Blog Box

Gombos Atila, 28 years old who has been in the art and advertising industry for more than eight years now, runs the new Stylish blog which is basically a programming design blog that also tackles webdesign, money and life. Together with his team of seasoned writers they share their insights in the world of art, culture and design.

The group has categorized their posts into Finance, Personal, Programming, Technology, Tools and Video.

You can find some invaluable tech tips and tricks from the blog such as knowing the things to check before calling your dedicated support professional, get to know more about capacity planning, how to properly setup and control user accounts, and even get some first hand info on what goes on in the spyware community.

At the time of this writing, there are currently 36 posts on the site but the numbers should continually increase easily in the days to come. The site is powered by wordpress and the pages load quickly. The site is also easy to navigate and the content is easy to read. I’d say it is pretty much a user friendly site.

The stylish blog has been online just this January of 2008 but it is already notable that the blog already has a Google Page Rank of 5! Wow! The stylish blog is definitely in the right track.

Drop by stylishwebdesign.us and check out what they have to say about web design, money and life.

Successful business ventures emanating from entrepreneurial ideas have produced a new breed of people in the business scene, the Nouveau Riche. French for new rich, their new found wealth spans the world from north to south, west to east of the globe. From the far flung areas and tropical hot counties to the cold fronts of snow cold countries. The nouveau riche definitely have made their mark.

Their industries are as varied as they are as diverse. The riches involved vary from low, medium to high with investment levels ranging from as low as six figure US Dollar investment to as high as a seven figure US Dollar investment.

Entrepreneurial initiatives taken to seize the opportunities in the market have been one of the overriding keys to success of the nouveau riche. From providing wireless networks to deliver broadband to tourists and different locals at Brazilian beach resorts to bio-diesel production in Argentina to creating an advertising network for India’s mobile content developers are situations that point to the relevance of addressing a market need. Filling that need, a nouveau riche is made.

Russia’s market need for an exclusive social network for its nouveau riche of millionaires and billionaires brought about by oil money is indeed a reality that ushers in opportunities as much as China’s need for home improvement products and services for its ever increasing population of middle class consumers that seem to burst in the seams.

An old industry with a new twist is mining. With prices of metals soaring especially gold, nickel and copper, mining projects that were once marginal are being revived as is what Bolivia is currently addressing.

While previously known for low grade wine, continuous development has brought Greece into award winning quality wines that have increased exports to the US in the same breath that fine wine imports to India, with India’s rapidly expanding middle class are on the rise.

Through improved fertilizing methods and setting up of farmer coops to improve pricing to farmers, Rwanda’s coffee industry is on the rise with demand for outstripping supply. Social entrepreneurship in South Africa not only creates positive social change in the grassroots but also a down to earth business with growth potentials.

Nouveau riche. Newly found wealth. These are definite signs of changing times, of emerging markets.

Getting a car in the US used to be very easy as long as you have enough money. But not having enough money was not much of a problem either for as long as you had good credit because you could easily get a loan. Sounds great doesn’t it? But that was back then. With the current US economy in “difficult times”, some have difficulty in paying their bills which in turn ruins their credit. A person’s credit rating in the US means a lot especially when it comes to insurance and other financial concerns such as applying for a loan.

Fortunately there are service providers that could still help you out to get a bad credit auto loan. One of those service providers is GetTheBestAutoLoan.com.

Their system works by making several lenders compete just to get your business thereby passing on much of the savings to you making sure you get the best deal. They provide you several auto loan quotes and it is up to you to decide which could give you the best deal.

This is the reason why they are one of the top providers of online auto quotes in the industry today.

They recently decided to jump into the blogging scene and launched their own blog where they share various tips and information to those who are interested in auto financing.

The car of your dreams is waiting… So check out GetTheBestAutoLoan.com if you want to avail of a car loan regardless whether you have good or bad credit.

The real estate industry isn’t doing that good in the US right now. Property owners won’t be getting as much as they could if they sell their properties now. Some could no longer afford to pay their mortgages which later on lead to foreclosure. There are some that couldn’t pay their taxes for their property so the government garnishes their property.

So probably you would say that investing in US real estate is not a good idea at the moment. Well… it really depends. One person might see that as a problem but another person might see it as an opportunity. Some real estate heavy hitters would readily jump into current real estate market buying properties left and right since this would be the best time to buy because the price is low. These are usually the people who somehow have enough money to invest and stay with it long term either by just having the place rented out, fixing it up and wait months and even years for the market to recover and sell the property at a profit.

There are lots strategies you can use if you want to get into the real estate business either as an investor or an agent. For investors, these are the times when short selling might not just work. Short selling used to be very effective back then when the real estate condition was still at its peak. Short selling involved scouting for and buying a good property with potential, fix a few things here and there, then sell it in just a matter of days and weeks. Some people have easily made anywhere from US$10,000 to US$50,000 to others as much as US$250,000 through short selling. But then again this might not work with the current state of the real estate market.

Nouveau Riche is French for “newly rich”. These are people who became rich not because they inherited their wealth. Nouveau Riche also happens to be the name of a company based in Scottsdale, Arizona who does specialized training via their Nouveau Riche University for those who would want to get into the real estate business in the US.

There has been a lot of feedback on Nouveau Riche’s program. There are some who have high praises with their program and that it had helped them a lot while there are also others that commented that the whole program is scam or a rip off.

So if you want to get into the real estate business and want to know the tricks of the trade of the industry, you might want to attend one of their free seminars that orient you about their program. Then decide for yourself whether their program will be suitable for you or not.

Do you go to office everyday or perhaps you have your own office at home? It really doesn’t matter as long as you love what you do and of course you have a good working environment which keeps you safe and healthy.

A good working environment should be well lit, well ventilated and have well designed and functional office furniture. Numerous studies have shown that people tend to be more productive if they have a good working environment.

Office tables should be functional, efficient and sturdy. Are your office desks sturdy and stable enough to handle all the weight that you put on top of it? Do you still have enough desk space? Does it have cable ports that help you manage all those cables from your electronic devices?

If you answered no… consider checking out Inter County’s huge inventory of office furniture. They are considered to be UK’s # 1 having 22 years experience of supplying office furniture and accessories in the UK. They are an ISO 9001 Quality Assurance certified as well as an ISO 14001 Environmental Assurance certified firm.

They take pride in providing you great office furniture products that they are even giving their customers an 8-year guarantee on all their commercial quality office furniture.

Their price point grey office desks have 25mm thick tops unlike the tops by other brands which are only 18mm thick. With other brands, you would have to pay additional to get a cable port, but with Inter Country, you get 2 to 3 cable ports built-in. These tables are even tested by FIRA for strength. You are also able to select a color and also carry their 8 year guarantee.

Need help in planning how your office furniture should be laid out? No worries, Inter County will even give you FREE CAD planning service. How cool is that!?

Having customer loyalty is imperative to running a good business. At the heart of every successful business is maintaining good relationships with customers. This is where a CRM or Customer Relationship Management system can help your business.

CRM helps companies understand, as well as anticipate, the needs of current and potential customers

It is a process or methodology used to learn more about customers’ needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM in primarily technological terms is a mistake. The more useful way to think about CRM is as a process that will help bring together lots of pieces of information about customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends.

CRM also helps businesses use technology and human resources to gain insight into the behavior of customers and the value of those customers. A good CRM solution should be able to help you with sales force automation, lead management, customer service and partner relationship management.

There is a plethora CRM solutions currently available in the market today. Some companies use Web-based CRM technologies which would cost them just hundreds of dollars per month while other larger companies even spend millions to have their own customize system just to support their CRM initiative.

One of the affordable CRM solutions is that of AIMpromote which includes accounting, client management, and distribution in one easy-to-use application. The strength of their CRM solution is providing you with their lead management software which also gives you a powerful lead reselling system.

Choosing the right CRM solution isn’t as easy as buying one off the shelf. Due diligence and analysis of your business processes should be done so you would know what to look for in a CRM solution. You should also decide what kind of customer information you will use and how it will be used. Then and only then should you select the right CRM solution that will help you automate the business processes that need some automation. Proper planning will definitely go a long way especially if you will be investing a lot of money and resources in the deployment of your CRM system.

A well implemented CRM system should be able to provide you with better customer service, help you increase customer revenues, even discover new customers, have the opportunity to cross sell/up sell products more effectively, help sales staff close deals faster, simplify marketing and sales processes and if implemented properly, you will be able to develop and maintain a good relationship with your customers.

So how about you? Does your company have your own CRM in place?

May 20-21, 2008

Grand Ballroom, Hotel Intercontinental, Makati City, Philippines

Be a global social networker in today’s second generation Web 2.0 world. Catch the latest phenomena in internet marketing, web advertising, and electronic commerce by knowing the trade of how social media and digital networks help increase web site traffic, conversions, and revenue generation.

The Social Networking and eBusiness Conference Philippines 2008 is a pioneering and leading edge event for sharing and exchanging information about social networking as it changes the landscape of internet marketing, web advertising, and electronic commerce.

This Conference will roll out relevant issues in social networking and eBusiness as key to customer acquisition, conversion, and retention through digital networks marketing, business networking, affiliate program, social media, and online community building. Issues on building trust, reputation and privacy in digital social networks will also be discussed. The Conference will offer new ideas, new thinking on how to bring your marketing strategies and programs to the next level of digital platform, which is of Web 2.0 world.

This Conference is must for interactive & digital marketers, brand marketers, web masters, bloggers, and those involved in Internet marketing, web advertising, and electronic commerce in today’s phenomena and recent boom in popularity of social networking.

Leading interactive marketing companies, technology providers, software vendors, Internet & web services providers, IT and management consulting companies, mobile & wireless, telecom companies, training institutes, software development companies, e-banking and financial institutions, content providers, and government agencies will showcase and demonstrate the latest Internet/wireless & mobile/e-commerce/e-business solutions, technologies, and innovations at the exhibit floor.

In this connection, we would like to invite your company to be one of our Corporate Sponsors, Exhibitors, or to send delegates/participants to this event. Attached are details of the event for your reference.

For more information, please call: Ms. Maricor Tornea and Angie Tuzon, Project Managers, at telephone numbers: +632- 896-0639, 896-0637, 899-6216, email: , visit web site: http://www.fmi.com.ph.

DigitalFilipino.com Club invites you to the

E-Commerce Policy Development Workshop

May 2, 2008

CEO Suite, 37th Flr. LKG Tower 6801

Ayala Ave. 1226 Makati City, Philippines

A repeat of this workshop is also scheduled on May 5 at the same venue.

DigitalFilipino.com Club SME members can send 1 representative while Corporate members can send 2 representatives. Please confirm for food count purposes.

This workshop is ideal for companies who would like to have an understanding of the E-Commerce Law. It will also tackle the creation of company policies in relation to electronic trading, employees’ use of Internet resources, application design, and how to handle electronic evidence.

• 9:00 - 12:00
  
  • Salient features of the E-Commerce Law
  • Creation of Trading Partner Agreement
  • Electronic Contracts Formation
• 1:00 - 5:00
  • Creation of Company Internet Use Policy
  • Privacy Policy (DTI DAO #8)
  • Application Design for Electronic Evidence Admissibility
  • Electronic Evidence Handling

Interested non-members are requested to sign up as an SME or Corporate member prior to the workshop and confirm attendance for food count purposes.

With the advent of the internet and online shopping. Identity theft and use of stolen credit cards have further proliferated. So what measures do you have in place to protect your identity and credit?

LoudSiren, LLC. is a member of the Identity Protection Network™ and marketing partner of Debix, Inc., of Austin, Texas. The Identity Protection Network™ was established in 2004 and is the first national network dedicated to protecting individuals and organizations from identity fraud.

LoudSiren protects consumers from financial fraud through a of a state-of-the-art process for authenticating customer identities that facilitates the right the US Congress gave consumers to protect themselves. LoudSiren ensures that consumers have access to their credit while keeping it secure from others.

LoudSiren™ STOPS identity thieves and puts you in control by preventing unauthorized use of your credit by making creditors contact you before opening new accounts in your name.

You get these benefits and protections when you join LoudSiren:

• STOP thieves from opening unauthorized credit accounts in your name
• SAVE time by limiting junk mail and pre-approved credit card offers
• KNOW where you stand with optional free Credit Reports
• PROTECT your privacy by stopping unwanted telemarketing calls

How it works is that right after you join LoudSiren, you will be assigned a unique phone number which they call LoudSiren Safe Phone Number. Everytime there is a request for credit made in your name, the creditor will have to contact LoudSiren, afterwhich LoudSiren reviews and automatically processes it then you will receive a call from LoudSiren where you will hear the creditor’s request for credit approval afterwhich you should enter your PIN number should you approve or deny the request.

You have NOTHING TO LOSE! Try LoudSiren.com TODAY, cancel anytime.

Mortgage-mart.com has been online since 1995 and has been helping people find the mortgage that best suits their needs. They specialize in finding mortgage loans regardless of which state or city you are from and get lower mortgage rates at the same time.

They share some things that you should consider when comparing mortgage loans:

Rates - Check to see if the quoted rates are the lowest for that day or the week. Is the rate fixed or adjustable? If it’s an adjustable rate loan, be sure to ask how it will affect your loan payment.

Points - These are broker or lender fees for the loan. One point is equal to 1%. Ask for these points to be quoted in dollar amount so you will know exactly what you will have to pay.

Fees - They are everywhere from transaction fees, loan origination, underwriting, broker, settlement, to closing cost fees. These fees are negotiable so make sure to discuss the fees included in the loan with your lender.

Down Payment - Many lenders offer mortgage loans where less than 20% of the home purchase price, but there are some lenders who require at least 20%. You may be required to purchase a PMI, Private Mortgage Insurance, if a down payment of 20% is not made. This is a protection most lenders make in case the loan defaults.

You can browse through their various services whether you are after a home purchase, home refinance or equity line. You can also select either single family, multi-family, condo, town home or mobile home type of property. You can event select by based on you credit rating whether you have excellent, good, fair and even poor.

Check out Mortgage Finders Network if you are on the lookout for offers on mortgages as they can provide you a one stop where you can browse and compare different financing options that will fit your needs so you can enjoy living in your wonderful home.

Yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. It really is REO and not SEO for Search Engine Optimization. So what on earth is REO? REO simply refers to Real Estate Owned by banks after foreclosure.

It’s no secret, the real estate market has changed. Foreclosures are up 115% over last year and industry analysts predict that this is only the tip of the iceberg. The Mortgage Bankers Association of America has predicted that there will be 2.2 million foreclosures in 2008, that’s more than double the number of foreclosures in 2007. Many industry experts predict that there will be millions of foreclosures over the next 6 years while the real estate market struggles to recover.

The numbers are absolutely staggering and financial institutions nationwide are scrambling to find agents who understand REO (bank foreclosure) to list and sell their foreclosed properties

With that in mind you should also consider that one’s loss is also another’s gain. As such not treat this as a problem but instead look at it as an opportunity.

How to do REO bank owned properties? That is just one of the many questions that the REO Renegades Home Study Course will answer. This REO training showing you a step-by-step system for listing and selling bank foreclosures!

REO home study course will teach you tried and tested strategies used to get started in this lucrative business niche quickly and avoid making costly rookie mistakes.

EZ Insurance Portal is a one stop shop for all your insurance needs. You can get valuable information and advice when it comes to your auto insurance needs, home insurance needs, life insurance needs as well as health insurance online.

For instance, did you know that you can get group polices even if you don’t have medical coverage offered by your employer? With group policies, you can get lower premiums than getting your own personal policy. You can also find great tips and advice with regards to finding health insurance because of your old age, what health insurance troubles you should watch out for, how do instant health insurance quotes really work and even learn what a business health insurance is.

We used to say that for you to be healthy, you have to have a good diet and exercise and live a healthy lifestyle. But nowadays those things alone won’t cut it. Being healthy also means that you need to have a health insurance. We might be living a healthy life but we’ll never know when will disaster strike or when we will be involved in an accident.

Health insurance is entirely vital to you because of the high costs of healthcare today. The question becomes, what kind of plan is best for you? You have a few options when getting your health insurance:

Free-For-Service - This health insurance plan allows you the ultimate freedom when it comes to choosing a doctor. You choose what doctor or hospital you want to go to and then you go. Having this type of medical freedom will increase the cost of your plan. Also if the doctor you go to does not have a relationship with your insurance company then you will have to pay for the bill upfront then get reimbursed.

Managed Care - This includes HMOs and PPOs. With a managed care plan you are given a list of physicians and hospitals that are approved by your insurance company. You then must choose which one you want to go to. HMOs restrict your choices the most while PPOs give you a little more freedom. The benefit of managed care plans are that all your doctors will have working relationships with your insurance company and it costs less then a free-for-service plan.

EZ Insurance portal makes the whole process easy and convenient for you as they let you choose the right health plan based on what you need or want. They even have an online quick quote service wherein you can get real-time quotes from the nation’s leading insurance providers with the click of a button.

You’re invited to a Google webinar

Google’s Universal Search for High Tech Companies

Thursday, April 24th, 2008
1:00PM EST / 10:00AM PST

Why is it that you can find the “number of steps in the Statue of Liberty” in under a second, and yet, you have to waste so much time finding that specific product requirement document?

With Google’s universal search for business, you can find all information within your company instantly through a single search box, increasing the productivity of all your employees.

Key benefits of universal search:

• All content, one search box - Search file shares, databases, intranets, content management systems, and real-time business data
• Increase pace of innovation - Save precious time for your engineers, so they can innovate faster
• Manage global collaboration - Securely share information across remote offices or even with partners and suppliers globally

Attend the webinar and get:

• Free whitepaper entitled “Universal Search in High Tech Organizations”

Attend this webinar and hear:

• Business uses of search within high tech companies
• Overview of universal search
• Customer case studies
• Live Q&A session answering all your technical questions

Register for the Google webinar.

e-Florist is an online florist where you can get your fresh flowers delivered fast.

They have a vast assortment and diverse selection of flower arrangements that would meet just about any client’s needs.

e-Florist has a 3H Policy: Happy Florists, Happy Flowers, Happy Customers.

Their online store gives you several options in choosing your order. You can shop by occasion, shop by product, choose the bestsellers and even pick one that will fit your budget by shopping by price range.

You can be sure that you are getting quality as all bouquets and arrangements are hand-made by florists using the freshest flowers available and are also even personally delivered.

They will even gladly deliver your order to cruise ships, homes, apartments, hotels, offices and the workplace all over the US and Canada. If you place your order early, they can even deliver the flowers you ordered on the same day.

Not so much into flowers? Don’t worry! They have a variety of gift baskets from which you can choose such as the Classic Fresh Fruit Basket, the Chocolate Lovers Basket, Gourmet Gift Basket with Fruits, Fruit & Gourmet Grander Basket and a whole lot more!

You can reach them at 412-1489 Marine Drive Vancouver, BC V7T1B8, Canada- Tel (604) 925-6778 Fax (604) 925-6889 or call them toll free at 1-888-801-3888.

Reduce energy consumption by up to 50% by using the Energy Logic approach

Is your data center’s growing power requirement challenging you to consider a more energy efficient approach?

Puzzled over how every vendor is giving you different and conflicting advice to deliver quantified results?

At the same time, are the pressures to increase space utilization causing headaches?

Now there is a vendor neutral and logical approach to help overcome energy and utilization problems. Learn more about the Energy Logic approach at Emerson Network Power’s 4th symposium series – The Energy Logic Symposium: Enabling Energy Efficient IT Infrastructure.

Who Should Attend?

Business Decision-Makers:
Managing Directors, IT Purchasing Managers, CEOs, Business Chiefs and Senior Executives

Technical Decision-Makers:
CIOs, CTOs, MIS Managers, Network Managers, Consulting Engineers

Lines of Business Executives:
VP Sales & Distribution, VP Marketing, VP Administration

Venue:

EDSA Shangri-La Manila
1 Garden Way, Ortigas Center
Mandaluyong City, Philippines
Tel.: +632 633-8888
Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Lunch will be served
Register online for the Energy Logic Symposium.