Environment And Your Wallet

The world is a big place with big problems. Some environmental activists demand we stop living our lives and look at everything we do as an Earth-changing event, but not everyone can focus their entire lives around saving the planet. The truth is that it isn't necessary to make drastic changes in one's life to make a difference. It isn't even necessary to spend more money to be environmentally conscious. Below are seven simple ways to make a difference in the environment, and save money doing it.

1. Buying compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of incandescent ones. Advances in technology have led to a light bulb that's designed to last up to 15 times the life of a standard bulb. They cost more up front, but they are replaced much less often, which makes them cheaper in the long run. Plus, these bulbs will use less than a third of the power of incandescents, which will reduce electricity costs. They also generate less heat, so less air-conditioning is needed in the summer.

2. Reusing shopping bags. Every bag reused is one less bag that needs to be manufactured. Also, several supermarket chains have started giving small credits towards their customers' bills when they bring in old bags to reuse. Some people like to keep old shopping bags in their trunk, just in case. Even more of an improvement would be using non-disposable canvas bags - they still count towards the credit at the check-out, but are made from eco-friendly materials.

3. Carpooling. Most people associate carpooling with going to work, but there are many other opportunities to share a ride. A great deal of money could be saved on gasoline by one car going to the mall rather than two. Also, with a little planning, shopping trips could be taken less frequently.

4. Turning off the water when not in use. Simple things like using half a sink full of water to wash dishes instead of running the water can prevent waste. Turning the water off while brushing your teeth is also a good idea. Finally, making sure faucets aren't left dripping will make a significant difference in water bills.

5. Completely turning off electronics. A great many of today's appliances and electronics have a standby mode. Televisions and stereos in particular tend to use a great deal of electricity while on standby. Plugging devices into a power strip that has an on/off switch can give consumers more control over their electricity use. Particular attention should be paid to anything with a big transformer plug, as these devices tend to use the most power and waste the most money.

6. Turning off the air-conditioning and/or heat when leaving the house. A great deal of electricity is wasted cooling or heating an empty home, which leads to bigger bills. Even setting the temperature one or two degrees different, keeping the system from activating as often, can save significant amounts of money each year.

7. Turning off the lights. A good rule of thumb is, "light is useless if there's nobody there." Turning off any ceiling fans, floor fans and lights when leaving the room saves just a little bit of electricity, and money, every time it's done.

Of course, there are many more ways to help the environment while saving money. These seven are simply among the most often overlooked easy solutions. Public libraries and environmental websites are great sources of further information.

Increase Their Earnings

It is really frustrating, is it not, to log into your Google Adsense earnings and find that you’ve had yet another disappointing day. Another day of making nothing or just a fraction of a penny.

More so when you continue to read about those guys making five figure monthly incomes from Google Adsense every day. Google Adsense terms and conditions require that earnings are kept secret. Still some of these guys claim that they obtained special permission to spill the beans. One of them recently revealed that they had made $45,000 in just one month. Perusing through the statement, there were single days where they made as much as 800 bucks. Can you imagine that?

Sorry, it is not my intention to make you feel worse than you already are so I will stop there and get on with my findings.

This article is based on my investigative journalism skills. Yep, some of us are still using skills we acquired years ago from our offline days. My objective was to find out as much as I could about what these top earners were doing different from the rest of us.

High Adsense Earners Do Exist

But first I had to establish whether these high earners existed at all. After all anybody can get online and tell all sorts of lies about anything. My investigations started off trying to separate the hype from the facts which is an almost-impossible task these days. I have read several articles by sceptics which clearly state that most of these so-called high earners do not exist.

Well the truth is that despite the high number of hype peddlers out there, these guys are for real.

Without disclosing too much about some of my sources whom I intend to use in the future and can therefore not disclose, there are several pieces of evidence that point not only to their existence, but to their growing numbers.

The first is the amazing pace at which Google earnings from this business is growing. Check any top affiliate program and compare their figures to Google Adsense and you will begin to see what I mean. Google is a public company and their figures from earnings are widely available.

Adsense Keywords Do Matter

High traffic is important and effective online traffic tools are well known. They include for example PPC ads, including the very same Adsense ads. Articles are increasingly important because when it comes to traffic, the numbers are not enough, the quality of the traffic is also very important.

But the absolutely critical factor in achieving high Adsense earnings is not traffic. It is actually the keywords used. With the difference in earnings from a click ranging from a fraction of a penny to $100, you can begin to appreciate what we are saying here.

This is the reason why almost everybody else is selling those lists online these days.

My investigations unearthed evidence that those top earners are constantly researching new keywords. They spend a lot of time doing that (more time than they spend doing anything else) and to pay for some of their wasted efforts (every genuine research effort will have plenty of that) some of them are peddling the lists that they have graduated from or do not need anymore. Before you get upset please remember that this is standard business practice. A smart entrepreneur always minimizes on wastage of any kind.

Generally there are some keyword topics that pay more than others. To give you just two examples, health and electronics generally score much higher across the board than other areas of interest in terms of high earning keywords. The top earners are using this information

Hire an Adsense Expert

This is the most amazing aspect my research unearthed.

Infringement

A very important question arises in the early stages of development of a web site – what would be the most appropriate domain name? Domain names are representative of the address for a web site, and there is a rising trend of incidents of disputes over domain name registration with increased usage of Internet.

There are numerous factors that have led to a crisis of domain registration disputes and this, in turn, has led to a rapid increase in the reported cases of infringement of domain names. Several companies have taken legal action against other companies or individuals over alleged copyright violation on the domain names.

There are some basics that you should understand before choosing a domain name registration:

1. Use of two similar trademarks should not confuse customers about the products or services.

2. If there is a legal conflict over use of similar trademarks, the first user is likely to win the case.

3. The later user would to give up his claim if he cannot proves his point and may have to pay the first owner damages.

You should apply these principles to your domain registration selection process:

1. The best method to avoid conflict of trademarks is to search the trademark database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at www.uspto.gov. It provides you with all registered and pending trademarks. Try to search for your proposed trademark as well as other similar names and variant spellings.

2. You must be able to justify your reason for using the name. Your domain registration should principally consist of a name you are using as a trade name, trademark or corporate name.

3. It is better to select more than one name since you are not sure about the availability of the required domain name.

If on searching for the desired domain name, you find that the name has already been registered but there is no content being displayed at the domain, try to find out the details of the owner of the domain registration. It is possible that he/she may be genuine and have yet not published any content.

But it is equally possible that the owner does not plan to develop a web site and is willing to give you the domain at the original price. You must confirm that the seller has ownership rights for that particular domain name registration.

The regulations governing copyright issues for domain names are governed by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

It is very likely that you would lose right of your domain name registration if you have intentionally chosen a name similar to another domain name so as to confuse potential visitors to the site. For example, if your site deals in consumer electronics goods made by a Samsung competitor, do not choose the name "samsungbusiness.com" since a court is most likely to pass a verdict that you selected this name to divert attention of Samsung customers.

There could be others reasons of losing a domain registration:

1. You have never carried out any business under that name

2. There is no person in your company similar to that name

3. You are planning to sell that domain name to your competitor for financial gain.

If your domain name is same as your name then you may be allowed to continue to use it, despite of the fact that it is similar to someone else’s domain name. But the usage of such a name is governed by certain condition set by court. For example, Mr. Suki Nokia, who runs a cosmetics business, may be allowed to use the domain name "nokia.kr" but he would barred from using his site to demonstrate any electronics-related information or advertising.

A very useful tip to buy all three of the top level domains - .com, .net and .org. You should buy all possible misspellings of your domain name before anybody else takes advantage of this fact.

If on searching, you find similar names, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Will the products/services on your site compete with the products/services on similar domain names?

2. Will your distribution channels for products be same for products being sold under the similar domain names?

3. Will your site distract business away from the site with the similar name?

4. Is the other name quite famous?

If you get negative answers to all these questions, you can feel confident to go ahead with your domain name registration without any worry of a legal hassle.