Expert Advice – The Number 1 Guide To Get Up To 400% Higher Conversions With Video Squeeze Pages
There is a lot of clamor and talk about video squeeze pages these days. The million dollar question you and several others have is- do they work? Yes they do.
Ever since video technology touched the masses and became inexpensive, video began replacing text. So it is natural that we Internet marketers and advertisers use it to improve our sales. Squeeze Page With Video was there lingering waiting for us to tap its enormous potential. By reducing the amount of text on the page to place the video, marketers have almost tripled the odds of converting a prospect to customer.
With a professionally designed video, you can connect with the visitor and your communication scales to all new highs. Also with a video, several of the ideas and imaginations of yours can take shape while they were earlier restricted by text. Video will help you showcase your creativity and your uniqueness.
For your video to have its intended effect there are a few things that you should know about video marketing:
1. It is all about trust. You can win the trust of your visitor by empathizing with him. Narrate your problem like a story and give all the reasons why you think you want to help the visitor. Then conclude with how the product helps. If you do this, you have won his heart.
2. To win his mind, make sure that the audio and video quality is good. The sound should be clear and the video should have smooth transitions. That apart, you have to ensure that you don’t bore the visitor with a long one or end without communicating completely.
Your video player should be aesthetically designed. Many of the templates on the Internet have designs that a visitor can never like.
Making a video and squeeze page are two specialized techniques. Hence outsource your work to a designer with ample experience, who can understand your needs so that you can concentrate on your product and its betterment.
About the Author
Don’t settle on a replicated or overused squeeze page template. For the most professional and affordable custom video squeeze page design services that will brand you as an authority in the already over crowded marketplace online, visit, video squeeze pages.
Venkata Ramana runs a professional internet marketing outsourcing company for 5 years. His company has delivered over 600 custom tailored video squeeze pages to over 300 top internet marketing clients!
Discover the Video Squeeze pages are personalized marketing tool # 1 in all slots
Internet service providers have had their time a-ha, squeeze pages have been found during work wonders on improving the list. But this is not sustainable. While many suppliers continue to use and for conversions to the greater good, would agree that there is a bathroom. This sauce is because of spam that leads to loss of faith in Internet marketing. With the Internet becoming increasingly easy to use, spammers have begun to seriously reduce the majority of online businesses.
Most sellers who disapprove of such technologies already known to be rarely develops. With the compression of pages although popular, losing its charm, it's time you got something new. Video compression is in the response pages. Video compression pages used by all serious traders and this in itself can help your visitors whether you are a willing seller or not. As you can associate websites cheap less experienced in marketing, the video quality may also speak of marketing aliases.
When preparing a video to your page, you must work with the intention of gaining the confidence to look different, but natural. It is a balance delicate and can often leave bad if you're not familiar with making video and web design.
A good movie has a story that explains your problem and why he decided to work on a solution. It then describes the product and ends with the benefits that can help the viewer. The idea is to transmit the spectator who understands your problem better than anyone.
It is not always easy to do all this, if you have not done before. From experience I can tell you that once attracted the attention of his work remains short attention spans. And this applies to both good and bad. Your list is your source future income. So you have to do everything necessary to build a major soon.
About the Author
Overused and unproductive squeeze page templates are a thing of the past. Use the most professional and affordable custom video squeeze page design services that will brand you as an authority in the already over crowded marketplace online.
With over 5 years, 600custom tailored video squeeze pages creations, Venkata Ramana’s Internet marketing outsourcing company serves more than 300 top Internet marketing businesses.
Giveaways – Three Ways to Use Them Successfully in Online Marketing
I rarely have a week during which I don’t get a series of emails announcing giveaways and trying to convince me to sign up and enjoy the “goodies” supplied by some known, but often by less-known marketers.
At times, there will be two or three giveaway events taking place, especially around Christmas, or Easter, or Father’s Day or Halloween. Very often, an organizer uses his or her own private event to find a theme for the giveaway or to justify it somehow. When that happens, we have a “moving-out giveaway, a “getting-married giveaway”, or a “my-daughter-is-six giveaway” (I’m not kidding; I remember at least two events with that idea).
Actually, any pretext to hold a giveaway is good as long as the organizer puts some effort into creating a convincing letter of invitation. But the truth is, nobody cares much, as there are always hordes of people who simply think – “all right, all right, just give me the stuff…” Those are the opportunity seekers; they always will exist, because who doesn’t like bargains? And each giveaway event is a great chance to get for free stuff that is normally being sold for significant amounts of money – usually $17 – $47, but sometimes even higher-priced jewels are available (especially around Christmas/New Year).
Although those giveaways often feature offers by marketers who provide their products (usually called “gifts”) in every event, there is always a chance that something new and interesting will appear and you’ll be able to get for free a nice piece of software or a valuable e-book that otherwise would cost you a couple dozens of dollars.
You can participate in those giveaway events in three basic ways: 1/ as an organizer, 2/ as a product supplier (contributor) and 3/ as a taker.
Let’s start with the third option. It’s very easy to sign up for a giveaway in order to be able to receive the gifts. You should join every event that attracts your attention, especially if the gifts are in the niche or medium you’re very interested (e.g., blogging, podcasting, article marketing, video marketing, social marketing, etc.). It won’t cost you anything, except your time. Yes, that’s the catch (you knew there will be one…) – in order to get any gift you will have to sign up for the mailing list. Or at least two mailing lists – first you’ll give your email to the organizer(s) and then to every marketer whose gift you’d like to get.
Many people unsubscribe as soon as they download the gifts. It’s always useful to make a special folder for the downloaded giveaway goodies. Another good idea is to unzip the downloads inside that folder. And give that folder a meaningful name so that you know when to find those treasures later. Very often, when the giveaway has many excellent products, downloading takes a couple hours (that includes time for confirming registrations – without that you won’t get the gifts). Having the downloaded gifts in one convenient place will allow you to go back later when you have time to unzip the products, to see if they work and if they have any value at all.
You can use the downloaded giveaway items in a number of ways. In general, it depends what rights are coming with them, but in most cases you can use them on your web site, blog, in an e-book you’re working on, or if it’s software – to improve your business or private productivity. Very often, you’ll be able to re-brand them and sell them as your own. You may also be able to give them away in another giveaway event. You can use them as bonuses to entice people to purchase your own products or you can just give them away at your web site or blog and build a mailing list in that way.
With that, we just touched the reasons 1/ and 2/ for participating in the giveaways. They are so popular because with very little expense (almost zero), you can quickly build a big mailing list. Simply create your own giveaway event or become a JV-partner. Being an organizer requires a bit more effort and it’s a subject for another article, but being a JV partner is easy. All you have to do is to create a product or use a one you have the rights to and build a simple Squeeze Page to present your gift and capture the emails and just contact the giveaway organizer. In most cases, if your product is valuable, and your squeeze page looks professional (it doesn’t mean it has to be fancy or flashy; very simple, but working one will do), you will be accepted.
Once you join any giveaway and see how easy and useful it is, it will be hard for you to refuse to participate in another, and another one. Especially if they are run by the popular marketers as they always try to feature at least few gems.
About the Author
Mary Cala is the Author and Leading Expert on SEO blog software and securing free traffic. She writes for a number of blogs, including Join Jeff Johnson Underground Training Lab blog where she recommends Jeff’s Free SEO Blog Software, his Traffic-Getting Jumpstart(TM) Master Plan, and his highly popular Underground Training Lab Private Coaching Club.
Free Wordpress Squeeze Page Theme
Top 20 Blogging Articles Free eBook @ ThesisThemeHQ.com
Why Your Adwords Ad is not on the First Page of Results
Your Adwords Ad fell off the first page of results for one reason. The quality score was poor. You may have heard other factors caused it, but the quality score is the reason.
The initial quality score is determine by the revelance of your ad and Landing Page to your keyword. If you optimize both your ad and your landing page for the specific keyword, you should have a good initial quality score.
You optimize your ad by using the keyword in the ad. Put your keyword in the headline and/or the description. It’s also a good idea to have the keyword in the url of your landing page, which puts it in the destination url. In addition, you can put the keyword somewhere in your display url, since it won’t affect the destination url.
You optimize your landing page by applying the same techniques as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) would have you do.
* use the keyword in the page name or path path. * use the keyword in the page title. * use the keyword and related keywords in the keyword meta tag. * use the keyword in the description meta tag. * use the keyword inside “h1″ html tags on the page. * use the keyword throughout the content of your page.
The quality score is also affected by the ads CTR. As your ad gains impressions and clicks, Adwords computes your click through rate (CTR). Adwords draws conclusions about your ads relevancy from the CTR. Google assumes that if your CTR is high, above 0.5%, then your ad is relevant and your quality score goes up. Conersely, if your CTR is below 0.5% Adwords assumes it is not relevant and lowers your quality score.
An inactive ad has either an initial quality score that was poor that made it all but impossible to get a CTR and it went inactive. Or, the CTR for a good initial quality score is below 0.5% and it damaged the quality score to a point that the ad went inactive.
You have 3 options to fix the problem.
1) Delete the keyword. This is often a good solution because the poor quality of the keyword stops becoming a drag on the quality score of your entire campaign. Campaigns have a quality score based on all the keywords, so a poor keyword can damage the quality of other keywords.
2) Improve the quality score. This generally means improving the CTR by rewritting the ad sales copy to more persuasive. The more appealing the ad is to consumers, then more clicks you will get.
3) Increase your maximum CPC bid.
About the Author
Are you over paying for your Adwords campaigns? Have you experienced any of the following problems using Google Adwords?
There is a solution to all of these problems. Slash your Adwords costs in half and get more traffic with the free Adwords Strategy Guide. Get your copy now.
Poor Landing Page Quality Score
Optimizing Adwords campaigns using the score 'Keyword Quality
If you are a PPP (point-per-click) the practitioner announcement, creating new advertising campaigns using Google Adwords tool is easy. Just upload your keywords ad using the Adwords Editor and creating ad text on that basis. After reviewing the ads and setting bids, your campaign PPC advertising is ready to launch. Each keyword you automatically get a level of quality that affect the cost of your PPC advertising campaign thereafter.
Quality Score for ad relevance
Adwords Quality Score 'keywords measures the relevance of PPC ad for search queries that users do online. For example, a user searches for "ppc" as the keyword will be given a list of results search websites CSF. When the user clicks on one of those Google ads on the page is on the PPC or similar keywords. Page ads to encourage users who are interested in the topic, first click them to learn more about similar topics. When users see ads PPC page, or click on them, advertising was a success, and the keyword used for classified ads accordingly.
Quality Users of keywords is an important value in the Google advertising system, which benefit, advertisers and website publishers alike. Without the level of quality, relevant ads are not monitored, and the ads that show are not compatible with the needs of users, resulting in failure in advertising.
Quality Score Calculation
Whenever there is a keyword matches a query Ad research, the level of quality for the key word is calculated, because this means the word can mean a notice. the quality level is calculated using CTR CTR is the number of clicks the ad receives compared with number of times the ad was shown (or what is known as "print"). targeted keywords are more general CTR keywords and a well prepared PPC campaign. A high CTR leads to a high quality.
A keyword is the initial level of quality is derived from the way he performs to other advertisers in the past. Adwords is a monitoring system in place that assesses the performance of each keyword in the PPC ads before. A base score is then derived and the score is the key word in initial quality for new PPC ads. What happens then either decrease or increase the level of quality.
Quality construction for PPC campaigns
From a high level of quality means that the keyword is effectively to advertisers in the past, Google focuses on the cost of such keyword advertising. Knowing that a group of keywords your new PPC campaign have low levels of quality that will tell you whether or not the overhaul of the campaign. A low level of quality advertisers spent did not well with the keywords, but high quality also means that many advertisers are creating their own PPC campaigns to these keywords, providing strong competition.
Deciding to improve the quality of a keyword, optimization Account AdWords campaign, the creation of descriptive ads and ad groups, and in order by keywords related to all groups. A strategy PPC campaign to maximize its level of quality is also supported by the analysis tool can suggest the Word key pages ad optimization landing copies of advertisements and other activities to improve performance.
About the Author
Debbie Everson is the CEO of SearchMar.com, the leading provider of search engine optimization & online marketing solutions to over 200 small businesses. Debbie brings over 15 years of experience leading SEO and direct marketing programs for some of the most respected brands in technology, retail and healthcare. Read my SEO Blog. Follow me on Twitter. Call 866-885-6263 for a free consultation.
Tear it to Bits, Page by Page Review of Affiliate Secret Formula
Did you know over 7,000 people became millionaires last year on the internet and around 300,000 started to make a full time income just from affiliate marketing – according to Forester Research Group. So you know it’s possible …the question is not “is it possible” …the question is really “how is it possible?” I know time is valuable to you so I’ll keep this short.
I’m not going to tell you that I have found a ‘magic’ bullet that when used, starts to pour in cash from the Internet. That will be just an insult to your intelligence. However what I will reveal is the guts of a system I discovered not so long ago that has really changed my life for the better. I’ll let you make up your own mind as to whether this is something that you would like to capitalize on.
So here you have it…the ‘tear it to bits, page by
page’ review for Affiliate Secret Formula.
Affiliate Secret Formula is made up of 6 major parts. Before I go any further, I must warn you that this system is NOT a step-by-step guide on how to use Google AdWord, ClickBank and PayDotCom. You don’t need an ebook for that, as there is enough quality information within those sites to help you with that. Instead Affiliate Secret Formula divulges on the ACTUAL techniques of how to use Google AdWords to make consistent profits by promoting sites at ClickBank and PayDotCom.
Breakdown of Part 1:
Mohammed, the creator of Affiliate Secret Formula does not waste any time and plunges straight into the important basics of affiliate marketing. He briefly explains what affiliate marketing is and why out hundreds of affiliates programs out there, he prefers to sell products listed via ClickBank and PayDotCom. Next he compares ClickBank and PayDotCom and basics of Google AdWords. That’s it for this chapter. I’ve seen many other affiliate ebooks that spend 70% of their content on such basics when it is clearly not needed.
Breakdown of Part 2:
Yes, you guessed right! Part 2 goes straight into the MEAT of the ebook. Affiliate Secret Formula is a 3-step process designed to extract profits from affiliate sites.
STEP 1: Finding High Converting Sites
I guess we all have our own ways of judging a sites potential but Mohammed has got this ‘Art’ pinned down into a science! No kidding! He actually gives you 8 criteria to help judge any site for its profitability. The whole system runs on a point system so each criteria is allocated a certain number of points. Only sites that pass the minimum threshold are to be promoted. You’d be surprised how many affiliates are wasting time on low-converting sites. If only they knew! I’ve read books in the past that cover site selections but never has any one laid out the rules so precisely. I believe this information alone is priceless!
STEP 2: Finding Profitable Keywords
Again, a very specific formula is given to help you find cheap keywords. This step helps you think differently to other affiliates and quickly gather cheap keywords that most simply overlook. Sticking to the formula helps you make 100% profit all the time. If only I had this info when I started out!
STEP 3: Creating Ads that Sell
I almost stabbed myself after reading this step. All this time I had been making ads the complete wrong way. Mohammed reveals two exact styles to use and gives several examples for you to model. I guarantee that 97% of affiliates have the wrong idea about how to write AdWords that generate clicks and sell as writing successful AdWords ads is NOTHING like writing conventional ads. Yes, this was surprising to me too!
That’s it…this is the main core of the ebook. It contains No fillers or vague B.S. It simply goes right into the juicy bits and tells you exactly how to do it without any fluff. I love it!
Breakdown of Part 3:
Part 3 is more of a profit management tool that helps you put a new campaign everyday and shows you exactly how it all adds up into $1,470.00 in income every week, in just 7 days. And this is with a modest target of making $30 per day. If you double that daily target, you’ll also double your profits. He uses a grid to help you set your target and visualize your income level. This remarkable section just gets you so fired up…it is a massive motivating tool.
Breakdown of Part 4:
So you know exactly how to make massive amounts of money from affiliate marketing and you get the ball rolling. A few weeks go by and you’re pulling in the dough – now what? You can fine-tune your ads and site selection process even further. Mohammed provides you with two separate ebooks to help further your knowledge about effective advertising and the site selection process. These are definitely for advanced marketers who would like to squeeze every bit of profit from affiliate marketing.
Breakdown of Part 5:
In this section Mohammed actually creates a campaign for his own site that you could easily model for any site you wish to promote. This section is vital for those who like to learn by looking at examples as he creates a number of successful ads using the formula in Affiliate Secret Formula. You can see first hand the formula being applied – it’s a great resource!
Breakdown of Part 6:
If you called up any top affiliate guru and asked him/her to list their most profitable affiliate sites…guess what their answer would be? “What have you been smoking, man?” But daring Mohammed (Or should I call him crazy?) lays it all on the line. He gives you a list of the top most profitable and highest converting sites at ClickBank WITH conversion rates! This is a massive list with 57 hand picked sites that makes him cash everyday. Need I say more…you simply cannot beat information like this!
So there you have it…the ‘tear it to bits, page by page review’ of Affiliate Secret Formula. Back to your burning question:
“Does it deliver?”
In one word YES! It delivers massively – no doubt about it. If you are motivated to take control of your financial life and have the drive to do something about it…then go grab this golden opportunity right now. Remember regardless of what you do, 7,000 people will again become millionaires on the Internet and another 300,000 financially free from affiliate marketing next year. It’s up to you whether you’d like to continue paddling along your current lifestyle or take TRUE financial control of your life and be part of the success group. Your financial future really is in your hands.
By the way — do you also want to meet a few of the people who are ALREADY using Affiliate Secret Formula…
Go Visit Affiliate Secret Formula Website by Clicking Here!
https://paydotcom.com/r/7197/cogtcforever/475204/
All the best
Evan Hunter
About the Author
Free Squeeze Page Creator
Online Marketing Essentials – the Customer Funnel
This is the fourth in a series of five articles taking you through the basic steps you need to complete to successfully market anything on the internet. This article looks at how to funnel your customer leads to the point of sale where they can actually buy the product. For affiliate marketing, where the point of sale is not your own website, this is especially critical.
There’s basically four methods
1. Direct to vendors sales page web site
2. Direct to the purchase page
3. Via your own squeeze page
4. Via your own website
Lets look at these in more detail
1. If you send the customer directly from your ads to the customer sales page you have no need for your own website. This means no hosting fees and no web skills required, hopefully the vendor sales page will do the selling and result in sales.
This is good if you have no web skills at all or want to get started quickly. Although most web hosting companies now offer ‘no skills needed’ template built web sites.
On the downside you have no opportunity to capture the customer or offer the customer any additional products. There are also issues in that your links to the product will clearly be seen as ‘affiliate links’ by those in the know. There are ways of ‘masking’ your affiliate link but none are very good unless you have your own website.
One quick option you do have is to simply buy a domain name. You can then set ‘forwarding and masking’ on your new domain name so that you can use that in place of your affiliate link to get to the vendor sales page. If you want to get up and running swiftly then this is a good option in the short term.
2. Sending traffic directly to the purchase page is pointless if the customer has not already been given the guided tour of the product and set up ready to buy. For new starters this not a realistic option. The reason for sending directly to a vendors purchase page is to bypass his sales page if it is not converting customer leads. You will then have to convince the customer to buy the product yourself and you will have to have done this either on your own website or squeeze page. (See 3&4). This is an advanced marketing technique but not for a new starter.
3. Sending traffic to the vendor via your own squeeze page is a good idea. What you effectively do here is pre-qualify your leads. The better qualified your lead the better chance of a successful sale. If your squeeze page is very good you may bypass the vendor sales page altogether and go straight to purchase point. Worth offering the option on your page! You will also use your own domain name to get to your squeeze page and not your affiliate id URL.
On the down side you need to host your squeeze page in the same way as a web site. You also need to ensure that your page enhances your sales and not reduces them by using a continuous improvement process.
4. Sending traffic via your own website is a great idea. You have the opportunity to mask your affiliate ID and you can capture customer details for ‘back end sales’. Long term this, or a squeeze page, must be your options. Also you can sell your own products from a website if you have them and offer content that will draw the customers back to view the website again, giving further opportunity to sell.
With a web site you can also start to create your own brand and have a domain name and corporate image to use in all communications. Long term this creates recognition and more customers confidence which results in more sales.
The downside is that you really need some skills in web site creation but there are plenty of tutorials and new applications that make it very very easy – honest!
Domain Name and Hosting
You will need a domain name and a hosting account if your going to put up a website or Squeeze Pages. You really can’t beat VodaHost at this game. They have the simplest and cheapest way to get a professional website up and running. They give away their BlueVoda (check out the video) web site creator which is absolutely the easiest one on the planet and it is not limited in functionality either. You simply buy the hosting and everything else, including your domain name and unlimited web space and bandwidth, is free so it is likely to be cheaper than other hosting companies who end up charging you for all the separate bits which can often come to quite a large monthly sum. Another big plus is that everything is integrated and I do not think any other hosting has this. i.e. you create your website in BlueVoda and you can upload it with a single click. No need for third party FTP or slow web based file managers.
About the Author
Tony Marriott has worked for over 33 years at the top of the UK IT industry. He now lives in Greece and is the founder of The Online Income Club. Additional detailed information, the BlueVoda video and free download can all be found at http://www.TheOnlineIncomeClub.com
Internet Marketing – List Building And Opt-in Pages
The one major mistake many affiliates make is not setting up a list. Affiliates will often send traffic that they have generated to affiliate links, rather than a list. When they do this, they are unknowingly making a bet that the visitor will buy on first contact.
Unfortunately, this is generally not the case. Visitors often need to be warmed up to a product through the course of multiple visits and additional information before they are willing to purchase from a person or a business. This is where building a list comes into play.
By building a list, affiliates can fix this problem. Additionally, they can retain traffic, warm it up, and then direct it to different products in the future. This means it is not a one shot deal. Instead, they can attempt to sell the same person multiple products over the course of time.
Now, in order to do this successfully, the affiliate in question must purchase the necessary tools in the form of an auto responder service. The most popular is Aweber.
Aweber is relatively inexpensive and comes with a formidable range of services, including spam checkers. Best of all, it is white listed by many email clients and boasts a delivery rate of 99%. This service will not only manage your list, but it will also help you build it. It includes free tools that allow you to create web forms, pop-ups, and hover-ins, all of which can be used to increase your opt-in rate.
In addition to purchasing the auto responder service, you will need to setup your own site if you do not already own one. If you already own a related site, you can simply add your opt-in form to a page on your existing site. If not purchase a cheap domain and hosting service using this to host your list forms.
Once you have your site and your auto responder setup, there are only two steps left. The first is building a course of some sort that is related to the affiliate products you want to sell and the second is creating an opt-in form that converts.
The first part is relatively easy. Start by determining your topic and then outline it over the course of five to seven days. Remember that everything should be written as if you are talking to a person, rather than as if you were writing a formal article.
If you do not feel comfortable writing these articles yourself, you can always hire a ghostwriter at elance for a small fee depending on the size.
Once you have created your auto responder series, you will want to feed it into your auto responder, setup advertisements in the text for the affiliate product you are planning to sell, and then create an opt-in form for your list.
The last part is setting up an opt-in form which is very important. Strangely, this is something marketers often neglect. They spend the time creating a good course, weave in affiliate links so they do not look too obvious, set the send off dates on all of the emails and then fail to create an opt-in page that will convert.
How do you make the opt-in page convert?
First of all, keep in mind that the sole purpose of an opt-in page is simply to collect opt-ins. Do not splatter that page with Google Adsense advertisements and do not include a navigational menu that visitors can use to browse your site. All of these things are bad because they detract from your primary purpose which is to get visitors to opt-in to your list.
The opt-in page sometimes referred to as the lead Capture Page or Squeeze Page should include the following:-
1. A Professional Graphic Header
Do not economise on the graphics. Do not make blurry headers using horrible templates. If you do not have these skills spend a few dollars and get it designed professionally. It will be worth it in the long run.
2. A Strong Headline
Before you tell someone to opt-in to your list, you have to reach out and grab their attention with a large font and red headline. Make your headline clear and compelling. Do not use complex sentence constructions and do not fill it with fluff, but do make strong, quantifiable claims.
3. Compact and Compelling Text
Make sure this is no longer than two paragraphs. All you are doing is telling them why it is a really good reason to opt-in to the list. Tell them it is free to opt-in and consider giving them something like a free course or report for opting in. You must absolutely blow them away in those two paragraphs, but do no more.
4. A Call to Action
This is where you tell readers to stop kicking the tyres and opt-in. Explain how their future could depend on it.
5. A No Spam Clause
Simply tell them in a few words that you will not spam them and you will not sell their information. This is very important and will make them far more likely to opt-in.
Once you have setup your opt-in form, the only remaining step is to drive various traffic sources to your opt-in list, collect their email addresses and then wait for the commissions to roll in.
Mark Johnson – Internet Business Coach, Mentor and Wealth Guru
From Publishers Weekly
Psychotherapist Gray (What You Feel You Can Heal) adds to the growing number of self-help books that assess marital and relationship problems in terms of distinct and pervasive gender differences. Unfortunately, his overuse of gimmicky, often silly analogies and metaphors makes his otherwise down-to-earth guide hard to take seriously. Here Martians (men) play Mr. Fix-It whil…
Father Tim Kavanagh and his wife, Cynthia, return from Whitecap Island to “the little town with the big heart” in Jan Karon’s seventh novel in the bestselling Mitford series, In This Mountain. Retirement holds challenges Father Tim hasn’t anticipated, and even as Cynthia’s career as a children’s book author and illustrator brings her new accolades, he finds himself dogged by health troubles a…
Opt in Page
Top 5 Tips for Opt-In Page
If you have a business online, your application is not on the page can be your greatest asset market on the Internet. In fact, if you put it together well and market it correctly, your application is not on the page may be the only way to generate prospects. Here are five tips you can use to make make the most of your opt-in page and as effective as possible.
Tip # 1: Give the Force
Note that Internet users have the attention span and are close any page in a few seconds if they do not seem so interesting. For this reason, the owner must be strong enough to attract the attention of visitors and the strength to go through the rest its contents.
Tip # 2: Upload a video
The online videos have become very popular mainly because that Internet users are more attractive to learn by watching rather than reading alone. You can create a video demonstration of their products and services to demonstrate exactly how their offerings can benefit your customers. Place this video above how often your visitors are invited to see immediately.
Tip # 3: Present your content in the form of points
Even if you have all the characteristics their offerings and services in the video, you still need to state all this information in the text. Present your content in chips and lists. This area will an overview of the features and benefits that will strengthen the important information in the minds of its visitors.
Tip # 4: Including Testimonials
If you do not have proof of publication, may be a good idea for you to send free kits to people influential in place to obtain feedback. If you have already received a number of testimonies Try to choose those who support all presented by points. When your publication, quotes and the name of the examiner. Also, try to include a business owner Short Profile (by example, work at home mother, etc.) that allow users to identify with their opinions to help them understand why their bids may also benefit.
Tip # 5: Keep your single subscription
Try to keep your registration form as simple as possible. If possible, do not ask your visitor's name and e-mail. Also, by linking your subscription form to auto-response so that those who enroll on its website opt-in will automatically receive a welcome email.
These simple tips have proven very useful to build an effective opt-in page. Use your own experience and how quickly and easily, you can generate leads for your online business.
About the Author
In business since 1991, owner, Terry L. Green is a Certified Master Virtual Assistant with more than 30 years of combined administrative support experience in both the corporate world and as the owner of a successful Virtual Assistance practice. Originally an office-based secretarial and resume business serving local clients only in a small, rural village in Central Ohio, Fastype is now a multi-VA practice with a team of qualified associates specializing in supporting professional speakers, consultants, info-marketers and coaches worldwide. Our clients span the globe from across the United States to as far away as New Zealand, Antigua, Singapore and now Sweden! For more information, visit Terry’s website at http://www.myfastype.com Subscribe to Speak Up and Make Money and receive 13 speaking tips from the “Best of the Best!”
I can do to My Yahoo! My home page without logging in?
Myway I use my email and my home page. I've never had to go inside to see the contents of my homepage has always been there. From my homepage you can choose to sign and read my mail. I LOVE to Yahoo! My Home and we designed to my taste, but I came to see my content. Is it possible that I can see my content when I open my browser without logging in? It should be possible (in Yahoo especially) if Myway can do it! Please help
Yes you can, but you need a program has access as software Input Notron So when you open your browser connects everything.
anyone know how to design a Squeeze Page through dreamweaver?
Hi
I am trying to design a squeeze page through dreamweaver but am finding it difficult to create a template – I already have the graphics – I have a boarder image which runs on the side of the page body and meets the header and footer. The problem that im having is that I can not get them to meet – it always keeps a small gap between the boarder image and the footer/header image. I tried to do it by using tables.
Any help would be very helpful
Yes I would certainly say that doing it through the tables is the easiest way. im not sure if this is the best way.
The way that I would do it is by adding a table with 3 rows and 3 columns. top for header – middle for body and bottom for footer.
The other 2 would be for the boarder images – Resize the table to your requirments and then merge the side cells so they flush with the header and footer. Kind of like designing a skeleton.
Add the images and you should be good to go
Squeeze Page Header
"How to Format and optimize your website brand
While your squeeze page is critical to generate leads, is also important to configure and optimize your website brand. What exactly should you put on their brand site? What format should use? Here is Advice from a guru of Internet marketing.
Format Branding Website: The general format and presentation of your website should mark be similar to the shape and design of your sales letter. This means that the header, footer and side lines in your sales letter must be used on its website and brand. The header, footer and side lines are a great way to attach the text. This design gives a clean appearance that is easy on the eyes and loads quickly.
The most important feature on its website the mark is an opt-in box. This is so critical that bears repeating. Most of the main brand site is an opt-in box. The Opt-In Box allows site visitors to join your mailing list. The opt-in to be included on the far left side of the site of the brand. This is the area in which the eyes tend to go for the first times when people come through its website, the brand. Having a visible Opt-In table provides an easy opportunity to subscribe to your list.
Your site the mark should also include information on products and services you offer. For example, coaching, speaking, promotion and product information must be presented. This allows the website visitor to become familiar with you and your products / services.
Make sure you also provide two resources Free. Free resources to demonstrate to visitors who are not just for the money, but they offer something free in the beginning of the relationship. Resources Free can be whatever you choose. Common examples include free articles, e-zines, and audios.
Remember to have an "About You "on its website the mark. Indicate your background, powers, and even a photo. You may want to mark his face with their products. Show a photo helps visitors feel more comfortable with their products and services. They see the "face" behind the Internet business.
Also include testimonials and press releases on its website the mark. Potential customers want to see their way through the testimony. They also want know what your internet business has been whether the press releases.
Make sure to provide contact information. Encourage visitors to site contact you if questions or concerns. This way, you're promoting an open comfort.
Branding Optimization Website: Many employers want to know how to optimize your site for the brand on the Internet. Simple, you optimize the same way to optimize your squeeze page. Remember, the goal is to have your squeeze page rank # 1 in search engines, while its brand site is number 2. The main thing is that visitors search engines see your name in the places where the first results of search engines. This will help promote its image as an authority on this specific question.
About the Author
Matt Bacak began investing his first earnings at the tender age of 12, a young businessman in the making. Now, 15 years later, Bacak survived failed businesses, botched partnerships, heavy credit card debt and bankruptcy – all in preparation for the accomplishments he has achieved today as a well-established Internet millionaire and best-selling author.
It’s like this: For a good many years, my head has been a pot for a sort of intellectual stew, the ingredients of which have managed to retain their separate identities, even if they’ve become a little soggy over time. A splash of good wine has surely enhanced the flavour: (In vino veritas, no doubt). And many a good argument has provided the spice, adding nuance to the creation. I say creation, but, in fact, none of these ingredients is novel: One or two of these old roots have been around since antiquity. What interests me, however, is their interrelationship, the alluring possibility that they may, so to speak, enhance each other. Their integration into something bigger, a worldview if you like, is the thesis of this polemical exercise. Five of the larger entities in this stew, which I intend to slice apart, are:
Analogy as a spurious source of knowledge.
The non-survivalist notion that we have no identity or existence after death.
Atheism
The idea and ideal of a moneyless, stateless, propertyless world in which each has free access to the products of humanity, and contributes according to his or her ability and inclination.
These, I would contend, contribute to a fifth ingredient, namely:
An ethic which enjoins one to better the lives of others.
But before I begin to ladle this out, there is something I feel which needs to be said: Man, I believe, is doomed to be a philosopher. No one bar those devoid of abstract thought can escape this fate. Beneath all the internalised trivia, beneath the layers of received knowledge that crowds one‘s mind, there lies a philosophical construction addressing the very nub of one’s existence, whether this is acknowledged or not, whether this construction is fashioned on the hard anvil of critical thought or represents merely a concatenation of conventional responses to the big questions of life. In other words, everyone has a worldview. In presenting my own, I am merely laying bare a philosophical construction that seems to make sense to me. To be honest, I am not unquestionably certain about it: It tilts in places and contains many a threadbare rivet. But it coheres sufficiently to satisfy my own need to understand the world around me.
So here’s a taste of that intellectual stew: I have no idea at all why we are here on this earth, or, indeed why earth should be here in the first place. Any suggestion that our existence and that of the universe serve some purpose begs more than a few questions. What I think draws people into this sort of thinking is a deep-seated, almost reflexive, propensity for analogical thinking in which one phenomenon is explained by comparing it and drawing parallels with another. It seems to me that in our ordinary lives – when not engaged in philosophical discourse – we are sometimes implicitly informed by all manner of delusions, as well as truths, which we do not pause to consider, and which are extracted from the mud of our mundane existence, primarily, through the mechanism of analogy. Our ordinary world is the base from which we peregrinate on philosophical excursions. One might argue that this base itself occupies philosophical terrain. But the philosophical grounding of our everyday existence is necessarily implicit and ‘out of mind’: When we engage with the ordinary, we are rarely impelled towards philosophical reflection. Philosophy, in any case, competes with many other disciplines – psychology, biology, and economics, amongst others – in respect of our proclivity for abstraction. I am not suggesting that analogical thinking is without use: All I am suggesting is that if you scratch beneath many of the taken for granted notions that have taken up residence in our minds, you may well come across analogies that don’t stand up to scrutiny. Sometimes one is not even aware that an analogy is being drawn, let alone that an analogical fallacy is committed in assuming somehow that the comparison proves something to be the case rather than merely suggests – usually in a graphic or picturesque manner - how the phenomenon in question could be explained. Moreover, in some cases, the analogy is plainly flawed. Nothing exemplifies this better than certain arguments purporting to prove the existence of God. The Argument from Design, for example, has it that the order and beauty of the universe demonstrate that it must have been designed. Not only is the premise of this argument debatable – order and beauty are clearly not universally present and could be attributed rather to the eye of the beholder, but the conclusion is simply a non sequitur: It relies, of course, on an implicit analogy with, say, a craftsman creating a beautiful artefact – a microcosmic event which is thought somehow to serve as a parallel for a macrocosmic event, the creation of the universe. But,
(a) It simply does not follow that what holds good in the microcosmic situation – namely that the artefact has self-evidently been made by someone – holds good in the macrocosmic situation, where one is confronted with an infinite universe. At most, one might allow that an inference is being made. But this requires comparability between these situations, which is simply not the case: In the microcosmic situation, the craftsman is responsible for just a limited number of products in a world of innumerable objects, including other craftsmen. The putative God in the macroscopic situation is deemed to have created everything on his own.
(b) The analogy is thus flawed for that reason, but also because in the microcosmic situation, the craftsman produces the artefact from materials to hand, for example, wood. God, however, is believed by the religious apologist to create the universe ex nihilo, from nothing.
For these and other reasons – such as attributing certain manifestations of order instead to evolutionary forces – The Argument from Design is totally unconvincing. But it is important to observe that it is basically the unwarranted drawing of conclusions on the basis of an analogy, as well as the flawed nature of the analogy, which undermine this argument. Moreover, as is the case with all philosophical arguments, there is a meaning problem which needs to be addressed even before the logic is questioned: What exactly do we mean when we say that God created everything ex nihilo? I would venture to suggest that the whole idea is incomprehensible, and that any attempt to clarify what is meant by this is likely to rely on yet more unwarranted inferences drawn from yet more flawed analogies. Simply stringing together a number of words in a grammatically correct sentence, as in ‘God created everything’, may create the illusion of meaning, but grammatically-generated meaning is no substitute for conceptual clarity. Anyway, such is the nature of analogical thinking, which pervades our language and reasoning. Unsurprisingly, it characterizes much discussion on the dreaded subject of death.
Death is personal: To us in the West, it is something which can consume our inner lives as surely as it consumes the husks we call our bodies. It is the raison dêtre for so much in life, a rallying point, a border post of the everyday world. It is a concept shot through with powerful emotions: fear, anger, revulsion, sadness, love. And it too is something which is conceived in terms of analogies. Already I have unwittingly resorted to analogical thinking in my references to our inner lives and outer husks: I have evoked the ghost in the machine. I might also have suggested that death is like a sleep, adding the corollary that in the ’sleep of death, dreams may come’, that a life of sorts awaits us ’when we have shuffled off this mortal coil’. But on what basis would I have arrived at this conclusion? The rub of the matter is that this belief is founded primarily on analogy, and that below it may lie a deeply entrenched fear of losing one’s ego, a fear that is particularly conditioned by the individualistic ethos of so-called advanced societies. I would like to propose instead that we calmly consider the alternative; namely, that there is no afterlife. I would like to suggest that when we die no heaven or hell awaits us, because, to put it simply, we shall no longer be. This being the case, we can have no cause to fear death, because it carries no implications for us beyond our complete annihilation. I am aware, of course, that, to someone like me, the product of a Catholic upbringing, a faint angst haunts this construction on death. But this hardly detracts from the argument. It is surely preferable that the head and the heart should concur, but like an old married couple, these two faculties will not always see eye to eye.
Though profoundly personal, death is a social phenomenon as well: On a small scale, there are the bereaved, of course, who not only feel the loss, but whose lives are more or less, subtly or significantly, altered. These effects may cascade far and wide. For example, a death may loosen ties, or bring people together, and this may influence the pattern of affiliations and interactions of the generations that follow. Macrocosmically too, death is something with which society as a whole has to contend. I’m not referring here to, say, the preoccupation of various organs of the state with morbidity indices and the implications these may have on governmental spending. I am referring rather to a more profound way in which society is taken up with the phenomenon of death: to the fact that death is something which is ‘culturally mediated’. Without getting into a debate about the nature of culture – it has variously been construed as comprising the symbolic and acquired aspects of society, as something distinct from nature, as something distinct from the social structure, as something akin to ideology, or as a way of life – in the present context this phrase relates to a societal resource which is drawn upon to bestow meaning on what is in a certain sense a unintelligible event, and provide the rituals with which order and ordinariness are re-established. Death, particularly when it is unexpected and dramatic, is often extraordinary in various ways, and has the potential to thoroughly trivialize the construct we know as society. We see this manifested sometimes in a phase of withdrawal and detachment in someone who is actually dying. And death, of course, takes one beyond the reach of society. Thus, society needs to assert itself – via culture – by countering the bewildering sense of life being insignificant, goals and ambitions being pointless, and norms being irrelevant, which may potentially also accompany the experience of bereavement. This is something which is proactively addressed during the socialization process, when how one is to live in general, rather than how one should cope with death in particular, is the focus of attention. As far as society is concerned, what is not needed is that individuals grow up believing that, as there is no point to life, they may as well take whatever they want from life, and act however they please, regardless of the consequences. Society could just not operate as an aggregation of nihilistic egoists. In other words, society abhors anomie, much as nature abhors a vacuum. If one chose to talk of society in some reified sense as having a separate existence, one might say that, if its constituent members did not to some extent subscribe to a set of shared beliefs and values, then the fabric of society might itself unravel. Returning to the subject of bereavement, one could say that if, because of the death of someone close to them, individuals were left feeling that life was of no importance or that nothing was worth pursuing, then they might not be able to adequately fulfil their social roles, and this too could have all sorts of repercussions for others; not just emotionally unsettling the latter. When a death occurs, individuals need to feel that, in some sense, ‘life goes on’. The comfort and support provided by friends reinforces this message, and subliminally impresses on the bereaved that they continue to belong within a network of other social beings. The colloquial expression about someone’s world falling apart in the aftermath of a death often sums up the experience of bereavement. When culture is deployed to hold that world together, it is chiefly one particular component of culture that is tasked with this, and that component is known as religion
Now, I’m not suggesting that religion necessarily comes into play when someone dies. But this certainly seems to happen most of the time and in nearly all societies. Religion is, of course, the principal (though by no means exclusive) sponsor of the notion that we somehow survive death. Moreover, religion generally-speaking also declares that what happens to us after death is determined by the manner in which we conduct ourselves in life. There can be little doubt that in promoting such ideas, religion serves society well by immunising individuals against anomic tendencies in the face of death. Its priests and preachers, mullahs and rabbis have for centuries officiated over the rituals of death, and comforted the bereaved with promises of paradise. However, there is much more to the relationship between religion and society than that: For one thing, in most cases, the former generally serves to facilitate mass conformity to most societal norms through pushing an ethical agenda, the bottom line of which – at least in the Abrahamaic religions – is that if you are good you go to heaven and if you are bad you go to hell. Moreover, religion and the state are institutionally enmeshed in various ways in most countries: In theocracies, they are practically indistinguishable. In the West, religion may have retired to the back benches, yet it still manages to insinuate itself to various degrees in the political life of countries, sometimes in a moderating way. Even in avowedly atheistic states, a sort of quasi-religion fills the breach with absurdities like Kim Jong-il of North Korea assuming a god-like status. Thus religion has played a role in adding a sacred aspect to the profane business of running the state. It is also hard to deny that for many, many people, religion is a balm, a consolation, an ‘opiate’, and, as such, takes some of the pressure off the state, which might otherwise have to contend with unmanageable levels of social unrest. In fact, one of the ironies of modern history is that it has often been in the afore-mentioned atheistic states, erstwhile or existent, where consolation has perhaps been mostly keenly sought, that religion of a more conventional character has flourished fungal-like in the shadows. Why religion should be an opiate is not hard to see: When life is unrelentingly grim, as it is for the vast majority of people all over the world, and denies them significant political or social leverage to effect a change in their circumstances, then it makes sense for these people to console themselves with the thought that at least after death, there will be some redress, some righting of wrongs. Psychologically too, such a thought also addresses the lack of self-esteem which so often accompanies poverty, relative or otherwise: That it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle probably plays well to most of the religious-inclined poor of many a teeming barrio. And in fostering an otherworldly orientation, religion can have an enervating effect upon political activity, particularly in conservative societies where religion and the state work closely together.
However, religion and its relationship with society are changing all the time: In some parts of the world, religion is in retreat; in other parts, it is resurgent. What is more, its consoling function is sometimes belied by a proclivity for politicisation, as is evidenced by liberation theology in Latin America or the activities of various Islamic movements. But other social and economic developments obviously cloud the picture too: Page though a Sunday supplement and there’s a chance you’ll come across the odd picture of destitute people in some third world country huddled beneath an advertising hoarding extolling deluxe objects of desire; an image symbolising something that’s becoming more and more apparent, which is that, today, more conspicuously than ever, material wealth is promoted despite being beyond the reach of so many. Materialism has become a sort of quasi-religion too; it’s Episcopalian priests being those louche style gurus whose parishioners are the readers of glossies and it’s more fundamentalist ministers those glaze –eyed corporate leaders intoning the mantra: ‘Greed is good’. What’s more, the gospel of the market – relentless advertising – now penetrates the sanctuary of the home more profoundly than ever, subtly mind-forming each up and coming generation via television and other mass media. Consequently, aspirations rise, and when these are thwarted, anger results. This anger may find expression in a variety of ways, from mere self-seeking criminality to various types of political action; nationalist liberation struggles, terrorism, trade union activity and protests, to name but a few. And in some cases it feeds into political action by religious groups; vide my reference to liberation theology and Islamic movements. Even so, religious dissent of this sort still retains its otherworldly point of reference. In fact, there are more than a few religious groups around wanting to impose a revanchist ‘otherworldly’ agenda on this world, whether by bloody force or the use of mass media.
But, of course, there is a major philosophical flaw with religion which affects its credibility, and that is – as has already been suggested – that it is premised on spurious analogies. One might wonder whether religion can nevertheless survive a convincing refutation of this analogical reasoning. I do not believe it can. To me, these analogies are central to any religious apology. That such reasoning should be deployed at all demonstrates the poverty of this apology. You don’t deploy analogical thinking to prove the existence of tables and chairs (I fear for the physical safety of philosophers who doubt such things); you do when seeking to prove the existence of a putative entity that cannot otherwise convincingly be shown to exist. Furthermore, what is unseen can only be apprehended through, or with reference to, what is seen. Of course, there are other categories of proof advanced by those wanting to show that God exists. But I think that the analogical argument is crucial because, in the absence of direct empirical evidence of his existence, analogy ‘informs’ the substantive picture we have of God. Whether viewed as an ancient with a beard and flowing robes, a powerful uber-warrior wielding an axe, a gigantic bird, or some nebulous power, God has been described by likening him to observable phenomena. In short, by deploying analogy. And since the analogy fails as proof, the entire deck of cards that is religion comes crashing down, along with the card setting out the religious premise of an afterlife. When this begins to dawn on people, then, of course, the contribution of religion to social order will begin to decline. There are other problems with religion too; many of them are psychological as opposed to philosophical in nature. Take, for example, the peculiar and somewhat hypocritical attitude religions exhibit towards the ‘sins of the flesh’: Although they may object that they are concerned rather with less sense-bound feelings, such as joy and despair, ultimately religions implicitly acknowledge the hedonistic principle that human beings are driven by the need to seek out pleasure and avoid pain. (This I would regard as ancillary to the most profound need driving us: the desire for happiness). The extremes of such experiences, after all, are supposedly afforded by heaven and hell respectively. Even if it is argued that these are states of mind or ‘planes of existence’ rather than physical locations, heaven and hell are seen as conditions that happen to and are imposed upon people, to which people react in ways which bear comparison with reactions to pleasurable and painful stimuli. Yet this all sits rather uncomfortably with the puritanical disapproval evinced by most religions – particularly those in the Abrahamaic tradition – of any display of a life-affirming sexuality outside strict social boundaries. Thus we find certain Muslim fundamentalists self-righteously demanding the lash, or even the bullet, for women transgressing the rigid mores of their societies. In the same breath, they will wax rhapsodic at the prospect of eternal orgiastic rutting in paradise in the company of seventy two virgins should they lose their lives whilst attempting to butcher innocents in some squalid Middle Eastern marketplace or in the anonymous streets of some Western city. (More recently, there have been unconfirmed reports from Iraq – that bastion of Western-sponsored freedom– that religious militias have taken to gluing the anuses of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and then giving them a drink causing diarrhoea, which results in a horrible death). Whilst these barbaric acts may not be in accord with the Quoran – somewhat hypocritically, religiously-minded people tend not to be too bound by their holy books – and owe more to the backward-looking societies in which it they occur, the point of view informing them is nevertheless a religious one, and mainstream Muslims would well to consider what succour they give to these deranged fanatics (Not so long ago, for example, we witnessed the Karzai regime in Afghanistan introducing legislation effectively legitimising rape within marriage in order to appease conservatives within that benighted country). Christianity is no less hypocritical. Witness the spectacle of millionaire preachers in the American Biblebelt surrounded by their business managers and power-dressing spouses, spluttering about hellfire and damnation only to be found with their pants down being pleasured by some vacuous young congregationalist. Or have a look at all of those dreary Catholic priests with a furtive craving for altar boys, intoning their baleful sermons on the evils of masturbation. The more vehemently religion proscribes; the more sordid-seeming are the infractions that inevitably follow. However, it is not just in matters sexual that religion casts an angst-laden pall over everything. In all sorts of ways, religion, I would contend is a sort of neurosis that weighs heavily on the human soul. Verily, it is the ‘sigh of the oppressed creature’, as Marx so eloquently put it. It engenders a sense of dread, a hesitancy, about living life to the full and without reservation. One might even construe the story the Garden of Eden in which God forbade Adam and Eve from eating the fruits of the apple tree as some sort of parable admonishing people against indulgence and extolling restraint instead. No wonder that the rise of consumerism in Western societies since the war has closely tracked the fall in religious observance.
I have argued that in claiming we somehow survive death and that how we live our lives determines what this ‘afterlife’ is to be, religion does society a service insofar as it provides ready-made answers in regard to the meaning of life and reinforces socially acceptable behaviour. However, this contribution cannot be a necessary condition for ensuring that people do not adopt deviant or anti-social lifestyles. For, in truth, many people who reject the notion of an afterlife still manage to stay on the right side of the law. Many people are also atheists, and although the two notions are not conceptually equivalent, non-survivalism and atheism would seem to go hand in hand (Interestingly, both stand opposed to positions that are profoundly informed by analogical thinking. Moreover, the respective notions against which they are opposed; namely, belief in an afterlife and in God; are likewise linked: What’s the point in believing in a God if there is no afterlife? I should add, by the way, that although religion and atheism stand opposed to one another, there is one thing that they do agree upon, which is that man is a merest speck set against an inconceivably powerful force. For atheists, this force is the cosmos, and most atheists have a capacity for profound awe when contemplating the fact that mankind could disappear in an instant were some cosmic catastrophe to befall us, such as that which hypothetically occurred billions of years ago when Earth and the planet Theia collided – thereby creating the moon and hence the conditions propitiously conducive to life. Religionists are unable to countenance the nihilistic import of such a possibility, preferring instead to place their hopes in a benevolent God and a blissful afterlife, projecting an anthropomorphic fantasy – ‘God created everything in seven days’ – onto the vast indifferent canvass of the universe). So something else must account for the fact that this sizeable constituency of non-survivalists and atheists by and large lead ordinary unremarkable lives within the law. The unremarkable truth, of course, is that like everyone, those holding these positions undergo a socialization process as they grow up, resulting in them internalizing the norms and values of the society in which they live. Any religious rationale for these norms and values is either never ‘taken on board’, or is discarded later in life – though it must be said that some ostensible non-survivalists and atheists may subconsciously entertain some notion of an afterlife, as this is so deeply embedded in popular culture and may through a process of cultural osmosis come to find a niche within the most rational of minds. Some, of course, may retain religious baggage from childhood. Notwithstanding that, one is still tempted to argue that – because their adherence to societal norms and values is not underpinned by a powerful irrationality – those who eschew the essentially religious notion of an afterlife have a subtly different relationship to society. Consider, for example, the probability that, because society has no sacred character for them, atheists and their ilk are unlikely to regard themselves as a chosen people and may be more disposed to humanistic and inclusive attitudes vis-à-vis other social groups. It may also be no accident that, since the dawn of capitalism, many of the more radical figures have been atheists or agnostics. It certainly surprised me to learn from Richard Dawkins excellent book, ‘The god delusion’, that many, if not most, of the founding fathers of the American Republic were atheists and/or secularists. Secularism, or the belief that religion or religious institutions should play no part in the governance of society, has often trailed along behind full-blooded atheism. It owes much to the supercession of feudalism – in which religion played a major and overt role – by capitalism. That development was accompanied by an increasing compartmentalisation of society, and secularists merely insisted that religion confine itself to the compartment labelled ‘religion’. Secularism does not necessarily entail a rejection of religion.
This, of course, begs a question: Given that society has evolved and consequently its complex relationship with religion has evolved too, is it not possible to have a society which did not depend on religion to shore up its ideological architecture, which could sit easily with both atheistic and non-survivalist views simply because it did not rely on the wrath of god or the prospect of eternal damnation insofar as the conflicts and tensions inherent in present day society no longer existed. I believe that it is, and this brings me to the third of the ingredients found in my intellectual stew.
The idea, often facetiously dismissed as utopian, of a society founded on the principle of common ownership has an ancient pedigree: Sir Thomas More coined the word, Utopia, in his book published in 1516, tendentiously depicting (as he meant thereby to draw attention to some of the evils of his own society) life on a mythical island south of the equator where private property did not exist. But elements of utopian thought can be traced back far earlier to Plato and others, and the notion of an ideal commonwealth has found fictional expression in the work of many writers, from Bacon, Campanella, and Harrington, to Morris, Hertzka, and Wells. The idea and ideal of common ownership specifically has also informed actual events in history – witness the Diggers in 17c England, or the various experiments in building communistic communities, such as those Robert Owen. Moreover – and this is often overlooked – for most of mankind’s existence, society has managed to get by without private property, bar the odd loin cloth, trinket, or flint axe intended for personal use. Marx argued that humans lived in a state of primitive communism for aeons prior to the advent of classical ancient societies where production came to be largely carried out by chattel slave labour.
My concern, however, is with advanced communism. If ever an idea had ‘arrived’ and merited serious attention it is this, particularly now that humanity stands on the brink of an ecological abyss of unfathomable depths for which global capitalism, through acts of omission or commission, can justifiably be blamed. So, how to begin laying out this notion? Perhaps one needs to initially look at what is being proposed: In a nutshell, advanced communist society would operate on a world-wide basis in accordance with that old Marxist dictum, ‘from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs’. As such, it would bear no resemblance to extant and extinct ‘state capitalist’ states, ludicrously and cynically claiming to be ‘communist’ or ‘socialist’. It would be a democracy in the truest sense of the word, and would be established on the basis of a majority choosing to have it – most certainly not imposed by revolutionary vanguards. States and the geographical limits of their administrative operations – national borders – would no longer exist. Freedom of expression would be completely unfettered, and the only socially sanctioned limitations on behaviour being those intended to deter actions demonstrably causing harm to others. No longer straitjacketed by the need to make a profit, production would be undertaken on the basis of need and in a wholly rational manner: Manufacturing processes that might have deleterious environmental effects or pose unacceptable risks, for example, would not be considered, and every effort would be made to ensure that safe alternatives were used instead. People would contribute to the production of goods and services as and how they wished. That is to say, work would be both voluntary and co-operative – there would no longer exist competition between workers, companies and countries. And people would have free access to the fruits of human labour. In other words, neither money nor barter would play a role: If people needed something, they would simply go along to their local distribution facility and take it without having to hand over something in exchange. Sophisticated stock control measures would ensure that needs were anticipated as far as possible by flagging up potential shortfalls. The production of the items in question would then be undertaken in a wholly rational and planned way. Where an actual shortfall did exist then rational strategies such as considering alternatives, rationing, reserving, utilizing different manufacturing processes, importing from further afield, or simply making do without would be deployed. There is no need to suppose that people would in some way abuse the system: Why should they when goods and services were freely available? In any case, it is reasonable to suppose that a wholly different mindset would prevail in this new society; one that would be altogether more socially responsive, humane, tolerant and far less sullied by egotism and greed. Property being held in common, there would no longer exist the immense armies of personnel and the bloated resource-depleting structures dedicated to upholding property rights or access to resources inside and outside each state as obtains at present: I am talking here of the police and the military, the entire justice system, the prisons, the arms industry, the myriad agencies involved in administering property rights and claims, etcetera. Correspondingly, untold millions around the world would no longer be drawn to a life of crime or end up incarcerated because of this career move. The raison d’être for crime, war, terrorism, industrial strife, and internecine conflict, amongst other hideous stressors characteristic of the modern world would simply not exist. People would be able to travel and settle where they wished, but, as the current economic and political conditions driving people to uproot and seek refuge in other parts of the world would no longer obtain, mass migration (Not to mention the attendant angst and resentment in host populations) is unlikely to occur – except in the event of some catastrophic natural disaster. Education would be radically different from what it is today: Being both free and non-compulsory, it is to be expected that those seeking to further their education would do so joyously. The grim discipline-orientated schools of today, which seek to mould kids into industry and business fodder, would become a thing of the past. For once, art would genuinely be for art’s sake, not cynically foisted on a passive populace as a means of turning a quick buck. Quality, in other words, would be the watchword in all creative activity, from architecture and landscaping to music, theatre, film, and writing. Technological innovation, no longer fettered by patents or invested interests, would accelerate, albeit in a controlled, socially responsible way, and many of the more onerous tasks that need undertaking could be systematically automated. Medical research in particular (especially in areas that are currently under-researched – for example, tropical medicine – because there is less of a financial incentive to do so) would be prioritized in order to rid humanity of the misery of disease and illness as far as possible. Moreover, it would be conducted in an open, coordinated manner, not in the fragmented fashion that it is today, with numerous research groups jealously guarding their discoveries for ‘commercial reasons’. In this respect, and so many others, the establishment of world communism – or socialism – would utterly transform the way we live. Life would simply be incomparably more relaxed, enjoyable, fulfilling, and happy. Practically all of the so-called today’s ‘evils’ – if one might revert to pulpit language for an instance – would just disappear: war, ethnic cleansing, vandalism, robbery, prostitution, pornography, drug pushing, protection rackets, nepotism, corruption, repression, the cynical manipulation of minds for financial gain, people trafficking, slavery, mass hunger, poverty, unemployment, environmental destruction, the wastage of resources, the deliberate creation of soulless and ugly human environments, to name just some. And the reason for this is simply that each and every one of these phenomena has it’s origin in or is sustained by the current social dispensation, by the manner in which society is organized today. Money, in other words, is what these evils are all about. When humanity eventually chooses to embrace communism, then truly it shall have crossed a threshold between barbarism and civilisation.
I am by no means claiming that all will be perfect under communism: It is reasonable to suppose that after resolving to embrace communism, humanity will have to live with an assortment of ‘transitional problems’ for several decades before things begin to run smoothly. And, of course, the vexed question of the relationship between the individual and society will continue to demand attention. When discussing this relationship, political theorists sometimes refer to the notion of a ‘Social Contract’. To be literal-minded about it, this is, of course, a fiction, another instance of mistaken analogical thinking in which the individual and society are deemed to have a quasi-legal relationship with each party having obligations to the other, or in which society is formed after individuals enter into contracts with each other concerning the nature of the society. Strictly-speaking, as an analogy, this depiction fails: there is no analogical court or presiding judge (unless God in heaven fits this description – but then would he sanction some of the heinous societies in existence today, one has to ask – rhetorically) to rule on supposed breaches of this contract, and it is nonsensical to construe such a contract as having been negotiated at a given point in time, following which the individual was obliged to behave within the constraints laid down. Of course, what the notion of a Social Contract is actually trying to convey is that individuals derive all sorts of benefits from belonging to a society, but to do so requires them to act within certain constraints, and contribute towards society as well. However, what society affords the individual and the extent to which the latter may comply with social norms are variable. In other words, we have to consider the nature of the society in question when looking at this relationship. Tensions at the interface between the individual and society are perhaps inevitable: One or other may be compromised in all sorts of social arrangements. At one extreme, we may find ourselves living in a laissez-faire jungle where little or no social restraint is placed on individuals in their pursuit of wealth or hedonistic lifestyles, where law and order is minimally or corruptly applied, where a ‘dog-eats-dog’ ethos presides, and where little heed is paid to the social ramifications – be they the ruthless sequestration of what had been commonly held resources, the oppression of the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable, pollution and environmental depredation, the creation of antipathetic, violent, and often politically illiterate subcultures, or garish and architecturally discordant urban environments. Such a society lacks any sense of communality. Yet much the same can be said for the dystopian extreme where society lords it over the individual, crushing any flowering of individualism, demanding conformity and total allegiance. This nightmarishly fascistic model of society rests upon an all-powerful state. Interestingly, and somewhat ironically, disparate elements of both models seem to co-exist in many contemporary societies; China being the most noteworthy example. Communism, on the other hand, whilst not likely to wholly eliminate the tension between the individual and society, is surely the only form of society able to radically reduce such tension as it would facilitate the greatest possible individual liberty within a socially harmonious framework.
People who have never entertained the idea of communism before commonly respond with incredulity as soon as they become acquainted with it. Perhaps this is understandable: It is a profoundly revolutionary idea that calls into question many deeply embedded assumptions about man and society. However, the reader may care to consider the following list of points, which, though far from being exhaustive, ought to demonstrate that communism is indeed a feasible proposition, and that the arguments in its favour are actually highly complex. When doing so, it should be borne in mind that what I mean by capitalism is the currently universal economic system in which goods and services are produced primarily in order to be sold for a profit (what is known as commodity production), whether by the state or by private companies, and in which money, wages, and property, amongst other features, are to be found. Capitalism can either assume the form of state capitalism or private/laissez faire capitalism – or, indeed, anything in between. There is no such thing as state socialism or communism.
One of the most convincing points in favour of genuine communism relates to what is tellingly termed ‘human resources’. With the arrival of communism, literally billions people around the world would be relieved of jobs which – although essential to the running of present day society – would no longer be required under communism: I have already alluded to the millions involved in upholding property rights or access to resources. But there are also vast numbers of others involved in similarly non-productive concerns, such as banking, insurance, advertising, social security departments, charities, custom services, stock exchanges, payroll departments, insolvency agencies, pension providers, tax departments, mortgage providers, to name but a few. These occupations would no longer be required in a society unencumbered by the cash nexus. Nor would people be obliged to undertake lowly-paid, unfulfilling work behind cash registers, checking meters, issuing parking fines, guarding premises, working for gambling or lottery companies, selling their bodies for sex, acting as drug mules, issuing tickets, indulging in dubious home business scams, sorting out other people’s pay, running market stalls, bartering, executing bailiff duties, and so on and so forth. And the enforced idleness of unemployment; arguably, another essential feature of capitalism; would be a thing of the past too. In short, it is reasonable to assume that the majority of people around the world – particularly in the so-called developed countries where workers are predominantly employed in the tertiary sector – would find their occupations obsolete. This doesn’t even reckon with the countless millions – particularly in the developing countries – engaged in arduous, ‘low tech’, labour intensive work, such as labouring, dismantling ships, building dams – a bucket of earth at a time. Most of such work could be rendered obsolete too through mechanisation and automation. Thus, what work was required to ensure everyone’s needs were met would be shared out amongst a vastly greater number of people.
Apropos work, it is sometimes protested that people would not be motivated to contribute towards the production of goods and services in communist society. However, a little reflection ought to put paid to this particular objection: In the first place, it does not take into account the dramatic ‘sea-change’ in the social ethos, in the prevailing norms and values, that would accompany the establishment of communism; a development necessarily wrought by the democratic nature of the revolution inaugurating the new society. Divisiveness, cynicism, greed, and cruelty would necessarily give way to cohesiveness, social concern, and altruism because each set of attitudes is rooted in the modi operandi of capitalism and communism respectively. So it is inconceivable that vast majority of people, having voted en masse for a new way of life and all that that entailed, would opt to sit back and adopt an attitude of ‘Stuff you, Jack – I’m not going to contribute, I’m only going to take’. Secondly, much of the negativity informing workers’ attitude to employment in society today often derives not so much from the work per se, but from the conditions under which they find themselves employed, the hierarchical nature of the organisations they work for, and crucially, being compelled to work in the first place. Karl Marx’s theories on the alienation of workers are extremely illuminating in this regard. Thirdly, as I’ve said, given that several billion people around the world are currently engaged in occupations that would no longer exist in communist society, there would be far more people around to undertake what work was required. Correspondingly, it could be argued that only one or two days work a week would be required of people on average – taking into account too such considerations as the fact that many currently produced goods and services – for example advertising material, cash registers, weaponry, or ticket barriers – would not then be required, and the fact that a communist society would systematically seek to automate all forms of work considered too onerous or risky. This being the case, it is reasonable to suppose that people would be less disinclined to spare society some of their spare time. It is even conceivable that there might be too little socially useful work available. Fourthly, it could be argued that people, far from being motivated to avoid work, have, in fact, a natural aptitude for work, and a drive to engage in work, both of which are stifled in capitalism by inimical conditions of employment. Fifthly, it may be observed that, even in these cynical times, millions of people everywhere engage in voluntary work, capitalism notwithstanding, and that this flies in the face of the assumption that, all things being equal, people are inherently lazy and would jump at the opportunity to spend their entire existence on a sun lounger with a glass of tequila to hand. I could go on, but I’m sure the point has been made.
Many paragraphs back, I argued that materialism has become a sort of quasi-religion relentlessly promoted through near-ubiquitous advertising. The constant backdrop of visual, auditory, and even olfactory prompts – a visit to your local supermarket will attest to the latter – be they subliminal or ‘in your face’, is bound to affect us all. Why else should companies spend literally billions of dollars all around the world on advertising? It is so that we buy, buy, buy, regardless of whether we actually need the commodities on offer. It is said that what the head doesn’t know, the heart doesn’t hanker after. Under capitalism, needs are often artificially created or stimulated, which is both wasteful in terms of resource usage and potentially stress-inducing insofar as people may lack the wherewithal to satisfy these needs. Nothing exemplifies this better than the fashion industry, which might dictate, say, that last season’s hipsters will simply have to go. This is a serious problem: In the UK, tons of discarded clothing are ploughed into landfill sites annually, which impacts on global warming, amongst other things. Then there is advertising targeted at kids, encouraging them to pester their parents for the latest ‘craze’ product. No wonder they grow up to be acquisitive. And talking of acquisitiveness, something else that may be observed about capitalism is that – particularly amongst the wealthy – status is often acquired through the acquisition of luxury products. But there is a huge amount of waste inherent in this charade of ‘keeping up with the Plunkett-Pembertons’: Thus we have the obscene spectacle of the archetypal tycoon with a fleet of luxury sports cars, several mansions – each of which contains enough rooms to house the local homeless, and a trophy wife with a shoe mania to rival that of Imelda Marcos., Not only are these items inevitably under-utilised; but time and resources have been expended on their production which might have more usefully been spent on satisfying more pressing needs. I would venture to suggest that in a communist society, status, insofar as it had some sort of psychosocial purpose in encouraging emulation, would be drastically different in nature: I could imagine that status would reside in the degree to which one actually contributed towards society, with those taking on the most onerous and dangerous tasks being accorded the highest status. Such attitudes would obviously serve society’s interests very well, and make for social cohesiveness.
Not only does capitalism manipulate people into buying things they might otherwise not have considered buying, it sometimes also compels them to continue buying commodities time and again through the simple expedient of ensuring that those things do not actually last as long as they could. This is what is known as ‘built-in obsolescence’, and it is a feature of all sorts of products, from cars to the simple light bulb. Similarly, the general shoddiness of so many manufactured goods, for example, houses (particularly in the cynically termed ‘social housing’ market), which stems from a desire to cut costs to the bone, likewise results in a shortened period of use. The outcome in both cases is more waste and customer dissatisfaction. Waste in this context has to do with rendering a product unserviceable and therefore needing to be disposed of far sooner than otherwise would be the case.
There are many other ways in which capitalism is wasteful: Take, for example, the tendency to ‘modulise’ parts. What I mean by this is that instead of selling a replacement item on its own, manufacturers will sometimes only sell the item as part of a bigger unit or a batch. Whilst this may sometimes make replacing the item easier, it is just as likely to be motivated by the manufacturer’s desire to fleece the customer out of more money. Insofar as the part is specific to a particular make of the product, the manufacturer will almost have a free rein to indulge in this practice.
But this is virtually insignificant compared to the waste inherent in a system in which each of the millions of companies or corporations around the world competes with numerous others in producing particular goods and services for a particular market. Why is this wasteful? Well, just consider for a moment the sheer amount of duplication inherent in this set up: You might get dozens of companies producing a particular good or service within a specific locale, each with its own premises, workforce, management structure, and so on. Each will have a number of administrative and financial operations to execute over and above productive operations, which simply would not occur in a socialist/communist society, such as holding shareholder meetings, carrying out financial audits, running pay departments, operating security measures, and implementing marketing strategies. The latter is particularly noteworthy: Big companies, like Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola spend literally billions of dollars trying to outdo each other in the marketplace, and have vast marketing departments dedicated to this aim. On the subject of duplication, it may also be instructive to consider the outcome of a previous Conservative government’s demented attempts to make the National Health Service in the UK more ‘efficient’ a few years ago, by breaking it up into hundreds of self-governing trusts. The upshot was a vast increase in administrative staff by comparison with clinical staff, as each trust had to have it’s own finance department, its own ‘estates’ department, its own pay department, and so on – verily, the economics of the madhouse! In capitalism, it is often the case that having numerous companies compete to sell particular products is often far more then market can bear. Thus it may be that a sizeable number of these companies will be operating below capacity some of the time. Indeed, a few may find themselves going to the wall, squeezed out by the big players. The under-utilisation or non-utilisation of resources in this respect amounts to waste. So does the fact many of the smaller companies, generally burdened with proportionately higher expenses on such things as heating and electricity and having to purchase services that might otherwise be obtained ‘in-house’, lack ‘economies of scale’.
The fact, too, that competing products are sometimes shipped from great distances is yet another instance of waste, as well as being environmentally damaging. Is it really necessary to have New Zealand butter stacked alongside English butter in UK supermarkets, considering that the European Community once had to scale down it’s notorious ‘butter mountain’.
This ‘butter mountain’ actually exemplifies another appalling sort of waste found in capitalism: the waste generated by overproduction. Just as the market may determine that the very factories, offices, mines and farms are no longer economically viable and have to be taken out of commission, it may also determine that the products and services flowing from these facilities are ‘surplus to requirements’ and need to be junked. We see this in the periodic trade cycles that beset capitalism, which essentially occur because capitalism has overreached itself.
There are yet other ways in which waste can be generated. For example, companies will often do all they can to enhance the cosmetic appearance and thus the ‘saleability’ of their products without necessarily improving the quality of the latter, and this can result in profligate amounts of waste. Tristram Stuart, in his recent book, ‘Waste, uncovering The Global Food Waste Scandal’, claims, for example, that 25% of the fruit and vegetables produced in the UK is wasted in the process of production simply because these don’t look the right shape, colour or size. The taste and nutritional value are beside the point. On the subject of food wastage generally – both by consumers and the food industries – it has been estimated that what the US alone wastes each year is twice as much as that required to adequately feed the 923 million malnourished people in the world today (The Independent, 9th July 2009, p9)
The raft of international laws and trade agreements governing all manner of economic activity around the world also creates a huge amount of waste by any number of yardsticks. These laws and trade agreements exist simply to impose some semblance of order and restraint upon the ferocious greed of different nation states competing for scarce natural resources, trade routes, access to markets, and so on. As such, they would serve no purpose at all in a world-wide communistic society. But in today’s world, these laws and trade agreements require vast armies of bureaucrats and other officials to administer and police them; these functions themselves necessitating elaborate monitoring operations that likewise require much in the way of resources and personnel. Were such regulations to be absent, of course, it is wholly conceivable that disputes around the world could degenerate into any number of wars. Nevertheless, these laws and trade agreements can themselves lead to bizarre consequences, thus tempting some to flout them. Let me cite a couple of examples: It is estimated that because of the European Union’s common fisheries policy, something in the region of 40 to 50 per cent of the fish caught by EU trawlers is thrown back dead into the sea (The Independent, ibid). Touching on my previous point, the European Union also has fairly stringent rules regarding the cosmetic appearance of 10 sorts of fruit and vegetables which between them account for about three quarters of all fresh produce sold in the EU. As I explained earlier, the effect of such laws is to create waste since a certain amount of the produce will be deemed unfit for sale – solely on cosmetic grounds. Incidentally, it is no co-incidence that such regulations favour big Western-owned agribusiness concerns at the expense of Third World peasant farmers.
The proclivity for cutting costs in capitalist production is something else that gives rise to all sorts of other problems; perhaps the most notorious of which relate to health and safety issues. Thus we find aircraft crashing for want of adequate maintenance work, or the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (sic) in the UK ruling that certain forms of treatment do not constitute ‘value for money’ and may therefore not be prescribed, notwithstanding their efficacy in many cases. Michael Moore’s docufilm, ‘Sicko’, highlights just how single-minded capitalism is when it comes to money. In this revealing study of the American health system, he shows just how inhumane the richest country on earth can be when it comes to treating its sick and injured. Those without medical insurance often find themselves in desperate situations. Like the man who loses two fingers in an accident, and is faced with a bill of $60,000 to sew one of them back on, and $12,000 for the other. Well, it’s a no-brainer – the more expensive finger ends up in a landfill site. But even those who do pay insurance and find themselves in need of medical treatment often face a medical inquisition by HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) personnel, whose sole aim, I repeat, sole aim is to try deny them treatment (which. in the case of those personnel with a medical qualification, would seem to be in flagrant violation of the Hippocratic Oath). This is borne out by the fact their remuneration is contingent upon the percentage of denials they manage to issue. The film depicted the heart-rending case of a man with renal cancer whose doctor had urged a particular course of treatment. His wife met up with representatives of his medical insurance company and begged them to provide the funding for the treatment. But they considered the treatment to be ‘experimental’ and turned it down. Within three weeks the man was dead. Apart from the fact that there may have been a racist element in their deliberations, – the man was black and his wife white – the sheer psychopathic disregard for anything bar the company’s profit margins leaves one speechless. Such blinkered thinking would be anathema to a socialist society, where genuine need, rather than financial criteria, would determine whether or not something was produced or made available. Cost-cutting can affect the quality of life in many other ways. Take, for example, the poor provision of services afforded to rural communities, from post offices to buses. What underlies this, of course, are both the greater transportation costs inherent in servicing rural communities, and the fact that urban populations present a more lucrative market to would be providers. Who can forget the cherry picking practices of bus companies during the deregulating Thatcher years ( which persist in many major urban conurbations; for example, Manchester ) when buses arrived in two or threes on the more popular ( and shorter ) urban routes whilst rural services were cut back. Needless to say, the financial reckoning behind such developments would never arise in a society dedicated to meeting needs, instead of maximising profit.
A year or so ago, there was much media interest in the subject of fake, or counterfeit, products; Channel Four’s alarming series titled ‘The Fake Trade’ being a case in point. Its not so much the fake Prada handbags or Rolex watches that concerns me: although the faking of such luxury items obviously hits the ‘legitimate’ manufacturers and allegedly promotes gun crime and terrorism, consumer surveys have, in fact, shown that many, and in some countries – the USA, of all places, for example – most people are not averse to purchasing some types of fake items; an activity which has even acquired a fashionable frisson. However, what really must appal most of us is the counterfeiting of certain sorts of items; medicines being a prime example. The statistics beggar belief: It is estimated that something like one million Africans die each year through purchasing counterfeit medicines. Let us be clear what is happening here: Tablets, capsules, ampoules, and so on, convincingly packaged but deliberately containing little or nothing of therapeutic value, are sold by traders, or sometimes unwittingly by ‘respectable’ outlets, to people – the vast majority of whom are crushingly poor – who go away hoping that the diseases affecting them or their loved ones can at last be tackled. But, of course, nothing of the sort happens, and these poor souls deteriorate. In the case of antibiotics, having just some but not enough, can also be dangerous because it can induce resistance (and incidentally lead to stronger strains of bacteria). With a disease like malaria, the resulting delay in receiving effective medication can be critical. No wonder that a fifth of the one million annual deaths caused by malaria around the world can be attributed directly to the consumption of counterfeit anti-malarial medication. In the developing world, the incidence of fake medicines varies from 10% to 50% and higher in some countries. But this is not just a problem in the developing world: In Russia, it is thought that 10% of medicines are fake, and here in the UK, fake anti-statins, for example, have recently infiltrated the supply chains. Here truly, we catch a glimpse of the dark heart of capitalism; its untrammeled greed and disregard for all else. One of the contributors to the above-mentioned Channel Four programme opined that capitalism really needed to be restrained and managed or anarchy and chaos would ensue. But this is to miss the point: Capitalism, like a rabid dog with an insatiable desire to sink its teeth into someone, can certainly be leashed (or, to put it differently, we can certainly attempt to save capitalism from itself). But, even with the most rigorous restraints, it would still seek to minimize costs and maximize profits. Those other shortcomings I mentioned earlier – shoddy production, built-in obsolescence, and so on – are really all of a piece with counterfeit manufacture: One might want to think rather in terms of a ‘continuum of dysfunctionality’ here. Moreover, those companies or countries who attempt to act relatively responsibly and with due regard to the environment and their workers will find themselves disadvantaged in the barbaric world of commerce; somewhat as the British slave-owner lobby in the 19c argued that liberating slaves would give the dastardly French a commercial advantage. What is particularly ironic about the situation with counterfeit production is that the main culprit being fingered is none other than that worker’s paradise, the ‘People’s’ (sic) Republic of China. Here we find capitalism in a truly fascistic mould; there can be no obfuscating the point. That China should present itself as a ‘communist state’; an Orwellian fiction that tends to be ignored or half-heartedly questioned by capitalism’s hacks in the ‘free world’ (again, sic) for cynical reasons no doubt; amounts to butchering reason. It is estimated that something like 15–20% of products made in China are counterfeit, and China is a major provider of fake medicines – notwithstanding some lackadaisical official attempts to stem the production of these. Chinese workers are themselves victims of this iniquitous industry; both as underpaid wage slaves and with thousands dying each year from misguidedly taking these drugs. The Chinese state allows its bourgeois overlords a lot of leeway to grind their workers, notwithstanding the vicious reputation it has for dealing with miscreants, or those who go a little too far in their pursuit of profit.
Now go to ‘A Point of View 2′
About the Author
Squeeze Page For Thesis
Chinese Propagandistic Media
Introduction
Many international journalists and reporters have accused the Chinese government of using state owned media as a too for spreading propaganda. They assert that the Chinese government deliberately hides information from its natives or it twists information in order to potray them in a positive light. This essay will examine the validity of these statements by comparing two state owned news sources.
PART 1: An analysis of two major Chinese sites
Xinhuanet.com
Taiwan issues
The latter mentioned paper reported on fifteenth September last year that the people of China were strongly opposed to Taiwan’s’ opposed. At that time, Taiwan was seeking independent representation in the United Nations. This was a move that solicited negative remarks form a large number of Chinese more so in the Diaspora. According to this report, Chinese living in Canberra voiced their complaints against Taiwan’s attempt to make themselves independent of the rest of China. The Chinese in Diaspora added that the only Group that had a right to represent China in the UN was the Chinese government.
Xinhaunet claimed that a large number of independent Chinese bodies oppose Taiwan’s move to seek independent representation. Some of them included Australian Capital Territory, Federation of Chinese independence and Chinese Australian cultural exchange.
Additionally, Chinese in the Philippines also express their opposition of the Taiwan’s move. The report further adds some of the views held by representatives of this body. Their views mostly highlight the government’s position on the matter. For instance, there are references to the benefits that will come out of unification of different straits in China. These proponents assert that unification of Taiwan with the rest of China will prosper the economy. As if this is not enough, it will promote peace in the region. Assertions made by the Taiwanese leader to seek independent representation will only threaten peace in the region. The article cites the fact that there were close to six hundred Chinese in the Philippines who expressed their displeasure about these current developments. (Xihnua, 2007)
Additionally, the article also expresses sentiments put forward by Mongolian Chinese. The latter group also expressed their disdain over the Taiwanese leader’s move. They asserted that Taiwan is a fundamental part of China and no single force can claim to separate from the rest of China. They also believe that if Taiwan is to seek representation, then all one point six billion Chinese should be given the opportunity to decide their future. Chen-the Taiwanese leader, outraged this latter group. They called this move a trick and claimed that there was indeed no room for discussion.
It is very interesting to note that mot of the sentiments in the report mostly back up the government’s stand point on the issue. One can clearly see that the speakers and groups chosen were government friendly. Their remarks were rather harsh but these were used as a tool to voice the Chinese government’s standpoint. It is quite possible to find other Chinese groups that opposed the government standpoint. Nevertheless, such sentiments have no place in a government owned media outlet. Most of the information portrayed above indicates the fact that government owned media outlets normally report one-sided stories. There is very little controversy in this article and this is characteristic that is common among many other newspaper outlets in the country.
Tibet Issues
It is very clear that Xinhaunet supports the government’s view on the Tibetan issue. This is especially in relation to their recent media releases. On 27th March 2008, Xinhua reported that the Chinese president was to meet with the United States president to discuss the Tibetan issue. The report affirms US support. It quotes the sentiments expressed by President Bush that they believe in the unification of China and that there is only one China.
Additionally, the report also adds the Chinese presidents’ views on the matter. President asserts that thy have been quite patient with the Dalai Lama. Furthermore, the Chinese government has no problems with the spiritual leader as long as he stops making remarks about Tibet’s independence and as long as he does no incite Tibet youth.
The report further nullifies some of the arguments put forward by pro Tibet supporters. They had asserted that the protests held in Lhasa were quite peaceful and that no single individual engaged in those protests with peaceful intentions. He adds that there was immense destruction of property, looting and other unlawful activities that must not go unpunished. Those activities were called ‘crimes against humanity’ and were seen as a threat to social order. (Xinhua, 2008)
The article also brings out the benefits that could result out of a peaceful and United China. These were sentiments expressed by the President himself. He claimed that it was the responsibility of the government to reinforce law and order within the country.
On March 26, the same newspaper also reported how the monk has been pretending to be an innocent person. The Dalai Lama was the object of criticism in this article. The article repeatedly uses words such an dialogue and non violence in quotes when referring to the Dalai Lama. This is an indication that this particular media outlet strongly despises the view expressed by international media about the monk. It is trying to indicate that there is very little evidence to support those claims made by other analysts.
On March 24th, The same newspaper also highlights how other foreigners support the Chinese government stance on Tibet. The article quotes and American organization’s standpoint on the issue. it also adds that many analysts in international media have unfairly accused the Chinese government of handling the Tibetan protests unfairly yet this American organization believes that they had handled it the best way possible.
Chinese earthquake
In an article released on 26 May 2008 bout the earthquake, there was lot of emphasis on issues surrounding the nature of the geographical effect and numbers were discussed. There is very little emphasis on the human aspect of the earthquake. According to the report, there are close to four hundred and twenty houses that perished in the earthquake. Additionally, there are also sixty-three people who obtained minor injuries while les than ten obtained serious injuries. The report assures that public about the Chinese government;’ commitment to providing assistance. The government had promised about one hundred and sixty people would receive assistance and would get access to certain townships.
It is quite interesting to note that there is very little mention of the humanitarian aspect. One cannot read stories of the specific individuals rescued in the stories or those who are still facing desperate situations. This kind of writing style is quite common in government owned media outlets. The stories mainly focus on facts about the earthquake but they rarely give the views and opinions held by specific individuals. This is a common characteristic in international media outlets and brings out the fact that there are outstanding issues prevailing in the Chinese question.
China Daily
Tibet issues
On 30th Aril, there was an article talking about the autonomy of the Chinese people. According to this to page long report, the Chinese government is committed towards seeing that the inherent rights of the ethnic minorities are upheld. There were assertions that the Chinese government has devoted mot of its time towards granting its ethnic minorities regional minorities. There are inherent economic and social benefits that came out of this system .the article also pointed out that the system has been in place ever since the mid twentieth century up to present day.
On March 20th, the China Daily reported that there were a number of people (it was estimated at thirty) arrested for their involvement in the demonstrations that took place in Lhasa. The report highlighted the length of their sentences. They were given a minimum of three years in jail after passing the sentences in court. The report further adds the nature of damages caused by the riots in Lhasa;
No. of shop looted-908
No. of homes torched-120
Total amount of property damaged-244 million Yuan
It is also interesting to note that on the very day that all other members of international media were talking about Tibet, the Chin Daily was quick to lay blame on a particular individual. According o that report, the Chinese government believed that the Tibet protests were an act of incitement for the Dali Lama. They asserted that he was responsible for arranging the whole thing and that he was threatening the stability of the region. According to the report, this monk (who is in exile in India) was coordinating anti-Chinese protests from his current location.
The report further adds that all ethnic groups in China strongly oppose these protests and that there is very string evidence o support the notion that this Tibetan spiritual leader was behind them. The report also mentions the nature of the destructions that occurred after the riots. (China Daily, 2008)
PART 2
Analysis of the issues
The presentations made about the latter mentioned issues all indicate that there is a slant to the reports. However, the most interesting is the way these government owned media outlets have reported the Tibetan issue. Articles in the China Daily and Xinhua are one sided in nature. It is very obvious that the government is trying to paint a negative picture of the pro-Tibetan participants. This is because there is no mention of any single view by the Tibetan side. No article has even mentioned the reasons behind Tibetan agitations. These articles only talk about the negative repercussions of the Tibetan question.
It is indeed quite interesting to see that the articles already identified a likely suspects; the spiritual leader of the Tibetans. However, this kind of approach only brings out the propagandistic role of the media in this regard. If the dailies were independent, then they would have validated their claims. There is no tangible evidence to link the protests to the Dalai Lama. It is no secret that the Chinese government has a cold relationship with this Tibetan monk.
The articles indicate that the state is using media outlets to change the perspectives of the natives. Xinhua handpicked group and associations that supported the Chinese government’s views. For instance, the indicated that US president; George W. Bush supports Chinese unification policy ion Tibet. Besides these, they quoted the words spoken by only pro-Chinese associations in the Diaspora.
The one side nature of these articles is an indication that the Chinese government is using them to pot ray a certain image. The Chinese government tends to hide real issues form the Chinese people by focusing on non-controversial issues. This brings out the kind of approach the Chinese government has been using for the past two hundred years. Many Chinese citizens know the truth behind Tibet’s calls for independence because the government (through media outlets such as these) has been hiding their history from them. It is fond of painting a positive picture about nay situation.
For instance, the China Daily chose to show pictures of some ladies smiling on their front page on the day when other newspapers around the world were indicating pictures such as the one shown below;
Source: Finding Dulcinea (2008): Focus on Tibet retrieved from http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/multi-day/sitings/16-weekly-feature/Focus-on-Tibet.html accesed on 7th June 2008
The story about the Tibetan riot was squeezed to a corner of the China Daily. Even words describing the riot were accusatory in nature and they paid a lot of attention to the damages caused by rioters.
The Chinese government has convinced the mainstream people of China that Tibet and Taiwan are inherent parts of China. They have hidden the real historical and political issues causing unrest between Tibet and the government. Instead, they have their citizens believe that protests are only a sign of unlawfulness. This means that the people of China do not know why their counterparts are discontent with the government. The government controls media outlets in order to hide these truths form the rest of the population.
PART 3
Secondary material
There are claims by the international media that the Chinese government undermined the rights of the Tibetan people. These accusations are well founded. First, Tibet and mainstream China have always been at conflict with one another. The Chinese government has attempted to control their way of life and has even tried influences the way their select their spiritual leader. International newspapers have claimed that the Chinese government halted the study of Tibetan books and languages in schools in order to suppress their nationalistic tendencies. Additionally, the Chinese government requires Tibetans to denounce their loyalty to their spiritual leader before they can get jobs. (New York Times, 2008) By imposing on Tibetan spiritual life, the Chinese government undermines the principles of democracy. The government owned media issues have never mentioned any of these issues. Instead, al they ever do is point accusing fingers at other parties.
Additionally, the Para-military has not been effective in handling protesters. The New York Times reported how this government body killed eight individuals after protesting monetary attacks. Such events are rely covered in Chinese dailies. When the Chinese government chooses to cover them, they twist it all around to conform to their values.
Dondup (2007) gives an intense insight into matters surrounding the Tibetan protests. The interesting aspect about this article’s its neutrality given the fact that author is neither Tibetan nor Chinese. Many analysts have asserted that the Chinese government needs to embrace a compromise with the Tibetan people. This is through the middle way policy. According to this policy, Tibet may not gain independence (as it is currently seeking) but it should be content with autonomy in the same manner that the government has awarded other groups in the country. The author claims that these are not viable solutions. Proponents of such an argument believe that Tibet stands to gain a lot form this arrangement. They also believe that it is not likely for the Chinese government to grant Tibet independence. (People’s Daily, 2008)
However, such a perspective may not necessarily be the best idea for Tibet. First, the government has demonstrated its unwillingness to grant Tibet independence. The China Daily and many others have indicted that pursuing such a course of action would be unconstitutional. In fact, the Chinese government rewards leaders who oppose autonomy in the region. This implies that even when the government claims that it has granted Tibet autonomy, there will be minimal changes to indicate this change.
Additionally, the Chinese government does not support separation. Part of the reason for this is that the Chinese stand s to loose a lot from their autonomy. Currently, the government has established a railway in the region. The government has been sending numerous Chinese settlers into Lhasa and many other regions of Tibet. It believes that it can only exercise control in Tibet by increasing the numbers of Chinese settlers there. Tibetans are angry about this because the Chinese government is trying to changing their lives severely By increasing the numbers of Chinese settlers the government is making Tibet overpopulated and is also affecting their economic and social situations. For instance, the prices of their goods are increasing by the day.
Other disadvantages of denying the Tibetans independence include the fact that unification leaves Tibet at the mercy of the Chinese government. This is because their policies will be determined by the decisions made by this powerful group. The Chinese government will be making decisions that suit their majority of their citizens rather than small minority group like Tibet yet the Tibetan and Chinese economies are very different. One of the arguments for the unification is the fact that Tibet can get tap some of China’ great economic policies. However, China’s economic policies mostly favor the manufacturers and sideline framers. Tibet is not as developed as China and chances are that these policies will destroy farmers in Tibet.
Besides these, every individual has an inherent sense of national pride and Tibetans are no exception. They would like to express their sense of nationalism and patriotism and this can only be achieved if Tibet was independent. One only has to see the sentiments expressed by the UK, Spain and the like. These countries al belong to the European Union but they have still maintained their independence. One can say the same thing about Tibet. (China Daily, 2007)
The latter mentioned facts indicate the other side of the story. Tibetans have well founded reasons to protest unification with the rest of China. The Chinese government stands to loose so much if it grants Tibet independence. This is why it has tried portraying the Tibetan protests as acts of hooliganism. Little has been said about the foundations for their arguments.
Conclusion
The essay has revealed how the Chinese government uses media outlets as a propagandistic tool. This is seen in their coverage of the Tibetan protests, their explanations of Tibetan history and their one sided nature.
Reference:
Xihnua (2007): Overseas Chinese condemn Taiwan authorities’ plan (15/09/2007) retrieved from http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/14/content_6723957.ht accessed on 7th June 2008
Xinhua (2008): Foreigners in Tibet, retrieved from
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/25content_7851676.ht accessed on 7th June 2008
China Daily (2008): Dalai Lama Behind Sabotage, China Daily Newspaper, 15th March 2008
New York Times (2008): Rioting in Lhasa, retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/asia/18tibet.html?h accessed on 7th June 2008
People’s Daily (2008): The Middle Way of the Dalai Lama, July 26, 2006, retrieved from http://english.people.com.cn/200607/26/eng20060726_28680 accessed on 7th June 2008
China Daily (2007): Railway Will Not Cause Settlers to Flood, July 14, 2006, retrieved from
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-07/14/content_640716.ht accessed on 7th June 2008
Dondup, K. (2008): Why the Middle Path is a Dead End, a report for the Canada Tibet Committee, 25th January 2007
Source: Finding Dulcinea (2008): Focus on Tibet retrieved from http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/multi-day/sitings/16-weekly-feature/Focus-on-Tibet.htm accessed on 7th June 2008
About the Author
Author is associated with SuperiorPapers.Us which is a global Research Papers and Term Papers Writing Company. If you would like help in Research Papers and Term Paper Help you can visit www.SuperiorPapers.Us
i want information for making project of 15-20 pages on agrarian reforms in west bengal?
guidlines:(a)land reform policies in post 70’s by communist government. (b) abolition of zamindari and redistribution of land among actual tiller of soil-”Barg Andolan”. (c) Mordernization of agriculture.
I think that You’ll find that “Please & Thank You” will go a long way towards it.
Landing pages are meant to convince your visitor to take a specific action. If the majority of your visitors are not taking the action that you wanted them to take, then your landing pages are not effective. Ideally, you should create several landing pages and determine which one is converting better. Once you know what is working, you can ditch the other pages – but in order to find out which one wins, you will have to run several test promotions, or one promotion with different links.
Start by thinking about your visitors. Who will be visiting your site? If you sell ladies shoes, you can reasonably assume that women between the ages of 18 and 70 are visiting your site. Therefore, your page and your sales copy would be targeted to women of basically all age groups over the age of eighteen. If you are selling toys for toddlers, you can reasonably assume that parents – mostly women – between the ages of 20 and 30 will be your target market.
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The only outward bound links on your landing page should be a link to an order form. Anything else can and should go directly on the page. If you simply want your visitor to fill out a form, put the form on the landing page. If you want them to read information, put it on the landing page. If you want them to make a purchase, put the sales copy on the landing page, with a link to the secure order form on the bottom of the page – and throughout the sales copy.
Make your sales copy scannable by using bold colors and text that stand out – but don’t go overboard and blind or irritate your visitors. Use highlights to bring the visitors attention to important information. Put the important information above the fold. Don’t make them scroll for it – have it right where they can see it as soon as the page loads.
Designing effective landing pages take a little work, and when you are done, you will be surprised at how simple the page actually is – and how well it does what you want it to do!
About the Author
Jason is an experienced Internet marketer, and gives great information like this to his newsletter subscribers all the time. To get more great tips and tricks, subscribe to Jason’s Newsletter
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Who is the blondie on page 152 of the “GQ,” July 2006 issue, posing in the picture with Will Ferrell? Anybody?
The picture is located within the article by Jason Gay & Will Ferrell – the “Classically Cliched Celebrity Profile.” I know that the photograph was by Mark Seliger, but I couldn’t find out any information on the other talent in the photos.
You can view the photo at:
http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_4513
NOTE: Click the caption under the photo of Ferrell that says “CLICK TO SEE SLIDESHOW” it’s photo #4 I believe.
I happen to still own that particular issue and there is no model inforamtion I could find PERIOD.
Don’t get mixed up with her; she is trouble in capital letters
How to Create An Information Product Online Store / Landing Page On Hot4Online.com
I need to design a landing page to my company.I don’t know which software is used for design this and I am thankful for all who gives good advises to desing a landing page
Depending on your experience. You can use just about any HTML editor.
A landing page should be eye catching , BUT more importantly you should have the right content on that page. A landing page is the first page the person gets to when they click on your ad or link so you want to have some strong text that will help get more search engine results so it generates more traffic.
You can check your computer for Microsoft Frontpage or even use Microsoft Word if you really need something. Just save the file as HTML.
If this is for a business I strongly recommend paying a professional to do this for you since it’s a reflection of a business. The last thing you want new customers to see is something amatuerish.
Landing Page Software
Weird popups on my macbook-HELP!!!!?
I have a macbook, and randomly, i get about 100 of these popups in quick succesion. When i restart the computer, its fine for a while, but its driving me crazy and is a serious problem. My popup blocker is on. This is the page:http://landing.gamevance.com/member_hardware_software_requirements.php
WHAT DO I DO?!?!
thanks
It’s It’s the No. 1 fraudulent, phishing, scam or what ever you call …! It’s malicious site! Don’t go there!
Proofs:
Web Of Trust: http://www.mywot.com/de/scorecard/landing.gamevance.com
McAfee Site Advisor: http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/gamevance.com
Beware! Stay away! You’re using Mac … So, I can’t help you to get rid of malicious things from your Mac ! (
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There are several open source publishing platforms that allow businesses to thrive online, with Joomla!, WordPress, and Drupal being the three most popular. So when choosing the platform for your business, how do you know which one will help you optimize your online goals? If you are striving to maximize visibility, generate traffic, and increase clicks, you need to be search engine-optimized for Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Here are 10 reasons why Drupal is the ideal open source publishing platform for search engine optimization (SEO).
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Can you add a background image to a static content page in Joomla! 1.0?
I am building a landing page for my website’s advertiser, and I’d like to add a background image to their landing page, so I can then type regular words above the background image. Is there a way to add a background image in Static Content for the Joomla 1.0 CMS?
Please help asap!
Try using a div ad the wrapper in the content area. So in your article, view the source code after you create your page and use:
Content here
Then you can call the background image through your css styles.
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