Material Monster

A relatively new concept in the online world is “Virtual Real Estate Investing“. Everything from using the internet as an avenue to make more money in real estate to online games such as SecondLife seem to be included in the popular definition of this term.

In order to figure out the truth of the matter, I sought out Bryan Ellis, whose experience in the fledgling industry is truly impressive.

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.

One example of the parallels between virtual and physical real estate Bryan Ellis cites is the similarity between the monetization of domain names versus physical property. “These types of assets - websites and physical real estate - can be monetized in very similar ways like buy lo/sell high, leasing/rental and advertising opportunities” he says.

The parallels really are obvious. Consider: A valuable piece of real estate is valuable largely due to the interest that other people have in that specific 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 it’s not recorded in ‘open court’, or when the injured victim dies before he receives the settlement check, and the terms of the settlement were never clearly laid out by either side.

Usually a settlement is reached among the attorneys or in Court with the assistance of the Judge. Where there is a verbal agreement between the attorneys as to the terms of the settlement, the victim’s lawyer will usually confirm those details in a written letter to the defense attorney. If a settlement is reached during trial, or at a pre-trial conference, the preferred method of settling the case is to ‘put the settlement on the record’. This means that a court reporter is called to the courtroom or Judge’s chambers, and the terms of the settlement are recorded and agreed to by all parties and later transcribed by the court reporter.

Why is this important you ask?

Because a settlement is not a settlement until and unless these rules are followed. Many attorneys are guided by principles of fairness and doing what’s right for their clients. However, let’s look at the following case where all sense of fairness was discarded.

A lawsuit was brought for a child who was injured at birth. At some point during the lawsuit an offer was made by the defense, and the offer was accepted by the child’s parents. In a child’s case, a Judge must always approve any settlement involving a child. Let’s also assume that the attorneys confirmed their intention to settle in writing subject to the approval of the Court.

This would be just fine if the Court had processed the paperwork quickly and a settlement check had been forwarded without delay. Unfortunately in this case, the Court delayed (unintentionally) processing the paperwork. Also, because the child was so severely injured his life expectancy was very limited. Between the time that the attorneys reached an agreement to settle the case and the time that the Court actually approved the settlement, the child died.

You would think that this story has a happy ending, but it doesn’t. The child’s lawyer notified the defense that the child died, and also sent the Courts’ approval of the settlement. Now here’s the worst part: the insurance company recognized a way out of having to pay this large settlement by claiming that there was never any proper settlement in the first place!

The insurance company refused to pay, claiming that since the child had died, the agreement that was reached at the time was no longer valid, and absent a Court order, they were not paying a dime!

If that type of tactic doesn’t outrage you, it should. Remember, an insurance company isn’t in business to pay claims. Rather, they’re in business to make profit. Here’s a case where the insurance company had an agreement to settle a case and pay the child and his family money to compensate him for his injuries; the attorneys acknowledged in writing to each other the offer and acceptance; and the Court was in the process of approving the settlement. Isn’t that enough to confirm there was a settlement?

Not according to the Court. The decision made it clear that although there was an intent to settle the case, the fact that the parties did not follow the ‘rules’ to settle a case and make the settlement legally binding meant that the insurance company was now totally off the hook.

This is an unbelievable and unjust result for an injured victim and his helpless family. This decision means that the family must now pursue a legal malpractice claim against their own attorney for not settling their case in open court, or setting out the specific details and terms of the agreement in proper form signed by all parties.

What’s the moral of the story? If you settle a case make sure your attorney does it in Court, and makes a record of it. If it’s not done in Court, make sure all the specific terms of the settlement are clearly spelled out in a written document signed by all the lawyers. Finally, make sure there is a clause in this agreement that says that the terms of the settlement are binding regardless of whether the injured victim is alive, or has died in the interim. If the plaintiff’s lawyer had confirmed all the settlement details in his letter, and included this clause, he likely wouldn’t have had a problem.

I’ll bet the insurance company lawyer got a bonus for finding that loophole and outsmarting everyone on that case. How’s that for a sense of fairness?

Attorney Oginski has been in practice for over 16 years as a trial lawyer practicing exclusively in the State of New York. Having his own law firm, he is able to provide the utmost in personalized, individualized attention to each and every client. In our office, a client is not a file number. Client’s are always treated with the respect they deserve and expect from a professional. Mr. Oginski is always aware of every aspect of a client’s case from start to finish. He can be reached at http://www.oginski-law.com, or 516-487-8207.

You’ve probably heard before that in order to reap the rewards of business success, you must work “on” your business, not “in” it. This is most certainly true … within reason.

Eighty to ninety percent of your time should be spent working strategically as opposed to tactically. It’s important that your time and energy be focused on the BIG picture, the future of your business and your industry.

It’s easy to get bogged down with the tactical or daily processes that make up your strategic plan and it’s extremely important that you learn early on how to leverage your time, energy and money in a way that allows you to focus on activities that make money.

No doubt about it, delegating, leveraging and automating are critical to your business success.

Equally important however, is the need to develop a certain level of skill in all areas of your business, especially as a home-based business owner.

You don’t have to be a technical genius or CPA, however, having a reasonable level of understanding in all areas of business will come in real handy and may even save your behind when unexpected events occur.

If, for example, you have an assistant who takes care of distributing your weekly newsletter and she decides to run off with her new beau, will you be able to get your next issue out before deadline?

Do you know how to use your autoresponder, shopping cart, html editor, etc.? What if your biggest, time sensitive promo of the year is due out tomorrow and you can’t find a replacement assistant?

Can you pull it off?

Even if you can, do you have the access codes to get the technology in motion?

As a HBB owner, you more than likely don’t have a large workforce to re-assign work to, especially if you’re in your first year or two of business, so although, you need to focus the majority of your efforts on the big picture, don’t neglect the “small” stuff.

Sometimes the small stuff can have a HUGE impact.

Don’t worry about becoming an expert in the areas that are more administrative than managerial, but do make sure you have a basic understanding of every area of your business so you don’t find yourself standing alone with the ball in your hands and no idea what to do with it.

Take a little bit of time to work “in” your business as well.

If you conduct business online, make sure you have an updated master list of all access codes, passwords, member ID’s, contact numbers, etc.

2006 © Laurie Hayes - The HBB Source

Laurie Hayes, founder and visionary behind The HBB Source helps government and corporate employees break free of their jobs to live their dream of entrepreneurship. To subscribe to her FREE e-zine for valuable resources designed to create business success, visit www.thehbbsource.com

The Many Uses For Canvas Tote Bags

If you have ever noticed someone at the beach with a bag thrown over their shoulder or a shopper with the same, you have probably already seen a few of the many uses for canvas tote bags. These convenient accessories are sold everywhere, in every color and almost any design imaginable. They are available in a variety of sizes to accommodate virtually every use. Whether it’s a day at the beach, a picnic, browsing at the flea market or just a day at the mall, canvas tote bags are very popular.

The design options are unlimited with canvas tote bags. If you like solid denim, you’re in luck. If, on the other hand, you prefer a solid hot pink, casual khaki or classic black, these and more are also commercially available. For the creative do-it-yourselfer, a broad range of patches, emblems and add-ons are available in the craft section of most retail stores. These little products allow for personalization, including animals, flowers and almost any favorite design that you wish. All it takes is a needle, some thread and a little patience to personalize any canvas tote bag with that special touch. Or, if you are really creative, purchase some fabric and make your own tote bag. They are simple in their design, but unmatched in their convenience. Solid canvas tote bags aren’t all that’s available, however. Totes featuring nature, flowers, religion and pets are also readily available if you are willing to shop around.

As mentioned previously, there are a variety of uses and the possibilities are truly limitless with canvas tote bags. If you are into internet auctions, perhaps you enjoy selling items online for extra cash. What better way to carry all of your packages into the post office than with canvas tote bags? It’s a lot easier to manage than trying to balance packages against your chest while watching where you are going. Just toss the tote over your shoulder and you are all set. If you plan to spend the day at the beach, perhaps you will want to take along a good book, some sunscreen, a beach towel and a pair of sunglasses. Well, if you are wearing a swimsuit, there certainly isn’t going to be a pocket for you to carry these things. Consider packing everything into a convenient canvas tote bag and enjoy the sun in style. If you’re out shopping and find that the handles on plastic bags are just too flimsy to carry around the mall for hours, consider canvas tote bags as a way to carry your purchases. After you pay for your items and the cashier gives you a bag, simply put that bag down into your tote and you won’t have to worry about the straps breaking or becoming week. Happy toting!

Vincent Abrugar is the webmaster of www.canvasinfo.com an information website about canvas tote bags

Why are we over regulation the franchising industry, what purpose does it serve? Rules and laws are fine, level playing fields are nice, but the customer votes with their dollar and the entrepreneur and companies can only sell what people are willing to give up that unit of trade we call a dollar for.

The FTC, Federal Trade Commission is going to pile on more regulation and minutia to the rules of franchising, but what purpose does it serve? The free market should decide and the right to free contract will determine which businesses succeed and which fail. No amount of rules and regulations will change that. You may change a few votes here and there, use some mass media scare tactics to prove it is necessary, but in the end the Federal Trade Commission will merely be reduced to the sound and fury of the general population.

The Federal Trade Commission has an important choice right now to make. Either it can proceed and create more laws and rules upon those already created which will further damage consumer and company or it can, take a real philosophical approach to the real underlining issues and fix the root of the problem. The franchise rule tree needs trimming and there are several franchising companies, which can help you prune it. ServiceMaster has a whole division for tree trimming. You see there is no industry that franchising cannot streamline, create efficiencies in, provide jobs for, increase tax base from. No industry exists which cannot be fixed thru such a superior species as franchising. Meaning the consumers are better served as franchising moves forward. Shouldn’t we stop holding it back now, now that we know that there is really no fraud to speak of? Think about it.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

The very first university football game was played between Princeton and Rutgers on November 6th, 1869 at New Brunswick in New Jersey. There were different things between the game played that day and the games we watch today. In the early days of college football, the football was round and the field 120 yards long and 75 yards wide and each team had 25 players.

The popularity of college football was fairly low in the early days and there were only 6 teams by the time a rugby ball was adopted for playing with and the first officials of the game were used. In the following year a crossbar was added to the goalposts and these remain in use for college football games to this day. The college football field was also made smaller and the members of each team were reduced to 15.

In 1876 a crossbar was added to the goal posts at a height of 10 feet (in effect to the present day), and the field was reduced to nearly modern dimensions. At the same time the number of players on each side was lowered to 15.

It took until 1880 before more revisions were made to the rules and the teams were limited to 11 players. In 1882, the downs system was introduced in college football games although it began as a requirement for a team to make 5 yards in 3 downs which remained in effect until it was changed to 10 yards in 4 downs in 1912. The college football game now became much more popular and widespread with over 250 colleges playing by 1900.

The first real college football uniform was designed in 1877 and included a tightly laced canvas jacket, black knee pants, stockings and a jersey with orange trim. This form of college football uniform did not offer the players very much protection, unlike the college football uniforms used today and a number of college football players suffered serious injury and some were even killed.

The number of officials at a college football game grew from a single referee in 1885 to a trio in 1894. These three college football officials were a referee, an umpire and a linesman. Eventually, a field judge was added to the team of college football officials in 1915, then a back judge in 1955, a line judge in 1972 and finally, in 1983, a side judge.

By 1894 the officiating crew had grown from a single referee (first required in 1885) to a trio: referee, umpire, and linesman. A field judge was added for a brief period starting in 1908, and was made a permanent part of the crew in 1915. A back judge was not added until 1955, with a line judge added in 1972 and a side judge in 1983.

In 1905 there was such an outcry about the violence of a college football game that a governing body was needed to oversee changes in the game. This became the National Collegiate Athletic Association and it still exists to create rule changes and procedures to ensure the safety of college football players.

Jordan Dunham is an expert on federal student loan consolidation, visit www.students-loan-consolidation.org/ today for details.

Wherever I go to and in most mails I receive, the ever recurring
question is how a newbie can make money on the Internet. I have
always tried to douse the flame of doubt exhibited by most new
comers to the Net, about making money online.

Most of them see all that established Net marketers say, as
spurious claims and just a means of sweet tonguing them to part with their
hard-earned cash. The truth is just that we’ve all being there:
both established and upcoming marketers. We have at one time
doubted those claims but the only thing is that we never allow
our unbelief to rob us of the golden opportunity that the
Internet offers.

We decided to jump into the fray not minding whether we get
burned or not, and that has been the GREATEST decision most of us have
made. Yes, as it is easy for a guru to make money online, so also is it
easy for a lay man, who is just making a foray into internet marketing, to
make money as well on the Net.

Most newbies are always afraid when they are told that the best
way to make money online is to create their own product. They believe
they never have what it takes to produce the much needed product, and
if even they can, their belief is that it will take eternity to do
that. All these assumptions are quite true, but is there no other way to enjoy
the online largesse? Something like a short cut?

Yeah! There is a very simple and easy way to eat out of the
online pie. The easy way out, is to buy an already created product and resell
it as your own! Hello! Are you still with me? So many top class
people: Marketers, authors, publishers et al, have produced so
many great products (digital) which you only need to pay a
stipend to get. You don’t need to go through any stress to get
this done.

No need for knowledge of web designing, scripting, or
writing a sales letter, the products owners have been so kind
enough to handle all that for you. All you just need is to get a
domain name and a web host where you’ll upload your turnkey
website and with some amount of marketing, you will be inducted into the
online millionaires club in no much time.

Did I ever mention that all the money you make from the sales of
these products, is FULLY yours after paying the stipend to get the
product(s)? Yes! All the money! With this, the sky cannot be your limit but
your beginning. Wonder what you are waiting for.
COME ON GET ON BOARD AND LET’S GO!

To your success online this year and beyond,

Adebola Oni

Adebola Oni is the webmaster/ owner of IM Giveaways, a
site set up to give to newbies the needed resources to make their
foray into marketing online a success.
Go to this website, IM Giveaways to get the latest info
about Resale Rights products and get some for FREE. You can also
email: imgiveaways@freeautobot.com to save you some time.

It’s a rare business plan that involves visiting the pale severity of the Arctic, but for those companies that do send their employees into the wilderness the return can be sizable. For these companies it’s not what’s visible in this fragile, remote and utterly unique portion of the world, but rather what is hidden, beneath the surface, swirling in giant lakes; the dark liquor of the deep earth that yells up to the oil prospectors through the ice, apparently desperate to be pumped upwards and put to use in our cars and factories. The search for oil has long defined man’s interaction with the Arctic, but a new report by the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research describes how, in somewhat of a closed system, the results of the climate change caused by fossils fuels such as oil will make future efforts to clean up after oil spills even more difficult. The report also suggests that such spills may become more likely in the future, as climate change will stir up rougher seas, making the already difficult to navigate shipping routes even more dangerous. Environmental groups, such as the WWF, are calling for a total ban on oil prospecting in regions where the oil companies’ strategies for spill cleanup are not credible. The Arctic fields pose two very specific problems; first that oil that has seeped beneath the ice is impossible to clear up, and second that deploying the technologies needed to clear up the oil is extremely difficult in the constant darkness that befalls the Arctic Circle for some of the year. As oilfields dry up, and the yearning for oil continues, there is growing concern that oil companies will be more and more adventurous in their hunt for the bounty. To the dismay of environmental groups, global warming is actually making hitherto unreachable Arctic oil fields accessible, as ice breaks and recedes due to climate change. The Northwest Passage is certainly more navigable now that at anytime in the past, as the warming climate turns solid ice into water. Research conducted by the Naval Postgraduate School, in California, recently estimated the Arctic sea could be completely free of ice by 2013. It’s an off-colour irony that this sad fact will possibly benefit those companies that are most culpable for changing the face of our planet.

When choosing between starting a Limited Liability Company and founding a Corporation, picking the right option can feel overwhelming. However, deciding how to go about the process
of incorporation is simple once you gather the necessary facts. Once you’ve learned about these two kinds of organizations and have gained a strong sense of what your unique priorities are, the choice about whether to register as an LLC or as a corporation will begin to seem very clear.

The differences between setting up your business as an LLC or as a corporation are numerous, and the more you know about these two kinds of organizations the better equipped you will be to decide how to structure your company. The differences vary by region, as incorporation is regulated by state rather than federal law, so it is a smart idea to consult with a local lawyer in the early stages of your decision making process. Once you know a bit about the differences between an LLC and a corporation, it is time to turn your gaze inward and consider your unique needs. Neither an LLC nor a corporation is ideal in every situation, so in order to pick the right kind of
corporate structure for you, it is crucial that you make a frank appraisal of your requirements so that you can weigh the costs and benefits of both options.

In most states, starting an LLC requires substantially less paperwork and lower initial fees than founding a corporation does, which makes it a great way to start doing business with a minimum of hassle. However, because of its impermanence, the growth potential of an LLC is limited compared to the possibilities that a corporation offers. A corporation endures as an entity separate from any single one of its founders, but in many states a Limited Liability Company immediately dissolves in the case of the death, dismissal, or resignation of any founding member. If your primary goal is to get things rolling right away, an LLC may be the right choice, but if
your vision for your company includes a long-term plan for expansion, you may want to make the investment of time and money that founding a more permanent corporation demands.

Find more information about LLC and incorporation at http://www.llc-explained.com

Small business start-up need not cost the earth and you can approach it from a number of directions. A recent press article covered some good material for those thinking of starting a small business. Quoting three cases of successful small business starts, it gave information on the background of the new business owners.

One of the factors I found interesting was that in each instance the entrepreneur was female. No I am not being sexist I am saying how good it is that these ladies have seen and seized the opportunity.

I believe that almost anyone with a skill can succeed in business if there is a market for his or her product or service.

These ladies have certainly done that and they gave good practical money saving advice on how to start a small business.

These real life examples illustrate a number of important pointers for anyone thinking of starting a small business.

* You can use your skills to provide a business service.

* With basic skills and additional experience you are ideally placed to create a viable service business.

* If you want to start a small business it does not have to be a service business you can market your product online.

Two of the business are service businesses, using the skills and experience of the small business owners. The third business is marketing product online. These fascinating businesses are described in detail at http://www.be-your-own-business-expert.com/Business_Services.html

Article by Michael Harrison, Author, Publisher and Business Consultant. Learn from an expert: Go to: http://www.be-your-own-business-expert.com/Business_Services.html

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