Friday, March 23, 2012

Five Favorite Films with Liam Hemsworth

If things had gone just a little differently for young Australian actor Liam Hemsworth, it might have been his steely grip -- as opposed to that of his brother Chris, who ultimately got the role -- clasping the hammer of Thor. At the same time, if things had gone just a little differently, he also might not have worked on The Last Song, the Nicholas Sparks adaptation in which Liam starred opposite his girlfriend-to-be, Miley Cyrus. The youngest of three Hemsworth brothers -- actors all -- 22-year-old Liam decided to pursue acting at 16 and, after a few stints on Australian television, made the leap to Hollywood in 2009. Though his career has thus far been somewhat overshadowed by those of his brother and famous significant other, this week he embarks on an epic new adventure as Gale Hawthorne, one of the central characters in The Hunger Games, which will certainly thrust him into the spotlight. RT spoke with Liam recently about his involvement in the film, his strong family ties, his favorite actors, and the career he'd like to craft for himself, but before we get into all that, here are Liam Hemsworth's Five Favorite Films:


The first one would be A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. I saw that years ago when it first came out, and I just thought it was really interesting. I loved the way it was shot. All the actors in it were just awesome. I was a really big fan of Dito [Montiel], the director, and I actually get to do a film with him this year called Empire State, so I'm really excited. I think I'm going to shoot mid-this year, so I'm very excited about that.

Second one would be The Goonies. When I was a kid, I used to watch nonstop movies. I used to always watch movies, and I think I watched Goonies about a thousand times.

The Departed is one of my all-time favorites; I just love that movie. Everything about it is ridiculously good. Every actor in it is just stupidly awesome, and the way it's shot is awesome. Yeah, I love that movie; it's great.

Step Brothers would be another one. I think I only say that because I think I've watched it a billion times. I watch it probably once a week, just, you know, a regular thing. [laughs]

Are there hints of that kind of relationship between you and your brothers?

Yeah, a little bit. [laughs] Yeah, yeah, when we were younger, for sure. But I think it's funny because the relationship is like they're young kids, but they're just old men. That movie is ridiculous, so funny.

There's a movie called James Dean. It's about James Dean's life, and James Franco played James Dean. I love that movie. I just thought James Franco was so good in that. He was so interesting, and it's just a really cool independent film. I really like that movie. It was weird; he just looked and sounded and acted so much like James Dean, it was ridiculous.

Next, Hemsworth talks about joining a massively popular franchise, his favorite actors, and having a strong support system in his family.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924783/news/1924783/

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Celebrities who failed to pay their taxes

It?s not tax time just yet, but it?s looming uncomfortably on the horizon. The conscientious among us have already filed their tax forms or are in the process of doing so. The rest of us hem, haw and put it off until the last minute, which this year comes two days later -- on April 17.

Apart from the punctual and the lackadaisical, another category of taxpayer exists: Those who, for one reason or another, fail to accurately disclose all of their earnings. Sometimes this is a simple mistake. Sometimes it?s the accountant?s fault. Sometimes it?s a deliberate, bald-faced attempt to avoid paying what they owe.

Conventional wisdom would hold that celebrities should fall into none of those categories. After all, don?t they have enough money to keep a reputable accountant on retainer, to ensure that all their I?s are dotted and T?s are crossed with the taxman?

As it turns out, not always. Some celebrities have not only fallen out of good standing with the Internal Revenue Service but have served jail time and paid massive fines for their transgressions against the state and the federal government.

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Here are some of the celebrities who just couldn?t get that return finished by the tax deadline.

Wesley Snipes
In the 1990s, Wesley Snipes was a popular box-office attraction thanks to such movies as ?White Men Can?t Jump? and the ?Blade? trilogy. However, what many people didn?t know was that when he wasn?t slaying vampires, he was giving the slip to Uncle Sam. He failed to file tax returns between 1999 and 2006, and prosecutors claimed that during those years, $38 million worth of income had gone unreported.

Snipes justified the nonpayment in a 2006 statement in which he claimed he was ?a nonresident alien? of the United States. In reality, he was born in Florida. He also stated the U.S. government had "no lawful authority to impose any kind of criminal sanctions" and that he had no income for the U.S. government to legitimately tax. The courts didn?t see it that way, and on Feb. 1, 2008, he was convicted of three misdemeanor charges of failure to file income tax returns.

Richard Hatch
In 2000, a former corporate trainer from Rhode Island named Richard Hatch was the winner of a new show on the CBS network called ?Survivor.? He walked away from the show over $1 million richer, but in September 2005 a federal grand jury in Providence, R.I., indicted him on charges of failing to report the money he had won in his 2000 tax return.

The indictment not only listed his unreported winnings but also unreported money from rental properties he owned, the car he won on the show and false statements that he had knowingly given about all of the above. In 2006, he was found guilty of tax evasion and sentenced to 51 months in prison.

Leona Helmsley
Leona Helmsley and her husband, Harry, were New York real estate magnates whose vast hotel empire included the Helmsley Palace on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. They had their Connecticut mansion remodeled in 1983; five years later they were indicted on charges of evading $4 million in income taxes for fraudulently billing work on the mansion to their hotels as business expenses.

A key witness at the trial was former housekeeper Elizabeth Baum. According to The Associated Press, Baum testified that Leona Helmsley had said ?We don?t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.? Leona Helmsley was ultimately convicted of evading $1.2 million worth of federal income taxes. Her husband was found not mentally competent to stand trial. They both have since died.

Heidi Fleiss
Frequently referred to as ?The Hollywood Madam,? Heidi Fleiss ran a prostitution ring during the early 1990s. Although she never named names, her business attracted clients who were well-known and well-off. However, her business became too popular for its own good. She gained the unwanted attention of other job creators in the prostitution sector, who had become envious of her massive success.

Fleiss alleges these competitors tipped off the Los Angeles police, who began tapping her phone. Ultimately, she was arrested in June 1993. Fleiss was convicted of federal tax evasion charges, which carried a seven-year prison sentence. If she had only filed that 1099 form, none of this would have happened!

Pete Rose
Baseball's "Charlie Hustle" Pete Rose made his name with the Cincinnati Reds, first as a player and later as a manager. Despite his many on-field accomplishments with the Reds and Philadelphia Phillies, he agreed to permanent ineligibility from baseball when he was caught gambling on games, including those played by his own team. As if that weren?t bad enough, in 1990 Rose was sentenced to five months in prison and fined $50,000 for tax evasion, according to The Associated Press.

He had failed to report more than $350,000 of income from autograph signings, sales of memorabilia and even the gambling that had cost him his career and good standing. At the sentencing hearing, Rose accepted responsibility for his predicament, saying "I have no excuses because it's all my fault."

Kwame Kilpatrick
The youngest person ever elected mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick took the oath of office in 2001 at age 31. Despite this impressive accomplishment, Kilpatrick?s tenure was notable for its many scandals and corruption allegations, and he resigned after pleading guilty to such felonies as perjury and obstruction of justice, according to The New York Times.

His problems didn?t stop there. The former mayor had created a charitable organization that received tax-exempt status, but authorities accused him of using the fund to pay for personal expenses, political consulting and "counter-surveillance and anti-bugging equipment." On June 23, 2010, Kilpatrick was indicted on multiple federal charges, including filing false tax returns. Each of the five tax counts carried a possible sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine. The former mayor has pleaded not guilty, and his case goes to trial in September 2012. Kilpatrick could not be reached for comment.

CNBC.com: Celebrity million-dollar extravagances

Willie Nelson
Country music legend Willie Nelson redefined the term ?sing for your supper? when he released the album ?The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?? in 1992. The singer had released numerous hits before, such as the 1970s classics ?Red Headed Stranger? and ?Stardust,? but there was a lot more riding on this album than on those.

In 1990, the IRS had served Nelson with a bill for $32 million in back taxes, one of the largest ever presented to an individual, and he recorded the 1992 album to gather the funds to pay it. The grizzled Texas troubadour claimed that his taxes had gone unpaid because his accounting firm, PriceWaterhouse, had put his money into tax shelters of dubious validity instead. The singer settled his debt with the IRS in 1993.

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Darryl Strawberry
Darryl Strawberry spent most of his baseball career with the New York Mets. After winning the 1983 National League Rookie of the Year award, he continued distinguishing himself on the field throughout his career, but he was dogged by legal, health and personal problems that at times obscured his professional accomplishments.

One such problem was his 1995 indictment for tax evasion. He pleaded guilty to a single felony count, based on his failure to report $350,000 in income from autograph signings, personal appearances and sales of memorabilia between 1986 and 1990. Strawberry ultimately agreed to pay over $430,000 in delinquent taxes, interest and penalties, according to The Associated Press.

CNBC.com: Homes of celebrity couples

Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage's films have been cleaning up at the box office since the 1980s. One of those hits was the 1995 film ?Leaving Las Vegas,? where he played a suicidal alcoholic, a role for which he won an Academy Award. In 2009, he was hit with a lien of over $6 million by the IRS for delinquent taxes, interest and penalties, and received a separate lien for unpaid property taxes.

In January 2010, Cage announced he would pay the IRS a jaw-dropping sum to settle all of his debts. "Over the course of my career I have paid at least $70 million in taxes, unfortunately, due to a recent legal situation, another approximate $14 million is owed to the IRS," Cage told People magazine. "However, I am under new business management and am happy to say that I am current for 2009, all taxes will be paid including any to be determined state taxes."

CNBC.com: Homes of comedy stars

Joe Francis
To millions of men throughout the United States, Joe Francis is nothing less than a hero. He is the founder of Mantra Films, better known as the production company responsible for the ?Girls Gone Wild? series of videos, which compiles amateur footage of female college students in various states of undress. While this was not the most groundbreaking idea in world history, it was still good for $40 million a year in sales, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In 2007, Francis was indicted on two counts of tax evasion by a federal grand jury in Nevada. The charges alleged the filmmaker listed $20 million in deductions as business expenses, when in fact the money was used for personal expenses such as the construction of a new house in Mexico. He pleaded guilty in 2009, according to the Associated Press.

? 2012 CNBC.com

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46800653/ns/business-personal_finance/

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French standoff ends with suspect shot in the head

TOULOUSE, France (AP) ? In a dramatic end to a 32-hour standoff, a masked French SWAT team slipped into an Islamic extremist's apartment Thursday, sparking a firefight that ended with the man being shot in the head as he jumped out the window, weapon in hand.

The suspect, 23-year-old Mohamed Merah, was wanted in the deaths of three French paratroopers, three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi ? all killed since March 11 in what Merah reportedly told police was an attempt to "bring France to its knees."

Police had been trying to capture the suspect alive since a predawn raid on his apartment Wednesday in the southwestern city of Toulouse. The killings he was accused of ? and boasted about to police ? have shocked France, ignited fear in moderate Muslims about stoking discrimination and may even affect the country's upcoming presidential election.

The seven slayings, carried out in three motorcycle shooting attacks, are believed to be the first killings inspired by Islamic radical motives in France since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking in Paris, said an investigation was under way to see if Merah, a French citizen of Algerian descent who claimed links to al-Qaida, had any accomplices. His mother and a brother were detained a day ago by police after the mother's computer became a critical link in tracking Merah down. The brother Abdelkader had already been linked to Iraqi Islamist networks.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said Merah burst out of his bathroom when police gingerly entered his apartment Thursday morning, wildly firing his gun about 30 times before jumping out an apartment window.

"(He)launches an assault, charging police through the apartment and firing at them with a Colt .45, continuing to advance, armed and firing, as he jumps from the balcony," Molins said.

Merah fired "until he was hit by a retaliatory shot from the RAID (elite police unit), which felled him with a bullet to the head," Molins said.

The prosecutor said police fired in self-defense after going in cautiously through the front door, using robot cameras to see if there were any boobytraps. Three members of the special squad were wounded Thursday, bringing the total of injured French officers throughout the standoff to five.

Merah, lying on the ground below his second-story apartment, was wearing a flak jacket and black djellabah robe. A Colt 45 ? the type of weapon used in the three attacks ? was at his side along with a sack, Molins said.

Authorities said Merah espoused a radical form of Islam and had been to Afghanistan and the Pakistani militant stronghold of Waziristan, where he claimed to have received training from al-Qaida. He also had a long record of petty crimes in France for which he served time in prison.

Elite police squads had set off sporadic blasts throughout the night and into the morning ? some blew off the apartment's shutters ? to pressure Merah to give up. A new set of detonations, known as flash bangs, resounded at 10:30 a.m. (0930 GMT), portending an end to the standoff. Volleys of gunfire were heard an hour later.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant said police "went in by the door, taking off the door first. They also came in by the windows."

He said police used special video equipment to search the second-floor apartment but could not find him until the instruments surveyed the bathroom.

"The killer came out" firing "with extreme violence," Gueant told reporters. Police "tried to protect themselves and fired back."

Merah had made "extremely explicit films" of all three deadly attacks, video since viewed by police, and claimed to have posted them online, the prosecutor said.

In the film of the March 11 attack that killed a paratrooper, the prosecutor said the gunman is heard saying: "You kill my brothers ? I kill you."

In his film of the second attack, on March 15 that killed two paratroopers and wounded a third in nearby Montauban, Merah cried out "Allahu Akbar!" or "God is great" in Arabic, the prosecutor said.

Authorities spoke little about the video of Merah slaying a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse. A witness to other video of that rampage, from the school, had described him shooting young children in the head.

Merah told negotiators he killed to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and to protest the French army's involvement in Afghanistan. He was also upset over a French government ban last year on face-covering Islamic veils.

Molins said Merah told investigators where to find the bag with the videos of the slayings, caught by a camera that had been strapped to his chest and given to someone else to keep.

After the standoff ended, Sarkozy announced tough new measures to combat terrorism. He said anyone who regularly visits "websites which support terrorism or call for hate or violence will be punished by the law." He also promised a crackdown on anyone who goes abroad "for the purposes of indoctrination in terrorist ideology."

The French president also appealed to citizens not to confuse violence with France's estimated 5 million Muslims.

"Our Muslim compatriots had nothing to do with the crazy motive of a terrorist," Sarkozy said, noting that Muslim paratroopers were among those killed by the radical.

In Toulouse, the state prosecutor said off-and-on negotiations Wednesday with the suspect ? all recorded by authorities ? broke down again at night. Merah, after initially saying he would surrender, later said he would resist, and that it would be either them or him.

"If it's me, who cares? I'll go to paradise," the prosecutor quoted Merah as saying.

Merah was tracked down by more than 200 special investigators after the Monday attack on a Jewish school in northern Toulouse.

The prosecutor said two major breaks in the case led them to Merah: his mother's computer, which was used by Merah to respond to an online ad by a paratrooper trying to sell his scooter. The soldier became Merah's first victim. Authorities also found a Yamaha motorcycle shop where Merah suspiciously sought information about how to deactivate a GPS tracker.

Molins said Merah had plans to kill another soldier, which prompted the first police raid at around 3 a.m. Wednesday. After that erupted into a firefight, wounding two police, the standoff dragged on and on, with sporadic negotiations.

___

Angela Charlton and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-standoff-ends-suspect-shot-head-162016818.html

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Schiff Nutrition rises as 4Q sales grow 25 percent

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/schiff-nutrition-rises-4q-sales-grow-25-percent-153848828.html

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What You Should Know About Health Insurance Brokers | All About ...

For most people, shopping around for new health coverage is pretty much akin to getting a root canal. Well, it may not be quite as painful, but it certainly can be a headache. With most people leading incredibly busy lives, the hassle of calling around to insurer after insurer and providing the same information over and over, then analyzing the various quotes you get back can be a headache that you really don?t have time for. Health insurance brokers, however, offer a turnkey service that can take quite a bit of this hassle out of the picture for you.

Using health insurance brokers for coverage can make sure that you get the best quotes possible in the least amount of time. However, there are some things that you should be aware of before signing on to work with them. Here?s what you should know about health insurance brokers:

These professionals work for free for you, but they do get paid a commission from the insurer you decide to work with. Keep in mind that not all companies offer the same commission, and a broker may be swayed to try to steer you in one direction or another.

Many shoppers will try to combat the possibility of being steered into the not-quite-the-best policy by using the services of two or three health insurance brokers rather than just one. It may take you a little more time to get your information submitted to these brokers, but you will have a more likely time of seeing and reviewing top quotes when you use multiple brokers.

All of these professionals will need the same basic information from you, including the names, ages, and medical histories of everyone who will be on your policy. It?s best to have this information in front of you before you call.

You should also keep in mind that health insurance brokers typically will shop for the best rates for you, but they may not offer guidance in terms of which companies are most reputable. You likely will want to take the quotes you get back and review the company names online.

Read both consumer reports and trade reports to see which companies are truly worthy of your business. You may find that you whittle away a few of the quotes provided in this fashion. Also, if you work with multiple brokers, there may be some overlapping of plans provided to you as well. But you should be able to find a great plan from a reputable company with relative ease.

When compared to the alternative of spending hours and even days shopping around for coverage on your own, you can see that using the services of health insurance brokers is a great way to shop. However, there are certainly some areas you should be aware of when using their services. These areas likely should not make you want to avoid using them, but being aware of them can help to ensure you get the best deal possible on your coverage.

Source: http://polstina-preklady.com/what-you-should-know-about-health-insurance-brokers.html

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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Employers ask job seekers for Facebook passwords

Robert Collins of Baltimore poses for a photo Friday, March 16, 2012 at Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore. When Collins returned from a leave of absence from his job as a security guard with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services in 2010, he was asked for his Facebook login and password during a reinstatement interview, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

Robert Collins of Baltimore poses for a photo Friday, March 16, 2012 at Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore. When Collins returned from a leave of absence from his job as a security guard with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services in 2010, he was asked for his Facebook login and password during a reinstatement interview, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

Robert Collins of Baltimore poses for a photo Friday, March 16, 2012 at Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore. When Collins returned from a leave of absence from his job as a security guard with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services in 2010, he was asked for his Facebook login and password during a reinstatement interview, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

(AP) ? When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.

Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.

Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.

In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around.

"It's akin to requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an egregious privacy violation."

Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.

Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or certain networks.

Companies that don't ask for passwords have taken other steps ? such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.

Asking for a candidate's password is more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to fill law enforcement positions such as police officers or 911 dispatchers.

Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his job as a correctional officer at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother's death. During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his login and password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied.

"I needed my job to feed my family. I had to," he recalled.

After the ACLU complained about the practice, the agency amended its policy, asking instead for job applicants to log in during interviews.

"To me, that's still invasive. I can appreciate the desire to learn more about the applicant, but it's still a violation of people's personal privacy," said Collins, whose case inspired Maryland's legislation.

Until last year, the city of Bozeman, Mont., had a long-standing policy of asking job applicants for passwords to their email addresses, social-networking websites and other online accounts.

And since 2006, the McLean County, Ill., sheriff's office has been one of several Illinois sheriff's departments that ask applicants to sign into social media sites to be screened.

Chief Deputy Rusty Thomas defended the practice, saying applicants have a right to refuse. But no one has ever done so. Thomas said that "speaks well of the people we have apply."

When asked what sort of material would jeopardize job prospects, Thomas said "it depends on the situation" but could include "inappropriate pictures or relationships with people who are underage, illegal behavior."

In Spotsylvania County, Va., the sheriff's department asks applicants to friend background investigators for jobs at the 911 dispatch center and for law enforcement positions.

"In the past, we've talked to friends and neighbors, but a lot of times we found that applicants interact more through social media sites than they do with real friends," said Capt. Mike Harvey. "Their virtual friends will know more about them than a person living 30 yards away from them."

Harvey said investigators look for any "derogatory" behavior that could damage the agency's reputation.

E. Chandlee Bryan, a career coach and co-author of the book "The Twitter Job Search Guide," said job seekers should always be aware of what's on their social media sites and assume someone is going to look at it.

Bryan said she is troubled by companies asking for logins, but she feels it's not a violation if an employer asks to see a Facebook profile through a friend request. And she's not troubled by non-disparagement agreements.

"I think that when you work for a company, they are essentially supporting you in exchange for your work. I think if you're dissatisfied, you should go to them and not on a social media site," she said.

More companies are also using third-party applications to scour Facebook profiles, Bryan said. One app called BeKnown can sometimes access personal profiles, short of wall messages, if a job seeker allows it.

Sears is one of the companies using apps. An applicant has the option of logging into the Sears job site through Facebook by allowing a third-party application to draw information from the profile, such as friend lists.

Sears Holdings Inc. spokeswoman Kim Freely said using a Facebook profile to apply allows Sears to be updated on the applicant's work history.

The company assumes "that people keep their social profiles updated to the minute, which allows us to consider them for other jobs in the future or for ones that they may not realize are available currently," she said.

Giving out Facebook login information violates the social network's terms of service. But those terms have questionable legal weight, and experts say the legality of asking for such information remains murky.

The Department of Justice regards it as a federal crime to enter a social networking site in violation of the terms of service, but during recent congressional testimony, the agency said such violations would not be prosecuted.

Lori Andrews, a law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law specializing in Internet privacy, is concerned about the pressure placed on applicants, even if they voluntarily provide access to social sites.

"Volunteering is coercion if you need a job," Andrews said.

Neither Facebook nor Twitter responded to repeated requests for comment.

In New York, Bassett considered himself lucky that he was able to turn down the consulting gig at a lobbying firm.

"I think asking for account login credentials is regressive," he said. "If you need to put food on the table for your three kids, you can't afford to stand up for your belief."

___

McFarland reported from Springfield, Ill.

___

Manuel Valdes can be reached at https://twitter.com/ByManuelValdes .

Shannon McFarland can be reached at https://twitter.com/shanmcf .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-03-20-Job%20Applicants-Facebook/id-b9259d55ac53440a8eb4aea7d80d01dc

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Tips For Getting Great Content For Your First Online Business

Posted on March 20th, 2012

How To Effectively Advertise Your Web Business Site or Blog

Traffic generation does not have to be the end of the world although newer people can suffer and stumble a bit. We know how disheartening that can be, but that is all right because you have a lot of choices before you.

We will give you a brief introduction to a few very common methods of business advertising. Advertising is powerful if you know what you are doing, and it seems mildly insane to overlook it or purposely ignore it. If you want to greatly expand your reach, then you will investigate other means of gaining traffic through advertising. make small talk sexy review

Perhaps the worst thing a total novice to net marketing or business can do is search for how to make money on the internet. It is always buyer beware, and that seems to be something that has stood the test of time since the beginning of human kind. Some big name guru types are not all that sincere, but generally speaking you can find some good products from them. You can find a couple of very good internet marketing forums, and some have existed for close to ten years. If you have no clear idea of what is possible, then you really need to do nothing but gain information, first. the secret of deliberate creation Once you become familiar with things and have a clear idea, then write it down in the form of a plan. Even something that is just what you think you want to do is better than nothing. You can make this part as informal or formal as you like, but the formal business plan is not necessary. Your first order of business is to choose between product creation or affiliate marketing. Unless you are an expert in something that is marketable, we suggest considering affiliate marketing. 1-click-fix

If you have heard something, somewhere about email lists or mailing lists and making money, then you heard correctly. Although email marketing can be very effective, it has to be appropriate for what you?re promoting. While mailing lists work well for some types of businesses, for others they?re not really relevant. A good place to find answers to such questions is a forum that?s on the topic of internet marketing. There are many places you can learn all about email lists if you decide that this would be a good tool for your business. Your blog will have an optin box on it so you can begin marketing your newsletter.

As you can clearly see, the need to be comfortable with decision making is part of your responsibilities. Of course the context is that of starting your very first web business and site. So the thing to do is always try to accumulate facts about the situation the best you can do. In the end, it is all good experience, and always try to learn from it so pay attention.

Source: http://www.fearofmusicradio.com/tips-for-getting-great-content-for-your-first-online-business/

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