problem previously in a Scambusters issue as part of a broader review of mortgage scams. New Mortgage Scams Sweep Away Homes And Dreams.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
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