Telecommunication – Telephonic Communications
Upon getting information about an upcoming school science fair and the need to consider a topic of interest, many students will typically have no idea where to get started. While the science fair is typically a common occurrence in any school at any grade level, there are different types of topics that should be taken a look at depending on the age of the student. After first taking a look at the many different categories of science projects, you will be able to locate a suitable choice of topic to take to the next level.There is a wide variety of categories that fall under the types of science projects that can be chosen for a school science fair. These include biology, chemistry, physics, microbiology, biochemistry, medicine, environmental, mathematics, engineering, and earth science. While you may not have yet learned very much in any of these categories, don’t be afraid to see what each one entails. Taking a good look at your interests will allow you to focus on the right direction to take.Many resources are also available for those who are unsure as to the topic they are wanting to use to create their science projects. If you take a look at the topics that fall under the biology category, you will likely notice that there are topics that deal with plants, animals, and humans. For those who are in 2nd grade or 3rd grade, an interesting topic may be to determine if ants are picky over what type of food they eat. While this topic might not be of interest to an 8th grader, it is certainly something in the biology category that an elementary school student would enjoy.Along with the biology category, a high school student may want to take a look at diffusion and osmosis in animal cells as this would be a more appropriate topic for the grade level. A student in 6th grade would be more advanced than an elementary school student, but not as advanced as a high school student. At this middle school grade level, a topic of how pH levels effect the lifespan of a tadpole may be of interest.Whichever resource is used to locate a topic for science projects, it is always a good idea to consider the grade level of the student prior to making a selection. It is always assumed to be best to have a project at an appropriate level in order to keep the attention of the student and provide a fun and enjoyable learning experience.
International Banking and Offshore Finance for the Rest of Us
In a media storm of: “big bad corporations shelter billions in offshore tax havens”, one would think that you either have to be a “big bad corporation” or a “money-grubbing 1%’er with an overwhelming penchant for hiding money” in order to have an offshore bank account. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nearly anyone can and should utilize the services of an offshore bank.Why would you want to keep your money in an offshore account you say? One of many reasons could be concern for domestic bank stability, and unless you’ve been under a rock for the last several years, you are likely more than a little weary of domestic bank stability. And as of January 2013, the FDIC is rolling back coverage on individual accounts to a cap of $250,000. This is likely not an issue to most of us, but what’s the bigger picture here? What does this say about the solvency of the FDIC? How many near-simultaneous bank failures will it take to bankrupt the FDIC completely? What other policy changes are there that could; in the event of multiple bank failures, effect your hard-earned life savings?You’ve heard about diversifying your assets, between stocks, cash, and hard assets such as gold and silver, but what about diversifying your banks? I’m not talking about opening an account at your local Savings and Loan and an additional account down the street with Citibank, I’m talking about diversifying your banks in different countries. Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting you head out and convert half of your life’s savings to Icelandic Krona, you can keep your money in US Dollars, just don’t keep those US Dollars in a US Bank. Think about it, you wouldn’t keep your entire life’s saving in one company’s stock, or one mutual fund with one investment company would you? At least I hope you wouldn’t! (Bernie Madoff Investment Securities ring a bell?)Many international banks offer great lines of product with fantastic rates of return designed specifically to attract depositors with US dollars that just don’t exist domestically. Many of these programs are only available to account holders. Even if your credit rating has taken a beating in recent years, you may still be eligible for mortgage financing from your offshore bank when domestic banks won’t even look at you. Granted, the money may be pricey and may have steep equity requirements, but when no domestic lending institution will even give you the time of day… any financing is better than no financing.There are inherent risks with having your money in an offshore bank so take your time, do your homework. Just as you wouldn’t put your money in a domestic bank that appears unstable, or is on the FDIC list of troubled banks, you probably would be well served to stay away from banks like the First National Bank of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. No matter what fantastic rate they offer you! Find a good bank, in a good jurisdiction. Want to know why Swiss banks look so attractive to wealthy account holders? You would think from listening to the talking heads on the major network nightly news programs it would be hiding money… think about that one for a moment: Would you consider a place that has been demonized on the nightly news year-in and year-out; and that is known by absolutely everyone, a good hiding place for money? So what makes you think these wealthy account holders aren’t using the same logic? They didn’t become wealthy by making mistakes with their cash, that’s for sure. The number one reason for using a Swiss Bank is simple: they’re really good at banking. In fact, they’ve been doing it for longer than the US has been the US, and are rock-solid stable. In fact, when was the last time you heard of a Swiss bank failure, collapse or a call for a bailout of the Swiss banking system?And what about staying out of trouble with the IRS? Guidelines change all the time, so be sure to check, recheck and understand them thoroughly before sending your money to a foreign bank account. If you follow the guidelines, do your homework and report your offshore holdings, you can enjoy your offshore account hassle free for many years to come!
Banner or Pay-per-Click – Which On-Line Advertisement Suits Your Business?
Banners are perhaps the oldest and most common mode of advertisement in the Internet. In its simplest form – it acts like a billboard, spreading a promotional message and helping interested visitors to visit concerned web-site.Difference between a physical billboard and on-line banner advertisement lies in ability of the later to measure campaign effectiveness. Unlike traditional ad media like TV or print where measuring audience response is difficult – its possible to obtain clear and accurate measurements of success or failure of on-line ads through web traffic analysis.How good is banner advertisement for your business ? Should you adopt this known and trusted method or prefer new ones like search engine based Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising ? The answer lies in your requirement and an understanding of what banner advertisement can deliver.Let us discuss various concepts associated with on-line advertisement and analyze how banner advertisement works.Banner or Pay-per-Click – What Kind of On-Line Advertisement Suits my Business ? An Organization usually creates online advertising campaign for achieving following goals:
Building brand awareness
Increasing website traffic
Creating leads and sales
You need to analyze your precise requirements and prioritize the objectives of planned ad campaign. If the objective is brand building or pure promotion – banner advertisement is ideally suited. However, if you are more keen on leads and sales – targeted advertisements such as search engine marketing could be better option. In many cases – a mix of banner ad and search engine marketing could be the answer.Key Concepts Associated with On-Line Advertisement Before proceeding any further, it is important to understand a few key concepts associated with on-line advertisements in general and banner advertisement in particular.Impression Impression is a measure of how many times an ad has been viewed. How many people have viewed a banner ad or received an “impression” by seeing the ad – is a measurement of responses from the ad delivery system. Once a visitor has viewed a banner on a web page – an impression is recorded. Banner views are different from page views in the sense that there may be multiple banner views within one page view. There is another distinction between page view and banner view – some banner serving software do not count a banner view unless the visitor stays on the page long enough for the banner to be fully downloaded from ad server.CPM CPM refers to cost per thousand (M here stands for ‘Mille’ – the Roman numeral used to represent 1000). CPM is commonly used by the advertising industry to describe how many people have viewed the banner ad (ad view) or received an “impression” by seeing the ad. In other words, this is the price an advertiser pays for displaying his/her banner 1,000 times. For example, an advertising rate of $10 CPM, means the advertiser is paying $10 for every 1,000 impressions, or $0.01 for each banner impression.CTR or Click-Through When a visitor gets interested in promotional message of a banner, he/she clicks on it to learn more and is automatically transported to advertiser website. Every time someone clicks on the banner, it is called a “click- through,” and the “click-through rate” is expressed in terms of percentage of users who click on an advertisement (i.e. ratio of ad clicks to ad impressions). In other words, click through ratio is an indication of effectiveness of the a banner.How Advertiser Pays for Banner Advertisement Universally, there are two modes of payment for banner ad -
CPM
Click-Through
In some countries like India – there is a third mode of payment based on duration of time a banner is hosted on a web-site. Typically, special server-based software called ‘ad-server’ rotates banner ads in specified places of a web-site. It also keep track of impressions, click-thorough and other vital statistics. In CPM mode of payment – advertiser pays for number of impressions based on an agreed CPM. For example, if a site charges US$ 9 per CPM – for $450 the advertiser gets $450 / $9 CPM * 1000 = 50,000 impressions If percentage of click thorough is 2 – 4%, advertiser may expect ~ 1000 – 2000 new customers visiting his/her web-site. This is apart from brand building based on number of impressions. In Click-Through mode – Advertisers pays a fixed fee for every click, no matter what is the number of impressions. In time-based banner advertisements (typical in India), advertiser pays a fixed fee based on monthly or quarterly rate, irrespective of the number of impression or click-thorough.Types of Banners Advertisements Traditional banner ads were static in nature – usually a .gif or .jpeg image file. With technology advancing – new modes of banner ads appeared in ad scene. Following are some of the popular modes of dynamic banner ads
Expanding – Banner gets bigger on clicking – often have a button labeled “Expand”. Rather than jumping to another website – these banners simply open up and reveal more information
Animated – Common mode of banner ad these days. However, too many images/messages may render such banners hopelessly large in size, slow and downright irritating. Exercise caution on banner design
Drop-Down Menu – These have embedded HTML and allow the user to choose options from a drop-down menu. This mode of banner is ideal for co-op advertising where several businesses can advertise together
Interstitial – These appear in a separate window as the website loads. These ads often contain large graphics, animation, and streaming presentations.
Java, Flash, and Shockwave – These allow for rich media presentation including video and audio. Common browser toolbars such as Alexa, Google etc. suppress this type of banners
Floating Ads and DHTML – These banners float over the content a website and generally perceived as intrusive, although they do get a high click-through rate.
Unicast – These are just like little TV ads that run in a separate window.
Checklist for Banner Designers Here’s a few things to keep in mind while creating banner ad
Keep it Simple: Stay simple. Don’t get too complicated with heavy text and confusing colors.
Make it smaller in size: preferably under 12K. This way – the banner will be quick to load.
Make it Easy-to-read
Always use ALT tags for text display on those surfing without images
Verify that the banner clicks-through to the appropriate page on your website
Limit your use of animation
Include a call to action (e.g. Order Now, Visit Web-Site etc.)
Test your banners in different browsers at different screen resolutions.
Get your web designer to make your banner ads for you in a variety of standard sizes if you are not experienced in advertising.
Conclusion Lack of targeting and visitor apathy are two major drawbacks of banner ad campaigns. Because of large scale use or misuse – visitors today treat banners as necessary evil and pay little attention. Click through rate of banner ads are much lower compared to other forms of on-line advertisement such as targeted search engine marketing. However, banner ads are more effective in brand building and work very well when the creative is attractive and ad delivery systems can do some targeting.