Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Cara Trading Secara Online di Marketiva
















  1. Untuk melakukan buy / beli cukup mengklik kolom offer di pair yg kita inginkan
  2. Sedangkan untuk sell / jual cukup mengklik kolom bid di pair yg kita inginkan
  3. Saya rekomendasikan untuk pemula menggunakan pair EUR/USD, karena pair ini selain spread / selisih harganya kecil (-3 pips) pergerakan harganya juga tidak terlalu liar.
















  • Di Marketiva kita bisa order trading kita dengan system quantity bahkan untuk $1= 100 quantity pun kita bisa, beda dengan broker lainnya yang rata-rata menggunakan system quotation dengan satuan lot. (1 Lot = $1000)
  • Di market sering kita dengar istilah Leverage. Di Marketiva menggunakan leverage 1:100, yang artinya misal, dengan menggunakan uang $1 kita bisa beli $100 dengan profit / point nya adalah $0.01 atau contoh diatas dengan uang $0.5 kita bisa beli $50 dengan profit / pointnya adalah $0.005, digambar atas kita profit 170 pips berarti kita profit $0.85 dengan perhitungan $0.5 x Leverage 1% (1:100) x 170 = $0.85
  • Perlu diingat di broker lain seandainya posisi kita tidak terclose selama sehari semalam kita akan dikenakan charge / overnight fee, sedangkan di Marketiva ini free of charge atau bebas biaya overnight (inap)














  • Untuk tools nya Marketiva menyediakan fasilitas Alert, Latest News dan ruang diskusi untuk para trader guna pembelajaran dan pembicaraan tentang perkembangan market
  • Untuk bertanya tentang Marketiva tersedia pula ruang support dalam pelbagai bahasa, termasuk bahasa Indonesia
















  1. Platform Marketiva sangat mudah di gunakan bahkan untuk para newbie
  2. Untuk fasilitas charting / melihat grafik tersedia pula di tab Chart. Kita juga bisa meng-arrange grafik kita sesuai selera masing2x, karena terdapat indicator yg bisa kita gunakan. Contoh : set chart kita dengan Candle Stick agar mudah dibaca dengan zoom 125%, tambahkan 3 indicator Moving Average (MA) dengan settingan sbb:
  • MA , Type Exponential, Period = 3, warna merah (mengikuti harga market)
  • MA, Type Exponential, Period = 20, warna biru (untuk konfirmasi entry)
  • MA, Type Exponential, Period = 50, warna hijau (untuk identifikasi trendharian)
  • Tambahkan Indicator MACD setting default dan RSI setting default
  • Save dengan nama Ride The Wave
  • Cara setting semuanya dengan klik kanan pada grafik
  • Jika semua garis MA, MACD bersilangan itu sinyal entry, cross kebawah sinyal sell, cross ke atas sinyal buy.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Letter from Chairman e-gold, Ltd.

Letter from Dr. Douglas Jackson; Chairman, e-gold, Ltd.

e-gold® has recently been the subject of a slanderous and unfounded article in Business Week. e-gold strongly refutes the allegations and presumptions of this article. The article chose to focus through anecdote and suspicion only on an exception - criminal abuse - and ignores the overwhelming majority of e-gold usage. It also fails to note that all online payment mechanisms including credit cards and intermediaries such as PayPal are targeted by criminals, likely at a much greater magnitude than e-gold, and fails to relate the very proactive steps e-gold takes to eliminate any criminal behavior involving e-gold.

e-gold and its Operator, Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR®), including G&SR's exchange service OmniPay® in cooperation with the United States Government and pursuant to a lawfully issued written request, did allow an examination of the e-gold and OmniPay computer systems and data. The examination occurred on December 16th after normal business hours so as to avoid disrupting access to the system. The examination utilized the full resources of e-gold's system and prevented customer access. We were told by the government examiners that the outage would be for a few hours, however, due to the volume of data maintained by e-gold for its customers' protection, a surprise to the examiners, the examination occupied e-gold's computing capacity for 36 hours. e-gold apologizes for any inconvenience of the system down time caused by the government's request. No charges have been filed against e-gold, G&SR, OmniPay or any of its principals.

e-gold operates legally and does not condone persons attempting to use e-gold for criminal activity. e-gold has a long history of cooperation with law enforcement agencies in the US and worldwide, providing data and investigative assistance in response to lawful requests.

I'm proud of what we have accomplished so far with e-gold. e-gold, now in its 10th year online, is growing exponentially because of a network effect, a global cascade of Users telling their friends who then tell their friends. For the first time since our launch in 1996, this growth is providing the revenue and resources needed for e-gold to accelerate technical development and other refinements to make it more reliable and even less hospitable to those who would seek to abuse it.

We are processing the same volume of transactions and growing at the same exponential pace that PayPal was in the second quarter of 2000. One difference, though, is that they had to give away $tens of millions of their investors' money to build a critical mass of user balances and were continuing a burn rate of about $10 million per month during this period. Altogether they burned through about $275 million of capital losses before their IPO.

e-gold, in contrast, lacking significant outside investment:

  • has attained a circulation larger than Canada 's official gold reserves (currently 3.46 metric tonnes of gold, equivalent to about $55 million at current exchange rates).
  • has web traffic surpassing etrade.com and citi.com and is neck and neck with kitco.com as the most heavily trafficked gold related site on the Web
  • settles 50 to 60 thousand user-to-user payments per day, a daily value of about $10 million
  • has active Users in every country, (including more than 150,000 in China ) despite our lack so far of foreign language versions - a high priority on our to-do list

e-gold is the only payment mechanism that is truly global, enabling any merchant to accept payment online even if the payer lives in a third world country, has no credit card, or is perhaps 'unbanked' altogether.

e-gold enables the migrant worker of modest means to send value back to his family in Mexico or Bangladesh at a fraction of the cost of conventional international remittance mechanisms. e-gold alone is free of chargeback risk, yet the fee for receiving payment in e-gold is a tiny fraction of those charged by any other systems.

Thanks to e-gold, for the first time in history, normal people of modest means worldwide have the option of using currency that is designed from the ground up to be immune to debasement, with a governance model that precludes even its management and founders from having the power to subvert it.

Gold & Silver Reserve has been operating for over nine years. Seeking to comply with every applicable law, G&SR has reached out to the Government dozens of times, has repeatedly met with officials from the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI, SEC and a variety of other Federal agencies, and has been told – in no uncertain terms – that we were operating legally and in full compliance with all laws, rules and regulations. Additionally, the Government has requested from us – on more than three hundred occasions – information regarding individuals it believed to be lawbreakers. Gold & Silver Reserve complied with every single request in a professional and timely fashion. Numerous Government officials have gone so far as to commend us in writing for our efforts in complying with their requests and aiding them in their investigations.

Very recently, however, the Government concluded that it was unable to “regulate” our business under any current statutes or regulations. Rather than moving Congress to enact legislation, the Government apparently chose to undertake to regulate us under pre-existing statutes which are totally and utterly inapplicable to our business. To do so, the case the Government brought against Gold & Silver Reserve centered around false statements and fabrications made to a Magistrate Judge in Washington , D.C. A week later, when challenged by that Judge, the Government, fearing it would lose its case filed a second suit against Gold & Silver Reserve. We are now addressing that action and are confident that we will be victorious in a very short time.

Both OmniPay and e-gold have been substantially harmed. Both sites were off-line altogether for 36 hours - an interval during which we were at a loss to know what to announce or even how to announce it. There were other direct interventions as well that I am not yet at liberty to discuss that nearly crippled OmniPay's ability to honor its obligations to and on behalf of users. The worst effect of course is on our reputation. This irresponsible smear piece will surely impair our efforts to build strategic relationships with the host of businesses and individuals that would benefit from an embrace of e-gold.

Let me be very clear. e-gold in no manner condones persons or organizations attempting to use e-gold to support criminal acts. The exact opposite is true. e-gold limits accounts that are suspect of illicit activity and has a long history of cooperation with law enforcement agencies.

There are two elements that make e-gold about the dumbest choice a criminal could make if seeking to obfuscate a money trail or otherwise hide the proceeds of crime.

  1. it is impossible for a general user of e-gold to send/add money (value in any form) into the system... he can only get e-gold by receiving an e-gold Spend from someone who already has some.
  2. there's a permanent record of all transfers, that is, a permanent record of the entire lineage of every particle of value in the e-gold system.

There is nothing "anonymous and untraceable" about e-gold. e-gold Spends settle by book entry - it isn't so-called "digital cash".

e-gold is not about crime. e-gold is not a hospitable environment for criminals. e-gold maintains an efficient and highly capable investigative staff to aid in the identification, apprehension and prosecution of any criminal abusing the system. Our staff has participated in hundreds of investigations supporting the FBI, FTC, IRS, DEA, SEC, USPS, and others. This is the reality of every payment system, the need to aid in rooting out criminal abuse, whether it is child pornographers taking advantage of the multiple layers and indirection of credit card middlemen, or smurfs aggregating cash via international remittance processors or even state lotteries.

e-gold has taken a proactive approach, reaching out to law enforcement agencies and NGO's (Non-Governmental Organization) to foster closer cooperation in combating crime online. For example, e-gold is a charter member of the Financial Coalition to eradicate Child Pornography, organized by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, along with Visa, MasterCard, Microsoft, AOL, PayPal, First Data and some of the major banks.

I hope to have additional and useful facts shortly and will communicate them when appropriate. I can assure you e-gold is up and running, supporting its customers, and continuing to grow.

Dr. Douglas Jackson

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Rintangan Membuat Impian

Sedikit sharing Rintangan yang Membatasi kita saat Membuat Impian :

1. Masa Lalu
Jika kita yakin kita tidak akan berhasil karena masa lalu/pengalaman kita sebelumnya, maka kita akan membuat batasan pada impian kita. Gantungkanlah cita2 kita setinggi langit (Bung Karno), lalu ujilah batas kemampuan kita tadi.

2. Masalah, keadaan, maupun kondisi
Setiap orang yang mempunyai masalah, beberapa diantaranya merupakah kekurangan yg kita bawa sejak lahir, sedangkan yang lain adalah masalah2 yang kita ciptakan sendiri. Apapun masalah yg kita hadapi, jangan biarkan impian kita ke masa depan menjadi terhalang karenanya. Dimana ada kemauan pasti ada jalan. Fokus pada solusi!

3. Kurangnya sudut pandang (perpektif)
Jika kita punya masalah dengan perspektif kita, cobalah untuk melihat suatu hal dari sudut pandang yg berbeda. Hanya org yg dpt melihat hal2 yg tak tampak oleh matalah yg akan dpt
melakukan hal2 yg luar biasa.

4. Tekanan dari orang lain
Urusan yg sepele serta olok2 yg tak berarti dari org lain dapat memenuhi pikiran kita sehingga tak ada lagi tempat yg tersedia untuk impian/visi dalam benak kita. jgn biarkan hal ini terjadi pada diri kita.

5. Kedudukan/jabatan kita sekarang
Banyak org percaya bahwa kedudukan/jabatan/pekerjaan sekarang ini yang akan menentukan takdirnya dan yakin bahwa itu tidak berubah-ubah lagi. Jangan sampai kita terperosok ke dalam jebakan itu. Segala sesuatu sebenarnya bisa kita peroleh, asalkan kita berkeinginan keras dan BERANI MENANGGUNG REsIKONYA! Jangan biarkan keadaan kita yang nyaman sekarang ini menghalangi impian kita walau sekecil apapun.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

e-gold is...better money

e-gold is...better money


e-gold is an electronic currency, issued by e-gold Ltd., a Nevis corporation, 100% backed at all times by gold bullion in allocated storage.

Other e-metals are also issued: e-silver is 100% backed by silver, e-platinum is 100% backed by platinum, and e-palladium is 100% backed by palladium. However, the most popular e-metal (by an overwhelming margin) is e-gold.

e-gold is integrated into an account based payment system that empowers people to use gold as money. Specifically, the e-gold payment system enables people to Spend specified weights of gold to other e-gold accounts. Only the ownership changes - the gold in the treasury grade vault stays put.

here to stay

e-gold is always as good as the gold it's backed with - this year, next year, a thousand years from now.

trustworthy

Pursuant to the e-gold Account User Agreement, the physical bullion that comprises the value backing e-gold must be insulated from physical, legal and political risks. Title is held by The e-gold Bullion Reserve Special Purpose Trust that exists for the express purpose of holding bullion for the exclusive benefit of all e-gold account holders collectively. The bullion is held in the form of certified good delivery bars in allocated storage at repositories certified by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). Metal is held free of any lien or encumbrance whatsoever and explicitly may not be attached to any liabilities of e-gold Ltd. or any other entity. No metal may be removed from storage or any other disposition made without the signatures of both e-gold Ltd. and a third party Escrow Agent of good reputation.

transparent

e-gold Ltd. offers an unprecedented level of transparency:

Audit total circulation; compare to physical reserves.

Total e-gold in circulation vs. total bullion reserves are provided in real-time via the e-gold Examiner utility accessible from the e-gold website, as well as Statistics relating to the use and growth of the e-gold system.


world wide money

The world wide web needs world wide money. e-gold was created in response to this need.

e-gold is accounted by weight of metal, not US$ or any other national currency unit. Weight units have a precise, invariable, internationally recognized definition. Additionally, precious metals, gold in particular, enjoy a long history of monetary use around the world. Thus, e-gold is ideally suited for international transactions.

Although e-gold is accounted by weight, the e-gold payment system allows Spends to be expressed in terms of eight major national currencies (as of this writing). For example, it's possible to:

  • Spend 10 troy oz worth of e-gold

  • Spend 5.3 grams worth of e-gold

  • Spend US $100.00 worth of e-gold

  • Spend CHF 685.88 worth of e-gold

This means (for example) that a Canadian can pay a German or a Japanese can pay an Australian the correct weight of gold (e-gold) for a good or service as easily as if the price had been quoted in his own national currency.

The power of the e-gold Spend...

All financial value will migrate to cyberspace over the next few years. e-gold is ready so that you can be too.

e-gold is borderless -

e-gold may be Spent to any other e-gold account anywhere in the world via the e-gold shopping cart interface (SCI), the e-gold Account Manager, or web enabled mobile phone.

e-gold is quick -

e-gold payments clear instantaneously (with no chargeback risk), no matter how large the payment, no matter how far apart the Spender and Recipient.

e-gold is cost effective -

  • Spending e-gold is free, even if your recipient is on the other side of the world.

  • Recipient transaction fees range from substantially smaller to orders of magnitude smaller than those of credit cards and bank wire transfers, no matter how large (or small) the payment.

  • The e-gold Agio fee, which recovers bullion storage costs, passes on economies of scale normally only enjoyed by very large holders of bullion.

benefits all users of money

The target market for e-gold is simply people who use money. How do you presently use money? Chances are any of these activities would benefit from the increased soundness, security, efficiency, and lower cost of e-gold. Here are some examples of how e-gold is presently used:

  • e-commerce

  • Business-to-business payments

  • Point of service sales

  • Person-to-person payments

  • Payroll

  • Bill payments

  • Charitable donations

  • Monetary base of the AUG* economy

* AUG is an abbreviation for the currency unit "grams of gold".


Evolving Exchange Market

The e-gold system is designed to be absolutely free of any financial risk. There can be no debt or contingent liabilities associated with e-gold. For this reason, e-gold Ltd. does not possess any national currency of any nation and has no bank accounts. Thus, e-gold Ltd. is not able to offer currency exchange services.

Instead, a growing number of independent exchange services around the world support exchange between national currencies and e-gold, accepting various remittance methods, including credit cards, bank wires, checks, and money orders.

Financial risk vs. exchange risk

e-gold is entirely backed by a physical commodity rather than debt or other financial instruments; therefore, e-gold is the only currency in the world free of financial risk. However, absence of financial risk does not mean absence of exchange rate risk. As with any currency, the value of e-gold relative to other currencies continually fluctuates.

No barriers to entry

It costs nothing to open an e-gold account. There is no credit check. There is no minimum balance requirement. There is no concept of a "merchant account" in that all e-gold accounts may Spend e-gold or receive e-gold payments.

In short, you are minutes away from opening your first e-gold account at:

e-gold logo
www.e-gold.com

better money

Cintano Meter

Ini sebuah cerita seru nih.. untuk selingan...

Cintano Meter



Di kota kami, walau terletak persis di tengah-tengah gurun pasir maha luas, hujan bukanlah barang langka. Jika penduduk kota ingin merasakan hujan, maka tinggal bilang ke balai kota. Seperti kemarin, anak tetangga sebelah rumah, rindu berat berlari-lari di atas gelimang lumpur, di bawah atap langit yang mencurahkan beribu-ribu bulir air kesegaran. Maka orang tuanya segera memesan hujan. Selang dua belas menit kemudian, awan hitam datang berarak, guntur dan petir sambar menyambar, tak lama turunlah hujan sesuai pesanan.

Jangan salah sangka dulu, kota kami memang terpencil jauh dari seluruh penjuru dunia, tetapi bukan berarti penduduk kota kami lebih primitif dibandingkan kalian. Kami tidak memanggil hujan lewat dukun-dukun, nyanyian-nyanyian, apalagi sesembahan tak berguna itu, sebaliknya kami memanggil hujan dengan teknologi tingkat tinggi. Maju sekali, malah jauh lebih maju dibandingkan dengan menerbangkan pesawat untuk menaburkan butiran pembuat hujan di awan-awan yang biasa ilmuwan kalian lakukan.

Di sini banyak penemu. Yang terhebat di seluruh dunia, malah. Jadi jangankan soal hujan, soal rumit lainnya, seperti mobil terbang, rumah mengapung, lampu tenaga udara, pil anti lapar, suntikan seribu penyakit dan yang lebih sulit lainnya ada di sini. Dengan berbagai penemuan hebat itu, kehidupan berjalan amat baik dan berkecukupan.

Tetapi suatu hari, dewan kota mendadak mengadakan pertemuan. Tentu ada hal super penting yang telah terjadi, karena rapat ini adalah rapat mendadak untuk pertama kalinya dalam lima ratus tahun terakhir. Para tetua risau sekali tentang sesuatu. Tentang mengapa angka pertumbuhan penduduk kota ini stagnan, bahkan dua tahun belakangan justeru minus sekian persen. Jika trend pertumbuhan penduduk tetap seperti itu, dikhawatirkan seratus hingga dua ratus tahun mendatang, penduduk kota ini akan musnah.

Lama berdebat akhirnya ditemukanlah muasal permasalahannya. Yaitu karena angka pernikahan anak-anak muda turun amat tajam. Kenapa angka pernikahan turun amat tajam? Karena anak-anak muda ternyata susah sekali menemukan jodohnya masing-masing. Kenapa anak-anak muda amat susah menemukan jodoh? Karena angka penolakan cinta meningkat tajam. Dan kenapa angka penolakan cinta meningkat tajam? Karena anak-anak muda itu terlalu malu untuk mengungkapkan perasaannya. Takut ditolak, takut ditertawakan, takut dihinakan, lebih sial lagi akan dikenang sepanjang masa: sebagai pecundang.

Tetua kota ramai lagi berdebat mencari solusi masalah pelik ini. Bagaimana agar anak-anak muda itu tidak cemas dan takut lagi menyatakan cintanya? Akhirnya setelah berbagai usulan diterima, mulai dari yang sama sekali tidak masuk akal hingga yang malah tidak ada kaitannya sama sekali dengan akar permasalahan, solusi yang dimaksud disepakati. Dewan kota akan menciptakan alat pendeteksi cinta. Sebut sajalah namanya cintanometer.

Bentuk fisiknya kurang lebih mirip freehand telepon genggam yang kalian kenal selama ini. Dicantolkan di telinga, dan ia dengan kecanggihannya akan memberitahukan perasaan yang sedang dipikirkan oleh lawan jenis di hadapanmu. Bagaimana caranya? Tidak jelas juga seperti apa. Terlalu rumit untuk dituliskan. Tetapi kurang lebih cintanometer akan mendeteksi gesture tubuh, kadar pheromon, getaran arus listrik yang timbul dari detak jantung pasangan Anda, medan elektromagnetik yang muncul dari sekujur kulitnya, sinyal alpha dari bola matanya, frekuensi dan lamda getaran suara saat pasangan Anda berbicara dan berbagai pemicu kimiawi lainnya yang terus terang aku juga tidak terlalu mengerti.

Dengan cintanometer itu, anak-anak muda tak usah malu lagi menyatakan cinta. Alat ini seratus persen akan menjamin kalkulasi variabel yang ditangkapnya benar-benar nyata. Deviasi kesalahannya kecil sekali, sehingga kalian tak usah lagi khawatir ditolak mentah-mentah.

Mendengar kabar tentang cintanometer, penduduk kota kami dilingkupi kegairahan yang luar biasa. Mereka belomba-lomba mencari tahu sejauh mana kemajuan ilmuwan terbaik mereka menciptakan alat pendeteksi cinta tersebut. Tak sabar lagi mereka menunggu hari H peredarannya di toko-toko kelontong. Malah di tengah-tengah kota dipasang penghitung waktu mundur (countdown) menunjukkan sisa hari peluncurannya.

♣♣♣

Dan ketika tiba hari H peluncuran cintanometer itu, kota kami heboh sekali. Inilah penemuan terbesar sepanjang masa. Muda-mudi berdiri mengantri membentuk kelokan puluhan kilometer di depan balai kota untuk mendapatkan alat pendeteksi cinta. Lelaki tua dan wanita tua yang tak laku-laku juga terselip hampir di setiap dua-tiga pengantri. Orang-orang tua yang sudah menikah pun ternyata ikut mengantri. Juga anak-anak di bawah umur.

Rusuh sekali antrian itu. Saling menyelak. Jangan pernah kalian meleng sedikit saja, alamat tempat berdiri sudah diisi oleh tiga-empat orang yang tak dikenal. Semakin lama kerusuhan dalam antrian semakin meluas. Masalahnya ternyata pembagian alat tersebut agak sedikit terganggu karena baru saja tetua kota menyadari mereka sama sekali belum melakukan analisis dampak lingkungan atas cintanometer ini. Tak ada yang pernah berpikir hal ihwal yang akan terjadi akibat beredar bebasnya alat ini, apalagi lihatlah batasan umur para pengantri di depan sana.

Semakin siang antrian semakin kusut. Maka tetua kota tak ada pilihan lain kecuali mulai membagikan cintanometer itu. Lupakan dulu soal analisis dampak lingkungan tersebut. Yang penting antrian penduduk kota tidak berubah menjadi anarki. Mereka berebut menyambar kotak-kotak kecil itu. Untunglah tak ada satu pun warga kota yang mengantri menginginkan benda tersebut yang tidak kebagian. Lepas senja semuanya bisa pulang dengan senyuman lega. Berharap banyak atas benda kecil tersebut.

Tetapi, wahai, tahukah kalian apa yang terjadi sekejap setelah itu?

♣♣♣
Kota kami tiba-tiba berubah menjadi lautan cinta. Lihatlah anak-anak muda, mereka seolah-olah sedang berlomba-lomba menyatakan cintanya. Di sepanjang jalan-jalan, di taman-taman kota, di kafe-kafe, di pelataran parkir dan pertokoan, di ruang-ruang kelas, di atas mobil-mobil dan gerbong kereta, di dalam lift dan toilet, hingga di altar-altar suci rumah ibadah yang seharusnya hanya dipakai untuk berdoa.

"Clarice, aku cinta padamu?" seru seorang pemuda dari salah satu meja, di kafe tengah kota.
"Aku sudah tahu, Leonardo!" gadis itu juga berteriak sambil memperlihatkan alat itu di telinganya. Mereka berdua tertawa. Juga tertawa bersamaan dengan seluruh isi kafe lainnya. Anak anak muda yang dimabuk asmara. Bersemu merah saling menggenggam tangan.

"Patrice, andai kau meminta bulan, tentu tak sungkan aku berikan...."
"Sudahlah, Desovov…." dan gadis di meja satunya lagi itu melompat menyeberangi piring-piring, dengan beringas ia mencium pasangannya.

Sungguh. Padahal kemarin, kemarinnya lagi, minggu-minggu lalu, dan sepanjang hari selama setahun terakhir ini gadis itu hanya mampu berdiri menatap pemuda pujaannya lewat begitu saja di gang bawah sana dari balik teralis jendela. Terlalu gentar untuk mengakui. Terlalu takut untuk menyatakan cintanya.

Kemanapun kau pergi malam itu, maka yang akan kau dapati hanyalah anak-anak muda dengan trendi mengenakan cintanometer di telinganya, berjalan kesana-kemari coba menemukan pasangannya. Saat alat di telinga mereka berkedip-kedip, mereka berseru kegirangan. Itu berarti ada seseorang yang mencintainya radius seratus meter darinya. Apa yang terjadi kemudian? Tergantung. Jika pasangan yang ditunjukkan oleh cintanometer itu ternyata tampan dan memang pujaan jantungnya selama ini, maka tak sungkan ia menggamit tangannya, menatap tersenyum dengan muka bersemu merah. Tetapi jika ternyata pasangan yang ditunjukkan oleh cintanometer itu ternyata jelek dan malah sosok yang dibencinya selama ini, maka dengan terbirit-birit ia akan lari menjauh.

Amat beruntung seorang pemuda atau gadis yang berkali-kali cintanometernya berkedip-kedip. Itu berarti ada banyak pilihan baginya untuk menyatakan cinta. Dan di tengah-tengah keramaian cinta ini, ironisnya, ada saja pecinta yang tidak sedikit pun cintanometernya berkedip-kedip. Awalnya mereka tidak terlalu panik. Mungkin alat miliknya rusak atau baterainya habis. Mereka buru-buru mencoba meminjam alat pendeteksi cinta milik temannya, berharap nasib akan berubah. Percuma. Semua alat yang dikeluarkan oleh balai kota selalu dalam kondisi seratus dua belas persen oke.

Maka tinggallah mereka merana menjadi penonton pertunjukan cinta di kota kami. Tetapi siapa peduli dengan orang-orang yang tidak beruntung itu? Jumlah mereka sedikit. Dan bukankah dengan demikian, alat pendeteksi cinta itu membantu seleksi genetik kota kami. Pemuda atau gadis yang tak pernah dicintai oleh seseorang maka sudah sepatutnyalah tidak meneruskan keturunan genetiknya, demikian kesimpulan tetua kota.

Mendengar laporan meningkatnya angka jatuh cinta anak-anak muda di kota kami, tetua kota tersenyum lega. Permasalahan besar itu nampaknya teratasi sudah. Mereka bersulang di balai kota, berseru bersama memuji kepintaran para penemu. Tanpa sedikit pun menyadari laporan itu ternyata belum lengkap benar. Karena pelahan-lahan muncullah berbagai masalah akibat
cintanometer itu.

♣♣♣

Vyrzas, lelaki baya berumur enam puluh tahun, duduk menangis di pojokan kota sambil mengelus kepala botaknya penuh penyesalan. Dengan alat itu, barusan dia tahu bahwa sesungguhnya semenjak empat puluh tahun silam hingga hari ini, Veronica, kembang kampus universitas kota kami, ternyata amat mencintainya. Ah, mengapa alat ini baru diciptakan sekarang? Sesalnya. Lihatlah, wanita tua itu sudah beranak-pinak dengan pria lain. Dia dulu ternyata terlalu naif menganggap dirinya jelek, bodoh dan sama sekali tidak berguna bila dibandingkan dengan gadis itu yang amat cantik, pintar dan populer.

Tetapi kesedihan Vyrzas bukan masalah serius bagi tetua kota saat ini. Yang sudah berlalu biarlah berlalu. Toh itu murni kesalahan Vyrzas. Yang lebih penting dan mendesak, lihatlah berbagai pertengkaran yang segera menyeruak di rumah-rumah penduduk.

"Aku tak menyangka hatimu busuk selama ini!" Nenek itu berseru kencang dari salah satu rumah.
"Apa maksudmu?"
"Lihat ini!" Ia berseru sambil memperlihatkan telinganya. Kakek itu tersumpal mulutnya.
"Pokoknya aku tidak mau lagi melihat mukamu di rumah ini. Pergi! Pergi bajingan!" Nenek itu menangis dalam marah. Ia tidak menyangka pemuda yang dinikahinya enam puluh tahun silam ternyata sedikit pun tidak mencintainya. Jangankan berkedip, mendesing pun tidak cintanometer di telinganya. Ternyata suaminya menikahinya semata-mata karena kedudukan dan harta orang tuanya.

Segeralah berbagai borok suami terbongkar. Berbagai aib istri terbuka lebar-lebar. Banyak sekali pemuda yang menikahi istrinya hanya karena harta, kekuasaan, atau kecantikan wajah. Dan sebaliknya gadis-gadis yang menikah hanya karena tebalnya kantong suaminya, rumah-rumah, mobil-mobil terbang dan berbagai kemewahan dunia lainnya.

Mereka bertengkar hebat malam itu. Cintanometer benar-benar menelanjangi para pelaku selingkuh. Suami-suami yang tidak cinta lagi melihat tubuh istrinya. Suami-suami yang lebih suka menghabiskan malam-malan di bar-bar kota. Alat itu juga membantu anak-anak yang tak beruntung menerjemahkan perasaan sesungguhnya dari ayah atau ibu tiri mereka. Dengan segera di tengah-tengah lautan cinta yang terjadi di jalanan, harmoni rumah-rumah tangga penduduk kota kami satu demi satu rontok.

Tetua kota segera berembug membahasnya. Satu dua tetua kota berkata pelan di tengah keramaian: ia memang dari dulu sudah khawatir sekali dengan alat pendeteksi cinta ini, sudah terlalu banyak penemuan tidak pantas yang telah mereka buat selama ini. Penemuan yang menebas tata aturan kehidupan. Cinta adalah urusan langit dan tidak sepantasnya mereka mencoba mengakalinya.

Tetapi mayoritas tetua kota kami mengabaikan keluhan itu. Jika ada masalah yang muncul dari cintanometer itu maka anggap saja harga yang harus dibayar untuk mengatasi permasalahan pertambahan penduduk kota. Dan bukankah lebih banyak anak-anak muda yang akan segera melangsungkan pernikahannya dibandingkan dengan rumah tangga yang hancur berantakan?

Malam itu juga putus. Cintanometer akan terus diedarkan.

♣♣♣

Hari-hari berlalu menjadi setahun, setahun berjalan dirangkai hari-hari. Siang ini genap lima tahun semenjak penemuan itu pertama kali diluncurkan dulu. Lihatlah apa yang terjadi di kota kami. Bayi-bayi mungil kelihatan di mana-mana. Jumlah penduduk double. Krisis kepedendudukan itu lewat sudah.

Cintanometer selama lima tahun berturut-turut mendapat penghargaan Penemuan Terbaik Tahun Ini. Setiap tahun fiturnya di tambah, dibuat lebih gaya dengan model dan warna-warni mutakhir. Penggunaannya pun semakin friendly user, tidak berkedip, tetapi berbisik. Bisikan cinta yang bisa di setting sedemikian rupa, termasuk menggunakan suara artis favorit kalian. Malah cintanometer oleh sebagian besar penduduk kota diusulkan agar ditetapkan sebagai penemuan terbaik sepanjang abad ini. Melihat situasi yang sedang berkembang dalam masyarakat, sepertinya wacana itu akan benar-benar menjadi kenyataan.

Masalahnya di tengah-tengah kegembiraan tetua kota, dan leganya perasaan anak-anak muda, ada sesuatu yang tanpa disadari pelahan-lahan merubah kehidupan kota itu. Alat itu bagi sebagian orang ternyata dari hari ke hari secara pasti membuat kehidupan mereka menjadi sangat sistematis, terukur dan tidak menarik lagi.

Tidak ada lagi seorang pemuda atau seorang gadis yang berdiri cemas menunggu di halte, berharap idaman jantungnya datang dan mereka bisa pergi satu bus, syukur-syukur bisa duduk bersebelahan. Tidak ada lagi degup jantung penasaran saat seorang pemuda menyatakan cintanya, menyajak puisi-puisi, menggenggam tangan sang kekasih. Tidak ada lagi lipatan surat-surat yang secara sembunyi-sembunyi dititipkan atau diselipkan di lemari sekolah, sekuntum bunga mawar yang dikaitkan di pintu rumah, atau seorang pemuda yang memetik gitar bernyanyi keras-keras di halaman rumah gadis idamannya.

Semakin lama, malah tidak ada lagi cokelat berbentuk jantung sebagai hadiah penanda cinta, tidak ada lagi balon-balon merah itu, tidak ada lagi cupid si peri cinta. Tidak ada lagi syair-syair kerinduan, soneta pujaan hati, tidak ada lagi irama ratapan kesendirian. Penduduk kota ini tidak
memerlukan itu semua.

Cinta pelahan-lahan namun pasti telah berubah menjadi barang instan. Jika cintanometer berkedip-kedip itu artinya cinta. Jika tidak berkedip-kedip maka tidak ada cinta. Lama-lama penduduk kota mulai lupa apa itu cinta, bagaimana sesungguhnya perasaan seseorang saat jatuh cinta? Mereka hanya mengerti soal kedip dan tidak mengedip. Bisik atau tidak berbisik.

Lama-lama mereka malah kehilangan kosa kata cinta? Siapa lagi yang perlu kata cinta jika kau bisa menterjemahkannya dengan mudah melalui sebuah alat mungil yang canggih? Berbisik berarti oke, tidak berbisik cari yang lain. Sesederhana itu. Maka kata cinta dihapuskan dari kamus besar bahasa kota kami, karena tak ada lagi yang mengerti apa maksudnya. Berikut kata-kata yang menyerupai dan menyertainya. Kalian tak akan lagi menemukan kata: kasih, sayang, rindu, bertepuk sebelah tangan, pungguk merindukan bulan, bujang tua, jomblo dan kata-kata lainnya.

Dan ketika aku sempat berkunjung ke kota itu minggu lalu. Dalam ramainya ruang pesta di balai kota, aku tersenyum bersalaman dengan penduduk kota. Berkata mengenalkan diri, "Namaku Jun Darwis Darwis. Aku pengelana hati. Datang dari jauh mencari cinta. Adakah gadis rupawan di kota ini yang masih sendiri dan mau menghabiskan sisa hidup bersamaku?" Mereka menatapku aneh sekali. Seperti kalian sedang menatap mahkluk dari galaksi lain. Apa itu cinta?

♣♣♣

Saturday, March 11, 2006

What is E-Gold?

What E-Gold is?
  1. e-gold is an electronic currency, issued by e-gold Ltd., a Nevis corporation, 100% backed at all times by gold bullion in allocated storage.
  2. Other e-metals are also issued: e-silver is 100% backed by silver, e-platinum is 100% backed by platinum, and e-palladium is 100% backed by palladium. However, the most popular e-metal is e-gold.
  3. e-gold is integrated into an account based payment system that empowers people to use gold as money. Specifically, the e-gold payment system enables people to Spend specified weights of gold to other e-gold accounts. Only the ownership changes - the gold in the treasury grade vault stays put
Where e-gold has found a use?

The target market for e-gold is simply people and and various services who use money. How do you presently use money? Chances are any of these activities would benefit from the increased soundness, security, efficiency, and lower cost of e-gold. Here are some examples of how e-gold is presently used:
  1. Gambling - Play on your gold, in a e-gold casino, lotteries, and other games. Make it anonymously and quickly, with a low commission and high reliability. Enjoy game and passion!
  2. The investments - Invest e-gold in gold economy. Want to play on forex, go in Xodds, want to develop Russian economy go on a stock exchange INDX. Money presses on a pocket? Invest e-gold in HYIP, guaranteed loss of your money!
  3. Shops and auctions - Buy in shops the goods and services, participate in auctions. Use for this purpose only e-gold. Make it anonymously and quickly.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Google Adsense

What is Google AdSense?

Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, unobtrusive Google ads on their website's content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what your users are looking for on your site, you'll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages. Learn more about AdSense for content.

It's also a way for web site publishers to provide Google search to their site users, and to earn money by displaying Google ads on the search results pages. Find out more about AdSense for search.

The program is free, and combines pay-per-click and pay-per-impression advertising - meaning you get paid for valid clicks on the ads on your site or search results pages as well as impressions on your content pages. So go ahead and try this program. If you comply with our program policies, just complete our online application and select either or both of AdSense for content pages and AdSense for search. One application gets you approved for both AdSense and AdSense for search - you can decide to use any combination of these products on your pages.

We'll review your application and follow up with an email within 2-3 days. If you are accepted into the program, you can log in to your new account and get the HTML code to insert into your web pages.

How do I get the Adsense Code?

The AdSense ad code is generated from within your publisher account. This is the code that you'll need to add to your pages in order to display Google ads on your web pages. Please follow the steps below to generate your AdSense ad code:

Log in to your account at https://www.google.com/adsense
Click the Ad layout code link under the Ad Settings tab Choose the format and colors for the Google ads to be displayed on your site. You can also choose any additional options that may apply to your site, including channels and alternate ads
Your code will be generated in the Your ad code window according to your selections.
Copy-and-paste the code into the source code of the web pages on which you wish to display Google ads. For tips on adding the code to your page, read How do I add the AdSense code to my site?.
If implemented correctly, Google ads will appear immediately. Initially, the ads that appear may be public service ads, for which you will not receive earnings. Once our crawlers have visited your page, however, targeted ads will begin to appear.
Does my site qualify for AdSense?

Google AdSense and AdSense for search is open to website publishers of all sizes. Please read our program policies to ensure that your content fits in to our guidelines.

If, after reading our policies, you're not sure if your site qualifies, we suggest that you go ahead and submit an application. Our program specialists will review your site and respond within 2-3 days. If you're approved, you'll receive an email with instructions on logging in to your account and getting started with the program.

How do I add the AdSense code to my site?

Once you've generated your ad code from the Ad Layout Code page, you'll need to add it to your web pages. If you scroll to the bottom of the Ad Layout Code page, you'll see your code in the Your AdSense Code box. This is the code that you will cut-and-paste directly into your web pages.

Because every HTML editor is different, and because only you know how you like to build your web pages, we can't give exact instructions on copying the ad code into your pages. We can, however, give you a few tips:

Make sure to paste the ad code into your source without making any changes to the code. This is important, as changing the code in any way can cause errors on your page (and is against the AdSense program policies)
Copy the ad code between the body tags of your HTML
If you're using a WYSIWYG editor (such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver) it's a good idea to paste the code into the Code or Source view. Pasting it into the layout view will often result in HTML tags being added to your code, and will result in errors
If your page uses Frames, make sure that the code is pasted into the frame that contains your page's main content. We use this content to target ads
When you're all done, save your web pages and upload them to your server. If you have questions about uploading files to your server, we suggest contacting your web hosting company directly.

Google ads should appear on your pages immediately. Initially, the ads that you see may be Public Service Ads (known as PSAs) and won't be targeted to your page. We have to crawl your page's content before we know what kinds of ads to send your way - this can take up to a few hours, but usually occurs within minutes. Once our crawler has visited your page, you should see ads that are highly targeted to your content.

How do I sign up?

To get started with either AdSense for content or AdSense for search, all you have to do is check that your site(s) complies with our program policies. Then, when you are ready to join our program, just go to the Google AdSense home page, and click Click here to apply. Complete and submit your application, and check for an email from us to verify your email address. Once you verify your email address, we'll review your application and follow up with you via email within 2-3 days. If we approve your application, you'll be able to log in to your AdSense account and get started.

Am I a Business or Individual account?

Generally, if you are a business with 20 or more employees, you should apply as a Business account. Individual publishers, or businesses with less than 20 employees, should sign up as an Individual account.

There's no difference in the services or payment structure between Individual and Business accounts. Business account payments will be made payable to the Company Name, while Individual accounts are paid out to the Payee Name of the account holder.

Should you ever need to select a new account type, our specialists will work with you to close your current account and to open a new account with your updated information.

Tip: Entering your account holder name

Please provide your full name when registering for AdSense.

We understand that some publishers may use their initials as their bank account-holder name. If this is the case with your bank account, your AdSense account allows you to enter the correct information after you have been approved, for Electronic Funds Transfer payments. Payments by check will be made out to your full name only.

I've forgotten my password

If you're having difficulty logging in to your account, please try one more time from the AdSense login page at https://www.google.com/adsense.

If you're still unable to access your AdSense account, or if you have forgotten your password, please visit https://www.google.com/adsense/assistlogin. From this page, you'll be able to submit your email address to us. We'll then automatically send you an email with a link that will allow you to reset your password.

How do I log in to my account?

Your AdSense account gives you access to all of the features of the AdSense program. From your account, you can generate your ad code, set up reporting features such as channels, and view reports on earnings and impressions.

To sign in:

Go to https://www.google.com/adsense
In the Existing Publisher Login box, at the upper right of the browser window, enter the email address and password you supplied during signup.
Click Login to enter your account.
If this is your first time entering your account, you'll be asked to read and sign the Google AdSense Terms and Conditions. There's important information about the program, so take the time to read through these terms before proceeding.

Once you've read through the document, select the agreement checkbox and click I agree to continue to your account.

Monday, March 06, 2006

4 Steps to a Successful Website

Creating a successful website that will make money and receive traffic is simple if you follow the right steps. However, many potential webmasters don't know where to start or how to put all the site building pieces together. In this article we have outlined the four basic steps for getting a website online, listed, and ready to make money- along with recommendations for our favorite web services to help you do so. Anyone can make money with a website and we'll tell you how to get started.

1- Register a Domain Name

The very first step to take is to register a domain name. This name is how your website will be known and listed on the World Wide Web. It will be your URL, or web address. An example of a domain name is www.mysite.com. Dot com is the most common domain extension, but there are many others to choose from. Using hyphens and alternate spellings in a domain name can help if the .com is already taken. We like to register our domains through GoDaddy. They offer the cheapest prices for domain names and are always having a good sale.


Where domain names are concerned cheaper is better. Owning a domain name doesn't mean you have a website, it is just the name. To have a website you also need a web host.


2- Find a Host

Once you have a domain you can find a host for your domain. In order to have your website visible to the world, you pay someone else, a web host, to store your site files on a fast server that makes them available 24/7 to website visitors. There are millions of web hosts to choose from with varied pricing and features. We recommend iPowerWeb as a reliable web host to start with. They are competitively priced ($7.95 per month) and offer all the tools webmasters need to get a website up and running smoothly. iPowerWeb will register a domain name for free when you sign up for hosting.


3- Join Affiliate Networks

Now that you have your website up and running you are ready to sign up for affiliate programs so you can make money with your website. The best place to start is to sign up with an affiliate network, like Commission Junction, that can give you access to many affiliate programs. Commission Junction will track which merchants you are an affiliate for, the traffic you send merchants, the sales you make, and how much you will be paid.


They send out one monthly check for all the revenue you have received from your affiliated merchants. Using an affiliate network is much easier than signing up, tracking sales, and receiving payment from multiple different sources.


4- Increase Your Website Traffic

Unfortunately, your website will never make money or be a success if no one sees it. Once you've registered a domain name, signed up free a web host, and added some affiliates to your website, you need to begin soliciting traffic, or visitors, to your website. Traffic to your website can come in many forms: word of mouth, printed advertisement, email campaigns, other web sites, and search engines are the main sources. Search engines offer the highest possibilities of traffic if your website places well for a desired key word. We suggest reading the Search Engine Bible to help you figure out the complex game of search engine optimization or PayPerClickList.com to learn more about submitting to pay per click engines.


It is no secret that these four steps can take time and a lot of hard work. But if you take advantage of the resources available and proceed in the prescribed order your website can be a success.

To find web providers in your area to help with web design, marketing, hosting, or graphics, visit BestWebProviders.com.


Reliable Hosting Companies
Jun 02, 2004

Finding a reliable web host can be difficult, but it is the most important factor for web site success. If a web site isn't up and visible nothing else matters, right? We'll tell you some important features to look for when attempting to determine a host's reliability before signing up.

Uptime-

Server downtime can completely ruin a web site. If a web host cannot keep the web sites hosted on their servers live and visible no other features the host possesses really matter. No host can offer 100% uptime to their users with the viruses and natural disasters that could affect data centers, but some hosts guarantee 99% uptime which is much more feasible. A reliable web host would offer and perform at a 99% uptime rate or above. Just a note- what comes after the decimal point can make a big difference if you do the math, for example a 99.5% uptime guarantee= 216 minutes of downtime in a month, whereas a 99.9% uptime guarantee= 43.2 minutes of downtime.

User Testimonials-
No one knows better than an actual user how a web host is performing. User testimonials can provide potential users with important information regarding a host's reliability. Look for testimonials that talk about up/downtime and honoring of guarantees and advertised claims. Use common sense and good judgment to weed through testimonials for valuable information.

Host History-
Whether a host is new or old can affect its reliability. An old host has proven it has the stability to weather tough technology crashes. A host that just surfaced yesterday may not be around tomorrow and may not have worked out the bugs in their servers yet. Look for a host with at least one year under their belt to be on the safe side.

Data Center-
The data center is the web host's facility that houses all the servers that contain your uploaded site files. Is your web hosts data center in the middle of a natural disaster laden island or on the terrorist hit list? More importantly than where you hosts business offices are located is where the data center is and how they monitor the facility for safety. This is one area where web hosts do the talking themselves. If they have a good data center, they'll tell you all about it. Choose hosts with data centers in safe locations that use up to date and appropriate hardware.

Guarantee-
Reliable web hosts guarantee their services. If there is no satisfaction or money back guarantee don't even bother with them. Do read the small print of any guarantees. Guarantee terms differ by amount of days guarantee is good for, how much is refundable, if set-up fees or unused months of service are refundable, etc. Protect your purchase with a guaranteed host, but always read the fine print before signing up.

Reputation-
A web hosts reputation is often hard to determine. Many hosts are so widely marketed by affiliate programs that sites may recommend a poor host, just for the kickback. Trust only web site ranking and recommendation sites that you know are legit. Visit hosting forums and read what other users have experienced with specific hosts. Read user reviews, but remember happy users don't usually post reviews so the story can be one sided.

By looking into these key factors potential web host users can get a better idea of how reliable their future host will be. Users don't have to sign-up for hosting blindly. Take the time to research the reputation, guarantee terms, uptime, history, and hardware of your future web host. Doing so can help you select a good web host. To locate web hosts in your area visit BestWebProviders.com

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Get Yourself Out From The Quagmire Of Credit:

Take A Secured Debt Consolidation Loan



With the world witnessing an unprecedented growth in urbanisation there are significant changes in our lifestyle. Our lives have become much faster than they used be some decades ago. Today we have to run for everything. We wake up early in the morning, get fresh in hurry, run to our respective workplaces and return home again in haste in the evening. You have to handle both your personal and professional life with equal efficiency but it hardly happens.

Many of us fail to keep up with things attached to our personal life such as our finances. We most often fail to repay our debts or forget to pay credit card bills. The problem becomes severe when interest rates and the principal loan amounts become so huge that we are unable to pay them back. Availing a secured debt consolidation loan is a wise option in such a case.

Secured Debt Consolidation Loans are those loans that are specifically meant for consolidating all your debts into a single manageable loan. If you avail such a loan, you are free from the hassles of making multiple payments to different lenders. In stead you pay only a single installment to your lender and save a good amount of money. This is because paying different interest rates to different lenders costs you much more than what you pay to a single lender with low interest rate.

The major benefit of a secured debt consolidation loan is that it is charged with a low interest rate. Since the loan is a secured one you offer collateral, which is usually your home to the lender. The lender, being assured because of the collateral, charges you a low interest rate. You can also fix the monthly installments and repayment duration according to your suitability.

Secured debt consolidation loans are also available for people who have a poor credit record. Generally, lenders hesitate to grant loans to bad credit borrowers but with collateral as guarantee, they sanction secured debt consolidation loans at low rates.

So, if you are trapped in a vicious cycle of debt, you have a lot of arrears due on you and your credit card company is sending you legal notices, it’s high time that you avail a secured debt consolidation loan. With regular payments to your creditor you can also improve your credit record which may prove useful for you in the future.

Author: The author is a business writer specializing in finance and credit products and has written authoritative articles on the finance industry. He has done his masters in Business Administration and is currently assisting E-secured-loans as a finance specialist. For more information please visit: http://www.e-secured-loans.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pranav_Das

Saturday, March 04, 2006

INTRODUCTION TO FOREX

Forex Market

Forex (Foreign Exchange) is the name given to the "direct access" trading of foreign currencies. With an average daily volume of $1.4 trillion, forex is 46 times larger than all the futures markets combined and, for that reason, is the world's most liquid market. In the past, forex trading was limited largely to enormous money center banks and other institutional traders. But in just the past few years, technological innovations and the development of online trading platforms allow small traders to take advantage of the significant benefits of trading foreign currencies with forex.

In contrast to the world's stock markets, foreign exchange is traded without the constraints of a central physical exchange. Transactions are instead conducted via telephone or online. With this transaction structure as its foundation, the Foreign Exchange Market has become by far the largest marketplace in the world.

Buying and Selling

In the forex market, currencies are always priced and traded in pairs. You simultaneously buy one currency and sell another, but you can determine which pair of currencies you wish to trade. For example, if you believe the value of the euro is going to increase vis-รก-vis the U.S. Dollar, then you would go long on EUR/USD instrument (currency pair). Obviously, the objective of forex currency trading is to exchange one currency for another in the expectation that the market rate or price will change so that the currency you bought has increased its value relative to the one you sold. If you have bought a currency and the price appreciates in value, then you must sell the currency back in order to lock in the profit. An open trade or position is one in which a trader has either bought / sold one currency pair and has not sold / bought back the equivalent amount to effectively close the position.

Market Conventions

Market conventions are rules and standards imposed by a governing body. In case of decentralized forex market these conventions might differ due to many national regulators (FSA, FSC, CFTC, NFA, BCSC, etc.). Since there is no central governing body that sets forex market rules and standards, we will reference only these that are universal.

Quoting Conventions

The first currency in the pair is referred to as the base currency, and the second currency is the counter or quote currency. The U.S Dollar is usually the base currency for quotes, and includes USD/JPY, USD/CHF, and USD/CAD. The exceptions are the Euro (EUR), Great Britain Pound (GBP), and Australian Dollar (AUD). As with all financial products, forex quotes include a "bid" and "ask", which is more often called "offer" in the forex market. The bid is the price at which a forex market maker is willing to buy (and you can sell) the base currency in exchange for the counter currency. The offer is the price at which a forex market maker will sell (and you can buy) the base currency in exchange for the counter currency. The difference between the bid and the offer price is referred to as the spread.

Orders and Positions

When you want to open a position you need to place an "entry" order. If and when the entry order executes, the position becomes "open" and starts its life on the market. At one point in time, you will place an "exit" order to "close" the position. A position can be "long" (entry order is to buy and exit order is to sell an instrument) or "short" (entry order is to sell and exit order is to buy an instrument).

At the point when you place your entry order, you need to define price level at which you want to buy or sell certain instrument. You also need to specify type of the order and quantity of the instrument you want to trade. There are 3 order types:

Market Order

Placing a market order means that you will buy at your broker's current "ask" (or "offer") price, or sell at your broker's current "bid" price, whatever that price currently is. For example, suppose you are buying EUR/USD. The current market, as quoted by your broker is 1.2934 / 1.2938. This means that your broker is willing to buy EUR/USD from you at 1.2934, and sell it to you at 1.2938.

Stop Order

Initiating a trade with a stop order means that you will only open a position if the market moves in the direction you are anticipating. For example, if USD/JPY is currently 108.72 and you believe it will move higher, you could place a stop order to buy at 108.82. This means that the order will only be executed if the market moves up to 108.82. The advantage is that if you are wrong and the market moves straight down, you will not have bought (because 108.82 will never have been reached). The disadvantage is that 108.82 is clearly a less attractive rate at which to buy than 108.72. Opening a position with a stop order is usually appropriate if you wish to trade only with strong market momentum in a particular direction.

Limit Order

A limit order is an order to buy below the current price, or sell above the current price. For example, if EUR/USD is trading at 1.2952 / 56 and you believe the market will rise, you could place a limit order to buy at 1.2945. If executed, this will give you a long position in EUR/USD at 1.2945, which is 11 pips better than if you had just bought EUR/USD with a market order. The disadvantage of the limit order is that if EUR/USD moves straight up from 1.2952 / 56, your limit at 1.2945 will never be filled and you will miss out on the profit opportunity even though your view on the direction of EUR/USD was correct. Opening a position with a limit order is usually appropriate if you believe that the market will remain in a range before moving in your anticipated direction, allowing the order to be filled first.

For both entry and exits orders you can specify price levels at which you want them to be executed. You have to specify entry levels when you place you entry order, while most brokers would allow you to specify exit levels at any time.

Calculating Profit

The objective of forex currency trading is to exchange one currency for another in the expectation that the market rate or price will change so that the currency you bought has increased its value relative to the one you sold. If you have bought a currency and the price appreciates in value, then you must sell the currency back in order to lock in the profit.

Let us assume that you open a long position by buying USD/JPY for 107.58 (quantity of 100000) and few hours after that, you close the position by selling USD/JPY for 107.74 (quantity of 100000). These two trades would bring you profit of (107.74 - 107.58) * 100000 = JPY 16000 (JPY is the counter or quote currency in the USD/JPY pair). You can than convert the profit to a currency you like, for example JPY 16000 = 16000 / 107.74 = USD 148.51.

We can also say that these two trades would bring you 16 "pips" profit. A "pip" is the smallest increment in any instrument. For asset types other than forex, the smallest increment is often called "tick". In EUR/USD one pip is 0.0001, in USD/JPY one pip is 0.01. Expressing position profits in pips is often very useful for quick calculations and estimates.

One pip, from the example above, would bring you 0.01 * 100000 = JPY 1000 profit, or JPY 1000 = 1000 / 107.74 = USD 9.28.

How Do Affiliate Programs Work?

How Do Affiliate Programs Work?

You've heard the story before. Some local "dot-com" startup company sells out for millions of dollars and the 25-year-old wiz kid owner waltzes off into the sunset with a mansion and a new Mercedes. I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but it certainly hasn't happened to me. We're not talking about get-rich-quick schemes here. We're talking about a way to generate a steady monthly income through genuine hard work, a little ingenuity, and an Internet phenomenon called Affiliate Programs.
The Referral System
The concept is really quite simple. Everything is based on a paid referral system. Visitors come to your website, you introduce them to a product or service from a third-party vendor through a banner or text link, and if your referral decides to buy, you get paid a commission. While it sounds simple, there are a few important details to know before you begin. Let's look at an example.

Case Study
Mary is interested in scrapbooking, so she sets up a web site called Scraptips.com to share some of her ideas with others who are interested in the same thing. She begins to build up a loyal following of people who visit her site frequently for weekly tips and ideas. She signs up as an affiliate with a merchant called Scrapbook Supplies Online, and places their small banner link on her site. For each of her site visitors who clicks on the banner and visits the merchant, Mary receives $.10 per click (click-throughs) for introducing that person to the merchant services. In addition, she might receive 10% of any purchases (sales/leads) that person might make. Everyone wins.

Counting the Clicks
Right now you're probably wondering who keeps track of all these clicks and how you eventually get paid. That's where web services like Commission Junction and BeFree come in. They make the whole process simple by doing all the tracking through your personal affiliate i.d. and then send you one check at the end of the month for all your commissions. Or, you use your affiliate's tracking software to keep track of the sales and clicks. That's how the whole thing works. But at $.10 a click, can a small web site really make any money? That depends on a few important factors.

Can A Small Web Site Make Any Money?

Every web site, no matter how small, can make some money with affiliate programs. Slap on any affiliate banner or text link and you're bound to get some clicks eventually. But to really make money you have to have the right combination of key elements.
CONTENT + TRAFFIC + THE RIGHT AFFILIATE PROGRAM = $
Without these three key elements you probably won't see much in the way of income: (1) A website must be built and updated in such a way that the content brings people back to the site over and over again. (2) The affiliate programs must be related to the site content, so that the site offers are of significant interest to the visitors. (3) The referral fee must be substantial enough to make you want to promote the offer. When all three elements are in place, you are on your way.

WHAT CAN I EXPECT TO MAKE?
Click-through rates are considered good if .5% to 5% of your referrals actually buy something. You do the math for your website. If you're only getting 50 visitors a day, it probably won't ever amount to much. But if you build up your traffic so you're getting 100 to 1000 visitors a day, then you are in a position to make a substantial monthly income.

CASE STUDY
Bob's site, RCguy.com is geared to radio-controlled airplane enthusiasts. He publishes a guide to all the RC events and competitions, provides a series of how-to articles, reviews new RC products, and offers free e-mail problem-solving advice. In time he becomes the Internet "guru" for RC enthusiasts. His content-rich site is now getting 500 hits a day (15,000 a month) from all over the world. He joins an affiliate program and places a banner link to RCstuffonline.com which offers discount deals. He gets $.10 per click-through and 10% of any purchases made.

In June Bob reviews a new airplane kit and tells his readers they can get it at a great price from RCstuffonline. During that month 150 of his readers take his advice and visit RCstuffonline (150 click-throughs), of which 15 people decide to purchase the airplane kit for $200 (15 sales leads). His affiliate check for June would include $15 for his click-throughs and $300 for his sales commissions.

INCREASE YOUR OFFERS
While Bob isn't going to get rich from his single affiliate, it does make his computer payment, his dial-up account fee, and some bonus money that month. But he can do better when he adds five more affiliate links to other related products such as books, magazines, newsletters, etc. Why not? It costs nothing, and his efforts are now multiplied times five. He now has five salespeople working for him instead of just one.

It's easy to increase your offers, but how do you go about increasing your web traffic? Well, that's the next step and it takes more work and a little ingenuity.

Is There a Secret to Increasing my Website Traffic?

You will never make any substantial money with affiliate programs until you build up your traffic to a reasonable level. You should use every avenue possible to promote your website. People are going to find out about you basically through three avenues: search engines, publicity, and word of mouth.

HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK
Generally when you want to find something on the Internet you will do a search on one of the major search engines, such as Yahoo, altavista, or Google or maybe on a meta search. Each search engine has its own way of conducting the search, but basically they're looking for keywords or phrases imbedded in your site. Make sure you use words in your title, metatags, and text that your site visitors are likely to think of in a search for you. If you want to see what works, select a few appropriate keywords and do a search. See who comes up on the first page and see how they are using those keywords in their site. Then do the same on your site. Your goal here is to get listed in the top 10 or 20 sites, as most people won't look beyond that in a search.

SUBMIT OFTEN TO SEARCH ENGINES
Many people think that search engines scour the whole Internet and if you're out there they will find you. Wrong! If you go to a search engine homepage, you will find a link for submitting URLs for inclusion in their searches. That's the first step. Submit your website to any and all you are aware of. The biggest search engine, Yahoo, accounts for over half of all web searches. Follow their guidelines carefully as they are notoriously difficult to get accepted to, but it's well worth it if you can pull it off. There are also "pay for placement" services like FindWhat.com where you can bid on the keywords that best describe your site, and the #1 position goes to the highest bidder. They're worth checking into because they can send you considerable amounts of traffic for as little as a penny per click. The best part is you can get traffic to your site fast; it only takes about 10 minutes to open an account.

SPREAD YOUR WEB ADDRESS
Although search engines account for much of your new traffic, make sure you take advantage of all other avenues. Find other websites with similar content and exchange links with them. Place your web address on every printed piece you produce. Make sure it's on your business cards, your letterhead and anywhere else you can get it. If you have unique site content, let your local newspaper know and you'll probably get a free article. The Internet is a big interest area right now.

WORD OF MOUTH IS STILL BEST
Here's the best way to increase your traffic. Give your site visitors a good reason to come back again and again. Update your site content as often as possible, and make sure those who come to your site find what they are looking for. The word spreads quickly on the Internet and your audience is as big as the entire world.

Increasing your daily traffic not only increases your affiliate opportunities but also opens up a few other income avenues as well.

Are There Other Ways to Make Money With My Website?

Remember the keys- Before looking for other income avenues, make sure you have followed the steps for affiliate success. The keys that bring success there also can be applied to other income opportunities. First of all, develop your content and increase your traffic - then choose your deal.

ONLINE STOREFRONTS
Many people are setting up online storefronts where they offer a number of different products for sale from one portal. Although this is not my favorite approach, some people are finding success this way. Many programs provide all you need to establish a storefront, select your products and be online in a few hours. People shop at your site, the program fills the orders, and you get a commission.

GETTING PAID TO SURF
Programs such as All advantage and gotoworld actually pay you to surf the net. You are provided with a navigation bar which contains an ad banner and search element. In exchange, you get paid so much an hour as long as the banner remains live on your screen. It's really another form of paid advertising, but it works. There's usually a limit to the number of hours you get paid, so you probably won't make much more that $20 or $30 a month. But once again, it requires no effort, so why not take it? At the very least it'll pay your Internet dial-up fee each month.

The Advantages of Using An Affiliate Network

Though not all affiliate programs are administrated through an affiliate network, there are some advantages to using ones that are. Affiliate networks take the head-ache out of tracking and receiving payment and can help webmasters concentrate their efforts on driving traffic instead of maintaining affiliate programs.

What is an Affiliate Network?
Affiliate Networks act as the trusted third party to track and report sales and traffic from ads, they send monthly payment, and often provide online tools to help affiliates optimize their performance. They provide webmasters with access to hundreds of affiliate programs all in one convenient location.

If You DON'T use Affiliate Networks
Webmasters who don't utilize affiliate networks, and use affiliate programs from independent parties may suffer from inaccurate tracking, late or no payment, and dead links and banners.

Should all Affiliates Use an Affiliate Network?
We recommend using an affiliate network to webmasters who are signing up for more than one affiliate program.

Can Affiliates Be Part of Multiple Networks?
Yes. We advise affiliates to sign up for as many affiliate networks as they would like to. Sign-up is free to affiliates and Affiliate Networks partner with different merchants. For example, Ebay uses Commission Junction to mediate their affiliate program, whereas 1-800-Flowers.com uses Linkshare. If you want to sign up for both affiliate programs you should be a part of both networks. Using multiple networks can give you access to more merchants and affiliate programs.

Are Some Networks Better Than Others?
While all affiliate networks have their strong points, we like Commission Junction the best. They have the best optimization tools for affiliates, so affiliates can make the most money possible from each click of traffic.