Author: Abdul-Qadir

  • Premiums

    Premiums

    Premiums, in marketing, are promotional items—toys, collectables, souvenirs and household products—that are linked to a product, and often require box tops, tokens or proofs of purchase to acquire. The consumer generally has to pay at least the shipping and handling costs to receive the premium. Premiums are sometimes referred to as prizes, although historically the word "prize" has been used to denote (as opposed to a premium) an item that is packaged with the product (or available from the retailer at the time of purchase) and requires no additional payment over the cost of the product.

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  • Beauty Pageants: Should You Enter Your Child In One?

    Are you the parent of a toddler or an elementary school aged child?  If you are, have you ever thought about entering your child in a beauty pageant?  If you are like many other parents, there is a good chance that the thought has at least crossed your mind before, but it is a good idea?

    When it comes to deciding whether or not you should enter your child in a beauty pageant there are a number of important factors that you should take into consideration.  One of those factors is your location.  Where do you live?  If you do not live near a big city or a popular one, like Hollywood or New York City, there is a good chance that you would have a hard time finding pageants to enter your child into.  Yes, you may be able to find a number of local beauty pageants, but if you are really serious about getting your child into modeling, you may find yourself having to travel long distances and spending quite a bit of money on that traveling.

    beauty fitness
    beauty fitness

    In addition to costs associated with travel, it is important that you examine the other costs associated with regularly entering your child into beauty pageants. With beauty pageants, your child is often required to wear different items of clothing, as well as perform in a talent show. Many parents spend thousand of dollars or more each year buying clothing for their children to wear or on courses for learning a new talent, like dancing or singing.  Do you have that much money to spend?  If you don’t, you can still proceed with entering your child into beauty pageants, but you may find it difficult to compete with other families who do have more money to spend.

    The work that goes into regularly participating in beauty pageants is something else that should be examined.  You should look at the work and the sacrifices that are often made from two different angles.  As a parent of a beauty pageant child, you may find yourself traveling a lot, spending a lot of time away from your home and other family members.  You may also experience financial hardships, as that is something that many families report. As for your child, toddlers and elementary school age children often love spending time with their friends and just being a kid.  If you take beauty pageants seriously, they may not have time to do everything that they know and love.  Of course though, your child may prefer participating in beauty pageants.

    Speaking of your child, it is important that you include them in on the decision to participate in beauty pageants.  Unfortunately, too many parents make the mistake of believing that their kids are too young to make the decision on their own.  Yes, a toddler may be, but it is still advised that you discuss entering beauty pageant with them. What you may want to think about doing is entering them into one or two beauty pageants and then wait to see how it goes.  You never know, but your child may deicide that he or she does like participating in them after all.

    The above mentioned factors are just a few of the many that you may want to take into consideration before automatically deciding that your child should regularly enter beauty pageants.  As a reminder, it is a decision that shouldn’t be made by just one parent, but the whole family.

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  • Entry-Level Jobs 101: 4 Must-Know Tips

    For most people, aiming for a higher position at once is the key to job search success. However, for some people who know that in order to succeed in the job market, they have to, literally, start from scratch. This means that people who want to grow positively in the working world; they have to learn the basics and fundamental principles of working, how it is to love the work most people do, and how to establish a good working relationship with his or her colleagues.

    In order to enjoy all of these, one must submit himself or herself to an entry-level type of job. This refers to a job that requires minimal skills and expertise with no experience requirement needed.

    Because of its nature, entry-level jobs are characterized by low salary, require physical work, and sometimes need field work.

    Most often than not, people who are into entry-level jobs have very low hourly rates and may or may not entail insurance. This would mean that any hospital expenses caused by accidents that happened while the worker is at work may or may not be compensated by the employer, meaning there is no guarantee or whatsoever.

    What’s more, most entry-level jobs are on a part-time basis. Examples of entry-level jobs are receptionist, apprenticeship, those who are working in a fast food restaurant, customer service, cashiers, etc.

    Contrary to popular belief, entry-level jobs should not be ignored.  What people do not realize is that entry-level jobs offer more than just low wages. These jobs are the foundation of all other positions available in the job market.

    In most cases, people who start to work on higher positions right after they graduate from college are easily bored from their work. What is even worse, there is no room available for personal growth and career advancement.

    Entry-level jobs are the stepping-stone to success in careers. So, for people who wish to grow and be promoted to a higher position, here are some tips that they can use:

    1. Workers who are in the entry-level position should show enthusiasm, efficiency, caring, and love for his work.

    2. They should master their skills and hone their craft.

    3. They should be an expert on customer service.

    4. They should know how to impress a customer who happens to be seeking an employee who knows optimum customer service.

    These are just a few of the qualities that must be employed by an entry-level worker in order to advance to a higher position. And once he reaches the top, he knows that work is definitely something worth valuing for.

     

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  • Four Good Reasons to Use Viral E-books

    Four Good Reasons to Use Viral E-books

    It is a well known and widely accepted fact, that E-books….FREE E-books…are one of the best weapons in a viral marketing campaign arsenal.  Here are four good reasons why this is true today and will continue to be true for the foreseeable future:

    1.    E-books are cheap to produce and don’t take long to set up. If you have articles that you have already written about the subject you are promoting, you can simply combine these articles into an E-book.  If, on the other hand, writing isn’t your forte, you can use rebrandable E-books that have been produced by others.  Just use your favorite search engine and do a web search for “rebrandable E-books”.  You will get a lot of hits and have many to choose from.  One way to distribute these E-books to visitors to your website is to give them as a free gift for subscribing to your newsletter. If your E-book contains material that people will want to share with their friends and family, they will pass it along to them… they will pass it along to others…and you will make money.

    2.    E-books are capable of reaching a large audience.  The only limiting factor is the enthusiasm or the participants.  Therefore, it is absolutely vital that your E-book contain something that people will want to share like timely information or humor.  Remember that people like to know something that the rest of the world needs to know. They will pass along something that makes them look like they are in-the-know.

    3.    E-books are a way to sell other products other than the one you originally targeted.  For example; if you are selling garden products, your customers could also be interesting in E-books about lawns, trees landscaping, etc.

    4.    E-books are effective in building your reputation. It is an implied recommendation if you give a quality E-book and users willing pass on to others.

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  • Personal finance

    Personal finance

    Questions in personal finance revolve around

        Protection against unforeseen personal events, as well as events in the wider economy
        Transference of family across generations (bequests and inheritance)
        Effects of tax policies (tax subsidies and/or penalties) on management of personal finances
        Effects of credit on individual financial standing
        Planning a secure financial future in an environment of economic instability

    Personal finance may involve paying for education, financing durable goods such as real estate and cars, buying insurance, e.g. health and property insurance, investing and saving for retirement.

    Personal finance may also involve paying for a loan, or debt obligations. The six key areas of personal financial planning, as suggested by the Financial Planning Standards Board, are:

        Financial position: is concerned with understanding the personal resources available by examining net worth and household cash flow. Net worth is a person's balance sheet, calculated by adding up all assets under that person's control, minus all liabilities of the household, at one point in time. Household cash flow totals up all the expected sources of income within a year, minus all expected expenses within the same year. From this analysis, the financial planner can determine to what degree and in what time the personal goals can be accomplished.
        Adequate protection: the analysis of how to protect a household from unforeseen risks. These risks can be divided into liability, property, death, disability, health and long term care. Some of these risks may be self-insurable, while most will require the purchase of an insurance contract. Determining how much insurance to get, at the most cost effective terms requires knowledge of the market for personal insurance. Business owners, professionals, athletes and entertainers require specialized insurance professionals to adequately protect themselves. Since insurance also enjoys some tax benefits, utilizing insurance investment products may be a critical piece of the overall investment planning.
        Tax planning: typically the income tax is the single largest expense in a household. Managing taxes is not a question of if you will pay taxes, but when and how much. Government gives many incentives in the form of tax deductions and credits, which can be used to reduce the lifetime tax burden. Most modern governments use a progressive tax. Typically, as one's income grows, a higher marginal rate of tax must be paid. Understanding how to take advantage of the myriad tax breaks when planning one's personal finances can make a significant impact.
        Investment and accumulation goals: planning how to accumulate enough money – for large purchases and life events – is what most people consider to be financial planning. Major reasons to accumulate assets include, purchasing a house or car, starting a business, paying for education expenses, and saving for retirement. Achieving these goals requires projecting what they will cost, and when you need to withdraw funds. A major risk to the household in achieving their accumulation goal is the rate of price increases over time, or inflation. Using net present value calculators, the financial planner will suggest a combination of asset earmarking and regular savings to be invested in a variety of investments. In order to overcome the rate of inflation, the investment portfolio has to get a higher rate of return, which typically will subject the portfolio to a number of risks. Managing these portfolio risks is most often accomplished using asset allocation, which seeks to diversify investment risk and opportunity. This asset allocation will prescribe a percentage allocation to be invested in stocks, bonds, cash and alternative investments. The allocation should also take into consideration the personal risk profile of every investor, since risk attitudes vary from person to person.
        Retirement planning is the process of understanding how much it costs to live at retirement, and coming up with a plan to distribute assets to meet any income shortfall. Methods for retirement plan include taking advantage of government allowed structures to manage tax liability including: individual (IRA) structures, or employer sponsored retirement plans.
        Estate planning involves planning for the disposition of one's assets after death. Typically, there is a tax due to the state or federal government at one's death. Avoiding these taxes means that more of one's assets will be distributed to one's heirs. One can leave one's assets to family, friends or charitable groups.

     

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  • Best Jobs

    Employers have said that they are more likely to be 12 percent more graduates this year than last year. It is the first projected increase since the year 2000.

    In another study, a projected 60 percent of US business plan to employ the same number of graduates this year as with last year. That is an increase of fifty-five percent from last year, according to the CERI (Collegiate Employment Research Institute) at MSU.

    According to recent studies, US Corporations and businesses will employ more graduates with a bachelor’s degree in business, biological and physical sciences. Those with construction management, engineering degrees, health care and accounting will also experience an increase in hiring. Other fields will have a slight decline.

    On the average, companies are hiring forty three percent of its interns to fulltime and regular status. The expected increase in the hiring of graduates coincides with an expected growth forecast of the economy next year according to a recent survey by the Federal Reserve Bank.

    A lot of companies are coming out of a slump and are now hiring their interns and looking for more. A lot of companies are posting jobs and coming into different campuses.

    Most experts advise that during the holidays, whether you’re looking for permanent employment or internship, it is time to step up your search.

    Take advantage of the holiday events you’re going to, discuss what you’re looking for and your goals. Businesses don’t want to be flooded with calls and faxes of resumes. They will probably rely on word-of-mouth to get a handful of candidates The holidays are a perfect time to network.

    What to expect:

    Companies will hire more students earning bachelor’s degree in business and management, physical and biological sciences. Engineering, health care and accounting degrees also would experience an increase. Other degrees will experience a decrease in hiring

    Businesses expect to employ about the same volume of MBAs this year as last year. Businesses have found employees with bachelor's degrees being able to do some work being done by MBAs.

    It will be harder for graduates with computer science degrees to find work.


    Companies are more likely to employ students who have undergone internships. The work experience, they say, makes a lot of difference. Federal agencies will employ more graduates but not nearly enough to offset the decrease in hiring by the state and local government agencies.


    On average, starting salaries will increase by 1 to 2 percent.

     

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  • 3 Steps to Find “Freebies” to Add to Your E-book

    3 Steps to Find “Freebies” to Add to Your E-book

    Those of us who regularly shop on line are familiar with the array of free gifts, free bonuses and just plain freebies that are offered to a visitor to a website to encourage them to buy. How could you collect, select and offer free gifts, which will be valued as much as the original merchandise that is being purchased, put these gifts together and add them to your E-book? There are just three steps to do that very thing. They are:

    1.    Identify your key words in each chapter of your E-book. Now, type those words into your favorite search engine. You are looking for free E-books on the same subject in more depth, by a greater expert than you are, or by someone who gives a new and fresh angle to the topic. Add a link to the free E-book in each chapter of your E-book.

    2.    Research the Internet for related free gifts. Now you are looking for things that you could give as free gifts in your E-book that will make it more appealing and give it more pass-along appeal to your readers. For example: If you are selling gardening supplies, find a planting guide on the web that can be downloaded and include that as a gift in your E-book.

    3.    Download the freebies. Visit the freebies pages on those web sites. Most sites have freebies and encourage you to distribute them.

    Other key words I searched for are freebies, free E-books, and free reports and then gave the key word that I wanted the free stuff for. Like… “freebies for gardeners”.

    Give your reader the vest that you can offer. Give them your book, additional reading material and free gifts to boot. Everybody loves a bargain!

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  • Theatrical Entertainment

    Theatrical Entertainment

    Theatre performances, typically dramatic or musical, are presented on a stage for an audience and have a history that goes back to Hellenistic times when "leading musicians and actors" performed widely at "poetical competitions", for example at "Delphi, Delos, Ephesus". Aristotle and his teacher Plato both wrote on the theory and purpose of theatre. Aristotle posed questions such as "What is the function of the arts in shaping character? Should a member of the ruling class merely watch performances or be a participant and perform? What kind of entertainment should be provided for those who do not belong to the elite?" The "Ptolemys in Egypt, the Seleucids in Pergamum" also had a strong theatrical tradition and later, wealthy patrons in Rome staged "far more lavish productions".

    Expectations about the performance and their engagement with it have changed over time (1). For example, in England during the 18th century, "the prejudice against actresses had faded" and in Europe generally, going to the theatre, once a socially dubious activity, became "a more respectable middle-class pastime" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the variety of popular entertainments increased. Operetta and music halls became available, and new drama theatres such as the Moscow Art Theatre and the Suvorin Theatre in Russia opened. At the same time, commercial newspapers "began to carry theatre columns and reviews" which helped to make theatre "a legitimate subject of intellectual debate" in general discussions about art and culture. Audiences began to gather to "appreciate creative achievement, to marvel at, and be entertained by, the prominent 'stars'." Vaudeville and music halls, popular at this time in the United States, England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, were themselves eventually superseded.

    Plays, musicals, monologues, pantomimes, and performance poetry are part of the very long history of theatre which is also the venue for the type of performance known as stand-up comedy. In the 20th century, radio and television, often broadcast live, extended the theatrical tradition that continued to exist alongside the new forms.

    The stage and the spaces set out in front of it for an audience create a theatre. All types of stage are used with all types of seating for the audience, including the impromptu or improvised; the temporary; the elaborate; or the traditional and permanent. They are erected indoors or outdoors. The skill of managing, organising and preparing the stage for a performance is known as stagecraft. The audience's experience of the entertainment is affected by their expectations, the stagecraft, the type of stage, and the type and standard of seating provided.

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  • Fireworks Entertainment

    Fireworks Entertainment

    Fireworks are a part of many public entertainments and have retained an enduring popularity since they became a "crowning feature of elaborate celebrations" in the 17th century. First used in China, classical antiquity and Europe for military purposes, fireworks were most popular in the 18th century and high prices were paid for pyrotechnists, especially the skilled Italian ones, who were summoned to other countries to organise displays. Fire and water were important aspects of court spectacles because the displays "inspired by means of fire, sudden noise, smoke and general magnificence the sentiments thought fitting for the subject to entertain of his sovereign: awe fear and a vicarious sense of glory in his might. Birthdays, name-days, weddings and anniversaries provided the occasion for celebration." One of the most famous courtly uses of fireworks was one used to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and while the fireworks themselves caused a fire, the accompanying Music for the Royal Fireworks written by Handel has been popular ever since. Aside from their contribution to entertainments related to military successes, courtly displays and personal celebrations, fireworks are also used as part of religious ceremony. For example, during the Indian Dashavatara Kala of Gomantaka "the temple deity is taken around in a procession with a lot of singing, dancing and display of fireworks".

    The "fire, sudden noise and smoke" of fireworks is still a significant part of public celebration and entertainment. For example, fireworks were one of the primary forms of display chosen to celebrate the turn of the millennium around the world. As the clock struck midnight and 1999 became 2000, firework displays and open-air parties greeted the New Year as the time zones changed over to the next century. Fireworks, carefully planned and choreographed, were let off against the backdrop of many of the world's most famous buildings, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Acropolis in Athens, Red Square in Moscow, Vatican City in Rome, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and Elizabeth Tower in London.

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