Null Play

For years the most noticeable public role for Peter Sutherland as chairman of BP PLC was hosting the company’s annual meeting. But after a run of oil spills, dangerous accidents and an energy-trading scandal at BP, the 60-year-old one-time rugby player has charged head first into the scrum.

Last year, the Irish politician and banker forced Chief Executive John Browne to publicly commit to his retirement date. After Lord Browne’s surprise decision last month to leave a year and a half earlier than previously planned, Mr. Sutherland must now buff BP’s image and manage the company’s first executive-suite transition in more than ten years.

Despite a persistent rise in oil prices its shares rose just 4.5 per cent in 2006, in comparison with a 36 per cent increase by Exxon Mobil Corp. and 15 per cent at Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Yesterday, the company reported fourth-quarter net income decreased by 22 per cent, in part reflecting lower production and lower natural-gas prices.

BP, meanwhile, faces U.S. criminal probes on multiple fronts — corrosion and oil spills in Alaska; a March 2005 refinery blast that killed 15 in Texas; as well as its energy-trading practices, with federal officials alleging BP traders manipulated propane markets in 2004. BP denies manipulating markets and says it is cooperating with investigators on all three inquiries.

Mr. Sutherland’s higher profile also underpins a pattern that goes beyond BP: a shift in the boardroom dynamics at many of Europe’s biggest publicly traded companies. Nonexecutive directors here have in the past been criticized for leaving too much decision-making in the hands of powerful executives. In recent times, many companies are moving to shore up their boards with independent and strong directors.

Until the point at which Shell faced an accounting controversy in 2004, Shell’s British holding company had as its chairman a professor of geology. After the controversy, it employed Jorma Ollila, former chief executive officer of Nokia Corp as chairman. Unilever also appointed an external chairman last month to cap a restructuring at the Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods giant.

Mr. Sutherland’s mission at BP from the beginning has always been to focus on establishing a “robust” and independent board structure he said in a recent interview. After short periods as Ireland’s attorney general and Europe’s competition czar, Peter Sutherland took over negotiations known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in Geneva in 1993. There, he clinched the Uruguay Round, a pivotal trade agreement that set the foundations for today’s World Trade Organization. For a man who has achieved so much it is difficult to forsee where he will find his next challenge.

A newcomer to the world of investments in the notion of “Virtual Real Estate Investing“. What is meant by “Virtual Real Estate Investing” ranges from online games like SecondLife (where real profit can be made) to the use of internet technologies to make normal real estate investors more profitable.

To separate fact from fiction, I asked Bryan Ellis for comments. He’s the man many consider to be the father of this new form of investing.

When I began using the term virtual real estate investing in the late 1990s, I did so because I saw clear parallels between the strategies used for profiting from physical real estate and those that would create income in the online world, said Ellis.

An example of the similar nature of “virtual” and “physical” real estate Bryan Ellis likes to point out is the methods of making a profit from domain names compared to physical real estate. He points out that control of a domain name or even a specific web page is much like controlling a real estate property ” those assets can be monetized in similar ways: By selling them for a profit, by leasing them, by offering advertising, etc.

The similarities really are obvious. Consider this: If you own a piece of real estate in a desirable neighborhood, your real estate has value because other people are interested in that location. Likewise, if you own a desirable domain name, others will find value in it because it serves their purposes. So it doesn’t matter if you own physical real estate or virtual real estate - you’ll likely use similar strategies to turn them into money in your pocket.

In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing., Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.

When a web site owner is trying to get his web site to appear higher on a search engine listing system, it is important for them to understand how analytics work.

Companies that do search engine marketing are generally very good at this tool, and the wise business owner knows how this system works.

Analytics is simply the science of finding out how people browsing arrive at your site. It could be a variety of different ways, including certain keywords, hyperlinks, or from a list of of comparable sites.

Knowing how this all fits into your traffic is essential for optimising search engine performance.

One of the main ways that people arrive at certain websites is through using basic keywords at search engines to put themselves in a list of sites they want to see.

How this applies to your site, and how search engine marketing companies use this to your advantage, is key to getting your web traffic higher.

Most companies that deal in this kind of marketing will provide you with the most common keywords that people use to find you, and then will help to push those words in your ranking system.

This process is very helpful, and it works well in internet marketing.

We recently wrote an article on the potential for natural gas to make a huge move, which could have more profit potential than the recent move in crude oil.

We believe investors in early could make 100% or more in the next six months on their capital.

This is a simple buy and hold strategy and suitable for anyone with speculative capital.

Prices immediately spiked up and formed a double bottom and you can read why we are so bullish on this move Natural Gas - Make Massive Profits from the Next BIG Bull Energy Market!

Let’s look in detail a bit more how to trade the move.

The double bottom is now support and prices are dipping toward this support, positions can be taken on this dip alternatively, they can be taken if prices breakout above the recent high

Decide for yourself

Read the comments below and see if they make sense to you. It’s always nice to be in a move from the start, as profit potential is highest and risk is lowest.

Natural gas looks to be presenting such an opportunity at this time.

Why could natural gas go higher?

Natural gas does not have huge speculative interest in it yet like crude so this is an opportunity to get and adopt a hold strategy before volatility sets in

If you are thinking about this as an investment consider the following

1.With the high price of crude the US is looking at natural gas as a substitute, which is domestically produced that is not subject to geo political concerns abroad.

2.It’s environmentally friendly and more factories power plants and homes are using natural gas as the fuel of choice.

3.It is relatively cheap having fallen 50% from its highs of last year.

4.Demand is already above supply and this will increase as there is a switch from oil to natural gas due to differential in price.

5.Seasonally, natural gas demand is high in the summer months for cooling and the seasonal supports the move

Trade with limited risk and unlimited reward

This is a perfect market for a buy and hold strategy with options, which could easily make investors 100% over the next six months if we see prices move strongly.

Gas is a volatile market so trading with options, which offer limited risk and unlimited profit potential, is sensible to control risk and gives investors peace of mind

Gas has yet to move strongly

While speculators look at oil and its potential for higher prices, gas has the advantage of not having made a strong move yet if our scenario is right then prices could soar and the risk reward at current levels looks excellent.

If you have never considered natural gas before read this and our other article and see the potential yourself.

More FREE information

Get a complete free guide on how to trade this oopportunity for profit,including outlook, strategies and much more:

http://www.wellingtoncr.com/new_energy_reports.html

How do you play?

When do you play?

What does “play” mean to you?

Watch children play. They are quite serious about it. Notice how involved they are.

How much time do you give yourself to play every day?

Sometimes I have to remind myself to play.

Play is living in the NOW without thought of past or future. I think it’s a worthy goal. Sometimes it’s harder to make than money.

Thoughts are things, whirlygigs of energy. Imagine putting all your thoughts, fleeting or not, in a paper sack. Watch it dance.

Mine bounce onto a yellow legal pad where I can see them. They make wild movies in my dreams.

Sometimes they spread their fingers looking for a dance partner. That’s how I know that my deepest desire is for play.

My first thought about that recognition: “Not much to admire about that ambition.”

Second thought: “It’s admirable. Most admirable.” Playing is laughter and love and challenge and immediacy. It’s NOW! When you catch the perfect wave and ride squealing into shore like a happy pig, you are totally present. When you catch a trout, run with your dog or cat, play a game of anything, you are happy . . .

unless you are doing those things out of FEAR or LUST.

Fear is constrictioncrushing energy.

Lust has good energy, but implies lack. You want but can’t seem to have.

It helps to know this so you can picture your fear as a huge boulder you can just roll down the hill out of your life, and your lust . . . you take it from here.

In the U.S. we think nothing of spending $50,000 on a heart attack but have a hard time spending $1,000 on play, unless it’s gambling which is a different story. Is it really play?

Playing with others is love, laughter, challenge and immediacy. It concentrates the mind, integrates the body. It is well documented that laughter heals.

I recommend doubles ping pong. Once you have the table and paddles, it doesn’t cost any money. I say doubles because that quadruples the crazy places that the ball goes. I guarantee you will laugh yourself healthy, if not wealthy and wise.

Finally, if a thought comes to your mind containing the word “should”, delete it. Write it down and cross it out. Sweep it out of your head, go out and play, and then later, relax. What else really counts?

Food, clothing and shelter? You can spend some time acquiring these, I suppose, but don’t make them more important than play!

Copyright 2006 Cole’s Poetic License

© Evelyn Cole, MA, MFA, The Whole-mind Writer

http://www.write-for-wealth.com
evycole@hughes.net
Cole’s chief aim in life is to convince everyone to understand the power of the subconscious mind and synchronize it with goals of the conscious mind.

The perfect company - it’s the holy grail of the investment world. The company that will make its initial investment hundreds of times over. It’s what everyone shoots for. To have bought Microsoft when it first went public… It’s how fortunes are made. What does make “the perfect company”?

The search for the perfect company is not the pursuit of day-traders or market insiders. They’re looking for quick and dirty returns. High speed, high risk, high stress. No, the perfect company is more along the lines of what an individual investor - like you or I - would look for. I don’t want to have to have my hand on my mouse until the closing bell just to make sure I don’t lose my shirt. I want to buy a position in a company and know that regardless of what happens today or tomorrow, eight months from now, my portfolio will be worth more than today. I’m not talking about a laissez-faire approach to investing - far from it. What I’m talking about does take a time investment as well, in research, understanding the ins and outs of a company, but one that will be paid off in spades.

That’s an approach that I’ve taken seriously (guess what, we’re talking about money here), and that I feel makes the market less of a gamble. It’s also a mantra that has gotten me yields in the double digits over the Dow to date in a markedly tough year.

So, you may be asking, “What is the perfect company? What traits should it have?”

One of the most important things - in my opinion - about investing in a company is the feeling that you’re a partner. It’s essential to know the company inside and out. Be aware of all their products, as well as all of their numbers. Above all, you should be excited in the company you’re investing in. If not, what’s the point? Your gut is an important part of investing. If you’re portfolio doesn’t get you going, you might as well be gambling in Vegas. At least you’d get comped.

In the perfect company, fundamentals are, well, fundamental. It’s so important to familiarize yourself with the annual and quarterly reports (the 10-K is your friend) and listen to quarterly conference calls (both can be done online, very easily. Check out the company’s investor relations site to learn more). Remember, you’re not banking on market psychology, you’re focusing on profits. No matter what happens to a company, if they’ve got juicy profits, their share price WILL go up. There’s no two ways about it. Make sure that the company is making money and you will be too.

Emotion has a natural part in this. If you’re loving a company, it can be expected that you’ll be blinded by that fact when it comes time to sell. One remedy for this is defining a reasonable sell point before you even buy. All too often people watch their positions go up past their expectations only to see them fall back down below what they bought for. Have a look at analyst estimates as well as other factors (after following the market for a little while, it becomes sort of instinctual) to try and determine a price to sell at no matter what. Just as importantly, don’t forget to reevaluate frequently. Things change, you don’t want to miss out on huge gains or look toward a share price the stock will never get to. News and economic factors will influence things, change you’re estimates appropriately.

Just as you should reevaluate your sell point for a stock, you should often reevaluate your position in the company itself. While a company may have been exciting and ideal for you when you purchased their stock, things change. Maybe the product line you though would take off didn’t. Maybe their visionary CEO retired. Maybe something just doesn’t feel right. Ambivalence has no place in this game.

Don’t be afraid to speak your mind on the company’s business, either. You’re an owner, however small, and have an obligation to protect your investment. While you might not have the same clout or voting ability as an institutional investor, or anyone who measures their equity in percentages of the company, but sometimes, making your points known makes all the difference. Lobby to those powerful holders of the company as well as other individual investors. (We’ll have more on making your piece heard in an upcoming issue).

If you want to try your hand at speculative, technical trading, this isn’t the method for you. If, however, you want to shoot for a combination of excitement and profit, you may want to look into this a bit. It’s worked for me. If you’re a seasoned investor, or a newbie willing to learn (through methods that don’t require money initially) you may find this to be a particularly rewarding idea.

Jonas Elmerraji is the founder and editor of growFolio, the world’s first free online investment and business magazine. Issues are available online at http://www.growfolio.com

One of the hidden perks of raising six children is the learning laboratory it provides for the parents. My wife and I have learned how important it is to teach our children to do things for themselves and become problem solvers. There isn’t enough time to do it any other way with a house full of children. Learning how to tie your shoes, make a telephone call and solve for two unknowns in an algebraic equation are examples of goals society sets for children. Undeniably, do it yourself skills are important for all of us to acquire.

As we mature, we get comfortable with the fact that doing it ourselves will save time, create a feeling of accomplishment and definitely save money. We do it yourselfers develop a feeling that the control of doing it ourselves will also lead to a job well done. How many times have you heard, “If you want it done right the first time, do it yourself.”

What parents intend to be a lifelong asset of independence for their children can later be a lifelong hindrance on their financial growth, however. I notice that D-I-Y is a curse at times.

We become so accustomed at doing everything, that we spend all of our time doing everything.

Unfortunately, this leaves little time for doing the few things we do best. I can prepare my own income taxes, but I gave up the preparation part many years ago. The money spent to hire a professional freed up time to do more productive things in my businesses. I know the basics of how a website is created and how to transfer html coded pages for uploading, but I hire out that service, too. I understand how the stock market works and how to analyze the performance of a stock, but I use a financial consultant to help me with my investments since I just don’t have the time to do it all.

Many small business owners started their own businesses as “solopreneurs” and got comfortable with being a do it yourselfer. Operating as one-man bands, they are destined to be soloists the rest of their business careers unless they ask for help.

When they are ready, they may choose to seek help with bookkeeping, marketing or planning. They will just say help with hiring, payroll or product development. Focusing on what they do best will cause them to ask for help with sales, pricing or maintenance.

The paradox of being self sufficient and asking for help is hard to handle. When we do it yourselfers wrestle with the temptation to be jacks-of-all-trades and pin it to the mat, we will be able to grow in our business and personal lives.

Next time you have the urge to do everything yourself in your business, think about the Spandex Rule: Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Doug Emerson trains consults and coaches business owners on how to make more profit in less time using 8 key strategies. He writes a free electronic newsletter about the business of life called Getting to the Point. Free subscription available at the homepage. http://www.douglasemerson.com

It doesn’t matter what kind of relationship you are in. Expectations on the part of the people in the relationship play a large part in determining the health of that relationship.
Take an employee-employer relationship for example. An employee that does not live up to what his employer expects will likely find himself fired.

The same dynamic is in full effect in our romantic relationships. Say your date is expecting you to take her our to a nice dinner. Hopefully you didn’t mean diner, because she will be disappointed, and that can be a problem.

Where do expectations come from ? They come from a variety of places. When it comes to romantic relationships a common driving force is what I call a person’s “inventory of experiences.” Much of this comes from what a person observed of their parent(s) growing up. Even in this day if a man grew up in a home with a father that didn’t help around the house, he may expect to come home and leave the housework to his spouse. If his wife grew up in a two career home where the father took an active role in the household chores she may expect the husband to do likewise. Obviously if these different expectations are important enough to one or both members of the couple this can be a major problem !

In a business relationship if a merchant has a hard-line about his 30 day return policy, it can be a problem for a customer who has an expectation that the merchant will resolve any problem he has with the product.

Expectations are probably the biggest danger when two people in a relationship have conflicting expectations. In this situation one person or the other has to give up all or most of what they expect. This can be hard for someone to do. Take our example couple above. If he expects to do no housework, and she expects him to do half, he is not willing to do any, and half may be her minimum. This leaves little room for compromise. The consequences for their relationship can be severe.

In the case of conflicting expectations a great deal of maturity may be required of one or both people in the relationship. One or both parties will have to decide that the relationship is more important than their expectation.

Next time you are in a relationship that is showing some strain, try to see if the other side is expecting something different than you. If so try to understand why they expect things to go differently. Wherever possible put your relationship before any of your expectations. Your relationships will be stronger for it !

Robert A. Crutchfield is president of Kingdom Relationship Ministries. He is a minister, public speaker, and success/relationships coach.He holds the Competent Leader Award from Toastmasters International, and is a Brainbench Certified Trainer. He is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. Visit him online at http://www.kingdomrelationships.org.

Unlike many of the Xsitepro reviews that you might find on the Internet, this is a fully unbiased review that does not include a single affiliate link. You see, it is my opinion that you can not properly review a product if you are hoping to encourage people to click through via your affiliate link in order to earn you a commission. It’s fairly obvious, that if you’re looking for affiliate commission, your review is going to be good, this means that it is not a fair review.

First off, let me explain what Xsitepro actually is. It’s a product that is aimed at people without a technical background who would like to have the freedom and flexibility to launch multiple web sites. There are a number of reasons why people would like to do this, most notably to create a web site that can be used to launch or sell a product, earn affiliate revenue or make money from contextual advertising, such as Yahoo Publishing or Google Adsense.

The reason why Xsitepro is so powerful, is that someone without a technical background is able to launch a fully fledged web site within just a few hours. This means that you are only limited by your ambition and time.

To give you an idea of how easy it is to create a new web site, I have provided this walk through below. However, it is very much worth pointing out that the tutorials and documentation provided with this product are excellent. This is very important as it ensures that you’re able to realise your return on investment much quicker if you can leverage the full capabilities of the program.

Creating a website in Xsitepro.

Simply open your Xsitepro program and select “Add Project”. As you’d expect, this creates a new project, you can name this and add notes. You can also include your project description and add your keywords.

Highlight your new project and select “Add web site”, you will then be given a choice of 4 different web site layouts. These include, a blank web page, graphical sales letter, sales letter and affiliate templates. Upon selecting any of these choices, you will be presented with multiple choice of Xsitepro templates.

For this example, I will select a blank web page, once selected you will be asked to provide a name. Once you have decided upon a name, you have the option to provide the following web page details, title, description, keywords, author, copyright and other notes. You can complete this immediately, or come back to it at a later date.

Across the top of your console, you will see the following tabs, website information, page layout, web pages, other and publishing details. Our next step is to select web pages, this is the page that we can add new pages, product pages, article pages, external links or simply import multiple pages into the system. It is possible to create 1,000 page web site by simple importing your keyword list via the multiple page option, Xsitepro will even capitalise the words if you choose to include them on your navigation bar.

For each page that you create, you have the option of checking a box should you wish that page to appear on the navigation bar, page footer or site map. For the actual page content, you can choose a traditional HTML view, or you may prefer the Design view which is similar to a word processor. If you have content in other programs, you can simply cut and paste into your page.

A very unique feature with Xsitepro is that it helps you to create pages that are search engine friendly. Each page that you create is measured for SEO effectiveness, this means that your “On Page SEO” is always taken care of if you follow the suggestions made by the program.

Once you have created your pages, you might want to include your Adsense code or other affiliate links such as Amazon. In Xsitepro, this is as easy as right clicking. Once you have added your Adsense and affiliate link information to the program, you simply right click and “Add Adsense Code” or “Add Snippet”.

Now that your site has content and links, you might well be ready to upload your site. Again, in Xsitepro this is very easy. Before Xsitepro came along, I always had enormous difficulty uploading web sites, this all changed very quickly.

To upload a site, you need to do the following, enter your domain name, home directory, FTP Server, username and password, once entered, you select “Tools” and “Publish” . That’s it, your site begins to upload and you’ll be online shortly.

Obviously, this describes building a very simple web site and uploading it to the Internet. The objective of explaining how to create a web site in Xsitepro was to give you a sense of how easy it is. The real benefit of this product is taking advantage of all of the other features and functions. Don’t worry, you do not need to be a technical wizard to get the hand of these, you’ll pick them up quite quickly and before long you’ll be creating stunning web sites.

Once you start to gain a little bit of experience from using Xsitepro, you may identify what I consider to be the only real weakness of the product, that is the lack of templates that are available out of the box. It is possible to create original templates for yourself, however this requires a certain amount of artistic flair and knowledge of a program such as Photoshop. Unfortunately, these skills were not handed to everyone.

Fortunately, there are great companies out there that are starting to provide great Xsitepro templates. These are usually available via download and you can simply import these templates into your own Xsitepro program, this allows you to build your content around the new template.

One of the better companies offering these templates is Xsiteprotemplates4U.com, they already have a wide selection of templates available and are adding to their portfolio on a daily basis, so there should be something there for most people, best of all is that these fun and original designs will not break the bank.

I hope that you found this review helpful. I plan to follow this article up with some more detailed tips and tricks and how to really start to get the most of this great product.

Oh, in case you have not already guessed, I think that Xsitepro is a great product. Their sales page does not do it justice at all. Whether you’re technical or non technical and currently use Dreamweaver or Frontpage to create your web sites, I fully recommend that you look into Xsitepro. There’s a one year guarantee, so really there is nothing to lose!

Good luck.

For the very latest Xsitepro Templates or Xsitepro designs, please visit the following web site and sign up for their newsletter.

Charlotte Alice represents Xsitepro Templates and Online Web Publisher

Marriage can be one of the quickest and most effective paths to taking someone special for granted.

We don’t mean to do it. It just sort of creeps up on us before we know it. All of a sudden we are treating someone who should be cherished in some pretty shabby ways. So let’s look at a few ways we take our spouses for granted, and then look at some tips for cherishing the person we married.

How to Ignore Your Spouse

Believe that marriage seals the contract, end of transaction and the work is over.

Stop doing all the things you did to court and win your partner.

Stop seeing your partner for who she/he really is.

Stop seeing your partner at all.

See your partner as the enemy, someone who is in your way.

Fail to learn from experience.

Believe that you deserve to be loved just by showing up.

Behave in ways that demonstrate you know nothing about the person you married, or you don’t care about what you know.

If you see yourself in any of the examples above, you’re not alone. This goes on more often than you might think. The good news is you recognize it.

How to Cherish Your Spouse

See her/him, really see her/him.

Don’t just remember and celebrate your anniversary each year. Celebrate each month on the date of your wedding.

Be creative. While it’s good to keep doing the things you did when you were dating, it’s not enough. Get creative and keep improving on the good things you have done.

Know your spouse. Do a “study” on him/her. And then use what you learn.

Listen to your partner’s dreams.

Make special time each day for your partner. We make time in our day for so many trivial things. Why not make time for the very important people? If you are out of town, connect by phone or e-mail, and/or leave a note she/he will find while you’re gone.

Don’t just cherish your partner, but cherish your partner’s parents as well. If for no other reason, for bringing your spouse into the world. You may have your differences with them, but honoring them honors your spouse.

Make memories. Ask your spouse what a perfect day would look like, and then create as much of it as you can.

Get a sheet of paper and list what your partner does that makes you happy and his/her qualities you most admire. Then give your partner the list.

Develop a mindset and a heartset that searches for daily opportunities to show how much you cherish your spouse.

When you step back and look at the differences between the above two categories, it really is much easier to cherish than it is to take for granted. It also makes life a whole lot better for both of you.

Visit SecretsofGreatRelationships.com for tips and tools for creating and growing a great relationship. You can also subscribe to our f*r*e*e 10 day e-program on how to enrich your relationship today, from relationship coach and expert Jeff Herring.